Chapter 888: A Glimpse Like a Shooting Star

It came from the stars.

Gawain stared intently at the Kingdom’s Guardian Shield before him. His gaze swept over the weathered, rusted metal fittings that adorned the shield’s surface, finally resting on the main body—a silver-white metal plate.

On that plate, faint silver specks shimmered dimly, pulsing slowly as if alive, like a steady breath. Though utterly lifeless by nature, it seemed as if it had been “alive” for millions of years.

Having uncovered more secrets about the “Godslayer Fleet,” and roughly confirming that this metal originated from the cosmos, and suspecting a connection between this artifact and his own “satellite core,” Gawain couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion and contemplation as he looked at it.

He shook his head, banishing the distracting thoughts from his mind. Then, glancing at Amber standing nearby in standby mode, he withdrew his gaze and placed his hand on the shimmering alloy plate. Slowly, he let his mental energy seep into the metal’s depths—just as he had done when communicating with the “Eternal Stone Tablet” long ago.

For the first few seconds, nothing happened. Gawain felt only a vast emptiness at the edge of his consciousness. The ancient starborn relic was hollow inside—no new fleet reports, no messages left by the ancient precursors. Then, suddenly, a thunderous explosion erupted in his mind!

Instantly, he lost all sensation of his body. His five senses and sixth sense seemed to warp and misalign. His human perception was replaced by a higher, more complex form of “awareness.” His physical form couldn’t process this alien influx of information—he felt his consciousness being peeled away and linked to a new “vessel.” His senses began to be overwritten, refreshed, recalibrated again and again, until finally, a vast data stream, utterly unlike his original satellite core, successfully connected with him.

A voice echoed directly in his mind: “Visitor entering the Celestial System… confirmed as sole connection. Initiating temporary privilege elevation. Temporary permissions granted.”

Gawain steadied his spirit. The intense sensory disorientation naturally brought panic and tension, but as a satellite spirit long accustomed to being suspended in the sky and activating “non-human perspectives,” he was battle-hardened in this regard. Once he confirmed his mind remained his own—untampered and uncontrolled—he began searching through the darkness for clues to his current situation.

There was only darkness—or rather, a chaotic, hazy veil. He could neither see nor hear anything, but he sensed many entities connecting to the “vessel” he now inhabited. This vessel seemed to have opened some form of access permission to him, but constrained by human logic, he couldn’t immediately make use of it.

That wasn’t a problem. He had experience linking with satellite systems. If these were remnants left by the Godslayer Fleet, their systems surely shared commonalities.

After several attempts, Gawain gradually grasped some tricks. He felt his sealed senses begin to loosen, and with that slight release, something appeared before his “eyes” beyond the darkness—

A vantage point overlooking the land.

At first, Gawain was startled, almost thinking he had slipped back into his “satellite spirit” state. But he quickly confirmed his consciousness was still free, able to “return” to his body at any time. Then he noticed this vantage point differed greatly from the satellite views he’d seen before—

The center of the view had shifted! The continent that once dominated the center now lay at the top of the frame, while vast oceans stretched below.

He soon realized why:

He had entered another space facility, one whose orbit or main monitoring perspective differed from his previous satellite view.

Indeed, beyond the planet’s atmosphere, other operational space stations or satellites still orbited!

Gawain controlled his rising excitement and began awkwardly manipulating this new perspective. His gaze swept over the Loren South continent, over the elves’ vast forested islands, then toward the endless ocean. Within the swirling atmosphere, he first looked to the southwest sea region.

A faint outline of an artificial structure appeared at the edge of his vision.

A man-made facility visible even from space!

Instantly, a flood of memories surfaced: In the elves’ ancient lore, the primordial elves crossed the sea from the western continent, discovering a towering spire in the endless ocean—and rashly entering it…

That tower was located southwest of Loren Continent, out on the boundless sea!

Could this be the very tower the primordial elves had found at sea all those years ago?

But Gawain soon realized he could only see a small portion of the structure—just part of its base and the massive shadow it cast on the water. The base alone was as large as a giant island rising from the ocean, with numerous neat, metallic-looking support struts extending from the main body into the sea—this was all he could see.

When he tried to extend his gaze further southwest, a cold synthetic voice echoed in his mind: “Error. Unable to activate C-16 sector. Subsystem offline.”

Gawain paused, then tried again to shift his view toward the base. The voice repeated immediately: “Error. Unable to activate C-16 sector. Subsystem offline.”

This mysterious system alert made Gawain thoughtful. After a moment’s reflection, he shifted his gaze in another direction—

…

In the vastness of space, a vibrant planet orbited a gas giant radiating endless energy.

Steel sentinels left by ancient ancestors still loyally guarded this world, though battered and worn.

Above the planet, beyond the atmosphere, numerous space facilities operated silently. Space stations and orbiting satellites, aged by countless years, drifted in the vast darkness. In this cold, lifeless void, these ancient devices had maintained minimal communications and data collection for millennia. Among them, the largest remained dormant—

A colossal ring encircling the entire planet, its steel body scarred and dotted with faint, dying lights. On the ring’s surface, which followed the planet’s synchronous orbit, some areas were armored heavily, others revealed transparent polymer domes—inside which lay long-abandoned living quarters or research facilities. All of it preserved in near-eternal silence.

