Chapter 1148: Chapter 1147: Blood Kin

After observing the situation on the Broken Shore for a long time, Red Dragon Carladore finally withdrew his gaze. He then lifted his head, his massive dragon wings unfurling high, taking off from the small floating island, flying towards a large floating island located above the sea near the southern part of the town, large enough to support a whole town.

In that destructive battle of the gods, the immense energy released by the Dragon God almost permanently changed the appearance of this ancient continent, and as the southeast coast was the most severely impacted, the changes here were particularly astounding— the shattered coastline and collapsed cliffs were only a part of it. The various floating islands in the air were far more incredible than the changes on the surface... and held even greater potential for development and exploration.

According to the judgment of the three Ancient Dragon leaders, the chaotic magic-pervasive environment above the Broken Shore and the charged state of the floating islands will result in these lands, torn from the Talronde Continent, floating above the sea for thousands or even tens of thousands of years. Among these islands filled with Dragon God’s power, active energy fluxes and unstable spatial structures have given rise to many natural phenomena waiting to be researched.

In the early days of establishing the Coastal Shire, the pioneer teams lacked sufficient combat strength and supplies and could only watch from a distance at these islands floating near their heads. However, as the pioneering activities gradually got on track and the supply route between Coastal Shire and New Argondale was opened, the dragons of Coastal Shire have now successfully driven away elemental creatures and hostile Spiritual Bodies occupying several major floating islands, and have established facilities such as observatories, research labs, and energy stations on some of these islands— the one Carladore is flying to was cleared first and has now become a permanent station.

Accompanied by the heavy flapping of wings, the massive Red Dragon landed steadily on a rocky platform at the edge of the floating island. This energy-saturated floating island was extremely stable, and even when dragons took off and landed on it, there was no sense of shaking, as if it were solid ground.

In front of the rocky platform, a metal tower, evidently cobbled together hastily from recycled materials in the ruins, was operating in the cold wind. It’s composed of several cylindrical sections and externally exposed pipes and cables, with flickering magic symbols and crystals embedded at the top occasionally sparking small sparks. Several dragons in human form were busying around this facility. To this ’manager,’ Carladore, they merely nodded hastily in acknowledgment, soon returning to their work state.

This is a very natural phenomenon in Talronde nowadays—after the war, the cumbersome and useless formalities of the old days, resulting from a long-period societal closure and stagnation, have disappeared like the meaningless extravagant murals. The survival process in harsh wilderness made the dragons quickly realize that efficiency and hard work are the keys to maintaining their race’s survival nowadays, especially near critical facilities such as communication and energy stations, where makeshift equipment often encounters problems, so technicians would only nod in acknowledgment even when faced with three Ancient Dragons.

Carladore transformed into human form, came next to the tower-like facility, and nodded to a Mechanic monitoring data: "How’s the communication tower? Any sudden disruptions like last time?"

"No, it seems it can operate stably now," the Mechanic said without turning his head, "Currently, we can steadily connect to Argondale and the outpost on Splitrock Mountain, but beyond that is out of signal range... Increasing antenna power further is useless and would shorten the parts’ lifespan instead."

"...There’s no way around it. Refurbished equipment from the ruins can only do so much, and ground energy interference is too strong," Carladore shook his head helplessly. As he looked into the distance, several smaller floating islands came into his view. On one of the islands, there was another smaller antenna device— this device is actually connected to the communication tower before him, and the two sets of antennas work together to increase the communication station’s power, but clearly, the effect is very limited.

"Setting antennas on these high-floating islands can already maximize the reduction of ground energy vortex interference," the Mechanic casually responded with a hint of regret in his tone, "Ah... the main issue is the poor equipment condition. If we could get the augmentation units produced from the recently restarted factory in Argondale, we could contact the outpost on the Vortex Island."

Carladore sighed: "No helping it, there are only a few factories still operational, and we have to use their production capacity for more urgent needs—we must first ensure stable communication with the West Coast Guard Post, and before all equipment on that line is replaced with new parts, this communication tower won’t get its turn."

