Sword of Dawn

Page 448

Veronica met Gawain's gaze, still with a smile on her face, as if the smile had temporarily solidified, she nodded, and said with the same calm and indifferent attitude as before: "Of course, I have already made up my mind before leaving. .”

……

The foul cloud, heaving and heaving, covered the sky like some loathsome, semi-gelatinous quagmire, oppressing the earth, and the whole world seemed oppressed in these low-hanging clouds--more than the sky What is more depressing is the dead and heavily corrupted and polluted land.

In the hinterland of the former empire, which was soaked by mana and turned into wasteland, the black hardened land is endless, and the folds and radial cracks formed by the ancient shock wave spread outward from the center point. Looking down from the air, it looks like a bloodshot giant bloodshot eye. And in the center of this giant eye is a huge explosion crater sunken into a crater, and a cone-shaped structure formed by molten crystal pillars at the bottom of the explosion crater.

After seven centuries, the Deep Blue Well is still in operation, and there is an incredible surge of energy in the remaining reaction tower. A huge blue beam of light rises into the sky, straight into the clouds, and there is continuous lightning at the position where the beam of light meets the clouds.

Around the Deep Blue Well explosion crater, there are now many things that did not exist before—a small fortress made of some kind of black polymer, a small sentry tower that seems to be a mixture of plants and stones, and The weird and creepy woods, and a figure moving between the woods, the fort, and the watchtower.

Those figures are several patrol teams. They are all wearing the magister uniforms of the ancient Gondor era. Both men and women have extremely perfect proportions and delicate looks that seem to be artificially created. They are patrolling the surrounding area of ​​​​the capital of the empire—— as they did 700 years ago.

However, these patrol teams didn't seem to notice the new forts and sentry towers around the impact crater. They directly bypassed the obstacles blocking the way, and naturally changed the patrol route they had planned.

Even... they almost looked like they were patrolling here to protect these fortresses.

In the area of ​​the black fortress group on the edge of the impact crater, a large number of plant vines and gray substances like mycelium aggregates covered the ground and surrounding buildings. With a burst of clattering sound, a piece of plant at the front of the fort suddenly squirmed and retreated to the sides , while several twisted creatures that looked like humans and trees grew together, with dry skin and a large number of proliferating branches, drilled out of the underground tunnel.

The leader of these twisted creatures moved his roots and walked to the edge of the impact crater. An old face appeared on his dry and wrinkled bark. The light yellow eyes embedded in the face were staring at the bottom of the impact crater—— The radiant "Hill of Crystal Pillars" and the blue light gushing out from the crystal are reflected in these eyes, making the latter more greedy and yearning.

"The Deep Blue Well...we are only one step away from it..."

The leader of the treant muttered to himself, shaking his branches, a strand of vines on the border of the fortress group immediately received the command, raised high and extended towards the impact crater—but the front ends of those vines just crossed the border line, The "Crystal Pillar Hill" at the bottom of the pit reacted instantly, and with several bright lights flashing, the vines that crossed the boundary were directly burned into a gaseous state by the hot plasma beam.

"Damn it!! This damned tomb, damned coffin, and these damned gravekeepers! It's been 700 years, can't this damned thing just die?!"

The leader of the tree people, the current "Grand Master of the Death of All Things Society" suddenly burst into curses.

Chapter 0942 Precious Knowledge

The treant leader's curses can't change any reality. The plant vines that crossed the border rashly and tried to invade the explosion crater have been destroyed by the garrison troops from the Deep Blue Well. After the beam swept across, the last bit of ashes drifted away in the wind. This small trial ended in failure like dozens of previous attempts.

Another treant next to the leader stepped forward, his branches shriveled and twisted, but there was powerful magic power swimming in its dry canopy, and those intertwined branches grew tangled on top of the treant's head, unexpectedly A structure that looks like an inflated brain is formed, which looks weird and disturbing.

