Sword of Dawnbreaker

Gawain felt not a trace of the Eternal Sleepers’ psychic fluctuations from these three figures, instead discovering that their connection to this space was fragile and unstable, as if they were people completely lacking knowledge of dream secret arts, forcibly connecting through some magical devices... Were these three ”visitors”?

Gawain speculated about the identities of these three figures, and while he did so, the human woman among them suddenly spoke: ”Why haven’t they appeared yet... Are you sure it’s the right time?”

The instant this voice reached his ears, Gawain’s heart jolted—he had a memory of it! He seemed to have heard this voice somewhere before!

And in the next moment, he realized that the familiarity wasn’t from his own memory but from Gawain Cecil’s: this speaking woman was someone Gawain Cecil knew!

However, a closer look at the woman revealed only a strange face, with no familiar face in Gawain Cecil’s memory matching it.

He had no time to ponder who this woman really was, as the elf sisters whose appearances were almost identical spoke in unison: ”Just wait a little longer—they’re traversing the wasteland and can’t always arrive at the prearranged place on time.”

Traversing the wasteland?

Gawain captured another word of interest, and almost as the sisters finished speaking, he suddenly sensed new presences entering this ”space.”

This time, no light descended from the sky, but at the edge of the vast opening, a cloud of mist and dust suddenly surged up. Amidst that dust, several thin figures staggered out.

Gawain focused intently, and under the starlight and auroras, he saw the appearance of those new figures: they were several ”individuals” clad in black robes, but their faces were hardly human. Their skin was withered and wrinkled, surface etched with bark-like patterns, their hollow eye sockets lacking eyeballs, embedded with two dim yellow lights. They possessed arms and legs but moved with the stiffness of wooden puppets, absurdly awkward. They staggered to the three women’s presence, and from beneath their black robes came the peculiar sounds akin to dry branches cracking and rubbing.

Standing not far away, Gawain kept his eyes fixed on these bizarre figures, his heart full of questions: What were they? And could it be... that the traversal through the wasteland referred to them?!

He instinctively lowered his presence again, even though there was no sign that the others had detected him. He was still afraid of ruining this coincidental ’witnessing’ due to carelessness—his intuition told him that what he was seeing was likely part of the truth about those evil cult followers planning around the wasteland!!

At this moment, the woman who had spoken first spoke again, ”I thought you wouldn’t make it today.”

”It’s difficult to judge time and distance on the wasteland,” said one of the shriveled ’figures’ draped in black robes. ”I hope we haven’t been too late.”

”Not too late; I still have the patience for this,” the woman in the Priestess Robe said. ”How is the situation inside the wasteland?”

”The winds of the wasteland are as persistent as ever. The only change is that a group of outsiders is reinforcing those barriers at the border... not worth paying attention to.”

”It’s best to be more cautious. In the meantime, try not to approach the border—especially the northern border. There’s a rather troublesome person reinforcing the barriers in southeastern Anzu.”

Gawain thought for a moment and felt that the ’troublesome person’ they mentioned should be him.

He felt like he probably guessed who these people were.

He really didn’t expect... after losing the ’Shadow Bridge,’ they were actually using the spiritual connection technology of the Eternal Sleepers to maintain contact within the wasteland... and those shriveled figures in black robes... are the Oblivion Association’s ’inside agents’ in the wasteland?!

What are they... or what are they, that they actually live inside the great walls?!

Gawain couldn’t help but stare at those shriveled figures in black robes, watching the leading figure speak with a hoarse voice, ”We will be careful—how is the progress on your side?”