Chapter 880: Chapter 879: Touching the Border

A faint blue halo kept spreading from around the detection gate, rippling outwards. Accompanied by the voice broadcast of the artificial intelligence Omega, the great barrier opened, and the door to Talronde stabilized in front of Nuoletta.

The pristine and elegant dragon beat its wings and glided beautifully through the navigation light ring in front of the door. The great barrier entrance behind her contracted and closed, keeping the howling cold air of the Arctic Ocean outside. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

Nuoletta lowered her head, savoring the comfortable temperature shaped by the Weather Controller. Green mountains and hills unfolded in her vision; a low-altitude traffic network intertwined across the land between cities. Amidst the familiar scenery of this home planet, she breathed deeply, letting her four biological lungs and two sets of mechanical lungs be soaked in the clean, warm air.

Talronde has enjoyed perpetual spring for the past four millennia, but in earlier times, this continent was sometimes blanketed with snow and ice, or covered with lava seas. Dragons, this race confined to a cage, their long civilization is as dull as their long lives. Over the millennia, the Senate would reset the Weather Controller roughly every ten thousand years to change the "appearance" of this continent, and currently, Talronde’s "theme" is spring.

This change is one of the few playful acts permitted under the gaze of the gods, holding no real significance, but the dragons revel in it.

Some meaningless thoughts flashed through her mind. Nuoletta began to lower her altitude as she circled around the great barrier of the external peaks, then flew straight towards Agondale—the headquarters of the Mithril Vault—nestled between the mountains.

Between the majestic mountains, the grand and magnificent Agondale bathed in the dim sunlight; the long daytime was approaching its end, and the sun that ruled the sky for nearly half a year was gradually moving towards the horizon in its daily rise and fall. The White Dragon flew towards a splendid palace atop a mountain, where one side of the palace wall had automatically opened, extending a wide landing platform...

Nuoletta landed smoothly on the landing platform, stretching her wings slightly tired from the long flight. Then she heard a sharp voice from beneath her: "Hey, you stepped all over me!"

The White Dragon paused for a moment, then slowly lowered her head to look beneath her, seeing a figure in a light purple dress struggling to wriggle out from under her massive dragon claw. After a few seconds, she slowly said in an unsurprised tone: "Melita—why are you standing on the platform?"

"I just landed here and hadn’t had a chance to move away yet!!" Melita finally got out and immediately raised her head to shout at her long-time friend, "Your eyesight isn’t faulty, didn’t you see me?!"

The White Dragon lowered her head: "...Didn’t see."

"...This is revenge, your vindictiveness is too strong," Melita immediately complained loudly, "It was just a careless step on you last time, and you’ve come to step on me back..."

Nuoletta didn’t say anything, silently lowering her head and watching her friend complain non-stop. When the other finally quieted down a bit, she slowly spoke: "I saw a book in the human world, about knights and evil dragons. Some stories in it looked quite familiar."

The loudly complaining Melita immediately quieted down, and after a long silence, awkwardly looked up: "Probably...probably a story the bards made up these past two years?"

"It’s a story from hundreds of years ago, a re-edition," Nuoletta said, her gaze not blinking as she looked down at the small figure at her feet, her dragon claw moving casually. "And it seems quite popular."

Melita immediately muttered, "Damn...isn’t it said that humans are forgetful..."

Nuoletta just lowered her head again to look at her friend a couple of times, then shook her head: "Forget it, let’s talk about it later. I met with that Gawain Cecil and brought back some things for the Speaker to look over. How is your mission going?"

"Gawain Cecil?" Melita found that the other no longer pursued the antagonist story of the valiant hero fighting the evil dragon, first breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard a familiar name, her eyebrows instinctively raised, "Well, isn’t that a coincidence... In some way, what I have to report this time is also related to him.

"We found the legendary shield of the Cecil Clan lost a hundred years ago, the one Gawain Cecil once carried to fight his way out of the wasteland—you guess what it’s made of?"

Seeing Melita’s face with the obvious expression of keeping suspense, Nuoletta just calmly shook her head: "I’m not guessing—are you going to say it?"

Melita choked for a moment but quickly shrugged habitually, saying casually: "Aside from some clumsy additional attachments, the main body of the shield is highly likely to have fallen from the ’Firmament’, if our judgment is correct, it’s part of the mainframe array."

Nuoletta’s calm and serene demeanor was instantly shattered, and on her dragon face covered with scales, a humanly recognizable expression of surprise flashed; she couldn’t help but whisper, "Firmament...are you sure?!"

"Almost certainly, you know, although I’m a young dragon, Calador, who went on the mission with me, is an erudite old dragon."

"...This is a... remarkable discovery... A human being, holding onto a fragment of the Firmament for over a decade, it’s unimaginable how greatly it might affect him... No wonder he died so early back then. But how did the revival work..." Nuoletta muttered subconsciously, but suddenly she frowned, "Wait, no, if it’s a fragment falling from the Firmament, it should fall near the equator, it couldn’t possibly deviate so far north to Loren Continent, how did it end up in the hands of Gawain Cecil who led the Northern Expedition Army?"

"Letting imagination run wild gives too many possibilities. Maybe the fragment indeed fell near the equator originally, then found its way north to the Loren Continent? Like perhaps fell into the hands of elves, and then got brought north by a traveling elf, or maybe it was related to that collision three thousand years ago, that crash... phew, there were fragments flying everywhere..."

