The icy starlight traveled endless distances, arriving here from the depths of the universe, and the clear glow shone on the tattered shell of the Talrond, as if gilding the ancient ship with a layer of silver light.

In the tail of the huge spacecraft, a huge gap was opened in the severely injured reactor module, the damage management system had started to cut off the corresponding energy path, and part of the extinguished core was exposed to space, and some of the liquid that escaped boiled in space and turned into steam, refracting the light of the giant sun from the other side of the horizon, showing a rainbow-like color.

The faint glow of the engine flickered a few times, and finally died out altogether - the ship, built 1.87 million years ago, uses a very different technology than it is today, it not only has an anti-gravity mechanism, but also relies on a working fluid engine to provide additional thrust during the liftoff phase, a skill learned from the sailors, and now the products created by these technologies are "dying" one by one.

"Our main engines are out, the Attitude Control Engine crew still has a little bit of power, and I'm trying to slow down and keep the ship in a high orbit - although we'll be floating away before long, until then, we can enjoy the scenery," Baloger said, patting the control seat in front of him vigorously, "Well, this thing is completely broken...... I can't read the readings of reactor No. 3, but I don't think it's in much better shape. ”

"You also said that the main engine could last thirty minutes under your command," Hragore glanced at the chief mechanic, "and twenty minutes are not yet up." ”

"That's rhetorical, a bit of a morale-boosting statement," Baloger said nonchalantly, "and it's not easy to keep the engine on the final climb in that situation—not to mention that this big guy has been in the sea for more than a million years." ”

"We all know that it hasn't aged at all in more than a million years," Hragere said casually, and then he noticed that Andal on the side had not spoken, as if he was seriously thinking about something, and couldn't help but be a little curious, "Andal, what are you thinking?" ”

"Count my heartbeat," Andal said in a low tone, "I haven't noticed my heartbeat in years...... It had been the blood pump and the circulatory machine that kept the body running, and I almost forgot that I still had a primordial heart in my body...... And it's still beating to this day. ”

"I thought your heart had been removed a long time ago," Hragore raised his eyebrows in surprise, "As a short-lived black dragon, hasn't your primordial heart been necrotic to this day?" ”

"I feel incredible—very incredible," Andal said slowly after a moment of silence, then he suddenly frowned, "Do you smell anything?" ”

"Did you just find out? It's coming from the gas storage bin," Baloger rose from his seat, slowly floating down the weightless hall, "our filtration system is down, and some of the exhaust gas is getting into the life support pipes. Don't worry, these gases won't kill us for the time being—dragons are still alive and well. ”

"Ah, that's 'good news,'" Andal shook his head, "and how long will we survive?" ”

"It's hard to say, it depends on how many leaks there are in the ship's hull, and whether our reactor will explode sooner," Baloger shrugged, "The console is broken, and I have no way of knowing the ship's condition at all - but on a more optimistic note, didn't we just survive a few more minutes?" This is the first time that the dragons have stepped into the stars on their own, and every second we spent here should be recorded in history. ”

The hall was silent for a moment, and Hagere slowly floated to the polymer dome, and he looked at the outside of the spaceship, the vast starry sky attracted his gaze - he suddenly had some regret, those stars seemed so far away, even though he had left the earth and had come to such a far place from home, the distance between him and the stars did not seem to shrink at all...... Like a paper boat folded by children, the Tallund was full of children's ambitious dreams and great plans for a voyage, but in fact it was only thrown into a small ditch at the door, and just a few meters away, it was already soaked in water and was about to sink at any moment.

Even so, it was the first step a mortal had taken - like a baby trying to walk for the first time, maybe only staggering a little, maybe falling the next second, but anyway, he was here now, immersed in the starlight.

There seems to be no regrets.

A ray of light suddenly appeared on the edge of the field of vision, and Hagere looked up in some surprise, he looked into the corner of the dome and saw that the edge of the planet was slowly moving there - the ship had lost power, it was slowly rolling under the action of inertia, and in the process of rolling, it ushered in a magnificent sunrise.

The sun had risen, and behind the planets, a corona of astonishing scale was slowly rising, and the stars with magnificent wood grains were squeezing into Hragore's field of vision, which was more spectacular and shocking than what was seen on the surface.

