Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 237 - 236: Deep Space

Mountain ruins, the lowest level of the facility: the "Circular Magic Gate" hall.

Since the discovery of this mysterious ancient magic door, Gawain has left six soldiers here to take turns guarding it. Due to Sir Byron’s increasingly deep exploration of this ancient facility, these ruins have gradually been put to use by the Cecil Clan, and the mid-level areas are being gradually converted into munitions factories and storage facilities. Many areas have laid down Magic Webs and installed magic crystal lamps and living facilities, adding many permanent soldier dormitories. Therefore, there is no shortage of soldiers on long-term duty here.

Gawain brought Aunt Heidi and Pittman, plus a sea demon who had maxed out skill points in "Knowledge of the Wicked Gods" (culinary direction), and selected a group of elite soldiers to hastily reach the location of the magic door.

A small group of stationed soldiers had already gathered in the spacious circular hall, and Sir Byron was leading his men in a vigilant watch on the magic door’s movements. When Gawain entered, this middle-aged knight was seriously questioning a soldier, a rare serious expression on his usually crafty face. This immediately made Gawain realize that the situation might be more complicated than he had anticipated.

He walked straight to Byron: "What’s the situation?"

Byron saluted as a Knight upon seeing Gawain. Originally, he was leading scouting teams southward, searching for an exit in the mountain ruins, but upon hearing of the magic door’s unusual activity, he rushed to the scene, arriving much earlier than Gawain, so he was quite informed on the matter: "My lord, we haven’t figured out how the magic door suddenly activated. The stationed soldiers here seem to have suffered a mental impact, and their memory of the scene at the time is very vague."

Gawain looked up towards the direction of the Circular Magic Gate—it indeed was activated.

The ring-shaped device made of some unknown synthetic material was emitting a faint deep blue magical glow. The magic symbols and magic lines inscribed on the magic door were all in an apparent charging state, and a low humming sound was emanating from the ring’s base. At the center of the ring, one could see a blurry phantasm, continuously trembling, seemingly in a state of spatial overlay.

The stationed soldiers here were all experienced and obedient to commands. They wouldn’t touch anything without instruction or intentionally hide anything when reporting, so the only explanation was that this magic door indeed activated on its own and that its activation caused a certain level of mental impact on those around—non-lethal, yet enough to cause daze.

What activated the magic door?

Gawain first thought of those automatically opening isolation doors in the ruins’ entrance hall. Similar events had occurred during the early development of the region; however, at that time, the isolation doors opened due to a surge in magic power, as a sudden change in the magic-pervasive environment stimulated the remaining magical mechanisms in the ruins, mistakenly triggering the doors. But recently, there seemed to be no similar disturbance in magic power, and the surveillance satellites hadn’t sent any reports...

No, there was one relatively special event...

When the positions of the stars are corrected.

Gawain’s expression grew serious. The only event recently that could plausibly lead to various phenomena was "when the positions of the stars are corrected." Though ordinary people can’t perceive its impact on this world, it’s tangible and seemingly related to gods.

The purpose of this ancient facility seems to be to research "the secrets of the Goddess of the Night."

Could it be that this door wasn’t closed due to damage or energy depletion, but has been waiting for the right time to open?

"Ancestor?" Aunt Heidi couldn’t help but ask when she saw Gawain silent for long and his face growing more serious, "Have you thought of something?"

"This door may have been automatically activated according to the preset commands of the mages from the Meteoric Era," Gawain slowly said and looked at Sir Byron, "Has anyone gone inside?"

"Not yet," Sir Byron shook his head, "The situation is too bizarre. You instructed at that time, should we encounter such strange situations or those possibly related to gods, under no circumstances should we act rashly, and we should preserve the scene until your arrival."

"Excellent," Gawain nodded approvingly, then looked somewhat regretfully at the magic door operating automatically, "If only Amber were here..."

Amber had been sent to gather "energetic locals" and had not yet returned. Though her progress was still unknown, Gawain had confidence in that wild half-elf with maximum escape skill points. Her absence was somewhat inconvenient. For instance, now he wanted a reusable Amber detector to throw across the magic door to scout the situation—but there was none.

But the magic door was already activated, and he couldn’t just leave it be.

"Pittman..." Gawain, after a moment’s thought, turned to the old Druid beside him, "You..."

"My lord, I’m old in years!" Pittman was almost in tears immediately, "I have to care for myself at eighty, and below I have..."

Gawain’s veins twitched: "Shut up, I want you to summon a Treant in there!"

"Oh."