This distorted creature with a "brain canopy" looked down at the hill of crystal pillars in the explosion crater, watching the magical brilliance between the crystal pillars gradually dissipate, he shook his canopy, and the shimmer of light wandering among the canopy Flickering: "We have successfully controlled several Iron Man echelons, but through these Iron Soldiers, we can only penetrate the outermost line of defense... The dead soul in the deepest part of the Deep Blue Well is too vigilant, and she has been constantly reapplying. To build a security model inside the ruins, even if this place has not been invaded for 700 years..."

The Grand Priest snorted, his voice was low and dark: "Paranoia, stubbornness, delusion of being persecuted... That dead soul has been entrenched in this tomb for 700 years, maybe he has gone crazy long ago."

"A thinking matrix can't go crazy... The stability of steel and crystal is much more stable than your mental state, Mr. Grand Master," two female voices sounded at the same time suddenly came from not far away, with With a little teasing, he interrupted the Grand Priest's cursing in a low voice, "We heard you swearing here just now—this is not like your usual demeanor."

The Grand Priest turned around, his brown eyes reflected the figures of two elves walking not far away.

"Leerna, Fierna..." he said in a deep voice, "Are you here to watch the fun?"

"Please calm down, Grand Priest," the elf twins came to the treant leader, and the sisters with the same appearance bent slightly with gentle and sweet smiles, "As a plant, you should have a more peaceful life." Calm mind - getting too excited can damage your roots and canopy."

The Grand Priest snorted dissatisfiedly, and the dry branches rattled: "There is no need to show off the witticism here—you might as well pay attention to the facts in front of you. Look at the ruins, the energy of the Deep Blue Well is right in front of our eyes , However, after such a long time, we can only hover around the outer defense circle, you once promised to have a way to infiltrate the ancient defense system here, but in my opinion... your promise has not been fully fulfilled. "

"What we promised at the beginning was only to infiltrate a part of the iron man's mind, but not the entire defense system," the elf twins said in unison, with a very calm expression on their faces, "We believe that your memory should not be so bad."

The tawny eyes of the Grand Priest stared at the Elf Twins, but after a few seconds of staring, he withdrew his gaze: "You are right, but you also said that you can use the mental network of the Iron Man Corps to bypass The Matrix works—obviously, you failed, and the fact is that even with control of several Iron Man echelons, we couldn't get into the depths of the ruins."

"No, this idea is indeed feasible, it just needs some luck and timing, that's why we told you to be patient," Reina said immediately, "But don't worry, we are here to tell you the good news today Forget about the little failure just now, the time has come for us to carry out the next infiltration."

"Huh?" The Grand Priest's eyes became serious, "You mean..."

"We have been indirectly observing the situation inside the Deep Blue Fortress through those captured iron man mental cores, and based on the data collected just a few hours ago, we can confirm one thing..." Ferna smiled sweetly , the tone couldn't help rising, "The operation efficiency of the Ophelia matrix has dropped, Your Excellency the Grand Master."

"The efficiency of the Ophelia matrix has dropped?!" The Grand Master was stunned for a moment, and then there was a hint of disbelief in his tone, "Are you sure?"

"We have confidence in our own judgment, Grand Priest," Leierna put away her smile and became serious, "Since two days ago, we have discovered that the Ophelia matrix is ​​producing abnormal fluctuations. An unusually large data exchange and reorganization was carried out-we don't know what she was doing at the moment, but since that data exchange, her operating efficiency has been declining, and the decline has not stabilized until a few hours ago. And it has remained at a low level until now."

Leierna stopped here, and Fierna took over without delay: "According to the calculation we just completed, if the Ophelia Matrix continues to maintain the current operating efficiency for 48 hours, she will be rebuilding the internal defense. There will be a very small loophole in the safe mode, if it lasts longer... the loophole will become exploitable, we can push the infiltration line into the impact pit, and may even take over a part of the outermost energy conduit of the deep blue well .”

The Grand Priest's eyes fell on the Elf Twins. There was no obvious expression on the woody and sinister face, but the flickering light in those eyes showed that this severely distorted life was in a relatively excited state. He There was a hoarse laugh, but soon he questioned: "Wait, since the change happened two days ago, why didn't you report it then?"

