Sword Of Dawn

Gao Wen stared at the horizon for a long time. In the first few minutes, the immense cognitive dissonance made it impossible for him to figure out what he was looking at—whatever it was, it was very far from the sun he knew.

The broad and magnificent arc continued to rise, and in the early stages, it ascended much faster than the sun. Before long, Gao Wen could see a small part of its arc. That arc was indeed glowing, with hazy colors along the edge and an indistinct, misty structure, as if the world's light and heat were provided by this thing. Yet its brilliance wasn't as blinding as the sun's—on the contrary, Gao Wen could not only look directly at it but also discern fine patterns on its surface.

After roughly assessing its curvature, Gao Wen realized that this was an object with a visual diameter tens or even hundreds of times larger than the sun. Of course, its actual size should be smaller than a normal star, but it was incredibly close to the Earth.

At this distance, if it were to rise, it might cover about a fifth of the sky. Of course, this was just a rough estimate from Gao Wen, as his intuition was shaken by the overwhelming sight, so there could be significant deviation.

The sense of oppression from watching a giant celestial body rise before his eyes was hard to describe.

Quickly scanning Gao Wen Cecil's memories, he found countless instances of similarly spectacular "sunrises." The object in the sky wasn't some anomaly, but the most normal sight in this world.

So what could explain this?

Gao Wen quickly made several interpretations based on his knowledge. Perhaps the physical rules of this world were completely different from those in his homeland's universe, so the stars' light and heat efficiency were quite low, and this planet was so close to its star that it could appear as such a massive sun, yet the Earth hadn't been scorched. Or perhaps it wasn't the sun at all, but a light and heat-emitting hole, or something else that defied science but was still magical...

But more likely, the planet beneath his feet didn't orbit the sun at all. Instead, it orbited a gas giant. The true source of light and heat—the thing rising in the sky—was the parent star of this satellite.

In that moment, the feeling of "otherworldliness" was stronger than ever.

"Ancestor? Lord Ancestor?" Hetty's voice came from beside him, finally pulling Gao Wen from his stupor and deep thoughts.

"Ah... what?" Gao Wen snapped out of his daze and looked at his great-granddaughter with some confusion.

The beautiful noblewoman, having left the dark, cramped, and dangerous underground tunnel, had regained a little of her former grace. She gave a slight bow to Gao Wen. "Ancestor, you were lost in thought just now, but we need to leave here first."

Gao Wen mumbled some distracted words in response and noticed that the tunnel's exit was at a small, unprotected hill. Given the uncertain situation around them, it was indeed unwise to stand around here, so he nodded. "Let's head higher up first and get a better view of the surroundings. What I know is from seven hundred years ago; it might not be reliable now."

Thus, they all began to move towards the nearby hill under Gao Wen's guidance. Along the way, Gao Wen couldn't help but glance up at the giant "sun" several more times.

"Ancestor, you keep looking at the sun?" Rebecca, walking behind Gao Wen, asked with some concern. "Is something wrong?"

Amber casually remarked, "Your ancestor hasn't seen the sun for seven hundred years. Of course, he'd stare at it for a while now."

Gao Wen ignored Amber's comment and glanced at his N+1th great-granddaughter, shaking his head slightly. He realized that the local people referred to that thing in the sky the same way as the sun.

Or rather, no matter what the word was, in this world, it represented the sun, nothing else.

Gao Wen once again checked the memories of his former self and, after trying several key phrases and vague details, suddenly felt something click. He lifted his gaze and looked towards the still somewhat dark sky on the other side.

In that sky, which hadn't fully brightened yet and still retained many stars, he spotted a star-like object, roughly the size of a grain of rice, brighter than any of the others.

This world's people called that special star "Ao," and it held significant religious and magical symbolism.

The first two hypotheses could likely be dismissed. Only the third seemed plausible.

"Ao" was the star of this system, so distant it was almost beyond belief, its light shining coldly on the Earth beneath Gao Wen's feet, almost like any other star's glow.

In the cool morning breeze, Gao Wen climbed to the top of the hill.

A land ravaged by war, showing an eerie, rotting state, lay before him.

It looked as if strong acid had been poured on flesh, the earth corrupted and decayed, large sections of rock and soil turned gray-black. Cracks spread across the land, and all vegetation had been obliterated. The remaining tree trunks twisted into claw-like forms, almost demonically corrupted. Further in the distance, collapsed walls, charred buildings, and the Cecil family's ancient castle, shrouded in smoke, could be seen.

