Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 914 - 913: Related to God

Upon hearing "having some contact with the divine powers," Kamel and Veronica immediately felt seven to eight levels of nervousness.

In the past year or so, the Cecil Clan has faced quite enough issues that "having some contact with divine powers."

Seeing that the atmosphere had been successfully stirred up by him, Gawain did not continue with more suspense and instead spoke directly: "Daniel sent a report that recently in Typhon, there have been several mysterious deaths of War God’s clergy in the churches—though he hasn’t gotten detailed information, it is certain the death toll has exceeded five—and all have occurred within the last half month."

"Clergy dying mysteriously?" Aunt Heidi frowned upon hearing this, "If it’s simply clergy dying mysteriously... it could also possibly be some sort of assassination attack aimed at the church... In places where the theocracy is quite opposed and the local customs are fierce, such incidents can also occur, especially in more remote areas."

"This possibility has basically been ruled out," Gawain shook his head, "the churches where incidents occurred were not just one, including areas dominated by the Sect of the God of War, and if they were attacked by heretics, the Typhon War God Church would certainly take the opportunity to widely publicize them as martyrdom events—but the fact is all the death incidents have not been publicly disclosed and even the scenes have been sealed, Daniel gathered the information through special channels."

Upon hearing such an answer, the people in the room exchanged glances.

"Typhon holds the War God Faith as its mainstream religion, the War God’s clergy holds high status in their society. Over the last hundred years, the deaths of War God’s clergy have not been few, but they all died adhering to the doctrine on various battlefields; attacks and assassinations causing mysterious deaths and making the death inconvenient to disclose have been extremely rare—the records I could find tally only twelve such incidents, and those twelve incidents are spread over a span of two centuries," Amber broke the silence, speaking of analyzed intelligence by the Intelligence Agency, "One view here is that there are internal issues within Typhon’s Sect of the God of War, the clergy deaths might be due to some internal conflict, thus making it difficult to disclose, however..."

"However, this speculation is still lacking support," Gawain continued Amber’s words, "Firstly, based on the information we have, the Typhon War God Church has been united and stable for years, currently, the reigning Pope Malm Dunite is in good health, and the bishop team has maintained control over the various churches without issues, plus the domestic situation in Typhon is quite smooth, the War God Church has no reason for internal struggle."

"Therefore, this direction is hard to establish," Veronica said thoughtfully, her gaze falling on Gawain’s face, "But just from the mysterious clergy deaths alone, why do you think they might be related to the divine powers?"

"...Someone went insane." Gawain said calmly.

Veronica’s gaze suddenly grew serious, her fingers clutching the platinum scepter slightly exerting force, while Kamel beside her suddenly increased his brightness, causing others to squint.

"Several members of the clergy who came into contact with the death scenes became insane afterward, from the timing, they should have witnessed the death process of those deceased clergy, or rather... saw some ’changes’ they shouldn’t see. Although the War God Church has worked hard to seal information, some rumors have still spread, which are supported by the Typhon War God’s Grand Cathedral in Aldernon suddenly holding a closed-door meeting and shutting down the external corridors on the open days..."

"Closing external corridors on open days, and especially after these incidents..." Veronica narrowed her eyes, "This... indeed is unusual."

"So, I would like to hear what you experts think," Gawain looked at Veronica and Kamel, "Especially your thoughts, Veronica—you should have some understanding of how modern society’s churches operate."

"From judging the worst-case possibility, the mysteriously dying clergy might have died from ’Divine Punishment’ or similar divine powers, their death likely bears signs of desecration or contamination, which can cause uncontrollable secondary contamination, hence the churches in various places would seal the information," Veronica immediately shared her thoughts, "And usually there are only two reasons that can lead clergy to encounter ’Divine Punishment’ or backlash from divine powers, either they intentionally committed acts of defiance without effective protection, or some powerful force interfered with their faith basis, leading to loss of divine favor—clerics controlled by powerful evil spirits often meet such fate."

Then she paused, and immediately added: "But these two points are unlikely—firstly, Typhon’s War God Church is currently stable, with a deep faith foundation, it is impossible for several clergy from different regions to successively abandon divine belief within a short period, secondly... evil spirits that can control clergy’s minds fear the power of sacred objects, they would only cause trouble in the wilderness, but those clergy died inside churches."

