Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 570 - 569: An Incomplete Solution

Faced with Soldrin’s somewhat awkward greeting, Sonia Frostleaf merely nodded lightly, "At least still healthy."

The few people around Gawain were utterly surprised. Having seldom dealt with elves, they couldn’t have anticipated that this elven lady, who looked only a few years older than Rebecca, was actually Soldrin’s mother. However, out of courtesy, everyone well-contained their excessive astonishment—only Rebecca let out a "Wow," which was the only exception.

Gawain, however, had foreseen this situation upon seeing Sonia Frostleaf, and he calmly remarked, "It’s been many years; isn’t it a bit too cold?"

Soldrin shrugged helplessly, and Sonia glanced at Gawain, "He hasn’t been home for a whole seven centuries."

Gawain: "..."

There was nothing he could say to that.

"We have prepared accommodations for you, and hope that you will find the human quarters comfortable to stay in," Aunt Heidi chimed in to ease the subtle atmosphere. As she spoke, she cast a look at the large birds on the square, "As for these giant eagles...can they stay in the gryphon nests?"

Although the Cecil Clan is now promoting Magic Web Communications, lessening the role of gryphons as messengers, Cecil Castle still maintains a basic gryphon squad and gryphon nests for delivering important letters and conducting partial reconnaissance tasks.

"They can, the giant eagles aren’t picky about where they stay," Sonia nodded, "The Orlando Ranger will tell you how to properly settle these giant eagles. Also, please arrange for those gryphons whose nests were taken and soothe...their emotions."

A male elf in green leather armor stepped forward, presumably the "Orlando Ranger" Sonia mentioned.

The personnel managing the gryphon nests began handing over tasks with this ranger, while Sonia and the other elves followed Gawain toward the Autumn Palace.

The giant eagles on the square seemed a bit uneasy about this unfamiliar city, with one raising its head and letting out a loud call towards Sonia’s direction: "Goo! Goo!!"

Sonia reluctantly halted and turned back to speak loudly to the massive bird, "Show some courage! You’re a giant eagle!!"

After speaking, she turned her head back and continued forward. Gawain, however, was taken aback when the giant eagle spoke, looking at Sonia in surprise, "What’s with this giant eagle?"

"Its name is Goo, and it hatched forty years ago," Sonia said, pressing her fingers to her temple and shaking her head, "Damn it, I shouldn’t have let the Thornheart Master take care of it...Moon Valley is full of pigeons!"

Gawain: "..."

Fortunately, none of these brief minor incidents affected the subsequent welcoming process. According to the planned schedule, a sumptuous welcoming banquet and accommodations that aligned with elven aesthetics were prepared for the emissaries in the Autumn Palace. After a merry banquet, in the reception hall of the Autumn Palace, Sonia Frostleaf handed over two prepared letters to Gawain.

One letter was sealed in a carved wooden envelope adorned with light green vines and leaves, bearing the mark of the Elven Royal Court at the seal, while the other was encased in a pale gold metal envelope with the sword and shield emblem of Anzu’s royal family at the seal.

Evidently, one letter was from the Elf Queen for him, and the other was from the Silver Castle.

Of course, officially speaking, the second letter was labeled as "jointly signed and issued by the Silver Castle and the Duke of the East."

Gawain glanced at Sonia, did not open either letter, and casually said, "Now, you are both the messenger for the Silver Empire and St. Soniel."

"Strictly speaking, I’m merely delivering this official message on behalf of the Silver Castle. Elves cannot represent any human side, I am just a messenger," Sonia said, "The emissaries of St. Soniel and the Duke of the East’s team are still in preparation, but they should have set off by now. Galloping fast, they should arrive within half a month."

"Wanting both face and benefits, neither side is willing to compromise, mutually wary of each other, and yet time doesn’t wait for anyone...In the end, it becomes such an awkward situation where letters bearing the royal seal have to be delivered by an elven messenger," Gawain chuckled and shook his head, "Don’t bother with those unworthy descendants, let’s get down to business—I have a rough idea of the situation and know your intention in coming to the human kingdoms. What exactly is the condition of the barrier?"

"All the sentinel towers have varying degrees of damage, and the effective power of the entire barrier has dropped to seventy percent. It is temporarily stable, but the system’s self-repair function is half-stalled. If the next impact causes another overload, it will definitely not withstand it," Sonia said without any reservation, directly stating the truth that would cause mass panic outside to the human hero who had personally experienced the magic tide, "We no longer have the capability to produce the core components of the sentinel towers. Currently, we have no parts, no replacements, no thorough repair solution."

After a pause, she continued, "I have already been in contact with Duchess Victoria Wilder, who mentioned that you had issued several warnings to the royal capital. I also saw the warning messages you wrote. If my judgment is correct, the initial overload started from the northern section of the wasteland—only at that time, you Anzu people had monitoring of the great walls that was practically nonexistent, no one noticed the precursor anomalies, and when the aberrations invaded Anzu, which was the time period you mentioned in your first warning when the aberrations destroyed old Cecil, the precursor had already turned into substantial damage."

