Chapter 1294: Chapter 1293: Return to the Cecil Clan

Amber’s sigh was not just her own sentiment; for every explorer returning from the Sentinel Base, the feeling of relief was inevitable—although the War God’s Divine Realm was still a perilous place for mortals, there remains a difference between "existing danger" and "the indescribable."

"No matter how we look at it, the War God’s Divine Realm is at least a place where we can control the situation," even Victoria, who always exudes a sense of aloofness and distance, couldn’t help but speak after hearing Amber’s words, "The things left behind by the Sentinels feel totally uncontrollable and unpredictable to me... Let’s just say that we know very little about the things left by the Voyagers."

Lady Windsor Maple and Knight Solid, who were here to greet everyone, also stepped forward at this moment. Windsor was the first to come before Daniel, wearing a slight smile: "I really breathed a sigh of relief seeing you all return safely. Was the journey smooth?"

"There were many discoveries," Daniel nodded with a calm expression, "We encountered other divine realms, but even more importantly, we’ve uncovered the secrets of the ’Sentinels’—I’ll tell you the details once we return."

White Dragon Noreta also approached her friend, who had just transformed into a human shape. The two young dragons rushed faster into their mother’s embrace, excitedly squealing and bumping their heads against Melita’s arm and belly. Melita had to use both hands and feet to barely manage this overly enthusiastic "greeting": "Alright, alright, don’t fuss... You’ve missed your mom, haven’t you? Have you been listening to your mother at home?"

"What you said sounds awfully strange—though logically true," White Dragon Noreta smiled as she approached her friend, "Seeing your expression... The harvest from this journey must be quite something."

"Far from simple," Melita pressed down on the heads of the two young dragons, gazing at Gawain not far away with a complicated expression, "I almost recall the time I blew up two hearts at once; my blood pressure hasn’t come down throughout this outing..."

"We need to return to Cecil Castle as soon as possible, Knight Solid," on the other side, Gawain approached the commander of the White Knight and spoke quickly, while also glancing at Victoria—the Ice and Snow Duchess by his side, was invisibly holding up a frozen ice cube with magical power. In the transparent cube, vines and two inconspicuous powder-white little flowers are coiled together, preserved in their frozen state by the magical icy grip, "Something needs to be sent back immediately."

"Yes, King," powerful Combat Monk Solid replied in a resonant voice, with a deep and heavy sound coming from within the fully covered White Knight helmet, then he spoke again, "Additionally, there’s an emergency report."

Gawain was originally planning to hand over the intelligence concerning the Sentinels and mention the follow-up exploration plans, but he sensed an unusual gravity from the tone of the heavily armored priest, and his eyebrows immediately rose: "Emergency situation?"

"News has come from the Sea Demon Kingdom; our Deep Sea Allies have discovered an anomaly in the Deep Blue Webway within the Water Elemental Realm—they have ’fished’ out something whose purpose and principles remain unknown from the Magical Vein Flow, initially suspected to be related to the Oblivion Cultist from the wasteland," Knight Solid said with an extraordinarily serious tone, "They have now shared the schematics and preliminary analysis with Cecil Castle, but both Lady Jenni and Princess Rebecca have encountered... technical obstacles."

"Within the Deep Blue Webway... those sea demons actually ’fished’ something out from it?!" Gawain was momentarily stunned, first shocked by the sea demons’ astonishing actions, then focusing on the second part of Knight Solid’s words, "You say neither Jenni nor Rebecca can understand what the sea demons have retrieved? What about the scholars from the Empire?"

Although Jenni and Rebecca are absolute authorities in the modern rune and magic fields, they ultimately lack in experience and accumulation; they may not necessarily surpass traditional mage scholars in the "knowledgeable" domain. Confronted with the mysterious items "fished" out by sea demons, perhaps the erudite scholars of the old era might be able to discern something.

However, Knight Solid merely shook his head: "No progress, even Lady Heidi gathered academic groups in St. Soniel City, but no one has seen that thing... never even heard of it."

