Chapter 987: Chapter 986: Return

Listening to Duke Baldwin’s words, Aunt Heidi nodded lightly.

From the very beginning, the key to this disaster lay in the Typhon Empire itself, and there was no doubt that what the Typhon Empire did next would influence the final direction of this matter. If it completely spun out of control, then the whole of Typhon would inevitably turn into a polluted zone; by then, whether the Cecil Clan was willing or not to be drawn into a larger-scale war, this war that should never have been fought would definitely continue—but if the Typhon Empire managed to bring the situation under control...

Then there would be a great deal of room for maneuver.

Thoughts rising and falling in her mind, Aunt Heidi still could not help letting out a soft sigh. "Although every god’s loss of control signifies an immense catastrophe... it’s obvious that the War God is more troublesome than the other gods."

"What worries me most now is whether the War God will undergo some unknown follow-up change if the war continues," Duke Baldwin said in a deep voice. "It is possible that as the war ’returns to the proper track’, He will gradually free Himself from madness and return to the position of a Kehr; it is also possible that this mad state is irreversible—that this Mad Gods will grow stronger and stronger as the war goes on, and begin to influence more and more people drawn into the conflict..."

"In the final analysis, we still don’t know enough about the gods," Grand Duchess Victoria Wilder said coolly. "We cannot be sure whether the Mad Gods state is reversible, nor can we determine whether the War God can draw strength during the course of war—we only know that His power comes from mortal faith, but this process of drawing power... at this stage still cannot be quantified, and we have no reliable means of gathering information on the trends of public sentiment within Typhon."

Aunt Heidi made a small sound of acknowledgement, lightly rubbing her temples as she spoke. "In any case, taking Winterwolf Fortress is only the first step. The question now is how to proceed with the second step."

Duke Baldwin thought as he spoke. "According to our previous contingency plans, after occupying Winterwolf Fortress we should immediately advance on the Bitter Winter defensive line and in the direction of the Shadow Marsh, seize the Typhon Empire’s northern assembly points and the junction stations of the cross-border railway, then rely on armored trains and mechanized units to launch a rapid advance, attacking Aldernon in the shortest possible time—if Aldernon proves hard to take, then we should quickly occupy the transport hubs of Talenkis’s key routes, sever Typhon’s grain-producing regions and its industrial raw-material transport nodes, and find a way to trigger large-scale food shortages and industrial shutdowns..."

"The Typhon Empire should be grateful to Andresha Wendell—none of this will happen now," Aunt Heidi shook her head. "Since we now know that Typhon did not truly declare war, and that they are internally working to counter this divine calamity, our offensive plan must be adjusted. High Chancellor Victoria, what is your view?"

"Have the First Legion temporarily halt its eastward advance and construct fortifications at Winterwolf Fortress, while also finding favorable terrain to establish strongpoints to the north and south of the fortress, using long-range Cannon Positions to seal off the entire region—the first phase will be to maintain such a blockade, advancing when we can, retreating when we must. So long as this line of blockade is not lost, any action Typhon takes will fall into passivity," Victoria laid out her views in an orderly fashion—within the Triumvirate, her military experience was clearly richer than that of the other two. "At the same time, we must further gather intelligence from within Typhon...

"Up to now, the intelligence net we set up in Typhon has already been heavily affected by the situation over there. Out of consideration for protecting our agents, many of the covert lines have recently gone into dormant status—but if the situation there continues to grow more chaotic, the movements of our intelligence personnel may instead become somewhat safer...

"In addition, I believe it necessary to use a few other channels to keep abreast of recent changes in Typhon’s situation—for example, through the Highmountain Kingdom and the Silver Empire. They have extensive dealings with Typhon in the southern parts of the Loren Continent; news coming from them might corroborate, from the side, the information provided by that Andresha Wendell. Of course, our intelligence capabilities in those regions are relatively weak—probably only the Silver Empire can provide some reliable information, but some is better than none..."

After Victoria finished laying out her thoughts one by one, she left the time to Aunt Heidi and Duke Baldwin, and in the period that followed, the topic of the three members of the Triumvirate revolved around various follow-up measures to be taken against Typhon.

When the discussion finally drew to a pause, Aunt Heidi at last had time to pick up the water cup on the table, while on the other side of the Magic Web Communication channel, Duke Baldwin Franklin hesitated slightly before asking, "Grand Governor Heidi, from His Majesty’s side... there is still no word?"

Aunt Heidi held the cup, a somewhat complicated look flashing across her face for a moment. She shook her head, a trace of worry in her tone. "Still no news..."

"...His Majesty will return safely," Victoria’s voice remained icy-cold as she spoke. "He is one who can play the game against the gods."

