Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 712 - 711: Beltira in Dreams

Beltira Augustus stepped into the hall.

But she looked nothing like Bard’s memory.

In Bard’s memory, this female archbishop always wore a gown with all religious symbols erased, her face cold and distant, her eyes seemingly forever shrouded in darkness, while her lower half was always covered in tangled roots and vines, the unsettling rustle of which marked her presence.

But the "Beltira" who entered was entirely different—she wore a Druidic robe of green and white, with the emblem of the Holy Spirit Sect Druid on her chest, her face appeared younger and lacked any cold, dark aura as she calmly walked into the hall, revealing normal legs clad in long boots beneath her gown.

The appearance was the same, but the differences were strikingly clear.

Only Gawain, who had inherited the original owner’s memories, couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity upon seeing this "Beltira."

Beltira also noticed the uninvited guests in the hall—as someone within a dream, she unexpectedly noticed Gawain and Bard, who theoretically should have been detached from the dream’s structure.

She raised her head, with a somewhat dazed expression, first glanced at Bard as if he were a stranger, then focused on Gawain for a long time before hesitantly and curiously speaking: "Gawain... brother?"

Gawain furrowed his brow.

Seven hundred years ago, before becoming a dark Druid and still the "Princess Veronica" adored by everyone in the eastern expeditionary army, Beltira referred to Gawain Cecil as such.

They were not siblings, but their relationship was quite good, and even when Gawain later was stationed at the southern borders, unable to move freely, they corresponded frequently. In fact, in the memories Gawain inherited, "he" learned of Beltira’s journey to Ancestral Peak through a letter she sent—it was also the last letter Beltira sent.

After that, the Oblivion Association was born.

The Beltira before him, who appeared harmless, was her form after falling into dreams? Or perhaps... a deception?

Noticing Gawain’s lack of response, Beltira hesitantly spoke again, this time with a hint of nervousness and concern: "Brother Gawain? What place is this? And... why do you look suddenly much older?"

When Beltira fell into darkness seven hundred years ago, Gawain Cecil was not yet thirty, and in the years following, Beltira never appeared again. Clearly, this dream Beltira maintained her early memories, and in her mind, Gawain Cecil should still be that young, valiant brother.

Beltira stood somewhat bewildered in the hall, looking at the black-robed figures with evident vigilance and confusion, then gazing at Gawain, seeming helpless, harmless, making one almost instinctively lower their guard, especially if an acquaintance stood here; most likely, emotions would influence them.

But unfortunately, Gawain was not Gawain Cecil.

He already sensed that the key to the dream lay in "Beltira."

Moreover, in the end, a dream is just a dream, and that harmless little Princess of Typhon... had long vanished with the wind.

Gawain raised his hand, releasing a massive data surge, causing endless fragments of light and shadow to suddenly appear within the dreamscape. The oceanic information almost instantaneously destroyed this already unstable false world, turning the archbishops holding a meeting into phantoms, while the entire hall rapidly collapsed amidst the shaking.

Bard felt an overwhelming dizziness, the boundary between reality and dreams had never been so clear. He felt himself waking rapidly, and before completely exiting the dream, he heard Gawain’s steady instructions: "Wait on the spot after awakening, do nothing except stay alert, wait for us to come and support."

The council chamber began to collapse, the fragments of earth and stone dissipating into ethereal particles and lines in the void. Standing in the center of the hall, Beltira watched everything with bewilderment, and then suddenly her gaze cleared slightly, her expression instantly becoming lively.

She seemed awakened from a long dream, or perhaps only half-awake, with a half-dream, half-awake expression, she glanced at the silhouette of Gawain, which was close to disappearing, and slightly parted her lips.

On the surface, Gawain slowly opened his eyes, the sensory perceptions of the real world swiftly returned to his body, while the connection from the spiritual realm gradually settled. Predictably, he saw Amber’s large face plate again shove towards him, prompting him to push it away, while she, unfazed, waved her arms, maintaining balance as she retreated, loudly babbling: "You’re awake?"

Gawain responded with a simple affirmative, lightly shaking his head to dispel the lingering discomfort, while the final echo from the dream subtly emerged and quickly faded with his movement: "...Brother, I caused trouble..."

He frowned with a peculiar expression, but the next moment his face returned to normal, although Amber, just pushed away, fussed and moved closer: "Hey, what’s wrong, suddenly serious expression..."

Gawain had to push away this universal disgrace once more.

Why does this typically chaotic individual only become so perceptive when there’s no need...

"It’s nothing, slight dizziness, already resolved," he casually remarked, ignoring Pittman’s recommendation for "special medicine for dizziness and headaches in middle-aged individuals," and began giving instructions for the next steps, "Action team comes over, Bard’s exploration mission down below has reached the intended goal—we’re going down to support."

"You’re going down personally?" The nearby female knight Margarita was surprised, already amazed when Gawain even approached the giant tree roots’ entrance, completely not expecting the "emperor" himself intended to descend, instantly feeling drastically inappropriate, "It’s dangerous down there, you..."

"I’ve already gone down once, the risk of spiritual wandering is no less than physical exploration," Gawain chuckled, waving his hand to interrupt the female knight’s words, "I’ve already destroyed the dream ’trap’ below using special techniques. If the trap was artificially set, the spellcaster must be dead, if it was set by some magical device, the device must be completely destroyed, there won’t be any danger. As for threats outside of dream traps, with entities... everyone saw Bard’s transmitted images, didn’t they?"

Margarita seemed to want to say more, but Gawain interrupted her again: "Speaking of which, your personality is somewhat like Sir Philip’s, both quite earnest."

