Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1257: Chapter 1256: Explorer’s Perspective

12:15 P.M., the last set of restraining rings for the portal finished preheating.

At the center of Winterhold Castle’s hall, runes snaked over the massive alloy base, abundant magical power flowed along energy conduits and magi-metal tracks, being continuously injected into the arc-shaped metal arm above the device. The ring, covered with runes and crystal structures, had floated to the top of the portal device. In the "cage" structure formed by the ring, base, and metal arm, a twisted space with a diameter of several meters was gradually taking shape.

The twisted space appeared like a perfect sphere, seemingly filled with some crystalline substance. Light from afar refracted on the sphere’s surface, outlining various bizarre illusions, making it look like a crystal globe lens or an extremely smooth metal sphere. In reality, it had no physical structure—the sphere’s surface was an abnormal optical phenomenon produced by spatial folding. The shifting light and shadow outlined a "perspective" from another dimension.

Kamel and Windsor Maple watched the enormous portal device, listening to the low hum resonating throughout the hall. All defense systems were activated, and the psychic singers, fully prepared, gathered near the portal. A technical personnel, wearing a heavy protective robe engraved with deep-sea runes, approached the two commanders, indicating that all systems were ready.

The moment had arrived to issue the command, but Windsor Maple turned her gaze to Kamel beside her.

"You should give the command," said the Typhon Legendary Mage solemnly, "for the defiers from a thousand years ago, for those pioneers who fell on the path of exploration."

Kamel looked at Lady Windsor. He knew he should not refuse at this moment, so two seconds later, he gently nodded, and turned to look at the controllers standing by.

"Switch the ’Humanity’s Barrier’ to active broadcast mode, and psychic singers begin group resonance," the defier from the Gondor Empire shouted, his steady and powerful voice echoing throughout the hall, "Activate the portal!!"

Along with Kamel’s words, a sudden "hum" resounded throughout the hall, followed by a rising hum emanating from the massive portal base. The enormous energy had long been accumulating; now, it was being guided into the War God fragment located beneath the hall, and further released onto the gate’s surface structure through a series of complex conversion and projection processes. The massive energy surge even affected the lighting within the hall—the glow from the magic crystal lamps flickered, and everyone’s skin felt their hairs standing up, a cold sensation flowing through their nerves—

Then, everything quickly reached equilibrium; the meticulously designed load system withstood the energy peak during the portal’s initial activation. The cooling system embedded beneath the device began releasing vast amounts of heat outside the hall; dozens of cooling vents inside and outside Winterhold Castle opened simultaneously. Steam rose into the sky along with the distant magical glow, and within the hall, in front of Kamel, the "sphere" at the portal’s center had extended, solidified into a perfectly circular "mirror," a magnificent and splendid scene appearing at the mirror’s center.

Everyone in the hall could not help but focus on the splendid scene presented within the mirror, while their nerves subconsciously grew tense. The commander of the safety protection group was the first to react, breaking the silence in the hall with a loud voice: "Protection group, check for divine contamination, all departments pay attention to mental stability!"

Soon, responses came from various responsible personnel: "No divine corrosion or mental pollution detected!" "All teams have normal vision and hearing, no reaction from protection filters!" "’Humanity’s Barrier’ load unchanged, active broadcast continues!"

The bright aura around Kamel had nearly stalled since a moment ago; only now did the abundant arcane glow resume its flow. He wanted to take a deep breath, yet he no longer had lungs—so he could only rapidly flicker twice, then turned his gaze to Windsor Maple beside him: "Lady Windsor, the first step was a success!"

"Indeed... we have truly opened this portal!" Windsor Maple exclaimed, gazing at the images that emerged from that "mirror," unable to suppress her excitement, "Could that be the War God’s Divine Realm?"

"The door is indeed open, but whether the other side is the divine realm requires verification," Kamel’s steady voice came from the side, bringing Windsor back to calmness from her excitement, "As planned, let’s send out the first ’Explorer’."

