Sword of Daybreaker

The steel battleship with the flag of the Empire stopped at sea, dragoon fighters flew across the sky with a low buzzing sound, and heavily armed steel ranger fighters patrolled the beach—for Sparrow Bee and Night Owl, it all brought it all. An indescribable sense of security.

On the barren coast covered with rubble, the landing crews cleared a temporary foothold. The high-powered mobile communication station and the magic net array restored the communication between Violet Island and Beigang, and the shield generator was used in the field to resist. After the biting cold wind on the coast of this winter day, Ye Xiao and Sparrow were sitting on a large rock, each holding a freshly heated instant soup in their hands, feeling the chill gradually dissipating in their bodies.

A pillar-shaped device was placed on the open space in front of them. The lower part of the device had a hexagonal alloy shell, and the upper part was a crystal plate stacked on top of each other. There was a magical glow between the crystals. A floating, constant and uniform thermal field radiates around this device, quickly raising the temperature of the entire campsite to a comfortable level.

Several soldiers hung their camping lunch boxes on the hooks next to the heating device, and the food in the lunch boxes was gradually exuding a seductive smell under the heat.

This device reminds Sparrow Bee when she was an apprentice of a mage. She saw similar items in the mage tower of the instructor. The mage of the old times would set up various magic items that could change the environment in their homes. The whole tower is warm like a spring magic fire, and there is also a mirror of ice that cools down the entire castle. These things have incredible effects, and they are usually used by mages to show their superb skills and financial resources for making magic items. .

They will always use the most sophisticated and expensive methods to make even the simplest magic items. A fireplace used to release a wide-area thermal field must be built with obsidian bricks and adamantine ingots—that's a kind of A lifestyle that was unimaginable for the civilians at the time.

If his mentor hadn’t died on the walls of Saint Sunil, I don’t know how he would feel when he saw this era...mostly he would point to this shameless "portable outdoor heat station" and curse that there is no soul-then take advantage of it. When there is no one, I secretly go to the market to buy one, and I will open up and study how it works.

For some reason, I remembered these old things in my mind. Sparrow was in a daze for a while, and then shook her head slightly. She heard the black-haired Miss Longyi talking to herself and Ye Xiao: "Yours" The shopkeeper' and'Silvereye' Corod died when he disappeared in Plantall City. Unfortunately, we may not be able to recover his body... Did he leave any relics?"

"No, the store manager's personal belongings have been taken away by the dense fog," the bird bee shook his head, his voice low, "If I have to say... I and Ye Xiao are his relics."

"...I understand," Maggie stared at the two military intelligence officers with calm expressions in front of her. She nodded slowly and turned the topic away. "Then, I need to get some information from you-you are Prandall. Those who have witnessed the Dense Fog Incident and have been active in Violet for many years, the information you have is very important to us."

The Sparrow nodded, her gaze swept over the steel Ranger soldiers patrolling nearby and the steel battleship floating on the sea in the distance. The "boundary" of a country's intelligence collection work is an obvious signal, indicating that the upper layers of the empire have realized that the "extraordinary vision" of Violet is extraordinary, and that Violet has probably lost its status as a sovereign country. The "function".

Now, the Violet Kingdom may no longer be a normal "country" in the eyes of the empire, but an "abnormal zone" completely shrouded in extraordinary visions.

"Are there any signs when the thick fog appears?" Maggie's voice came from the other side, "I mean short-term signs-we already know about the abnormal conditions in the Violet Kingdom in the past month."

"No warning," Birdbee shook his head. "The thick fog appeared suddenly and there was no sign. Ye Xiao and I were indoors at the time. We didn't even notice when the thick fog came. We didn't notice the abnormality until outside the observation window. "

Maggie carefully wrote down these details, and then asked: "Dense fog itself is not lethal, right?"

"Yes, we move as usual in the thick fog. The fog is non-toxic, harmless and tasteless. I can't even feel its existence at all. It feels like some kind of... Kind of things that really exist in the real world."

