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Chapter 9: Incinerated

The broad and magnificent arc continued to rise. Its initial ascent was faster than the sun’s, and Gawain thus could observe a small fraction of the cambered surface. It was indeed emanating light, with edges of blurry and hazy color, as though they were made of clouds and mist. He supposed that the light and heat of this world was provided by this object, but it was not as dazzling as the sun such that he could not view it directly—in fact, the opposite was so. Not only could Gawain stare right at the curved surface,he could also make out some fine lines on the arc itself.

After gauging the arc of the thing, Gawain realized that he was staring at something that was tens, if not hundreds, of times bigger than the sun. Of course, its actual diameter had to be smaller than that of a normal star—it was just so close to the planet.

If it continued to rise at this distance, it could very well shroud one-fifth of the entire sky… However, this was merely Gawain’s subjective estimate, for he was feeling overwhelmed by this sight, and his judgment would inevitably be biased.

It was hard to describe the sense of oppression that was brought about by watching a gigantic celestial body surging up in front of oneself.

A quick search of Gawain Cecil’s memory unsurprisingly turned up countless “sunrises” that were equally majestic. The phenomenon in the sky was not something out of the ordinary, but the most normal occurrence in this world.

But, what was the explanation for this?

Gawain soon began to analyze the scene according to the knowledge he had. Perhaps the physics of this world differed from his home planet’s, causing the low efficiency of light and heat from this star. This planet was probably very close to the star in order for it to appear so large, and maybe the reason the earth was yet to be incinerated was because the supposed “star” was not a sun at all, but a hole that radiated light and heat, or was a thingamajig that was not scientific but magical…

What seemed to be more likely, however, would be that the planet he stood on was not orbiting around the sun, but a gas giant. That would mean that it was not a planet at all, but a satellite of the latter, and the thing that rose in the sky…

Was the parent planet of this satellite.

It was at this moment that Gawain’s feelings of “otherworldliness” felt more intense than ever.

“Ancestor? Lord Ancestor?” Heidi’s voice rang out beside him, surprising Gawain from his deep thoughts.

“Ah… ah?” Gawain came to his senses instantly, looking at his nth great-granddaughter by his side.

The beautiful aristocratic woman, having escaped the dark tunnel and the underground crisis, recovered a little of her former countenance. Bowing slightly to Gawain, she said, “Ancestor, you were daydreaming earlier, but we need to get out of here.”

Gawain faltered and brushed the incident aside. It was then he realized that the entrance of the tunnel had led them to an open hillside with no defenses. To stand there dazedly with no awareness of their surroundings did not seem like a wise thing to do, and he thus nodded. “Let’s head to the high ground to survey the place and ascertain our surroundings. The knowledge of the terrain I have is seven hundred years old, and might not be relevant now.”

Thus, under the direction of Gawain, the party advanced up the hillside a little. On the way, Gawain could not help but look up at the large “sun” several times.

“Lord Ancestor, you’ve been staring at the sun?” Behind him walked Rebecca, and she asked concernedly, “Is there a problem?”

Beside her, Amber quipped casually, “Your ancestor hasn’t seen the light of day for seven hundred years; it’s obviously natural that he’d want to look at the sun a few more times than normal.”

Gawain ignored Amber. Glancing at his n+1th great-granddaughter, he shook his head slightly. Internally, he confirmed that “sun” was what the natives of this world called that thing in the sky too.

Or rather, no matter what language it was spoken in, the word referred to the sun and nothing else in the minds of the people here.

Gawain searched through the memory of the original owner of the body again. After several attempts with some keywords and receiving vague information, he finally lifted his head with some understanding, gazing across the part of the sky that was still slightly dimmed.

In the still unlit part of the sky that still showed its many stars, he spotted a “star” that was about the size of a grain that was brighter than the others.

The people of this world labeled that special star as “Ao”, and attributed many religious and symbolic meanings.

Both his previous conjectures were probably debunked, leaving his reasonable third one.

“Ao” was then the star of this solar system. It was unbelievably far away that the light it shone on Gawain was practically as cold as any other star’s.

And in the cool morning breeze, Gawain arrived at the summit of the hill.

In the distance was a mysteriously scarred land that had been blazed to the ground by the flames of war.

Just like skin after an acid splash, the land looked decayed and rotting. The vast expanse of rock and soil were charred black, with large cracks shot crookedly all over the earth. the vegetation on the ground had long been putrefied, the remaining trunks twisted as though they had been demonized into the claws of the devil. Further on, they could see collapsed walls, razed homes, and the Cecil Clan’s castle cloaked in smoke.