Margarita immediately straightened her chest, solemnly stating, "Earnestness and caution are essential qualities for knights..."

"Yes, yes, that’s what I meant."

Margarita: "..."

The female knight once again failed to follow Gawain’s line of conversation. In the brief moment of her distraction, His Majesty the Emperor had already passed her by and was striding towards the nearby entrance.

Amber sidled up beside Margarita, who had just shaken off her daze, and started speaking carelessly, "Hey, to be honest, I’ve always thought you and that Sir Philip are particularly suitable for something to happen... Do you want me to help? I’ve got plenty of connections!"

Margarita’s face immediately turned stern, ready to righteously reject Amber’s disregard for the knight’s code. However, Amber had already bounced after Gawain, running into the nearby entrance, calling out as she ran, "Hey! Wait for me! Aren’t you taking a master of shadows into such a dark place? I’m a chosen one, you know. I’ve been chosen for decades..."

...

Bard opened his eyes and finally saw the scene around him clearly.

He hadn’t entered any conference room—he had walked into a magical chamber he had never seen before.

This was a mysterious room covered with magic symbols, with intricate magical glyphs densely carved on the ceiling, walls, and floor. Apart from these, the only furnishings were two black stone pillars standing on the ground, also covered with magic symbols, and nothing else.

At this moment, all the symbols had extinguished.

Bard didn’t know when this room appeared, he only knew that when he left the main camp, this thing wasn’t there—it might be that he lacked the authority to know about this secret chamber.

He speculated that the collapse in the underground had caused some rooms and corridors to misalign, coupled with those crisscrossing roots impacting his spatial judgment, leading him to accidentally go astray and enter this chamber, being affected by the magical devices here.

But in any case, it seemed that with the end of the dream, the devices here had stopped operating.

He remembered Gawain’s orders. Although the pervasive symbols here made him uneasy, considering that they were already near the depths where wandering could bring unintended risks greater than the already extinguished symbols, he dutifully stayed put, finding a spot in the room with a clear view near a corner, quietly waiting for the retrieval team.

He waited for a long time.

The passage of time builds pressure in ordinary people, and the dim and eerie surroundings further cause unease. However, Bard, having withstood more terrifying challenges and trials, had a heart as strong as steel. Compared to the indescribable places he had witnessed, the darkness here could almost be described as gentle—he stood quietly in the corner, maintaining his mental and physical state at optimum, counting the beats of his artificial heart to gauge time until witnessing the flicker of lights outside the room.

Gawain traced the markers Bard left along the way to this deep point of the lair.

The scale of this underground palace was astounding, its architecture not aligning with any style of the human kingdoms, stirring confusion and speculation in him. Despite the significant damage from the collapse, and the alterations or destructions by the Oblivion Association’s cultists over centuries, Gawain could still judge from the sturdy wall materials and the ancient symbols embedded in the floor and ceiling that this palace wasn’t built by the Anzu people.

Not even by the Gondor people.

But now wasn’t the time to delve into the palace’s origins; he had already seen Bard Wendell waiting in the room, and the densely packed magic symbols and two magic devices that resembled stone pillars.

As someone who had absorbed the knowledge and memories of the Eternal Sleepers, capable of freely navigating the Eternal Sleepers’ mind network, and even having a hand in constructing the Eternal Sleepers’ Insecurity System, "Dark Hand" and the mind network’s breach clusters, he was exceptionally familiar with these things.

"It’s the technology of the Eternal Sleepers," Gawain said, stepping forward to examine the two deactivated rune pillars, "...it should be an auxiliary device for projecting the user’s mind outward. Rest assured, it’s completely defunct now, all the core symbols are melted, beyond repair."

Only at this moment did Bard finally breathe a sigh of relief, and he instinctively asked, "You... understand the technology of the Eternal Sleepers?"

Gawain smiled, "A little, a little."

Bard was taken aback, promptly adjusting his expression, cautiously lowering his presence.

He had again touched upon some "little secret of His Majesty the Emperor."

But Gawain wasn’t concerned about any of that, because with Daniel now fully grasping the Eternal Sleepers’ mind network’s security architecture, and the various "dark hands," backdoors, and footholds he had once set in the mind network gradually evolving into a vast and complex "shadow network," he no longer worried like before about the Eternal Sleepers detecting this invasion.

He had a multitude of ways to reconnect to the network, numerous methods to disguise himself and Daniel, even ample means to create illusions, fabricate network security illusions, and create the illusion that the invasion was resolved, or that it never occurred at all...

He had even set "Gawain Cecil," "Wanderers from Outer Realm," "Anzu Pioneer," and other such hidden keywords. As soon as anyone anywhere in the mind network mentioned these keywords, he would immediately know, allowing him, before the information got out, to determine if he had been exposed and proceed with further actions.

Of course, if possible, Gawain still hoped the Eternal Sleepers would never notice his intrusion, but from the "little secret" Bard came into contact with, he couldn’t deduce any connection between Gawain and the Eternal Sleepers’ mind network. Moreover... even if Bard made it out alive today, he was bound to be under rigorous monitoring for a long time.

With the Eternal Sleepers’ cultists essentially purged from the southern borders, secrets that stay buried... remain forever secrets.

Gawain turned his head, looking towards the room’s exit.

"Now, let us continue our search."

The setup of the Eternal Sleepers could amplify and project human dreams, but the apparatus itself does not dream.

In this dark and deep place, there existed people... who could dream.

Based on the visions Bard saw in his dream, the status of these dreamers was likely not good, possibly having lost their mind and body control.

This was relatively easy to handle.