Sword of Dawn

Page 637

"Who knows? The thing left by the voyager..." Another marine soldier muttered, "They can also build a spaceship to patrol the kingdom of God. It is said that that thing is better than the Dawn of the World. It's still a few laps..."

Byron heard the surprised conversation of the soldiers behind him, but he ignored it, and let Cassandra lead the way. Soon, they passed through the proven safe area and arrived at In front of the open square at the bottom of the tower.

"I suspect this is the entrance to the tower - I found a gate structure nearby, and there seems to be a place for vehicles and personnel to gather, but we haven't had time to continue exploring," Cassandra said. The surrounding water vapor was a little thinner than before, which made her look like she was out of danger of becoming a dried salted fish, "Also, while waiting for you to come over, my sisters and I found more' around the square." "Traces of latecomers" should be left by the original elves who fled here. The traces left by the elves are not as immortal as the creations of the sailors for millions of years. Many things have been mottled and weathered. It looks like it."

Byron nodded with a serious expression, and his eyes fell on the metal plate engraved with ancient elf characters on the edge of the square. Although he couldn't understand a single word, he still kept the words "General" in front of the marines. The glorious image of a well-informed, well-informed general, and a steady general": "It is very reasonable to put a message near the entrance to warn latecomers...."

Of course Azalena knew that this guy who knew nothing about the ancient Elvish language was trying to support the facade, but she was not interested in tearing down the stage, but went up to read the words on the metal plate seriously, and this time After a close look, she found a detail that she hadn't seen on the long-range image before.

"The material of this metal plate... is different from the surrounding things, but it is not the copper-based mithril alloy commonly used by elves in this era..."

"Perhaps the elves brought it from their hometown," Byron said, rubbing his chin. "The original elves possessed much more advanced technology than the current Silver Empire, and they brought the Temple of Stars to Loren Continent." Ancestry', this kind of alloy must have a similar origin - after the split and degeneration, they lost a lot of technology, and suffered severe group memory cleansing, thinking that there is no way to smelt this kind of advanced alloy brought out from their hometown. material."

Speaking of this, he pondered for a while, observing the metal plate erected on the square like a monument: "Can this thing be cut off?"

"Yes," Cassandra nodded immediately, "The material of this 'island' itself is frighteningly hard, but this metal plate is not difficult to deal with. It is cast in a groove on the ground, and your magic An engineering cutter of the kind a channeling technician uses should be able to dig it out of its base... are you going to get it off?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Azalena who was beside her also looked at Byron in surprise: "What do you want this thing for?"

"Dig—turn back and ask the Winter Winter to send another group of engineers down," Byron nodded, gesturing at the bottom of the "monument", "along the roots, try to dig as neatly as possible, I thought about this You can pack it up and send it to the Silver Empire, and make a beautiful box or something. According to His Majesty, this thing can at least earn +100 reputation..."

"Calm down! God TM cut out the monument erected by the ancestors and put it in a box for the victim to gain reputation," Azalena was taken aback, staring loudly at Byron's whimsical ideas Turning back, "The moment you step into the Silver Empire with this thing, it will be stolen and won, do you know that?"

No one in the Imperial Fleet dared to yell at the Admiral of the Navy, except for a female dragon who followed the Admiral of the Navy to hack people, drink and brag in the southern border decades ago. Humming and trembling, I finally realized that it seemed a little inappropriate for me to do this—not all "lost items" are suitable for digging up and returning to the person concerned. In addition to being the relic of the original elves, this "monument" in front of me is also important to Perhaps the greater significance of a civilization is as a "evidence and commemoration of its existence here". Perhaps in the near future, when the world is safe, the Silver Elves will come here just like today's Winter. This monument will be a crucial "coordinate point" in their history and culture...

This truth is actually very simple when you think about it, just like there is a peak in the world, no one has ever successfully climbed to the top, but one day a certain hunk accomplished this feat and hung his family emblem on it—— Even if this process was just an accident—then you turned your face and took off this historic logo and sent it to the family of future generations: "Excuse me, I picked up such a thing on the road, and your family lost it, right?" ?”

