The traces of corruption and pollution could not have been formed overnight. They were most likely the "nursery" of the Tidetide that was born in the tower, or the traces left behind after the Tidetide's activities. According to the information provided by Tarlonde, the appearance of the traces could be traced back to ancient times — back to a million years ago, before the Tidetide Empire was destroyed by the Giant Dragon.
But when did the rift appear?
What Gawain didn't know, or perhaps no one knew, was that the crack was obviously in a state of "non-interference" with the entire hall. It penetrated the material world, steel, and air like a phantom. Gawain couldn't tell how long the crack had been here from the traces around him. It might have even existed here before the tower was built, or it might have only quietly taken shape an hour ago. As a "phantom" that couldn't be observed by conventional means and wouldn't interact with the material environment after it appeared, it could appear at any time.
But Gwen had an instinctive guess. He thought that the thing should have been above the hall for many years, and … it had become an escape rift.
There was no divine reaction in the tower, and they had not found any traces of spiritual corruption. This in itself was a disturbing sign.
Back then, Modir was contaminated by the Tidetide after entering the hall. He began to immerse himself in the fanatical absorption and worship of ancient knowledge. If not for the Dragon God's "interference protection" outside the tower, he would not have woken up until he was completely transformed into a believer of the Tidetide.
But now, they had been exploring the hall for so long, and there was still no sign of spiritual corruption. Of course, Gwen and Amber had special physiques, and Modir carried protective runes with him, so they were not easily contaminated. But now, even the highly sensitive protective device did not sound any alarm.
"Melita said that she saw a huge rift outside. Although she did not have your shadowy sandstorm, she shared the vision of the Young Dragon," Gwen said casually. "The Young Dragon born under the influence of the Deep Blue Web can see the Deep Blue Rift that ordinary people can't see … It's quite reasonable. Now the key is how these rifts came about. "
He did not continue to stare at the floating rifts and the blue light stream above the hall, but looked at an alloy gate on the side of the hall. After a brief thought, he stepped over there. "We should go upstairs and have a look."
In the "structural diagram" that appeared in his mind, the structure behind the gate was labeled as a "personnel lift." Among the many devices around it that were flashing red warning boxes that said "system failure," the equipment wiring of the passage was labeled in green, which was extremely rare.
Looking at Gwen's unusual familiarity with the surroundings, Amber and Modir did not show any doubt. They immediately followed him and came to the silver-white alloy gate.
After a brief understanding of the operation instructions, Gwen raised his hand and pressed on the wall next to the gate. A series of irregular colored light spots appeared on the originally blank wall. The ancient and silent system was reactivated. In a series of unstable startup processes, the light spots gradually formed into an image. A few simple buttons and characters flashed before Gwen's eyes a few times like poorly lit lights before finally stabilizing.
Gwen operated the panel a few times and heard a "ding" sound in his ear. The locked alloy gate slid open silently, revealing the spacious elevator car inside.
The three of them stepped into the car, and the alloy gate closed. Accompanied by a slight vibration under their feet, an abrupt mechanical synthesized sound suddenly rang as the car began to rise. It was a series of strange and short sounds, a language that no one in this world could understand. Amber and Modir were startled by the sudden sound, but in Gwen's mind, the sound directly converted into a message that he could understand. "The elevator is going up."
"Don't worry, it's just the sound of the elevator." Gwen casually comforted Amber, who was a little flustered, and nodded gently at the solemn-looking old mage beside her.
Just as his voice trailed off, a clear image suddenly appeared on the wall opposite the elevator car. The image showed a vast and boundless plain, a city full of silver-white domes and skyscrapers, which looked extremely advanced and prosperous like a huge jewel embedded in the plain. At the end of the plain was a rising celestial body — a planet with a ring, a luminous sphere like the moon, and a distant, unfamiliar galaxy.
Amber and Modir were startled again, but this time they had more or less adapted to the various strange ancient devices in the tower. They quickly realized that this should be a very normal interface for transmitting and recording information, so they calmed down after a little surprise. Instead, they looked at the scenery on the screen with serious and curious eyes.
At this moment, the image began to change again, and it began to show a city with different styles, a spectacular, magnificent, or mysterious alien landscape, a sky with different scenery, a strange and vast sea of stars, some kind of launching device standing on the ground, vehicles passing by between heaven and earth …
On some of the images, Gwen also saw words that looked like advertising slogans. They kept refreshing, describing the routes to the depths of the stars or some engineering plans for the development of alien planets. And in this constant refresh, a scene suddenly appeared before his eyes, and his pupils shrank instantly —
He saw a planet with a blue sea and yellowish-green land quietly suspended in the dark and deep space background. Above the planet's equator floated an astonishingly large, unfinished ring-shaped structure. The unfinished parts of the structure were like countless jagged skeletons extending in the starry sky, and between those skeletons, countless light spots could be seen shuttling back and forth. A large number of space machines were transporting materials for the structure, or installing new structures for it.
Gwen looked at the bottom of the image and saw the accompanying advertising text —
"The next expedition will set sail from now on. May this planet, which has suffered so much, be healed in time. May 'Firmament' and 'Sentinel' be able to witness the next dawn of this planet."
Gwen's eyes were fixed on the image presented on the screen in front of him. He stared at the image that was obviously the unfinished Firmament Station, and the line of text at the bottom of the image. He stared at the two most important words in the text — "Firmament" and "Sentinel"!
At this moment, the image in front of him suddenly disappeared, and a slight vibration came from under his feet. The synthetic voice of the elevator system entered his ears, interrupting the turbulent thoughts in his mind. "Arrived … at the second floor. The elevator door is open."
