The ancient observatory was not far from the frontline base, and Philip's army had established a foothold in the area for a few days. While the engineers erected purification devices and sentry turrets, they also smoothed out a temporary hardened road between the observatory and the base. Gwen, Amber, Diana, and a few technical experts from Typhon and Cecil quickly arrived at the observatory in a magic car. They saw the large building that had stood from the ancient Gondor era to the present day.
The entire facility had been cordoned off by the military. A "fence" made of alloy and cement piles had been erected within a hundred meters of the observatory. At the top of the fence was a simple shield generator and a lightning rune array. A thin layer of shield surrounded the entire area, and outside the shield, there were leaping sparks. A team of soldiers had been stationed near the observatory for the past three days and set up two firing points that could cross and block the high ground facing the wasteland. In the past three days, no Aberrations or other monsters had come close to this area.
"Those monsters seem to take the initiative to bypass this place," Philip explained. "At least the 'wild' ones never come within half a kilometer of the high ground. We have not found any signs of monster invasion or destruction in the observatory. The experts suspect that the low-frequency energy released from the depths of the observatory may have had the effect of 'dispelling the monsters', but they could not figure out the specific principle. Of course, for safety's sake, I still set up these defenses here. "
Gwen nodded slightly and turned to look at Lady Diana, who had alighted from the car with him. The 'iron soldier' who once served as a guard at the Vipranton Observatory was now looking at the observatory in a daze. Her eyes, made of high-precision artificial crystal and bionic shell, did not show any emotion, but her posture was very serious. Did she remember something?
Gwen did not know how to read the expression on the 'machine woman''s face. After all, he was not Rosetta Augustus. So he asked casually, "Lady Diana, do you remember anything after seeing the observatory?"
"… I still vaguely remember what it used to look like. When I left, it stood here like this. But at that time, the disaster had not yet spread here. There was a small forest and a lush hillside nearby," Diana said softly, as if she was nostalgic. "My memory … there are many fragments, especially the part about 700 years ago. Only sporadic fragments emerged, but only the scene of the observatory standing under the blue sky, I remember very clearly, at that time …"
She hesitated for a moment, as if she was trying to identify something. Then she raised her finger and pointed somewhere near the observatory. "At that time, I would wait for sunset in that position every day, and then I would start patrolling near the main building until the sun rose the next day, and then I would return to that position and change shifts with my colleagues who were in charge of daytime patrolling. But in fact, there was nothing dangerous near the observatory. At that time, there were no bandits or magical beasts in the empire. Even the more dangerous beasts had been eaten by the nearby humans because of their delicious meat. But there must be guards near the important facilities, so 'we', who were cheap and durable, were the best candidates for this' necessary quota '… "
Gawain listened to the ironman's emotional reminiscence. Noticing that the ironman's expression remained calm throughout the entire process, he could not help but say in a slightly surprised tone, "Sounds like you miss those days … I thought the archmages back then did not give you such complicated thoughts when they set up your minds. My impression of ironmen is that they are all cold and rigid."
"My personality has been adjusted in the past hundreds of years to better adapt to the acceptance and aesthetic preferences of ordinary people in the current environment," Diana said calmly. "And a model like me who serves the non-military department has a more flexible personality template, which can produce richer and normal feelings to reduce the resistance of ordinary people to us. After all, human beings are a kind of creatures with delicate emotions and complex thoughts. It is easy to feel nervous when facing an individual who is very similar to oneself but has a different nature …"
Gwen instantly understood. He knew about this — the Valley of Uncanny Theory, but he did not expect that the Gondor ironman engineers had also specifically studied this aspect when they designed the ironman …
Just as he was distracted, he heard Diana continue to say, "… So when I saw your soldiers get along so well with a tentacle that drilled out of the ground, I was really shocked and even felt a kind of awe …"
Gwen was speechless.
