Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 892 - 891: Face to Face

Upon hearing Gawain’s words, Aunt Heidi immediately showed a somewhat anxious and worried expression: "Ancestor, this might be dangerous."

"Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing—and it’s not my first time dealing with something like this," Gawain nodded to Aunt Heidi, "There are some things I must confirm."

Seeing her ancestor’s calm yet indisputable expression, Aunt Heidi could only suppress the words in her heart and took a step back.

Kamel nodded to Gawain, rose, and floated to a control station beside the isolation wall, beginning to infuse magic power into those ancient magic symbols.

Veronica Moen held the platinum scepter and looked at Gawain with calm and profound eyes: "Can you tell me what exactly you want to confirm?"

"Three thousand years ago, White Starfall occurred, the God of Nature disappeared from the divine position, and around the same time, the Wepland Meteor Shower happened in the north of the Gondor Empire, with numerous ’Sky Fragments’ falling to the earth... However, all these years, no one has linked these two events together because scholars both lack crucial evidence and do not understand the secrets between gods and the stars," Gawain raised his head to look beyond the barrier, speaking slowly and deliberately, "Seven hundred years ago, I obtained one of the ’meteorites’ from Wepland, which later became widely known as the shield of the protector... During the interaction with this ’Star Heritage’, I glimpsed some ancient memories.

"The fall of the God of Nature is related to an impact that occurred outside the planet, the Wepland Meteor Shower and the debris surrounding Amoen, the Giant Stag are products of that impact; and most suspiciously... the whole collision event was actually caused intentionally by Amoen. This god... committed suicide."

As Gawain’s words fell, even the always calm and indifferent Veronica Moen widened her eyes instantly, while Amber and Aunt Heidi gasped softly. Immediately after, Kamel’s voice came from beyond the isolation wall: "The barrier can be passed, King."

"Stay here," Gawain said casually, then strode toward the slowly fluctuating energy field screen.

After passing through that nearly transparent energy field screen, the unique chaos, oppression, and eerie feeling of the shadow realm surged from all directions. Gawain stepped out of the ancient and sturdy corridor of the defied Fortress, onto a fragmented land connected by countless floating boulders. A thousand years ago, the builders paved a path to the corpse of Amoen, the Giant Stag using alloy frames, chains, and jump boards between these stones. Gawain followed this path, walking forward slowly.

The corpse of the God of Nature floated at the end of his vision like a small hill shrouded in white light.

Chaotic swirling "cloud layers" enveloped this gloomy world, pitch-black, lightning-like eerie shadows darted between the clouds, huge rocks lost the binding force of gravity, tumbling and moving at the edge of this fragmented land and in the farther sky. Only the space surrounding Amoen seemed to be influenced by lingering divine power or the ancient system in the defied Fortress still exerting some effects, and the environment of those floating boulders and the entire "courtyard area" remained basically stable.

Gawain came to a place only a few meters away from the God of Nature—considering the latter’s enormous size, the white-glowing body stood before him almost like a wall. He raised his head and gazed at the drooping head of Amoen, the Giant Stag, its lifeless head surrounded by numerous chains, and unknown metals were embedded and pierced among its flesh. The chains were left by the Gondor people, while those unknown metals... among them should be remnants of the Firmament and fragments of some space combat machine.

"I’m very curious now..." Gawain whispered as if talking to himself, examining the Giant Stag’s head, "Are you really dead?"

As expected, Amoen, the Giant Stag, did not make any response.

Gawain chuckled, shook his head: "I don’t know your purpose, nor what plans you had back then, but if you think the time is right, we can talk now—assuming you have something you want to discuss with me."

Before him, the divine corpse still lay quietly, yet Gawain did not mind. He just smiled lightly, slowly saying as he recalled, "Now reflecting on it, I once heard a mystical voice in the defied Fortress, the voice asked me if I was ready... I once thought it was an illusion, but now it seems, I didn’t hear it wrong back then."

"Is it so quiet now?" After a moment of silence, Gawain lifted his head, looked at Amoen’s tightly closed eyes, seemingly casually saying, "But your collision back then made quite a commotion. The space station originally located above the equator, the fragments from the explosion even fell to the northern temperate zone."

The white light enveloping Amoen, the Giant Stag, suddenly paused for a moment at a visually imperceptible magnitude, then without any forewarning, those always closed eyes gradually opened.

A pair of enormous eyes, seemingly condensed from pure light, quietly gazed at Gawain, and these eyes were so massive that even Aunt Heidi and the others, who stayed at the safe barrier from afar, could clearly see this scene—Amber almost immediately jumped in surprise, while Veronica Moen instantly raised the platinum scepter in her hand. Yet at the moment they were about to take action and sound the alarm, Gawain, who faced away from them, suddenly raised his hand and waved it, signaling to calm down.

Facing away from the defied Fortress, Gawain couldn’t see the situation of Aunt Heidi and the others, but he could guess everyone was surely startled at the moment, so he signaled immediately to temporarily ease their minds.

He then met the gaze of Amoen, the Giant Stag, and shrugged: "You startled me."

"You startled me," an ethereal and sacred voice, seemingly entering directly into his soul, also resounded in Gawain’s mind.

The voice came so synchronously that for a moment, Gawain almost thought it was the God of Nature making a remark or simply echoing his own words—next second, he admired himself greatly because it was remarkable that he could even come up with jokes in his mind at such a moment.

Using the jokes in his mind to combat the temporary tension, maintaining a calm and indifferent facade, Gawain then nodded: "You really are feigning death—The fall of the God of Nature is a deception."

