Sword of Dawn

"The Dragon Clan is not so unbearable," Calador said in a low voice, "It's just that there was a little trouble when distributing supplies and work... After losing the assistance of the automatic system, even such small things frequently encountered problems. It's kind of ironic."

Having trouble distributing supplies and jobs?

Melita couldn't help repeating Calador's words in her heart, and her eyes slowly swept across the dilapidated camp. What she saw were the exhausted clansmen and the injured who were in urgent need of recuperation, and the shelter had to face The problems are so obvious: not enough food, not enough medical supplies, not enough labor, not enough labor tools.

It is true that the powerful body of the giant dragon is enough to support the compatriots to survive on this cold and windy continent for a long time, but this kind of survival seems hopeless. Most of Tarrond has been reduced to scorched earth, and Ordinary dragons who have long been accustomed to the meticulous care of the Omega system and the automatic factory seem to have no idea how to survive in this primitive land...

For some reason, Melita suddenly thought of the distant Loren Continent at this moment, and thought of the humans who had also experienced wasteland and re-emerged on that continent.

"We should find a way to ensure the basic survival of the tribe first," she couldn't help but said, "We can survive for a long time without food, but we will still have to eat sooner or later... Where does our current food come from? Come?"

"The food collected from the ruins can last for a while. Although many things have been burned, there are still intact stocks in some factories and storage facilities buried deep in the ground," said a dragon who passed by. , "There are not many things collected, but... our current population is not large."

"Those things will be eaten sooner or later, we still have to find a way to restore food production," Calador said in a deep voice, "We don't know where else we can grow food on this continent, but the ocean can provide some food... ..."

"In addition, we still have to find a way to repair some factories-Omega is gone, we can find a way to bypass the automatic circuit and restart those machines manually," said another dragon, "We can't dig out the booster from the ground and the parts needed to repair the implants to..."

"We need to build some stronger shelters. Many buildings here are about to collapse, and the number is not enough for everyone to live in..."

Some passing dragons began to discuss, but this discussion did not bring hope and encouragement, but made each dragon confirm the dire situation at hand.Melita could feel that the atmosphere on the scene was obviously declining. She never thought that the brilliant and powerful Tarrond would encounter such a predicament one day, although compared with the original fate of extinction, the current situation seems to have changed Much better, but surviving this situation... doesn't seem like much luck.

She couldn't help thinking wildly, and then suddenly noticed something: "Calador, hasn't Noretta come back yet?!"

"Noretta?" The red dragon Calador seemed to remember Miss Bailong who had left the camp at noon at this time. He frowned, and immediately subconsciously wanted to call Noretta through the Omega system. There was a hollow noise coming from the resonating core of his body, and he realized that he had made a mistake again.

He raised his head and looked towards the sky south of the camp: "She should have come back at least an hour ago... The place she is going to explore is not far from here, no matter whether there are survivors found, the round trip will be very fast... ..."

"Did she go alone?" Melita asked anxiously.

"Yes, alone... We have limited manpower, and the southern area is very close, so she went by herself..."

Melita walked away without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, and at the same time quickly switched to the dragon form: "I'm going to find her!"

Chapter 1048 In the Dusk and the Cold Wind

Seeing Melita's hasty appearance, Calador subconsciously shouted from behind: "Your injury..."

"I'm fine, after all, it's just a short-distance flight." Melita moved her wings, and looked back at the red dragon who stayed behind, "I feel much better after removing those malfunctioning neural amplifiers." , and the healing technique is also very effective - I will leave it to you, I will go and see how Noretta is. By the way, which direction is she in?"

Having known each other for many years, Calador also knows Melita's character, knowing that he can't persuade her at this time, and after confirming that her breath has indeed recovered a lot, he said with a trace of helplessness: "Take off from here, heading south. , to Industrial Heights No. 22, where most of the area has been razed to the ground, only one tower remains, and you should be able to find Noretta's traces easily."

