Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 467 - 466: The Reopened Laboratory

The Battle of the Black Trap and the Inversion Tide.

To be honest, Gawain never expected to hear such a shocking ancient mystery in a casual chat with Sea Demon Tiel. But upon reflection, he realized that if there was anyone in this world who could provide historical accounts older and more detailed than those known to him, the satellite spirit, it would be these deep-sea saltwater fishes that have been observing the land since the Ancient Era.

What exactly is the so-called Black Trap...?

According to Tiel, it seems to be a filtering mechanism or a "reaper mechanism" that harvests civilizations according to a fixed standard. Every land-based civilization since the Ancient Era has been destroyed after reaching a certain level of development—destroyed by the chaotic wave or that mysterious "Black Trap". This fact is chilling.

However, Gawain also understood that even if the Black Trap existed, human beings could not stop progressing.

Because there is also the chaotic wave.

Without progress, they would perish in the chaotic wave. With progress, they might encounter the Black Trap.

All he could do, all that might be effective, was to find out the truth about the "Black Trap" before humanity encountered it.

"I don’t know if there exists a development path that can withstand the chaotic wave and avoid the Black Trap, but I believe sitting and waiting for doom is definitely not the solution. The chaotic wave has no mercy. It will not delay its visit due to mankind’s reverence or retreat."

Gawain looked at the distant night, spoke slowly and calmly, while Tiel beside him slightly widened her eyes, and a slight smile soon appeared on her face: "A leader should have such awareness... you are a good friend."

Gawain returned a smile and asked a question, "Why did you suddenly tell me these things tonight?"

Tiel shrugged: "It just came up in idle chat."

Gawain remained silent, just quietly watching the sea demon until she showed a helpless expression: "Alright then—it’s nothing much, just consider it a return for the Rainbow Light Technology. You might not have realized what you’ve created, but as far as I can tell, your new way of utilizing magic power is really of great reference value for us sea demons. As a return gift, I told you these things... of course, knowing these in advance might not necessarily be a good thing for you."

Gawain did not mind Tiel’s last words, but earnestly said: "You’ve already given your return gift for the Rainbow Light Technology."

"That bit of shipbuilding knowledge is nothing significant. You could figure it out yourselves in a few years, but the application of universal magic power... has always been our bottleneck. We sea demons cannot feel the magic in the natural world, nor can we understand and memorize your spell moulds. We have always been using the simplest, crudest ways, with poor stability and efficiency, to acquire energy. And due to the chaotic wave, our efforts in this regard need to start over every few tens or hundreds of millennia... so you can imagine how important the hope of breaking through this bottleneck is for us."

Saying this, Tiel paused for a moment, then continued: "Sea demons are not accustomed to owing others, even friends."

Gawain quietly looked into Tiel’s eyes, after a long while, he nodded gently: "I understand, then I accept your goodwill."

"Very well, may your civilization prosper—tonight’s conversation was very enjoyable."

Tiel’s voice echoed in the night, and she leapt gracefully, her fishtail shimmering under the starlight, drawing a beautiful arc in the sky before falling into the babbling waters of the White River.

Gawain stood on the rock by the riverbank, lowering his head to quietly watch where Tiel had fallen.

"...Due to the local water element cycle, the water level of the White River decreases at night—did you hurt yourself?"

"I’m fine!"

...

Even knowing that more challenges await him in the distant future, Gawain would not stop his footsteps—or rather, it is precisely because of the knowledge of the mysterious and terrifying phenomenon known as the "Black Trap" that he must accelerate the development in certain fields.

Although it is still uncertain whether there is a connection between the Inversion Tide of the Ancient Era and the Black Trap, the fact that the usually reclusive dragons participated extensively in wars on the continent, with their spearheads directly targeting human beliefs, is enough for Gawain to turn his attention to the Goddess of the Night.

He does not know what role the Goddess of the Night plays in the "Black Trap", but he does not mind increasing his understanding of her.

In the deepest part of the defied Fortress, before the magic door leading to the shadow realm.

The ancient hall, built a thousand years ago, has been restored, with the damaged walls and roof repaired and decorated using contemporary cement materials and coatings, and the ancient magic circle that was long defunct has been replaced by a modern Magic Web. In this newly renovated hall, only one thing maintains its original appearance: the circular magic door in the center of the room.

Around the magic door, several monitoring Array platforms flickered with uncertain light, and Mage Technicians in white researcher uniforms busied themselves around the magic door, monitoring its state, while Kamel, bathed in arcane magic, hovered in front of the door, releasing a powerful arcane pulse into the door’s energy core.

The slightly dim magic symbols on the door brightened immediately, and a stable passage to the shadow realm was opened.

"The laboratory in the defied Fortress is ready," Kamel turned around and said to Gawain and the others who had arrived early in the morning, "We can start any time."

