Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1305: Chapter 1304: Howling

The waves were already close, with only a series of melodies and a terrifying association separating them from the real world.

The ignorant evil cult followers did not understand the power of the Deep Sea Sovereign, yet in the vast database accumulated by the sentinels over their long service, there was all the information about the sea demons. As the salty sea breeze and the sound of waves gradually became clearer, Fyrna and Lelena, the "sisters," realized where this power transmission path was — it was the Deep Blue Rift.

The sea demon scout just now was probably some sort of "vanguard." Her death had created a coordinate on this end of the rift, and this coordinate was guiding the power of that Deep Sea Sovereign!

"Blow up the rift, now!"

Fyrna and Lelena shouted, and under their control, the edge of the Deep Blue Rift began to flicker violently and show signs of collapsing inward. Although Balken did not understand what was happening, he guessed from the surrounding anomalies and the unusual reaction of the Elven Twins that something terrible was about to occur. This time, he did not hesitate but immediately assisted the Twins in destroying the rift.

Of course, this pained him; he and his followers had invested too much time and energy in this valley. The Deep Blue Rift before them was the largest and most stable "door" they had created so far, not on the same level as those temporary rifts that could only be opened for a few hours. This was also one of the main control nodes. Once destroyed, they would likely have to pay a huge price to establish another control node — yet even so, he did not hesitate.

The dry, twisted vines spread from the high platform to the edge of the rift, exerting force together with the magic symbol circle created by the Twins. The stable structure of the passage opening was further damaged, and a powerful suction came from deep within the opening, pulling the "door" along with the nearby soil and stones inward. A tooth-grinding squeak came from all sides, mixed with the tremor of the entire valley, and throughout this process, the strange ethereal singing did not cease — the tide was coming.

Water vapor rose, the hazy mist like sea fog filled the vision of Fyrna and Lelena. The whole valley shimmered with waves, a vague sea surface occasionally appearing in the air. Balken suddenly felt a sense of suffocation, although he was sure that the essence around him was still air, he felt as if he were immersed in seawater, struggling to breathe. He felt salts crystallizing on his bark, waves washing over his treetop — as a legendary powerhouse, he knew that this level of "attack" was not fatal to him, but such an attack form, which he had never seen before, left him at a loss for how to respond... it was the first time in hundreds of years that he felt a little flustered.

And just then, a loud crash suddenly erupted from mid-air, the sound of waves crashing against cliffs. The Treants searching for dry ground in the valley all looked in the direction of the sound simultaneously. They saw an illusory giant wave smash the nearby mountain rock, with towering water spray falling from the sky. Amidst the ravaging waves, a huge, vague female upper body emerged from the water, this phantasmagoric figure composed of water vapor, splashes, salt, and sound waves slowly bowed from the air, gazing upon the production area in the valley, the control center, the ore excavation site, and not far away the aberration Legion camp. A voice filled with tremor and rhythm came from the waves: "... What are you trying to do?"

Accompanying the words, an equally immense arm quickly formed in the waves, reaching for the rapidly closing rift and the sisters, Fyrna and Lelena. A hint of anger accompanied Petia’s voice as it descended with the arm like a collapsing huge tower: "Do not... close it..."

"This is not your deep-sea!" Fyrna waved her hand, completing the final operation to close the rift. As the blue passage quickly collapsed and disintegrated, she swiftly outlined several complex magic symbols in the air, issuing commands to the Rune Stones already running in the Deep Blue Webway. Then she looked up at the giant wave and the disintegrating female body that had already begun to dissipate, "Hope you enjoy this welcome gift, intruder king."

"BOOM!!!"

A loud explosion was heard, the tide above the valley and the figure of the sea demon Queen shattered in a massive explosion. The surging seawater fell from the sky but dissipated like a dream in the air before reaching the ground. Ninety percent of it vanished completely, while the remaining ten percent turned into a torrential rain, splashing down on the warped Treants and aberration Legion at the valley’s bottom.

