Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 48: Satellite Warning

Gawain focused his concentration on the images that were visible only to himself. In the end, he confirmed that they were indeed showing the terrain of the Cecil’s current settlement. He could see the land within a hundred kilometer radius, and the zooming function that he had once been so familiar with was now unavailable.

The images were confined to this area, unable to be moved or scaled.

Also, his original satellite view, once in HD, was now reduced to this blurry, strangely colored one.

What did the colors mean? Thermal imaging? Or some other kind of induction imaging?

Or was it… simply a fault?

Gawain remembered clearly the voice he had heard as he fell from his lofty orbit. He had heard it say that there was a damaged power source, a failure of mainframe restarting and the initiating of some escape sequence, so the possibility of a fault could be high. In addition, he was now unable to scale the images he saw, which deepened his speculation.

He began to stretch his line of thought: His soul, or rather, his mental consciousness, had unfortunately mutated. Even though he was able to touch down on land and acquire a human body, his consciousness could obviously still retain a connection with the “something” in the sky. For the past few months, he had been offline from it, but the unexpected obtainment of the crystal had reestablished this link with it. As for that ancient device—no matter if it was a satellite or a space station—it was still in a faulty state. It was unclear if the power source came back on or if the mainframe was eventually rebooted, but in any case, it had survived and was still in operation. Although the images under its surveillance was now an indescribable mess, this at least proved that it still existed.

And with this stretch of thought, Gawain could not help but start to worry about another thing: If his consciousness was connected to that “satellite” in a manner that was beyond imagination, to the extent where they were symbiotically co-existing… What if the thing in the sky died? Would that not mean that he would die too?

He knew that this was not likely to happen, for he was already reborn in Gawain Cecil’s body. Also he had clearly heard the words “initiating escape sequence”, so that meant that his consciousness should have gotten out independently. However, in matters of life and death, any chance of latent danger could not be dismissed!

However, the thing in the sky was probably floating in geosynchronous orbit with this planet, while he was now stuck in this benighted medieval kingdom. He could not even see the “satellite”, let alone repair it!

As his troubled thoughts boiled, Gawain was simultaneously observing every detail of the aerial view. He noticed that the image was not stationary, but in fact, the patches of color were always slightly shifting and changing. Some of the areas brightened while others slowly dimmed. The cycle repeated in an orderly manner, but at the same time, the entire image remained roughly unchanged in distribution and profile.

And just as Gawain was trying to come to a conclusion on the pattern of the image changes, things changed again.

He suddenly saw a box like a floating window appear above the image, and in it flashed a line of flickering, trembling words. It was in an unfamiliar language—it was not Mandarin, but neither was it a language of any kingdom in Loren.

However, as he gazed at the worlds in astonishment and earnestness, the words were translated and their meaning came into his mind.

“New data. Giant planet activity increasing. Raising the alert level to four.”

The image started to flicker and was layered with the interference. Gawain was shocked awake, and his focus quickly shifted to the real world outside. This was the first time he had switched between views, and the shift caused his vision to waver momentarily before stabilizing. Then, ignoring the lingering vertigo in his brain, he rose from his desk swiftly and rushed towards the tent door.

An invisible Amber was startled by this, and jumped out of the shadows suddenly. “Woah!”

At this point in time, Gawain had already exited the tent in a hurry. The two militiamen looked back at him in shock, but he ignored them, only looking up towards the sun that hung high in the sky.

The great sun was moving slowly and majestically in the sky, its circling halo of light mist-like. It did not look out of the ordinary, but soon, the surface of the sun began to show streaks of red, just like the blood vessels of bloodshot eyes.

The image in Gawain’s mind continued to shift. He saw the colors in the images shift, as though they indicated thermal levels. Almost all the colors were deepening in intensity quickly, but gradually settled into a new equilibrium of stability. There were some numbers which popped up by the image intermittently, but he was unable to make sense of it at all.

A revelation lit up in his mind: These colors were not the result of a fault, but was a special kind of surveillance method.

Perhaps it was a surveillance method even more useful than plain old thermal imaging!

The red lines of the sun (some of which were now patches) increased in number, finally attracting the attention of the people at work in the camp. They lifted their head and chattered about the changes in the sun, until their overseer shouted at them to get back to work.

