Chapter 1314 — The Relief Plan

"The Odol Sacred River..." Byron frowned slightly, and in his mind quickly matched it to a great river in southern Augustu that ran straight to the sea and deep into the interior. A hint of worry surfaced on his face. "Can the Wintercold navigate an inland river like that..."

"It can. That river is large enough to accommodate a main-force warship like the Wintercold," Gao Yang nodded with certainty. "And its upper reaches lead to the Highland Kingdom. If by then we still haven't restored communications with the southern continent, you'll need to send a portion of your warships to confirm the southern front's situation and provide support with all your strength."

Byron drew a soft breath. This gray-haired "late-blooming knight" felt the heavy burden about to fall on his shoulders, and his expression turned unprecedentedly solemn. He straightened his back and nodded firmly: "I will fulfill this mission!"

After the new orders were issued, the room fell briefly silent—but the silence lasted only a moment before another voice rose from a nearby arcane-net terminal: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid even this will be too late."

Gao Yang looked up and saw Victoria's figure appearing in the holographic projection directly before him.

"The main fleet would have to sail halfway around the continent by sea to enter the Odol Sacred River, and the ground forces can only enter the Augustu heartland through the ancient trade routes south of Mosswood. Both routes are passable, but both are too slow," the Northern Duchess maintained her customary cold demeanor, though a hint of worry crept into her tone. "If Augustu's border forces have already collapsed by then, I very much doubt whether their remaining resistance can hold out until our reinforcements arrive..."

What Victoria described was precisely what most people in the room were worrying about—everyone knew the situation along Augustu's line might already be dire, but even if the Cecil Empire still had strength to spare for support, the reinforcements might not reach that theater in time.

Augustu had lain dormant in an ancient land for a thousand years. To its east were mountains (and now, likely, monsters everywhere); to its north, forests; to its west, a long coastline far from the front and the ancient dwarven kingdom (with yet another chain of mountains between the dwarves and Augustu); and to its south, deep mountains and forests stretching all the way to the Highland Kingdom's border. Whether by land or by coast, entering that ancient land was fraught with difficulty—over the past few years, the Cecil Empire had traded with the various Augustu tribes, and pathfinders had been building roads and opening river channels through those mountains and dense forests, but a few short years were clearly not enough to make that ancient nation smooth and passable everywhere.

But the monsters cared nothing for such things. They could trek through wilderness and mountain forests without sleep or rest, heedless of casualties—climbing mountains when they met them, filling valleys when they met them.

Yet faced with the dilemma Victoria raised, Gao Yang needed only a moment's thought before he had his decision.

The modernized Cecil military had "new-era solutions" aplenty for "age-old problems."

"We don't have only two routes," he tapped the table lightly and looked up at Rebecca, who was staring down, apparently deep in thought over some problem. "Rebecca, how far along are the launch preparations for the Dawn of the Mortal World?"

"Huh? Ah!" Rebecca snapped out of her reverie, first uttering a blank cry, then reacting. "You mean the Dawn of the Mortal World? Um... if we only require basic takeoff and combat capability, then it's ready now. But its supercritical accelerator is still undergoing final calibration—that thing is a really big boom-boom..."

"Launch it now," Gao Yang cut off Rebecca, who was about to get excited, and said with finality. "No more debugging. We need the Dawn of the Mortal World's power now."

"But..." Rebecca instinctively wanted to say more, but the next second she swallowed her words—even for a cannonball of the Cecil Empire, that alloy head of hers still had a concept of priorities. "All right, I understand. I'll go back and initiate the Dawn of the Mortal World's launch sequence..."

"Not just the Dawn of the Mortal World—the first batch of Gorgon platforms as well," Gao Yang continued. "We must consider the possibility that all positions on the western front have already fallen. If it comes to that, a single aerospace fortress won't be enough to hold the entire kingdom. We need to find a way to rebuild the entire western defense in a short time—at the very least, plug the gaps in the western wasteland."

"Okay, I understand," Rebecca nodded rapidly, then frowned again, speaking with a trace of hesitation. "But... Ancestor, I'll need to go with the Dawn of the Mortal World."

"You? Going into battle with the Dawn of the Mortal World?" Gao Yang's brows furrowed at once. Rebecca's words were completely unexpected. "What would you be going for—that's the front line, not a place for you..."

"The Dawn of the Mortal World's core systems still need adjustment, and many of the upper-deck facilities haven't been tested. Without a technical backbone accompanying it, that fortress probably couldn't even bring a third of its power to bear," Rebecca, in a rare display of "stubbornness" before Gao Yang, pressed on. "And if I bring a team of technicians along, we can continue building its supercritical accelerator and the remaining weapon systems while the Dawn of the Mortal World is in operation—as long as we bring enough materials..."

She thought for a moment, then continued, organizing her words as she went: "And there's another very important point—the Dawn of the Mortal World may have its own 'brain,' but many of its operations during runtime still require human intervention. The fortress's current operators have only just finished theoretical training, and they haven't even completed half of their simulated exercises. I wouldn't feel safe letting them take over the main systems directly. I need to lead a team there myself—if problems come up, I can guide them through it..."

As she spoke, she kept watching Gao Yang's expression, and by the end her voice had trailed off. Finally, she shrank her neck with particular caution: "...Is that not allowed?"

Gao Yang said nothing, only looked at Rebecca before him with a somewhat peculiar gaze.

He didn't know when it had happened, but the childish, green quality about her had already faded. Though her temperament was still a bit reckless, and her head still brimming with all sorts of odd ideas, today's Rebecca... seemed vastly different from the girl Gao Yang had first met.

"You may," Gao Yang said suddenly, his expression very serious. "Then the Dawn of the Mortal World is in your hands."

"Yay!"

"But there's one thing you must remember," Gao Yang waited until Rebecca's excitement peaked before pouring a bucket of cold water on it. "You are not a general. You don't understand warfare. Don't go giving orders anywhere outside the Dawn of the Mortal World—coordinate with Duke Baiyu and General Byron's operations, and for aerial operations, follow Commander Jinna's advice. Understood?"

Rebecca quickly reined in her somewhat excited zeal and forced her face into a rigid mask as she nodded at the Xuanmai Sect: "Yes, I understand!"

Gao Yang gave a brief "Mm," withdrew his gaze from Rebecca: "Good. Then next—"

He had barely gotten half a sentence out when an arcane-net terminal set at his side suddenly activated of its own accord, and Myrmina's avatar image rose into the air above it: "Hold on a moment—don't panic when I tell you this—Old Deer has run off."