Giant mutated monsters wandered across the wasteland.

The fields and crops had long since disappeared, erased by the monsters' magic tide, leaving no trace.

"This is the family's territory..." Rebecca crouched on the hillside, gritting her teeth, her eyes reddening. Whether in anger or sadness, tears welled up in her eyes. The young woman, who had just inherited the family business and hadn't even fully adjusted to her new lordship, seemed to have lost everything in this moment.

"This is what land corrupted by the magic tide looks like," Gao Wen sighed. "When the Gondor Empire decayed from within, it turned into this. I suspect that corruption still lingers on the empire's ruined land today, and now a new corruption has appeared in the civilized domain."

Amber broke into a cold sweat. "By the gods... we've been surrounded by these things this whole time?"

Hetty, thinking about the family's recovery, asked, "Is there any hope?"

"No hope," Gao Wen shook his head. "You couldn't stop the mutated monsters' attack. They've formed a collective resonance, and the element corruption caused by the magic tide is irreversible. Even if all the monsters are killed, the pollution lingering on this land will last for a long time."

"How long?" Hetty asked, still hopeful.

"Has human civilization returned to the Gondor Empire's land?" Gao Wen asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"…That land is still a no-man's land. The lands beyond the grand barrier are untouched by anyone," she replied.

Gao Wen shrugged. "Then it looks like the corruption of Cecil's land will last at least seven hundred years."

Rebecca and Hetty looked at their ancestor in shock. They couldn't understand how this legendary figure, who had founded the Cecil family, could remain so calm in the face of the family's last piece of land being destroyed by monsters—he didn't show any anger or sadness, almost as if it were someone else's problem. His attitude even made them a bit fearful.

But Gao Wen quickly noticed their gaze and asked, "Is there a problem?"

"Lord Ancestor, aren't you... angry?" Rebecca asked carefully. "This is the last piece of the Cecil family's land..."

Gao Wen froze for a moment and immediately realized that he hadn't fully immersed himself in the character. He quickly put on a stern face and focused all his acting skills to give a response: "Indulging in these matters is pointless. Gao Wen Cecil was a pioneer. Every inch of land and wealth in this family was built by me from nothing. If the land is gone, it's gone. We'll find a new place to pioneer. Why be so sentimental?"

Rebecca and Hetty quickly nodded in agreement, admiring their ancestor with deep respect. They thought to themselves, "No wonder he's a legendary figure. His vision and mentality are so different." But they were also left wondering where their ancestor planned to open up new land in a world where all land had been divided among the existing noble systems, and the unclaimed lands were mostly off-limits.

"There's nothing more to see here. Let's plan our next steps. First, we need to find a town and try to reunite with those who broke out earlier," Gao Wen quickly shifted the conversation. "I remember a knight named Philip led a group to break out, right? Have you all agreed on a meeting place?"

Rebecca immediately replied, "We agreed on the northern town of Tansan. If Tansan is also attacked by monsters, we'll continue north along the Kingdom Road."

Gao Wen nodded, just about to leave, when an unusual sensation suddenly made him stop in his tracks.

After a brief pause, both Gao Wen and the knight Byron almost simultaneously shouted, "Get down! Hide!"

Though they weren't sure why, Rebecca and Hetty quickly followed Byron to hide under a nearby boulder, while Amber had already vanished into the shadows. Gao Wen, following Rebecca, hid as well but suddenly noticed that the seemingly dazed little maid Betty was still standing there, holding a frying pan with a confused expression. He quickly rushed out, pulling her back—just in time for a terrifying sense of oppression to descend from the sky.

A large and graceful creature slowly flew across the sky in the rising light of the "giant sun."

It was a dragon, several dozen meters in length.

In the panic, Hetty instinctively cast a third-tier spell, "Lightwarp Field," to conceal everyone's figures. But she wasn't sure if the rudimentary spell could fool a legendary creature's eyes.

Yet, the dragon didn't seem to notice the people on the ground—or perhaps it just didn't care. It slowly flapped its wings, soaring with elegance and dignity through the sky, its enormous eyes reflecting the ruined land of the Cecil territory.

Then, it released a breath of saltwater... oh, no, its fiery breath scorched the place.