Chapter 988 — The Situation
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
The cold wind above the sea shrieked past the shield, the backdrop of sky and ocean steadily receding from view, the outline of land drawing ever closer, and the communications link with the Northport Hub growing ever clearer.
Metzen had plainly picked up speed.
"Maybe the Mithril Ring has just broken," Gao Yang said casually to the dragon lady, though his heart was still fixed on the shifting situation in Cecil and Typhon. "Talrond's technology is advanced, but it hasn't reached the point where all things are immortal."
"Probably," Metzen said, sounding somewhat distracted. "In any case, we must hurry... this time something truly major is about to happen."
Gao Yang did not respond. He merely turned his head and gazed far off toward the Northport coastline, saying nothing for a long while.
And not far beside him, Virolai, who had been resting with her eyes closed, suddenly opened them. This "Saint Princess" rose to her feet and looked thoughtfully toward the land, a trace of confusion surfacing on her face.
But that expression did not last long. After a few seconds of gazing, she withdrew her eyes and resumed her usual manner—gentle, yet lacking something of humanity.
……
Deep in the wasteland, the trees around the impact crater left by the explosion of the ancient imperial city stirred restlessly.
A pillar of blue-white light, as though it could pierce through heaven and earth, surged out from the center of the crater, its brilliant glow illuminating this dark and sullied land. And in the vast "dense forest" that had "grown" around the crater, similar streams of blue-white light leaped and flowed ceaselessly among the branches and vines that drew together, entwined, and fused—countless grotesquely shaped "plants" coiled into an immense aggregate like the neural synapses within some gigantic organism, spreading out several kilometers in every direction from the ancient imperial capital at its center. The stolen energy flowed again and again through this vast and tangled system, like the chemicals and electrical signals passed between synapses.
But suddenly, this tense and busy "flow" came to an abrupt halt. The light that had been leaping and racing among the plant branches and vines froze in an instant, flickering a few times as though from a faulty contact, and within mere seconds the whole vast "forest" dimmed patch by patch, reverting to the appearance of a black forest.
At the forest's center, within the buffer zone bordering the ancient blast crater, great billows of thick smoke rose amid several violent flashes. More than a dozen thick vines, severed by the blast, flew up into the air and retracted into the forest like elastic ropes snapping swiftly back. "High Hierarch" Bolken, who had been controlling these vines, watched this scene and roared in fury: "The Twins! What are you doing?!"
A gust of wild wind swept past, and the figures of Filna and Lelna appeared before Bolken, residual magic still coiling about their hands. The two elves spoke as one: "Saving your life, High Hierarch."
On the inner wall of the crater not far away, the severed remnants of the plant structures had already crumbled to ash, while a massive energy conduit was turning from dimness back to brightness.
Bolken's branches rattled with a clatter, and his deeply wrinkled face emerged from the bark: "What has happened?"
"The Ophelia Matrix's operational efficiency is recovering. She has begun scanning and resetting the various energy conduits, my esteemed High Hierarch—" Lelna spoke the first half, and Filna picked up the second half without the slightest pause, "—it seems she has 'returned.' If we do not intend to go to war with the Iron Legion right now, then we had best leave this place at once."
"Wh—" Bolken started in alarm, then his face twisted with rage. "Damn it, damn it... why so soon... I was so close, the catalytic process was so close..."