Chapter 354: The Satellite Spirit’s New Function
After Amber left, Gawain sat quietly, pondering the information he had just received from the second Eternal Stone Tablet.
He could sense that this second tablet had given him more than just a cryptic poem and what appeared to be surveillance data from a space facility. It had subtly altered his mental state—an effect somewhat reminiscent of the sensations he’d experienced after coming into contact with those mysterious crystals left behind by Gawain Cecil.
Perhaps this frequent interaction with “artifacts” was strengthening some kind of informational link. He felt his connection to that monitoring satellite in space growing tighter—and this didn’t seem like mere imagination…
Once he calmed his restless mind, Gawain focused his attention and began calling out for the satellite’s signal.
A familiar view suddenly materialized in his mind, unfolding like a hologram: a surveillance feed from a cosmic vantage point. The image was still overlaid with a hazy, heat-map-like filter—an arcane energy intensity distribution. At the top of the screen, recent monitoring reports on the gas giant’s activity scrolled by.
Ignoring the reports he’d already read, Gawain concentrated on adjusting the overhead view.
Gradually, he felt the perspective loosen, as if it were becoming more flexible…
Far out in the boundless darkness of space, on an orbit cloaked by an optical masking system, an ancient orbital facility flickered faintly.
It resembled an inverted flat-topped pyramid, its gray-white metallic shell etched with massive black symbols. Between the overlapping layers of the inverted pyramid’s exterior, a faint milky-white light slowly drifted—a sign that this relic from antiquity still retained enough energy to function, though the glow flickered intermittently. Its power core was clearly in a precarious state.
Then, at one moment, a subtle change occurred at the pyramid’s base pointing toward the planet.
On that small flat surface, a complex array of optical sensors formed a precise observation grid. Suddenly, the array trembled—once, then again.
Each sensor struggled to adjust its angle, causing the mounting base to shake violently. If sound could travel here, it would have been a cacophony of clicks and creaks. This went on for several seconds until a previously jammed mechanical component suddenly released. The sensors sprang to life, their lenses jittering wildly, before finally stabilizing and recalibrating after two tense seconds.
During those two seconds, Gawain’s head spun.
It turned out that abruptly splitting a single viewpoint into a dozen or so segments and forcing them to scan wildly across a range spanning thousands of kilometers was a terrifying ordeal. The mental strain it caused was so severe that even a satellite spirit refined over a million years couldn’t withstand it…
When everything finally settled, Gawain steadied himself against the table, deeply grateful that Amber had been sent away. Otherwise, his clumsy stumble would have earned him half a year’s worth of teasing from that half-elf—and worse, she’d probably rush to tell Hetty and Rebecca, “Your ancestor’s having a stroke!”
She was exactly the type to do that—even knowing she’d get walloped by Gawain for it, she’d still find it hilarious.
Once steady, Gawain began carefully adjusting the image in his mind. A smile slowly spread across his face.
The previously obscured overhead view, once covered in vast blotches and impossible to decipher, finally cleared up. He had found a way to disable the “arcane energy distribution” filter. Now, he could see the world freely and clearly!
Though the image wasn’t as sharp as the satellite feeds he’d seen in his youth, he was more than satisfied. After all, this was an ancient satellite; being able to turn off the filter was already beyond his expectations. The slight blurriness was entirely acceptable.
Most likely, it was due to lens aging.
He even tried toggling the arcane energy map back on. After a brief delay, the shifting color patches reappeared in his mind’s eye, and Gawain breathed a sigh of relief.
Being able to switch the filter on and off at will was ideal. Though the arcane energy map was less clear, it was crucial for predicting magical surges. Honestly, Gawain felt it was even more valuable than the current high-definition image.
Beyond the freely toggled energy map, Gawain discovered he could finally move the viewpoint and zoom in and out!
In his mind, the vast land slowly shifted beneath him. He saw the southern mountains of the Cecil domain, the frontier lands north of the Whitewater River, the lands of Kant and Grant, the Holy Spirit Plains, and the snow-covered northern territories…
After sweeping across the Ansu Kingdom, Gawain moved his view southward.
His gaze returned to the Cecil domain and slowly passed over the Dark Mountains, the Black Forest that had swallowed tens of thousands of expeditionary soldiers, and the once fertile plains of Gondor… until he reached the mighty Wall.
