Chapter 1233: News from Afar

In the afternoon garden, Gawain sat on a bench, savoring the rare tranquility of the past few days. Since the approach of winter, it had been a long time since he’d enjoyed the afternoon sun like this.

The radiant giant sun hung high in the sky, its pale wood-grain crown constantly reminding Gawain of how unique this world was. He vaguely recalled the overwhelming shock—and even oppression—he’d felt the first time he saw this colossal sun. Yet, over time, the scene had deeply imprinted itself on his heart. He had grown accustomed to this magnificent “sun,” to the light and warmth it brought, and to everything about this world.

He had even grown used to the strange assortment of humans and non-human creatures around him.

Tiel was curled up on the nearby lawn, basking in the sun’s warmth. Her upper body stretched across the narrow path between the grass and the bench, lazily draped over a large decorative stone beside Gawain. With her usual languid tone—though she was always somewhat lazy—she began recounting news from afar:

“That’s basically the situation… Our queen had a thorough negotiation with the Water Elemental Sovereign. They’ve now established a new pact. The Water Elemental Sovereign agreed to let us set up a permanent outpost in the Boundless Sea to monitor activity in the Deep Blue Network… If anything unusual happens over there, I’ll be the first to know.”

The progress seemed smooth, which eased Gawain’s mind. But after hearing Tiel’s version of the “negotiation,” he felt a strange unease he couldn’t quite explain. He couldn’t help but ask, “Isn’t the relationship between your people and the local water elementals pretty tense? Especially with something so sensitive—setting up an outpost and stationing personnel ‘over there’… How exactly did your queen manage to pull off the negotiation?”

Tiel immediately wore a proud expression. “That’s where you don’t get it—elemental beings may hold grudges and be stubborn, but they’re reasonable too. And our queen is the best at reasoning with others. She relied on pure sincerity and the art of negotiation… I heard she even prepared a local specialty as a gift. But the Water Elemental Sovereign was so captivated by her words that he refused to accept it. So the queen took the gift back and sent it to Seafood City instead…”

Gawain listened, blinking in disbelief. Instinctively, he felt that the deep-sea fish’s story didn’t quite match reality—especially with mentions of “local specialties” and “Seafood City,” which sounded suspicious. But he had no interest in probing further. After all… these were sea witches, and anything involving these deep-sea fish was always bizarre.

Still, the topic made him curious about the ancient history. “I heard your sea witches and the native water elementals of this planet had a long, fierce conflict. It was because your ship crashed and pierced the ‘dome’ of the water elemental domain, right?”

“Tell me about it,” Tiel sighed, her face clouded with painful memories. “Actually, the conflict wasn’t just about breaking the dome. When we first arrived, we were unfamiliar with the environment and panicked. During the frantic repairs on our ship, we caused quite a disturbance to the native water elementals. When they came to confront us, neither side could immediately recognize the other as elemental beings. We thought the others were monsters. How could that not lead to a fight?”

As she spoke, the sea caterpillar covered her forehead and shook her head. Finally, all her frustration turned into a sigh. “Our ship is still stuck at the border of the water elemental domain.”

Gawain pictured the scene and, from the perspective of the Elemental Sovereign, reviewed the history. The grudge was deep. The native water elementals were undoubtedly the real victims—they were peacefully minding their own business when a group of extraterrestrial visitors crashed through their roof. When they went to seek an explanation, they were mistaken for monsters and beaten up. Even now, the Elemental Sovereign could still see half of the crashed ship lodged in their roof… The fact that they managed to sign a peace treaty with the sea witches meant they were simply outmatched.

But this ancient grudge, stretching back hundreds of thousands of years, was not something an outsider like Gawain could easily judge. Besides, relations between the two elemental factions had eased considerably in recent years. So he refrained from commenting and casually asked, “By the way… after all that conflict, how did the native water elementals finally agree to make peace?”

Tiel’s expression grew thoughtful, as if recalling distant memories. After a long pause, she began, “We fought for many years—maybe a hundred thousand, maybe several hundred thousand. Elemental beings live long and are stubborn, and the wars in the elemental realm were chaotic. Eventually, both sides treated the fighting as a daily routine. Then one day, the native water elementals seemed to want to break the stalemate. They planned a massive operation to destroy the Antavian’s defenses in one fell swoop…”

Gawain’s expression turned serious. “A massive operation?”

“They somehow reached an agreement with the Wind Elemental Sovereign, Wendida, and organized a grand allied force to attack the Antavian. Storms and giant waves ravaged the entire ocean. The spectacle was so epic that a contemporary civilization thought the end of the world had come,” Tiel recounted with a distant tone. “I was part of that battle. That storm left a deep impression—the armies of wind and water elementals filled every trench and underwater valley…”

Gawain found himself drawn in. Whenever he heard such ancient secrets, he felt as if he were flying through history himself. “What happened after that?”

Tiel lifted her face, a faint smile playing on her lips as she recalled, her voice calm and leisurely, “That was the first time I tasted something fizzy…”

Gawain blinked. “…?”

Tiel nodded, as if confirming something. “Better than with ice.”

Gawain was baffled. He felt like he was wasting his time expecting epic ancient records from these sea witches. Well, the elemental war itself was probably epic, but he’d learned one thing: no matter how epic, never trust a sea witch’s perspective—they have a knack for dragging everything down to their level…

“Anyway, after that, the native water elementals suddenly pulled back. They seemed to realize the reality, or maybe they just saw that endless war was pointless. In any case, they finally wanted to stop fighting. The Elemental Sovereign named Guluulu took the initiative to propose negotiations…” Tiel didn’t notice Gawain’s thoughts as she neared the end of her story. “We agreed immediately—sea witches don’t like war anyway. And we were clearly in the wrong. But what could we do? We didn’t want our ship to crash, after all…”

Gawain doubted the Elemental Sovereign’s name was really “Guluulu,” but by then he had no energy left to argue with this deep-sea fish.

