Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 537 - 536: Dangerous Signals

The Cold Month.

The coldest month in Anzu has arrived.

The gigantic sun rises solemnly and slowly into the sky, with a cloud-like halo surrounding its massive disk, floating with brownish-yellow streaks resembling wood grain. The changes in those colorful stripes indicate one thing: the largest temperature drop after entering winter is soon to arrive.

The sun, the largest celestial body in the sky and the most closely related to people’s lives, experienced farmers can predict the approximate date and extent of the temperature drop based on the changes in those stripes on the sun’s disk, while scholars formulate methods to deduce the overall climate of the following year according to the sun disk’s changes—observation of the giant sun has always been a very important part of daily life for people in this world.

St. Soniel, within the Mage District.

Accompanied by a slight rustling sound, the heavy and massive skylight of the "Pursuit of the Sun Platform" on the upper layer of the Astrological Tower opened, and the magic-driven elevator came smoothly to a halt at the center of the platform passage. Morgan Hugo and his assistants stepped down from the elevator, coming to the observation position for the sun disk, preparing to start their routine observation work.

"Open the light filter—filter mode III."

The elderly royal mage issued instructions to his assistant beside him and waved a hand towards the nearby bookshelf, causing quills, parchment, and ink bottles to fly over, floating steadily before him. The assistant who received the order hurried to a control node not far away, beginning to inject magic power into the magic symbol column.

Seeing the assistant’s somewhat reckless actions, Morgan couldn’t help but shout, "Be careful! The magic symbols here are extremely valuable!"

The assistant quickly controlled the amplitude of the magic injection, and as the magic symbol columns around the Pursuit of the Sun Platform lit up one by one, a layer of thin radiance floated over the skylight used for observing the sun disk.

Moments later, the magic radiance condensed into a solid-like layer of light crystals, filtering the sunlight outside the skylight into a mode more suitable for human eye observation. Morgan Hugo nodded slightly: this magic device, built a hundred years ago, is still useful today, and as the most qualified astrological mage in this Astrological Tower, the privilege of using this magic device is always his greatest pride.

Standing under the light filter formed by magic radiance, the old mage raised his head to carefully observe the sun disk outside the skylight, studying each colorful stripe on its surface, while the quill and parchment floated beside him, rapidly transcribing all the data and diagrams into the record.

The other assistants also approached the observation position, recording the data they were responsible for, a quiet and solemn atmosphere enveloping the top of the Astrological Tower.

However, the atmosphere did not last long. A puzzled assistant’s low cry of surprise broke the calm on the observation platform: "The bottom red stripe shifted three degrees to the east?"

Morgan Hugo immediately glared at his assistant, "What nonsense are you talking?"

"It’s true! Teacher!" The assistant quickly said, while handing over his recorded notes to his mentor, and took out the previous observation record, "Look, this is the last record—you personally confirmed it."

Morgan Hugo took the few pages handed over by his assistant, his gaze swiftly scanning over them; he paused for a moment, then more carefully examined them again, subsequently raising his head, eyes fixated on the gigantic sun in the sky.

"This is impossible..." the old astrological mage murmured, waving his hand to summon a phantom spell for coordinate calibration, setting a large array of reference markers around the sun disk image on the light filter, but seeing the calibrated results, his shock only increased, "No... impossible... such a large-scale shift... never seen before..."

"Teacher, should we report to Silver Castle?" the assistant cautiously asked, "This is a clear astronomical anomaly."

"Immediately report to Silver Castle!!"

...

Within the number two Celestial Observatory in the Dark Mountain Range, a young mage responsible for recording sun disk changes also stunnedly put down the record board in his hand.

"Could it be a storm on the sun’s surface?" the young mage murmured, examining the data and diagrams on the record board once more, then raising his head to look through the large filter lens atop the observatory, observing the sun disk image with an incredulous expression.

A nearby companion curiously looked over, "Could it be an error in the historical record?"

"No, all data have dual observations and records," The young mage spoke while standing up and stepping towards the observatory’s entrance, "I’ll go outside to check, you continue recording inside!"

He exited the observatory, arriving at the platform connected to the station. The cold north wind swirled above the Dark Mountain Range, sweeping over the forests and canyons, blowing fiercely across the station built a few months ago, causing the young mage who had just stepped out of the warm indoors to shiver involuntarily.

The young mage lifted a barrier, isolating the cold mountain wind, then took out a portable light filter lens, carefully observing the giant sun in the sky through the lens.

These celestial observatories set up in the Dark Mountain Range are an accessory product of the "Essence of Magic" project hosted by Kamel, aimed at studying the connection between the giant sun’s activity cycle and natural magic changes.

All along, Kamel has believed that the magic power in nature originates from the giant sun in the sky, but since the entire world itself is enveloped by a powerful magic-pervasive environment, observing external magic changes within this "enveloped environment" becomes extremely difficult. To reduce interference as much as possible and improve the accuracy of observations, Kamel hosted the construction of a series of observatories in the Dark Mountain Range.

The "number two Celestial Observatory" is one of them.