Pittman pulled out an enchanted seed from his pocket, muttered a brief incantation, and then tossed the seed onto the ground. As the magic power surged, the seed started growing at an astonishing speed, with the magical energy forming its temporary body, an elemental tree creature barely over a meter tall quickly appeared before everyone.

Under everyone’s gaze, the unremarkable tree creature staggered humorously towards the huge circular device in the center of the hall and disappeared into the hazy shadow within the circular device amidst a twist of light and shadow.

The moment the tree creature vanished, Pittman let out a surprised "Huh."

"What’s happening?" Aunt Heidi asked nervously.

"The mental connection between me and the summoned creature has been severed," Pittman said with a peculiar expression, "It happened instantly."

"The other side of the magic door might be some kind of phase space or shadow realm," Gawain was not too surprised, "The ancient Gondor Empire mages often did this. They would use similar spatial technology to store important secrets, as phase space and shadow realm are the most reliable safes."

"No... it’s not that kind of severance," Pittman said with a slightly serious expression, "Even in the shadow realm, the connection between a Druid and their summoned creature can’t be completely severed. Even if direct control is cut off, I should be able to sense the presence of the summoned creature, but now I’ve completely lost my perception of the tree creature, as if it just disappeared from this world..."

The atmosphere in the hall became serious, but Pittman quickly added, "But we can wait a bit. I’ve programmed a command into the tree creature; if the mental connection is completely severed, it will return along the same path three minutes after losing my orders—unless it’s been destroyed."

Upon hearing this, Gawain nodded and turned to stare intently in the direction of the magic door.

Minute by minute passed, and there was no movement from the magic door. Just when Gawain thought the tree creature wouldn’t return, he suddenly saw the hazy light and shadow in the center of the magic door tremble slightly.

The unremarkable tree creature staggered humorously out of the door.

Though it appeared clumsy and confused upon emerging, it quickly re-established mental contact with Pittman. This elemental creature, sustained by magic power, immediately ran back to its master.

"... No damage," Pittman quickly checked the tree creature’s condition and reported to Gawain, "The dispersal of magical power is also within normal values. The other side of the door seems to be a secure space, and its structure is very stable."

"In other words, we can go in and check," Gawain couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief, "Looks like the ancient Gondor Empire’s technology is still trustworthy. Aunt Heidi, Tiel, you two come with me to check it out, Byron Kirk, Pittman, you two stay outside and keep watch."

After giving the orders, Gawain selected a group of elite soldiers and then led them towards the ancient magic door quietly operating in the center of the hall.

During the process of passing through the hazy light and shadow in the center of the door, Gawain did not feel the intense dizziness he expected. This magic door, which has been in existence for a millennium, operated more smoothly than he had imagined. He simply felt as if he had walked through a slightly cool mist, and after a brief visual blur, the scene before him was already the space behind the door.

A vast rectangular hall unfolded before the scouting teams.

This hall, built from unknown synthetic materials, revealed a variety of massive, mysterious equipment. Between these pieces of equipment were broad walkways and numerous research platforms. What surprised Gawain most was the fact that it wasn’t pitch-black—despite being sealed off for what could have been a thousand years, it still had residual energy! Several lighting fixtures on the ceiling were still operating, illuminating the entire space with a slightly yellowish light!

And not just the lights; a small portion of those massive devices in the hall were still active. The magical symbols on their surfaces still gleamed, and a low hum would occasionally emanate from one of the devices.

"This is truly... unbelievable..." Aunt Heidi exclaimed in astonishment at the scene before her. "Are these things still working?!"

Gawain tightened his grip on the Longsword. Since the explosion of the Well of Deep Blue, all the complex magical devices of the ancient Gondor Empire had lost their functionality. Even those preserved intact to this day could not be activated, with only simple devices like the Magic Gate, requiring low energy, still operational. Yet, these highly complex and sophisticated devices here were still running, which was indeed quite mysterious.

"Everyone, stay alert. The magical devices here are still running. It’s possible that the ancient auto-defense mechanisms are also active," he loudly reminded everyone in the team. "Aunt Heidi, keep an eye on the magical flow around us. If you detect any drastic energy shifts, inform me immediately."

"Understood," Aunt Heidi replied, gripping her Long Staff tightly, and also casting a glance at the long-sealed hall with furrowed brows. "Ancestor... Is this hall still within our prime material world?"

"Hard to say, but the environment here clearly isn’t the shadow realm," Gawain replied. "It’s just... uncertain if the area outside the hall has the same environment."