Chapter 960 - 959: Going Deeper

Chapter 960: Chapter 959: Going Deeper

When the pale golden radiance in front of him faded away, Gawain found himself no longer on the high mountain overlooking Agondale. Instead, the magnificent frescoes and splendid columns of the Upper Sanctum stood before him.

The corridor leading to the royal temple Hall stretched in front of him. On either side, the temple guards stood silent and motionless like statues. High-ranked Dragon Priest Helagor stood beside him, the powerful Dark Wave gradually calming around him.

"Was that some kind of spatial transmission?" Gawain asked with some surprise, looking at the High Priest. "Have you already mastered the technology of space distortion?"

"That is in the domain of the gods; I merely imitate it clumsily," Helagor said with a gentle tone.

"It seems that the Dragonkin’s priest also borrows power from the gods," Gawain nodded thoughtfully, then looked towards the broad corridor ahead. "Can we just go straight ahead?"

"Yes, please follow me," Helagor said as he took a step forward, guiding Gawain onwards. But this time, he only led Gawain to the end of the corridor, stopping at the entrance to the hall. "From here on, I must take my leave."

Gawain raised his eyebrows in slight surprise: "You don’t need to stand by your god’s side?"

"This is a ’private’ meeting," said Helagor meticulously, "His Majesty Gawain Cecil."

This seemed quite intriguing...

A peculiar feeling and a few speculations arose within Gawain’s heart. He said nothing and stepped past Helagor, who was guarding the door. Boldly, he crossed the large, open, grand door adorned with enormous bas-reliefs and golden engravings, made from an unknown material.

Soft and comforting light illuminated the sacred hall. As during his last visit, the hall remained empty except for a circle of columns and crystal drapes hanging from the column tops. In the center of the hall, the pope’s throne had long since been removed, replaced by a silvery-white round table.

On the round table lay refreshments. Beside the table stood two chairs. Dragon God Enya stood in front of one of them, her face bearing a gentle expression as she looked towards the door.

Approaching the round table, Gawain took another glance around, confirming that only he and Enya occupied the vast hall—the "private meeting" was literal, with not even an attendant or guard to be seen.

Amidst his surprise, he couldn’t help but jest: "Isn’t it a bit wasteful to use such a spacious place for a conversation between just two ’people’?"

The Dragon God smiled faintly: "If you feel uncomfortable, I can turn this place into something else—even a familiar room of yours."

"No need," Gawain waved, "A bit more spacious is good; we can have an open discussion."

The Dragon God paid no attention to his peculiar way of speaking, simply nodding before looking into Gawain’s eyes: "Since it’s our first private conversation, perhaps I should reintroduce myself."

Saying this, she extended her hand towards Gawain, speaking in a low, gentle voice: "Enya, the protector of Talronde, the Dragon Gods."

Gawain looked at the offered hand but didn’t immediately respond. The voice of Dragon God Enya reached his ears, causing him to slightly widen his eyes. Despite some surprise, his dominant feeling was "as expected."

"Goddess"!

Since crossing the Eternal Storm, countless suspicions and ruminations of his about Talronde, at last, one had been confirmed.

The Dragon God maintained the posture of extending her hand with no sign of impatience. Only upon seeing Gawain deep in thought did she casually remark: "It’s not a good habit to let a lady wait too long."

Gawain, shaken from his distraction, hesitated for a moment before gently grasping the soft and warm fingers before quickly releasing them—during this process, he didn’t see the "Dragon of Chaos" vision again; it seemed the Dragon God had deliberately controlled something this time.

"Do gods really have genders?" After withdrawing his hand, he glanced again at the Dragon God, curious. "Even if gods have genders, do the ’Goddess’ also come with it?"

"In most early religions of various civilizations, the role of ’protector’ often corresponds to a maternal image," the Dragon God spoke lightly. "Of course, it’s not absolute—but for me, the role of ’mother’ is more satisfying."

Gawain sat down in his designated chair, and a large oak cup automatically filled before him. The liquid inside lightly swayed, reflecting the golden ceiling of the royal temple Hall and half of Gawain’s face.

He looked at the god before him, "So, you, this ’mother,’ are essentially a fusion of multiple gods? That...thing I saw was a kind of..."

He suddenly hesitated, finding it hard to express his current thoughts mildly. The deity before him seemed to notice this and smiled faintly, saying casually, "Don’t mind it, just speak whatever comes to mind. Since today is ’private conversation, we can talk more deeply. Whatever you want to ask or say, feel free to speak it."