Byron thought about it for a while, and felt that he might give that person a jumping chop, the kind that was full of anger and pierced his armor.

"Forget it, tell His Majesty about this later, and see how he plans to negotiate with the Silver Empire," Byron scratched his messy hair, and turned his head to look at the towering curved metal barrier not far away (that In fact, it’s just a small piece of outer wall at the bottom of the tower), “… Next, let’s go in and see the situation.”

"Are you sure you want to go in?" Azalena frowned slightly and glanced at the gate that looked like an entrance in the distance, "I always feel that this thing is terribly evil..."

"I came here just to go in and have a look," Byron obviously had made up his mind, "We have lost our way so far, and it is entirely luck that we found this tower. The legacy of the sailor is of great significance to the empire, Your Majesty We are also very, very concerned about this aspect. We should at least bring some valuable information back - this is at least an explanation for the empire. Of course, we will not stay here for too long, the Naga navigator and those staying on the Winter The Krakens are recalibrating their routes, and we will head back when they find the direction of the mainland, and we should be more cautious before entering that 'tower', so..."

As he said, he looked up at Ms. Cassandra, who was earnestly braiding her tail into a bow shape next to her: "Ms. Cassandra, it's better for you to go through the gate and have a look."

Cassandra put her tail down immediately, with a confident smile on her face: "Of course it's no problem, we'll just wait for this and this—sisters, let's go!"

The three sirens quickly left the team. Under the watchful eyes of Byron and others, they passed through the open square and the wide ramp leading to the end of the square. The alloy gates passing side by side stood at the end of the ramp, with the middle slightly open——the figures of Cassandra and the three disappeared through the gap in the gate.

After passing through the wide and outrageous gate, and passing through an equally wide but not long connecting passage, the scene inside the tower finally appeared before the eyes of the three Kraken explorers.

The lights were bright and spotless, and some kind of ancient purification device or barrier device seemed to block all the dust from the outside world. What appeared in front of Cassandra was a clean and bright landscape that was completely unimaginable after 180 million years. Rotunda.

Unlike the hall on the first floor of the tower in Tarrond, there are not a lot of equipment in operation here, and there is no central pipeline that is busy shuttling. The huge hall is almost completely empty, except for one that runs through The diameter of the silver-white metal tubes on the floor and roof seemed to be almost as large as the towers of the castle, and in the air around the metal tubes, there were several groups of holographic images floating on them, only a piece of interference noise appeared on them.

There was no danger, no ancient devices activated - and no walls suddenly glowed with light.

Cassandra took her two sisters around the entire hall, and finally confirmed that this place is quite safe - just like the "monument" on the square mentioned, the first floor of the hall is not dangerous of.

After confirming safety, Byron and others who were waiting outside finally walked into this ancient place.

"...No matter how many times you look at it, the things left by the voyagers are still so amazing," Byron couldn't help sighing as he looked around the place that was still clean and bright after millions of years, and looked almost brand new. "Did the original elves gather in this place to die..."

"We found no access to the upper floors—no stairs or gates," Cassandra said beside her. "Everything has been checked, except for the metal pipe in the middle of the hall... or the metal pillar. That thing obviously It's still running, I didn't dare to touch it, but my sister and I walked around it twice, but it didn't cause any alarm."

"It's good to be cautious," Byron said, nodding his head, and walked a few steps towards the silver-white metal pipe in the center of the hall. "It's fine to just approach, right..."

Before he finished speaking, a thrilling "beep" sound suddenly came from all directions. Accompanied by this short sound with obvious warning meaning, a mechanically synthesized voice directly echoed in the hearts of everyone in the hall. When it rang, the voice sounded as if the message was directly injected into everyone's mind: "Warning, the condition of crossing the border is not met, visitor, please step back."

Byron was stunned for a moment, a cold sweat broke out all over his body in an instant, and he quickly retreated the next second.

