Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 719 - 718: Taking Root

Beltira looked at Gawain with a calm expression.

Even though the fallen leaves pained her, she maintained her cool and indifferent demeanor. As the last Archbishop of the Oblivion Association, it was her final dignity when facing the "Wanderers from Outer Realm."

The Ultimate Tome that had served the Oblivion Association countless times over the centuries and helped complete numerous key projects finally ended its long service. Perhaps... this was its destiny.

The Archbishop handed this book to her, along with the legacy of the Oblivion Association, and now, it was time to end this erroneous path of inheritance.

The era that follows might belong to the gods, might lead to decline, or possibly... truly belong to the Wanderers from Outer Realm and the new order he created. But whatever it may be, since she survived with her current stance, she should be ready to face the impending fate, no matter where it leads.

She showed a faint smile — she tried to smile like a human, but the plant-mimicked face made every expression slightly stiff: "In that case, have we reached some sort of... collaboration?"

"I think we have," Gawain nodded slightly, "within the Cecil Empire, the Oblivion Association is no longer a threat, and I wouldn’t mind having a plant that can heal the land in my domain — as long as this plant is willing to abide by the Empire’s constitution. As for you... I hope you can cooperate with us in further investigations of the Oblivion Association."

"Of course," Beltira said softly, as the wooden structures surrounding her began to wriggle. The flexible vines and roots differentiated again, transforming into numerous thin branches, which slowly intertwined to outline something, "this... will be my second ’gesture of sincerity’ besides the Ultimate Tome."

The thin branches finally coalesced into an outline, and Gawain was astonished to see them form a large, three-dimensional structure that nearly covered a third of the hall. Within this structure, corridors, rooms, crumbling walls, and partitions were clearly visible.

"This is..."

"The underground ruins structure sensed by my roots," Beltira said with a gentle smile, "I know you found a ’guide,’ but Bard does not know the entire structure of this underground site, and it has undergone collapse and deformation. About half of the rooms and corridors are no longer in their original positions or have hidden structural risks. I hope this map can be of help — the reddish-brown rooms are our labs, and the gray-white rooms are archives. All our information — the most advanced and bloodiest — resides in these rooms; feel free to use them. As for what to take or leave... that’s up to you."

The most extreme and advanced biotechnology laboratory in the human world finally opened its doors to Gawain.

"I will make good use of it," he said with a smile.

Waiting outside the hall for a long time, Amber and the others finally received Gawain’s instructions. Upon returning to the hall, their first sight was the wooden three-dimensional map occupying a third of the hall area, but Beltira, who was supposed to be standing near the "map," was nowhere to be seen.

Amber swiftly moved to Gawain’s side, scanning around vigilantly before curiously asking, "Where’s that plant person?"

Gawain: "Plant person?!"

"Yeah, the person who was integrated with the plant..."

Gawain: "..."

He thought Amber had spontaneously mastered a word he never taught her, but it turned out to be a clumsy invention.

"She’s still here," Gawain shook his head, "this giant tree is her, a mutation resulting from her forceful confrontation with the body of the fake god’s power. If you mean her human-like body mimicry... she’s gone deeper, to the collapsed layers we can’t access."

"Sounds impressive..." Amber scratched her head, "Collapsed layers don’t sound like good places; what did she go there for?"

Gawain looked towards the not-too-distant secret chamber, originally behind Beltira, which was once filled with human remains, all transported by Beltira to various places in the underground ruins during her muddled state. But now... it was empty.

"She went to hold a funeral — with my permission. After all, even the evil cult followers burned to death are allowed to be buried."

Amber blinked and noticed Gawain holding a black leather book she didn’t recognize — a book not seen previously: "What’s this?"

"...An ancient artifact potentially hiding vast secrets, though damaged now, I believe it still has research value," Gawain said casually, then looked at the team members nearby, and gestured to the map in the hall, "This is the current structural map of this underground site, and it should be accurate. Future exploration work should take this map as reference, prioritizing the transfer of items marked in gray-white rooms to the surface. As for now, we head back to the surface, and there’s a lot of work to arrange later."

After waiting on the surface for a long time, Knight Margarita and Pittman finally saw Gawain leading the team from the dark tunnel.

Though they had been in contact with the team below through the Magic Web Terminal, during the long solo conversation between Gawain and the mysterious "female Archbishop," everyone was quite tense. Fortunately, everything ended peacefully, and Margarita couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Your Majesty," the female Knight approached, "next..."

"The situation is quite complex; let’s talk in detail after we return to camp," Gawain said, and glanced around somewhat surprised — a large number of beautiful magic pattern leaves had fallen on the lush grass and shrubbery around them. These leaves clearly came from the canopy of the giant tree above them. He looked at the Knight, "What happened? Why so many leaves suddenly fell?"

When talking with Beltira below, she seemed perfectly fine, so Gawain was a bit concerned about these sudden fallen leaves.

"No idea," Margarita shook her head, "they fell suddenly more than an hour ago, but besides that, no other abnormal signs occurred."

Gawain blinked, scratching his chin: "...Probably too cold, after all, it’s a plant."

It can’t possibly be that the leaves fell out of pity... Beltira said she didn’t mind.