A bright arc of light stretched across the horizon, supported by towering sentinel towers—shield generators—at each node. The energy they emitted formed a curved barrier so immense that even from a distant orbital perspective, the shield was unmistakably visible.
But as Gawain focused on the ruined lands inside the shield, his smile faded.
Suddenly, vast waves of interference rippled across the screen. Layer upon layer of distorted color patches and flickering pixels nearly filled the entire view, obscuring almost everything within the Gondor wasteland.
Gawain immediately recognized the cause—powerful energy interference, the lingering residual energy of the magical tide still entrenched in the wasteland!
Was the interference really so strong that even the Zenith Star technology satellite couldn’t see through it?
Frowning, Gawain guessed the satellite must have multiple sensors and observation modes. Perhaps one was designed to counteract this interference. He quickly switched to arcane reaction observation—the only other mode he currently had besides the high-definition image.
Sure enough, he saw something different: nearly purple-black patches of arcane energy spread throughout the view.
This indicated extremely high magical intensity within the observation area.
Gawain silently turned off the arcane reaction mode, feeling it was useless—less helpful even than the high-definition view.
He didn’t immediately shift his gaze away. Instead, obsessively, he lingered over the Gondor wasteland, concentrating hard. Using techniques like blinking to refresh frames and mentally filling in the mosaic gaps, he struggled to piece together the terrain beneath the flickering interference.
He thought he found the arcane scorch marks, glimpsed the vast wasteland plains, and even spotted some faint, writhing shapes nearby… What were those? Could they be migrating clusters of distortions?
Gawain frowned, trying to track the writhing images, but they soon blurred beyond recognition.
While searching for other distortion clusters, a faint flash suddenly appeared in the central region of the Gondor wasteland, catching his attention.
He focused all his mental energy—including frame-refreshing and mosaic-filling—on that spot. After patiently waiting several dozen seconds, he saw another flash.
Was it lightning in the clouds? No. Although much of the wasteland was covered by thick radioactive clouds, the central and northern areas were cloudless, only saturated with abnormally dense arcane energy…
Gawain speculated on the cause—he knew what that place was.
It was the imperial capital of Gondor, where the Deep Blue Arcane Well once stood…
So that faint bluish flash was very likely the remnant glow of the Deep Blue Arcane Well!
Gawain was startled by his own guess—after all these years, could part of the Deep Blue Arcane Well still be operational? Wasn’t it completely destroyed by the magical tide?
Yet that faint blue flash was unmistakably the kind of light produced only when the well’s reaction tower released energy—an electric arc!
Driven by intense curiosity, Gawain wanted to glean more from the feed, but the interference was simply too severe. No matter how much he blinked or filled in the gaps, there was a limit.
Feeling his mental energy draining rapidly, Gawain reluctantly gave up on extracting more from the Gondor wasteland and tried to zoom out to the farthest possible view—hoping to see beyond the continent.
As expected, he couldn’t.
He realized this limitation was probably due to the satellite’s position and the mechanical design of its sensors—the observation range was truly limited to this continent. Unless one day he gained permission to alter the satellite’s orbit (if it even had that capability), he wouldn’t be able to see beyond the landmass.
Of course, another possibility was linking to satellites covering other regions… but Gawain felt that was even less likely than changing the satellite’s orbit. He certainly wasn’t about to die and time-travel back to space just to do that.
From then on, Gawain, like a child with a new toy, eagerly explored the newly unlocked viewing permissions. Though the zoomed-in images were far less clear than in his youth, it still thrilled him. He glanced at Saint Suniel, peeked at Aldern, occasionally checked the direction of the Elven Empire, and tried to guess the true scenes beneath the blurry mosaics.
He fiddled with it for a long time—until he felt nauseous.
Leaning on the table, Gawain sat back in his chair, thinking he couldn’t play any longer. If Amber returned now, his dignity would be utterly lost.
No sooner had he settled than footsteps sounded outside the study door.
Gawain knew it wasn’t Amber—she rarely entered through the door, and hardly ever made such heavy footsteps.
Judging by the firm, heavy pace, he suspected it was Byron fully armed, or some burly guard coming to report.
Moments later, a knock came. Gawain responded, and the door opened to reveal Priest Leight standing there, locking eyes with him.
Gawain: “…”
No wonder the footsteps were so heavy and forceful!
(End of chapter)