Gawain furrowed his brow, subscribing to a notion he and Kamel discussed, not long ago, at Sentinel Base—they speculated that the "Elven Twins" in the wasteland might leverage the Oblivion Cultists for something within the Deep Blue Webway. Unexpectedly, a suspicious piece of evidence surfaced quickly, he turned to look at Lady Windsor Maple and her accompanying Typhon Scholars, then turned back with a frown to inquire of the heavily armored priest before him: "Has the relevant data been sent to Typhon and the Silver Empire?"

"Yes, following the Alliance’s major-world-disaster joint defense agreement, we’ve already sent this intelligence to high-level officials of the two countries," Knight Solid nodded, "However..."

"However, we don’t have any clues either," Lady Windsor Maple said worriedly, "The feedback from the Silver Empire is also the same. This is a matter totally unknown to current mortals, adopting inexplicable technology and design concepts. Though the most likely suspect for this matter would fall on the Oblivion Cultists in the wasteland, we are unable to comprehend how a group secluded within the Gondor wasteland can create such things, let alone possess technology to open the Deep Blue Webway and cast material into it..."

"It seems the situation is indeed as we suspected..." Confronted by Lady Windsor’s bewilderment, Gawain merely sighed with resigned anticipation, turning to Kamel, "The Sentinels have begun their move."

"Sentinels?" Lady Windsor heard this but was puzzled. She knew the word "Sentinels," recently, within the Alliance’s circulated confidential documents, the words "beware of Sentinels" have appeared frequently, yet she didn’t understand why this disconcerting term was associated with the Gondor wasteland, "This and the wasteland have ..."

"This is precisely what I just mentioned to you; our greatest discovery from this journey," Daniel’s deep, slightly gloomy voice sounded, "Remember the warning ’Beware of Sentinels?’ Now we finally understand what it means... A once dormant ancient guardian left by the Voyagers has run amok; it infiltrated our world a thousand years ago and, after a long hibernation, it has now taken action, currently hiding within the Gondor wasteland’s ’Elven Twins’... impersonating these supposed guardians called the ’Sentinels’! Presently, those wasteland Oblivion Cultists have become Sentinels’ minions, holding... Voyager’s technology!"

Lady Windsor Maple’s breath quickened abruptly, moments later she clenched her Magic Wand tightly, her face exceptionally serious: "This matter must be reported to Aldernon immediately!"

"I must also leave immediately," Gawain stated, the news brought by Knight Solid made him feel even more urgency, "Victoria, return to the northern regions to handle affairs; we shall need a stable domestic situation now more than ever. Amber and I will return to Cecil Castle, and as for Kamel..."

He glanced at the ancient Master Mage floating nearby in waiting, thought for a moment, and nodded: "You stay here, continue to lead the exploration of the divine realms—we need more clues and information, the research activities should not cease."

Kamel bowed in mid-air, "Yes, King."

"Noreta and I will also return to Talronde," Melita walked over from the side, still with two young dragons trying to hold onto her like koalas, "What happened at ’Mother Harbor’ needs to be made known to leaders Andar and Heragor soon, and... we must also prepare for changes in the situation."

Gawain slowly nodded: "After a brief rest and preparation, you should set off. Agondale over there should also be waiting for your news."

...

After returning from the War God’s Divine Realm, everyone took their own actions, while Gawain and Amber directly took the Dragon Rider Aircraft back to Cecil City. By the time they arrived, the night sky had already begun to envelop the city situated at the foot of the Dark Mountain Range, and Aunt Heidi had been waiting in the study of Cecil Palace for quite some time.

The light emitted by the magic crystals dispelled the early winter darkness, and outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the street scene flowed with lights and distant sounds of carriages. Gawain sat back in his familiar chair, with Aunt Heidi standing before him, displaying a serious and solemn expression on her face, with quite pronounced dark circles.

Gawain’s gaze lingered on Heidi’s dark circles for several seconds.

"These dark circles are real this time, ancestor," Aunt Heidi sighed helplessly, rubbing her forehead in fatigue, "I haven’t rested much these past two days... Half of the time I was exchanging ideas with Typhon and the Silver Empire’s technical officials about the Deep Blue Webway. I believe they’re as overwhelmed as we are."

