Sword of Daybreaker

In Cecil City, in the study room covered with a blue velvet carpet, Amber sent the information that had just arrived in front of Gao Wen: "This is a new clue that the Western Front Expeditionary Army found in the area once occupied by the deformed body. I've sorted it out, you can take a look."

Gawain recovered from the work at hand, raised his head and looked at Amber, who was poking his upper body out of a shadowy crevice, holding a document in his hand, and asked casually while reaching out to take what was in his hands. : "What's the matter?"

Amber handed the thing over, and leaned out of the shadow crevice while leaning on the table: "The ground action team of the outpost research ship found the remains of some man-made object in the ruins of the distortion body camp in Wolfridge Mountain, and analyzed the thing and the sea monster. The cubes "salved" in the deep blue pulse have a certain similarity, but they are seriously damaged, and many structures can no longer be restored. They have been sent to the transport plane to be transported here.

"On the other hand, King Wycliffe, one of the Five Kings of Ogure, provided clues to the expeditionary force. He said that the Aberrations had made puzzling actions when they attacked the Farm Fortress. They attacked regardless of loss. The high ground where the north tower of the fortress was located and stayed there for a long time. After that, the technical priests of the Sacred Sunset Group searched the ruins of the north tower based on the clues, and found the rune matrix and mana crystals that were not completely destroyed under the ruins. Based on the energy fluctuations remaining at the scene, the technicians suspect that the aberrations or the commanders behind them have performed some kind of huge energy fluctuations...spell ritual there."

Gao Wen flipped through the files organized in his hand. At this moment, his movements suddenly stopped, and he raised his eyelids to look at Amber: "Some kind of magic ritual with huge energy fluctuations?"

"For example, opening a gap in space leading to deep blue veins," Amber shrugged. "That's what the technologists said."

Gawain's gaze fell on the document in his hand again. After a long period of staring and indulging, he finally threw the document on the table and leaned back on the back of the chair after taking a long breath.

The lightness and clarity brought by the clues surfaced and the depressive urgency brought by knowing the conspiracy appeared in his heart at the same time. The two feelings mixed together, but instead made his thoughts clearer and sharper than ever.

"This matter..." Amber watched Gawain's reaction cautiously, holding back for a few seconds and finally couldn't help but speak, "What do you think? Those distortions..."

"At this time yesterday, Aldernan also sent a contact. Rosetta mentioned that their frontline commander had noticed some unusual movements of those monsters, and suspected that there was a greater conspiracy behind the actions of those monsters. Now we have discovered further substantive evidence...this evidence is consistent with the clues that the Kraken discovered earlier," Gawain sat up straight again, and said in a serious voice, "Amber, I think this is what the monsters really want. What they did was the action of putting runestones in the deep blue network channel is still going on, and the importance of this matter far exceeds other actions, even..."

At this point, he paused for a few seconds, seeming to be weighing something repeatedly, but in the end he still said his bold guess.

"Even their massive attack on the civilized world may be just one of the means they took to achieve this... Behind their military operations, it is their real goal to drop those'cubes' to specific places. ."

Listening to Gawain’s statement, Amber couldn’t help his eyes widening: “You mean, they launched such a massive war, the real goal is not to occupy a place at all, nor is it to destroy a certain country. A lot of the actions taken are just a pretense, just to throw those'stones' into the deep blue nets?!"

"Putting cubes in the deep blue net may not conflict with'creating destruction'," Gao Wen raised his eyelids and looked at the shadow assault goose in front of him. "The only omission we had before was that we failed to drop the enemy in the wasteland.' The Cube's are linked to the war they launched this time. We previously thought that these were two separate operations, but now it seems that these two things are one."

Amber blinked, and the information she had mastered quickly assembled in her mind, gradually sorting out a new context. After a while, she thoughtfully broke the silence: "So now we can at least determine two points: first , It’s obviously not enough for those monsters to drop'cubes' in the wasteland. If there is some kind of'indicator' in their actions, then part of the'indicator' of this'indicator' is obviously located in the civilized world, so they are This war must be waged and action taken at any cost in certain places.

