Chapter 1204 — "Childcare"

After Enya brought up those distant, ancient memories, a hush fell over the hatchery at once. Even the two newly hatched whelps seemed to sense the shift in the atmosphere; they immediately tucked in their wings and drew back their necks, cautiously scrambling to take shelter beneath Metzen's feet — although the first "person" they had seen after hatching was Enya, compared to round eggshells, Metzen clearly fit the image of "mother" better in the little ones' eyes.

The two whelps, darting about at her feet like puppies, brought a look to Metzen's face that mingled delight with nervousness. Bending down to carefully stroke the scales on their heads, she looked up at Enya: "You mean... the marks of mana erosion on the whelps are very likely connected to the Deepblue Netway? The mana in the Deepblue Netway is 'rising'?"

"I can't be certain — those are memories from two million years ago, after all, and there's no theory proving that changes in the Netway's mana must be linked to the mutations in the whelps. Tar'lond's technology was still quite backward in those days," Enya said in a low voice. "But I think this matter should be reported to Hragor and the others — they may not have the means to monitor the Deepblue Netway now, but at the very least they should examine recently hatched whelps. If more whelps are indeed showing signs of this mana erosion... then this is something to be on guard against."

"I'll contact Tar'lond the moment I get back," Metzen said at once with a nod. "When Speaker Anqian last got in touch, he said they had successfully repaired an energy extraction station. If the station's deep probes still work, they might still be able to observe some of the changes in the Deepblue Netway..."

Gaoyang, too, had fallen into thought at the same time, considering what means he now had to intervene in a planet-scale power megastructure like the "Deepblue Netway." Before long, a name surfaced from the depths of his mind: Virolai/Ophelia.

Once a member of the ancient royal house of the Gondor Empire, and leader of the Defiers, she now moved through the human world in the body of Virolai, controlled by projection of her consciousness — while her true body... lay in fact in the deepest reaches of the Gondor Wasteland, having, as Gaosong understood it, used some ancient technology to convert her life form into a kind of immortal state.

The ancient Well of the Deepblue had been utterly annihilated in a great explosion, but what had actually been destroyed back then was merely the extraction facility humanity had built above the "Netway Surge Source." Today, Virolai/Ophelia's true body still presided deep within the Gondor base beneath that surge source, monitoring the operation of the remaining parts of the Well of the Deepblue through a series of ancient autonomous devices and a legion of iron men — her condition seemed far from good, but compared to the mortal nations utterly unable to enter the Gondor Wasteland, she might still be able to monitor certain stirrings within the Deepblue Netway.

The Deepblue Netway ran through the entire planet; the anomalous "upwelling" occurring in Tar'lond might well have left traces at the Netway's outlets in other regions as well.

Hearing Gaoyang's and Metzen's answers, Enya murmured a soft "mm," then spoke in a light voice tinged with a smile and a touch of lament: "Then all we can do is hope you will see to these things. As for me now, I am powerless over most of what happens in this world — I cannot even live without the help of others..."

"Don't say that!" Metzen said hastily. "You... you've already done so much for the dragon race, and now it's time for you to rest properly. We can manage on our own..."

"You're right, Metzen," Enya interrupted the blue dragon lady with a smile. "I really should rest well — because if I don't rest well, then I'm afraid Hragor, Anqian, and Bayang'er won't be able to rest well either."

Enya's words left Metzen at a loss for how to respond; the blue dragon lady could only stand there smiling a little awkwardly. Gaoyang, meanwhile, thought for a moment and then asked, "If the mana marks on the whelps really are connected to changes in the Deepblue Netway... what can we do about it?"

Enya was silent for a moment, then said slowly in a low voice: "If this truly means the entire Netway system behind the Well of the Deepblue is undergoing some change of a natural, cyclical nature, then the mortal races of today are powerless to stop it. It would be as unrealistic as trying to stop the rotation of this planet beneath our feet — so all you can do is make more preparations for disaster prevention and relief. Changes in the Deepblue Netway are not a 'fatal disaster' like a mana tide or a divine calamity; compared to the latter, it is at least a little easier to deal with."

Her last few words sounded somewhat absent-minded. Gaoyang keenly caught the shift in the former Dragon God's tone, and he frowned slightly: "It sounds like what worries you most isn't the change in the Deepblue Netway itself..."

"Yes. What worries me most isn't the Netway, but the reason behind its change," Enya said gravely. "Apart from that one shift in the ancient era remembered from my own memory, the Deepblue Netway has scarcely changed at all over the past two million years. It is like the blood vessels of this planet, as steady and constant as the earth itself. Neither mana tides nor divine calamities have ever made it waver, and the Gondor Empire's thousands of years of 'mining' did not so much as scratch its surface. Such a stable system... why has it suddenly changed? That is what concerns me most."

Gaoyang and Metzen instinctively exchanged a glance, and in each other's eyes they both saw the same gravity.

A slightly timid cry from the whelps drew everyone's attention back. Gaoyang looked down at his feet and saw one of them with its head lowered, nibbling and gently tugging at the hem of his trousers, while the other kept rubbing against Metzen's leg, letting out a stream of short, sharp cries. This abruptly reminded the "adults," deep in their serious discussion, that there were still two newly born "young ones" in the room waiting to be cared for. Metzen's expression tensed at once, and her voice turned flustered: "Ah — are they hungry? Should we get them something to eat now? Should I hold them? They..."

"They should indeed be fed," Enya broke in, cutting off the somewhat helpless Metzen. "Dragons are omnivorous, and whelps have excellent digestion — prepare some fresh meat for them; raw is fine. Also clean water and some soft fabric. After they eat, they'll need to rest."

Gaoshao looked up at Betty, who stood quietly to one side: "Go and have these things prepared at once."

"Ah... ah! Yes, Your Majesty!" The maid, who had been on the verge of dozing off, jolted awake from her nap, gave a flustered, forceful bow, then turned and ran for the hatchery door, her figure vanishing swiftly into the corridor outside.

Seeing Betty leave, the two whelps immediately craned their necks and shrieked after her down the corridor, their still-useless wings flapping wildly in the air and striking the floor with a clatter. Metzen hastily crouched down to soothe the little creatures, all flustered and with almost no effect — even newly hatched, whelps far exceeded the "young" of ordinary creatures in size, and possessed a robustness and mobility that ordinary beings could hardly match. Metzen's present human form was clearly ill-suited to handling such overly strong "children"; she was soon overwhelmed and looked up with a gaze that pleaded for help.

Gaoyang's head promptly swelled to twice its size: "No use looking at me — never mind that I don't know the first thing about minding children; even if I did, I wouldn't know how to mind ones with wings!"