Giant-like aberrations roamed the devastated soil.

The fields and crops had long since been buried indistinguishably in the waves of monsters that ravaged their land.

“The clan’s territory…” Rebecca knelt on the hill, gritting her teeth with a death-like force. Her eyes were rimmed with red, and tears from fury or sorrow circled in them. She had just become the head of the clan, but had lost seemingly everything before she could even get used to being its leader.

“This is how the land looks like after it has been ruined by monsters,” Gawain sighed. “The Gondor Empire back then was devastated like this within and without. I’d predicted that the decay would have remained in the wasteland of the old empire—instead, new decay appeared in the realm of civilization again.”

Amber broke out in cold sweat. “By the God of Shadows… we’ve been surrounded by those things?”

Heidi pondered the clan’s chances of recovery. “Can it still be saved?”

“No.” Gawain shook his head. “You didn’t block the advance of the monsters. They have already formed group resonance, and the elemental contamination caused by the demonic tide is irreversible. Even if all of the aberrations are destroyed, the pollution entrenched in the land will remain for quite a long while.”

“How long will it last?” Heidi seemed to refuse to lose hope.

“Has civilization returned to the Gondor Empire?” Gawain asked a seemingly unrelated question.

“… It is still devoid of life. No one dares to tread on the land on the other side of the great barrier.”

Gawain shrugged. “Then it looks like the decay of the Cecil territory would continue for at least seven hundred years as well.”

Rebecca and Heidi stared at this ancestor, a little stunned. they could not understand how this great figure, the pioneer of the Cecil Clan, could be so composed in the face of monsters destroying the last of the family’s land—he was neither furious nor sorrowful, as though he was watching something that had nothing to do with him. This attitude scared them a little.

However, Gawain quickly noticed the gazes of the pair and volunteered, “What’s the matter?”

“Lord Ancestor, are you not… angry?” Rebecca asked timidly. “This is the last of the Cecil Clan’s land…”

Gawain was stunned. He realized instantly that he was not fully immersed in the role he was supposed to play, and had tripped up. He hastily put on a straight face and conjured all of this acting skills and said, “Dwelling on such things is of no use. Gawain Cecil is a pioneer, and every inch of family land and wealth was built from scratch by me. If the land is gone, it’s gone. At worst, we can always find new land to settle on. What’s the use of brooding over this?”

Heidi and Rebecca nodded hurriedly. As they did so, their hearts filled with admiration for their ancestor. He was as legendary as they said, and his worldview and breadth of mind was indeed different—for he did not know that all the available land had already been split between all the current aristocrats, and the unclaimed lands were the ones that were devoid of life and forbidden areas, so where was this ancestor going to claim land from…

“There’s nothing else to see here. The next thing we have to do is plan our itinerary. The first thing to do now is to find a town and convene with the people who broke out.” Taking advantage of the influence he had as their supposed ancestor, Gawain changed the subject swiftly. “I remember a Knight Philip breaking out with a group of people. Do you have an agreed upon meeting place?”

Rebecca answered quickly, “We planned to meet at Tanzan Town up north. If Tanzan was also attacked by the monsters, they would continue north along King’s Road.”

Gawain nodded and was about to set off when a strange feeling made him stop in his steps.

After a moment of pause, he and Knight Byron shouted out almost at the same time, “Duck! Hide!”

Even though they did not know why, Rebecca and Heidi still fled with Knight Byron to the protection under a large rock nearby. Amber had already vanished into some cranny of darkness the moment Gawain opened his mouth. Gawain himself took cover behind Rebecca. However, he noticed that the lost little maid Betty was still grasping onto her saucepan with a blank expression, and darted out to pull her back—almost in the next instant, a sense of oppression seemed to descend from the sky upon them.

In the rising brilliance of the “great sun”, an elegant and enormous creature sailed across the sky slowly.

It was a gigantic dragon that spanned over ten meters.

In her panic, Heidi subconsciously cast a third-level spell of “position distortion”, hiding everyone’s figures, though she was not at all sure that this shallow spell could fool the eyes of such a legendary creature.

However, the humongous dragon did not notice the people on the ground—or maybe just disdained to notice them. He, or she, only flapped their wings languidly, sweeping across the sky with grace and majesty, its eyes reflecting the Cecil territory that had been ruined by the Dark Wave.

Then, with a mouth full of salted soda… er, it spat fire onto the land.