Chapter 897: Act 73 – The Millennial Convergence III
The Great Glacier—
This is a world of eternal ice and frost, where intertwining glaciers create a crystalline realm, resembling a stack of glass. The biting cold winds whip through the ice and snow year-round, like sharp blades that carve deep scars into the smooth ice surface, day after day, forming the rugged and bizarre terrain of this place. However, even in such a harsh and perilous environment, there are still outsiders.
An old wizard clad in a silver robe is struggling through the snow, one hand gripping an ivory staff and the other pressed against the pointed wizard’s hat, which seems ready to be blown away at any moment. His white beard dances wildly in the bone-chilling wind, as he steps in the knee-deep snow with uneven strides. The staff in his hand is called ‘Tir,’ meaning knowledge; the Bud people possess three keys to truth—knowledge, wisdom, and reason—yet this artifact is currently being used as a mere walking stick.
The old wizard slowly advances through the valley, insignificant as an ant, crossing the blue ice and stopping in an open area.
This is a vast valley where black rocks emerge from beneath the snow, forming steep peaks all around. Between the peaks, the wind and snow have quieted considerably. The old wizard looks around and sees an artificial structure in the valley; it was once a tower supposed to float in mid-air, resembling a beautiful obelisk, pure white and towering several hundred feet high. But at this moment, it is already shattered, having crashed into the valley floor, with parts of its wreckage buried beneath the snow. The surface, once covered in mysterious patterns, is now frozen over, clearly showing signs of damage from long ago.
“The third one,” the old wizard shook his head and muttered to himself.
As if in response to his words, a disdainful cold snort reached his ears amidst the frigid wind. It was a woman’s voice—low and hoarse yet filled with authority and power: “William, I told you that you would return here. Ah, you must have already sensed it; the boundaries of order are rapidly fading, the fragile rules are collapsing, and everything is unfolding just as the prophecy described. Your futile efforts are indeed laughable; this time, there will be no fool to save you—”
The old wizard—one of the supreme beings at the pinnacle of this world, a master of the Silver Twelve Rings, the ruler of Kanaiqi, the king of time and space—remained unperturbed and even smiled slightly: “Esteemed Lady Fyseacaes, or should I address you as the Dragon Queen of the Seven Extremes, the Evil Dragon Fyseaca, or perhaps Dallas-Tar, daughter of the Dragon of Storms and Time?”
“Hmph!”
The cold snort seemed to turn into a storm, whipping up ice winds throughout the valley. The woman replied coldly, “If you truly respected me, how could you have imprisoned me in this place? My gaze has pierced through three millennia, waiting for you since the moment you chose to betray me, eager to see you reap what you have sown. Now you’ve returned, tell me, what are you thinking?”
“Lady Fyseacaes, no one ever regrets,” William replied loudly against the fierce snow and wind.
“Have you seen the waves rising on the Sea of Magic, William? Why don’t you take a guess at what is brewing beneath the surface calm?” the voice mocked.
William raised his eyebrows slightly: “I understand you know, Lady Fyseacaes. I came here today to ask you what has happened in the east. We are sensing that Tiamat’s laws are changing at an unprecedented speed; we do not understand what is happening. The tide of magic rises day by day, and the reflection of the Magic Moon indicates that the sea surface of another world is becoming turbulent, yet we cannot find the reasons behind it.”
“What have you seen?” Fyseacaes asked.
“In just one month, we have lost thirty observation points. As you said, the borders of order are accelerating their decay; just in the Great Glacier, we have lost three sanctuaries.”
The woman’s voice sneered lightly: “I have seen the spark extinguished, and I knew you would come here.”
“Then tell me, what else have you seen?”
“In the month of harvest, our wizards observed the Black Moon—”
“The Black Moon,” Fyseacaes chuckled: “The thirteenth moon; it has finally appeared, isn’t it beautiful?”
“It destroyed Kaleta, and those present there witnessed strange phenomena.”
“What kind of strange phenomena?”
“A tower, as if submerged under a black night,” William replied.
“The reflection of Babel,” Fyseacaes answered: “But this is still not the fundamental reason for your presence here.”
William looked up at the mountains surrounding the valley before answering: “I feel that all observation points in the eastern territory have shifted at once—”
“Do you suspect I had a hand in this?”