"We need to confirm that although the Ophelia matrix has been running smoothly for 700 years, she may also have short-term, normal fluctuations due to internal self-maintenance or partial node failure replacement, so we need to confirm that she is really out of order. Only problems can be reported to you," Ferna said frankly, "unless you are willing to be disturbed by frequent and meaningless trifles again and again, then our sisters can report all the details in detail."

The Grand Priest stared at the elf twins for a long time, and he didn't look away again until more than ten seconds later.

"Well, I don't care about your 'details', I respect the 'cooperative relationship' between us," he said lightly, "Then show some sincerity as a partner now, and tell me how to go further penetration—we need the energy of the Deep Blue Well, even if we can only control one of its outermost conduits, it will be a huge improvement.”

Reina and Fierna smiled.

They raised their heads and looked at the Deep Blue Well in the distance, watching the pure energy erupting from the top of the crystal pillar rushing up to the sky like a giant sword, piercing through the dirty clouds and stirring the gloomy cyclone that covered the entire wasteland .

"Of course," the elf twins said in unison, "we will get the energy of the Deep Blue Well."

……

The connection with the land was completely broken just now.

Gawain got up from the dragon's back and looked at the several special devices placed behind Melita's shoulder blades—those devices no longer relayed signals from the land, and the holographic projection was displaying an error message, the base rune There is also a partial dimming, a sign that the basic response signal has completely disappeared, and this is happening faster than previously expected by technicians.

He frowned: It seems that even the most powerful and sensitive special models cannot maintain contact with the land after crossing the offshore demarcation line. Set up a transit node on the ocean, or lay some kind of communication facility on the seabed.

As for launching a communication satellite... I'm afraid it's too early to think about it now.

The whistling sea wind passed by Melita's protective barrier, and the whistling sound was already very weak when it reached the ears. The sea surface shone with waves under the setting sun, presenting a magnificent beauty that people living on land could not imagine.

Melita has lowered her altitude twice in a row, and now she is almost flying at a low altitude.

"The signal has been interrupted." Amber scratched her hair. "The signal attenuation speed in the ocean area is indeed faster than that on land-the large hub on the North Port can logically cover this side."

"I can lower the altitude a little bit more, I'm pretty good at ultra-low altitude flying," Melita's voice came from the front, "Flying close to the sea surface can shorten the straight-line distance between your communication equipment and the land, and the interference situation will also be reduced." better."

"Then I'll trouble you," Gao Wen didn't reject the other party's offer, after all he really wanted to collect more data, "Let's lower the altitude."

"It's a small matter, just flapping your wings."

Melita said casually, and then the mighty dragon stretched out its wings, adjusted its overall flying posture, and its height was once again reduced to the point where it was almost flying close to the sea surface—the waves rolled under the dragon wings, suddenly slashing The passing air rolled up foam and debris floating on the water, forming a broken white trail behind the dragon.

A buzzing sound came from those devices, and two of the devices specially used to detect the response signal and identify the remote hub automatically turned on, and the holographic projections above them vibrated and jumped out some characters, just as Melita said As I said, the interference of magic power has improved in places closer to the sea surface—but it didn't last long.

Only a few minutes later, the connection was lost again, this time for real.

"Do you need me to hover for a while?" Melita said very intimately, "Perhaps we can find a more precise 'cut-off point'."

"...No need," Gao Wen thought for a while, shaking his head, "The equipment has automatically recorded the relevant data, and the technicians will analyze it when we go back. The situation on the ocean is changing rapidly. You can collect it by circling here a few times The information is not very useful."

"Okay, then I'm going to increase the altitude," Melita shook her head, "I don't have to worry about the sea when I fly higher. There are a few islands near here. If I continue to fly at a low altitude, I'm worried about hitting the mountain."

While speaking, Miss Dragon vigorously flapped her wings, and with a slight tilt and acceleration, the ocean and sky in Gawain's vision began to sink, and Amber yelled curiously: "Hey, have you crashed into a mountain before?"

"Of course not," Melita said immediately, "My flying skills are the best among my peers!"

Amber leaned next to Gao Wen and muttered softly: "I don't know why, but I always feel that she is not telling the truth..."