Gawain frowned, "After that incident, I have organized people to start remote monitoring of the great walls again. For a long time, we didn’t see anything unusual."

"The self-repair system obscured the situation with the fault nodes. When you resumed monitoring the barrier, it was already ’functioning normally,’ but unfortunately, it was only superficially normal," Sonia said seriously, "In reality... the faults have been spreading, from one sentinel tower to another, until today, they have spread across the entire barrier."

Heidi couldn’t help but ask, "Didn’t your monitoring system detect it? In such situations where faults continue to spread... shouldn’t there be a warning mechanism?"

This was also the question Gawain wanted to ask, but Sonia shook her head slightly, "This is exactly what we have been investigating recently—the sentinel towers should have issued warnings. Even if the self-repair system temporarily fixes the faulty towers, at the very least, there should be a fault record transmitted back to the highest control center of the Sacred Stars Temple. But in fact, no records can be found in all systems... for the past few years, all the data sent back from the sentinel towers indicate everything is normal."

Gawain and Heidi couldn’t help but exchange a glance.

"Is it a deeper fault? Or is someone manipulating it?" Gawain asked solemnly.

"We are examining the situation with the warning mechanisms and have also dispatched Master Mages to inspect every sentinel tower along the barrier," Sonia slowly replied, "But no problems have been found so far. The monitoring of the entire great walls is continuous, the system has not detected any suspicious points, and besides the monitoring system, we have set up numerous monitoring posts around the periphery of the wasteland. The posts monitor the barrier twenty-four hours a day, anything approaching the sentinel towers—even a mouse—will be detected. It is impossible for anyone to have the opportunity to sabotage those towers. We really don’t know where the problem lies."

Listening to Sonia’s words, Gawain sighed lightly and then said, "No matter what, according to your statement, we actually missed an opportunity to repair the great walls..."

"And it was the best opportunity," Sonia sighed, "When the initial fault appeared, the sentinel towers didn’t have any substantial damage. We had the opportunity to thoroughly repair it... but saying this now is useless. When the initial fault occurred, not to mention other Anzu people, even you were still lying in..."

Sonia felt slightly awkward when she got to this point, but Gawain was very composed, "At that time I was still lying in a coffin—woke up to find that everything was already full of aberrations. According to your statement, by then it was already past the last opportunity for urgent repairs."

Fighting aberrations when sacrificed, waking up seven hundred years later still fighting aberrations, the concept of the previous version being futile is precisely Gawain’s situation.

"Let’s not discuss things that cannot be remedied; let’s talk about the current situation," Gawain ended the regrettable yet mildly embarrassing topic and returned to the main topic, "You mentioned earlier that there is no complete repair plan, so what other plans have you brought?"

"Constructing external amplification devices, this is an incomplete repair and reinforcement solution. We brought the data—" Sonia said, receiving a silvery cylindrical device from another messenger beside her. The device looked like a scroll, but when Sonia injected magic into it, the end of the "scroll" suddenly presented a clear holographic image. In this illusionary magic-created projection, a giant tower device along with a complex array of runes and magic formations continuously alternated across the images.

Sonia placed the "scroll" vertically on the table and continued to maintain the holographic projection while saying, "This plan involves establishing secondary ’sub-towers’ outside some sentinel towers, providing additional energy for the sentinel towers, and bearing part of the barrier pressure. Simultaneously, a series of ’pressure relief points’ will be established between the sentinel towers and sub-towers, gradually guiding and releasing chaotic energy accumulated near the sentinel towers to the outside of the barrier in a relatively safe way, and conducting purification near the pressure relief points..."

Gawain immediately seized the key point in her words, "You have found a way to purify the magic tide?"

"Seven hundred years, we have not done nothing," Sonia revealed a faint smile, but there was still a trace of reluctance in it, "This device cannot purify the whole wasteland, nor can it purify the magic tide. It can only extract some chaotic energy from within the barrier and conduct a limited purification. The main purpose is to reduce the load on the sentinel towers and decompress the repair system. The effect is limited, but it’s better than nothing."

Gawain looked at the complex rune array and device decomposition diagrams in the illusionary projection, his eyes solemn and focused.

This is elf technology, distinct from human magic, yet its essence and rules align with the descriptions of rune logic. It appears to counteract the pollution of the magic tide... though only to a small extent, it indeed works effectively.

The Silver Empire is indeed declining, but it ultimately possesses the foundation accumulated over time that human kingdoms currently cannot match. Before this foundation is exhausted, they can still produce such remarkable technological achievements.

After a few seconds of contemplation, Gawain raised his head and looked into Sonia’s eyes, "Then let’s not waste time—specifically, which areas need repair? How many sub-towers and pressure relief points need to be constructed? How much manpower and resources are needed? When will the work commence? How much time is left for our project timeline?"

The straightforward and crisp questions made Sonia unable to resist covering her forehead with her hand and sighing, "Oh my—if those human aristocrats in St. Soniel had half of your awareness and efficiency, we would probably be setting off to repair the barrier by now!"