The entire control hall was bathed in glorious sunlight, and even though the blackout coating was still in effect, the magnificent light still stung the eyes of the three humanoid dragons somewhat. Andal and Baloger came to Hragor in unison, and they gathered in front of the polymer dome, gazing at the sunrise as they had never seen before, and did not speak again for a long time.

Here, it's not cramped at all.

……

Loren Continent, inside the command post of Winterwolf Castle.

"The Mithril Ring isn't responding? Can't get in touch with the Mithril Vault? Amber looked at Gawain with some surprise, and after confirming the situation, she couldn't help but mutter, "This shouldn't be...... In such a short period of time, the Mithril Ring has had problems twice...... Those dragons are so skilled that they shouldn't even be able to repair a communication system......"

"The Mithril Treasury hasn't been like this in thousands of years," Gawain's expression was more serious, "'Never fail' is the label of those dragons......

"Maybe it's just that the glitch hasn't been fixed yet," Amber thought for a moment and said with some uncertainty, as one of the people who had visited Talrond with Gawain, she knew the true situation of the dragon kingdom better than others, and the Mithril Treasury full of mystery in the eyes of the world didn't have much mystery in her eyes, "After all, all their things have a long history, and they are very large, and if you can't keep that thing called 'Omega', something is wrong......

Gawain listened to Amber's optimistic judgment, but the expression on his face did not relax at all, he looked down at the quiet Mithril Ring in his hand, but his heart couldn't help but think of the last meeting with the dragon god Enya.

Unable to contact the Mithril Treasury and unable to contact Melita Pernia...... If this was placed at another time, it might only make him wonder, it was not a big deal, but with the last trip to Talrond and the God of War catastrophe that had just broken out, Gao Wen couldn't help but think about it too much, and there was already a faint uneasiness in his heart, although this uneasiness was groundless...... But once it pops up, it lingers.

These things happened so coincidentally, and the turmoil of the gods was an event that affected the whole world, Enya and the entire dragon clan seemed to have been paying attention to the changes in the gods of the human world, and now that the god of war had fallen, Tarrond had cut off contact with the Loren continent almost at the same time...... What happened in that far-flung dragon country?

In his thoughts, Gawain calmed his spirit, he focused, and the invisible connection in his mind was established—a scene from space overlooking the earth came into his mind, and the situation on the Loren continent and the surrounding seas came into his eyes, and he cautiously moved the field of view from the geostationary satellite, trying to "see" as far north as possible of the Loren continent, hoping to observe something.

However, the view of the malfunctioning satellite was limited, and after crossing the peninsula of the Principality of the Holy Dragon, he could not see anything.

Gawain reined in some regret and prepared to withdraw from the satellite view, but before the connection of consciousness was interrupted, he suddenly noticed some vague flashes of light on the northern edge of the image in his mind.

The flash appeared for a short time, and then several smaller flashes came from the same direction, at first, Gawain thought it was the lens halo caused by the reflection of sunlight on the planet's clouds, but soon he realized that this thing was not a natural phenomenon - soon, the flash ended, and the surveillance image from the satellite calmed down, but at the upper edge of the picture, there were some subtle lines that seemed to be disturbed by energy, and could not be dissipated for a while......

A few minutes later, Gawain withdrew from the satellite's surveillance view.

He still couldn't see out of sight, but now he was almost certain that something big must have happened in Tallrond!

Amber had already noticed that Gawain was suddenly distracted, she was not surprised by this, and after realizing that the other party was "wandering into the world" again, she very consciously started to work as a guard, and she had been guarding by the side for a long time, before she felt the other party's breathing and subtle movements, so she immediately leaned in and asked, "Hey, did you find something?" ”

Gawain has a lot of secrets, and this occasional bizarre "mind wandering" is one of them, Amber is very curious about it, but she never asks why—she only knows one thing, and whenever the other person wanders like this for a while, he seems to be able to get some "enlightenment" from some mysterious channel...... And he is occasionally happy to share these enlightening contents.

"Tarlund should be out of trouble, I have a ...... I felt," Gawain couldn't explain his satellite perspective to anyone, so he said vaguely, "but it doesn't seem to affect our side......"

