Dungeon Robotics 10-16

Good Morning!

Chapter 16

Izora

I stared out the bridge window of the Raiu. I was finding it hard to sleep the closer we got to the enemy’s territory. The pitch-black night was not helping that feeling, but at least it was better than staring at the ceiling in my cabin. Almost indistinct flashes of light came from the far distance as the Maelstrom raged at the very edge of our view.

“Calm night… might not be what I’d use for tonight,” Captain Shido said coming up behind me. He handed me a mug of tea. I took it with a smile before turning back to the view.

“It could be worse, I suppose,” I replied taking a sip.

“It can always be worse,” Captain Shido said with a laugh. “This reminds me of the calm before the storm.”

“Or the calm next to the storm,” I retorted glancing at the distance Maelstrom.

“Fair enough,” he said with a nod.

We lapsed into silence with only the sound of the helmsman and observation officer doing their tasks as background noise. I finished my tea before long and handed it back to the captain. “I guess I’ll try to get some sleep.”

“Good night, your…” he started when a flashing light went off on the communication panel. We glanced at each other before moving over to check it out. Louella had ordered a full stop. We grew serious and quickly assisted the helmsman with the task while waking the rest of the crew. In under a minute, the rest of the bridge was crewed, and we waited with baited breathes for what might come next.

For Louella to order a halt this close to enemy waters, that could only mean that they detected something ahead of us. Checking our sensors, we found absolutely nothing ahead. After everything I had been through over the last year, I wouldn’t be surprised if the church had found a way to hide their presence like the good assassins they were.

“They say to be ready for battle in the next three minutes,” communications said and Captain Shido began giving out orders. I moved to the battle table and was soon joined by Hatsu and the others. They looked interested in what was going on more than nervous that we might be about to fight.

“Kill the lights!” Captain Shido ordered, and everything outside went black. Only the bridge retained light thanks to the blackout glass. The ship shuddered slightly as it moved to change its position. There was a pause just long enough for one to take a deep breath, before Louella’s ship, the Aresa fired a volley at seemingly nothing.

That proved to be inaccurate a second later, as the volley tore through an airship that had been hidden from sight. A loud boom soon followed as over forty ships appeared that were surrounded by some sort of light spell. With just a glance I could tell it was going to be a nightmare to break through it.

The Raiu shook as a ribbon of light slammed into the shield covering her. Several more soon followed. The accuracy of the enemy was slowly getting better and reminded me of a bunch of amateurs that were slowly getting better the longer the battle raged. We returned fire with the ordnance that we had, but other than dimming the light curtain, we did little more.

“High energy source detected!”

Above Aresa, a spot glowed a bright blue that almost rivaled the light from the enemy’s curtain spell. I focused on the spot and realized that it was Louella. She barely looked human at this point. Enormous bolts of lightning were constantly striking her and her mana was growing at a tremendous rate.

“What the hell is she doing?!” I shouted unable to take my eyes from the sight. At least until the Raiu jolted almost twenty degrees from a near direct hit of a light ribbon.

“What’s wrong your highness?” Hatsu asked.

I straightened up and rubbed my forehead. “If she’s not careful she could lose herself completely.” It wasn’t known to the rest of the people on the continent, but the gnomes had experimented with this sort of magic before. The study was canceled after most of the people involved were killed when one of the members went berserk and slaughtered their colleagues.

Regan knew about it since he’d gone over our records. It was a failure and blemish on our honor as a people. I didn’t expect to see it today of all times. Sadly, from the looks of it, Louella was already too far gone for me to stop her. I could only hope that she had enough willpower to target only the enemy.

“She did something similar during the monster hordes,” Hatsu said reminding me of the report of that battle.

“I think she might be pushing the line here a little,” I retort with a gesture at the now strobing light that was Louella. Massive wings made from lightning had formed on her back as her form grew steadily larger. According to the read out on the screen, her lightning form was well over four meters tall.

