Chapter 987 — Return

At this news, Hetty's first reaction was to glance in astonishment at the mithril ring she had just tossed aside on the desk; only then did she turn wide-eyed to Victoria. "Confirmed? Have you made contact?"

"The signal characteristics are confirmed, and an aether-network signal from the skies over the northern sea could not possibly be anything else. But the signal is still very weak—the distance must be too great to establish communications. We've only exchanged brief messages indicating all is well," Victoria said. "Still, judging by the signal-strength curve, in about ten minutes we should be able to manage a connection."

"Route it here the instant you can!" Hetty said at once.

"I'm already doing so."

Ten minutes... Hetty had never imagined that a mere ten minutes could stretch so long. She could not sit still, all her emotions—anxiety, anticipation, joy, confusion—churning together. She wanted to rise and pace, or straighten her appearance, yet feared that such movement might be caught by the Ancestor, who could connect at any moment, so she forced herself to suppress it and sat behind her desk maintaining her usual composed, dignified posture. She felt as though she had waited in this state for nearly forty thousand years, and she was certain that Duchess Victoria in the holographic projection on the other aether-network terminal must be just as unable to sit still—only the Ice Archduchess habitually wore a mask of stone, so it did not show...

Her thoughts had only just begun to wander when, above the aether-network terminal on the other side of the desk, used for relaying, a flicker of light and shadow suddenly danced—Hetty felt as though her breath and heartbeat had skipped along with it—and then, amid severe interference and distortion, vague shadows gradually emerged in the holographic projection, accompanied by bursts of noise-laden sound.

Though it was still unclear, Hetty was certain that it was indeed her Ancestor! It was indeed the figure of Gaoyang Cecil.

The Ancestor seemed to be speaking, but she could not make it out yet. Then, after a short while, she saw the image stabilize and sharpen slightly, and human speech emerged in fragments from the noise, growing more coherent—she heard the Ancestor calling her name: "Hetty... interference... hear... can you hear me clearly now?"

"Yes, Ancestor!" Hetty said at once, not noticing that she had already risen to her feet. "There's still some interference, but I can hear you clearly!"

In the space of those two sentences, she saw that the sound and image presented by the aether-network terminal seemed a little clearer than before.

Clearly, the Ancestor was speeding toward the Loren Continent—Hetty could almost picture the giant dragon streaking through the air at full speed.

"And at last I can hear your voice too," Gaosong's voice came. "Good, it seems these two devices haven't broken after all they've been through. Hetty, tell me how things stand on your end—has something happened on the Loren Continent recently?"

"How could you know—" Hetty's first reaction was surprise, but she caught herself at once. She paid no mind to how the Ancestor had learned of the continent's upheaval, and spoke directly: "Ancestor, the divine calamity in Typhon has worsened; some of their troops have gone out of control and attacked us—with no choice but to strike back, we and Typhon have entered a state of 'war.'"

"What?!" Gaoyang's side clearly paused for a moment—even with all the interference ripples on the image, Hetty was certain she had seen the Ancestor's astonished expression.

To astonish the ever-majestic, ever-reliable Ancestor to such a degree... perhaps she ought to feel proud?

Hetty smiled bitterly in self-mockery, then had no choice but to report the subsequent developments to Gaoyang: "...After the war broke out, we chose to push the front line eastward. General Philip led the First Legion and, with the aid of the dragoon units, took Winterwolf Fortress at dawn today—our troops have now built artillery positions and bunkers along the Typhon border."

"...What?!"

"In addition, the Winterwolf Fortress garrison surrendered of its own accord under the leadership of its supreme commander, Anluo Windell. We ended the fighting there more easily than expected..."

"...Ah!?"

Only after three consecutive "Ah"s did Gao Yang finally recover somewhat from his astonishment. His figure in the holographic projection grew ever clearer, and his voice reached Hedy ever more distinctly: "Wait—a upheaval this massive, and you didn't contact me directly through the Mithril Ring?"

Hedy froze for a moment. Her gaze drifted instinctively to the silvery-white ring on the table before she spoke: "I tried several times. You truly received nothing?"

"You tried?" Gao Yang seemed more surprised than Hedy herself. "But there was genuinely no response at all on my end..."

Hedy: "???"

Was something wrong with how she had operated it? Or had this supposed masterpiece of Talonrend engineering—boasting such extraordinary technical sophistication—actually malfunctioned?

New questions surfaced in her mind, but before she could voice them, Gao Song's voice came through once more: "Let's set the matter of the Mithril Ring aside for now and tell me what's happening—we're closing in on the Northport coastline. Keep it as brief and clear as you can. How much have I missed?"

...

The cold wind howled savagely beyond the protective barrier, and the endless ocean raced swiftly past beneath the giant dragon. At the far edge of the gently heaving waters, the outlines of the continent could already be faintly discerned.

Gao Yang stood at the center of Metzen's broad back, listening open-mouthed as Hedy finished her report.

"One single journey..." He could not help muttering to himself. "How is the whole world about to be turned upside down by the time I return?"

"I had a feeling something would go wrong with this trip before I even set out!" Amber was chattering away beside him without pause. "You just wouldn't trust my intuition—I'm telling you, my intuition is dead accurate. A month ago I suspected this winter wouldn't pass peacefully, and look, sure enough, everything's gone wrong. If you'd only—"

The half-elf lady's prattling was enough to give anyone a headache. At that moment Gao Yang lamented with all his heart that there was no wall on Metzen's back—there was simply no way he could slam the noisy Amber against one.

"Metzen," he said at last, forcibly ignoring Amber's endless grumbling and turning to shout toward the enormous dragon head ahead, "Hedy just said the Mithril Ring gave no response. What's going on?"

"I don't know either! Nothing like this has ever happened before!" Metzen's voice was audibly tense as well, and the astonishment and bewilderment in her tone were wholly genuine. "The Mithril Ring... that thing is directly connected to the Omega System. All transmission and reception of information is carried out by Omega personally. Even if a single ring is damaged or goes offline, the corresponding damage report is instantly transmitted to Talonrend and simultaneously sent to the ring's custodian and the responsible parties at every level—I am the custodian of your ring, and yet I received no such message at all."

Gao Qi frowned: "Omega made a mistake?"

"Omega never makes mistakes!" Metzen's voice came from ahead. At first her tone was utterly resolute, but soon she faltered. "At least... not once in all the time since I was born have I ever encountered such a thing..."