Chapter 1554: The Appointment
The vast, rolling sea of clouds stretched endlessly into the distance, bathed in sunlight so bright it was almost blinding. The surface of the clouds shimmered with a radiant glow. Beneath their feet, the anti-gravity flying fortress—Dawn of the Mortal Realm—cut through the cloudscape like a beast breaking waves. Nearby, a massive escort fleet weaved through the mist, their colossal forms resembling sky-swallowing leviathans. This wasn’t the first time Gawain had boarded the Dawn of the Mortal Realm, but no matter how many times he did, the breathtaking spectacle never failed to captivate and thrill him.
Standing at the edge of the upper deck, the high-altitude air, filtered and softened by the fortress’s shields, drifted past him as a gentle breeze. Gawain took a deep breath before pulling his gaze away from the endless clouds to the vast land glimpsed through breaks in the mist. He saw the frozen northern mountains slowly shifting beneath the cloud gaps, and in the distance, the coastline came into clear view. Northport gleamed like a jewel nestled between the strait and the mountain ranges.
“We’re about to pass Northport,” he murmured. “If the weather holds, we should see the edge of Violet Island in just a few dozen minutes.”
“Man, this thing is fast!” Amber’s voice came from nearby, carried on the air. “I always thought something as huge as the Dawn of the Mortal Realm would be clumsy, like it’d lumber through the sky slowly…”
“Strictly speaking, the Dawn isn’t very agile,” Gawain replied, shaking his head. “You wouldn’t want it tailing a dragonrider fighter in a dogfight—it’d get left in the dust. But for long-distance, straight-line travel, it’s a different story. It uses a drive array similar to the Star Temple’s. Once it accelerates, it’s no slower than a dragonrider.” He glanced toward the spot where Amber’s voice had come from. “By the way, we’re almost through the Violet Strait. Why are you still cloaked? Don’t you want to come out and get some fresh air?”
“I’m nervous!” Amber’s voice trembled. “We’re almost there! Violet Island is the Night Lady’s stronghold—I’m freaking out!”
Gawain’s lips twitched into a smile. “You weren’t this nervous when we set off. You were all talk about using your silver tongue to charm the Night Lady and become her half-sister. Now you’re scared? Come on, you can’t hide anymore—we’re here. Besides, the Night Lady is the matriarch of the Shadow Realm. Your little invisibility trick won’t fool me, let alone her.”
There was a brief silence before Amber reluctantly materialized from the air, tugging nervously at a strand of hair over her forehead. “Okay, you’re right. We’re here… But aren’t you a little nervous? She’s an ancient god, and her ties to the Dawnwalkers are complicated. You’re tangled up with the Dawnwalker legacy yourself. By that logic, your relationship with the Night Lady isn’t exactly straightforward either. How can you be so calm?”
“What do you mean ‘not straightforward’?” Gawain chuckled. “Though you’re not wrong, it sounds weird coming from you.” He exhaled softly, his expression relaxing. “Honestly, I was nervous for a bit. But nerves don’t help. You only really understand what kind of god the Night Lady is when you meet her. And besides… so what if she’s an ancient god? We’ve dealt with those before.”
Amber blinked in surprise. “Wait, when have we ever dealt with gods that old?”
“Enya,” Gawain said, giving Amber a look like she was a child. “Enya is from the same era as the Night Lady. They never really interacted, but you can think of them as colleagues from neighboring departments. How could you forget that?”
Amber’s face twisted in embarrassment. “Oh… I totally forgot about that. But you have to understand—look at Enya now. She’s basically retired, spending her days drinking tea, reading the news, surfing the web, or playing chess with old folks. There’s none of that ancient god dignity left. If you hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t have connected her to the Night Lady at all.”
Gawain smiled wryly. “Honestly, I almost forgot too. It was only right before we left that she reached out to me, talked about the Night Lady, and reminded me they’re from the same era. That helped ease my nerves.”
“Wait, Enya contacted you? About the Night Lady?” Amber’s expression turned serious. “Did she give you advice on how to deal with her? Some ancient god taboos or rules?”
Gawain’s face twisted into an awkward smile. After a pause, he said, “Nope. She just asked me to pass along greetings to an old colleague. Basically: ‘Is work going well? Are you tired from overtime? When are you going to retire? You’re getting old, you should think about stepping down.’ Then she went on about her comfortable, lazy retirement.”
Amber blinked. “You’re really going to pass that along?”
“Not a chance!” Gawain’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not stupid. I know the Night Lady’s temper. The Spring Goddess Flora still hasn’t gotten over the headache she gave her! And why didn’t Enya say it to her face? She knows the Night Lady well enough to be scared she’d get smacked down on the spot.”
Amber laughed, the tension in her voice easing. “Sounds like you’ve got some serious grudges.”
Gawain’s lips twitched into a faint smile. “She’s getting lazier by the day. Especially now that even Amon is pitching in with the Twilight of the Gods plan, the contrast is stark. I don’t mind her being lazy—she doesn’t even have hands anymore—but she’s getting cheekier. At this rate, she’s going to go from a tea egg to a century egg.”
“Wait, what’s a century egg?”
Gawain chuckled. “I’ll have to explain that one properly sometime…”
On the barren core of Violet Island, at the vanguard exploration camp built by the Cecile Empire, Modir and Maggie, the expedition leaders, received word that the Dawn of the Mortal Realm was about to arrive.