"Secondly, their ‘delivery plan’ has not been completed, no matter how far they are, as long as the predetermined ‘delivery goal’ has not been achieved, they must continue to act..."

"In a sense, these two are good news," Gawain nodded and said, "The thing we were most worried about at the beginning was that the sentinel’s conspiracy against the deep blue network has reached the final stage, and the mortal world has not had time to take it. Countermeasures, but now we find that those monsters are constantly looking for places to put that kind of cubes, which shows that our enemies have not gone smoothly in their actions... Maybe the'system' that the sentry is trying to build has very strict restrictions, maybe It was the sea-monsters' wrongful'salvage' behavior that undermined the enemy's plan... whatever the reason, this is a good thing."

Gawain’s words made Amber feel relieved, but she soon realized the hidden pressures from these optimistic judgments: "But in this way, we are currently'securing local advantages, using strategic depth, and gradually reducing the enemy's forces. 'The operational policy is just..."

"Yes, we might have to make some strains," Gao Wen's face sank and nodded slowly. "The'Sentinel' is still dropping cubes into the deep blue network channel, but we can't determine its'delivery standard'. What is it? We can’t be sure where the next “drop point” is, nor how many cubes the enemy intends to drop... So at this stage, the only thing we can do is to stay on all fronts without retreating, and no new ones can appear. The enemy-occupied area, because any breach may mean that the sentinel’s plan will be advanced. Even if we can regain those areas later, the monsters may have dropped the cube..."

"But in this way, our counter-offensive plan will be difficult to handle." Amber scratched her hair vigorously. Although she is not a military expert, she has followed Gawain for so many years. She still has some simple principles. It can be understood, “There is a long front around the Gondor Wasteland. The Alliance’s military strength was originally not very abundant, and now it has to defend all positions firmly. Whether the local advantages that the northern and eastern lines have built up with difficulty can be maintained. The problem, not to mention that we also plan to counterattack the wasteland and build a'blocking wall' throughout the wasteland in the contaminated area of ​​Gondor... How can we have so many troops?"

"...Talrond has sent three waves of expeditionary forces, and they are now at the forefront of the three fronts of Ogure, Typhon, and Cecil. The Holy Dragon Principality, the Union of Northern City-States and even the Dwarf Kingdom have already suppressed themselves. All the elites at the bottom of the box were dispatched. The situation in the southern part of the mainland is unknown. The Violet Kingdom is a group of autistic hermits. We can't count on them..." Gao Wen said slowly, his face a little gloomy, "But in any case, unless we Can accurately judge the placement point of the next cube of the'Sentinel', otherwise the only thing we can do is to defend all the lines of defense. This is not a multiple choice..."

In his thoughts, his gaze slowly fell on the map hung on the wall not far away. On the accurate scale map of the whole land of Loren, the red and blue arrows and annotations marked almost the entire continent. In addition to the fact that there is less information in the southern region, intricate markings can be seen throughout the entire wasteland defense line, coalition forces from various countries, large-scale offensives by the Aberrant Corps, interlaced enemy-occupied areas and competition areas, and magnificent broken walls Barrier... The center of the vast civilized world is like a dark and broken deep pool, and the filthy mud overflowing from that deep pool pollutes everything around it like poison.

Gawain stared at this map, but his more energy has begun to focus on the connection deep in his mind. His "view" gradually rises in the senses, and the satellite overlooking view from outer space emerges in his mind.

Between the clouds and the fog, he saw the land of Loren in the flames of war. The sun was shining on this land from the side of the top of the atmosphere. The dark wasteland in the center of the earth was as striking as an ugly scar. The luminous high wall that surrounds the whole of Gondor is now in a fragmented state. At the large and small gaps, there are dark red dazzling traces mixed with purple and black. These traces "flow" out of the wasteland, as if Corroded scars are printed on the green mountains and green waters. Around each of these scars, you can see either the rising smoke, the continuous flash of light, or the ruins.