Suddenly, an invisible wind swirled around, causing the grass and trees to sway with a rustling sound. Gawain, preparing to leave, felt something and paused. He looked towards the giant tree trunk and saw a large number of vines entwined with fresh flowers suddenly sprouting. As the vines twisted and stretched, Beltira’s figure emerged from them.

If it weren’t for the many vines behind her, with roots still connecting to the earth, Beltira emerging from the vines would look almost no different from a normal person.

The vigilant soldiers around instantly raised their weapons, and Margarita also placed her hand on the hilt of the Melting Sword at her waist, but Gawain gestured to stop them. He looked at Beltira and asked, "Have you finished your business?"

"It’s all done," Beltira said calmly, glancing at the wary gazes around her. Even though she didn’t need to turn the eyes of this mimicked body to see everything within the giant tree’s coverage, she still made this human-like gesture with this body and showed a hint of lament, "Really not welcomed here... is this okay?"

"Nothing wrong with it," Gawain replied with a calm gaze, "The Empire urgently needs respite, and this land urgently needs healing. Take root here and heal this place; you have that ability. Let those displaced by the calamities you initiated return home with full bellies, and let the flesh of you and your compatriots become the nutrients of this land. This is the perfect arrangement, far better than creating new ashes on the plains."

"I don’t have the ability to heal the entire Plains of the Holy Spirits; my coverage area is limited to the Sorin Region..."

"Then heal the Sorin Region. Our reconstruction project needs a foothold," Gawain nodded, then paused, "I will withdraw half of the camp here but will keep the military camp in Sorinburg and the southern outposts. You understand my meaning."

Beltira slowly revealed a smile, "Necessary caution, and necessary goodwill, Brother Gawain."

...

The weather was getting colder, as winter approached. In this northern land of the continent, cold air always arrived earlier than elsewhere. Yet, in the relatively warm southern borders, the warmth brought by the great sun still lingered on the earth.

Just past noon, the perfectly timed sunlight shone on the open field in the eastern suburbs of Cecil City. The warm sunlight dispelled the chill brought by the northern wind. Maji sat on a crate beside the testing ground and looked up at the brilliant sun wheel of the great sun, squinting slightly.

In the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, there wasn’t such warm sunlight. It was eternally ice and snow there, where howling cold winds forever ruled the mountains and forests. All of Maji’s memories of her homeland were built on ice, cold winds, mountains, and those ancient, tomb-like stone structures.

In later years, her memories would be linked with the mountains of the Anzu Northern Border.

Bitter Winter Castle had warm fires, but outside Bitter Winter Castle, there were still mountains, ice, and endless cold air... yet even so, she loved that place, very much.

And here, in the Empire’s southern borders...

The warmth here is different from elsewhere. The vitality of this place, too, greatly differs from the rugged and passionate life of northern mountain folks.

This novel place feels quite nice.

She smiled and looked towards the center of the testing ground.

Mage Technicians were bustling around a large, oddly-shaped machine. The machine had a main structure that resembled either a short, thick cone or a gyro, with a large metal ring carved with magic symbols floating beneath it, and on either side, there were two wide, crescent-shaped wings. At the top of the "gyro," there was a simple cockpit made of metal and crystal glass, from which another pair of wings, supported by mechanical structures and steel frameworks like dragon wings, spread. Its shape was so peculiar that even the most knowledgeable archMage and scholars, upon seeing it, would probably not associate it with anything known, nor guess its purpose.

Yet this peculiar thing was a treasure in everyone’s eyes there. The much-respected Mage Technicians were sweating profusely around the machine, while Rebecca, who was the chief designer and commander, was overseeing everything. Maji even saw the sea demon named "Tiel" there. Even this usually lethargic and unmotivated sea demon had come to the testing ground. She was now watching the "new mechanical toy" of the Cecil Clan intently, while using the tip of her tail to write sonnets on the ground to combat the drowsiness caused by the sunlight.

As a visitor from a high civilization, Tiel was not just a spectator at the testing ground; she was half a consultant. Despite the huge differences in the technological trees of the two races, Tiel couldn’t offer opinions on the subject of magic symbols, but she could at least offer some suggestions in the areas where the technologies overlapped, like mechanical structures and mechanics.

The technical personnel seemed to have completed the final adjustments.

Rebecca clapped her hands and then turned to look at Maji’s position.

"Maji! It’s ready! We will fly again today!! This time, it will work!!"

Maji showed a slight smile, jumped down from the crate, and walked towards the strange large machine.

Rebecca’s chirping voice came from the side: "...The last crash was due to the vibration problem of the steering wings; we adjusted its connection method this time, and it will definitely work...

"Relax, and just operate as usual. There are no changes to the controls; those levers are perfect.

"We will definitely fly this time, it will definitely fly this time!"

Rebecca clenched her fists and waved them a couple of times enthusiastically, then added with a radiant smile:

"And it will land smoothly... at least with the right side up."

(Time for book recommendation!! Book title: "Players Beyond Justice," author: Bu Qi Shi Xian (seems like a newbie, but actually a returning old-timer), a book about traversing to an alien world and turning into an NPC while causing havoc, superb havoc-making.)