Chapter 614 — Activation

The flare of magical light was so brilliant that, against the twilight sky already fading into dusk, it stood like a colossal pillar joining heaven and earth. No sighted creature could have missed it—and certainly not the soldiers on the walls of Boulder Fortress, who had been keeping ceaseless watch on the north.

A picked company soon left the fortress and followed the direction of that radiance into the wilds at the edge of Pompey's domain. Before the light had faded, they found the source of the extraordinary magical eruption.

A "statue" wrought of mingled rock and crystal stood upright on the open ground, longsword in hand, facing east. Nearby, the soldiers discovered a great boulder carved all over with words.

Word was rushed into Boulder Fortress at once, and before the last daylight had wholly failed, the fortress commander, Sir Wald Perrich, arrived on the scene. The old knight stared in astonishment at what lay before him—he recognized the statue's face, for he had once seen that young countenance in certain records.

"This statue is... Marquis Berke Loren?" Wald murmured, unable to believe it. "This..."

His first instinct was to take it for a genuine stone statue, but doubt quickly followed, and with it a host of dreadful conjectures—for the likeness was so exquisitely faithful that every strand of hair and every fold of cloth was rendered to the finest detail. A array of crystalline, still faintly glimmering gems was set into the statue's surface as though grown out of the "skin" of the "stone," and the sight of it made the blood run cold.

It brought to the old knight's mind certain reports that had lately come down from the north.

And the writing on the boulder nearby seemed to confirm his judgment.

After studying the carvings on the great stone closely, the steadfast old knight turned at once to his adjutant: "Dame Margarita, contact Duke Gao Yang immediately!"

The urgent transmission from Boulder Fortress interrupted a routine exchange between Gao Yang and Daniel. After hearing Dame Margarita out, Gao Yang, seated in his study, drew a slow breath.

News from the deepest reaches of the northern contamination zone... delivered before his eyes in the most unexpected manner imaginable.

Berke Loren turned into a crystal statue? What had he endured? How had he come to the very gates of Boulder Fortress? Why had such a transformation befallen him? All of it was bewildering—yet dimly, Gao Yang guessed at some part of the truth.

On the holographic projection beside the desk, the woman knight with the brown, shoulder-length hair was awaiting orders: "My lord, how should we handle... the situation here?"

Gao Yang glanced at the projection—behind Margarita he saw the wilds north of Boulder Fortress, where an upright "statue" stood quietly among broken stones and weeds, lit by the surrounding magic-crystal lamps. In that face now turned to stone and overgrown with crystal, Gao Yang faintly recalled the sight of the man the last time they had met.

"Examine the 'statue' for any lingering contamination—the hallmarks would be tangled arcane energies and unstable vital responses. If there are none, bring him back," Gao Yang instructed, and did not neglect to add, "Take the utmost care. Not a hair of him is to be harmed."

He did not know exactly what Berke had been through, but he could guess at some of it: a brave knight should not be left exposed any longer on the open wild.

When the transmission ended, Gao Yang raised his head and looked at Amber, who stood nearby, still sunk in bewilderment and muttering under her breath: "The whole Eastern Legion... really just wiped out, like that?"

Gao Yang shook his head slightly. "I fear it is not only the Eastern Legion that is finished."

Then he reactivated the magic-net communication terminal and called the emergency line of the military district: "Philip, come to the lord's residence."

The situation in parts of the Greatwood Pass was now clear, and the state of the Eastern Legion had been ascertained. Intelligence from Suo Jilin's side was still needed for further corroboration, but much could already begin.

He did not have long to wait. Thirty minutes later, Betty's voice came from beyond the study door: "My lord! Sir Philip is here!"

Philip entered the study in full knight's dress. He bowed to Gao Yang as he came in, but before he could speak, the magic-net terminal beside the desk suddenly lit up again, humming as it did so.

"One moment." Gao Yang raised a hand to Philip, signaling him to wait, then opened the communication device—judging by the special sigil that surfaced in the air once the magic-net terminal activated, this was an emergency transmission of the highest priority. Such a line would not be used unless the intelligence was of grave importance.

The device activated, and the holographic projection above it swiftly resolved into a clear image. Suo Jilin appeared, wearing his blond wig, his face stern: "We have important progress here."

Gao Yan nodded. "Speak."

"We have approached the edge of the contamination zone and rescued a group of Kingdom soldiers retreating from the north," Suo Jilin reported, speaking swiftly and clearly. "According to them, every area the Kingdom army controlled at the Greatwood Pass has been contaminated by the 'Crystal Cluster Curse.' Boulder City has fallen; Count Saurin is dead in battle; the greater part of the Kingdom's main force has been annihilated; Duchess Victoria Wilde and her mountain legion are trapped in the north, their situation unknown; part of the Kingdom's remnant has broken out toward the northwest, situation unknown; and great hosts of crystal giants are gathering and moving toward Saint Sunil."

"Kingdom soldiers retreating from the north?" Something stirred in Gao Yang's heart, and what came to him was another report he had just received—the warning from Berke Loren. "First, test those men's blood..."

Suo Jilin did not fully understand, but carried out the order at once. Gao Yang rose and went to the map of Ansu on the wall, marking and tracing on it in light of what Suo Jilin had just reported.

Soon the high ranger was back before the projection, and to everyone's relief, the Kingdom soldiers the steel rangers had rescued showed no sign of infection.

"Who is leading those soldiers? How did they reach the southern part of the contamination zone?"

"A knight named Mitchell. He and his squad were among those who broke out northwest with the main body, but near the Purplewater River Valley the whole breakout force was ambushed by the 'crystal cluster legion.' The main force was cut apart, and Mitchell and his men were separated from it—with no hope of continuing north, they began moving south."

"Ambushed by the crystal cluster legion?"

"Yes. Those crystal-infected... though they look like monsters now, we've found they still retain reason. It's only that their thought and perception have become wholly alien, and they regard the normal living as enemies..."

Suo Jilin and his steel rangers had indeed gathered a great deal of vital intelligence.

Over the time that followed, Gao Yang questioned him in detail about the north, about the "crystal-infected," about conditions in the contamination zone, and Suo Jilin gave a detailed and rapid account of all he had gathered along the way.

Gradually the situation on the Holy Spirit Plain, so long shrouded in fog, at last grew clear. In Gao Yang's mind all the known pieces swiftly reassembled; on the satellite map overlooking Ansu, great swaths of dim uncertainty were filled in and completed one after another.