He instantly felt that it was not the same thing at all, but he felt that if he corrected it, it would make the topic infinitely weird. So, he quickly changed the topic. "Feelings and nostalgia can wait. Now, let's go inside this ancient facility and have a look. General Philip has sent people to check its internal structure. The whole facility is still very sturdy. We can go in without worry."
Diana nodded and went straight to the entrance of the observatory. Her steps were light and familiar as if the short distance had been deeply imprinted in her artificial muscles. Gwen and Amber quickly followed with the rest. They soon entered the ancient observatory and saw the spacious hall that had been abandoned for many years.
The previous explorers had left emergency lights in the hall. The bright magic crystal lamps made the ancient place not as dark as it used to be. But Amber was a little uncomfortable with the bright environment. She whispered beside Gwen, "Shouldn't it be dark when exploring this kind of ancient facility … I'm not used to it being so bright …"
"Does this remind you of your profession?" Gwen glanced at the half-elf. "Do we have to put a coffin in the room for you to get into it?"
"… That's not necessary. When you crawled out of the coffin, you gave me a big psychological trauma …"
The two of them chatted half-jokingly, half-seriously, but their eyes were constantly scanning the old and abandoned devices in the hall, as well as any valuable traces on the corners and roofs. Philip, who came in with them, explained the situation. "The items that can be moved here have been properly processed and temporarily stored in the base's safe warehouse, but there are still many traces that cannot be moved, such as the runes on the walls and the overly fragile fragments. For these kinds of items, the technical experts only left behind video data or magic prints, and then left them in the same place as before … Madam Diana? Did you find something? "
Philip suddenly noticed that Diana didn't listen to his introduction of the situation. Instead, she began to walk around after entering the hall, looking around with a thoughtful and reminiscing state. At this moment, she suddenly stopped in front of a wall and looked up at the mottled traces on the wall in a daze. Her whole body seemed to be deeply "trapped" in it.
Gwen also noticed Diana's abnormal change. He originally planned to take a look in the hall and then go directly to the sealed upper observatory. But at this moment, he suddenly had an idea. "What do you remember?"
"There are marks on this wall." Diana did not answer Gwen's question. She just pointed to the wall thoughtfully. "Did you find it? These carvings … "
Philip took a closer look and nodded after a little hesitation. "Yes, we noticed some carvings on it before, but they are not any words. They are more like part of a pattern. The experts think this should be part of some kind of decorative relief …"
"No, it's not a relief." Diana shook her head. Suddenly, she reached out and gently stroked the wall. This action even made a scholar who came in with her exclaim in a low voice. "Please be careful. They are very fragile. I'm afraid they can't withstand …"
Diana turned a deaf ear to the exclamation behind her. Her fingers just gently stroked the ancient mottled traces, and then as if unconsciously sketched on the weathered wall next to the traces, as if she was supplementing the missing structure of the picture. Amber's eyes were involuntarily attracted by this. She opened her eyes and carefully looked at the traces left on the wall and the trace of Diana's fingers. Gradually, she distinguished several important dots, the radial lines connecting those dots, the outer ring of the pattern …
She suddenly reacted and nudged Gwen's arm with her elbow. She whispered in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "It's that pattern!"
Gwen was stunned, and then realized what Amber was referring to. This was a secret intelligence from the Typhon Empire, but in fact, it was not considered a secret among the higher-ups of the Typhon Empire. The head maid of the Augustus Family, Lady Diana, had a strange habit. She would always unconsciously sketch a mysterious pattern, no matter where it was, whether it was on the wall of the palace, the floor, or even on the clothes of passing attendants. As long as she thought of it, she would subconsciously draw this pattern. The content of the pattern was many dots, radial lines connecting the dots, and a ring representing the "boundary" …
Now, Diana was sketching this pattern, and this pattern was engraved on the wall of the Vipranton Observatory!
