Chapter 946: Talrond

The sudden turn of events left Gawain momentarily stunned.

The vast, vibrant landscape had already settled into his view. The brief dizziness and haze had faded, and all his senses and thoughts had returned to normal. The dusk-lit sea, the low-hanging sky in the distance, and the clouds overhead all shifted slowly as Melita flew onward. Suddenly, the dragon lowered her altitude a bit more, the sound of her wings beating on either side jolting Gawain out of his daze.

He whipped his head around and saw Amber’s amber eyes sparkling in the fading light. She was excitedly gazing out toward the horizon where sea met sky, her face alight with joy, as if the terrifying ordeal they’d just been through had never happened.

Veronica sat quietly nearby, eyes closed as if resting, her posture unchanged from the very beginning.

Gawain lifted his gaze, following the direction of Melita’s tail to the distance. There, a magnificent wall of clouds—the barrier of the Eternal Storm—had been left far behind. Though still impressive from this distance, it no longer carried the suffocating pressure it had when they faced it head-on. The details of the cloud wall’s surface blurred gradually in the dimming light as it receded.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why’d you suddenly go quiet?” Amber’s voice broke the silence, tinged with confusion. “Still staring at that storm? Didn’t we just get through it?”

Gawain looked into Amber’s eyes, searching her face for even the slightest hint of something off, but found nothing. Before her confusion deepened, he withdrew his gaze and asked casually, “We made it through the storm… smoothly, it seems?”

“Of course it was smooth,” Amber nodded. “It was scary when we first plunged in, but Melita flew steadily. Once we got used to it, it was actually kind of fun…”

Gawain’s brow furrowed little by little. Before he could press further, Veronica, who had been resting nearby, suddenly opened her eyes. “Is something wrong?”

“Do you remember how we got through the storm?” Gawain asked her, discreetly pinching his own thigh. Though in a world filled with extraordinary powers, pinching himself wasn’t a foolproof way to confirm reality, the sharp sting gave him some reassurance.

Veronica seemed unaware of his subtle gesture. She thought for a moment before nodding. “After entering the cloud wall, we flew through a dark cyclone filled with electrified clouds. The outside conditions were harsh, but Melita wasn’t much affected. Amber was excited the whole way, and you were focused on observing the lightning and phenomena deep within the cyclone. Nothing unusual happened. Then Melita skirted around the eye of the storm and passed through the cloud wall on the other side. We came out safely.”

“That’s it?” Gawain couldn’t help but double-check. Seeing Veronica’s serious expression, he paused, then asked, “After we crossed the storm’s center, did I say or do anything else?”

“You kept observing the cyclone’s phenomena. Amber talked a lot of nonsense. I rested. Melita flew steadily.”

Veronica’s face remained expressionless as she spoke, then her tone grew serious as she looked into Gawain’s eyes. “So, what exactly is the problem?”

Gawain didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he quietly scanned the surroundings—his gaze passing over a nearby patch of dragon scales, smooth and unblemished.

He remembered having once etched markings on that very scale, but now those marks seemed to have vanished.

“The memories I have don’t quite match what you just said…” he muttered, then his eyes landed on a large arcane network terminal not far away.

He recalled what had happened inside the storm’s cyclone—the moment Melita’s flight faltered, Amber’s first reaction was to rush and save the data. After a moment’s thought, he strode over to the terminal and bent down to open a metal panel at its base. A palm-sized crystal plate emitting a faint blue glow appeared before him.

The storage crystal was still firmly inserted, seemingly untouched.

Even someone as thick-skinned as Amber sensed something was off. She came closer, curious. “Hey, what did you find?”

“If only we’d recorded audio and video the whole way… our preparations weren’t thorough enough… ultimately, it’s a limitation of the technology,” Gawain muttered with some regret, his words sounding strange to Amber.

The arcane network terminal did have recording capabilities. After Melita took flight, the devices mounted on her back collected meteorological and magical data from the ocean environment, and also captured images for a time. But modern arcane technology wasn’t advanced enough. Near the Eternal Storm, the powerful interference disabled most of Melita’s equipment, including the terminal’s recording functions.

So Gawain couldn’t trace back what had really happened from the device’s data. And honestly, given the strange situation before him, he suspected that even if a camera had recorded the entire crossing, the footage might not be reliable…

Some mysterious force had erased that segment of events, leaving only his own memory as a clue.

By now, he even doubted his own recollections—maybe, just maybe, as Amber and Veronica said, nothing had happened at all? Perhaps what he remembered was just an illusion? A dream?

Gawain sighed and casually closed the metal panel on the device’s base. But as his fingers brushed the edge, he suddenly felt a slight unevenness and instinctively stopped.

Pulling his hand away, he noticed a tiny, inconspicuous mark along the panel’s edge—like it had been pried open by something sharp and hard, definitely not part of the original design.

A scar left by a dagger forced open in an emergency.

At that moment, Amber’s excited chatter broke through again. “Hey, hey, what’s wrong? Why the sudden serious look?”

Gawain glanced at Amber, then at Veronica, who was watching curiously nearby. After a brief pause, he smiled and shook his head. “Nothing to worry about. Nothing happened.”

Amber was momentarily confused. “Huh?”

Gawain didn’t explain further. Instead, he reached out and ruffled the little dragon’s hair, a hint of warmth and praise in his voice. “You did well.”

