Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 748 - 747: Challenging the Ocean

The greatest courage of mortals is to challenge the skies and the oceans.

A slightly salty sea breeze blew in from the east, sweeping across the long coastline of the East Coast, over the port houses with black sloped roofs and ancient spire towers, where black crowns and shield banners fluttered above the main castle of the port city "Mobius," facing the Endless Sea, where the sunrise emerged on the sea surface.

Earl Owen Dyson, with short black hair and deep blue eyes, and wearing a black double-breasted overcoat, stood in front of a window facing the sea. From the high point of this castle, he quietly overlooked the bustling urban scene below and the calm, shimmering sea in the distance.

This is Mobius Port, the largest seaport on the East Coast of the Typhon Empire, a necessary stop for eastern humans visiting the ocean.

It once was.

The Dyson family has ruled this land for centuries. The ancestors of Earl Owen led the initial residents to blaze a trail, reshaping this sturdy eastern coastline of the Empire with stone and Magic power. Seven hundred years ago, this was an exceptionally bustling city. The newly founded Typhon knocked on the door to the sea through this port, and established important colonies on several islands in the east. The ancestors extracted ores and planted spices on those islands, providing valuable resources for the newborn nation and maintained the flow of goods in the southeastern and northeastern regions of the Empire through a thriving Eastern Continent route; Mobius Port was at the center of it all, enjoying a momentous status.

However, that prosperous scene was short-lived.

The downfall of the Three Great Dark Sects put an end to humanity’s challenge to the ocean—the departure of the Sons of the Storm meant that humans could no longer sense the storms and Magic Turbulence on the Endless Sea, nor could they calm the ocean’s wrath. The safely navigable sea territory was reduced to a mere few dozen nautical miles near the coast, and these "safe routes" were intermittent, unable to connect together.

Initially, brave captains and scholars attempted to maintain those routes with experience, courage, and alternative transcendent Spells, but the high costs and the initial weak national power of Typhon led those brave challengers to eventually give up. The colonial islands far at sea had to be abandoned, and the inflow of minerals, plants, and sea creature products from the ocean was forced to cease, causing this once briefly thriving Mobius Port to fall into distress for several centuries.

It transformed from a bustling port city into a hub for nearby coastal fishermen, a rest stop for merchants, and it managed to persist to this day through meager coastal fishery and transient tolls.

Then, until today, it has miraculously flourished again.

Earl Owen’s gaze swept across the edge of the city, past the towers standing near the coastline and the faintly rising smoke and dust.

Those are the flammable stone mines.

No one expected that the revival of Mobius Port would come from those gray-white stones once deemed useless and worth less than mud.

The coastal edges are abundant with flammable stones, which are raw materials for producing Fertility Dust and Crystal Matrix. The advent of new technology has turned them from worthless to highly coveted, and as the largest city on the East Coast, Mobius Port miraculously revived overnight, returning to prosperity within just a few years.

And just like Mobius Port, the entire Typhon Empire is also undergoing rapid changes.

The great Emperor Rosetta Augustus has brought prosperity and transformation to the Empire. Although many of the "changes" he introduced displeased certain conservative aristocrats, these displeased aristocrats did not include the leader of Mobius, Earl Owen Dyson—for this border Earl who experienced a drastic transformation from distress to wealth, what His Majesty Rosetta brought was an absolute improvement.

Even more exhilarating, almost exciting for this border Earl, was that the visionary emperor, after making the Empire prosperous and strong, once again turned his gaze toward that vast ocean.

The sparkling sea surface subtly undulated in the distance, and the morning sun reflected with fine phosphorous light upon the water. Earl Owen knew that what appeared to be a calm ocean was indeed perilous. Beyond a dozen nautical miles, chaotic storms and Magic Turbulence would swallow even the strongest Transcendent, and these turbulences and storms fragment the originally complete coastal routes into pieces. Hundreds of years ago, the fledgling and weak Typhon Kingdom failed to reclaim those routes, but today, the reborn Typhon Empire may now have the capability to challenge the sea once more.

The sound of footsteps approaching from afar awakened Earl Owen from his contemplation. He heard an attendant’s voice from behind: "Sir, that creature has woken up."

Earl Owen turned his head: "I know—lead the way."

"Yes, sir."

Owen Dyson left the room facing the sea, and, accompanied by his attendant, walked through the long corridors of the castle, into the deep passageways, reaching the deepest part of the family castle. There, in a chamber reinforced with numerous magic symbols, sacred materials, and magic materials, he saw what the attendant referred to as "that creature."

Wrapped in a somewhat worn black robe, it lay silently at the center of the stone bed in the chamber. Numerous magic symbol chains and sacred talismans bound it there, suppressing whatever Transcendent power it might possess.

In fact, Owen could tell at a glance that it should be a human, though it has mutated beyond recognition.

The "human’s" exposed arms, face, and neck were covered with chilling, pale cyan fine scales. Its eyes resembled that of a serpent, with golden vertical pupils, its hair completely receded, replaced by a greasy, seaweed-like dermal growth covering its scalp. Its palms were twisted and elongated, with web-like connections between the fingers. Even more terrifying was its legs—

The legs looked as if some chaotic substance fused them together, indistinguishable from one another. They were drawn together, with joints bent, skin melded, covered with scales.

It resembled an unfinished transformation spell, or perhaps... a transitional state from human to some eerie, bizarre mutation.