Windsor immediately nodded, and turned to issue instructions to the technical personnel standing by: "Bring the ’Explorer’ over."

A moment later, several technical personnel came to the portal, and behind them followed a peculiar-looking magic artificial intelligence, standing barely over a meter tall. Made of brass, it was a self-regulating mechanism with a round body and multiple jointed insect-like long legs. Besides the magical symbols engraved on its copper shell, there were deep-sea runes and crystal lens structures. It also had a long-handled "head" and three "arms" extending from its copper shell, all driven by intricate mechanical structures and its core magical mechanisms.

Kamel’s gaze lingered on the magic artificial intelligence for a moment. Seeing this, Windsor, standing beside him, commented with a smile: "The pinnacle creation of traditional magic realm—perhaps not as powerful, cheap, or easy to produce as ancient magical devices, but in situations like this, it has its purpose."

"...I see some elements of Iron Man Technology," Kamel murmured, "Its joint connectors are More-76 style."

"Yes, we’ve learned a few things from Gondor’s Iron Man Technology," Windsor replied quietly with a slight tone of pride before raising her hand, "Let the Explorer enter the portal!"

Under the watchful eyes of everyone full of anticipation, tension, and concern, the brass magic artificial intelligence stepped forward, its jointed long legs clattering, fearlessly approaching the round "lens" glowing with a soft radiance—it stepped into it, causing the mirror’s surface to ripple. Then, as if passing through a veil of water, its form appeared on the other side of the portal.

Once the Explorer completely passed through the "lens," Windsor immediately turned to the controllers by the portal: "How is it, can you still track it?"

"Yes, Master Windsor," a controller promptly nodded, floating beside him a magical projection clearly presenting the "Explorer’s" view. From that view, what first caught the eye was an extremely wide stone plaza, and in the distance stood majestic architecture, "The signal successfully passed through the portal, I see everything clearly here."

Kamel focused on everything happening, unable to resist asking: "What is your plan if the signal cannot pass through the portal? What if the Explorer loses contact with the outside world after entering the divine realm?"

"We have emergency plans," Windsor Maple promptly nodded, stating, "If the control signal from the rear is interrupted, the Explorer will autonomously assess its action plan. It will patrol within a limited area near the portal, collect data, gather a small number of samples, and return automatically after a set period—if it senses itself contaminated with harmful elements, it will self-destruct immediately."

Kamel nodded, without inquiring in detail what "harmful elements" the magic artificial intelligence would evaluate, because this information was publicly circulated within the theocracy Authority Council, sourced from several high-ranking consultants of the council—in the "Divine Realm Harmful Elements List," included but not limited to independently moving substances, chaotic light and shadow color products, animated shadows, and anything possessing such characteristics. Essentially, anything impossible in reality, that could cause mental pollution to ordinary people, and that exhibits a tendency to actively spread, is categorized as "harmful elements" potentially breeding within the divine realm.

His gaze returned to the portal, focusing on the mages responsible for controlling the explorers, and he fixed his eyes on the holographic projection floating between those mages—the explorers had already left the portal’s directly visible area, and people "here" could only judge the environment around the magic artificial intelligence through these holographic projections.

He saw an extremely vast space, most of the ground was paved with huge stone blocks, and he saw some grand and majestic buildings in the distance, their outer walls shimmering with an iron-gray sheen, as if their tops were adorned with polished spears, swords, or shields, bringing to mind scenes described by the War God’s believers:

In the God of War’s realm, magnificent palaces and cities stand on the rocky earth, with the world’s finest weapons and armor serving as ubiquitous decorations in the city. Brave warriors can indulge in battles without death in the War God’s arena and enjoy feasts with food and wine through the night in His palaces, with everyone having palaces and temples, along with eternal, glorious life.

Now, they have seen the rocky earth, the iron palaces, and the weapons and armor decorating the palaces—if the explorers continue forward, they will probably discover arenas described in mythology and places for enjoying food and wine.