This was already indicating, and Gawain immediately understood the Dragon God’s attitude in today’s conversation. Though still unclear on what exactly the deity planned, he felt significantly relieved: "Then I’ll be frank—I saw a strange thing in the sky above Talronde, like a stitched-together corpse. You once acknowledged that it was you. Now you claim yourself as the ’Dragon Gods,’ so can I boldly speculate: the Dragonkin was once like us humans, worshipping multiple gods with different clerical status, and for ’some reason,’ all gods became part of that ’stitched-together corpse,’ becoming the so-called ’Dragon God.’ Is that right?"

"Perfect speculation, almost the entire truth," the Dragon God replied lightly, "just missing one detail—you mentioned ’some reason.’ About this ’some reason,’ you already have a thought, don’t you?"

Gawain’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly, he faintly realized some key points. After a brief hesitation, he decided to speak: "Yes, I have thoughts; they originate from things I saw when crossing the Eternal Storm—I’ll be straightforward, I saw a battlefield at the center of the Eternal Storm, a battlefield of dragons and ’Goddess.’ Although I didn’t know those colossal attackers, my intuition told me they were the Dragonkin’s gods. However, oddly, after leaving the storm, only I remembered these things; Amber, Veronica Moen, and Melita Ponia do not remember..."

"That was out of goodwill," the Dragon God explained, "witnessing such things isn’t beneficial to the mental health of mortals. Memory cleansing, removing traces, are meant to erase the spiritual pollution they suffered."

Gawain placed his hand beside the oak cup and rested his gaze on the Dragon God: "So...it was indeed you behind that event."

The Dragon God nodded frankly: "Indeed, it was me."

"Then why didn’t you take the opportunity to ’handle’ my memory as well?" Gawain asked curiously, "Or did you intentionally keep my memory intact just to discuss these matters with me today?"

"...I tried, but failed," surprisingly, the Dragon God seemed to hesitate for a brief moment before giving an answer that surprised even Gawain, "In fact, I tried six whole times."

Gawain: "?"

"It seems you didn’t even feel a god once attempted to cleanse your memory," Dragon God Enya said leisurely, "In fact, when I realized I was facing a boundless, infinite sea of memory that rapidly self-repairs and restructures protectively every second, I knew this would be the result."

Gawain’s expression gradually turned serious: "What else did you discover?"

"Rest assured, I did not pry into your memory—I have no such authority, and even if I did, I doubt I could find anything useful in your memory or ensure my own safety in the process," the Dragon God chuckled, "After all...you are tightly connected with the Voyager, and no god is willing to directly clash with the legacy of the Voyager."

The hand holding the oak cup trembled slightly—Gawain knew that this tiny tremor couldn’t escape the "god’s" eyes.

"What else do you know?" he asked, looking up at his counterpart.

"Shortly after your ’resurrection’, I noticed changes occurring in the human world," the Dragon God only smiled blandly, with an expression that seemed eternally unchanging, "You have brought many things to this world, much of which exceeds the developmental stage of mortal society at the time, and also exceeds the knowledge and experience that the real ’Gawain Cecil’ would likely possess. Despite your diligent efforts to appear as an ordinary human, in my eyes...you are not quite convincing enough."I have gathered many clues, but I don’t have to tell you every one of them; here, I just want to greet the ’real you’ as the Dragon Gods—Dragon Gods greet you, Wanderer from Outer Realm."

"Wanderer from Outer Realm..." Gawain couldn’t help but chuckle, "At first, it was just used to scare those dark cultists..."

"But it’s not entirely made up," the Dragon God gazed at Gawain with a subtle smile, "And it aptly describes a ’foreign soul’ that comes from nowhere, for no known reason, with unknown purposes, doesn’t it?"

"...It seems the connection between the Dragonkin and the Voyager is deeper than I imagined."

The Dragon God did not respond to this. Instead, He surveyed Gawain with an examining gaze and curiously asked, "There’s actually something I’m quite concerned about—even though you share some connection with the Voyager’s legacy, you currently use just a human body, which is very fragile, no offense intended—but with one finger I could crush the vessel you use now, yet you still accepted my invitation, leaving behind the grand Empire you just established to come to Talronde with just two barely decent ’bodyguards’... Aren’t you worried that the Dragonkin harbors malice, or that I, this ’god’, might have malicious intent?"