Gawain looked around at the people beside him—besides Wright, who had to be involved in the experiment, there were also Pittman and Amber, along with a group of researchers led by Rebecca. Originally, Aunt Heidi also wanted to come along, but considering the busy affairs at the Administrative Office, and the fact that she had already withdrawn from the research team, she ultimately stayed at her post in the Administrative Office.

Amber was reluctant to come, but as Gawain’s personal guard and the most powerful master of shadows in the territory, considering the intricate connections between the shadow realm and the ghost realm, bringing her along was like having an insurance for early warning of channel fluctuations, so regardless of whether she was willing or not, Gawain forcefully brought her along.

After confirming the personnel beside him, Gawain nodded and looked at Wright, "Did you bring the test foundation plate?"

Wright took out the Holy Light Foundation Plate from his body, "Here it is."

Emily emerged from thin air behind Wright, waved her hand, and greeted Gawain.

Oh, this little girl should be counted in—she counts as Wright’s bound equipment.

Gawain waved back at Emily, then walked forward first, "The test equipment is ready in the laboratory... let’s go in."

After passing through the passage to the ghost realm, the interior of the defied Fortress appeared before them.

This ancient facility with a thousand years of history has been reactivated, but only one laboratory within it has been reactivated, most of its areas still maintain the appearance Gawain first saw—it was even more deserted and empty than when he first saw it.

Because all valuable ancient equipment and sample materials had been moved away.

The group did not pay attention to those already empty corridors and rooms, and directly moved towards the depths of the defied Fortress under Kamel’s guidance.

They passed through the outer corridors of the fortress and went through the fan-shaped hall that once held nine hundred and seventy-two bodies.

The bodies in the fan-shaped hall had been transported out and had been properly buried in the cemetery outside Cecil Castle. Now the hall was empty, leaving only rows of seats silently maintaining their silence in the dim light. Kamel couldn’t help but slow his steps as he passed through the fan-shaped hall, looking at this place that had trapped him for a thousand years, but he ultimately said nothing and made his way straight to the end of the hall, opening the passage to the highest security laboratory.

Gawain was brought to a room he had not seen before.

This room was right outside of the fan-shaped hall, judging from its location, it should be near the door leading to Amoen, the Giant Stag’s resting place. Gawain saw this laboratory had been completely cleaned and prepared. The rectangular room was brightly lit and equipped with Mage workbenches and various experimental devices based on Rune Technology, and at the end of the room was a large floor-to-ceiling window.

The surface of the floor-to-ceiling window fluctuated with a faint light screen, outside the light screen was boundless darkness, in which countless shattered, floating giant boulders and chunks of land could be vaguely seen, while a massive stag’s corpse, as large as a small mountain, lay in the center of the entire dark space, emitting a gentle glow that illuminated the many metal fragments and small floating stones surrounding it, appearing extraordinarily beautiful, yet eerily bizarre.

Wright looked through the floor-to-ceiling window at Amoen’s corpse. Although he had long since known about the fall of the God of Nature and had relinquished his faith in the Holy Light, at this moment, he couldn’t help being moved by the sacred and immense divine body.

Gawain stepped forward and patted Wright’s shoulder, "Stop looking—we are about to engage in acts of defiance today."

Kamel came to the center of the laboratory, where a circular platform was set up, one of the few ancient devices preserved in the laboratory. He spread his hands before the platform and injected pure arcane energy into the metal columns on either side. As the low humming sound suddenly started, the ancient Mage Technician muttered quietly to himself:

"defied Plan, experiment... continue."

The low humming gradually became a smooth, stable sound. Outside the floor-to-ceiling window, a more solid and distinct energy barrier appeared out of thin air and gradually enveloped the entire defied Fortress. Then a mechanical, monotonous and slightly distorted synthesized voice came from the laboratory’s ceiling speakers:

"...Secondary Energy System activated, operator authentication approved...

"...Activating active protection barrier... carrying out passive protection barrier... activating Divine Power filter... synchronizing warning system...

"...Emergency cut-off system test in progress... emergency cut-off system status normal...

"Warning: Fortress main artificial intelligence offline... backup artificial intelligence offline... all database levels offline, all network levels offline..."

"Ignore," Kamel said quietly.

"Ignoring error messages, auxiliary permissions transferred to basic Responder, detected ninety-nine percent operator absence... ignore, removing operator authentication restrictions. Basic Responder full system self-check complete, Responder online.

"Good day, Kamel Slayne, Chief Analyst, wishing you a productive working day."

Even though he knew the voice was just a basic Responder, lacking any thinking ability, preset a thousand years ago, Kamel couldn’t help but feel momentarily transported back to the past, to a time when the laboratory was bustling and full of personnel coming and going. He felt the Ao energy within him vibrating, and after a long while, he softly muttered, "Good day, Defiers... let’s begin."