The siren did not continue to sound, nor did the synthesized voice in his mind continue to come.

"Did you hear the alarm just now? Or was it just me?" Byron looked at Cassandra in astonishment, "Didn't you say that you will be fine after getting close?"

"We heard it—but our sisters were fine when they approached!" Cassandra also widened her eyes in surprise, and then, as if to verify, she immediately wagged her tail and walked several steps towards the center of the hall, After confirming that the system here did not respond, he returned, "Look, it's all right."

Azalena frowned and looked at the scene in front of her, and said suddenly: "I'll try it too."

As she said that, without waiting for Byron to speak, she stepped towards the place where the latter was standing just now, but under the vigilant and cautious gaze of many surrounding eyes, nothing happened.

The warning did not sound.

"...Am I being targeted?" Byron frowned, and looked back at the marines he brought, "Others come over and try—but don't go too far forward, and retreat immediately after being warned, no Warning also don't stand too long in front."

"...Shouldn't we be doing the same thing as the original elves back then?" Cassandra on the side said to Azalena worriedly.

"I don't think so," Azalena whispered while watching a marine soldier walking forward, "judging from the message on that monument, the original elves were still arrogantly trying to Problems can only be caused by cracking the system here and forcibly breaking into the upper restricted area, we just need to be careful not to go against this warning..."

"Warning, the cross-border conditions are not met, visitor, please step back."

The voice that sounded in everyone's mind interrupted the conversation between Cassandra and Azarena, and the marine soldier who stepped forward boldly stepped back quickly.

The hall fell silent, and everyone looked at each other in blank dismay. After a brief exchange of glances, a siren brought by Cassandra finally couldn't help breaking the silence: "What's going on?"

"...It seems that this is the 'authentication mechanism' mentioned by the original elves in the message," Byron frowned tightly. Although he is usually a careless person, his judgment ability is still online at this time. The elves seem to be completely blocked by this authentication mechanism, and most of us can't pass the 'screening conditions' of this thing, but strangely..."

His eyes fell on Cassandra, Azarena and others.

"Why didn't you trigger the warning?"

Three sea monsters and a giant dragon looked at each other with blank faces.

Byron frowned, pondered for a moment, then suddenly turned to look at the marines he had brought.

"Everyone, step forward and test it!"

The test didn't take long, and dozens of marines added up to less than 10 minutes. During these 10 minutes, the warning sound of "does not meet the cross-border conditions" was almost uninterrupted.

Except for Azarena and the three sirens, everyone here was warned by the Voyager system when they tried to approach the metal column in the center of the hall!

Chapter 1357 "Sea"

The test was over, and all the personnel retreated to a "safe distance" from the silver-white metal pillar in the center of the hall. Byron was looking at the empty floor in front of him and lost in thought.

There seems to be an invisible boundary here. If you take a step forward, you will be deemed to have entered a certain "judgment area", and then the ancient system still running in this tower will conduct an "evaluation" on the intruder. Those who meet a screening mechanism will be warned and expelled, otherwise nothing will happen.

Out of rational considerations, Byron certainly did not let the soldiers take the risk to try what would happen if they ignored this warning and continued to move forward. The ethnic group was directly photographed by the black technology left by the voyager, and a group mentally handicapped and a genetically disordered DeBuff were added. When they ran out from here, they almost forgot how to drive the boat they were on. Of course, Lun would not bet on whether the soldiers he brought could resist the "security system" of the tower.

The results of the test are already very obvious. Except for the three sea monsters at the scene and Azalena who is a dragon descendant, everyone here does not meet the "screening criteria" of the voyager system, or the words mentioned in the warning In other words, it is called "out of bounds condition".

"What do you think?" Azarena's voice came from the side. The red-haired dragon-marked witch looked into Byron's eyes seriously, "What do you think is the problem?"

"...I suspect that the criterion for judging is race. Humans don't meet this standard, and neither did the original elves," Byron said in a muffled voice, "but the siren and the dragon descendants meet...or, the dragon race does. I I don't know the underlying reason."

