Chapter 638 — Stalemate
Blade of Dawn · Page 3 of 4
Saint Ivan III gave a slight nod, and over that aged face came a complex expression mingling excitement and solemnity: "The forces of sin press closer step by step; holy warriors have fallen in great numbers; the suffering cry out for the holy light's protection. The God of Holy Light can no longer bear to see this continue. He has commanded me to prepare for His descent, to withstand the darkest hour."
Having spoken, the old Pope paused, a note of compassion in his voice: "Mortals, after all, still need shelter and guidance..."
Virodai kept her head devoutly lowered. After two seconds of silence, she said softly: "...Ah, indeed so."
Saint Ivan III smiled and nodded in satisfaction: "During the descent rite, the Great Hall of Light will be sealed completely. No lower-ranking priest or pastor may enter. Virodai, you are the Lord's most devout child and the bridge between god and mortals—you shall guard the gate until the crisis is lifted."
Virodai kept her head bowed and said gently and obediently: "Yes, Your Holiness."
……
In the depths of the Endless Ocean, past the blockade of storms and chaotic magic fields, on the "Eo Continent" ruled by the sea demons, a massive facility was gradually taking shape.
It stood east of the stranding zone of the sea demons' royal city, Antavien, where a broad, level plateau faced Antavien's towering alloy walls. The sea demons had built a great plaza on this plateau, large enough to gather tens of thousands of them (whether in the smaller mermaid form or the more densely coiled serpent form), and at the plaza's center, engineering machines were assembling vast quantities of alloy frames, machinery, and building materials into a tower hundreds of meters tall.
The tower had already taken rough shape. It resembled several tiers of shells, large and small, encircling one another; its streamlined structure carried a unique beauty born of the deep sea, and sea-blue decorative lines divided the tower's body into three main sections. Its base was heavy and low, the shaft tall and straight, and at the very top floated a large sphere in midair—the sphere brimmed with shifting watery light, as though condensed of pure water, yet incredibly it held its form without any sign of collapse.
Deepwater technicians bustled anxiously around the tower, installing auxiliary equipment or tuning the various systems already in place, while a woman in a sea-blue gown, dignified and regal in bearing, her serpent tail coiled beneath her, "stood" upon a great boulder near the plaza, watching the tower under construction.
A snake-tailed female officer bearing a trident climbed onto the great boulder and bowed low before Pythia, Queen of the Sirens. "Your Majesty, the elemental folding tower will be ready within twenty-four hours. After that, all that remains is to wait for the precise positioning signal from the western continent."
"Excellent—you have all worked hard."
"It is our duty," the officer said. "Though... building and activating the elemental folding tower is no small expense. We are, in effect, spending a single chance to ignite the reactor."
It would not ignite anyway—Pythia very much wanted to say this, but it hardly seemed proper for a queen to say such a thing outright.
"The arcane energy extraction technique that Tyr sent back is already more than enough to offset that loss," the Siren Queen said softly after a brief moment's thought. "And what is more, we may well gain a great quantity of additional energy matter."
"...Yes. We have already connected the energy conduits of the storage units to this side, and the equipment for conversion, purification, and extraction is ready as well. But whether the new food Tyr mentioned actually meets the standard remains to be verified."