"Mr. Modil mentioned earlier that there are very faint lights in the doors and windows of buildings in dense fog, and when people cast their eyes over, those doors and windows will have blurred outlines and changeable shadows, just like There are many people with distorted limbs lying on the rough crystal glass and peeking out, right?"

"...Yes, and not only those buildings, but also the carriages parked on the side of the road," said Ye Xiao next to him, recalling the details of last night. "As long as it is a closed space with transparent or translucent doors and windows, There will be those weird shadows. We suspect that those are the “citizens” who originally lived in Prandall. In the thick fog, they took on a...more essential posture. In addition, as you just said, these figures It will react to our gaze. When we look at those doors and windows,'them' will appear, and the longer we look at them, the stranger their appearance will seem..."

Maggie nodded and silently wrote down the new details. Then she asked several more questions, adding up the information about the "Prandall Fog" last night, and after she asked her, Modil asked immediately: "Did the thick fog appear again while you were waiting for rescue? Or did other visions occur?"

"...No more," the Sparrow Bee shook his head while thinking, but then suddenly remembered something, and quickly added, "By the way, we did see some fog after sunrise, and that was when we got out of'Plandel 'Shortly afterwards, mist suddenly appeared on the rocky beach. Ye Xiao and I saw... the figure of the'shop manager' emerged from it, saying goodbye to us."

"...An unstable superimposed state," Modil said softly, "that should be the last moment when the'other world' is disconnected from the real world."

While talking, the legendary adventurer slowly stood up and looked up to the direction of the island's inland. He saw the gravel beach on the coast extending towards that side. The former City of Plantal was located on this piece of rubble. To the northwest of the beach, there is now an unusually vast wilderness, and to the north of the gravel beach, you can see a lush dense forest.

The shadows in the dense forest seemed to be difficult for even the sun to pass even the few dwarf trees at the extreme edges, but Modil was more concerned about another thing-there seemed to be no "fog" in the dense forest.

This is not the kind of fog that shrouded Prandall last night, but the “fog locks” mentioned in the literature that are perpetually flooding the dense forests of Violet territory.

Before Plantel was swallowed up, all the intelligence personnel mentioned this fog when reporting on the situation of the Violet Kingdom. They mentioned in the report that the Violet Kingdom was full of dense forests, and the dense forests were filled with years of lingering forests. The thick fog, the fog seems to have extraordinary power, can interfere with people's perception, block people's roads, and even "exile" people who have strayed into it back to the entrance of the fog. Even extraordinary people cannot pass through it.

The dense forest covering the entire territory, coupled with the long-lasting fog in the forest, together form the "inland barrier" of the Violet Kingdom, which envelops many inland cities, including the city of a thousand towers, and also obstructs them. Cut off the sight of outsiders trying to spy on this mysterious country, no matter whether it is an officer of Cecil's military intelligence bureau or a spy sent by Typhon, there is nothing to do about it.

But now, Modil can clearly see that the dense fog in the dense forest has dissipated, and what is left is...the only abnormal dim environment.

Ye Xiao quickly noticed the sight of the old mage. The young MIB officer immediately understood what the other party was thinking, and proactively said: "After we got out of trouble, the mist that had always been in the dense forest disappeared. Never again."

"You didn't go deep into the island?" Modil immediately turned his head and asked seriously.

"No," Ye Xiao shook his head. "Although the fog in the dense forest has dissipated, it is full of abnormal dim surroundings. Obviously there are other weirdnesses. Sparrowbee and I just looked at the edge of the forest and retreated to the beach. NS."

"You are doing the right thing. It is very dangerous to go deep into the hinterland without understanding the current rules of this island," Modil nodded gently. As an experienced adventurer, he Knowing that recklessness and overconfidence often lead to disaster.

"Prandall disappeared in the thick fog, and the fog that has filled the island's dense forest all the year round has also disappeared... What is the connection between the two?" Maggie muttered thoughtfully, "It feels like It seems that Plantall City and the dense fog in the original dense forest are supported by the same'source', but now this source is fading from the real world..."