Cassandra crawled over from the side, and the siren lady frowned slightly: "Then what is the difference between us? What are the 'characteristics' that must be distinguished between sea monsters, dragons, and humans in the eyes of the sailors?" Is it?"

"If you want to talk about the difference, the difference is big." Byron glanced at the siren lady. "There is no race in this world that is so different from your siren, and so is the dragon race—the difference between dragons and humans. The difference between humans is much greater than the difference between humans, elves, and dwarves, and your origins can all be traced back to 180 million years ago..."

"The criterion for judging is strength? The degree of evolution of the individual?" Cassandra thought seriously. Although most sea monsters give the impression of being reckless and humorous, in fact they are also a race that likes to think—— But most of the time, the direction of thinking makes foreigners feel confused, "Or do you judge by whether you have a tail? You see, I have a tail, and Azalena also has a tail after she becomes a dragon. Humans and elves there is no..."

"What do you think? If you think about it with your back molars and heels, you should know it's impossible." Byron looked at Cassandra with a strange expression, and just as he finished speaking, Azalena, who was standing beside her, He suddenly raised his head from his thoughts and broke the silence: "Have you noticed that the word 'crossing the line' was repeatedly mentioned in the warning just now?"

"I noticed," Byron nodded. "What did you think of?"

"...First of all, the evaluation criteria of this system should not be our 'race' itself, because when the Voyager arrived, humans, elves and sea monsters did not appear on this planet at all, so its The judgment criterion should be a certain attribute that has nothing to do with race, and secondly, the word crossing the line...reminds me of many research projects of the Theocratic Council..."

She raised her head, her eyes fell on the metal cylinder not far away, and she continued thoughtfully: "Crossing the boundary, going beyond the realm you are currently in, and stepping into a new forbidden zone, in the realm related to gods, this is an important step." Vocabulary with special meaning, and the voice that appears directly in our minds... should be the corresponding words and sentences selected after the advanced equipment in this tower directly scanned our cognition and language system. The Voyager appeared on this planet, initially It is related to the loss of control of the gods, and many things they left here are more or less connected with the gods. This can be proved from the records of Tarrond and the clues discovered by the Alliance in the 'Gate' project not long ago ..."

Byron's eyes became serious, and he had already vaguely guessed what Azarena wanted to say: "So you think the criterion for judging this tower is..."

"Whether the group of the approaching lifeforms is bound to the 'gods'?" Azalena nodded, and looked up at the sea monsters not far away, "Although humans have lifted some of the gods However, there is still a long way to go to get out of the predicament as a whole, but the sea monsters do not have this problem. They do not have a mind stamp, and the characteristics of elemental life make them not at all Will be affected by the trend of thought, and as for me..."

She shrugged, with a strange expression on her face: "The Dragon Clan has grown up—the Dragon Clan is also a Dragon Clan."

Byron opened his mouth and didn't speak for a while. It took several seconds for his eyes to react. His throat moved twice, as if he wanted to say something, but finally he admitted that Azarena's guess had a very high possibility. : "I'm afraid it's true..."

"I'm guessing this too," Azalena waved her hand, "In the end, we can't do further tests and long-term research, and this tower doesn't seem to be going to answer our further questions. , I just feel that... specially dealing with the legacy of the voyagers of the gods, the 'security measures' inside must have something to do with the gods..."

Cassandra was listening to the conversation between the two, her eyes flicked back and forth between Byron and Azalena several times, and then she said as if she suddenly remembered something: "Hey wait, I suddenly remembered something Thing, you say that human beings are not 'qualified' because they are influenced by the gods, but Gawain Cecil climbed the tower of the voyager more than 700 years ago-it was brought to him by one of my sisters Lu, how do you explain this? Isn’t he also a human being?”

The expression on Byron's face suddenly became weird when he said this. Frankly speaking, it is not appropriate to talk about the ruler of the empire in private, but the person who spoke at this moment can be said to be an "informed person" of the incident back then, and To be honest, he also suddenly became curious at this time, and couldn't help touching the stubble on his chin: "The tower that His Majesty climbed back then is not the one in front of us?"