"West Coast Guard Post..." The Mechanic’s gaze finally briefly moved away from the equipment before him, and this middle-aged Dragonkin frowned slightly, speaking with some concern: "You mean the Guard Post monitoring that High Tower?"

"It has to be them," Carladore nodded, "Currently, the only outpost on the West Coast is that Guard Post."

The Mechanic remained silent for two seconds, gently shaking his head as he sighed: "Well, indeed that place is more important than here... Honestly, I really admire those dragons who signed up to go to the West Coast, flying over the long coastline to the other side of Talronde to monitor that terrifying High Tower and having to figure out half of their supply issues on their own... Just hope they’re all safe."

"This is the responsibility we must bear," Carladore said solemnly, "We have created more than enough messes in this world."

"Responsibility..." The Mechanic repeated the word Carladore mentioned softly, saying nothing more, and returned his attention to his work. Almost simultaneously, a sheet of crystal connected to the communication tower suddenly brightened, with sound and light effects indicating a communication access capturing Carladore’s attention.

"Connect." Carladore said almost instinctively, but the unresponsive crystal sheet quickly reminded him— the Omega System was no more, and these simple primitive devices wouldn’t respond to his ’commands.’

He shook his head, stepped forward to manually activate the blinking symbol on the screen, and with a slight static burst, a young Dragonkin’s face appeared on the screen— a communicator from Coastal Shire.

"Councilor Carladore," the young Dragonkin began, "The southern observation post just sent a messenger. They spotted a large group of unfamiliar... Dragonkin appearing in the skies above the open sea, flying rapidly toward the Broken Shore, but our equipment couldn’t establish communication with them. Should we dispatch the town guard to intercept them?"

"Unfamiliar... dragons? Coming from the south?" Carladore was taken aback, and then something seemed to dawn on him. His expression instantly became very solemn, "Do not intercept. Send a dragon to guide them to land at Coastal Shire’s landing site. I will head over shortly."

"Yes, Councilor Carladore." The communicator immediately nodded, closing the communication. Standing beside Carladore, the Mechanic couldn’t help but ask, "Councilor, who are those unfamiliar dragons..."

Carladore’s expression was complex and serious. He looked into the Mechanic’s eyes for a long time before breaking the silence with a deep voice: "They are our... blood kin."

Moments later, the massive Red Dragon took off from the floating island, flying straight towards Coastal Shire’s landing site, and before he reached the ground, his peripheral vision had already sighted the dragon herd coming from the southern sea area, bathed in the glow of the polar day.

As the Dragon Herd drew nearer, the residents of Coastal Shire quickly noticed the unfamiliar dragons arriving from outside, whether hunting near the sea, expelling non-human monsters outside the town, or laboring in construction within the town, these Talronde dragons were all astonishingly turning their gaze towards the sky beyond the town—

They saw those Dragon Herds, completely different from themselves, emerging from the clouds and descending upon the broken shore of Talronde, with the radiance of the great sun shining on these dragons, creating a metallic glow on their wings’ edges and broad backs. In this chilly afternoon, on this land scarred by the ravages of war, this scene imprinted itself strongly like a fate’s proclamation in the minds of nearly every witness, perhaps to be remembered dearly by the pioneers and rebuilders diligently working in their new home even years later:

Strange dragon herds flew in from the south, visiting this ancient Dragon Kingdom as foreigners, subsequently breaking a barrier that persisted for one million eight hundred seventy thousand years.

Led by the guide, the Dragon Herd composed of hundreds of dragons landed at the landing field outside Coastal Shire, while the local dragons living at this pioneer outpost had already gathered from various places, waiting curiously and astonished outside the landing field.

They looked at the foreign dragons—their size was noticeably smaller than the dragons native to Talronde, yet they possessed equally majestic heads, as well as scales and wings. Their wing structure seemed peculiar and shriveled, but had giant steel wings covering their wing edges. Moreover, not just the wings, that mechanical armor-like structure covered nearly half of their body surface: from alloy-crafted faceplates, to back armor and chest plates adorned with numerous Rune Devices and carrying structures, from steel-crafted wings, to spine-like armor plates extending from their tails, these foreign dragons were practically fully armored, resembling moving steel fortresses.