After exchanging a few more words, Baldwin and Victoria took their leave of Aunt Heidi, closing their Magic Web Terminals one after another. As the faint humming sound left by the shutting down of the devices gradually subsided, the spacious office finally held only Aunt Heidi alone—the room suddenly felt very quiet, so quiet that Aunt Heidi could even hear her own breathing.

She suddenly drew in a deep breath, kneading her brow firmly, then hesitated for a moment before reaching toward the drawer at her side. A moment later, she took out from the innermost compartment a silver-white, delicate little ring, kept in an exquisite small box.

Aunt Heidi stared at this circular ring for two seconds before reaching out to rub its surface, gently injecting a trace of Magic Power into its interior.

Just as when she tried yesterday, The Mithril Ring showed no response at all—and this was already her sixth attempt in the past twenty-four hours.

Unable to help herself, Aunt Heidi rubbed her brow once more, taking the opportunity to lower her head, as though to prevent anyone from seeing her agitation and unease at this moment—even though, aside from her, there was no one else in this office.

What she held in her hand was The Mithril Ring, the "emergency contact tool" Gawain had left before his departure. It was said to employ advanced technology from Talronde, capable of maintaining communication even across the continent.

Talronde lay separated from the human world by the Endless Sea and the Eternal Storm; the existing Magic Web Communication could not reach it, so Gawain had left such an item to ensure that, if the situation on the continent changed drastically and the Empire faced a crisis, he could be contacted in an emergency.

But now this thing showed no response at all—Aunt Heidi did not know where exactly the problem lay, whether she was operating it incorrectly, whether this intricate device had malfunctioned, or whether... it was some worse possibility.

This left her mind in turmoil, with no one to whom she could confide.

She tossed The Mithril Ring back onto the desk; metal struck wood with a crisp sound, the ring bounced twice on the tabletop, then rolled to the side and came to rest.

And almost at the very moment she threw that Mithril Ring back on the desk, a Magic Web Terminal that had only just been shut down a short while ago suddenly lit up. A rapid buzzing came from the base of the machine, and the holographic projection above it displayed the identification mark of the dedicated line from the Northern Winter Fortress in the northern parts of the Dark Mountain Range—Aunt Heidi merely froze for a heartbeat before swiftly connecting the call, and the Duchess Victoria reappeared in the holographic projection, having only just disconnected moments ago.

"High Chancellor Victoria?" Aunt Heidi stared at the projection in surprise. "What has happened..."

"The Node Tower at Northport has just received an identification signal from above the northern sea," Victoria Wilder spoke before Aunt Heidi could finish, her voice still cool but tinged with a faint urgency. "It should be coming from those two large Magic Web Terminal machines His Majesty is carrying!"

Upon hearing this news, Aunt Heidi’s first reaction was to cast a startled glance at The Mithril Ring she had just thrown aside on the desk, then she stared wide-eyed at Victoria. "Is it confirmed? Have we made contact?"

"The signal characteristics have already been confirmed, and a Magic Web signal from the airspace above the northern sea cannot be anything else—but at present the signal is still very weak, likely due to excessive distance; there’s no way to establish a full communication yet, only brief messages confirming safety have been exchanged," Victoria said. "However, judging from the current curve of signal strengthening, in about ten minutes we should just barely be able to communicate."

"Please route it here at once!" Aunt Heidi said immediately.

"I’ve already been doing that."

Ten minutes... Heidi had never imagined that a mere ten minutes could feel this long. She was on edge, unable to sit still, with anxiety, anticipation, joy, and confusion all tangled together. She wanted to get up and walk around or straighten her appearance, yet worried that such a move would be seen by the Ancestor, who could connect at any moment, so she forced herself to suppress the impulse and maintain her usual dignified, steady posture behind her desk. She felt as if she had waited like this for about forty millennia, and she was sure that the Victoria Wilder shown in the Magic Web Terminal’s hologram beside her must be just as restless—only the Grand Duke of Ice and Snow was so used to slouching around that you couldn’t tell at a time like this...

Her thoughts had just started to drift when light flickered suddenly above the relay Magic Web Terminal on the other side of the desk—Heidi felt her breathing and heartbeat jump in sync—and right after that, amid heavy interference and distortion, some blurry shadows slowly emerged in the hologram, accompanied by a burst of noise-laden sound.

Though she still couldn’t see clearly, Heidi was certain that it was indeed her Ancestor! It was indeed the figure of Gawain Cecil.

The Ancestor seemed to be speaking, but she couldn’t make it out yet. After a short while, she saw the picture stabilize and clear up a little; among the noise, intermittent human speech began to appear, the voice gradually becoming continuous. She heard the Ancestor calling her name: "Heidi... interference... hear... can you hear me clearly now?"

