Chapter 1363: Reinforcements Fraught with Surprises

From the northwest sea, a wave of sea witches surged forward, cutting through the waves like a tempest. This vast deep-sea expedition fleet shattered the calm waters maintained by the Tower of the Starfarers. Before Byron’s eyes, towering waves rolled and crashed like snowy tides. Their speed was swift—almost immediately after the Winter’s Chill’s observers raised the alarm, a vanguard squadron had already streaked across the sea surface, closing in on the Steel Island.

“Signal the Winter’s Chill—no hostile actions,” Byron reacted instantly, barking orders to the communications officer beside him while turning to Viola, who was gazing out at the sea. “Why are your kin here? I thought sea witches rarely ventured far from Antavien.”

“I don’t know either…” Viola looked even more bewildered than Byron. “I’ve been out of contact with Antavien for days. Could something have happened over there?”

As they spoke, the vanguard squad swiftly reached a connecting ramp at the edge of Steel Island. One by one, a dozen agile figures leapt onto the nearby metal platform, splashing water as they landed. Leading them was a tall sea witch with pale sky-blue hair, wielding a trident-like weapon, her long serpentine tail trailing behind her. She had clearly spotted the island’s activity and the warships on alert, and now she strode directly toward Byron’s position. Along the way, she and her soldiers kept glancing up at the towering spire piercing the night sky, their faces full of curiosity and astonishment.

At last, Viola recognized the approaching kin and gasped in surprise. “General Vanessa?! What are you doing here?!”

“Viola? What are you doing here?” The tall blue-haired sea witch’s expression was even more shocked. Then she noticed Byron’s face and the camp nearby, her eyes clouding with confusion. “This is… General Byron? The fleet of the Cecile Empire? Why are you here…? Wait, where exactly is this place? Is this near the Loren Continent?”

“…This place might be far from Loren,” Byron admitted, still a bit dazed but managing to piece things together logically. “We ended up here by accident after getting lost at sea. As for where exactly this is… honestly, we’re not sure. We can only roughly estimate that it’s somewhere in the southwest waters of Loren.” He then turned to Vanessa. “General Vanessa, how did you end up here?”

Vanessa hesitated, as if trying to untangle a mess of thoughts, then said with a strange expression, “We are the Antavien Expeditionary Force, sent by His Majesty Petia, the Deep Sea Sovereign, to support the alliance’s front lines on Loren. Because Loren is shielded by an unknown energy field, we couldn’t open the elemental jump gates, so we swam all the way from the deep sea to here. But…”

Her expression grew even stranger as she glanced up at the Steel Island, supposedly in Loren’s southwest sea. “But theoretically, we should have landed on Loren’s northeast coast, not here… Our route must have gone off course.”

“Northeast coast of Loren?” Byron’s eyes widened. “That’s not just a navigation error. This place is the continent’s southwest corner! You ended up in the exact opposite direction! You swam the wrong way?”

A heavy silence fell over the scene, the awkward tension thick between the deep-sea expedition and the lost human fleet. After a few seconds, Viola broke the silence. “Alright, alright, no need to nitpick over who’s lost. Let’s just move on…”

Her words only deepened the awkwardness, but Byron, thick-skinned as ever, quickly adjusted his mood and spoke with unabashed frankness. “Looks like we’ve both suffered serious navigation mishaps… But compared to the Winter’s Chill, your deviation is way more extreme—going from the northeast coast all the way to the southwest corner. Considering the strange phenomena we encountered earlier, something’s definitely off.”

Even the rough-and-ready “mercenary knight” Byron had his moments of sharp insight. His frown and words immediately sobered the sea witches. A few of Vanessa’s sisters whispered among themselves. One muttered, “Could it be we really swam the wrong way from the start? I did feel the underwater currents were strange…”

Another seemed slow to catch on. “Swam the wrong way? Would that get us to Loren’s west side?”

“Hey, the planet’s round. Maybe we just swam a full circle the wrong way…”

Vanessa’s face twisted at her soldiers’ chatter. Embarrassed, she cleared her throat to silence them. Viola quickly added, “I don’t think it’s just a wrong turn. Antavien is unique—there’s only one Tyr. It’s more likely related to the recent ‘phenomenon.’ General Vanessa, did you encounter any strange weather or celestial changes during your journey? In the past day or two?”

“Strange weather?” Vanessa furrowed her brow, as if recalling something. “Wait, yes… We ran into a sudden cluster of elemental rifts deep underwater. Those rifts caused chaotic currents. We had to detour a long way to avoid them. During that time, the rifts interfered with our senses somewhat. Let me think… If our course was correct before, we should have been near Loren then.”

“And then you ended up here?” Byron’s mind raced, as if grasping a clue. Vanessa nodded.

“Exactly… You must have encountered the same strange phenomenon we did. We faced elemental rifts beneath the sea, while you encountered a storm on the surface. This anomaly must have spanned the entire Loren Continent… or even covered it.”

“A large-scale space-time distortion? We were unknowingly teleported near this tower?” Vanessa’s expression turned grave. For an entire expedition and a large human fleet to be transported so far without even a powerful sea witch general noticing—that was serious. Her gaze sharpened on the towering spire. “So this anomaly is connected to this tower? The Starfarers’ legacy caused it?”