Cassandra spread her hands: "It's not true, that tower is in the south of our kingdom, it should be far east from here - but the two towers look alike, and since they are both The 'assessment criteria' in the things left by the voyager should be similar, right? Especially this kind of thing related to the gods, you can't change a tower to get in through a loophole..."

Ms. Siren's words are very reasonable. This is indeed an inexplicable and objective fact-but there are many mysteries about Gawain Cecil's adventure 700 years ago, and many truths have disappeared in the long history. In history, and he himself has no intention of digging out His Majesty's secrets, so he shook his head soon: "This is not what I should consider, and I will report everything that happened here later. The key is that now we should Do something……"

After his words fell, Azalena next to her thought for a while, and then took a step forward: "I want to go over and have a look. If our judgment is correct, this should be the way to the upper floor of the tower."

Byron was taken aback immediately: "Are you sure? This is..."

"Ms. Cassandra and I were not warned, were we?" Azalena turned her head and said, "As you said, we were extremely lucky to find this place, and we couldn't just leave in such a daze. The tower is not out of control like the tower in Tarrond. The Voyagers saved this planet 180 million years ago. What they left behind should not harm us mortal races under normal circumstances. You Think about it, when the original elves ignored the warnings and forced their way into the tower, they were just expelled from the tower after being collectively deleted their memories and changed their form. The security system here is useless even with lethal weapons..."

While speaking, she raised her head and looked at the ring-shaped structure at the junction of the silver-white metal pillar and the roof, with a bit of longing in her eyes: "The Dragon Clan paid a great price to become such a I am the first race on this planet to pass the 'rite of passage' by itself, so I am able to stand here, pass the 'assessment' of the sailors and be qualified to take a step forward, I feel... this is like an invitation."

"But these 'assessment criteria' are basically your guesses," Byron knew that Azalena had already made a decision, but reminded him out of caution, "What's more, even if the situation is as you guessed, we will not Knowing if the tower is still working after 180 million years of operation, if it fails fatally, you're in danger."

"The safest place is lying on the bed at home, and the most stable way of life is to be a good girl waiting to inherit the family property - if I am such a timid and cautious person, you will have no chance to know me," Ashalei Na couldn't help laughing, and then waved her hands, "Don't worry, I'm still a dragon, but I'm not as easy to get hurt as you think."

Byron frowned and struggled for a long time, and finally he could only sigh helplessly and with a hint of frustration: "Well, I can't order you to stay here anyway."

"Then I'll go and have a look with you too!" Seeing this, Cassandra next to her immediately followed Azalena and walked two steps forward, "Both of us can go up together. It’s good to have someone to take care of you.”

While talking, she turned her head and waved the tip of her tail to the other two sea monsters she brought: "You two stay here, I'm not sure how tall this tower is, in case the magic net terminal can't contact you after going up Come on, you can connect with me with psionic singing."

The heartless Siren was more willful in making decisions than Miss Dragonborn, and Byron had no better plan, so he had no choice but to approve the bold exploration of the two ladies.

After Azarena and Cassandra each brought the equipment and supplies needed for the exploration, Byron led the marines back to a further place, watching the two explorers walk towards the center of the hall.

When they came to the silver-white metal column, the identification system in the tower still did not issue any warning. Azalena looked up at the metal wall in front of her, but she couldn't find any similar operations anywhere. panel, she looked at her temporary teammate beside her: "What's your plan?"

"I don't know how to do it either," Cassandra thought for a while, pointing her tail up and probing towards the mysterious metal wall in front of her, "but according to experience, when encountering such incomprehensible things, just poke them... "

Before she finished speaking, the tip of her tail had already poked on the pure metal outer wall.

Layers of light spread like ripples in an instant. Before Azalena could complain about Cassandra's "sea monster exploration experience", she heard a slight buzzing sound from inside the metal wall. The next second, A large number of hexagonal shimmering grids suddenly appeared on the surface of the originally seamless metal wall, and the seemingly seamless metal separated, shrank, and retreated along the grid in the blink of an eye, revealing the open cylindrical shape inside. space.

