Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 920 - 919: Hollow

The god seated on the holy throne suddenly opened his eyes, his golden vertical pupils carrying an awe-inspiring aura.

The Dragon Priests waiting near the holy throne immediately fell to the ground, paying homage to the god they served, with Heragor, the highest-ranked Dragon Priest leader closest to the throne, being no exception.

Moments later, the Dragon Priests heard the god’s voice coming from above, seemingly with a slight sigh, "Only he can do this..."

"My Lord?" Heragor cautiously raised his head to look up at the Dragon God, "What has happened?"

"You need not worry," Dragon God Enya glanced indifferently at the priests in the holy hall, who were as silent as cicadas in cold weather, and her tone was without fluctuation, "It is unrelated to the dragons."

...

The howling sound came suddenly.

Accompanying this inexplicable howl, all the devices in the hall showed apparent abnormalities. The Magic Web Terminal began projecting various bizarre lines and patterns incomprehensible to humans. Call signals from all over the Empire instantly congested into a chaotic mass, and the energy supply system also encountered problems, with lighting flickering violently—this all happened as if an invisible storm suddenly swept across the entire Magic Web, causing turmoil in this vast system.

The staff in the hall inescapably fell into brief panic and tension.

However, the chaos lasted less than two seconds—Gawain, after a moment of astonishment, had already reacted. He abruptly stood up, unfolding the aura effect that calms the mind, overlaying the Knight skills of the legendary domain to strongly return everyone to a state of utmost calmness. Meanwhile, Rebecca’s voice came from the front side of the hall: "Stay calm—initiate immediate self-inspection across all systems!"

Next, Kamel’s voice sounded nearby: "First confirm the situation with the building’s power spine—is there a problem with the energy?"

The piercing howling continued, yet under the protection of the Knight’s aura, the technicians began to shield this unsettling factor and started checking all systems rapidly and tensely according to the pre-arranged plans and their experiences. Soon reports started to arrive one after another from various parts of the hall: "The power spine is still running, the main systems haven’t gone offline..." "A few buffer units and safety barriers have been breached, but the condition of the rear devices is still okay." "Re-establishing contact with the Empire Hub..."

The Empire Hub, located within Cecil Castle, is the Magic Web Hub Tower, the highest node of all "main hubs." When the howling sound suddenly resonated, some powerful energy surge impacted its operation, and now it has temporarily gone offline.

"Can the internal channels still be used?" Gawain left his seat, walking a few steps towards Rebecca while gently patting her shoulder, "Check the situation outside."

Rebecca was apparently somewhat panicked, yet after Gawain placed his hand on her shoulder, she suddenly calmed down.

"The internal channels are isolated from the main network, I’m checking..." she spoke rapidly while expertly controlling the magic symbol "Palette" before her. After a series of operations, she let out a breath, "It’s usable, I’ve brought the display over—"

The next second, the crystal array at the front end of the hall projected a scene captured by a surface surveillance device. Within the noisy holographic projection, a towering white high tower stood on the high ground near the Magic Research Institute. The tower itself appeared unharmed, but the mechanical device and the crystal array at its top had stopped functioning. Those crystals that were supposed to be charged and glowing were now notably dim.

Gawain frowned at this sight, but soon noted the crystals dimming were starting to gradually brighten.

The high tower’s power spine successfully rebooted, refreshing energy was injected again into each unit, and the large-scale crystal array rapidly regained vitality within seconds. The mechanical devices, previously under emergency self-locking, also unlocked themselves, beginning to slowly rotate and recalibrate. Somewhere in the hall, a technician shouted loudly: "Reconnected to the Empire Hub!"

Gawain exhaled slightly in relief, though his expression remained taut, while Rebecca promptly voiced a high-pitched inquiry: "What’s the status of the main hubs in various places?"

"Temporarily unable to be reached... all channels are broken, but if we can reboot here, they should be able to as well... we are attempting single-line calls..."

"Maintain calling; regardless of how, first get in touch with the main hubs everywhere, confirm their safety," Rebecca spoke quickly, "Master Kamel, please contact the computing center and check the neural network situation there; Cohen, take your team to the third underground level, the energy group down there needs personnel to assist; Marin, open the Empire Hub’s public window, other main hubs might initiate calls to us through that window..."

She had completely calmed down, starting to distribute tasks methodically and stabilize the situation.

Gawain looked somewhat unexpectedly at the Rebecca entirely different from usual, after a long moment, he found some solace as he silently mused—his "Steel Mental Aura" indeed proved quite effective.

...

The chaotic howling didn’t only occur inside the control center in Cecil Castle; it happened at every main hub and connected Magic Web Terminal.

At that instant, and during the few minutes following it, each Magic Web main hub across the Empire encountered the same phenomenon. The terrifying howling sound arrived suddenly, powerful energy surges disrupted just established connections, devices shut down widely, and the control centers descended into chaos. An invisible storm raged in the Magic Web covering the entire Empire, from Sherlin City to Longwind Fortress, from St. Soniel to Bitter Winter Castle, causing chaos among all regional leaders.

A cold intent suddenly descended, like ice frosting abruptly, "freezing" everyone’s minds in the hall. Subsequently, the cold intent gradually faded, and the technicians swiftly calmed down—the first responders were those who immediately looked towards a not-so-far high platform where Duchess Victoria Wilder stood quietly, surrounded by sparkling ice crystals, her face like frosted snow, expressionless.

"Stay calm, begin fault inspection," Victoria’s cold voice rang out, echoing throughout the hall, "First confirm the energy situation, then attempt to reboot our Node Tower."

