Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1262: Chapter 1261: In the Crevice of Light and Shadow

Realizing that the architectural structure near the base of the Tower of the Inversion Tide and the scene in the "sandstorm illusion" from before, when Modir met the Twin Elves years ago, belong to the same style, Gawain realizes that the gains from this exploration of the Tower of the Inversion Tide could likely exceed expectations.

Those fragmented ancient clues are emerging and reorganizing in his mind. Although the obscure connections between the clues are still shrouded in mist, at this moment he feels the mutual attraction between these clues—although their overall appearance remains ambiguous, a huge puzzle is gradually emerging from the mist.

And the tower standing before him, from ancient times until now... it will undoubtedly be the mainstay of this puzzle.

Gawain gently inhaled, settling his slightly turbulent mood, while increasing his vigilance. He held the Sword of Pioneers, maintaining maximum external perception, and took the lead in walking toward the slightly ajar alloy door under the base of the tower. Behind him, Modir and Amber, also fully on guard, followed closely.

They reached the end of this "highway," where a phenomenal door stood.

It was more massive and magnificent than the tallest city gate of St. Soniel, made entirely from some unknown metal, appearing solemn and heavy. The entire door exhibited a textured silver-gray hue, with a surface smooth like a mirror, yet beneath that sleek surface, one could faintly see straight lines descending from above—the door was embedded in a high wall resembling a cliff face, with a "gap" in the middle wide enough for several people to pass side by side. Judging by the structure, the door should be able to slide into the wall on both sides under some mechanical mechanism.

Amber stood dumbfounded in front of the door, straining to look up at its towering top, appearing completely taken aback. It was only after a long time that she snapped back to her senses and, with a certain shell-shocked and curious look, turned to Gawain: "I just wanted to ask, why are these doors to ancient ruins always left ajar? Did the Voyagers forget to close the doors when they left?"

Upon hearing this, Gawain couldn’t help but glance at this disgrace of the alliance, thinking that she truly masters her professional skills with dedication deep in her bones—not only was she shocked, but the first thing that caught her attention was that the door was unlocked... luckily the Tower of the Inversion Tide doesn’t have windows, otherwise, by now she might have already found a way in through one.

"The Dragonkin did it," despite his internal snark, Gawain shook his head and explained the information he had received. "After the Voyagers left, the Dragonkin found a way to open the entrance to this tower. They acquired a small portion of knowledge from the Voyagers here... and this later sowed the seeds for the ’Inversion Tide turmoil’."

As he spoke, he stepped forward, and just before stepping through the "gap" into the tower, his eyes fell once again on the towering door, which had experienced a million years of weathering yet remained remarkably sturdy. And on that lustrous alloy surface faintly reflected the starlight from afar, and the vast, distant space the Voyagers departed into, never to return.

Gawain instinctively reached out and gently touched the door, as if perceiving through this cold contact the distant and long-lost years, and the stories that once occurred here around the tower.

A faint stream of light suddenly flowed from the spot where his hand touched the door, quickly traveling upward along its edges, and a humming sound from an unknown source reached everyone’s ears on the scene. The sound seemed to have activated a system dormant for years. In the next second, the originally quiet door surface suddenly began to shine, streams of light rapidly moving along the lines embedded inside the door, while numerous flickering light dots abruptly appeared before Gawain and the others. These light dots rapidly flickered and combined on the door surface, gradually revealing a clear pattern and text!

Amber was immediately startled by this unexpected change, flickering back and forth between shadowy form and physical form as if experiencing a faulty connection before stabilizing. She shouted loudly, "Hey... hey hey, this thing lit up! How could it light up just by you touching it?"

Gawain hadn’t anticipated this sudden change either, but he quickly suppressed his surprise, remaining calm while pressing a hand on Amber’s head. "Don’t be so jumpy when exploring ruins—you just saw those streetlights suddenly light up, didn’t you?"

As he spoke, his gaze fell upon the image emerging on the door surface, where the characters and images gradually stabilized and began refreshing line by line upward, and just like the characters on the sign earlier, as Gawain looked at this "display screen," the meanings represented by these ancient Voyagers’ texts emerged in his mind—

"Facility offline, access permissions frozen;

"Detected Firmament Station authorization port, reauthorizing access... access permissions enabled.

"Severe system warning, factory district shutdown, cause unknown... core database missing or locked... accumulated error logs overflowed, production management node offline.

"Auxiliary systems available, door authorized, uploading facility structure..."

The embedded door screen’s text swiftly refreshed, lines of characters slid past Gawain’s eyes, which widened to capture all the changes. In that moment, he suddenly perceived a deeper "connection," which pointed toward the Orbital Ring Space Station far in space, relaying through the satellite spirit and space station’s authorization protocol into his memory. The entire process lasted no more than three to five seconds, after which Gawain slowly moved his gaze and blinked toward the direction inside the tower.

The next second, the architectural structure behind this door appeared in his mind like a semi-transparent holographic image, marking all the authorized doors and paths.

He heard a series of noises from within the tower, heavy and ancient mechanical structures emitting thuds and grinding sounds while operating. Amber also heard this, first showing a tense look, seemingly worried something might suddenly emerge from the tower and take her out instantly, but soon she noticed Gawain’s calm and composed expression, which helped her calm down. On the other side, the old mage Modir, after a moment of shock, finally reacted, staring wide-eyed at Gawain: "This... is this you..."

"Indeed," Gawain looked at the old mage, smiling and nodding, "just some inconspicuous little tricks."

With that, he proceeded to walk inside the tower.