William remained silent.
“Ridiculous,” Fyseacaes scoffed: “Let me give you a piece of advice, William.”
“The moon has lost—”
…
Even in winter, the temperature of this particular day feels unusually warm. The sun, far above, shines glaringly on the ground after crossing the midpoint, causing everyone to grow a bit restless while waiting. Earl Ji’en and his army had surrendered their weapons some time ago. Initially, Brendel suspected it was a trap, but after testing the waters, he found that the other side seemed sincere. Although he didn’t understand what these Cruz nobles were planning, he managed to disarm them smoothly and temporarily detain this noble army in the Red Pine Forest. Now, he just wanted to clarify one thing—what exactly had that Earl consumed to act so irrationally?
However, Earl Ji’en was unwilling to see him directly, so he had to let Princess Margadale and Charles handle it. After quite a wait, he finally saw Charles hurry back from the Red Pine Forest, and the first words from this young wizard squire were: “My Lord, we’ve figured out what’s going on.”
Brendel glanced at him, his expression calm as he didn’t rush to ask, even though this was the answer he had been wanting.
Charles then said, “Maol and the Cooper family, Walker family, as well as Earl Orkans, they haven’t lain in ambush nearby. In fact, since this morning, no, since last night, Earl Ji’en hasn’t been able to contact them.”
“What do you mean?” This answer left Brendel momentarily perplexed, and he slightly frowned in response.
“Not clear. Earl Ji’en himself doesn’t know either. According to his description, those people seem to have vanished. He thought we did it, which is why he was forced to surrender to us,” Charles replied with some amusement; it seemed the Earl had been scared out of his wits.
“Vanish?”
Brendel was stunned for a moment before asking, “What does that mean?”
“Literally, the armies of the Maol and Cooper families had been stationed in Iron Yew Town three days ago up until yesterday, the Walker family’s army was lingering in Valgris Town, and Earl Orkans was stationed near Leafwood Avenue, but now these armies have all vanished. At least, Earl Ji’en cannot contact them,” Charles explained.
“Is that possible?” Brendel found this utterly absurd: “Are you sure this isn’t a trap? Have our gargoyles thoroughly searched the surrounding area?”
This question was, in fact, a redundant one; they had already searched the surrounding area multiple times before daring to accept Earl Ji’en’s surrender. Moreover, even if it was a trap, that Earl would surely find a way to concoct a lie that at least made some sense, rather than spinning such a fanciful tale. The further detached the facts felt, the more it ironically confirmed the reliability of what he said.
Indeed, Charles shook his head lightly: “It seems he’s not lying. You didn’t see that Earl’s expression; he looked genuinely terrified, and he didn’t want to see you—most likely fearing you would harm him.”
Brendel shook his head in disbelief: “Have we sent gargoyles and scouts to Iron Yew Town, Valgris Town, and around Leafwood Avenue?”
“You would have to ask Medisa and Lady Nemesis about that, my Lord. I’m not responsible for this,” Charles replied.
Brendel then remembered, and he couldn’t help but smack his forehead, realizing that he had completely been confused by the current bizarre situation. He quickly sought out Medisa, who was currently arranging accommodations for the Cruz captives; this batch of captives was nearly the largest since their campaign, totaling a thousand, and many among them were not nobles, but mercenaries or farmer-soldiers. Dealing with such people was far more troublesome than with nobles, as they needed provisioning. According to Charles, it would be simpler to release them altogether; Brendel was tempted by this proposal, but he knew he could not be so reckless, as that would make his intentions too obvious.
When Brendel approached Medisa and inquired about the scouts and gargoyles, the Silver Elf Princess seemed to have anticipated his visit, promptly replying: “My Lord, Valgris Town and Leafwood Avenue are quite far from us, but the gargoyles sent to Iron Yew Town returned once, and indeed, as that Earl described, there wasn’t a single shadow there, nor were there signs of battle.”
“No signs of battle?”
Medisa nodded.
Brendel felt the situation growing increasingly strange—could it be that Earl Orkans had received some forewarning and deserted Earl Ji’en? But that reasoning sounded absurd; if he were running away alone, there would be no need to bring the knights and lords of the Maol, Cooper, and Walker families along. And if he had the means to inform others to flee together, it wouldn’t be necessary to leave Earl Ji’en behind. Even if he were to betray teammates, his first choice would have to be those insignificant lesser nobles. Brendel truly saw no necessity for the other party to turn against the Ji’en family.