"Milady," the powerful Mage Advisor Victor flew directly to the platform where Victoria stood, "Our communication with the imperial capital has been severed—all communications with main hubs in other regions are completely broken."

"Energy interruption occurred earlier, affecting all systems, communication breakdown is normal," Victoria replied without expression, "First attempt to call St. Soniel closest to us, confirm if similar situations have occurred elsewhere."

"Yes, Milady." Victor bowed and retreated respectfully.

After the old mage left, Victoria calmly surveyed the hall.

Under the influence of the "Calm Mind," the panicked technicians had all settled down. Although the situation remained unclear, everyone had returned to work, starting the tense and busy task of troubleshooting to find the cause of the anomaly.

Perhaps in the future, every important department should have magic-guide devices with "Calm Mind" or similar spell effects set up, like water tanks used for firefighting as "emergency disaster equipment." If an event capable of causing widespread chaos occurs, the magic-guide devices could be activated to forcibly calm the staff. Even if it only lasts for half an hour, it could salvage many situations... This is a feasible idea and could be discussed with the King later.

Victoria’s mind briefly drifted to matters unrelated to the current situation, but she promptly refocused her thoughts on the current affairs.

This sudden anomaly... what exactly is happening?

The Grand Duke of Ice and Snow is knowledgeable in traditional magic, yet she feels inadequate in the modern magic-guide field. She shook her head in confusion and whispered a prayer, almost like speaking to herself: "Goddess of Magic... what went wrong..."

After praying, there was no response, and Goddess of Magic Milmina did not provide any feedback.

No, not only was there no response, but even the vague sense of being watched and the "transcendent feeling" of establishing a connection with a supernatural existence did not appear. Victoria felt her prayer ending in nothingness, and in the keen mental perception of a legendary powerhouse, she felt as if she faced some kind of "void."

There should have been a god there, but now there wasn’t—realizing this fact, the duchess widened her eyes instantly.

...

A "storm" was also swept up in the neural network built upon the Magic Web, and this storm was a wholly tangible matter to the world within the network.

In the vast and boundless realm, countless gray-white chaotic lines rapidly entangled and danced in the air, mixed with the howling storm blowing across the world. During the storm’s sweep, the once clear and bright sky grew variable in brightness, with various sizes of cracks and some kind of shimmering distorted light repeatedly emerging from the corners of the sky, only to be quickly repaired by another force. The only "city" in this world was protected within a semi-transparent silver-white "light cocoon," which shielded it from the adverse "weather" outside, maintaining stability within the city.

Inside a large pyramid-shaped building at the city’s center, Yuri urgently monitored the fluctuating magic symbols and data before him, speaking rapidly, "A massive abnormal data stream is ’flowing through’ our network, very vast!"

"Can we capture it?" Wendy asked beside him.

"It’s impossible for me here, it’s too bizarre to tackle, and it’s quickly moving along the network’s ’subconscious zone’ at the boundary..." Yuri’s face was filled with confusion, "What is this thing..."

"Whatever it is, it’s clearly here to cause trouble!" Magnan suddenly erupted with a loud voice, "If necessary, I can go to the boundary of the subconscious zone and try a few mental storms now..."

"Shut up, be quiet, your mental storm probably has no effect on this bizarre data!" Yuri immediately glared at Magnan and then showed an even more perplexed expression on his face, "Wait a minute, this bizarre outsider... is moving away? It’s receding from the boundary, and the speed is getting faster..."

"What do you mean?!" Magnan stared wide-eyed, "You better not tell me it was just ’passing by’!"

"I don’t know if this thing was ’passing by,’ but it’s already about to disappear from our sight," Yuri quickly said, "Semyr, can you get in touch with Nariteer and Duvalt outside the city? See if there’s anything they can do."

"I’ll try—now the load is lighter, it should be possible."

In the hills outside the city, the giant white spider remained quietly crouched on the mountaintop, completely unmoved by the storm in the network world, while the chaotic data and information rapidly calmed around her.

The city’s safety was now assured, and the overall network load situation was improving. This sudden storm seemed to be passing, yet Nariteer remained vigilant. Invisible threads extended out from the void beside her, covering the sky, ground, water, and each mind behind it all like a giant web. Everything in the neural network gradually became the endpoints of her web, her perception expanding boundlessly—

At this moment, the "neural network" was becoming perfect, reorganizing itself according to its initial design and running accordingly.

Duvalt stood on the highland near the hill, watching Nariteer’s work from afar. He could see the extension of those threads, while simultaneously channeling his own power to assist Nariteer in further expanding perception and searching for the would-be destructive "outsider."

In the next instant, one particular "thread" on the web was suddenly unnaturally plucked.

That might have been merely an accidental touch, or perhaps a curious probe, or someone audaciously provoking—regardless of the underlying reason, the thread... was plucked.

The spider weaving the web vanished from the hilltop in an instant—she was already tracing along the plucked thread, and in this mind-constructed world, her speed surpassed the quickest, momentary thought of a human.

Duvalt only heard the words she left behind: "I’m going for the hunt! You stay here and watch!"

Standing on the highland, the elderly man in a black suit paused, chuckling softly with slight helplessness, speaking to himself, "...ever since splitting into two entities, I feel more and more like a babysitter..."

At that moment, some jumping golden magic symbols appeared out of thin air in the air beside the elderly man, vibrating and making noises: "Duvalt, this is Semyr—how are things on your end?"

"Nariteer seems to have detected traces of the invader, and she’s already gone hunting," Duvalt said casually, "Things are gradually stabilizing here—but until we receive definite news from Nariteer, I wouldn’t recommend turning off the City Shield."

"Okay, we understand."