Melita opened her huge dragon wings while listening, and the invisible magic power gathered to slowly lift her huge body: "Thanks, I'll set off right away—whether I find it or not, I will find it in three days." Be back in an hour!"

Accompanied by a sudden gust of wind, the blue dragon soared into the sky and soared in the sky again.

After leaving the temporary shelter, Melita immediately felt weakness and discomfort coming from all parts of her body, as well as pain from several wounds that hadn't fully healed.The pain was actually tolerable, but the ubiquitous feeling of weakness made her extremely unbearable—it felt as if the muscles, bones, and viscera of her whole body were filled with lead, and no matter what she did, she needed to spend more than usual More strength, and the body's response was not as good as before. After feeling like this for several minutes, Melita finally realized where this feeling of weakness came from.

From her nervous system used to implants and boosters, from her body memories of thousands of years past.

Part of her dynamic muscle group has been removed, and the nerve multiplier near the spine has also been removed. More than half of the implants in her body have been shut down or half shut down as the Omega system is offline, and they are still running. Only those low-level implants that don't require networking, provide basic enhancements or health aids, and at the same time... she hasn't taken any boosters for a long time.

"I thought I had very little dependence on these things..." Melita felt the weight coming from her limbs, and couldn't help muttering self-deprecatingly, "After all, I am also a dragon of Tarrond." what..."

She raised her head and looked into the distance in the gradually dimming sky. The outline of Industrial Heights 22 had clearly entered her field of vision—she felt some discomfort, which had actually lasted for a long time , has been bothering herself since she just woke up, and now she finally understands the reason for this discomfort: In her field of vision, she can't see the current time, direction indicators, coordinates, and wind information. She couldn't see the undulating magic power curve and the advertisements or communication windows that kept popping up from the edge... nothing, not even a basic filter, she looked into the distance, and all she saw was the natural and primitive sky and land.

She couldn't remember how long she hadn't seen such a clean and clear world... Or, she hadn't seen anything like it since she was born.

Even I feel so much inconvenience, how long will it take for those compatriots who have undergone profound transformation to adapt to this "empty" vision?

Melita couldn't help but feel some emotion in her heart, and almost at the same time, she caught a flash of white in the corner of her eyes - she almost missed this white, because now her visual aid plug-in can no longer She locked the activity/interest information in her field of vision by herself, but when the figure was about to pass by the edge of her field of vision, she finally noticed it.

She also finally understood why Noretta didn't find herself when she flew through the sky before—it turned out that after losing the assistance of the implant, it was so error-prone to search for things with the naked eye.

Melita quickly lowered her altitude and swooped towards the whiteness. After confirming that the whiteness was still active on the ground, she couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief—Noretta was still alive, and she was lying on a pile of In the middle of the ruins, with his head down, he was busy digging for something.

"Noretta!" At a height of only a few hundred meters from the ground, Melita hovered and shouted at the ground, "What are you doing here? Why didn't you report back to the camp? Are you digging something?"

"Melita?" Bailong, who was busy digging on the surface, only noticed the shadow in the sky at this time. She raised her head and looked at her friend hovering in the air in surprise, "Why are you here? You are in good health What?!"

"I removed some damaged parts, and treated the wound with a healing spell, and it's no longer a serious problem," Melita said while slowly lowering the height. She did it very cautiously, because her nervous system and The muscles are not as good as they used to be. "What are you doing? You have missed the report time for a long time, and the camp is worried about you."

"What? Already missed the time?" Noretta looked very surprised, as if she had only noticed the passage of time at this time, she looked up at the huge sun that had already reached the horizon, and said with surprise in her voice, "It's so fast... …sorry, my clock is off and my visual aids are down, have no idea..."

"Well, I also encountered a similar problem..." Melita shook her head, and then muttered with some self-deprecation, "Is there even a problem with normal time perception after leaving the Omega system... It's really being taken care of by those automatic systems..."