An explosion drew my attention as one of our ships was struck rapidly in the same place crippling the shield before it could compensate. A sizable gash was burned into the right side of the vessel as two of her allies moved to cover her retreat. “We can’t let the Empress do all the work! Find us a way through that barrier!” Captain Shido shouted while maneuvering the ship to cover the others.

I agreed with the captain. Overpowering might be the easiest method, but there had to be another way through the curtain. As the crew rushed to find anything they could use, the curtain was struck several times by return fire from the fleet. While it dimmed, it soon returned to full strength.

“Try to concentrate our fire on one spot! Localize the impact with shaped charges!” I shouted as I got an idea.

“You heard the queen!”

Us and two other gnome ships that were able to respond to our command synchronized our aiming before firing a volley that twisted into a cone before striking a point roughly two meters in diameter on the curtain. This time the barrier in the spot weakened considerably, even if it didn’t outright break. We quickly called on the other airships to coordinate the next attack.

“Something is wrong with the Empress!” shouted an officer. I rushed over to his console to check what was the matter before I gasped. She had started pulling in mana from the Maelstrom. I couldn’t imagine what that was going to do to her mind. Not to mention, the maelstrom hadn’t exactly cooperated last time we went near the thing.

“Manifestation on the starboard side!” As if reading my thoughts, another officer shouted pulling our attention. Almost directly between the two fleets, a sphere of storm clouds was forming that was steadily pulling water from the ocean and lightning and clouds from the storm above it into a central mass. It grew far to fast to be a natural manifestation of mana.

“We need to end this fight before we’re all dead,” Tsuzuki commented next to me and I couldn’t help but nod.

“For now, pull all our ships from near the manifestation. If we’re lucky, it will go after the church,” I ordered quickly. Our ships didn’t need to be told, as most were already pulling away from the manifestation. The church vessels either didn’t care or trusted in their barrier enough that they didn’t move. They continued to fire at us without pause.

“Your highness!”

“What now!?” I demanded with some annoyance. The officer pointed out the window at Louella. She had stopped pulling in mana from around her. She was off the charts in how much mana she had managed to condense in such a short time. She beat her wings before she vanished. “Where’d she go?”

The night shook for a moment as an impact rocked the ship. I glared out worried that we’d finally taken a direct hit when I found there was a massive hole in the light curtain. The breach was steadily closing, but not before the lightning elemental that was Louella flew inside the barrier.

It was only a moment or two before there was an explosion on the other side the barrier. Zooming in, we found the ship had literally been cracked in half. The edges of the damage burned as if something had passed through it had great speeds, which I figured was likely the case.

“Message from the Aresa! They are stating that they can not make contact with the queen!”

“So, she really lost it,” I said with a frown.

“That might not be the case. She did target the enemy,” Tsuzuki stated and gave me a little hope. I checked the situation with the manifestation, but it wasn’t good. It had gone after our ships in the end even as we pulled away and tried not to antagonize it. Something told me it knew that Louella belonged to us.

“Keep me posted on the Empress! I’ll try to deal with that,” I ordered before stepping out on the deck. My cloak unfolded into wings and I drew my lance. A desire to kill washed over me, but I forced it back down. “You’ll behave or you’ll be made into a paperweight.” The call from the lance calmed down.

“Your highness!” Hatsu called as she ran out on the deck. The rain and wind were whipping around us making it hard to hear. “Its too dangerous!”

I stabbed the lance into the deck and turned to face her. I reached out quickly grabbing both sides of her face and pulled her into a deep kiss. When we separated, she was breathless, but still looked determined to stop me. “Maybe, but that thing will tear apart anything that gets near it. I’m the only one other that her highness that can stop it.” I had access to Regan’s mana which had been near bursting as of late if my feeling of it was right.

“Still!” She protested and I smiled as I reached out to stroke her cheek.

“Don’t worry about me. Take care of the fleet and help Louella if it comes to it,” I said then grabbed my lance before leaping from the side of the Raiu. With a flap of my wings, I caught the current and made my way toward the manifestation.

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