However, if there were other possibilities, it would be even more peculiar since there was no logical explanation.
He had Charles ask Earl Ji’en several more times, but each time he was met with nearly the same conclusion, which left him momentarily perplexed. Although achieving victory without bloodshed is a rare and good thing, the current situation is indeed rather eerie; thousands of troops vanished into thin air overnight over a range of several dozen miles. What kind of situation could this be?
Helpless, Brendel could only pause the delegation and wait for news from the gargoyles and scouts returning from Valgris Town and Leafwood Avenue. From Ji’en’s description, he sensed something was off—it felt like a primal instinct for danger. He had experienced all sorts of abnormal situations in the game, which provided him with rich experience to deal with various emergencies.
At one o’clock in the afternoon, the gargoyles still had not returned from the Valgris Town and Leafwood Avenue, but at that moment, Lady Nemesis finally returned to the White Lion Guard from the delegation. Her main task was to bring the young prince and the other members of the delegation—including the captured Cruz nobles—to join the main force. Brendel had sensed something was wrong with this battle earlier, which is why he dispatched this more reliable female knight to handle it.
Under normal circumstances, this task would have been managed by the Merchant Miss Romaine and Dierphir.
Upon returning to the White Lion Guard, Lady Nemesis frowned immediately after hearing the others’ descriptions: “How far is it from Rokoz—The Broken Sword Mountain Fortress?”
Brendel understood what she was thinking at once. Having collaborated for a long time—including in his previous life—they could read each other’s thoughts with just a glance or a single word. He quickly shook his head: “It’s not far from Rokoz—the nearest fortress in the Broken Sword Mountain Fortress is close, but it’s quite far from Toquinin. This is the Floating Cloud Hills, and according to the latest news, the lions from Toquinin are still to the south of Anzeruta Mountain. Even if they breached the fortress at the same time we received news and marched day and night, it would be impossible for them to reach here.”
“Besides, they are still holding back there,” Charles added.
Brendel nodded but also mentioned, “But we cannot rule out the possibility that those nobles provided us with false information.”
“What benefit would that bring to them, my Lord?” Charles asked.
“None,” Brendel answered: “The Cruz nobles cannot stand with the lions; lying to us over this matter has no significance for them. But the question is, what if the information they received was inaccurate?”
This time, however, Medisa shook her head: “My Lord, over these past days, according to Lady Nemesis’s instructions, we’ve been collecting similar information from the captives, but the rumors have been similar. Unless the lions intentionally deceive the Empire, those nobles must be telling the truth.”
“Unless the lions intentionally deceive the Empire?”
Brendel suddenly caught onto this statement sharply. He glanced at Lady Nemesis. Based on their earlier analysis, the lions were holding back to the south of the Rokoz—Broken Sword Mountain Fortress. Unless something internal had occurred, or they were intentionally deceptive to mislead the Imperial border forces. The probability of the former was very low; lions follow a clan-based kingdom system, and under the leadership of the Great Chief and the High Priest, if those two do not have conflicts, the army’s internal divergence is almost impossible. While there may be minor disputes between tribes, they are not serious. As for between the Great Chief and the High Priest, the chances of issues arising are even less.
Currently leading Toquinin is the Lion King Orl, a well-known monarch, who is a student of this generation’s High Priest. No unpleasant rumors had been heard regarding their relationship.
But if it is not the former, then the latter must be the case.
However, prior to this, Brendel hadn’t had enough information to make judgments; thus, for now, he could only set aside the movements of the lions. Yet, at this moment, with Medisa’s reminder, he suddenly remembered and instinctively said, “Sister, are there any ancient dwarven tunnels left under Anzeruta?”
In his moment of desperation, he inadvertently referred to the older sister in a different world, but fortunately, the surrounding people seemed not to catch this detail; only Lady Nemesis glanced at him and shook her head:
“There are indeed dwarven ruins beneath Anzeruta, however, the Toquinin lions are unlikely to use them.”
“Why?” Brendel asked, slightly astonished.