When Melita had faltered earlier, Amber’s first instinct was to risk everything to save the data. A few years ago, that would have been unimaginable for her. Even now, Gawain could hardly believe it was the same Amber who’d acted so bravely—though she seemed to have no memory of it herself.

Amber blinked, feeling the unexpected touch on her head, and saw Gawain’s smile, like a proud, relieved father. Her first thought was whether long flights at high altitude were affecting his mental state, but she wisely kept that to herself and accepted the praise quietly—after all, she never turned down a free compliment.

Veronica watched everything silently, her thoughts clearly deeper than Amber’s. She seemed to sense that something “off” had happened during the storm crossing—something only Gawain could detect—but she didn’t press. Instead, she sent a questioning look.

Gawain just shook his head slightly.

Veronica understood, withdrew her gaze, and returned to her resting position, closing her eyes again.

The dragon continued flying north. As guide and transport, Melita was ironically the least aware of the situation—and she seemed uninterested in what had happened on her back. She could already feel the cold, biting wind of home, sense the shifting magnetic and magical fields signaling Talrond’s presence. Drawn by the warmth of her dragon’s nest and the promise of mission rewards, the blue dragon let out a joyful low roar and increased her speed slightly.

Night had fallen. Starlight scattered across the endless ice ocean. In the dry, clear Arctic skies, the stars shone far brighter than over the mainland.

Gawain could distinctly feel that night was coming differently here than on the continent—they hadn’t clearly seen the sun set in any direction, nor witnessed the full progression of twilight. Instead, it was as if they’d flown straight into the night.

The Arctic polar night—mentioned in Modir’s travel journals and countless scholarly works.

Under this night sky, Gawain suddenly felt a renewed sense of reality. He exhaled softly, eyes fixed on the distant sea. There, a faint glow shimmered over the water, as if countless artificial lights illuminated the polar night. Beyond that hazy light, the outline of land emerged, along with a faintly rising arc—like some kind of protective shield.

“We’re almost there!” Melita’s excited voice came from ahead. “That’s Talrond!

“I’m going to lower altitude continuously—get ready!”

With a thunderous roar, the dragon’s body trembled beneath Gawain’s feet. The view tilted as Melita adjusted her flight, steadily descending through the night. Using short dives to balance speed perfectly, the silhouette of Talrond grew clearer.

Amber couldn’t contain herself and dashed forward, standing just before Melita’s shoulder blades. Stretching her neck, she gawked at the landmass appearing over the sea and exclaimed dramatically, “Wow—I see it! I see it! A continent! Talrond! That’s Talrond!”

“The lights are brighter and denser than the Cecile Empire… even surpassing the capital during Gondor’s prime,” Veronica stood as well, gazing into the distance and marveling to Gawain, “Do you see that dome-like thing? That… looks like a massive shield, covering the entire continent?!”

“…The technological prowess of the Dragonkind clearly surpasses that of any nation on the continent of Loren,” Gawain said in a low voice. What he saw didn’t contradict his previous assessments of the dragons. “It makes sense—they’ve existed in this world for so many years. The several breaks in civilization on Loren haven’t affected them, so naturally, they’d be more advanced than us…”

“Talrond will definitely open your eyes!” Melita said cheerfully, pride evident in her tone. On this journey home, the young dragon seemed to have finally dropped the poised, composed facade she maintained as a senior agent of the Mithril Vault. She was more talkative now, her personality lively and spirited. “I’ll show you where I live, our cities, and the temples… Of course, we’ll have to hear what the gods have planned first. But don’t worry, it won’t be anything too troublesome—you’re guests of Talrond after all.”

Gawain replied casually, though his attention was already fixed on the distant continent, barely registering Melita’s words.

He widened his eyes, gazing at the ancient land bathed in starlight and countless artificial lights. A surge of anticipation and excitement welled up inside him—the thrill of venturing into the unknown. He watched the faint dome of shimmering light that was likely some kind of ultra-advanced shield, the city lights scattered across the land, and the streaks of colorful light darting low through the sky. He saw the crystal-clear, brilliant stars of the polar region reflected on the sea near Talrond, the white glaciers and rolling waves glowing faintly in the night. Then, something strange appeared—a massive, fleshy mass resembling giant tentacles suddenly emerged above Talrond, sweeping across the dragon realm like a licking tongue. In the sky above the ocean, countless pairs of eyes flickered into view, cold and indifferent, watching the entire continent.

Before Gawain’s eyes was a colossal, twisted entity—a grotesque amalgamation of countless tentacles, limbs, eyes, and chaotic forms, like a stitched-together abomination beyond human comprehension, draped over Talrond’s skies. It wore a cloak woven from starlight and flowing flames; from its flesh sprouted sword-wielding arms, massive animal limbs, chaotic fire, and shimmering crystals. Like a curtain, it shrouded the entire sea ahead. Countless chain-like structures extended from its surface, anchoring it to Talrond’s land. Among them, one chain stretched out from the darkness and connected to Melita.

Unaware, Melita was wrapped in that chain, flying forward with the joy of returning home.

Gawain gasped sharply.

He blinked—and the indescribable vision vanished.

Only the clear, bright starlight illuminated Talrond now. Under the tranquil night sky stood a single prosperous, ancient kingdom—the homeland where the Dragon Age had endured.

“We’ve arrived!” Melita said happily. “I’m going to slow down one last time!”

(End of chapter)