While talking, she also noticed the big pit that Noretta had already dug—there are many similar big pits nearby, obviously this white dragon has been digging here for a long time: "What did you find? Is there something? Why are you digging with your claws? What about your spells?"

"I'm worried that the power of the spell will collapse the structure below... let's not talk about that, you help me, it's right below - I'm sure I've found the right place this time," Noretta thought When he woke up what he was doing, he pulled Melita to help without explaining, "Come on, let's dig together..."

Melita leaned over in a daze, and helped Noretta move the broken metal plates and heavy stones out of the big pit. It didn't take long before she heard the voice of her friend : "Dig it out!"

"This is..." Melita watched in surprise as Noretta poked her entire upper body into the depths of the excavated hole, and carefully took out something from it. After seeing the appearance of the thing, her face His expression suddenly changed slightly.

It was an ellipsoidal container, its surface was covered with scars, but it was still intact and firm, and in the center of the container, there was something lying quietly.

A dragon egg—however, it has been shattered, and the internal substance flows out, and it is solidified on the inner wall of the container like flesh and blood.

Obviously, the intact outer container could not resist the power of the shock wave.

"...it's broken," Melita said in a low voice, subconsciously exerting force on her paws, and a mass of steel under her feet was torn apart amidst creaking noises, "Noretta, this one is already broken." Broken."

Noretta also stared blankly at the container dug out by herself. She was stunned for two or three minutes, then suddenly threw the container aside, turned around and rushed towards the big hole she just dug: "There must be more Not broken! There are countless dragon eggs inside, there must be unbroken ones!"

here?

It was only at this time that Melita realized something belatedly. She raised her head and saw a huge facility like a spiral mountain standing quietly in the glow of the setting sun. The pale golden sun slanted Shining on its melted and re-solidified shell, from the unrecognizable main structure, the former take-off and landing platform and transmission pipeline can still be vaguely distinguished.

She recognized it at last—it was the Hatchery, the largest breeding facility near Agondor.

"Melita! What are you still standing there for?" The white dragon Noretta's voice came from the cave. She raised her head and looked at the blue dragon who was dazed outside, urging her, "Come and help me!" Open the gates down here—my paws are hurt and I can't handle something so big... By the way, these gates are so strong..."

"Just the two of us can't dig anything," Noretta looked up at the scale of the hatchery, and immediately shouted towards the opening, "The storage area on the lower floor of the hatchery is too big, and we may not be able to dig until tomorrow." Can find the next isolation cell, we should go back and get more dragons to help!"

The sound of digging in the depths of the cave finally stopped, and after a few seconds, Noretta slowly leaned out from the inside, with a trace of hesitation: "You are right, but... the camp has limited manpower, Calador may not be able to send many..."

"Let's take this back," Melita picked up the dragon egg container on the ground with her front paws—even though the eggs inside were broken, she was still careful when picking it up, "Kalador will understand, He is a red dragon, and a very old red dragon at that...he understands the meaning of dragon eggs better than other dragons."

……

In the temporary shelter, the dragons gathered together again. After distributing the supplies at hand, they had to discuss how to continue to survive in the ruins.Calador stood among his compatriots, listening to the thoughts of each member, but couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

Things were going in a bad direction, he had expected it, but he couldn't do anything about it.

More and more dragons have symptoms of synergist backlash, others have various physical problems caused by implant failure, and almost all of their compatriots are still facing the huge "psychological hole" after losing the Omega network. ".Physical weakness, pain, and psychological shaking are constantly weakening the will of all compatriots. They have gathered here and have become a group of refugees in the true sense.

However... this is a dragon.

A mighty dragon who once ruled the sky and the earth.

Calador knew that even without implants and boosters, even without Omega and automatic factories, these weak dragons in front of him were still dragons, one of the most powerful creatures in the world, even On the other hand, those who lost the implants and boosters are the ones who have restored the original appearance of the dragon race and returned to the "normal realm" of the race on the evolutionary path, but... these words don't make any sense now.

The existential dilemma is the immediate problem.