This "monster" had awakened; when Earl Owen approached, he saw those dreadful golden vertical pupils shifting towards him, while the creature’s body lay silently on the stone bed, only the chest slightly rising and falling.

Earl Owen frowned as a Mage in a Moon Patterned Robe stepped forward beside him.

"Sir, I have used calming Spells and the essence of Moon Sleep Herb to stabilize its mental state; this creature is temporarily safe."

Owen Dyson nodded, glancing at another figure not far away—a Knight of medium stature, with thick beard and deep-set eyes.

"Tell me more about the details when you discovered this ’creature,’" he said to the Knight.

"Yes, my lord," the Knight nodded, "We discovered him in the south, near the desert—local residents reported unusual storms and constant howling over the sea in that area. We were worried about Magic Turbulence invading the land, so we went to investigate and found this ’monster’ on the rocky beach by the coast.

"There was nothing like shipwreck debris around him, and no stranded vessels nearby. I guess he didn’t arrive by ship, but possibly swam over...

"At the time, he was already half-conscious, a little lethargic from sun exposure, but as we approached, he woke up quickly and appeared very aggressive. He attacked us with some Spell similar to Acid Arrow, but fortunately, we had brought two Mages with us, who used spells to counter and subdue him.

"He fainted due to extreme weakness, and before fainting, he kept muttering incomprehensible sentences softly. The Soldiers were quite frightened after hearing those mumblings; someone said it’s the language of curses mentioned by fishermen—spoken only by the dead swallowed by the waves...

"Apart from half a broken talisman, there was nothing on him that could prove his identity, but his clothes were definitely made by human beings... I guess he is a poor soul cursed by terrible forces from the deep-sea—of course, this is just my judgment."

Owen Dyson Earl hummed, looked at the Mage beside him: "Can you discern anything from the talisman?"

"Nothing discernible, my lord," the Mage said, picking up the fractured talisman and handing it to Owen Dyson Earl, "It’s completely damaged, with Magic Power entirely depleted, and the remaining spell moulds have no reference value. Moreover, there’s something strange—the decorative patterns on its surface seem to have been intentionally ground off, completely unrecognizable now."

Owen Dyson Earl accepted the talisman only half the size of an old Empire Gold Coin, turning it over in his hand for a glance.

It was half of a round talisman, possibly made of Mithril, clearly once an extraordinary item, and as the Mage mentioned—its surface showed obvious grinding marks, done quite crudely, yet completely erased the recognizable patterns on it.

Owen casually tossed the talisman into the Attendant’s hand nearby.

"You were once a human being..." He approached the humanoid creature covered with scales and webbing, bending down to stare into those unnerving eyes, "Is that right?"

"Sssss... Hmmm..."

What came from the humanoid creature’s throat was an amphibian-like hoarse voice that humans could hardly produce, chaotic and low, hard to discern.

"You’ve been in the sea for a long time... the fishy smell, the stench of mud, and the Magic Power amid a storm," Owen Dyson Earl still stared at the creature, "What is in the far sea? What turned you into this form?"

The response remained a chaotic, ambiguous voice, and listening to that eerie sound, a vague impression of the waves surging even began to form in Owen’s mind.

"Some unknown Transcendent force twisted this poor man," the Mage beside commented, "Sir, I’ve already tried communicating with him several times through hypnotic means, and this poor fellow has completely lost his human linguistic capability."

"No, it’s your method that’s wrong," Owen Dyson Earl said, casually removing a pendant emitting a faint blue light from his wrist.

He brought the pendant closer to the "monster" lying on the stone bed, and the latter, watching the mystical deep blue light, suddenly opened his eyes slightly.

"Long ago, when this Mobius city was still a bustling seaport, the Dyson Family and the Church of Storms were close allies," the Earl spoke slowly, "We preserved many Storm-related relics, like this pendant once blessed by the storm deacon... Now, tell me, Sons of the Storm, what exactly happened to you?"

Even though the creature had no identifiable item on him, even though the pendant’s surface patterns had been ground away, Owen Dyson could still conjecture the origin of this man from the far sea.

After all, he and his family had been watching over this sea for hundreds of years.

The black-robed "monster" on the stone bed stared at the pendant in Owen Dyson Earl’s hand, suddenly taking a deep breath, the hoarse voice like a broken bellows now carrying a somnolent tone, "Have you... heard the deep-sea’s... call?"

"The deep-sea’s call?" Owen Dyson Earl furrowed his brow, "What are you talking about?"

The black-robed monster’s voice grew more ethereal, as if his mind was gradually dissipating: "Ah... in the dark and deep seabed... the divine status has changed... the flesh-devourer calls with tide sounds... listen carefully, can you hear it..."

"It seems your mind has been completely corrupted," Owen Dyson Earl said regretfully, preparing to put away the talisman, "But I still thank you, thank you for reminding me once again of the ocean’s dangers, reminding me to be cautious with it."

The talisman emitting blue light gradually left the black-robed monster’s view, the latter was breathing heavily, but suddenly his breathing calmed down, and on his face appeared a strange smile, a mix of calmness and joy.

The dense scales made this smile particularly horrifying.

Owen Dyson Earl heard the monster utter a final few syllables from his throat:

"I’ve heard it, I’ve heard it... she is calling us... to return to the track..."

The monster on the stone bed let out a long sigh, and then, under the watchful eyes of everyone, his body suddenly shattered into liquid resembling murky seawater.