The old satellite monitoring system can’t give all the details on the earth, and there is even impenetrable interference in the most wasteful areas. But even so, the bird’s eye view from space can still give Gawain an overview of Loren. The information on the situation on the mainland was not comprehensive enough, but at the most thrilling moments when communications in various theaters were cut off and friendly defenses fell one after another, it was this limited information that allowed Gao Wen to grasp the situation roughly and not to make everything go out of control.

Even now, this bird's eye view is still working.

Gawain’s "eyes" focused on the southern part of the mainland, which was the last place on the entire front so far that there was a serious communication problem with the north, and even the second place. After all, there is at least Amoen in the north and south of the mainland. As a messenger, the biggest problem on the southern front is the lack of support.

Typhon’s Magicians and National Knights are strong, but after the loss of the Battle of Winterhold, they no longer have the strength that once scorned the nations. At present, only parts of Typhon’s northern part of the entire Eastern Front can maintain partial Advantageous situation, but it is difficult to provide any support to the South. Ogure has just eased from the crisis of almost subjugating the country, and naturally there is no room for it. As for Cecil...

Too far, the Imperial Navy led by Bitter Winter was still repairing the communication network along the western route around the mainland, and the troops led by the Earthly Dawn and Lord Baldwin were not enough to support all the way to the south.

And even if there is no such long distance, there is no way. The military power of the Cecil Empire has its limit. Under the pressure of the wasteland legion in the north, it is impossible for Gawain to distribute his forces to other places infinitely.

But even so, the coalition forces of the Highmountain Kingdom and the Silver Empire must still defend the entire southern battlefield.

…

In the eastern part of the Holy Spirit Plain under the sun, the towering Thorin tree covers the earth, spreading her large branches in the sun and breeze, and a deep and sweet sound is deep in the canopy of the "miracle tree". Reverberating in some of the chambers, like a wind yin, and a mumbling in a dream.

A large-scale chamber surrounded by layers of wooden structure and green leaves. The soft dim light illuminates the open space. Fluorescence on the surface of the vines begins to flow. In the center of the chamber, a large number of vines interact with each other. In the depths of the "nursery" made of intertwined roots, a bunch of flower vines suddenly trembled and stretched out. Bertila's figure appeared between the flower vines and slowly opened his eyes.

"... Toxic spores are ineffective, has the advancement stopped..." The former dark patriarch muttered to himself in a low voice, but his expression did not fluctuate much. It's quite tenacious..."

She could feel the warm winter sun shining on the canopy of the giant Thorin tree, but at the same moment, she could also feel the darkness and coldness coming from far to the south. Her distal limbs were facing the wasteland. Extending, in the depths of the soil and rocks, on the edge of the Gondor Wasteland, the roots and vines belonging to the Thorin giant tree and the root system belonging to the dark priests of the wasteland are continuing a war that ordinary people cannot understand.

Toxic spores, fighting schizophytes, antagonistic pheromones, as well as the most direct strangulation and neural parasitism Every minute and every second, Bertila uses his own methods to kill the "immune barrier" that protects the root network of the waste soil. , Trying to extend her power into the wasteland, and every minute and every second, the root network controlled by her former compatriots is also carrying out a tenacious resistance and counterattack.

Such a tug-of-war has continued from the beginning of the war to the present, and has even begun to have a visible impact on the ecological environment near the entire northern front. There are lush green plants growing in the Black Forest, and thorns and rotten vines have begun to drill on the corrupted dark land. , All kinds of normal or abnormal plants spread across the borders of the civilized world, and it's hard to tell the winner for a while.

At this moment, part of Bertila's consciousness temporarily withdrew from the long-lasting confrontation in the distance. She rested briefly, thinking about the new "formulation" of nerve agents and pheromones, and at the same time seriously feeling the sunlight over the plain of the Holy Spirit.

This sunshine is her favorite pastime on weekdays.

At this moment, a slight rustle suddenly came from the depths of the chamber, interrupting Bertila’s thinking. She looked up in the direction of the sound and saw the "door" formed by the leaves facing forward. Opening the left and right sides, a petite figure wearing a plain gray coat poked out his head cautiously.

"Sister Bertila... are you'returning'? I heard some movement here..."

Bertila looked at the petite elf who appeared in front of him in surprise: "Berna? Why did you get here?"