"I can now, Ancestor!" Heidi answered at once, not noticing that she had already stood up. "There’s still a bit of interference, but I can make you out clearly!"

In just the time it took to exchange those two sentences, she saw that the sound and image from the Magic Web Terminal seemed to have become a little clearer than before.

Obviously, the Ancestor was rapidly approaching the Loren Continent—Heidi could practically picture the dragon streaking at full speed across the sky.

"I can finally hear your voice too," Gawain’s voice came through. "Good. Looks like these two devices didn’t break after all that tossing around. Heidi, tell me how things are on your side right now. Has something happened on the Loren Continent lately?"

"How did you kno..." Heidi was reflexively surprised for a moment, but then reacted. She didn’t bother with how the Ancestor had learned of the drastic change in the continental situation and instead spoke directly, "Ancestor, the God-disaster in Typhon has worsened. Part of their army lost control and attacked us—we had no choice but to counterattack, and at this point, we and Typhon are already in a state of ’war.’"

"Huh?!" Gawain was clearly stunned—though there were still many interference ripples on the image, Heidi was sure she saw an expression of shock on the Ancestor’s face.

To see the ever-dignified, ever-reliable Ancestor this shocked... should she feel proud of herself?

Heidi gave a self-mocking bitter smile, then had to report what had happened next to Gawain: "...After the war broke out, we chose to push the front eastward. General Philip, leading the First Legion and assisted by the Dragon Cavalry Troops, captured Winterwolf Fortress at dawn today—their cannon positions and bunkers are already being built by our army along the Typhon Empire border."

"...Huh?!"

"Additionally, the garrison of Winterwolf Fortress, under the leadership of their highest commander, Andresha Wendell, voluntarily surrendered. We ended that battle much easier than expected..."

"...Huh!?"

After three consecutive "Huhs," Gawain finally managed to pull himself somewhat out of his shock. His figure appeared ever clearer in the hologram, and his voice reached Heidi’s ears more distinctly: "Wait, with changes this huge, why didn’t you contact me directly with The Mithril Ring?"

Heidi paused, her gaze instinctively dropping to the silver-white ring on the desk before she spoke: "I tried several times. You didn’t receive anything?"

"You tried?" Gawain sounded even more surprised than Heidi. "But there really hasn’t been any response on my end..."

Heidi: "???"

Was it her operation that was wrong? Or had this so-called piece of Talronde tech, boasting an extremely high level of sophistication, really malfunctioned?

A new question popped into her mind, but before she could speak, Gawain’s voice came again: "Anyway, let’s not worry about The Mithril Ring for now. Tell me the current situation first—we’re closing in on the Northport coastline. Try to keep it short and clear. How much have I missed?"

...

The cold wind howled and rampaged outside the Protective Barrier, and the endless sea raced past beneath the dragon. At the faintly heaving surface’s far edge, the vague outline of the continent could already be seen.

Standing on the broad center of Melita Ponia’s back, Gawain listened, dumbfounded, as Heidi finished her report.

"Just one trip away..." he couldn’t help muttering to himself, "and when I come back, the whole world is about to be turned upside down."

"I had a feeling something would go wrong the moment we set out!" Amber wouldn’t stop yammering beside him. "You just wouldn’t trust my intuition. I’m telling you, my gut is super accurate. A month ago I was already suspicious that this winter wouldn’t go smoothly, and see, something did happen in the end, I told you..."

The half-elf’s yammering was headache-inducing. At this moment, Gawain deeply regretted that there was no wall on Melita Ponia’s back—he had no way to smack the now-chattering Amber into it.

"Melita," he finally chose to forcibly ignore Amber’s nonstop muttering, turning his head to shout toward the massive dragon head in front, "Heidi said just now that The Mithril Ring didn’t respond. What’s going on?"

"I don’t know either! Nothing like this has ever happened before!" Melita Ponia’s voice clearly carried some tension, and the surprise and bewilderment in her tone did not sound in the least feigned. "The Mithril Ring... that thing is directly connected to the Omega System. All information sending and receiving is handled personally by Omega. Even if one ring is damaged or goes offline, the relevant damage report is instantly sent to Talronde and simultaneously sent to the ring’s custodian and every level of responsible authority—I’m the one responsible for your ring, but I haven’t received any such message at all."

Gawain frowned slightly. "Omega made a mistake?"

"Omega never makes mistakes!" Melita Ponia’s voice came from ahead. At first, her tone was very firm, but she soon grew hesitant. "At least... nothing like this has ever happened since I was born..."

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