Chapter 1355: Chapter 1354: Anomalous Contact

Under the guidance of the information sent back by Asharena, the Empire Expedition Fleet headed by the Winter began to move towards the sea area shrouded in clouds and fog. As the sunlight grew stronger and the residual effects of Chaotic Turbulence gradually dissipated, the clouds and mist covering the sea surface gradually cleared over time. Between the thinning fog, the "pillar" that seemed to connect the heavens and earth gradually emerged.

Byron stood on an observation platform at the bow of the Winter, gazing at the endless expanse of the ocean in the distance. In his view, the "tower," which had pierced through the clouds and vanished at the edge of the sky, appeared as an increasingly clear dark silhouette. As the sea mist dissipated, it loomed like a mythical pillar reaching the heavens, descending upon mortals with an awe-inspiring majesty.

The sound of giant wings stirring the air descended from above, as a red dragon, clad in Mechanical Battle Armor, flew over from the tower’s direction. It circled above the Winter and gradually descended, eventually landing with a loud "bang" when Asharena transformed into human form and landed nearby on Maggie’s Landing. The Dragonborn lady tidied her somewhat disordered red hair and approached Byron with a light step, "You see? This thing..."

"Must be left by the Voyageurs, the style is obvious—it’s not something our planet’s civilization could build," Byron said solemnly, his eyes fixed on the sea in the distance. "The emissaries from Talronde mentioned that the Voyageurs once left three ’towers’ on this planet, one at the North Pole, and the other two at the equator, one on the sea and one on a continent. Our King also spoke of these towers... now it seems we’re facing the one located in the equatorial sea area."

He paused, his tone inevitably tinged with amazement, "This is unprecedented in human history... How much have we drifted off course?"

"It looks very different from the tower near the Talronde Continent," Asharena said thoughtfully, gazing into the distance with furrowed brows. "The Talronde tower is also very tall, but at least you can see the top, and if you’re brave enough, you can even fly to it. But this thing... I tried flying upwards for quite a while, yet even at the maximum altitude the Wings of Steel can support, I still couldn’t see its end—it’s as if this tower pierces the sky endlessly."

Byron didn’t speak, just frowned as he stared at the far-off tower—the Winter continued to advance in that direction, yet the tower remained distant. Its scale far exceeded human comprehension, to the point where even now, he couldn’t see the full outline of its base: nearly two-thirds of the "Steel Isle" was still submerged below the sea surface.

But as the fleet drew closer to the sea area of the tower, he noticed subtle changes in the surrounding environment.

The waves became finer and calmer than elsewhere, the sea color began to lighten, the wind on the surface weakened, and these changes became increasingly noticeable as the Winter continued forward. By the time he could roughly see the "Steel Isle" beneath the tower, the entire sea area had become as tranquil as the small pond behind his house.

This was an unimaginable environment in the ever-changing ocean, but here... perhaps for a hundred millennia, this sea area has remained in such a state.

"What’s the closest you got just now?" Byron turned to Asharena, "You didn’t set foot on the island or touch that tower, did you?"

"I’m not reckless like you," the red-haired Dragonbranded Witch quickly shook her head, "I only flew a few circles around it, never entering the island’s vicinity. From my observation, there should be some things ’alive’ on the tower and the island beneath it—I saw moving mechanical structures and some lights, and there seemed to be some activity in the shallower waters around the island’s edge."

"... It’s quite normal for the Voyageurs’ creations to be operational even now," Byron murmured, touching his chin. "In the legends of the silver elves, during the Ancient Era, the primordial elves fled from their ancestral land, crossed the Endless Sea to the Loren Continent. They sheltered from storms inside such a tower standing in the ocean, and recklessly entered the ’forbidden zone’ within, enduring a ’curse,’ which led to the fragmentation into many elven subspecies. Our King has mentioned these legends, considering the tower they encountered was left by the Voyageurs, and now... it seems likely we’re facing that very tower."

"Then we must be extra cautious; this tower is highly likely to react to organisms entering it—the fragmentation and degeneration of primordial elves sounds like some rapid genetic alteration," Asharena said solemnly, as someone responsible for "preserving knowledge and heritage memory" in the Sacred Dragon Kingdom, she possessed vast knowledge before her role as a combatant and diplomat. "It’s said the Voyageurs left towers on the planet’s surface, each with different functions. The Talronde tower is a ’mother factory,’ while the one before us might be related to planetary ecology..."

The tower finally drew near.

The majestic giant tower stood tall between the sky and sea, and only upon reaching its base did the fleet’s personnel realize what a colossal structure it was. Its scale dwarfed that of the Talronde tower, featuring more complex structures; the base was even larger and the shadow it cast on the sea surface could envelop the entire fleet—making even the Winter look like a mere skiff under its immense shadow.

"How about it? Shall we explore it?" Asharena glanced at Byron beside her, "We’ve found this thing after such effort, can’t just circle around and leave, right? Though it might involve some risk, caution is advisable..."

"I’m used to risks, nothing’s gone smoothly on this journey," Byron shrugged, "We need to gather some intelligence, but you’re right, we must be cautious—indeed, this is the creation of the Voyageurs..."

"Then shall we dispatch a small boat to approach? I observed some extended structures at the edge of the Steel Isle that can serve as docks, perfect for parking mechanical boats. I can send a few Dragonborn Warriors to provide aerial support for the scouting teams."

Byron pondered momentarily, about to nod in agreement, when a voice suddenly emanated from behind him, "Wait, let us go and take a look first."

Byron turned to see Lady Cassandra, the sea demon navigator with teardrop-shaped moles at the corners of her eyes, swaying her long serpent tail as she "walked" over, flanked by two other sea demons. Noticing Byron’s gaze, the "Deep Sea Ally" who had been accompanying the Empire Fleet from Northport smiled, "We can start exploring below the sea before landing to examine the environment. If we encounter any danger, we can retreat into the sea more quickly than you humans."

