Chapter 920 — The Void

The deity upon the holy throne suddenly opened its eyes, and within those golden, vertical pupils burned an awe-inspiring presence.

The dragon priests who kept vigil near the throne almost immediately prostrated themselves, offering their reverence to the god they served—and the chief of the dragon priests, Hragor, the highest in rank and closest to the throne, was no exception.

A moment passed before the priests heard the god's voice drifting down from above, as though carrying a faint sigh: "Only He could have done such a thing..."

"My Lord?" Hragor raised his head cautiously, looking up at the Dragon God. "What has happened?"

"Pay it no mind," Enya, the Dragon God, said, sweeping a dispassionate glance over the priests who stood trembling in the temple, voice utterly without inflection. "It has nothing to do with the dragons."

……

The shrieking came without warning.

With that inexplicable screech, every device in the hall went visibly awry. The arcane-net terminals began projecting all manner of bizarre lines and patterns no human mind could parse; call signals from every corner of the Empire flooded in at once and collapsed into chaos; the power supply systems faltered in turn, and the lights began to flicker violently—as though an invisible storm had descended upon the entire arcane net, churning that vast system into towering waves.

The staff in the hall, predictably enough, were plunged into a brief moment of panic and confusion.

But the panic lasted less than two seconds—Gao You had already recovered from his instant of shock. He sprang to his feet, and the aura effect that could soothe the mind unfurled in its wake; the Legendary-domain knight skill spread across the whole hall, forcibly restoring everyone to a state of utter calm. At the same moment, Rebecca's voice rang out from the front of the hall: "Stay calm—all systems, begin self-diagnosis at once!"

Then Kamaier's voice came from close by: "First confirm the state of the building's power spine—is the energy supply affected?"

The piercing shriek continued unabated. Shielded by the knight's aura from the factors that preyed upon the mind, the technicians began swiftly and methodically checking all systems, following contingency plans and their own experience, and soon reports came trickling in from every corner of the hall: "Power spine still running, no major systems offline..." "A few buffer units and safety barriers were breached, but the equipment behind them is still in decent shape." "Re-establishing connection with the Imperial Nexus..."

The Imperial Nexus was the arcane-net nexus tower in Xuanyao City, the highest node above all the "primary hubs." When the shriek had erupted, some powerful energy surge had disrupted its operation, and it was now temporarily offline.

"Is the internal channel still working?" Gao Yang rose from his seat and crossed the few steps to Rebecca's side, giving her shoulder a light pat. "Take a look at what's happening outside."

Rebecca was clearly somewhat flustered as well, but the moment Gao Song's hand came to rest on her shoulder, she abruptly steadied.

"The internal channel is isolated from the main net. Let me see..." she said, words tumbling out rapidly, even as she manipulated the rune "palette" before her with consummate skill. After a flurry of operations, she let out a breath. "It works. I've brought the feed over—"

An instant later, an image captured by a surveillance device on the surface was projected above the crystal array at the front of the hall. In the holographic display, streaked with a few bands of static, a towering white spire stood upon the high ground near the Arcane Research Institute. The tower itself appeared untouched, yet the mechanical apparatus and crystal array at its summit had ceased to function, and the crystals that ought to have blazed with charged light were now visibly dim.

Gao Qi frowned at the sight—but soon he saw those dimmed crystals slowly brightening again, little by little.

The power spine within the tower had successfully restarted; surging energy was once more being injected into every unit. The immense crystal array sprang back to life within seconds, and the mechanical devices that had locked themselves down in emergency released their locks of their own accord, beginning to rotate slowly and recalibrate themselves. Somewhere in the hall, a technician cried out: "Reconnected with the Imperial Nexus!"

Gao Yang allowed himself a slight breath of relief, though his expression remained taut. Rebecca, meanwhile, immediately called out: "What's the situation at the primary hubs across the regions?"

"Can't reach any of them for now... all channels are down, but if ours could restart, theirs should be able to as well... We're trying single-line calls..."

"Keep calling. Regardless, we need to reach the primary hubs in every region first and confirm they're safe," Rebecca said, speaking rapidly. "Master Kamaier, please contact the Computation Center and confirm the state of things on the neural network side. Cohen, take your team down to the third basement level—the lower energy group needs hands. Malin, open the Imperial Nexus's public window; the other primary hubs may try to call us through it..."

She had fully steadied herself by now, and had begun methodically assigning tasks and stabilizing the situation.

Gao Yang watched this Rebecca—so utterly unlike her everyday self—with some surprise. After a long while, he sighed inwardly with a touch of satisfaction: his "Iron Mind Aura" really was remarkably effective.

……

The chaotic shrieking did not occur only within the control center of Xuanyao City; it erupted at every primary hub, and on every arcane-net terminal connected to them.

In that instant, and in the minutes that followed, every primary arcane-net hub throughout the Empire met the same fate: the dreadful shriek came without warning, powerful energy surges shattered the connections just established, equipment went down on a massive scale, and the control centers were thrown into chaos. An unseen storm raged through the arcane net that blanketed the whole Empire—from Shilin City to the Longwind Fortress, from Holy Sunil to Winterhold, every regional director was left scrambling.

A cold, piercing will suddenly descended, "freezing" the minds of everyone in the hall like frost crystallizing in an instant. Then the cold will gradually receded, and the technicians swiftly regained their composure—the quickest to recover looked first toward the elevated platform nearby, where Grand Duchess Victoria Wilder stood quietly, crystalline ice shards orbiting her, her frost-and-snow countenance utterly expressionless.

"Stay calm. Begin tracing the faults," Victoria's cool, clear voice rang out, carrying through the entire hall. "First confirm the energy situation, then attempt to restart our nexus tower."

"My Lady," the high-ranking mage advisor Viktor said, flying straight to the platform where Victoria stood, "our communications with the imperial capital are cut—communications with the primary hubs of every other region are all cut as well."

"The energy disruption just now affected every system, so a communications outage is only to be expected," Victoria said, her face impassive. "First try to reach Holy Sunil, the nearest to us, and confirm whether other regions have suffered similar incidents."

"Yes, my Lady." Viktor bowed his head in acknowledgment and withdrew, stooping.

After the old mage had departed, Victoria swept a level gaze around the hall.

Under the effect of "Frigid Mind," the panicked technicians had all been calmed. Though the situation remained unclear, everyone had returned to their work, feverishly tracing faults and searching for the cause of this anomaly.