Chapter 1338 — No Retreat

In Xuan Yao City, inside a study laid with blue velvet carpet, Amber delivered the intelligence that had just come in to Gao Yang: "These are new clues found by the western expeditionary force in the area that was once occupied by the Aberrants. I've sorted them out—take a look."

Gao Yang pulled his attention away from the work at hand, glanced up at Amber, who was leaning her upper body out of a shadow rift with a document in her raised hand, and reached out to take it while asking, "What kind of clues?"

Amber handed it over and, bracing herself on the desk, jumped out of the shadow rift: "A ground-action team from the outpost research vessel found the wreckage of some kind of artificial object in the ruins of an Aberrant camp in Wolf Ridge Mountain. Preliminary analysis suggests it bears a certain resemblance to the cube the Sirens 'salvaged' from the deep-blue ley-flow, but it's badly damaged—a lot of its structure can't be reconstructed. The sample has already been loaded onto a transport and is on its way here."

"On the other hand, King Wycliffe, one of the five kings of Aurgel, has provided the expeditionary force with a lead. He said that when the Aberrants attacked Fort Falm, they carried out some puzzling maneuvers—they threw themselves at the high ground where the fortress's north tower stood, heedless of their losses, and lingered there for a long time. Acting on that lead, the techno-priests of the Holy Dusk Warband searched the ruins of the north tower and found beneath them a rune matrix and mana crystals that had not been completely destroyed. Judging by the residual energy fluctuations at the site, the technicians suspect that those Aberrants—or whatever commanded them—had once performed some kind of... spell ritual there, one that produced enormous energy fluctuations."

Gao Yang was leafing through the organized documents in his hand; now his movement suddenly stopped, and he lifted his eyes to look at Amber: "A spell ritual with enormous energy fluctuations?"

"Such as opening a spatial rift into the deep-blue ley-flow," Amber shrugged. "That's what the technical experts say."

Gao Yang's gaze returned to the documents in his hand. After a long stare and a long period of brooding silence, he finally tossed the papers onto the desk and, with a long breath, leaned back in his chair.

The light, clear feeling that came with clues surfacing, and the heavy urgency of knowing a conspiracy was afoot, rose in his heart at the same time. The two sensations blended together, yet they only made his thoughts clearer and sharper than ever.

"This matter..." Amber watched Gao Yang's reaction cautiously, held her tongue for a few seconds, and finally could not help speaking. "What do you make of it? Those Aberrants..."

"At this time yesterday, a message also came in from Aldernan. Luo Yan mentioned that their frontline commanders had noticed some abnormal movements among those monsters and suspected there was a larger conspiracy behind their actions—and now we've found further substantive evidence... evidence that matches the clues the Sirens discovered earlier," Gao Yang said, sitting up straight again, his expression grave and his voice low. "Amber, I think this is what those monsters are really trying to do. Their operation of dropping rune stones into the deep-blue network is still ongoing, and it matters far more than any of their other operations—even..."

Here he paused for a few seconds, as though weighing something over and over, but in the end he voiced his bold conjecture.

"Even their massive offensive against the civilized world this time may be nothing more than one of the means they've adopted to accomplish this... Behind their military actions, dropping those 'cubes' into specific places is their true objective."

Hearing Gao Yang's words, Amber could not help but stare wide-eyed: "You mean, they launched this whole enormous war, and their real goal isn't to occupy any territory at all, nor to destroy some nation—that a lot of their operations are just cover, purely so they can toss those 'stones' into the deep-blue network?!"

"Dropping cubes into the deep-blue network and 'causing destruction' may not be mutually exclusive," Gao Yang said, lifting his eyes to the shadow assault goose before him. "Our only oversight before was failing to connect the 'cubes' the enemy dropped in the wasteland with the war they've launched this time—we previously assumed these were two independent operations, but now it appears they are one and the same."

Amber blinked, the intelligence she possessed rapidly recombining in her mind, gradually forming new threads. After a moment, she broke the silence thoughtfully: "So at least two things are now certain. First, dropping 'cubes' only within the wasteland is clearly not enough for those monsters. If their operation has some kind of 'quota', then a portion of the 'drop points' in that quota are clearly located in the civilized world—which is why they had to launch this war and take actions in certain places at any cost.

"Second, their 'drop plan' is not yet complete. However many are still missing, as long as the designated 'drop targets' have not been achieved, they must keep going..."

"In a sense, both are good news," Gao Yang nodded. "What we feared most was that the Sentinels' conspiracy against the deep-blue network had already reached its final stage and the mortal world no longer had time to respond. But now we find those monsters are still searching for places to drop those cubes, which means our enemy's operations aren't going smoothly either... Perhaps the 'system' the Sentinels are trying to build has very strict limitations, or perhaps the Sirens' accidental 'salvaging' disrupted the enemy's plan... Whichever the reason, it's good for us."

Gao Yang's words made Amber feel somewhat relieved, but soon she perceived the hidden pressure behind these optimistic judgments: "But if that's the case, our current operational doctrine of 'securing local superiority, exploiting strategic depth, and gradually wearing down the enemy' will..."

"Exactly—I'm afraid we'll have to make some adjustments," Gao Yang said with a face like still water, nodding slowly. "'Sentinel' is still dropping cubes into the deep-blue network, but we can't determine what its 'drop criteria' are. We can't be sure where the next 'drop point' is, nor how many more cubes the enemy intends to drop... So the only thing we can do at this stage is hold every line without retreating a single step. There can be no new occupied zones, because any breach could mean Sentinel's plan advances—even if we later retake those areas, those monsters may already have dropped their cubes..."

"But then our counteroffensive plans will be in trouble," Amber said, scratching her hair vigorously. Though no military expert, she had after all been steeped in Gao Yang's company for so many years, and could grasp some simple truths. "The Gondor wasteland is surrounded by a long front line, and the Alliance's forces were never plentiful. Now we have to hold every position to the death—whether the local superiority we barely established on the northern and eastern lines can even be maintained is a question, let alone our plan to counterattack the wasteland and build a 'blockade wall' running through the entire Gondor contaminated zone... Where would we get that many troops?"