Chapter 1204 — "Childcare"
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
After Enya brought up those distant, ancient memories, a hush fell over the hatchery at once. Even the two newly hatched whelps seemed to sense the shift in the atmosphere; they immediately tucked in their wings and drew back their necks, cautiously scrambling to take shelter beneath Metzen's feet — although the first "person" they had seen after hatching was Enya, compared to round eggshells, Metzen clearly fit the image of "mother" better in the little ones' eyes.
The two whelps, darting about at her feet like puppies, brought a look to Metzen's face that mingled delight with nervousness. Bending down to carefully stroke the scales on their heads, she looked up at Enya: "You mean... the marks of mana erosion on the whelps are very likely connected to the Deepblue Netway? The mana in the Deepblue Netway is 'rising'?"
"I can't be certain — those are memories from two million years ago, after all, and there's no theory proving that changes in the Netway's mana must be linked to the mutations in the whelps. Tar'lond's technology was still quite backward in those days," Enya said in a low voice. "But I think this matter should be reported to Hragor and the others — they may not have the means to monitor the Deepblue Netway now, but at the very least they should examine recently hatched whelps. If more whelps are indeed showing signs of this mana erosion... then this is something to be on guard against."
"I'll contact Tar'lond the moment I get back," Metzen said at once with a nod. "When Speaker Anqian last got in touch, he said they had successfully repaired an energy extraction station. If the station's deep probes still work, they might still be able to observe some of the changes in the Deepblue Netway..."
Gaoyang, too, had fallen into thought at the same time, considering what means he now had to intervene in a planet-scale power megastructure like the "Deepblue Netway." Before long, a name surfaced from the depths of his mind: Virolai/Ophelia.
Once a member of the ancient royal house of the Gondor Empire, and leader of the Defiers, she now moved through the human world in the body of Virolai, controlled by projection of her consciousness — while her true body... lay in fact in the deepest reaches of the Gondor Wasteland, having, as Gaosong understood it, used some ancient technology to convert her life form into a kind of immortal state.
The ancient Well of the Deepblue had been utterly annihilated in a great explosion, but what had actually been destroyed back then was merely the extraction facility humanity had built above the "Netway Surge Source." Today, Virolai/Ophelia's true body still presided deep within the Gondor base beneath that surge source, monitoring the operation of the remaining parts of the Well of the Deepblue through a series of ancient autonomous devices and a legion of iron men — her condition seemed far from good, but compared to the mortal nations utterly unable to enter the Gondor Wasteland, she might still be able to monitor certain stirrings within the Deepblue Netway.
The Deepblue Netway ran through the entire planet; the anomalous "upwelling" occurring in Tar'lond might well have left traces at the Netway's outlets in other regions as well.
Hearing Gaoyang's and Metzen's answers, Enya murmured a soft "mm," then spoke in a light voice tinged with a smile and a touch of lament: "Then all we can do is hope you will see to these things. As for me now, I am powerless over most of what happens in this world — I cannot even live without the help of others..."
"Don't say that!" Metzen said hastily. "You... you've already done so much for the dragon race, and now it's time for you to rest properly. We can manage on our own..."
"You're right, Metzen," Enya interrupted the blue dragon lady with a smile. "I really should rest well — because if I don't rest well, then I'm afraid Hragor, Anqian, and Bayang'er won't be able to rest well either."