While sighing, he suddenly thought of Melita and Noretta who had left the camp for a long time—how are they doing?

As soon as Calador thought of this, he suddenly heard a whistling sound coming from the sky. He raised his head subconsciously, and saw two blue and white figures approaching the camp from a distance.

Melita and Noretta landed in the center of the camp, and the surrounding compatriots cast their gazes over at the same time. After noticing that the atmosphere at the scene was a bit weird, Melita first returned to her human form, and then strode towards Carado Walk in the direction of Er.

"Carador, what's going on here?" Melita couldn't help asking, "Is there another problem with work or material distribution?"

"We are discussing expanding the camp and recovering materials in the collapsed area of ​​the rift," a black dragon walked over from the side, "but we lack tools and manpower—the land is now full of molten and solidified alloys and aggregates We can't dig a new camp with our claws..."

Melita listened to the other party's words, but her eyes moved around the entire camp. Tired faces and scarred bodies appeared in her field of vision. In the end, what she saw was still standing in the form of a giant dragon. On the clearing, the white dragon Noretta was carefully holding the container with its front paws.

"Why can't you use your claws?" Melita suddenly raised her voice. She stared at the black dragon who spoke just now, and then at Calador and the other giant dragons around, "Use your claws, use your teeth, And your breath, your magic, aren’t these very powerful? What humans on the Loren continent can do, what dragons can’t do here—because the environment here is even worse? "

A giant dragon nearby opened its mouth, as if it wanted to say something, but Melita didn't give anyone a chance to speak, and she strode directly to Noretta's side, pointing at the dragon she was holding with her front paws. Something said loudly, "This is what we just dug out with our claws!"

"That's..." Calador noticed what Noretta was holding at this time, and he opened his eyes subconsciously, "That's from the hatchery..."

"It's a dragon egg, it was broken when we dug it up - but there are still thousands of dragon eggs in the hatchery, and there are many storage warehouses that have not been dug up, and there must be something that can be salvaged in there." eggs," Melita said quickly, "that's what I'm going to say - we need help, no matter how many helpers come, even one, to help us dig out those dragon eggs buried in the ruins. Who wants to go?"

The camp fell into a brief silence, and then finally there were low-key discussions and commotions, and one after another looked at the container covered with scars and dust, and fell on the broken dragon egg inside.

Melita looked at the owner of those gazes, she finally saw some brilliance and warmth in these gazes, she raised her head, and wanted to say something more, but at this moment, she suddenly saw the distance across the sky There was a bright arc.

A flaming meteor suddenly lit up the dusk and fell northwest of Agondor.

Chapter 1049 Hope and the Future

Meteors suddenly appeared in Melita's field of vision, with bright trails and scorching flames, drawing a striking trajectory in this dimly lit dusk, as if a sharp blade suddenly split Tarrond The sky——soon, it disappeared from everyone's sight, and fell obliquely to the distant land.

After a while, Melita saw a hazy ball of fire and dust rising near the horizon.

"Did you see that!?" Melita finally came to her senses at this moment, staring at Calador and the other clansmen with wide eyes, "Was that just now... a shooting star!?"

"Meteor?" Calador whispered subconsciously, he raised his head—many dragons at the scene also raised their heads, and then more than half of them suddenly looked back at the sky as if reflexively, as if they were afraid The coming punishment is mediocre, but that punishment has not yet come - looking at the starry sky is no longer a taboo in Tarrond.

Calador had only time to see a sliver of light disappearing from the horizon.

"That's weird... I don't know if it's a shooting star." Melita still looked into the distance, her tone a little uncertain, "I just accidentally saw a shooting star a few times, but the one just now... seems to be bigger than me. The meteors I have seen are slower, and there are long flames and smoke..."

Calador looked back at the horizon, and his eyes fell on the container in front of Noretta again. Before paying attention to the disappearing starlight in the sky, he first continued the previous topic: "We will make those dragons The eggs were rescued—those with minor injuries, those who still have strength, and those who can still fly, stand up."