“Not necessarily the cause—more likely an ‘influencing factor,’” Viola shook her head thoughtfully. As a deep-sea witch scholar, she was more versed in technology than Vanessa. “This tower is a powerful energy nexus, constantly emitting a wide-ranging force field to maintain the local sea environment. So when the anomaly occurred, this place probably became a passive ‘focal point,’ like the bottom of a funnel or whirlpool, pulling all affected within the anomaly toward it. But the anomaly itself might not have originated here.”

“Not from the tower?” Vanessa frowned. “Then who? Such an unprecedented phenomenon hasn’t happened in hundreds of thousands of years. I don’t think it’s natural.”

“Definitely those lunatics hiding in the wastelands—the End of All Things cult and that Sentinel,” Byron cut in firmly. “Whatever it is, it’s their fault.”

Viola pondered for a moment and found herself agreeing with Byron.

Those crazed humans lurking deep in the wasteland, along with their Sentinel, had been tampering with the Deep Blue Network, trying to manipulate the massive planetary power system. Such immense energy could cause serious disturbances. Perhaps they had reached a critical stage—and the Winter’s Chill and Antavien expedition’s misnavigation was just the prelude.

This was no small matter.

“We need to return to Loren quickly, report to the alliance commanders, and immediately reinforce the southern front—the situation there isn’t good,” Viola said swiftly. She recalled that before losing contact with the fleet and land, the latest battle report showed the Silver-Highland allied forces on the southern front were being squeezed by two main waves of aberrants. Though the situation stabilized with the arrival of the Thorin Guard, the southern front was still far from optimistic compared to other fronts. “Now that the anomaly has ended, my sisters should be able to find a safe route back to Loren.”

“The expedition will move with you,” Vanessa nodded immediately. “Sounds like the southern continent needs us more.”

At first, Vanessa had been troubled by the thought of swimming in the opposite direction, but now it seemed this ‘misnavigation’ might have brought them to the right place after all.

“That’s right, we must depart soon. But Cassandra and Asalina haven’t returned yet,” Byron frowned, glancing back at the ancient marvel silently towering in the night sky. He still worried about losing contact with Asalina and the others, but he knew the alliance front needed the empire fleet’s strength more than ever. The weight of responsibility left no room for delay. “Leave some here to wait. The rest, follow me…”

Before he could finish, a faint, low hum suddenly echoed from deep within the silent tower. A string of dim lights swiftly descended from its dizzying height, interrupting his words.

It was the tower’s first response in an entire day—were they back?

Byron hurried toward the tower’s entrance. Halfway there, a familiar figure appeared in his sight—fiery red hair blazing like flames. It was Asalina. Cassandra soon emerged from the doorway as well.

They looked unharmed, though their expressions were somewhat strange—like they had just opened a door to a new world.

“You’re finally back,” Byron stopped, wearing his usual unrefined grin as the Dragonmark witches approached. “You lost contact shortly after entering. What’s the situation up there?”

“The situation up there is really complicated—I’ll have to explain it to you slowly.” Asalina hesitated, unsure how to begin. Although before leaving, Gawain had told her there were some things she could share with Byron, this kind of mind-bending information was a whole different matter. Where on earth did she even start? She knew the easygoing former mercenary leader in front of her had nerves of steel, but even the toughest nerves had their limits. If she just blurted out, “We took the elevator up to the synchronization track, where there’s a ring left behind by aliens, and your boss has already merged with the alien control system,” that would definitely be too much. It wasn’t that Byron lacked loyalty to Gawain or couldn’t handle the truth—it was just that explaining what a space station was would take at least two hours…

In fact, even Asalina herself had felt like a total novice several times while working alongside Cassandra. Luckily, as a Dragonmark witch, she was half a scholar by nature, and she’d picked up some knowledge from her kin in Tal’Rath.

Meanwhile, Cassandra was utterly stunned to see the long-absent Deep Sea General and the expedition sisters he’d brought along.

When she heard the purpose of their expedition and the planned landing site, Cassandra gasped, “You went the wrong way?!”

Vanessa, who had been about to catch up with this sister who had long served as an advisor in the human navy to get a sense of the current situation on the continent of Lorent, slapped her forehead at Cassandra’s words, her tail flicking anxiously on the ground. “Ugh… what a disgrace to the Tirr reputation…”

…

Inside Cecil City, Gawain finally broke free from the long mental connection. Outside the window, night had already fallen.

It was early spring. The continent had endured a harsh winter ravaged by war, and the vast, unending flames of conflict still showed no sign of dying down. Gawain stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the cold wind of early spring ripple the decorative banners lining the streets. The city lights spread quickly in the dusk, illuminating propaganda posters and war mobilization slogans on every corner. The city still thrived in peace and prosperity, but the tense atmosphere of war permeated every inch. The front lines of the civilized world seemed far away, yet in his heart, they felt impossibly close.

Just then, the sound of the door opening broke his reverie. He turned to see Hetty entering the study. The “chief steward” looked tired, clutching several documents and orders awaiting approval.

“Ancestor,” Hetty bowed slightly and began, “Searches at all call stations along the west coast have yielded no response. We have yet to make contact with the Winter’s Edge. Should we expand the search…?”

“No need,” Gawain interrupted. “Stop searching for the Winter’s Edge.”

“Ah?”

“I know where the Winter’s Edge is—they’re already on their way back and will soon enter the Ordo Holy River. They’ll provide artillery support along the northwestern border of the Highland Kingdom,” Gawain waved his hand and met Hetty’s eyes. “Hetty, come here. There’s something I need to tell you.”

(End of chapter)