The doors of the elevator car slid open on both sides. Amber noticed the strange look on Gwen's face and could not help but ask with some concern, "Hey, what's wrong with you? Did you see something just now? "
Gwen pulled himself together and turned to the exit of the car. He said in an unusually serious tone, "The image just now mentioned 'Sentinel'!"
He did not hide his discovery. Not only did he not want to hide it, but he was ready to go back and tell all his findings here to the Theocratic Council and all the heads of the Council. This thing involved the safety of the whole world, and there was no good in hiding it.
He was Gwen Cecil, one of the main leaders of the Alliance. He did not need to consider explaining to anyone how he got the clues from the ancient ruins that others could not understand. No one in the Alliance was qualified to ask him to explain the source of the information.
He just needed to let the people who should know all the information, and let them do their best.
The clues of the 'Sentinel' pointed to the navigator. Although Gwen still did not have any evidence to prove that the 'Sentinel' mentioned in the image just now was the Sentinel mentioned in the warning that Amber received from the Lady of the Night's Divine Kingdom, he was almost certain.
And it was not only the Sentinel that was mentioned in the image, but also the 'Firmament'.
Gwen was a hundred percent sure of this. It was referring to the space station in the orbit of this planet, the 'Firmament Station'. When the navigator built this tower, the space station was obviously not completed yet.
But the image only showed the space station, and there was nothing that could be a 'Sentinel'. Was the elements shown on the screen not complete? Or did the Sentinel appear on the screen, but he did not recognize it?
Gwen's mind was full of thoughts. All kinds of speculations kept coming and going. He sorted out his memory and was sure that he did not see anything marked as a 'Sentinel' in the image and the many images before and after. He had to temporarily assume that the 'Sentinel' mentioned in the 'slogan' did not officially appear in any of the images.
Now he could only be sure of one thing. Although the surveillance system left by the navigator on this planet included a large number of satellites and small space stations, its core was obviously composed of two parts. One part was the space station in orbit above the equator, and the other part … was the 'Sentinel'!
A strange feeling came to Gwen's mind, and the corner of his mouth twitched subconsciously.
His body was now a satellite of the Firmament Station. Due to the lack of access to the upper system of the space facility group, he used this loophole to connect his consciousness to the main system of the Firmament Station through the satellite data link and successfully obtained partial access to the main system. In a sense, he, the satellite in space, and the Firmament Station were almost in a "trinity" state. Unfortunately, this "trinity" could not be directly transformed into a means and power to fight against the sentinels.
Gwen felt a little bit of a toothache.
At this moment, Amber's voice came from the front, interrupting his already somewhat boiling mind. "Look ahead — there's a situation!"
Gwen immediately gathered his thoughts and looked up. He saw another spacious hall outside the elevator. The overall structure of this hall was similar to the first floor of the tower. In the central area, he could see the rail transport system that seemed to run through the entire Tide-Defying Tower. But unlike the first floor, he could see a large number of cylindrical structures arranged around the rail in the hall on this floor. They formed a huge ring, and from time to time, bright streams of light quickly slid across the surface of the slanted cylinders as if they were transmitting some kind of message. A constant low humming sound came from the cylinders as if some kind of ancient system was still operating inside.
The 'situation' that Amber was referring to was between the cylinders.
A large number of corroded and decayed scorch marks were scattered at the roots of some of the cylinders, and the withered and necrotic structures that looked like biological limbs were wrapped around the rail transport system not far away. Among these disturbing marks, the most striking one was a blue crack that ran through the floor, as if embedded in the air.
It was the crack that Gwen and others saw in the hall on the first floor. Part of its structure apparently 'penetrated' the thick and solid floor of the tower and formed an opening of about ten meters long and three to four meters wide on the second floor. Now, there was a blue light surging in the opening, and the dazzling magical brilliance was particularly eye-catching among the dark traces of decay.
Obviously, the range of Amber's' Shadowy Dust 'was not limited to the hall on the first floor. Its' curtain-breaking 'effect had also spread here.
Gwen frowned slightly. After a moment of thought, he stepped toward the crack.
"Hey! You be careful! " Amber was shocked when she saw it from behind. She hurriedly reminded Hao Ren, "This place looks very evil. Don't touch it!"
A half-elf who had once pried open a coffin lid in a 700-year-old tomb was so nervous to remind him "don't touch it". Gwen could not help but show a strange smile on his face. He waved his hand to Amber without looking back, indicating that he knew what to do. His footsteps did not stop. Soon, he came to the area with traces of decay and stood less than two meters in front of the 'Deep Blue Crack'.
He squatted down and carefully glanced at the disturbing dark marks on the floor.
The advanced ancient alloy that could not be damaged by the power of mortals was full of dents and dents. The dark color seemed to have soaked into the metal plate, and these dents were connected into a piece, outlining a more complete and larger outline.
Gwen narrowed his eyes slightly, imagining what had happened here. A huge, bloated, and amorphous creature. It may have thousands of eyes, thousands of mouths, and a lot of indescribable superfluous limbs or tentacles. It had a physical body, but its' birth 'was not complete. So it still retained a form that was between illusion and reality, and it could pass through the floors of the tower in this form. However, the power from the thoughts imprisoned it in the tower, so this blind and foolish creature could only wander here all day long, continuing to wait in the chaos.
And it had some kind of unknown power that could hide its existence and traces of its activities behind a layer of illusory curtain. So … even if the tower had a few visitors, no intelligent creature had ever noticed the terrible thing above them.
"This used to be the main area of 'that thing'," Gwen said in a low voice. He had heard the footsteps of Amber and Modir behind him. "Of course, there's nothing here now."
He slowly stood up and turned to look at Amber behind him.
"Contact the Winter. Let's send back what we have found so far to Agundor."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