Gao Wen remained dignified and did not say a word.

But he thinks what Amber said makes sense...

At this moment, Veronica, who had been closing her eyes and resting her mind, and didn't speak much the whole time, suddenly stood up.

The "Saint Princess" stepped forward, came to Gao Wen's side, looked into the distance and whispered, "We are approaching that storm..."

"Oh my god!!" Amber on the other side of Gao Wen also exclaimed, "Could it be that we have to go straight through?!"

In front of Melita's flight path, a majestic cloud wall has already stood at the end of the sky and sea. As the distance gets closer, the details of that majestic cloud wall are clearly presented to everyone—it connects the ocean And the sky, there are large-scale, laterally moving cloud clusters on the surface. Under the entrainment of the storm, a large amount of seawater is swept up into the air, and then falls again in the middle of the cloud wall, forming a long-term violent storm outside the storm circle. Even though there is still some distance here, Gawain can clearly see the astonishing power of the torrential rain and the storm above - there is no doubt that it is a natural wonder that human beings at this stage cannot challenge at all.

Not even the strongest and most powerful battleship of the Cecil Empire.

And at this moment, Melita's flight direction was actually pointing straight at that storm! !

"Of course it's going through," Miss Julong's deep, thunderous voice came from the front, her tone full of ease and indifference, "The scale of this storm is astonishing, and it will take a lot of effort and a lot of time to go around it."

While speaking, she had already flapped her huge wings again, and the original runes on the edge of the dragon wings lit up sequentially. Driven by the magic power, her flying height began to climb rapidly, and the storm cloud wall in the distance was in the sight of Gao Wen and others drop rapidly.

"Can we cross this storm from above the cloud wall?" Gao Wen asked immediately.

"Ah... If you want to completely cross the storm circle, you have to fly near the boundary between the turbulent layer and the steady-state limit layer, which is a height that even giant dragons can't stay for a long time," Melita's tone seemed to carry With a hint of a smile, "We won't fly that high—just go to the middle of the turbulent layer."

Gao Wen subconsciously frowned, and instinctively felt that according to what Melita said, the structure of the eternal storm would be a little weird: "At that altitude, the power of the storm is relatively weak?"

"That's right, the power of the storm over there will be weaker - of course it is still dangerous to ordinary flying creatures, but it is already a 'strong wind' that can be tolerated by dragons," Melita said proudly "I'll protect you with my magic shield, so just sit back and enjoy the rest of the journey - I think it will be spectacular for you."

Is the wind weakening at high altitudes?Could it be that the "power source" of the eternal storm is not the upper atmosphere, but... near the sea? !

Chapter 0943 Eye of the Storm

Many questions and conjectures about the Eternal Storm appeared in Gawain's mind instantly, and before he opened his mouth to ask Melita about this matter, the latter had already climbed several times in a row—under the control of powerful magic power , the gigantic silhouette of the giant dragon passed through the thick clouds, passed through the invisible magic dividing line, and passed through the magic static boundary layer that humans are familiar with...

"We have entered the turbulent layer." Melita's voice suddenly came from the front.

Gao Wen subconsciously took two steps towards the edge of the dragon's back, looking at this atmospheric space that is still unfamiliar to humans, he saw that the endless sea of ​​clouds had fallen far below the dragon's wings and turned into a vast expanse of whiteness. The land and the ocean are covered by the layer of clouds like a veil, blurring the boundaries and details. His eyes turn around, and all he sees is the clear and bright blue sky. Shine down from above.

At first glance, this place does not seem to be as dangerous and chaotic as imagined.

However, soon, he noticed that there were a large number of abnormal halos floating around Melita's huge body. Layers upon layers of shimmering light were being stimulated out of thin air from the edge of her wings, and along her layer of magic shield. The boundary of the boundary forms circles of ripples, spreading in the air, as if a giant dragon is soaring in an ocean that was originally invisible. The ocean is stirred by external forces, so the "waves" appear, forming those Unusual halo.

Gao Wen can be sure that such a phenomenon never happened to Melita when she was flying in the magic static boundary layer!