Just then, a familiar presence suddenly approached nearby, breaking his train of thought and the increasingly strange conversation with Tiel.

Gawain looked up toward the source of the aura and saw a dim, distorted shadow abruptly materialize in the afternoon sunlight. The shadow spread like a curtain, and Amber’s figure lightly jumped out, landing a few steps away from him.

“What’s going on?” he asked, curious, noticing the half-elf’s unusually serious expression.

“News from Talrond,” Amber said, immediately snapping Gawain out of his slight laziness. “Two reports—one from High Regent Victoria, the other from the Dragon Leader, Hragor.”

Gawain sat up straight on the bench, ignoring the now dozing Tiel beside him. He spoke quickly, “Start with Victoria’s.”

“Right,” Amber nodded. “Victoria sent Maggie to deliver the message. She’s arrived at the adventurer’s town in New Agondor and confirmed that the ‘Adventurer Modir’ there is indeed the Wilde family ancestor who disappeared six hundred years ago. Maggie says Modir Wilde’s current state is very abnormal—he’s likely encountered a divine relic and may even be pursued by the power of an ancient god…”

“An ancient god?” Gawain hadn’t expected the matter to leap straight into the divine realm. His expression turned grave as he met Amber’s eyes. “Which ancient god?”

Amber’s expression shifted, as if the matter held special significance for her. After a brief hesitation, she shook her head, pushing aside the distraction. “The Shadow Goddess, the Lady of Night. Today’s shadow adepts still regard Her as the master of shadow power and protector of the night. But according to Lady Enya, this god disappeared after the original voyagers left…”

Amber hesitated slightly when mentioning the “Lady of Night,” clearly taking her self-proclaimed role as “Chosen of the Night” seriously. Gawain knew that with the establishment of the Divine Council and the gradual unveiling of the gods’ mysteries, this “Chosen of the Night” sometimes wrestled with her faith. But he also knew Amber didn’t need anyone’s help with this.

Gods have their destinies; people have their own struggles.

After a moment of silence, he asked, “So Modir is being pursued by the Lady of Night’s power—what’s the situation exactly?”

“Modir Wilde has repeatedly approached what seems to be the Shadow Divine Realm in his dreams and encountered his ‘other projection’ there. From a mystical perspective, this indicates he’s gradually being drawn into the ‘Otherworld,’” Amber explained. “In his most recent dream, he even brought back something from ‘there.’ Victoria believes this suggests a material connection has formed between Modir and the Lady of Night’s divine realm…”

Amber relayed the intelligence she’d just received in full, ending with the news that Maggie had departed from the Northern Port, currently en route to the imperial capital with a “sample.” Given the dragons’ flight speed, the sample might reach Cecil Palace as early as tonight.

“High Regent Victoria hopes we can have Lady Enya examine the sample,” Amber concluded. “The Dragon Gods are ancient deities from the same era as the Lady of Night. Although Lady Enya is no longer the same as the original Dragon Gods, she might still recognize the Lady of Night’s power in the sample and possibly find a way to temporarily sever the connection.”

“Of course,” Gawain nodded immediately. “Even if she hadn’t asked, I would’ve shown that ‘sample’ to Enya anyway—after all, she’s one of the senior advisors on the Divine Council now. So, what else did Hrathgor say?”

Amber paused briefly, her expression growing more serious. “Hrathgor mentioned that something might be changing with the Reverse Tide Tower. And this might have something to do with Modril Wilde.”

Gawain stood up straight from the bench, eyes wide with surprise. “The Reverse Tide Tower is changing?!”

“It’s not certain yet. At least, recent surveillance records don’t show any obvious changes. But the dragon leadership suspects that whatever’s happening is inside the tower—and that it happened a long time ago,” Amber explained, nodding. “In short, they think Modril Wilde ran into some kind of trouble inside the Reverse Tide Tower back then. And because the Dragon God was affected by the power of the Voyagers, they didn’t notice it in time. That’s why Modril is in such a strange state now…”

Amber recounted the intelligence from Talrond carefully, and Gawain listened without missing a word. But the more he heard, the more his head ached. He rubbed his throbbing forehead, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Tyr slumped over on a rock, fast asleep. A wave of bittersweet feeling washed over him—

Just moments ago, he’d been debating some maddening nonsense with this deep-sea slacker, and now the conversation had taken such a grave turn?

“Looks like I’ll have to talk to Enya about this too,” he sighed at last, forcing himself to focus on the matter at hand. “Though I doubt she knows much more than we do… When it comes to the power of the Voyagers’ relics, a ‘god’ like her is under way too much pressure.”

…

Gawain didn’t have to wait long for the ‘sample’ Maggie brought back from Talrond. Just as Amber had predicted, that very night, the special ‘sample’ was delivered to Gawain’s desk.

The bright glow of the magic crystal lamp illuminated the study’s velvet-carpeted floor. On the desk sat a small mithril box, intricately protected by layers of complex runes and secured with two mechanical locks. Maggie placed it carefully on the table. As the runic seals and mechanical tumblers clicked softly and steadily, the container finally opened before Gawain and Amber’s eyes.

Inside, a layer of pitch-black velvet lined the bottom, and against that night-dark backdrop, a few grains of grayish-white sand stood out starkly.

(End of chapter)