"So what exactly did the sea demons fish up?" Gawain forcibly shifted his focus from Heidi’s dark circles, asking solemnly, "I heard it’s a very complex rune device..."

"Yes, a structure very complex rune device, outwardly appearing as a black cube about two meters in length on each side. The material comprises magic-conducting crystals, highly purified black stones, and several alloys. Internally, there are layers upon layers of intricate structures," Aunt Heidi nodded, placing several blueprints she had been holding onto Gawain’s desk, "These are the materials sent by the sea demons; the team led by Jenni and Rebecca has extracted and annotated the more explicit structures as much as possible. You can take a look."

Gawain took the materials, his gaze sweeping over the densely packed structural diagrams and surrounding annotations with serious intent. He knew he couldn’t compare to those true experts in the rune field, so he didn’t waste time trying to parse or calculate those rune nodes and magic conduction relations, but instead tried to discern the secret of this object directly from its internal structural division.

As he read the materials, Heidi’s voice continued: "Currently, we hypothesize these rune stones are built ’layer by layer,’ first crafting their core, then embedding and painting rune structures layer by layer on the ’shell,’ and the different ’layers’ are connected by precisely placed crystalline plugs. There’s a touch of Gondor era technology here, but it’s limited to craftsmanship... Beyond craftsmanship, the entire rune stones are filled with technology we cannot comprehend."

"Voyager’s technology." Gawain raised his head, looking into Heidi’s eyes.

"Voyager, hmm... I’ve heard everything Amber said about what you saw in the ’Deep Sea,’" Aunt Heidi said solemnly, "And if the ’Elven Twins’ hiding in the wasteland are truly Sentinels, and these rune stones indeed originated from those evil cult followers, then the mysterious technology behind these devices indeed finds an explanation."

"...I’ve heard the sea demons fished out more than one of these cubes from the Deep Blue Webway?" Gawain asked curiously.

"Yes, as of yesterday afternoon, they had found five of these devices in the Deep Blue Webway," Aunt Heidi nodded, "And these are only what they’ve successfully captured—there are likely more devices unspoiled, even undiscovered."

"Have the sea demons discovered anything about these devices?"

"They have no valuable clues themselves," Aunt Heidi shook her head, "The sea demons are relatively shallow in their understanding of magic, and they aren’t very familiar with the Deep Blue Webway, but..."

"But?"

"Sea Demon Queen Petia mentioned that recently, water elements in Boundless Sea have consciously kept their distance from the Deep Blue Vein Flows passing through Boundless Sea—though elementals weren’t fond of the magic aura in Deep Blue Webway to start with, their reactions have been particularly clear and... anxious. Elemental Sovereigns and Lords have yet to explain, but it seems they’re not intentionally hiding anything, rather they themselves are unclear about the situation."

Gawain fell into contemplation, not responding to Aunt Heidi immediately. After about half a minute of pondering, he suddenly raised his head: "Has Goddess of Magic Milmina looked at these materials? She once held dominion over the magic realm; perhaps she could glean something."

"Not yet," Aunt Heidi shook her head, "Lady Milmina has since been researching the secrets behind magical wave attributes after returning from the War God’s Divine Realm, and she even submitted a ’Please Do Not Disturb’ statement to the Theocracy Authority Council. However, I think if you were to ask... both senior advisors would probably agree to cooperate."

"Delving into the mysteries of magic, huh..." Gawain murmured softly, the image of the ’Magic Goddess Realm’ seen on the cruise ship surfacing in his mind, filling him with emotion, "She can finally freely pursue true knowledge... But I’ll still have to disturb her a bit, after all, I also need to send some things to Amon."

Aunt Heidi immediately nodded: "Okay, I’ll arrange that and accompany you."

Gawain looked at this descendant who had diligently followed him for years and couldn’t help but show a slight smile: "No need, as usual, I’ll take Amber over. You should hurry and get some sleep."

Aunt Heidi promptly wanted to say something: "Ancestor, I..."

"Go rest, Heidi," Gawain interrupted her directly, "I’m back."

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