For the Talronde dragons accustomed to delicately advanced implants, the mechanical armor on these foreigners was something vastly different from their technological path, bringing a sense of novelty... comparable even to the "foreigners" themselves.

Carladore, who had earlier landed at the site, already moved forward while transforming into a human form—most dragons from the Lower Talronde had never seen "Dragonborn" with their own eyes, even though they were aware of the Sacred Dragon Kingdom’s existence, they only had limited understanding of its details. Hence, he opted to personally come into contact with these fellow "compatriots" from the Sacred Dragon Kingdom right away, to avoid uncontrolled situations in the process.

This "reunion" had been delayed for far too many years, and he hoped no accident would occur.

As Carladore stepped forward, among the fully armed foreign Dragon Herd, a dragon with fiery red scales also came out, her mechanical structure clicking with sounds, releasing heat and light fog between heat dissipation and energy discharge grids. Then a curtain of light descended, and that body belonging to dragonkind folded into the elemental world, as a tall female with fiery red shoulder-length hair emerged from the light curtain, approaching Carladore.

Witnessed by the two Dragon Herds, Carladore first stepped forward, breaking the silence: "Hello, I am the current administrator of Coastal Shire, Carladore."

"Asharena, Dragonbranded Witch, representing Sacred Dragon Kingdom," the tall red-haired lady stood there straight, raising her head in the northern continent’s cold wind, observing the pure-blood red dragon before her, "we are here to help."

"Thank you... very much!" Carladore took a deep breath, "I represent the Talronde Provisional Council, to thank and welcome your arrival—please come with me, I’ve arranged places for you to stay. Additionally, the town is already preparing food..."

"As long as there is a place to stay, we’ll manage, we’ve brought our own food and medicine," Asharena waved her hand. Behind her, dragons clad in mechanical armor worked collaboratively, unloading large cargo containers fixed on their backs onto the ground, each cargo surrounded by gravity-controlling Runes and energy interfaces. Its front was sprayed with conspicuous human universal words: Gran Heavy Industries.

They were obviously devices from the Cecil Empire.

"As I said, we’re here to help—for food, we’ll take care of ourselves, and for a place to live, we just need a spot to stay," Asharena saw Carladore somewhat stupefied, slightly raising her voice, "we have quite a number of people, and what you see is just the first batch—the second batch just flew off from Dragon Leap Cliff. By then, I’m afraid this town won’t be able to accommodate us, so just prepare a piece of open land; we’ll build our own camp."

Carladore opened his mouth but found he couldn’t organize any words for a moment.

Dragonborn... they have come, bringing the desperately needed support to this land without the slightest resentment after being "exiled" by Talronde for so many years. With what mindset did they take off from Dragon Leap Cliff? How did they reach this point? What are they thinking now? How do they perceive Talronde today?

Carladore, who had lived a long life, couldn’t find an answer at this moment, but he knew this was not the time to ponder answers.

"We will do our best to provide support," the elderly pure-blood red dragon nodded at the young "Dragonborn" from Sacred Dragon Kingdom before him, "Agondale will also quickly send people to connect with... we really do need support very much now, your arrival will greatly alleviate the difficulties faced by the pioneer outpost."

"That’s good, we’re here to solve problems," Asharena casually said, then glanced at the temporary port’s direction along the coastline, "so, hasn’t the fleet departing from Northport arrived?"

Carladore was taken aback, reacting immediately: "We received the message at noon today, they just crossed the Eternal Storm Region, and at the earliest should arrive by tomorrow..."

"Really? Haha, we set off many days late and still arrived before them," Asharena laughed, her tone teasing someone, "it’s funny how that guy boasted in his last letter about controlling the fastest warship in the world—I almost believed it."

Carladore listened, puzzled, not knowing the incident’s context, of course unable to speak out, but he could roughly guess that this young Dragonborn lady was teasing someone from the allied fleet, which made him a bit puzzled—

Lady, you flew here after all...

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