Amber was putting her hands on her forehead and looking at the distant scene. She didn't seem to notice the halo around Melita, but just marveled at the openness and magnificence of this place: "Wow - this place... this place is so wide It's so scary...it feels like stepping out and melting into the sky forever..."

"It's a pity that human beings will only fall back to the earth if they step out here," Veronica, who has not spoken much, broke the silence. It seems that this vast and high sky has also attracted her attention. Standing up, he glanced into the distance, "...this place is 'serene' than I imagined. I thought the turbulent layer would be a more violent place."

"In fact, outside my protective barrier, the surrounding air currents and magic power are really violent—it's just invisible to the naked eye," Melita said, "Have you noticed the halos on the edges of my wings? That is the magic power of the turbulent layer is washing away my protective barrier. From the top of the static layer of magic power upwards, the concentration of magic power will become higher than that near the surface, but it is also more difficult to control, and the most dangerous factor is all The turbulent currents are 'invisible' - as you can see, it looks very peaceful here, but in fact there are turbulent currents everywhere, until the outsider bumps into them and is magically incinerated into torches. Only the turbulence will reveal its appearance."

Amber thought for a while, then commented from the bottom of her heart: "Oh my god..."

However, Gao Wen's thoughts drifted involuntarily to a direction that may seem strange to others: "The higher the atmosphere, the stronger the magic power level...then the 'starry world' outside the atmosphere has the strongest magic power." environment?"

Melita was silent for a few seconds, then shook her head: "Then I don't know... between the stars... who knows what the stars are like?"

Her tone was a little weird, as if she was unwilling to answer questions in this regard. Gao Wenwen wanted to continue asking, but before he opened his mouth, he suddenly realized that it was best not to ask the agent lady too much during this trip." The knowledge of "Chao Gang", this is what he repeatedly warned himself before he set off. After all, everyone on this journey is riding on Melita's back. The worst air disaster during the first contact between humans and dragons...

At that time, a giant dragon will fall down from the turbulent layer while spurting blood, and the emperor of the empire and the intelligence chief plus a leader of the rebels will be wiped out in the Arctic Circle directly because of his words. This matter will be left to the historians. I am afraid I dare not write it down, and there is a more important point: Gao Wen himself has some psychological shadows about the air crash, after all, he fell like this in his previous life...

Gao Wen shook his head to get rid of the irrelevant associations that suddenly appeared in his mind, and then he looked at the seemingly peaceful atmospheric space filled with huge energy, and he couldn't help showing a thoughtful expression on his face: "Here Enriching such a huge amount of energy...it would be great if the magical environment of the turbulent layer could also be utilized."

As soon as this sentence came out, Amber next to him showed a weird look. The latter looked Gao Wen up and down several times before he couldn't help muttering: "It's really you..."

Gao Wen: "??"

He didn't understand the circuit in Amber's head for a while, but just as he was about to ask, a deep dragon roar interrupted all he wanted to say-everyone raised their heads immediately, and the next second, they looked at him in astonishment. To a vast wall of clouds rushing head-on!

It turned out that Melita had already crossed a raised "mountain" on the top of the sea of ​​clouds, and the cloud wall structure of the eternal storm in the turbulent layer instantly occupied the entire sight of Gao Wen and others. The young Veronica, and even the well-informed Gao Wen, all held their breath for an instant, and were dumbfounded in front of this spectacular spectacle.

They watched the cloud wall fill their field of vision with overwhelming momentum, and Melita "slammed" into the barrier with an unrelenting momentum as if rushing towards a cliff. At this moment, the giant was crushing her face The oppressive feeling made Gao Wen suffocate for a moment, and Amber beside him subconsciously let out a short exclamation.

In the next second, their field of vision was filled with endless chaotic clouds and mist, and they could no longer see the open and high blue sky, nor the sea surface reflecting the sun below, and only thick, dark, and violent clouds were in their field of vision. The whistling hurricane swept wantonly outside Melita's shield, and the scene seemed to fall into the doomsday.

The surrounding light quickly dimmed—even though the cloud wall looked like a white and bright barrier from the outside, the thick clouds inside actually blocked almost all sunlight, and the thickest part of the storm barrier was undoubtedly the darkest Yes, the Eternal Storm is just like any other storm in this regard.