Then, a series of larger and smaller shakes followed, as if transmitting from another space into the real world. The air trembled, the ground shook, and the magical power field surged violently. Tiny blue light erupted from the just-closed Deep Blue Rift, and a storm unseen by mortal eyes seemed to rage within the Deep Blue Webway. Balken, still shaken, felt as if he heard distant roars and many frantic shouts, but just as he tried to listen closely, those sounds vanished into thin air — the connection was completely severed, and the powers and wills projected from the distant deep-sea had left this place entirely.

"Did you kill her? Or merely banish her?" Balken looked at the Elven Twins, "What was that thing you initiated just now? Is that also one of the Rune Stones’ functions?"

"This level of attack couldn’t have killed that sea demon queen — there was an entire abyss choir behind her sharing the damage, but this failure should leave a deep impression on her," Fyrna glanced at Balken, "As for that last strike... Archbishop, that is merely one of the basic functions of the Rune Stones to protect themselves. A system so vast and complex always has defensive measures in face of external invasion, doesn’t it?"

"Rather than these meaningless questions, let’s act quickly," Lelena continued, "That last strike exposed yet another of our cards. Next time, our enemies won’t be so reckless. Archbishop, rally your army; this wasteland can no longer provide us with enough ’launch points’... although time is tight, we still have the advantage."

Balken looked deeply at the elven sisters in front of him, his treetop slightly swaying, and slowly said, "Okay."

In the next moment, dense roars echoed from inside and outside the valley, heavy footsteps began to resonate as one. Within this "gathering point," on the wastelands outside the valley, on the distant plains, hills, river courses, and the magnificent ruins left by the ancient Gondor Empire, millions of Wandering Deviants suddenly stopped their aimless wandering of centuries. These chaotic creatures seemed abruptly imbued with reason, quickly assembling into well-disciplined armies and began advancing toward that towering, majestic energy field screen standing between heaven and earth in the distance.

And behind every such army, varying numbers of Warped Treants uprooted their root tendrils, advancing with the army in the form of mobile command nodes.

Fyrna and Lelena sisters slightly narrowed their eyes, relying on the vast network of underground roots spreading beneath the wasteland; they could "see" like Balken the movements of those countless legions. They saw that massive force like a dark tide surging towards the great walls with an almost unstoppable posture. Yet at the same time... the energy barrier established jointly by elves and humans remained there, like the souls of mortals—pathetic yet stubborn—blocking the legions’ path.

They opened their eyes, gazing at the distant horizon where the shadowy outlines of sentinel towers stood. In their alternate vision, the energy fields spreading around those sentinel towers were clearly visible... The broad-area energy field continuation projection technology, this technology brought here from the Kaldor ancient continent by the primordial elves during the Ancient Era, has long been unrecognizable after countless repairs over thousands of years, holds no secrets in the eyes of the sentinels.

That ancient high wall seemed grand and heavy, but in reality, it was fragile.

...

In the Boundless Sea, a mighty Surge arose. The powerful energy gushing from the Deep Blue Vein Flow swept across the entire waters almost instantly. This power was so immense that it created an "elemental vacuum" in the timeless depths of the Boundless Sea. Billions of tons of seawater vanished into thin air, leaving only the nearly uncontrollable Deep Blue Vein Flow rushing through the terrifying seabed cavity—a horrifying scene that lasted for no fewer than ten seconds before the vast elemental power finally began to refill the "void" that had appeared in this world, which in turn triggered a subsequent series of new giant waves.

Even the water elements living in the Boundless Sea couldn’t withstand such ravaging surges.

Finally, the ruler of the Water Elemental Realm, Glugruno, was also alarmed by the frightening upheaval in this sea area. The Elemental Sovereign descended amidst the waves like an incarnation of the ocean, witnessing the local elemental lords and sea demons attempting to calm the waves. With the joint efforts of the sea demons, elemental lords, and Glugruno, the disturbances of the Boundless Sea finally began to gradually subside.

"I need to know what exactly happened here!" Glugruno’s massive figure stood tall in the Boundless Sea. Torrential rain fell incessantly from the sea surface above, like an upside-down sky, washing over this giant’s angry and perplexed face. "Great Harvester, when you first established the outpost here, you never mentioned something like this would happen!"

