Chapter 1258 — Toward the Unknown

The Typhon mages gathered around and quickly inspected the various mechanisms inside the Explorer, while Windsor Mabel watched their progress from the side. The mages' examination did not last long. Soon a slender female mage stood up and reported to Windsor Mabel with a solemn expression: "Master, the golem's core mana circuits show signs of inward breakdown. The alchemical solution filling isolation layers two through four has been completely boiled dry."

"...Inward breakdown, alchemical solution boiled dry..." Windsor Mabel's expression darkened as she quickly made her judgment. "This means it tried to draw mana from its surroundings, but the charging circuit was never replenished... Combined with excessive discharge from the mana core, the central regulation array kept extracting the remaining mana from the circuits, leading to a series of system errors..."

Kamael quickly understood what had happened to the Explorer. A strange light suddenly flickered in the eyes of this ancient arcanist. After a moment's thought, he broke the silence in a low voice: "In other words, there is no mana in the Divine Realm, or it cannot be extracted, so the Explorer rapidly exhausted its own stored energy..."

"...That is one possibility," Windsor Mabel said with a frown and a nod, her tone full of confusion. "But I have never heard of such a thing... Mana is something omnipresent, capable of penetrating almost any barrier. Even in a mana-suppressing crystal mine, there is a relatively thin mana environment. Could there really be a place in this world where mana does not exist at all?"

"Perhaps not in this world, but we are facing the 'Divine Realm'—a domain mortals have never understood!" Kamael said at once, his tone carrying a certain inexplicable excitement. "Lady Windsor, cast aside the constraints imposed by past knowledge. We are dealing with an entirely new domain!"

Windsor finally sensed the change in emotion in this ancient man of Gondor beside her, and could not help asking in surprise, "Master Kamael... you seem excited?"

"Yes, Lady Windsor. We may be facing a possibility... a possibility of breaking the deadlock!" Kamael said excitedly, but soon he forcibly calmed both his thoughts and his tone. "The characteristics of the Divine Realm match an environment I once conceived of, Lady Windsor. We should further investigate the space on the other side of that door."

Windsor turned and glanced at the circular "mirror" at the center of the portal apparatus. She agreed with Kamael, but the accident that had just befallen the Explorer made her unavoidably over cautious: "...We should perhaps make more preparations. The problem the Explorer encountered may be only one of the dangers in the Divine Realm, and even without danger factors... a mana-depleted environment alone could place our personnel and equipment in enormous difficulty."

Kamael floated up a little, his gaze fixed on the "scene on the other side" presented by the mirror surface. A powerful impulse surged through his arcane body—the thousand-year cherished wish of the Defiers and the scholar's desire to know the source of mana mingled together in that impulse. It was enough to test any scholar's rationality—but he remained calm.

He had waited a thousand years.

"You are right, Lady Windsor," Kamael lowered his head and said to the legendary Typhon mage beside him. "We need to send the Explorer in a few more times, at least to confirm whether it suffers any additional effects in a mana-depleted environment. Then we should send some equipment to the other side to see whether, in a mana-depleted environment, those devices can operate normally on their own stored mana and for how long. Only after collecting enough data should we send personnel in."

Windsor Mabel nodded solemnly. She withdrew her gaze and looked at the Explorer golem, which had been dismantled and was awaiting repair. After a long gaze, the Typhon mage said in a low voice, "Now, at least, we have finally taken the first step."

...

The ink-blue sea surface receded continuously in their field of view. Ice floes drifting on the ocean and foam rising and falling with the waves reflected the brilliant starlight across the sky, presenting a mysterious beauty impossible to see on land. The cold, sharp high-altitude wind was blocked outside by the dragon's shield, leaving only a faint, distant howl. Gaoyang stood on Metzen's back, gazing far toward the end of the horizon. Against the dim sky in the distance, he could already see the towering silhouette standing upon the sea.

It was a tower, like a giant pillar supporting heaven and earth, standing upon a disc-shaped island forged of steel. The passage of years had not diminished the majesty of this wonder in the slightest, and the dim light of the polar night could not conceal the breathtaking grandeur of this ancient legacy—simply standing there, it was enough to fill the vast majority of mortal races on this planet with boundless awe and wonder, even to equate it with the legendary "miracle."

It had surpassed the level of technology most civilizations on the current planet could understand. No race could imagine that some man-made structure could possess such scale and such an almost eternal service life—no wonder the Reverse Tide Empire, which had been guided here by dragons in those years, had regarded this thing as the legacy of the gods. Because in a sense... even the legacy of the gods could not compare with the level of civilization represented by this giant tower.

Metzen carried Gaoyang and Amber, while the white dragon Noretta flew not far beside her, bearing Victoria and Mojin on her back. Behind them in the sky there was also a dragon flight composed of thirty adult dragons. This vast company flew under the night sky, their enormous wings beating the air, howling wind rushing between their colossal bodies and raising an ominous, muffled roar in the night. Silently they crossed the starlight of the polar night, crossed the broken ramparts and ruined shield generators of the west coast, and flew toward the distant Tower of the Reverse Tide.

If this had been the Loren Continent before the Alliance was founded, such a company could have utterly destroyed a small kingdom or any city-state in a short time, and could even have dealt a heavy blow to a relatively powerful nation like the Augurey tribal nation. Yet here, before the Tower of the Reverse Tide, even the mighty dragons had to restrain their edge and approach the target gradually with the utmost caution—and they began to slow down while still far from the tower.

Since the Reverse Tide Rebellion, this was the first time they had actively approached this tower. Although the "chains" once planted deep in their souls had been severed, a certain instinct built up over a million years could still make even the mightiest dragons tense.

Gaoyang withdrew his gaze from the distance and looked at the two other figures on Metzen's back besides himself and Amber: two dragon hatchlings were hopping about near Metzen's shoulder blades, experiencing this journey alongside the dragon flight with fresh wonder, looking utterly delighted.

These two little ones should count as the most special members of this company—though they themselves were clearly unaware of it.

(End of Chapter)