"Ms. Ye, I can only think of Ms. Ye," Modil said slowly. "Whether it is the shadow dwellers who appeared last night or the summons I received in my dreams, they all seem to point to the mysterious ancient god, but I really don’t see exactly what he intends to convey... But one thing I understand is that the so-called "mage kingdom" of Violet... The true appearance is probably a shadow country. At least the city of Plantel is obviously affected Dominated by shadow power."

Modil shook his head, and then sketched out a few shining runes in the air. An illusory eyeball condensed from the runes. After a moment of sluggishness, the eyeball looked into the depths of the dense forest. Direction.

"The situation in the hinterland of the island is unclear. It would be dangerous if you rushed deep into it. I'll let the mage's eyes go over and take a look. The control distance of this thing is still very good."

While the old mage was talking, he casually set a dozen layers of element resistance and arcane protection around the eyes of the mage, and finally gave it seven layers of mage armor and seven layers of force field shield...

Sparrowbee was stunned when she saw this scene, her eyes widened: "The mage's eye can also be protected with such layers of protection?!"

"The little tricks accumulated during the adventure. After all, the wild environment is so dangerous. Who knows what will happen if you are not prepared," Modil said naturally, and then reached out and pushed one of the wizards he had summoned. With a quick glance, Ye Owl and Sparrowbee watched this summoned object of the inner and outer layers, which had been wrapped in various magical special effects, floated up into the air, and moved towards the dense forest like a flying tank. Fly away slowly.

Although everyone knows that the "magic effect" itself is weightless, it is from this eyeball that they can see a feeling as if they can't fly.

Maggie next to her was also stunned. The black dragon lady even suspected that the mage’s eye was more resistant to beating than herself...

At the same time, the Duchess of Victoria, who stayed on the Cold Star and was in command, was paying attention to the information returned by all the exploratory teams—not only Maggie and Modil who landed on the Prandall Coast, but also going to Rattle. The "Chillwind" and "Ice Cavalry" who check the situation with Port Payne return information at any time.

She glanced at the mechanical clock hanging nearby, then turned to look at one of the magic net terminals on the communication platform: "Coldwind, report your location."

In the next second, the commander of the Coldwind came from the Monet terminal: "This is the Coldwind. We are already close to the outer port of Rattle...the area that should have been the outer port. Rattle city was not found. , Repeat, did not find Rattle City, there is only a pristine barren coastline!"

Victoria's face sinks like water: "...confirm the orientation and topographical features of the coast."

"The position is confirmed and the topography of the coast is the same. We are near the city of Rattle, and the city has disappeared."

Victoria took a breath, and almost at the same time, the commander of the "Ice Cavalry" hurriedly reported from another communication channel: "Report the Grand Archon! This is the Ice Cavalry! The Port of Payne has disappeared, repeat, the Port of Payne has disappeared-we are searching along the coastline and we have not found any traces of the city so far!"

"...I see, the Coldwind and the Ice Cavalry continue to search along the coastline. If there is no danger, they will send landing troops ashore to set up temporary bases and monitoring equipment." Victoria's voice was as cold and calm as ice in winter. She looked up again at the sky outside the porthole, "Regardless of the progress, everyone must return to the boat before the sun goes down. You must not spend the night on the island today."

"Yes, Coldwind understands." "Ice Cavalry understands."

The communication between the two battleships was temporarily suspended, Victoria took a breath, and before she could exhale the breath, the landing team led by Maggie initiated a communication request.

After the communication was connected, she saw the faces of her ancestors appear in the holographic projection at first glance.

"The fog barrier in the dense forest inside the island has disappeared. I just put a wizard's eye in the direction of the jungle to the north," Modil said openly, "now the wizard's eye is almost flying to the limit of my control-from the air Going down, the range that the eyes of the wizard can observe is only unseen virgin forests and unusually large open spaces in the forests. There are no cities, villages or roads. How is your situation there?"

"...Your previous words have come true," Victoria pursed her lips, and said slowly, "The Violet Kingdom...I'm afraid it's all gone."