Chapter 548 — Witnessed Again

After withdrawing from the psychic network, Gao Yang received Amber's report at the first possible moment.

"...That's basically the situation," the half-elf lady said at the end of her report. "For now everything is normal at the Great Wall, and there are no signs of aberrations approaching. It seems that only the junction between the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains and the Black Forest has collapsed—because of the terrain, the outpost can't see the exact situation."

"...I understand," Gao Yang said with a brief pause, then nodded. "Keep a close watch on the Great Wall, and arrange for the security team inside the Defiance Fortress to patrol the southern part of the fortress. If it really is a landslide, the southern corridor of the Defiance Fortress may be affected."

After making these arrangements, Gao Yang did not linger at the Institute of Magical Technology; instead, he pleaded the need to rest and returned directly to the lord's manor.

Once back in the study, where the environment was more stable, he immediately called upon the satellite channel in his mind.

The peculiar overhead view of space surfaced in his mind, and images from the orbiting surveillance satellite appeared "before his eyes." Carefully he manipulated this ancient system, aiming its focus at the junction between the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains and the Black Forest.

He searched for traces left by landslides or earthquakes. The outdated satellite system labored along, and on the less-than-clear image appeared a slowly shifting vista of rotting wasteland. After several minutes of scanning and painstaking comparison, his gaze suddenly stopped.

There was something there—on the straight southward extension of the line running through Black Radiance City, within the bounds of the Black Forest. Something was there, but it was no landslide, no rockslide, no quake-made scar. It was a patch that looked like some kind of impact crater.

As the lens zoomed in, the image grew no clearer, and the deep, dark background hue of the rotting wasteland made distinguishing details extremely difficult. Yet Gao Yang could still make out the radial wrinkles around that ring-shaped area and the giant trees lying outward around the impact crater—the ability to snap giant trees tens of meters tall clean in two showed the impact had been ferocious, and judging by the dust still hanging in midair, the crater had appeared only recently.

What was that thing? Had something fallen from the sky?

Gao Yang stared in astonishment at the immense impact crater. Though he did not know exactly what had happened, he was almost certain that a crater of that shape was not the work of the magic tide.

In that moment he wished intensely that he could go to the site at once and investigate just what that thing was. Yet the crater lay on the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains—to cross that magnificent range and reach the very front line of the magic tide's corruption, that position was far too dangerous.

Although, as the territory's development came onto a proper track and the power at his command grew steadily greater, Gao Yang had already begun considering more proactive action against the Gondor Wasteland, and had drafted some plans for establishing observation posts or forward bases on the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains, it was obvious that these were merely plans—for the time being, the Duchy of Cecil was in no way ready to cross the Dark Mountains.

For soldiers carrying equipment to march through the steep and treacherous southern slopes, they would have to pass through vast stretches of fragile, corrupted mountain paths and areas covered in toxic, magically altered vegetation. The descent would be extremely difficult; transporting supplies or calling for support from the rear would both be extraordinarily hard, and once danger struck, survival would be all but impossible...

Still, he need not send soldiers. He could dispatch a few of his top elites, or even go himself—a legendary powerhouse could still operate on the southern slopes of the Dark Mountains. Only... was that impact crater worth the risk?

Gao Yang pondered. That suddenly appearing impact crater troubled him deeply, but just then something else abruptly intruded upon his surveillance view.

...

Thin clouds raced past on either side; the frigid air was cleft apart by enormous wings and whistled over a colossal body covered in scales. An adult dragon with blue scales circled high in the sky, and in her great, gem-like eyes were mirrored the scarred and battered expanse of land below.

Corrupted rock lay in layered folds, all manner of twisted, mutated magical plants grew unchecked between the strata, the soil showed an ominous purple-black, and a thin mist floated above it. This region, corrupted by chaotic magical energy, stretched all the way south from the Dark Mountains—the Black Forest, the belt plain, the Great Wall, and finally the Gondor Wasteland—spreading onward into that terrifying deep-blue magical storm, a place even dragons feared.

The dragon beat her wings and adjusted her angle in the air. Her gaze swept across the boundary of the Black Forest, and an enormous impact crater, still belching smoke, came into her view.

She hovered in place high above and began to invoke obscure, ancient draconic magic. As magical power surged, a pale golden rune light-screen materialized in the air; a mana shield shut out the howling wind outside and provided a stable environment for conversation.

A female voice issued from the dragon's mouth: "Arrived at coordinates, southern Dark Mountains. Crash crater sighted, very large."

Complex symbols and lines danced across the surface of the pale golden rune light-screen, and a slightly distorted voice came through it: "...Received... Please approach and observe. Be careful; that place is very close to the magical contamination zone—don't fall in."

"I know, I'll be careful," the blue dragon said, somewhat carelessly. "Actually, this place is still pretty far from the real contamination zone. I think if I flew a bit further south it should be..."

Before the blue dragon could finish, a stern voice came at once from the light-screen: "Don't do anything unnecessary—have you forgotten last time's lesson?"

"Last time wasn't my fault, and I just didn't aim my forced landing well..."

"The council was deeply impressed by your crash-style forced landing, but we do not intend to watch another one anytime soon—please focus on the task at hand."

The blue dragon swayed her head from side to side, seemingly rather impatient. Then she cut the communication, gave her wings a fierce beat, and began rapidly descending.

At the edge of the Black Forest, dust still billowed in a massive impact crater. The tremendous force of the earlier blast had flung vast swathes of vegetation outward and left great radial fracture patterns around the crater's rim. At the crater's center, in the deepest, dust-choked place, a mass of twisted, deformed metal wreckage was still red-hot.

A gale suddenly arose, scattering the dust at the crater's bottom. The blue dragon descended from the sky, and with a heavy thud, her enormous body came to rest steadily within the crater.

"I'm still pretty steady, aren't I."

The blue dragon muttered softly to herself, then strode forward to the crater's bottom, to the mass of still-glowing metal wreckage.

It was an alloy device roughly two or three meters long and less than half a meter in diameter. Despite having endured the ultra-high temperatures of atmospheric entry and the terrifying shock of impact, the wreckage retained its basic shape. It was roughly cylindrical, both ends broken off, with many charred cables and pipe bundles protruding from the fractures. On the cylinder's surface, some raised structures were still visible—all these features indicated that this piece had been torn from a much larger whole.

"...Ah... just as I thought..."