Inside the tent, Maggie ended her connection to the magical network terminal, relief evident on her dragonborn maid’s face. She exhaled softly and turned to the old mage standing nearby. “Their Majesties will be here soon. If all goes well, once they arrive, Prince Nash of the Thousand Towers City will open the gateway to the Shadow Divine Realm as promised. Our mission will then be complete.”
Modir seemed lost in thought. After several seconds following Maggie’s words, he suddenly looked up as if waking from a trance. “Ah… yes. After all this time here, the mission is finally coming to an end…”
Maggie studied the adventurer carefully. She hesitated before speaking. “You… will be passing through that gate as well, won’t you?”
Modir was silent for a long moment, as if pondering his future or searching through fragmented memories. Then he smiled, shaking his head with a look Maggie couldn’t quite read—some mixture of joy and something else. “I’ve been invited—by an ancient god. I’m to visit their divine realm, to witness a kingdom no mortal has ever seen. What adventurer could refuse such an offer?”
Maggie opened her mouth to say more, but a faint commotion outside the tent interrupted her. Then a familiar presence entered, and Victoria’s voice reached her ears. “Maggie, don’t bother trying to stop me. No one can hold back the adventurous spirit of this ancestor of mine. Not even the Ansu royal family six centuries ago.”
Surprised, Maggie turned to see Victoria standing before her in a flowing white gown. Before she could speak, Modir’s voice came from behind, tinged with surprise. “Victoria? What are you doing here? Weren’t you commanding from the rear?”
“No need to stay on the Cold Star forever,” Victoria replied calmly. “Besides, Their Majesties are arriving soon. I had to come greet them.”
Her gaze settled on Modir. After a brief silence, she asked evenly, “Are you ready to depart?”
“There’s nothing to prepare. I carry everything an adventurer needs. I’m always ready to set out,” Modir said with a bright smile. “And with sunset approaching, if I forgot something, there’s no time to go back for it.”
Victoria nodded quietly, then fell silent.
She wasn’t one for idle chatter or lightening the mood. After saying what needed to be said, silence was her habit. But now, for the first time in her life, she found silence unbearably oppressive. She wanted to find a topic to ease the tension in the tent, to speak more with this “family ancestor” before her, but she couldn’t find the words. After all, she and Modir had only known each other for a year.
Time slipped by quietly in that silence—though not long before a strange, low rumble echoed from the sky.
A soldier burst into the tent, announcing the arrival of the empire’s supreme flagship.
The Dawn of the Mortal Realm had arrived. Like a miracle, the steel city descended from the clouds into the twilight sky. Its towering silhouette blotted out the sun, casting a vast shadow over the land. As it drew closer to the surface, the forest behind the imperial camp seemed to fall prematurely into night.
With a deep, majestic roar, the airborne fortress finally hovered just a few hundred meters above the ground. For ordinary mages or typical flying machines, this was already a low altitude. But for a behemoth like the Dawn of the Mortal Realm, it was nearly as close to the earth as it could safely get. To those standing below, looking up, the steel sky above felt like an overwhelming, crushing presence.
Very few people could remain calm after gazing up at the Dawn of the Mortal World as it drew close to the surface— not even a machine girl like Diana or a poker-faced type like Victoria.
Outside the camp of Cecil and Typhon, Diana, Victoria, Modir, and Maggie had gathered in the clearing between the camp and the forest. Diana kept her head tilted upward, rapidly capturing every detail of the sky fortress with her core’s accelerated cooling system. These images weren’t just for personal keepsakes—they were intelligence to be handed over to her sovereign back home. The Cecilians hadn’t stopped this Typhon native from staying on site, which meant they didn’t mind her gathering this information. Even so, such openly accessible data could still prove invaluable once it reached the hands of true experts.
Not far off, Victoria’s gaze remained fixed on the fortress’s steel walls and the massive accelerator turrets extending from its edges. A flicker of excitement and pride crossed her usually impassive face. On the day of the decisive battle on the Talash Plains, she hadn’t been able to witness this fortress’s defensive might firsthand. Though the “Ice Snow Grant Duchess” never showed it outwardly, she harbored a quiet regret. Now, standing before this towering bastion, she could almost envision its battle posture.
Lost in admiration, she caught Modir’s voice beside her, thick with awe: “…They actually built something like this?”
“This is the empire’s greatest marvel of engineering and magic technology—at least for now,” Maggie said proudly. She hadn’t taken part in constructing the Dawn of the Mortal World, but the dragonrider aircraft she tested and the pilots she trained were all part of this colossal fortress. That gave her a unique emotional connection, and she spoke now with the voice of a Cecilian. “I’ve heard the Silver Elves’ Star Sanctum is even larger and more advanced, but… that glory has passed. Today, the most powerful aerial force in the world is undoubtedly the Dawn of the Mortal World fortress.”
Modir nodded repeatedly. He didn’t really understand sky fortresses or the Elven Star Sanctum—if he’d ever seen it, he’d surely forgotten—but witnessing such a marvel was a thrill in itself.
Under the watchful eyes of those on the surface, the Dawn of the Mortal World finally came to a complete hover above the forest on the southwest edge of the wasteland. It didn’t stop directly over the barren plains, and the reason was simple.
The hazy outline of the City of a Thousand Towers was emerging in the fading glow of the setting sun. This projection city, usually hidden beneath the night sky, had appeared a little earlier than expected. Suspended high above the central wasteland, it was rapidly transitioning from illusion to reality.
Maggie and Modir looked up together. After a moment of silence, Maggie broke it first: “…Looks a little panicked, doesn’t it?”
“Of course. Who wouldn’t be rattled with a giant steel fortress flying right at their face?”
“True enough…”
(End of chapter)