After speaking, she glanced at the two sea demons she had brought, her face full of pride, "And we won’t easily perish..."

Byron instinctively completed the sentence, "... You’re just asking for trouble?"

"More or less," Cassandra replied, hands on her hips, showing no issue with the conversation, "Our sea demon species is adept at exploration, largely owing to our fearlessness and resilience in the face of death..."

Byron pondered this and was persuaded on the spot.

Moments later, accompanied by several splashes, Cassandra and her two sea demon explorers with "extensive experience in exotic exploration and sudden death" dove into the sea. In the wake of the disappearing ripples, the three ladies, with the fish-like agility, quickly vanished from everyone’s sight.

And the underwater scenery near the huge tower was transmitted back to the control center of the Winter via the Magic Web Terminal carried by Cassandra.

In the transmitted images, Byron saw them first cross a sloping seabed covered with rubble and black fine sand, where agile small creatures scattered away due to the intruders’ presence. Soon after, they approached an obviously artificial "boundary ridge", where the gentle seabed abruptly stopped. On the other side of the boundary was a stunningly large, crisscrossing alloy structure, as well as giant pipes and pillars deeply embedded into the crust between the canyons.

Beneath the sea surface, the base structure of the huge tower was more impressive than the portion exposed above the water.

The images persisted for a while, then continued moving upward at an angle. Sunlight from above the sea surface penetrated the thin water layer, moving around the three sea demon explorers like a floating aurora. They found an inclined alloy ramp leading deep into the sea, resembling a transport pipeline. Then the screen flashed, and Cassandra surfaced, climbed onto the Steel Island, and started moving toward the tower.

"We have landed, General Byron," the voice of the sea demon lady was heard from off-screen at this moment, "Many facilities here are obviously still operational. We just saw moving lights and mechanical structures, and in some areas, we can hear buzzing noises inside the buildings. But other than that, it’s very ’peaceful’ here, with no dangerous ancient guardians or traps... Seriously, this is much safer than the tower we discovered on the southern continent at home years ago."

The sea demons once explored the southern seas of Antawen in ancient times, where they discovered a primitive continent filled with dangerous ancient machinery, and on that continent stood the third tower left by the Voyager on this planet. It was also the same tower climbed by Gawain Cecil seven hundred years ago. Byron was somewhat aware of this, so he didn’t react particularly. Instead, he asked seriously, "Are there signs of life on the island?"

"Yes—though this ’island’ is entirely built from alloy, the humid areas near the coast still show many signs of life, with accumulated algae and small creatures living in crevices... Oh, we also saw a sea bird! There might be other natural islands around here... Otherwise, a sea bird couldn’t fly this far. This is probably its temporary resting place?"

Byron breathed a slight sigh of relief: the presence of life signs indicated that the area around the huge tower was not a "dead zone" devoid of life. At least, ordinary creatures could survive long-term outside the tower.

After all... sea demons are a special species; these deathless deep-sea sardines aren’t quite comparable to regular physical realm creatures. Byron wouldn’t dare simply take their vibrant presence near the huge tower as a reference...

Cassandra led two subordinates further toward the tower, the strong sunlight in the equatorial region shining on the three sea demons. In the images transmitted by the Magic Web Terminal, Byron and Asharena saw the scales on the tails of the two sea demon scouts reflecting intense sunlight, with vague vapors evaporating around them.

"...Will they dry out like fish jerky?" Asharena suddenly said worriedly. "I see ’smoke’ coming from their heads..."

"No need to worry, Lady Asharena," Cassandra’s voice immediately came through the communicator. "Besides exploring and dying, my sisters and I have plenty of drying experience. We know how to avoid getting dry under strong sunlight... and if necessary, we also have extensive condensation and rainfall experience."

Asharena & Byron: "..."

What kind of strange experiences do these deep-sea sardines have?!

After a long exploration journey, Cassandra and her two sisters finally arrived at the connection between the tower and its base—a seamless alloy ring structure connecting the tower with the Steel Island below. Around the ring structure and on its upper part, numerous connecting corridors, ramps, and structures resembling entrances could be seen.

"Now we are at the main part of the tower," Cassandra said to the portable Magic Web Terminal hanging on her chest, stepping forward to tap the gigantic alloy ring—due to its enormous size, the side of the ring seemed like a towering arc-shaped metal barrier to Cassandra. "So far, there’s no sign of any danger—"

The sea demon lady stopped mid-sentence, stunned, as she watched layers of pale blue light rings rapidly spreading on the silvery white metal where she tapped!

"Deep sea! This thing is lighting up!"

...

At the same time, in Cecil Castle, Gawain had just finished dealing with tasks at hand and was about to rest for a while in the study’s armchair, but a voice suddenly sounding in his mind made him jump up directly from the chair:

"Detected local intelligent beings contacting lower structures of the Orbital Ring Space Station’s elevator, initiating pre-processing procedure, safety protocol 766, detecting—elemental life forms, sequence anomaly, mild and harmless.

"Proceed to process B-5-32, system maintains temporary silence, awaiting further contact."

Gawain leapt straight to the ground from the armchair, standing there dumbfounded, with only one sentence echoing in his mind:

What the heck?

After standing there reacting for a few seconds, he finally realized where the voice in his mind came from—the monitoring system of the Firmament Station!

In the next second, Gawain swiftly returned to the armchair, finding a comfortable position to lie down. Then his mind quickly focused and connected to the Firmament Station’s monitoring system. After some adaptation and adjustment, he began to move his "gaze" toward the orbital elevator connecting the space station and the planet’s surface...

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