"Vast space... it truly is just as depicted in their books..." a Typhon mage remarked quietly, surprised at the images transmitted by the explorers.

"Of course, it’s the same because War God’s divine realm is ’drawn’ by His followers," Windsor Maple said lightly, her gaze never leaving the holographic projection beside the portal. She suddenly sighed, "Vast, yet empty... not a single soul here. Does the War God usually wander in such an empty city?"

"Perhaps it only became like this after the War God’s fall," Kamel mused, "When He was alive, it might have been lively."

"A bunch of imagined phantoms accompanying an imagined deity? Besides brawling, the only thing they can do every day is drink..." a Cecil Magic Guide Technician muttered, shaking his head, "That doesn’t sound like a pleasant life..."

"Dim and gray," Windsor Maple commented with a frown, "Control group, can the explorers observe the divine realm’s sky?"

"Of course, the perspective is being adjusted—the explorers are starting to look up."

As the Mage Controller spoke, the image displayed in the holographic projection began to shift. The "sky" shrouded above the divine realm gradually occupied most of the screen.

Boundless, chaotic, profound, a sky without any sun, moon, or stars appeared before Kamel and Windsor, only endless dim light flooding the vision, and as the explorers adjusted their focus, they saw countless scattered floating objects appear in that vast and chaotic sky.

Those objects seemed to drift within clouds, or move behind cloud layers, being fractured illusions spun around the divine realm; evidently, they have a large overall structure—though, given the explorers’ limited vision and resolution, the technicians outside the portal couldn’t discern what they truly were.

Yet, Kamel and Windsor Maple understood what it was.

"Those are things mentioned by the ’senior advisors’," Lady Windsor muttered quietly, "Those things orbiting around the divine realm..."

"Fragments of ancient gods, remnants of the divine realm, debris of civilization, echoes of vanished thoughts—those things endlessly swirl in Samsara within ’The Deep Sea’, never entirely dissipating even after tens of thousands of years," Kamel said, his voice resonant with a deep echo, "Just as the senior advisors said... living in the divine realm, you’d see those things every time you look up."

"But that still wasn’t what I imagined," Windsor said involuntarily, "I thought there would be something even larger in scale..."

Before the legendary mage could finish her sentence, several mages beside the portal suddenly exclaimed. She immediately looked up, seeing that a massive shadow was slowly moving across the holographic projection—

It was a fractured piece of debris, seemingly part of a palace dome structure, yet its jumbled lines and irregular edges didn’t match any building Kamel or Windsor remembered; fragments seemed to hang from the debris edge like a desiccated, decayed wing or an arm, leaving an unsettling impression that prompted exclamations.

This enormous fragment floated slowly in the sky, possibly stretching over a kilometer in size. It appeared so close to the War God’s divine realm’s dome that the explorers could observe some of its finer structure—it drifted from the screen’s edge, gradually occupying about one-third of the holographic projection before slowly floating into the distance, leaving only a twisted, eerie black silhouette provoking endless speculation in the minds of mortals beside the portal.

After a long while, Kamel’s deep voice finally broke the silence, awakening Windsor from her bewilderment: "...the larger scale you wanted has arrived."

"Is that... also debris orbiting around the divine realm?" Windsor asked, taking a deep breath.

"Clearly," Kamel said deep, "It seems the debris ranges in size, distance... like floating foam in the sea, and the so-called divine realm just floats within this foamy sea."

"Though I’ve heard such descriptions from senior advisors before, seeing it myself is indeed another feeling," Windsor Maple said with a wry smile, "That thing really startled me."

"Lady Windsor, we’re only seeing it from the explorers’ perspective; there’s still a distance from truly ’seeing with our own eyes’," Kamel said, watching his Typhon Legendary Mage companion with a solemn and serious tone, "Next step, we truly ought to ’take a closer look’ over there."