Chapter 1256 — The "Door"

The dragon leader braced both hands on the desktop, leaning his upper body slightly forward, and looked at Gao Yang with uncommon sternness: "We originally believed those magic scars were merely 'marks' that appeared on the wyrmlings because the dragon eggs were influenced by the surging magic within the deep blue ley-lines. But now I cannot help but suspect... that there is a deeper reason for their appearance."

"When did the wyrmlings' abnormal state begin?" Amber suddenly asked Metzen.

"I knew you would ask that," Metzen nodded. "Roughly right after you finished the 'treatment' on Mr. Mo Jin."

"...Well, then this business has become 'interesting,'" Amber's mouth twitched. "So tell me—when do we set out?"

Metzen drew a soft breath and looked at Amber and Gao Yang: "Now."

...

At the same time, on the buffer plains along the border of Typhon and Cecil: Covenant Castle.

Bright streams of arcane flame surged from the tops of the three energy towers, then under the action of a series of containment and channeling devices were gathered, focused, and poured into energy conduits and magic-energy crystals. The immense energy-release apparatus floated slowly in the morning light, beginning to rotate with a deep humming sound.

Cold, fierce winds blew in from the direction of the northern mountains, but before they drew near Covenant Castle they were deflected and scattered by the vast energy field circulating here, breaking into disordered turbulence that raged across the wilderness near the castle—sand and withered grass were swept into the air, howling as they whirled over the desolate open country. And in the face of this abruptly altered weather, the birds and beasts dwelling in the wild had long since taken shelter.

The most powerful and purest energy system humanity had created since the Second Age of Exploration had been successfully ignited deep within this cold plain. Vast energies beyond the imagination of the mages of the old era converged here, and began, as planned, to be channeled toward the center of the entire facility complex—toward the portal installed in the castle's main hall, and toward the layer upon layer of protective barriers around the portal and... the fuse units.

Inside the castle's main hall, all manner of magical devices had been activated; a giant magic array covering the entire floor and the whole dome radiated a steady, gentle glow. The walls around the hall were lined with neatly ordered energy conduits, and streams of pure arcane flame coursed ceaselessly through them. Silver-white alloy "magic-conducting rails" extended from beneath the floor, connecting those energy conduits to the power core buried underground. More than a dozen control nodes were distributed throughout the hall, their bases made of costly, precision alloy, and above each floated magic crystals or arcanotech terminals for monitoring the portal.

Tense, busy technicians hurried among devices that would have awed any ordinary person, making a final inspection of all systems. Kamael floated directly before the portal, and beside him stood the legendary mage from Typhon, Windsor Maple.

Voices of command came from every corner of the hall:

"All energy towers successfully ignited! Output power has reached standard values—arcane energy conduit readings stable!"

"Power rails in normal state, all energy rail connections normal, primary conversion normal, secondary conversion normal!"

"The inverter array is on standby, ready at any moment to withstand a divine-power impact..."

"All protection systems normal—mental protection system activated, humanity barrier activated, connected to the neural network... Cecil Empire computation center identification code received, signal feedback normal!"

"The psionic songstress is standing by..."

Camille raised his head slightly. The overlapping tide of commands seemed to recede into the distance. He gazed at the portal, already in its "preheating" state, and watched the bright blue fire beginning to leap between its several curved ribs, while the rune-covered alloy ring drifted slowly toward the top of the gate. In the faintly warping light and shadow at the heart of the apparatus, he seemed to see images long buried in the depths of memory, figures long departed from this world...

"At last..." Windsor Maple's voice came from beside him, her tone carrying excitement and emotion she could scarcely conceal, "we have finally lived to see this day... Two hundred years. Typhon has quietly prepared for this for two hundred years..."

"The Defiant have waited a thousand years for this day, madam," said Camille. The yellowed images in his mind gradually dissolved, and he turned his head; two leaping motes of arcane radiance fell into Windsor's eyes. "And if you count those pioneers who struggled and failed in the civilizations of ages past, then the time 'mortals' as a whole have waited for this day is likely longer still."

Windsor Maple nodded gently. Her gaze moved to the strange runes laid out on the ground near the portal, to the arcane-net terminals set in every corner of the hall, and to the Cecil soldiers hovering in midair not far away, clad in peculiar lightweight armor, and she could not help but ask: "Will these protections be able to withstand the 'contamination' that may occur during the experiment?"

"In theory, the Divine Realm of the God of War is already 'harmless' to mortals of our age. Even if we stood face to face with the God of War's divine body now, we would not be contaminated," Camille said gravely. "Of course, if you mean accidents — we must always be prepared for accidents. These protective runes have long been proven; your king can confirm their efficacy. Those arcane-net terminals can broadcast the 'psionic song' that ceaselessly echoes through the neural network across the entire experimental facility. This penetrating psionic oscillation has a more active and more potent purifying and protective effect than the protective runes. And those soldiers... they are psionic singers, special units trained specifically to counter divine contamination. On the battlefield at Winterhold, they have already fought directly against the God of War's divine power — they have been tested in actual combat."

Windsor Maple listened to Camille's account and nodded slowly, but she could not resist looking toward where those "psionic singers" stood, and toward the strange floating device behind them — several meters in diameter, tightly encased in a layer of metallic shell — and her brow furrowed involuntarily: "And what is that thing? Is it part of the protective system too? I did not see any description of it in the earlier materials..."

"Madam, that is classified — even though we are working closely together, some things cannot simply be made public," Camille's voice seemed to carry a trace of a smile. "I can only tell you that that thing is an important aid to the psionic singers in doing their work, and a good companion of us Cecil folk. If cooperation between our two nations can grow closer and future technological exchange advances further, they may well appear on our trade lists — and then you will know for yourself what it is."