Starlight from distant space crossed the endless dark to illuminate this ancient ring, faintly revealing its armored shell and the chambers sunk in shadow.

Suddenly, a small section of the ring “awoke.” On the side facing the planet, several lights abruptly flickered on, and the corresponding ring chambers glowed intermittently. Maintenance robots, dormant for millions of years, emerged from their pods. Advanced reconnaissance drones zipped along internal rails. The massive structure seemed to stretch, as if ready to break free from its long slumber.

But the awakening was short-lived—the lit area remained confined to a small segment on the ring’s inner side. The rest of the colossal ring stayed silent and dark, unresponsive.

On the planet-facing side, a large breach marred one chamber’s structure, shrouded in darkness. Radial tears ran from armored plates to the polymer dome. Fragmented debris floated nearby. The airtight door had sealed automatically, and the power system had gone offline years ago. The sparks and smoke of old battles had long since vanished into space, leaving only jagged scars and a few drops of pale golden blood…

…

“Error. Unable to activate C-18 sector. Subsystem offline.”

“Takeover failed. Error. Unable to activate C-18 sector. Subsystem offline. Backup system unresponsive.”

The repeated alerts echoed in Gawain’s mind. He finally gave up the futile attempts.

His gaze settled on the ocean at the southeastern edge of Loren Continent. Far from human civilization, across the endless sea, he could just make out a winding coastline.

He recalled intelligence from the sea witches and Selina Gel—

Seven hundred years ago, Gawain Cecil and the last Storm Priests embarked on a mysterious voyage. They first headed east of Loren Continent, then, with the sea witches’ help, sailed along a safe southern route…

In the southeast of Loren Continent, Gawain Cecil’s expedition discovered a new continent, deep within which stood a towering spire…

That tower seemed connected to the giant spire the elven ancestors had seen in the southwestern ocean. Back then, Gawain Cecil had ventured alone into the continent’s depths, likely ascending the tower and receiving some form of “revelation”…

Now, Gawain was nearly certain he was seeing that new continent.

What had once existed only in intelligence reports was now confirmed. Evidence lost to history was now before his eyes.

The new continent southeast of Loren Continent was real! The land Gawain Cecil had visited lay just beyond the eastern seas of the Silver Empire!

Yet he could only confirm the continent’s existence, unable to see its interior. Despite his broader perspective, he still couldn’t break through the observation limits.

He could see the tower on the ocean—its base and part of its body—but toward the continent, only the coastline was visible.

Gawain’s gaze swept east to west, then west to east. Each time his view reached the edge, the subsystem offline alert sounded.

This was different from satellite observation—satellite views simply ended at the edge, with no error alerts.

Subsystems offline prevented activating other sectors, which blocked viewing beyond the current range. This meant the space facility he was linked to was far larger than he imagined—originally capable of observing both giant towers and even more distant targets.

But for some reason, most of its structure was offline, leaving Gawain access to only a fraction of its “cameras.”

In this strange non-human sensory state, Gawain pondered slowly. He couldn’t “see” his own condition or determine his surroundings. With only a single view facing the planet, he could only guess what he was connected to.

It might be a facility far larger than a satellite, with a more complex structure and functions. Perhaps it was divided into multiple modules, each capable of independent operation—explaining the damaged areas and subsystem failures.

So… was there a way to figure out what was wrong? Or maybe try to repair it? Like activating an automatic maintenance function…

Gawain knew his idea was a bit far-fetched, but he still instinctively issued a command in his “mind”—not quite sure how to phrase a question or order, so he just tried step by step:

“How is the subsystem doing right now?”

“Error. Unable to query subsystem.”

“Is there any repair plan available?”

The system’s prompt remained silent.

“That subsystem—does it have any redundant backup systems?”

Still nothing but silence.

He tried several other questions, but none yielded the answers he wanted.

It seemed that the so-called subsystem was thoroughly damaged, and the voice responding inside his mind had no repair protocols to offer—it might even be malfunctioning itself, to the point that it simply failed to respond to certain queries.

Finally, Gawain asked, resigned: “How exactly did the damage occur?”

This time, after several rounds of silence, the prompt unexpectedly responded. A voice echoed in his mind: “Keyword detected… Query complete. Beginning playback of system logs.”

Before he could even react, his vision blurred for a moment. The next second, a new scene appeared before his eyes:

It still looked like a bird’s-eye view of the land below, but now the edges of the screen were overlaid with symbols and text displaying planetary data and readings of the gas giant’s energy. He realized this was an ancient observation record, and from that he inferred—this system had been running automatically all along, collecting data on the planet continuously, even without his intervention as the “satellite spirit”!

As these thoughts surfaced, he focused intently on the long-ago footage.

At first, the image showed the nearly motionless land and atmosphere, holding steady for almost half a minute.

Then, suddenly, a flash of light appeared in Gawain’s vision!

(End of chapter)