"If we hadn’t established an outpost here, you probably wouldn’t know what kind of danger this world was facing until it perished along with the entire elemental world—not just a mere tidal wave, rumbling sound."

The voice of Sea Demon Queen Petia came through the storm, a whirlpool arose in the Boundless Sea, and the figure of this deep-sea sovereign emerged from the vortex, appearing before Glugruno. The latter immediately choked back the words he intended to say. He saw that half of her body had already vanished, with flowing water ceaselessly undergoing disintegration-reassembly near her vanished body. At the same time, faint blue glows drifted from around her head, spreading out in the rainstorm of the Boundless Sea, forming structures reminiscent of shattered, scattered wings. These "dissipated bodies" expanded up to a hundred meters in mid-air, altering the courses of the waves and rain wherever they spread.

Glugruno didn’t really understand the physiological rules of these peculiar "foreign water elements" like the sea demons, but even without deep knowledge, he could tell at a glance that this deep-sea sovereign’s condition wasn’t good. The sea demons’ strong regenerative ability couldn’t restore her body—in fact, he hadn’t been able to injure her to such a degree even after hundreds of thousands of years of warfare.

"What happened to you?" The Elemental Sovereign stared dumbfounded at Petia, so much so that he ignored her earlier disrespectful act of calling him "rumbling sound." "You look like you’ve been beaten to the point of death..."

"You’re not good at holding back laughter, rumbling sound. Your tone trembles because you’re trying to suppress a laugh—but I don’t care," Petia said indifferently while gazing upward at the massive whirlpools substituting for eyes on the Elemental Sovereign’s face. Her severely damaged half-body was healing at an exceptionally slow pace, while the erosion caused by the deep blue magic power was being forcibly expelled from her body bit by bit. "If you knew a group of insane evil cult followers under the guidance of an ancient mind was doing something in the Gondor wasteland, I bet you wouldn’t be laughing any more."

"Gondor wasteland? Evil cult followers? Ah, those human creations..." Elemental Sovereign Glugruno made a disdainful sound. "I know you’ve been dealing with land races recently, but aren’t you overly concerned with those short-lived civilizations of the physical realm? For millions of years, countless races have done countless things in the material world, yet the elemental foundation has always remained unshaken..."

"Look at my current state and say once more that the elemental foundation can remain unshakable forever?" The streams dispersed around Petia slowly unfolded, resembling a pair of wings exhibiting scars, "They made something incredibly powerful and buried it in the Deep Blue Webway. Though it’s not complete, what it’s exerting so far has already managed to create a massive elemental vacuum in your Boundless Sea across half a planet and the elemental world barrier—even now, they’ve destroyed the coordinates and passage leading to Loren Continent. I just tried to contact the sisters stationed in Loren Continent and found that all elemental passages directed toward there are blocked by chaotic energy, and this might just be one of the aftershocks of that giant explosion..."

"...It seems you’re not just here to share these matters," realizing that the powerful foreign sovereign was not joking, Glugruno’s tone finally grew serious. "What do you want us to do? Let me clarify first, we are not like you. Whatever happens in the material world, we cannot intervene massively in the material domain. We elemental creatures are inherently a part of this planet’s ’balance,’ and the consequences of imbalance can be referenced to the current Rift Polluted Areas in Talronde and those contaminated elemental creatures. Honestly, if it hadn’t been for your spaceship breaking through the dome and causing domain infiltration back then, we wouldn’t have fought with you in an ’elemental war’ where both sides suffered..."

"Don’t worry, I know you have little ability to meddle with matters in the material world—but I need you to consider your own future," Petia said slowly, her gaze cast towards the depths of the Boundless Sea, towards the Deep Blue Vein Flow now altered within. "These ’currents’ flowing at your doorstep are what you need to be worried about."

"What about the situation in the physical realm?" Glugruno couldn’t help but ask. "Are you going to leave it alone?"

"I’ll find a way to dispatch an expeditionary army, to reach the material world whether in time or not, and... I believe in my allies."