Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1303: Chapter 1302: Tremors

The main construction of the Sky Fortress "Dawn of the Mortal World" has reached its final step, and following the initial plans, this assembly site concealed between the mountain and dense forest has finally arrived at the moment to see daylight.

Upon hearing Gawain’s instructions, Rebecca activated a device beside the Magic Web Terminal. Accompanied by a sudden humming sound that echoed throughout the "cave," her voice resonated above the assembly site: "Attention all units, the ’Sky Curtain’ is about to open, operational personnel pause construction, await environment adaptation—Dome projection will shut down in ten seconds."

Rebecca’s cheerful and energetic voice echoed throughout the entire site, and as her words fell, a series of clicks from the magic relay devices activating, deactivating, and switching came from many hidden corners. The sounds of mechanical devices moving and operating could be heard in the distance, and Gawain raised his head to see numerous steel support beams fixed near the grayish dome above slowly moving aside. Numerous light fixtures also shifted position accordingly, and accompanying these mechanical structure changes, the "rock dome" that covered the entire assembly site suddenly started to flicker after a moment’s delay.

Streams of white light gradually appeared on the ceiling from dark to bright, dividing the originally unified cave ceiling into hundreds of uniformly sized square grids. Following that, these grids gradually became transparent during the flickering. In the next second, blocks of "black rock layers" disappeared into thin air, the holographic projection composing the dome dispersed, and a brilliant and vast sky appeared above the assembly site!

Outside the dome, the sunlight was just right, and thin clouds adorned the clear winter sky. After the disappearance of the sky curtain projection, the protective barrier above the assembly site temporarily closed, allowing cold and refreshing air from the outside world to blow into the valley. Snow fell from nearby mountain peaks, scattering down—this bright daylight illuminated the main structure of Project 115 for the first time, and moments later, Gawain heard a gasp of amazement from the control main brain of the Dawn of the Mortal World through the Magic Web Terminal: "Oh! Sunlight—"

"Although I imagined this moment before..." Rebecca looked up at the sky, unable to help but marvel even though she was one of the site’s main designers, "it’s truly spectacular when seeing it in person..."

Gawain, on the other hand, did not speak for a while; he was simply satisfied watching this scene before him, sporting a long-lasting, admiring smile.

Yes, the entire assembly site for Project 115 had no "rock dome" at all; although the engineering personnel indeed used various explosives and large machinery here to "excavate" for a long time to prepare the site, they merely widened the original valley here. And what had long been covering the site was, in fact, a layer of holographic projection created by a large crystal matrix.

Rebecca and her team of technicians conjured a small segment of additional mountain out of thin air using hundreds of projection devices on the northwest mountain ridge of the Dark Mountain Range and maintained this illusion until today!

In this way, once the "Dawn of the Mortal World" is completely finished, it can directly ascend by merely shutting down the shield and projection above the valley and removing the high-altitude lighting mechanisms!

Despite excluding the "Dawn of the Mortal World," the core objective of engineering, just the holographic projection array covering the valley is also highly valuable experimental technology. Though its basic components are not complex, lifelike magic illusions have been antique skills used by mages for thousands of years in this world. But combining and overlaying hundreds of small illusion units to produce a large-scale joint projection and operating stably for such a long time is unprecedented—this thing could be used today in Project 115’s concealed engineering, and in the future, it could be extended or modified into many useful prototype devices on the battlefield.

The expansive deck of the Sky Fortress "Dawn of the Mortal World" bathed in brilliant daylight, the light of the sun painted the armor belt and upper structures with its blue-and-white dual-color coating in contrasting shadows and highlights. Its main control brain floated in the wetware host container located in the fortress core cabin, and its countless nerve fibers spread throughout this steel body. Sensory points distributed across the upper deck returned the sensation of sunlight and wind—warm, bright, fresh, comfortable.

The only pity is that the steel deck cannot perform photosynthesis.