Gawain riding on the dragon's back felt that he was rushing into a stormy midnight, the howling hurricane and the continuous lightning in the distance were dominating the entire space - he could not see the scene inside the storm at all, even the legendary The powerhouse's perception ability has also been greatly suppressed, making it impossible to perceive the magic environment changes 200 meters away.

However, in this spectacular, even terrifying environment, Melita Purnia, who is the guide and means of transportation, spread her wings wantonly, let out a dragon roar that seemed to be very happy, and she looked up. At the beginning, he said loudly in a very happy tone: "How is it? Let me just say that it is very spectacular inside!?"

Her voice in the dragon form is very loud, but the whistling wind and thunder and lightning in the storm circle are also roaring. Even though most of those voices have been filtered out by the magic barrier, a considerable part of them has passed into the barrier, Mei Rita's voice was mixed with those terrifying sounds from the outside world, and it was like a thunderclap exploding in the ears of Gao Wen and others.

Amber suddenly yelled: "To be honest-it's a bit too spectacular!!"

"This is a special feature of Talrond tourism—outsiders can't experience it!" Melita said happily, "Don't worry! My protective barrier is safe inside, and nothing will happen—and I fly here several times a year, and I haven't had a single accident!"

She seemed to be intentionally using her cheerful tone to reduce the nervousness of the "passengers" when they were crossing the eternal storm, and this was somewhat effective, at least Amber's nervous face seemed to have eased, but Gao Wen didn't Bottom line—others may not know it, but he has personally seen the "crash landing method" of Miss Dragon. Although the other party said that it was all an accident...but it is enough to make people tremble with fear.

However, he thought about it carefully, and felt that he did not set any form of "safe return flag" before setting off. From a metaphysical point of view, it should be safe. Since Melita's crash landing method itself is also a part of metaphysics, then Using metaphysics to fight metaphysics, there should be no accidents on their journey through the storm...

In this way, he comforted himself with his head full of coquettish words, and temporarily ignored the uneasiness brought by the surrounding scenery and vehicles during the storm. After his eyes and mental perception got used to the terrible environment here, he Immediately began to observe the four weeks.

He will never forget one of the important purposes of his journey—to collect knowledge, which is of great help to human beings to go out of the land and explore the world.

He is not an expert in the field of marine meteorology or atmospheric gas. In fact, there are almost no experts in related fields in this era, but he can carefully record everything he sees and perceives. One day, these things will be recorded. Come in handy.

With this in mind, he began to observe the changes in the scene outside Melita's protective barrier, and tried to find the "power source" of the eternal storm that would never dissipate from the flow of magic power around him.

At this moment, a flash of light that appeared at the boundary of his field of vision suddenly caught his attention.

At first, Gawain thought it was lightning in the storm clouds—there were many electrical discharges nearby, and almost every second, electric arcs temporarily illuminated the dark clouds in the distance. However, he soon realized that it was a bolt of lightning. The light is different from the surrounding lightning, not only in intensity and duration, but also in an abnormal direction.

That ray of light came from directly below, near the "base" of the eternal storm.

Strong discharges are rarely seen in that direction.

Gawain took a few steps in front of Melita's shoulder blades, approaching the edge of the dragon's back. He looked towards the lower left front of the dragon's wing. That was where the light appeared before—although the light itself had disappeared, it still seemed to be there. There are some faint glimmers surging deep in the thick clouds.

About half a minute later, he saw another flash of light—this time clearly, he saw a straight beam of light burst out from near the base of the eternal storm, as if something was erupting, although it lasted for a short time. Short, but he was [-]% sure that it was definitely not lightning!

And at the same time that the light beam erupted, Gao Wen also immediately sensed an obvious wave of magic power, which made his expression more serious.

In such a chaotic environment, in the depths of such a severely disturbed storm, that magic wave can still clearly spread so far, which shows that the strength of that energy source is extraordinary.

There's something at the core of the Eternal Storm!A very powerful thing with an energy response! !