Gawain nodded, and then suddenly mentioned a point: "By the way, there’s a detail, according to Daniel’s gathered information, the clergy involved in incidents seem to have met their ends while independently praying."

Veronica’s expression changed instantly: "Independently praying?!"

"That’s right." Gawain answered solemnly.

"Then... it’s likely the third possibility," Kamel, who had been silent for a long time, finally spoke in a deep voice, "And it’s the possibility we fear most..."

Veronica clutched the platinum scepter tightly, closed her eyes slightly, and voiced what Kamel was trying to say: "The War God... has issues."

"It’s too early to conclude that, but we must be vigilant," Gawain showed unprecedented solemnity, "Typhon over there doesn’t need us to sound the alarm, if the Augustus clan isn’t foolish, they should have already sensed something wrong, they’ve suffered from divine curses in the past, they’re cautious in this aspect—the key is we need to be prepared.

"The War God Faith within Cecil’s territory is not strong, although there’s a significant number of believers, the church and clergy are not particularly powerful, and they’ve currently accepted modifications from the Administrative Office, the oversight is relatively easy—this aspect is in Amber’s hands, pay attention to observing any unusual movements among the War God’s clergy within the country;

"Besides monitoring the clergy, pay attention to the situation among the believers, although the information from Typhon’s side is focused on the mysterious death of the clergy, it’s hard to say if the believers aren’t also affected. This aspect will be arranged by Aunt Heidi.

"Kamel, your and Jenni’s research into sea demons Runes has been fruitful, the Mind Protection System has proven effective in combat, and now is the time for them to continue to play their role—we need more and more effective Mind Protection Systems, at least to supply all the troops. Many soldiers believe in the War God, among them are devout believers, we must prevent issues in this regard..."

Gawain laid out his plans one by one, after speaking he began pondering whether he had overlooked anything, and just then, the Magic Web Terminal placed beside his office table suddenly lit up, emitting a humming and clicking sound, then a white figure with hair reaching the ankles appeared in the room out of nowhere.

"Nariteer?" Amber was a bit surprised to glance at the figure that appeared out of thin air, "When did you arrive?"

Nariteer immediately shook her head: "I wasn’t eavesdropping..."

"Ah, I called her here, but she was hidden, I almost forgot," Gawain gently patted his forehead, looking at the former deity before him, "Nariteer, is there anything you want to say?"

"That magic symbol can be placed within the neural network," Nariteer nodded seriously and said, "I remember it’s quite useful. It blocked me for a long time when I tried to enter the real world..."

This remark from the "God of Yore" who is now symbiotic with the network immediately made Gawain’s eyes light up — as a satellite spirit who traveled from planet Earth, he hadn’t even thought of this!

Of course, the main reason his eyes lit up wasn’t that he suddenly realized it, but because Kamel really did light up.

"This is a very good idea! The Magic Web connects all terminals, and the main effect of the Mind Protection System is actually those symbols. If we can broadcast a specific set of magic symbols throughout the Empire, even if we can’t stop direct invasion by the gods, we can prevent the most affected group of priests and believers from being mentally corrupted," Kamel’s tone carried a hint of excitement, the joy that erupted after a researcher discovered new applications in a technical field, "If the ’Mad Gods’ really appear, as long as we maintain sanity during the first wave of attacks, the biggest crisis will be overcome!"

"But the premise for this idea to be effective is that the Empire’s entire network is completed," Aunt Heidi, who had been silent all this time, said a sentence beside them, calming everyone down at the scene, "The neural network is still limited to the southern borders. If the major hubs in other regions aren’t online, each place has only one line of contact, which can’t bear the pressure of broadcasting throughout the Empire."

"...Then we can only hope that what happened in Typhon is just an early sign... Hopefully, we can complete our network throughout the Empire sooner," Veronica Moen slightly lowered her eyelids, speaking in a gentle and reassuring tone, "Relax, we are only preparing for the worst-case scenario, and we really do have many effective measures."

At this time, Amber couldn’t help but sigh: "Alas... At this moment, I’m most worried about the Typhon people... I admit that Emperor Rosetta Augustus is a talent, but how prepared he is is completely unknown... The Typhon people don’t have neural networks or mind protection technology. If anything blows over there, it’ll likely affect us here..."

