Chapter 536 — A Dangerous Signal

On the horizon far to the south, the light from the Great Wall was like an aurora fallen to earth; radiance many times stronger than usual floated there, magnificent and spellbinding, while that troubling sound of wind and thunder still came on—only much fainter now than at the first.

Gao Yang stood on the observation platform in the Dark Mountains, gazing at the distant spectacle and saying nothing for a long time.

In his mind, the alarm from the satellite monitoring system was still echoing without end:

"...Warning: anomalous rise in giant planet activity. Warning: anomalous rise in giant planet activity..."

The shifts of magic in the natural world were bound up with the activity of the Giant Sun, and by what had happened seven hundred years ago, changes in the Giant Sun most likely foretold the approach of a magic tide. The sea demons' various observation records confirmed it as well: whenever a magic tide rose, the first thing to react strangely was always the sun in the sky.

Was time running short... or had it already run out?

Gao Yang shut off the alarm blinking in his mind and turned to look at the young mage beside him. Apart from himself—a "satellite spirit" who had caught the sun's change at the first instant through the satellite alarms—this young man was the first in the whole territory to notice the anomaly and send back a warning, and it was he who had promptly reported the strange behavior of the Great Wall as well.

"How much time has passed since the Great Wall started making those sounds and giving off light?"

"Four hours now, my lord," the young mage said, a little nervously. "But I can only be sure the strange noise came four hours ago—I can't say when the brightness changed. For the several hours before that we were recording something else, and no one was watching the Great Wall."

Gao Yang nodded. From the young mage's report he could hear the particular rigor of a researcher.

Behind Gao Yang, Hetty and the others who had come along were all sick with worry, and Amber was the first who could not hold it in. "I say... that wall isn't about to come down on us, is it?!"

Gao Yang very much wanted to give a definite answer, but after a few seconds of thought he could only shake his head. "...I don't know."

Hetty and Rebecca said in one voice, "You don't know either?"

"There is one thing I can be sure of: the strange noise now, and the rising brightness of the energy barrier, are both signs that the load on the Great Wall has surged. The pressure it is under at this moment is enormous, but the barrier has not shattered—which means the pressure has not yet crossed the threshold. By the original design, so long as no new impact comes, it will repair itself. But I cannot be certain that after seven hundred years of wind and weather, the barrier's safety systems can still survive this trial."

Rebecca swallowed hard. "And if... it can't survive it?"

"The Dark Mountains may hold back the first onslaught of the demon tide, but the aberrations will soon begin trying to climb over that barrier. The best case is that the chaotic magic energy in the Gondor wastelands has greatly decayed over the past seven hundred years and no longer has the power to directly destroy the human world—in which case the Southern Border will return to the situation of seven hundred years ago, when Anseth had just been founded: an endless see-saw war, killing monsters that pour out of the demon tide with no day of rest," Gao Yang said, shaking his head. "The good news is that we now have magic-cannons and prismatic devices. The bad news is that elsewhere in the Southern Border there are no longer the Cecil wolf riders of those days, nor the death-defying priest charging companies and noble suicide squads."

Behind Hetty, an official of the Civil Administration could not help murmuring, "Then we had better pray it survives this time..."

"Whether prayer works is hard to say, but at the very least we can't just sit here waiting," Gao Yang said, turning to Hetty. "The Civil Administration goes into emergency status, ready to call up strategic supplies at any moment... towns that already have large shields installed are to serve as reserve shelters... step up surveillance south of the Dark Mountains, all observation posts turned toward the Great Wall... make preparations for public announcements, the peacekeeping squads on standby at all times—nowhere is to be allowed to fall into disorder..."

As Gao Yang's orders came down one after another, everyone present understood more clearly just how grave the matter was—and beyond that, they felt a measure of reassurance as well.

Orders, arrangements—that was always better than being left utterly at a loss.

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