Chapter 594 — Early Warning Response

Once the communication line was confirmed secure, Gao Yang did not conceal anything from Hetty, but spoke directly of the intelligence on the Drowsers he had intercepted in the dream.

The news evidently startled Hetty on the other end of the communicator.

"...They are most likely researching the God-spawn, and very possibly looking for a chance to release it. The so-called great evolution they pursue is probably nothing more than turning people into monsters," Gao Yang said slowly, laying out his conclusion. "At present we have no ability to go deep into the Wasteland to investigate, nor do we know how the members of the Church of the Final End survive in that environment. For now our main efforts should still be focused on those cultists hiding within the human world...

"There is no need to send further warnings to the royal capital or the Eastern Frontier...

"Keep watch on all traders and transient populations coming from the northern regions. Strengthen quarantine and divine inspections, and set up more magical sensor towers along the border...

"Order the White Sands Mining Company to monitor the area along the line from the White Sands Hills to Fort Solin, with priority on gathering leads regarding plagues, missing persons, and cult rituals. Report at once if anything turns up."

Gao Yang laid out one by one the matters Hetty was to keep watch on, and the shape of the work gradually grew clear and orderly.

He had intended to send one more warning letter to the royal capital and the Eastern Frontier, but in the end decided against any further warnings —

First, he understood the efficiency and temper of those traditional northern nobles; he had issued a warning only days ago, and more warning letters now would bring no improvement in effect. Second, he could not describe the cultists' activities in too much detail in letters sent north — he could not explain the source of his intelligence, and doing so would only make the Church of the Final End realize that it was Gao Yang Cecil who had eavesdropped on their communications, and indirectly make the Drowsers aware of the flaw in the psychic network and the intrusion of the Outsider wanderer. Third — and this above all — rather than trust the northern nobles to act, he trusted his own people more.

Later he would have Amber select outstanding agents of the Bureau of Military Intelligence, to work with the Cecil Trading Company's intelligence network on the Holy Spirit Plains, directly gathering and monitoring intelligence on cultist activity in the northern regions. Those Bureau agents were first-rate at stirring up trouble and flipping the table; if they found traces of the cultists, they need only blow the matter up and the local lords would naturally be drawn to pay attention — that was the best way to prod those inefficient traditional nobles into action and make them useful.

But if even this could not stop the cultists' destruction from spreading... then Gao Yang could only leave the northern nobles to fend for themselves.

The power of the Duchy of Cecil was limited, and the influence of the Duke of Cecil was limited as well. Issuing warnings, dispatching intelligence agents to conduct investigations, and applying pressure on the royal house and the Eastern Frontier were already the limit of what he could do. He now had neither the legal authority nor the capacity to intervene directly in the situation on the Holy Spirit Plains or in the Eastern Frontier; even if he did intervene, the more likely outcome was simply to set the barely calmed situation off in an instant, dragging the Duchy of Cecil as well into the vortex of civil war.

By then, the work of repairing and reinforcing the Great Wall would certainly be finished too — and that was the cost he could least afford.

Hetty listened as the arrangements of the Mystic Vein Sect came one after another. She could hear the limits of these measures, and she could understand her ancestor's misgivings.

The Duchy of Cecil was, after all, still only a duchy; it had no way to reach into the northern regions.

After settling these matters, Gao Yang fell briefly to thinking. The expression on his face did not ease in the slightest; it grew graver than before.

Watching the changes in her ancestor's expression, Hetty asked cautiously, "Are you worried that the Church of the Final End's scheme... will be graver than spreading plague?"

Gao Yang nodded gravely. "They are not merely a cult."

In the minds of most ordinary people, the Church of the Final End was just a cultish sect, a thing mixed in among rustic horror tales, sorcerer legends, and mythic strange tales. But Gao Yang, who had dealt with them several times and knew the history of their origins, did not think so. This was a dark mystery sect "of the same age" as the human kingdoms, deep in foundations, vast in power, wielding profound and unfathomable biotechnical arts and plotting obscure and inscrutable dark conspiracies. In these several hundred years of operation they had even infiltrated the ruling stratum of the nobility; given the degree of state control and centralization in this era, a dark mystery sect like the Church of the Final End was almost capable of overturning a kingdom's order.

"They have always hidden in the shadow of this Ansul civil war. Their shadow is in the Eastern Frontier, their shadow is on the battlefield, and I even suspect their shadow lies in Typhon's actions against Ansul," Gao Yang continued. "So they must be regarded on a higher plane, and arrangements must be made on a higher level."

Hetty seemed to catch a whiff of iron and fire in her ancestor's manner, and she unconsciously held her breath. "...You mean..."

"Convert all the payment and supplies delivered by the royal house and the Eastern Frontier into tank production lines. All mechanized units, apart from the necessary garrison in the south, are to be dispatched to Boulder Fortress and the Ghiran region," Gao Yang said, making his arrangements according to the worst case he had envisioned, his tone grave and cold as the wind. "Adjust the production plan of Tank Factory No. 1. Every tank produced by lines four through eight is to be fitted with heavy burners. Also notify Nikolai — tell him to complete the lightweight version of the White Knight heavy burner as quickly as possible, and to produce a model that ordinary soldiers can operate as soon as possible."

Such was Gao Yang's way of arranging things.

Whatever dark faith or convoluted conspiracy you have — at worst, a torrent of steel.

Armored units, burners to clear the way — just bull through and be done with it.

"Understood."

Hetty answered in a low voice, nodding firmly.

It was quite true — that was indeed the smell of iron and fire.

The communication ended. Gao Yang rubbed his brow lightly and searched his memory for any oversight in his arrangements.

Fire was the finest weapon against those fallen druids, and fire possessed of magical power, fire that blotted the sky, was the finest of the finest.

The God-spawn were creations imbued with magical power, but however magical a creation might be, its essence was still that of an organic body. Those fallen druids, for all their tremendous abilities and tons of black technology, could not change that essence — and according to the intelligence Kamael and Pierrot had once provided, fire worked very well against them.

Even if the God-spawn made by the Church of the Final End possessed wondrous magical properties and could resist the burning of natural flame, the heavy burners made by Cecil spewed "magefire" imbued with magical power; so long as there was enough of it, the God-spawn would burn all the same.

But the things those cultists were researching... were they really only the God-spawn? Might they have some greater conspiracy still?