Melita looked around, and before she looked around the audience, one figure after another came out of the dragon group.

"I still don't think it's a good idea to use claws to dig those polymer piles and alloy barriers," the black dragon not far from Melita shook his head, "but count me in - the black dragon is at least strong a little."

Calador nodded: "Okay, then let's..."

Before the red dragon finished speaking, the sound of dragon wings beating the air suddenly came from the sky. Melita subconsciously followed the sound, and saw a huge and old dragon spreading its wings and flying from the sky. Lower slowly.

It was a black dragon, but because it was too old, the scales on its whole body were almost gray-white, and a large number of implant transformation marks were all over his body. From the forehead to the tail, almost every inch of the scales could be seen glowing. Metallic components - at this moment, many of those implants have been extinguished and shut down, and many parts are obviously in the process of being dismantled, which makes this old dragon look like a machine walked out of some museum. The ancient machinery that came out was vicissitudes, ancient, majestic, but full of scars.

The moment the black dragon landed from the sky, almost all the dragons on the scene lowered their heads, even Melita was no exception—she recognized the identity of the black dragon, this is the great elder of the Senate, Du Mr. Ke Moore.Although the Senate and the Senate are two independent institutions, Melita used to have little contact with the members of the Senate, but at this moment, there is no difference between the Senate and the Senate on the land of Tarrond. , a surviving great dragon is the supreme treasure.

"Elder Duke Moore," the red dragon Calador immediately stepped forward, "Why are you here? Your implant surgery has not been completed, and these components must be removed as soon as possible..."

"It doesn't matter to me—the advantage of the original implant is that even if it is separated from the Omega system, its basic life-support function can still function normally," Elder Duke Moore said slowly in a somewhat hoarse voice, "You just saw Did something fall from the sky? It landed on the northwest side of the camp..."

"I saw it!" Melita said immediately, "It seems to be a shooting star!"

"Meteor?" Duke Moore lowered his head, looking at Melita with the same huge gray eyes and a mechanical prosthetic eye, "No, that's not a meteor... I received an ancient navigation signal, that's our leader came back……"

Then he didn't pay attention to the astonished and confused expressions of Melita and the surrounding dragons, but turned directly to Carrador: "I need one or two helpers, go with me to the crash site to investigate the situation."

Melita blinked. Although she was still confused about the situation, she knew that Elder Duke Moore must have appeared here for a very important purpose. She looked at Noretta who was standing not far away. And the compatriots who were about to set off to dig out the dragon eggs took a look, and then stood up without hesitation: "I'll go with you—others are going to the hatchery to find out if there are any surviving dragon eggs."

"Okay, Melita, you will act together with Elder Duke Moore, and the others who have just stood up will go to dig dragon eggs in the ruins of the hatchery with Noretta," Calador nodded quickly, and looked at the old man in front of him again. The black dragon said, "Elder, is it enough to have only Melita as a helper? If not enough, there are still in the camp..."

"Enough is enough, we are just investigating the situation," Elder Duke Moore said in a deep voice, "I will deal with this matter, and at the same time... I hope you can go all out to save those dragon eggs—that is The hope and future of Tarrond."

……

To the northwest of the ruins of Agondor, after crossing a molten magma lake and a steep cliff that has solidified into a glass body, is the final crash site of the Tarrond.

The large crater created by the fall of the core module is still filled with astonishing heat, and the rising smoke is mixed with the unique smell of burning polymers. Burning with blue-green flames.

At the bottom of the big pit, a group of twisted metal with almost invisible shape was half-buried among the loose and scorching soil and gravel. The appearance of that group of metal was extremely miserable, as if it had experienced a difficult challenge unimaginable by the world. , but even so, a part of its core frame structure is still solid, and the reinforced alloy walls covering the frame are also largely maintained in a complete state.

It was an astonishing fall—but also a precisely calculated "safe crash."