A voice appeared in their minds: "The hatch is open, visitors, you are allowed to come forward."

"You can just tell me, just poke it." Cassandra suddenly turned her head and looked at Azalena proudly, "The simpler the method of using this kind of 'relic' left by the advanced civilization to the backward race, the easier it is." Well, unless they have no sincerity to use it for you..."

Azalena was speechless: "..."

After carefully checking the situation inside the suddenly opened door, and confirming that there was only a brightly lit cylindrical space inside, the two explorers finally stepped into it, and they turned back to Byron who was standing not far away. After someone beckoned, the low buzzing sound came again, and the silver-white metal wall closed again.

Azarena took a deep breath to calm down her nervousness. She knew that she was now "locked" inside a facility left by a super-advanced civilization, so... what will happen next?

As if in response to the thoughts in her mind, the synthesized voice sounded in her mind again——

"The inertial stabilizer is normal, the gravitational connection point responds normally, the upper traffic station responds normally, confirm the sky feedback signal... the feedback signal is normal.

"The traffic path is clear, the two visitors have been confirmed, and the inertial stabilizer is activated.

"The orbital module is going up—it's heading to the space station around the sky."

There was a sudden slight vibration under her feet, as if something had started, Azalena subconsciously grasped the circular handrail on the edge of the cylindrical space, but after the vibration, her feet returned to calm, the kind of acceleration that just appeared The feeling of rising only lasted for a very short moment before it seemed to be counteracted by some mysterious force. She glanced at Cassandra in astonishment, but only saw the siren lady looking around excitedly. Look, the tip of the tail is flapping on the floor at a very rapid rate.

Behavior is like a combination of cat and fish.

Azalena is still holding on to the handrail tightly, there is no shaking inside, and she can't even feel the upward acceleration, but a low humming sound from around reminds her that this thing that looks like an elevator It was running, she couldn't see out, but she guessed she was being transported very fast to the upper floors of this tower.

Then, she started hearing voices in her head again:

"Crossed the top of the atmosphere checkpoint..."

"Passing through the balance point checkpoint..."

"The optical mask layer has been crossed, and the hidden section is entered, and the viewing wall is opened."

Azalena suddenly felt another shock, and then she heard a very slight mechanical device running. The next second, she and Cassandra widened their eyes in shock at the same time.

Countless hexagonal streams of light quickly emerged from the "wall" around this cylindrical space, and the metal-like bulkhead became transparent in an instant!

Azalena noticed that this "elevator" was running at an alarming speed in a transparent pipeline.

Outside the tube, she saw a vast starry sky—stars more spectacular than all the stars she had seen in this life combined were all over the sight, and all of these were filled in a dark and deep cosmic space.

She watched all this in astonishment, and felt that her breathing and heartbeat stopped at the same time. She tightly grasped the handrail in her hand, as if she was afraid that she would accidentally fall into the boundless, dark and deep sea of ​​stars middle.

Inexplicably, she suddenly thought of a detail mentioned in the ancient legend:

——The ancient tower stands in a "sea of ​​eternal darkness", which is shrouded in eternal night, and the sea is full of stars...

"So...the Eternal Dark Sea refers to this..."

Chapter 1358 Best Exploration Combination

Azalena was deeply shocked by the endless stars in the vast space. In the entire "observation cabin" that followed, her gaze almost never left the vast starry sky outside the high-strength transparent polymer pipe—— Even though this rushing scene made her feel almost trembling oppression when she faced the stars for the first time, even though she felt that she was about to "fall" out of this small orbital module and "fall into" the boundless In the darkness, she couldn't bring her eyes back.

The stars seem to have a magical power, attracting every intelligent creature who sees it to look into it.

After a while, something else suddenly entered Azalena's line of sight—it was a metal object floating in the distant space, shining like a shining gem under the starlight.