"But whether we warn Typhon or offer help, we must first explain the source of the intelligence..." Aunt Heidi shook her head helplessly, "It’s really unexpected that we now have times to worry about them."

"This is what I said long ago, in facing certain disasters, mortals don’t have borders. Catastrophes don’t care about nationality and race, nor your philosophy and beliefs. In the face of tidal waves, mortals are all a community," Gawain glanced at Aunt Heidi, speaking while thinking, then he opened his mouth as if he had thought of something, "We must still find a way to give some warning... but need a more indirect approach..."

...

The cold wind swept over the frequency barrier above Talronde, yet beneath it, the Dragon Kingdom remained as warm as spring.

In the city on the mountaintop, Agondale, at the Talronde Council Headquarters, inside the medical center, the dragon-shaped Melita Ponia slowly opened her eyes.

She was on a circular mechanical platform, bright lights from above made the place as bright as day. Numerous mechanical arms and observation probes around the platform were still busy, completing the final touches of work. As the dragon receiving treatment in the platform center opened her eyes, these busy mechanisms finished their tasks one by one and began to silently retreat.

A figure in a white dress walked out from the shadows nearby, approaching Melita slowly and casually saying, "You’re awake? We’ve already cured your ’going on an assignment and blowing up three hearts’ condition..."

"Don’t joke around like that in front of a broken-hearted dragon," Melita grumbled weakly, her voice rumbling, "Ahhh— I feel a headache and my whole body is cold..."

Nuoletta shrugged: "The aftermath of overusing the ’Surge’ enhancer, but don’t worry, I’ve already injected you with a relieving ’Gray’ enhancer. It should take effect in a few minutes."

"Hey... enhancer overdose, treated with enhancers, then treated for enhancer overdose with more treatment enhancers..." Melita couldn’t help but mutter, "I feel like there’s hardly any blood left in my veins, just symbiotic machine oil and boosters..."

"Pretty much, you were brought here with severe blood system pollution. The pressure coupling reaction from one of your three exploded hearts leaked a large amount of toxic substances, we had to replace all your blood. For safety, when we transfused new blood, we only transfused just past the safety line to prevent the pressure of your three new hearts from breaking down..."

Melita listened to her friend in a daze, then suddenly flopped her head down on the platform, dejectedly shouting, "I might as well be dead..."

"Stop whining—you know how much effort it took to repair all your parts?" Nuoletta immediately glared at Melita, "Just the cost of replacement parts is enough for your entire year’s salary!!"

Undoubtedly, this sentence immediately dealt a blow far greater than a heart explosion to the blue dragon lady who was in a depressed mood—when the word "salary" entered her ear, Melita felt her newly replaced heart was on the brink of exploding again, her voice trembled, "I... Can I ask a question? How much will be deducted from me for this replacement..."

Nuoletta looked up at her friend, purposely not speaking for several seconds, as if savoring Melita’s conflicted and fearful expression, until the other seemed ready to breathe fire, she then leisurely said, "Put your heart back in its place—it’s not out of your own pocket. And not only that, but you should also have a small subsidy, not much, but enough for you to cover the enhancers consumed on this mission and even have some leftover."

In that instant, Melita seemed unable to believe her ears: "...Ah?! You’re not kidding me, right? It’s all... all reimbursed? There’s even extra subsidy? Why?"

"The upper levels of the Council believe your mission loss is particular, firstly being an act of God, and secondly, it brought certain benefits to Talronde," Nuoletta explained, "In short, your conversation with Gawain Cecil brought us something we’ve been looking forward to for a long time. Thus, the Council decided to grant you extra subsidy.

"Moreover, this subsidy isn’t a one-off; if you suffer losses from similar missions in the future, there will still be full reimbursement and additional subsidies..."

Melita suddenly felt like she was living in a dream. She tried to resist the temptation of money, but in the next second, she bowed to life in true dragon style, she asked with some expectation, but inevitably with some reluctance, "So what’s the name of the subsidy? Which category do I check for this income?"

Nuoletta thought for a moment, then casually said, "Given this was incurred after your conversation with Gawain Cecil, Speaker Andar specifically added an entry for you to claim—call charges."