Gawain took a sip from the oak cup and then raised one eyebrow: "But it was you who made the invitation first, and you even invited me twice."

"An invitation is one thing; attending it is another," the Dragon God clearly didn’t want to hear a perfunctory answer, "Conventionally, given your status in the mortal world, you shouldn’t act rashly like this, and from a cautious perspective, both Talronde and the ’Dragon God’ are ambiguous forces to humans; considering your prior knowledge of gods, you should naturally have some hostility towards me, which is why I’m even more curious... In such a situation warranting vigilance, what gives you the confidence to come to Talronde to meet?"

The gaze of this "Gods of Talronde" landed upon Gawain, and those pale golden eyes seemed to harbor unimaginable power. In a breath, Gawain could even feel the entire Upper Sanctum trembling slightly.

He had no doubt that this "god" indeed possessed the power to kill him instantly—He had lived on this world for too long, and the Dragonkin had developed in this world for too long. The Gods of Talronde had already become powerful to an unbelievable degree, and His power was something no mortal force could withstand.

Except for the "Voyager".

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Do you have a reason to act?" Gawain asked calmly under Enya’s faint pressure.

"Yes—simply due to your connection with the Voyager’s legacy, you are already a ’god’s’ inherent threat, and you are currently in a very vulnerable state where many gods would choose to eliminate the threat."

"Then I’ll assume you have a reason to act," Gawain put down the oak cup and relaxed against the ornate golden seat, his eyes drifting upward as if seeing through the hall’s dome to the resplendent northern sky, "But you should know that the Voyager’s legacy is spread across the entire space. Some orbital facilities’ paths cross the north pole, and at any time, there are at least three gravity-anchored satellites and a large gravity-anchored space station watching over Talronde... and more unanchored facilities will pass over the skies near Talronde within twelve hours."

"...So, this is your so-called ’trump card’?" The Dragon God frowned slightly, then shook His head with a hint of disappointment, "I had higher expectations—you think I don’t know? Those facilities you mentioned, their energy sources are long depleted, except for the Firmament, what the Voyager left in space is just hundreds of cold tombstones, are your trump cards only those non-offensive ’tombstones’?"

"They indeed lack offensive capability, with primary energy offline and self-repair functions collapsed, now only using backup energy to maintain orbit," Gawain said with a candid expression, "No matter how many satellites and space stations float above Talronde, they effectively cannot fire even once on the ground..."

He paused slightly, a smile curving at the corner of his lips: "But what if they fall?"

The Dragon God’s eyes finally became serious.

"There’s a command that even if those facilities’ energy approaches exhaustion, they can still be used because it’s executed with backup energy," Gawain once again lifted the oak cup, noticing that the drink inside had been refilled, and he displayed a trace of satisfaction while saying with good humor, "’Abandonment Protocol’, used to safely retire overextended space facilities—before departing, I’ve set Talronde as the crash target for twelve satellites and three space stations, only waiting for the protocol to take effect, and the Voyager’s legacy will fall from the sky—I want to ask, can the Great Shield of Talronde withstand them?"

"...Even if meteors fall, the Great Shield could remain unscathed, but should the Voyager’s legacy descend from the sky... the shield indeed wouldn’t withstand it," the Dragon God seemingly held His breath for several seconds before breaking the silence, "Some dangerous equipment and residual weapons inside those satellites and space stations would explode, harmful substances could contaminate the entire ecosystem, countless Dragonkin would perish, and I would protect them without hesitation—which would result in severe injury or even death."

He took a long breath and looked solemnly at Gawain: "Alright, I admit, that’s a good card. But are you really confident you can issue the abandonment protocol in time? Perhaps... I could destroy you before you react, leaving you without time to command, or I could interfere with your thoughts, preventing you from issuing accurate instructions—my speed of action could be so fast that your mortal body’s nervous reflexes couldn’t keep up, have you considered this possibility?"

Gawain raised his eyebrows.

He put down the oak cup (it did require a bit of willpower), then reached into his pocket, pulled out a mechanical watch, and glanced at the time.

"You got one thing wrong," he said. "I don’t need to issue the abandonment protocol command—I’ve already issued the command.

"After crossing the Eternal Storm and before stepping onto the Talronde Continent, I initiated the abandonment procedures for all space facilities in the list, twelve satellites and three large space stations have long started the process—except I’ve given them a twelve-hour final confirmation countdown.

"And what I’ve been doing these days is postponing them every twelve hours."