Herti, who was helping to fortify the foundation with mud and stone nearby, noticed the change as well. She glanced up at the sun for a moment before looking towards the central tent in the campsite—as expected, she saw Gawain with his face turned to the sun in all seriousness.

She dashed to Gawain. “Ancestor, it seems like the red lines are back again.”

Gawain waved a hand, motioning for Herti to stay quiet. His eyes were on the sun, but his attention was focused on the image in his consciousness.

After a while, the reddish part of the sun finally stopped spreading. The text of the “image” monitor changed, and a new prompt popped up, “New data, giant planet has regained stability. Alert lifted.”

The red lines on the sun’s surface then disappeared rapidly after that, and the floating colors of the image monitor calmed and returned to their original states.

However, although the image monitor had removed its warning, Gawain was still on high alert.

The new discoveries became new clues. When a lot of new clues came out at once and piled up, they became new problems.

He began to produce countless conjectures and reasonings, with some of them being so bold they were insane. However, he forced these down, firstly calming himself down, before searching for an explanation that would bring him closer to the truth.

“Ancestor… are you alright?” Herti looked at Gawain’s face with concern. “You look unwell…”

Amber had slipped out of the tent earlier, but Gawain’s aura was so oppressive that this usually noisy and lively half-elf did not dare to speak. It was only when Herti broke the silence that she dared to utter, “He rushed out before the red spots appeared in the sun and scared the crap out of me…”

“Herti, can you sense any magical changes?” Gawain suddenly turned to Herti with a severe look on his face.

“There was a surge of magical power earlier, and casting magic became much easier.” Herti nodded. Surges in magical power were congruent with the appearance of red spots on the sun, but the recent increases in red spots and magic surges were becoming way too frequent. Combined with the disaster on the Cecil territory and Gawain’s warning fresh in her mind, she could not help but to start panicking. “Could it be another…”

Herti’s face paled gradually.

“No, not to the extent where monsters will appear.” Gawain shook his head to calm Herti down. He made this judgment based on the lack of signs of Dark Wave pollution, and also based on Gawain Cecil’s experience that nothing would happen since the elemental power in the air was stable. “They’re just ordinary levels of red spots and magic surging…”

“Magical power surges and red spots are a natural occurrence, but they usually only appear once every three to five years.” Herti was visibly worried. “But this is the second time it has happened in these few months…”

Actually, the worry and panic in Gawain’s heart were just as strong as those in Herti’s.

In fact, since he also had to worry about the problem of the connection between himself and some “surveillance satellite” in the sky, his anxiety right now was a little stronger than hers.

However, he also understood that since he had become the pillar of the entire Cecil Clan, he could not show any signs of weakness or hesitation, especially in front of Herti and Rebecca.

Moreover, weakness and hesitation would not solve any problems.

“Don’t worry. There won’t be any monsters. Even if the monsters arrive, I have experience with them.” Gawain looked reassuringly at his descendant. “Let’s all do our part—only by building a strong and stable home can we have the power to combat nature.”

Herti saw the confidence in Gawain’s eyes and began to calm down. She bowed slightly before returning to her own work.

As he gazed upon Herti helping out with the construction with her magic, Gawain nodded slightly.

Although Herti and Rebecca perhaps did not have mindsets that transcended their era and class, they had a foundation that was not found in other aristocrats of this age.

That being they did not believe that they should be segregated from their people just because of their status and social standing.

Otherwise, a lady like Herti, who was an aristocrat in every way, would never go to the construction site and use her magic to assist with the efforts.

As Gawain looked on at the rapidly strengthening foundation under the use of magic and was awed by its convenience, he also realized something: once the hardware to mint coins were in place, it would be a good idea to hire some down and out rogue mages to help build the camp.

Before that though, there were other more important problems to think through.

Gawain turned back and returned to the tent. Sitting at his table, he scribbled down three questions on a blank piece of paper.

What was the relation between the “sun” in the sky and the Dark Wave?

What was the use and condition of the “surveillance satellite”?

Why did the Gawain Cecil of seven hundred years ago leave behind a crystal that could help him reestablish a connection to the satellite?