Of course, Gwen could not show that he was familiar with this matter. After all, this was a trivial matter that only the people in the Typhon Palace knew. So he asked casually, "Lady Diana? What are you doing? You seem to have drawn a pattern … What's the special meaning of this pattern? "
"I don't know … I only know that this pattern has been deeply imprinted in the core of my mind. Some ancient command is still strengthening its impression. Sometimes I fall into a trance, and when I wake up, I find that I have left these marks in some places. This has even caused some trouble for the people around me. I didn't expect … it to come from here …"
As she spoke, the black-haired head maid reached out and touched the marks on the wall. Her expression suddenly became a little strange. "And these marks were carved after I left the Vipranton Observatory!"
Gwen was stunned for a moment, and immediately realized the information in this sentence. "Wait a minute, you're saying that this was carved on the wall after you left Vipranton?! That means, it was after the outbreak of the demonic wave? Did someone survive here and leave these traces? "
"Not necessarily," Amber immediately said. "After all, when Diana left, the demonic wave hadn't arrived yet. Maybe after she left, someone who stayed here and didn't run away quickly carved this pattern on the wall. That was before the outbreak of the demonic wave …"
It had to be said that even though Hu Po was a loud talker and sometimes had a strange train of thought, what she said at this moment was actually a little possible. However, Diana shook her head after hearing it. "That's impossible. The marks on the wall should have been left behind after the demonic wave. Moreover, it should have been left behind between fifteen to twenty-five years after the demonic wave, because …"
As Diana spoke, one of her eyes suddenly changed. A subtle structure inside the eyeball seemed to have been activated, and a structure like a crystal grid opened under the eye. A few seconds later, the eyeball returned to its original state. This seemed to be a deliberate display of her special ability.
"I can analyse the time difference between the paint and the peeling of the building materials in various areas of the wall. The accuracy deviation is very small within a thousand years."
"… Holy shit." Amber was shocked. "You Gondor era things are really awesome …"
Then her eyes widened as she turned to look at the marks on the wall. "So that means, more than a decade after the demonic wave completely destroyed the Kingdom of Gondor, someone was still active in this observatory, and left this' mark 'on the wall?!"
"I don't know … but I'm sure this is not something that a mutant who has lost his mind could do," Diana said in a serious tone. "But I don't believe that anyone could survive in that situation … The Vipranton Observatory is not strong enough to protect it, and the scholars and officials in the observatory are not strong enough to withstand the demonic wave, and …"
As she spoke, she suddenly hesitated. "And if this pattern was engraved here more than a decade after I left, why do I know about it and remember it so deeply in the core of my mind?"
"The pattern was indeed engraved after you left, but before that, you and the people in this observatory should have known about it," Gwen said. "This pattern must mean a lot to you, so much so that you still remember it even after your memory malfunctioned. So that the survivors in the observatory — let's assume there are survivors — would choose this pattern as the last message they left here after being trapped for more than a decade."
"Is there really someone who can survive the outbreak of the demonic wave and live in an isolated observatory for ten to twenty years?" Hu Po couldn't help but ask in a low voice.
At this moment, Philip's voice suddenly rang out. "It's not impossible. Didn't the dark priests of the Cult of All Things Will Die survive in the wasteland until today? Although they paid the price of not being human, it shows that under certain conditions, normal creatures can survive in the wasteland without the help of purification devices. Not to mention this observatory … it seems to be protected by some kind of power. Its main body is intact, and it was not melted down by the Dark Blue magic like the other Gondor facilities. There is even an observatory operating on the upper level. "
"The upper level is still operating..." Gawain frowned. At this moment, he suddenly had a different sense of importance and vigilance toward the still operating observatory. He then turned to look at Diana. "Looks like we should go up and take a look."
(Everyone, do you know about the co-creation of King's Glory? The short story 'Sea of Storms' that I'm responsible for is online! It will be updated when the co-creation of King's Glory is online. You can see the story of 'Mad Iron' in King's Glory. Although I have never won with him …)
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