"No, the fall of the God of Nature is not a deception," that ethereal voice echoed in Gawain’s mind—this scene was truly eerie because Amoen, the Giant Stag, remained firmly encased in its original place, even after opening its eyes, simply gazed quietly at Gawain, only its voice continuously transmitted, giving Gawain a feeling of conversing with a ghost residing within a corpse, "The God of Nature is indeed dead, lying here is only Amoen."

Gawain immediately furrowed his brows: "What does this mean?"

Amoen did not answer immediately, merely gazed quietly at Gawain, then asked: "How do you know about the space station and that collision?"

"We all have our own secrets—and my source of information is probably the most insignificant of all secrets," Gawain said, "What’s important is I’m already aware of these, and I am standing here."

"...You can’t possibly be an ordinary human being," Amon suddenly said after a few seconds of silence.

"Why do you say that?" Gawain raised an eyebrow.

"An ordinary human cannot stand before me as you do—even in my current state, an ordinary mortal standing so close without any protection would not come out unscathed," Amon explained. "Moreover, ordinary people do not have your kind of determination, nor do they approach gods with neither reverence nor fear as you do."

"...I admit, maybe I’m a bit special," Gawain nodded openly, "but is this issue really important?"

"It’s somewhat important," Amon replied, "because I can sense a special aura on you... it makes me feel repelled and suppressed, making me subconsciously want to keep my distance from you—in fact, if it weren’t for these constraints, I would have chosen to leave this place the moment you first arrived..."

Gawain didn’t miss a single word Amon said. As he listened to Amon’s reply, he was also constantly calculating in his mind:

The "God of Nature" can sense some special aura from this "satellite spirit" and instinctively rejects it. This must be due to the special suppression effect left by the "Deicide Fleet" itself on the gods, and this suppressive effect extends to him through an invisible connection. However, aside from sensing this aura, Amon doesn’t seem to be able to accurately identify the connection between him and the satellite...

Of course, all this assumes that this God of Nature is not lying or putting on an act. Out of caution, Gawain decided to believe only half of whatever attitude or words the other party displayed.

Under this premise, he would protect his secret well and would never reveal a hint of anything to this God of Nature, who has been in a state of suspended death for three thousand years, unless absolutely necessary!

"I once held a fragment from the sky," Gawain slowly said, weighing his words and revealing truths completely unrelated to "himself." "That fragment affected me, giving me some special qualities. I think you’ve already guessed it, that fragment was the result of your collision with the space station back then. I don’t know if you can accept this explanation—as soon as I touch it, I gain a lot of knowledge, knowledge beyond human comprehension..."

"Ah... that’s not hard to imagine," Amon’s voice entered Gawain’s mind. "Those legacies... they have such power, they record their own history and can imprint information into you mortals’ minds, like the so-called ’Eternal Stone Slate’ works. However, mortals who can smoothly endure this ’imprint inheritance’ are very rare, and someone like you who has undergone such profound change... even I am seeing for the first time.

"This is not a completely perfect answer. I believe you’re still hiding a lot of details, but this is sufficient."

"Then let’s go back to our original topic," Gawain promptly said. "The God of Nature is already dead, and the one lying here is only Amon—what does this sentence mean?"

Amon gazed quietly at Gawain: "Before answering, I have to ask you a question—are you really ready?"

"Ready for what?" Gawain frowned. "Do all gods like to talk in riddles like you?"

"This is not a riddle, but protection for your fragile minds," Amon said faintly. "Since you are standing here, I imagine you must have had some basic understanding of certain secrets. So you also ought to know... when it comes to matters involving gods, the more you come into contact with, the more you deviate from being human. The more you understand, the closer you are to becoming divine...

"Some questions’ answers are not just answers—the answers themselves are tests and shocks.

"So, before you ask any question, before you seek any secret, you need to think: are you really ready? Ready to keep getting closer to divinity."

Gawain frowned deeply, thinking seriously about Amon’s words, and after some deliberation, he slowly said, "I think we’ve already ventured enough in this domain; at least I am prepared to talk with you."

"If that’s the case, very well," perhaps it’s an illusion, but Amon’s tone seemed to carry a hint of amusement, "The answer is simple. I destroyed my divine position—it required some risk-taking, but in the end, everything was worth it. Once-faithful followers of natural powers went through turmoil, perhaps even despair, but they successfully emerged from it, accepting the fact that the god has fallen—the God of Nature died, the followers mourned, and they divided the church’s legacy. I’m very pleased to witness such a situation.

"They didn’t attempt to create a new god after mourning... Furthermore, the likelihood of a new god being born has dropped to the lowest since most followers have mastered the forces of nature after long and painstaking research and study. All this corresponds to my initial calculations.

"I’ve finished."

Listening to every word uttered by Amon, a trace of astonishment had appeared on Gawain’s face. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath: "You mean to say, you collided with the space station to destroy your divine position? The goal was to create a ’God’s death’ as an established fact for the followers?"

"Creating a ’God’s death’ as an established fact was just one reason. On the other hand, I also had to ’die’ once—only by doing so could I sever the transmission of Divine Power."

"Sever the transmission of Divine Power?" Gawain immediately caught the key point in this sentence, "Are you saying that the transmission of Divine Power is not something controlled by the god itself!?"

"Exactly," Amon’s tone carried a more evident sign of amusement than before, "It seems you’ve already learned a lot about this, which reduces the barriers in our communication—I don’t have to explain many things further to you."

"But I have a question," Gawain couldn’t help but ask, "Why did you do it? Destroy your divine position, feign death, even be trapped here for three thousand years... Why would a god intentionally do these things?"

Amon fell silent, and after a full half-minute of silence, his voice echoed in Gawain’s mind:

"...To break the cycle."