After a full 10 minutes, the wreckage that fell from space finally made some other movements: there were loud noises from the depths of the wreckage, as if someone inside was hitting those distorted objects with great force. The deformed alloy guard plate, and bright light shines from the gap between the guard plate and the frame. It seems that someone is using powerful magic to cut the frames that have been deformed and stuck. This rough "dismantling" process continues It took a long time, and finally, accompanied by a loud sound of metal breaking and flying, a large protective plate on the surface of the wreckage was finally removed, and flew straight out of the crash pit.

Then, a huge silver-white dragon claw protruded from the hole just opened. The giant claw tore hard, opening the hole further, and after tossing for a while, the silver-white dragon finally healed the wound. The body sticks out of the hole.

Immediately behind the silver-white dragon were Heragor and Andal who had transformed into dragons.

They struggled to get out of the completely damaged and burning wreckage of the spacecraft. Although they had turned into a powerful dragon form, they still suffered a lot of damage from the impact of the fall.The three ancient dragons dragged their bodies full of scars and their dizzy heads. After resting in the impact pit for a while, they recovered a little bit of physical strength. Then they supported each other and tossed and tossed for a long time before finally coming out of the impact pit.

The silver-white dragon turned its head and looked at the wreckage of the spacecraft that was emitting thick smoke from the bottom of the impact pit. It took a long time to let out a long sigh with inexplicable sadness: "This time it was completely destroyed..."

"Don't feel sorry for the spaceship, Balogar, how many times have we turned in orbit..." Beside the silver-white dragon, the old black dragon kept shaking its dizzy head, the sequelae caused by the shutdown of various implants It made it more difficult for him to adapt to the current environment than the other two companions, and the noise in his nervous system kept interfering with his judgment, "I feel like I have seen a dozen sunrises and sunsets..."

"A lot more than that one. We have been decelerating and descending. After reaching low-Earth orbit, the orbiting speed is very fast..." Heragor with golden scales raised his head and looked at the empty sky. "We should be grateful for these orbits, If there hadn't been such a long slowdown, we would probably have become part of this land by now-the impact of falling directly from space to the ground, even a dragon can't bear it."

"This land..." Balogar finally regained some strength. He listened to Heragor's words, slowly propped up his huge upper body, raised his head high and stared at the devastated place for a few minutes. Li didn't even open his mouth to speak, until a particularly biting cold wind blew past his ears, he took a light breath, "Have we returned to Tarrond yet?"

"...I'm not sure, but there seems to be no other explanation," Heragor said in a low voice, "the last time I could see the scenery outside the window, I saw that we were falling towards the North Pole, the only place we can land The place should be Tarrond."

Andal also raised his head, and he stared silently into the distance. The mechanical prosthetic eyes embedded in one side of his head shone with a slight red light—although the Omega system was offline, many implants on this ancient dragon Modifications are very old technologies, they are inefficient, but they can function without omega.

After staring at it for a long time, Andal finally broke the silence: "Is this really Tarrond..."

"This is what it looks like now... I have seen this look in countless dreams, and in the 'revelation' shown to me by the gods," Heragor took a step forward, at this At the feet of the golden dragon, the scorching and dry land cracked inch by inch, and the rocks that had become extremely fragile under the high temperature crumbled into dust, "... Andal, Balogar, what I see at this moment is even worse than that' The ones in Revelation are better, after all, the three of us are still alive."

"Yeah, we're still alive," Balogar shook his head in disbelief, "so why are we still alive? What the hell was that thing that appeared at the end... What pushed us back from space?"

"I don't know, but it was clearly a calculated 'rescue'," Heragore said. "Without extremely precise calculations, we could not have come back alive without power and attitude control."

The three ancient dragons fell silent at the same time. This unexpected "survival" was too bizarre, and no clues could be found in the situation in front of them, so that even the most wise dragon could not think of any clues at this moment.

This silence lasted for a few minutes before Balogar said in a low voice: "So, what shall we do next? What else can we do in this wasteland?"