"Before proceeding to the next system adjustments, the sky curtain will remain open for three days and nights. During this period, we will test the environmental adaptation and visual functions of the Sky Fortress," Rebecca said, "Dawn of the Mortal World, you can enjoy the sunlight and starlight, as well as the wind in the natural realm during this period—later, we will close the ceiling here again, and the next time it opens will be when you truly ascend."

The Magic Web Terminal immediately transmitted the fortress’s main brain’s neutral synthetic voice: "Yes, Creator Princess Rebecca, I eagerly await that day..."

At this moment, a low humming sound suddenly came from the sky, interrupting the voice of Dawn of the Mortal World and catching Gawain’s attention. He instinctively looked in the direction of the sound, seeing a large, roughly hexagonal shadow rising from the dense forest on one side of the mountain wall, moving slowly northeast in the sunlight. Several large and small anti-gravity rings floated under the shadow, the diffused light particles forming a hazy trail in the sky.

That hexagonal flying apparatus is obviously several times smaller than the "Dawn of the Mortal World," yet it is still much larger than any currently active "Dragon Cavalry" aircraft. Also, its chassis structure is noticeably simple, showing no pre-installed weapon stations or protective mechanisms but leaving many large connectors like empty interfaces on the edges—like a structurally simple yet robust and durable high-power universal chassis.

It flew past slowly, seemingly just conducting a short-range test, and soon after, lingered and landed somewhere north of the 115 base, out of Gawain and others’ lines of sight.

"That’s our universal airborne platform, ’Gorgon Type I,’" Rebecca laughed with delight, proudly telling Gawain, "a project led by Marin Leslie, we completed prototype testing a while ago, and now we’re testing whether the mass production framework from Factory No. 2 is qualified—looks good so far, if the parameters meet the standards, it will be delivered to the First Legion and the Holy Light Monk Group."

"So fast?" Gawain looked at Rebecca with some surprise, "I remember you were arguing with Aunt Heidi about the budget issues for the universal airborne platform not long ago..."

"Of course it’s fast, that thing is much simpler than the Sky Fortress’s structure," Rebecca waved her hand, "basically, it’s a solid basic framework welded with several high-power anti-gravity engines, a neural system laid in the chassis, then equipped with a brain. No need to consider the deadly engine interference like in the Sky Fortress, the power spine can directly use the factory’s universal model, even the magic web array uses a downgraded version from the Winter’s energy group—in any case, its practical role depends on the ’buildings’ on its back, as a carrying platform, it only needs to fly steadily and provide sufficient energy output ports..."

She paused and added: "In fact, its structure was so simple that the prototype was directly welded together using parts scavenged from the spare parts warehouses of several factories, and believe it or not, it actually flew on the day—it didn’t last long before crashing into the mountains... so I sought additional budget from Aunt Heidi afterward."

Gawain listened with astonishment, especially upon hearing that they actually welded a "prototype" using spare parts scavenged from factory surplus piles. Even though he had discussed with Rebecca before that the concept of the "universal airborne platform" was an inferior, downgraded, cheap, and quick-setup item compared to the Sky Fortress, he had not expected Rebecca’s technical managers to be even more audacious roughnecks than her, the empire’s steel bead...

Just then, the voice of the Dawn of the Mortal World’s main control brain came from the nearby Magic Web terminal—the sky fortress’s upper-level monitors were still observing the landing site of "Gorgon I." Its voice carried a trace of envy: "How wonderful, Princess Rebecca, is that the ’sister’ you mentioned to me? It flies so well now... and I have yet to take off."

"Be patient," Rebecca glanced at the large brain floating in the biomass solution in the holographic projection, "Your takeoff is no small matter—once a sky fortress is airborne, unless there are special circumstances, it may not land again for decades. Your supply, maintenance, and even reconstruction will all be conducted in the sky, and by then, you might even miss the feeling of being grounded."

The voice of the Dawn of the Mortal World was silent for a few seconds before it spoke: "... I can’t imagine such a scene, but I will remain patient, Creator."

Rebecca’s lips curled up, and she seemed to want to say more, but at that moment, an urgent buzzing sound came from within the Magic Web terminal, and an emergency call signal from Cecil Castle appeared in the center of the holographic projection.