These observatories serve both as detectors of magic changes and observers of celestial phenomena, and because they are built at the heights of the Dark Mountain Range, they also have the function of monitoring the great walls.

Being stationed at such observatories, the young mage is naturally one of the best among Master Kamel’s many apprentices and assistants. Yet at this moment, this outstanding young man is caught in immense astonishment.

The sun still quietly hangs in the sky, as always, providing this world with light and heat. In the eyes of ordinary people, it probably shows no signs of change. However, to this young man, the sun in the sky now seems incredibly unfamiliar.

The young mage stares up for a long time without blinking, and even with the protection of filtered lenses, his eyes quickly begin to ache. He has to lower his head, using a spell to alleviate the swelling pain in his eyes, then carefully checks the parameters on his recording board.

At this moment, a strange, deep sound reaches the ears of the young mage.

The sound seems to come from an extremely distant place, resembling a hurricane wrapped around thunder. It traveled so far that by the time it entered his ears, it was already vague. In the midst of this strange noise, the young man looks up and, upon seeing the source of the sound, his expression falls into a stupor.

His gaze crosses the ridge of the Dark Mountain Range, across the Black Forest at the foot of the mountain on the other side, past the Rotting Plains destroyed by the chaotic wave, and at the end of his line of sight, on the southern horizon, the whole great wall is emitting a light many times brighter than usual.

The deep wind-thunder sound is emanating from that great wall.

"...Goddess of Magic..." the young mage exclaims softly, then turns and rushes to the observatory, "Quick, notify Master Kamel! Notify the leader!!"

...

On the horizon at the extreme south, the light emitting from the great wall is like an aurora fallen to the ground, floating with a splendor several times more intense than usual, and that unsettling wind-thunder sound continuously transmits — though much quieter than initially.

Gawain stands on the observation platform of the Dark Mountain Range, staring at the distant scene in silence.

In his mind, the alerts from the satellite monitoring system continuously echo:

"...Warning, active anomaly in the gas giant rising, warning, active anomaly in the gas giant rising..."

The changes in magic within nature are closely related to the sun’s activity, and according to the events of seven hundred years ago, changes in the sun might indicate the approach of the chaotic wave. The various observation records of the sea demons equally confirm this: whenever a chaotic wave arises, the first unusual reaction inevitably happens from the sun.

Is time running out... or has it already run out?

Gawain dismisses the alerts in his mind, turning to the young mage beside him — besides himself, this "satellite spirit" detected the sun’s changes first with the help of satellite alerts. This young man is the first in the territory to discover the anomaly and report it immediately, and he also promptly reported the abnormal situation of the great wall.

"How much time has passed since the great wall emitted weird sounds and bright light?"

"It’s already been four hours, Master," the young mage says with slight nervousness, "but I can only confirm the sound came four hours ago, unsure when the brightness changed — we were recording other things for several hours beforehand and weren’t watching the great wall."

Gawain nods, hearing the peculiar rigor of researchers in the young mage’s report.

Behind Gawain, Heidi and the others are all worried, Amber is the first to speak up: "I say... won’t that wall collapse already?!"

Gawain would love to give a definite answer, yet after several seconds of contemplation, he can only shake his head: "...I don’t know."

Heidi and Rebecca speak in unison: "You don’t know either?"

"I can only confirm one thing: the current weird sounds and increased brightness of the energy field screen signify a surge in the load of the great wall. It is under tremendous pressure right now, but the barrier hasn’t shattered, indicating the pressure hasn’t exceeded the threshold. According to the initial design, it will self-repair as long as no new impacts occur — but I’m unsure whether the safety system of the barrier can withstand this test after seven hundred years of wind and rain."

Rebecca swallows: "If... it can’t withstand?"

"The Dark Mountain Range may block the first impact of the chaotic wave, but the aberrations will soon attempt to cross this barrier; the best situation is that the chaotic energy in the Gondor wasteland has significantly atrophied over the past seven hundred years and is no longer capable of directly destroying the human world, so the southern borders will return to the situation when Anzu was newly founded seven hundred years ago — constantly battling monsters emerging from the chaotic wave in a never-ending seesaw war," Gawain shakes his head, "The good news is that we now have magic-guided artillery and Rainbow Light Devices, the bad news is in other parts of the southern borders, there aren’t any Cecil Wolf Cavalry like back then, nor any priest Assault Group or aristocratic Suicide Squad with fearlessness in sight."

Behind Heidi, an official from the Administrative Office can’t help but say in a low voice: "So we should best pray it withstands this time..."

"Whether praying is effective is hard to say, but at least we can’t just wait in vain," Gawain turns around, looking at Heidi, "The Administrative Office enters an emergency state, ready to call strategic resources at any time... towns already equipped with large barriers as reserve shelters... enhance monitoring of the Dark Mountain Range’s south, all observation points redirected to the great wall... prepare propaganda, the security team always on standby, nowhere can fall into chaos..."

As Gawain’s instructions are delivered one by one, everyone at the scene becomes more acutely aware of the seriousness of the situation, yet aside from this, they also feel somewhat reassured.

There are commands and plans; that’s certainly better than being clueless.

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