"Three thousand years ago collision..." It seemed Melita’s words suddenly triggered Nuoletta’s thoughts. The latter showed a thoughtful expression, muttering while gently shaking her head, "We still haven’t figured out why the God of Nature did that back then... It alarmed too many transcendent beings, even our own god was disturbed..."

Melita was about to speak but suddenly felt a faint sense of being watched and an unease rising from deep within her soul coming from all directions, she immediately shook her head: "Nuoletta, let’s not continue discussing this,"

"...You’re right," Nuoletta sensibly closed her mouth as well, and simultaneously, a layer of constantly changing light screen began to envelop her entire body from top to bottom, "Let’s go see Speaker Andar, this world... may indeed be starting to become interesting."

...

In the circular hall surrounded by ornate pillars and carved walls, the lights are turning on one by one. A crystal-clear transparent light screen descends from the sky, the phosphorescence illuminating Andar’s immense body, which is full of traces of implant modifications. This awe-inspiring ancient dragon awakens from his light slumber, looks toward the entrance of the hall, and sees Nuoletta and Melita Ponia, who have transformed into human form, walking to his Throne of the Mind.

"Ah... two talented young dragons," Speaker Andar’s aged, gentle voice resonates in the hall, seemingly with a hint of amusement in his tone, "you have arrived."

Nuoletta steps forward and bows slightly in greeting: "Speaker, we have completed our respective field tasks and need to report a special situation directly to you."

"Speak, I am listening."

Nuoletta and Melita exchange a glance, after which the latter nods, indicating the former to speak first.

Nuoletta then raises her head and looks at the ancient dragon on the Throne of the Mind: "In the human world, the Cecil Empire has built an extensive magic-based communication system. Recently, their most powerful antenna captured a mysterious signal, which I believe deserves attention."

"A mysterious signal?" Speaker Andar’s mechanical eye turns to Nuoletta, "Was it created by those elemental creatures in the eastern deep sea? They have been trying to repair that spaceship, often creating strange... ’disturbances.’

"It shouldn’t be," Nuoletta shakes her head, "I have already recorded a copy of the signal, hoping to use your authority to allow Omega’s advanced intellectual layer to analyze it."

Andar ponders briefly, then nods slightly: "Alright."

As his words fell, the floor in front of the Throne of the Mind changed; metal coverings retracted with a faint friction sound, and a pale gold alloy pillar, its surface shimmering with tiny lights, rose from the floor opening. The top of the pillar was equipped with a series of interfaces, chips, and glowing magic symbols.

Nuoletta steps forward, feels around her neck, and with a soft click, she opens the hidden bionic skin flap at the back of her neck and extracts a slender cable—the cable end flickers with faint light and is connected seamlessly to the alloy pillar before the Throne of the Mind.

Within a thousandth of a second, Nuoletta uploaded the signal sample previously stored in her auxiliary electronic brain to Omega.

Melita, standing nearby, watched and couldn’t help frowning tightly: "Even humanoid forms undergo such modifications... I can’t accept this..."

"It’s beneficial for support tasks at the rear," Nuoletta turned to glance at her companion, "You’re a young dragonkin yet your thoughts are so ancient, even more conservative in terms of implant modifications than most dragons."

Melita was about to say something but stopped as soon as she heard Speaker Andar gently cough from the Throne of the Mind.

"Now, let us listen to the original rhythm of this signal—"

With Speaker Andar’s words, a gentle buzzing sound began in the vast circular hall. Soon, choreographic rings and jumping lines appeared simultaneously on the crystal curtain surrounding the Throne of the Mind, and a voice became increasingly clear amid the buzz—

It sounded like rhythmic humming, interspersed with deep resounding like a heartbeat, as if an invisible Singer were humming a tune beyond mortal comprehension. After playing for over ten seconds, it began to repeat, cycling over and over.

The echoing sound in the hall suddenly ceased, and Speaker Andar’s voice arose again: "There’s nothing discernible after converting it into audio—this may be a Spirit Song but could also just be human antennas resonating with magic in the atmosphere. We need further conversion and interpretation of it. Omega, begin."

Omega’s voice echoed in the hall: "Beginning to translate the original signal into numeric combinations, geometric figures, standard spectrum, multi-binary coding... Testing all possible combinations..."

While Omega commenced its work, Speaker Andar’s gentle voice also addressed Melita and Nuoletta, "Regardless of what pattern this signal is coded or encrypted in, mathematics is undoubtedly its universal language, the pattern lies in the numbers unless the signal is from entirely chaotic creatures or a mind beyond mortal understanding...

Melita and Nuoletta nodded while listening, absorbing this wisdom, yet suddenly an indescribable sense of awe and scrutiny from the soul captured the hearts of every dragon present, and both Nuoletta’s and Melita’s expressions changed, while the lights of Andar’s implants flickered erratically—

"Omega, halt the analysis," Speaker called immediately.

"Omega understands, halting analysis, suspending task."

"Just now..." Melita whispered as she raised her head with difficulty, her face covered in cold sweat.

"God is watching us, a divine warning..." Speaker Andar’s expression was exceptionally grim, "We cannot proceed further."

He then took several slow breaths before finishing his statement:

"This is not something we should be listening to."