Gawain’s expression instantly turned serious, and Rebecca immediately stepped forward to answer the call. The light in the holographic projection shifted, and Aunt Heidi’s face appeared at the forefront of the screen.

"Ancestor," her gaze quickly focused on Gawain, speaking rapidly, "There are reports of abnormal phenomena from various places—several observatories and observation units, both domestic and foreign, have detected unknown interference in the atmosphere. I’ve already transmitted the relevant detailed information to the data communication room at Base 115. Please review it as soon as you can!"

Gawain immediately exchanged a glance with Rebecca, and this time her response was quick: "You go ahead, I’ll stay here and keep watch."

Gawain nodded and left the platform without further word. A few seconds later, his figure turned into a stream of light, swiftly heading toward the office building of the experimental base.

In a matter of moments, Gawain arrived at Rebecca’s office in Base 115, where the staff had already organized and delivered the materials transmitted from the data communication room to the desk.

As he reviewed the contents described in the materials and some images captured using magic skills, his brows gradually furrowed.

The Magic Web terminal next to him lit up, and Aunt Heidi’s figure appeared before Gawain: "Ancestor, have you seen these materials?"

"I’ve seen them," Gawain lifted his head and spoke in a deep voice, "Which was the first to report?"

"Palamere Observatory was the first to observe and report the anomaly, followed by the observatory in St. Soniel, the magical monitoring station at Bitter Winter Fortress in the northern parts, and the Sherlin City Magic Hub reporting similar ’interference,’" Aunt Heidi said urgently, matching her words with the materials in Gawain’s hands, "We initiated an investigation immediately and issued related warnings, after which we received feedback from Typhon and the Silver Empire. Many capable observation units in their countries also discovered this anomaly..."

Gawain nodded slightly as he listened: To cope with the endless and mysterious threats in this world, the Commonwealth Alliance formulated several "joint protocols" related to astronomical observation, magic monitoring, and anomaly warning at its founding. Once a suspicious "anomaly warning" was detected by a member country, it would alert the nations of the alliance. And now, it appears... this mechanism truly worked.

"It’s not just us who observed this ’interference’; its distribution spans from the northernmost parts of the Loren Continent to the southern Silver Empire, and it seems to occur almost simultaneously everywhere," Gawain frowned slightly, pondering aloud, "The initially discovered issue was at the observatories; they saw interference noise filling the sky while observing the stars, but the subsequent reporting wasn’t limited to astronomical departments..."

"Yes, there were multiple magic monitoring stations and Magic Web Nexus stations that detected interference in the atmosphere," Aunt Heidi nodded and said, "We can currently rule out the possibility of the issue occurring in outer space—the interference occurs within our atmosphere and likely doesn’t exceed the stable layers."

Gawain mused: "Stable layers... Is there more detailed data?"

Aunt Heidi shook her head: "Unfortunately, the interference lasted very briefly. Almost all departments that detected the interference only managed to record conventional data on always-on devices before specific equipment could be activated or powerful Order Supernatural personnel could conduct targeted recording. The energy dissipated from the atmosphere. Currently, the most valuable data comes from a report by the Silver Empire Astronomer’s Association—Great Astrologer Vilanya was collecting high-altitude magic power data near the stable layers’ cloud layers when she sensed the atmospheric magic changes, quickly conducting an ultra-long-distance perception—ultimately confirming that the interference was not only limited to the continent but also extended indefinitely towards the ocean, reaching beyond her sensory limits as a legendary powerhouse."

"... So this is very likely a global phenomenon."

"Yes, scholars in various countries currently suspect this is a global phenomenon, possibly resulting from the combined effects of the atmosphere and the surface energy field... Hold on a moment."

Aunt Heidi suddenly paused and looked towards a direction outside the frame, as if a new piece of information had just appeared before her. After a moment, she turned back to Gawain, her expression more solemn than before.

"Ancestor, Antawen has sent a message that the Deep Blue Webway is experiencing abnormal changes... The occurrence and end times align with the ’atmospheric interference’ observed worldwide."