As he spoke, he raised his head, and the scene of the tense and busy front-line command post came into view.

Officers and civilians were struggling to process intelligence from the war zone, all communications systems and dispatch units were running at full power, medical units had just arrived from the rear in the open space outside, and the wounded and the bodies of the dead were passing through the wide roads on either side of the castle - Talrond was too far away, but the mess left by the catastrophe was close at hand.

There was a sound of footsteps approaching this way, and Gawain followed the prestige, and saw the blonde-haired Sölderlin walking in this direction, and the high-ranking ranger saluted him, with a solemn look on his face: "There has just been a new contact from the Winterholders - the Typhonians want to negotiate a formal truce with us. ”

"We're finally back at the negotiating table," Gawain exhaled softly, "So, did the Typhonians mention where and when they want this negotiation to take place?" ”

"As for the timing, they only mention that they want it as soon as possible, and as for ......the location," said Sölderling, who hesitated a little before continuing, "they wanted to be at Fort Contract." ”

"Ah, a symbol of peace between the two countries...... Although it is a bit ironic to mention this at this time," Gawain's expression on his face was somewhat complicated after hearing the name of the place, and then he smiled, "But if we look at the actual control area of our two sides at present, Winterwolf Fort is already in Cecil's hands, then the Signatory Fort that was originally located in the buffer zone of Winterwolf Fort and Changfeng Fortress is now essentially an area under Cecil's full control...... Don't the Typhonians mind that? ”

Thorderling nodded: "They don't mind, and they made a point of emphasizing it - they are willing to negotiate in Cecil's controlled area as a way to show their sincerity." ”

Gao Wen raised his eyebrows and showed a smile: "Is it because they 'provoked the war' first...... Well, while they don't mind this negotiation in Cecil's control, we have to be kinder – bringing envoys from neighboring countries to their own military-controlled areas for such 'peace talks' is an act of hegemony, so that the fairness and effectiveness of this agreement may be questioned from a historical point of view, regardless of the final outcome of the negotiations. We need to choose a more appropriate place – a neutral zone, or at least a place where there is no territorial dispute between the two sides, which is more considerate. Do you two have any suggestions? ”

Gawain's eyes fell on Amber and Thorderlin—he didn't ask them on a whim, but because it was appropriate: Thordrlin, the commander of the Steel Rangers and a high-ranking ranger who had been active in Old Ansu and Typhon for seven hundred years, had seen the land, experienced many changes in the two countries, was more familiar with the land than many humans despite being alien, and was a thoughtful and experienced man himself, It's fitting to be an advisor at this moment, as for Amber......

No matter how you say it, he is the head of the intelligence department, and he is still reliable in business...... Probably.

The elves and half-elves fell into thinking at the same time: the armistice agreement between the two human empires, this has to be said to be a big deal, especially when the truth behind this "war" is a catastrophe, this matter has extraordinary symbolic meaning and historical value, so this matter must be taken seriously.

They began to quickly sort through their memories, hoping to find a suitable place, and in the midst of their thoughts, Amber first made a suggestion: "How about a new camp in the middle of the battlefield?" Signing a contract on the battlefield should seem more weighty. ”

"I've thought about that, but beyond the symbolism, we also have to consider the actual situation - the Winter Fortress defense line has been broken, the whole area is still dangerous, the magic waste on the battlefield and the wreckage left by the god of war will take a long time to clean up, and the environment is not suitable for negotiations. And this time the main battlefield is closer to Typhon's side, which is also a problem. ”

"And what about leaving the land entirely?" Amber thought again, "The Winter hasn't returned yet, we can be on the ship - Cecil and Typhon don't have territorial problems on the oceans......"

Gawain was a little surprised by this half-elf's train of thought, but he shook his head after a little thought: "Warships are territories floating on the ocean, and letting the Typhonians come to our warship to negotiate is essentially the same as in the area controlled by Cecil - and that ship still has many technical secrecy needs, and it is not suitable for the Typhonians to contact it for the time being." ”

Amber's two suggestions were rejected, and she began to puff out her face and continue to think about it, but before she could speak again, Thorderlin seemed to have an idea.

"I have a suggestion," the High Ranger looked at Gawain, "do you remember?" There's an elven sentry on the edge of the wasteland......"