Gawain was not worried at all about Amber or Modir forming any assumptions, nor was he concerned about "exposing his uniqueness," partly due to his trust in them, and partly because he understood his current position and what he was doing—matters vary in urgency, people’s responsibilities differ in magnitude, he is not a cautious "transcending newbie" in this world, but someone who has hung in the sky for millions of years, lay in a coffin for seven hundred years (to others), now ruling an Empire and leading a national alliance. Out of all the matters he faces and people he interacts with, the "satellite spirit’s little secrets" are nearly the least significant.

Anyway, the role as a "Wanderer from Outer Realm" has been utilized quite a few times.

Inside the tower, it was brightly lit.

Just as recorded in Modir’s Travelogue, certain systems within this tower have always maintained their operation. Even when Gawain’s party isn’t present, the lights here likely have never extinguished.

A low humming sound incessantly emanates from all directions; certain unseen systems continue to operate deep within those ancient floors, walls, or ceilings. Shortly after passing through the door and the short corridor beyond, Gawain and his party arrive at an exceptionally spacious cylindrical hall.

As recorded in Modir’s Travelogue, this hall is extremely vast, with a remarkable transportation system at its center. It resembles a complex large elevator, rapidly moving up and down within certain pipelines or tracks, conveying resources of unknown purpose. Around the hall, one can see countless dazzling ancient devices with unnameable functions, some of which are still running. Holographic projections displaying complex instrument data float above them, and various buzzing or beeping sounds emanate from those devices.

If not seen in person, who could imagine that outside the perception of mortal civilizations, such an advanced ancient facility exists on the surface of this planet, silently operating for nearly two million years?!

Gawain feels his heart pounding, his gaze sweeping over those devices still silently operating. Each time his gaze lingers, information floats into his mind—

This is the logistics distribution system; this is the central energy monitoring; this is the maintenance personnel inspection entrance. Above are communication stations and data interfaces; the underlying infrastructure extends deep into the ocean, into the seabed, and even penetrates the mantle, submerged in searing magma...

Red warning signs, representing system shutdowns or overflow error logs, constantly pop up in his "vision," nearly covering everything within sight. Only those devices with lower loads or simpler functions barely maintain good operating condition—at least without that hair-raising error reporting.

Just like those satellites and space stations in space, the situation within this production facility is also bleak.

It has been overutilized far too long... long past its decommissioning time.

Just then, Amber’s voice comes from the side, interrupting Gawain’s thoughts: "So... where is that ’thing’ in the tower? We’ve come in and seen a truly magnificent ancient facility, but I don’t feel any spiritual pollution or anything like that lurking in here..."

Gawain snaps to attention, frowning as he looks around, murmuring thoughtfully: "That ’thing’ might be formless and intangible. We may not see anything here..."

In ancient times, the mortals of The Inverted Tide Empire collectively worshipped the Voyagers’ Tower near the north pole, forming a belief. Their steadfast collective consciousness cultivated a "god" within this tower, but aside from them, no one knows what characteristics the god that was born in the tower had. According to Enya, that "god," prematurely deceased at birth, may not even have a form. It is highly likely to be nothing more than an empty resonance, a vague shadow, or even a strong mental inclination—dwelling invisibly in this tower, coexisting with the steel and light here.

But even so, Gawain’s brow slowly furrows.

Even if that thing is invisible... the current look of this tower seems overly "normal and quiet."

He instinctively looks at Modir beside him: "Do you feel anything? Or recall..."

He abruptly stops mid-sentence because he notices the old mage, at some point, is looking upward, as if something intensely attracted his gaze, staring intently at the exceedingly tall, magnificent alloy dome of the hall—this makes Gawain feel a bit uneasy.

At that moment, Modir finally blinks, his lips quivering, as if struggling to wake from an absurd, strange dream, uttering a series of short, confused syllables. After repeating this several times, his voice finally squeezes out of his throat: "Wrong... something’s wrong... it’s gone, it’s already gone... it was supposed to be here, it was supposed to be here!!"

"Calm down, old man," Amber is startled by the old mage’s strange reaction, quickly trying to rouse Modir from the odd mental state with a loud voice, "What’s gone? What do you mean was supposed to be here?"

"That thing!" Modir snaps back to consciousness, gasping coldly as he raises his hand to point at the towering dome of the hall. Still, even as his eyes clear, his words remain jumbled, "I remember something should be there, something very, very large... indescribable, it used to stare at me with countless eyes, speaking to me with countless tongues; it’s gone, it’s gone!! And can’t you see? There are some traces there!"

The old mage shouts loudly in urgency, and Gawain feels a sudden jolt, raising his head in the direction of Modir’s finger. He staunchly observes the pointed location but can only see the intersecting support structures and the rapidly moving transportation system.

Yet, deep within, a strong intuition surges, and Gawain feels that he seems to have overlooked something crucial. He fixes his gaze on the high structures of the hall, repeatedly sweeping over the conspicuous configurations. Suddenly, the structural diagram of the tower flashes again in his mind, and in the corner of his vision, a section of silver-grey wall on the dome seems to "shudder" momentarily.

It’s as if two overlapping images temporarily misalign, as if a covered render layer accidentally exhibits a texture error.

Gawain does not ignore this brief visual signal.

As he notices these slight anomalies, vast sections of the wall and support structures above the hall dome suddenly flicker in his eyes. Amidst the light and shadow, some vague shadowy structures seem to be emerging from the air. Displaced lines sketch out a fault like a colossal configuration!

Gawain experiences a sudden shock, and a lightning flash of inspiration explodes in his mind. In less than half a second, he realizes a certain possibility.

He abruptly turns to Amber, who seems to have yet to react: "Amber! There is an ’unseen truth’ here, hidden in the crevices of the real world!!"