The Celestina Empire, Royal Capital Regnieburg, Town Square

People are bustling to see the live scene of the Celestina Empire’s assault on the Papaldia Empire. They are satisfied to see that the Imperial Capital are in despair once Armada and Shiela crush them. Although it went off-screen, the abilities of the Primordials were already a gossip for them.

“I heard the next one is the Navy battle, and the last is the industrial town.”

“Oh, really? I’m looking forward to it.”

“Ishiene is going to lead the series by herself.”

“That’s good to hear.”

People are cheering and drinking as they are watching it like entertainment. Later, they saw the view of the mermaids is preparing for a live session.

“Oooh!! Here it comes, here it comes!”

Ishiene comes into view of the screen, looking at them.

“Hello, everyone!!”

“Discipline!! Mermaids of the sea!”

The people who knew Ishiene cheer her signature slogan, ‘Discipline, mermaids of the sea.’ Despite her seriousness in the navy, she can provide entertainment by having fun events, such as the current event, destroying the Papaldia warships by letting them decide which one to destroy it first.

“Today, we’re going to destroy the Papaldia Empire’s fleet! We will start the game in thirty minutes! Is everyone having the poll ready for selection?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Now, let’s make some cheers before we can move into the main event.”

The people are cheering, preparing to watch the main event.

The Celestina Empire, 1st Expeditionary Fleet, Halcyon-class Light Missile Cruiser, Seraphic Ocean

Commander Brunestud is looking at the radar from Prowler Atlas while the 1st Expeditionary Fleet is sailing north. While Arcus was scheduled to be at Duro in an hour after completing the Imperial Capital Esthirant mission, the Atlas will take the Arcus' place for making the data wave uplink at Naval battle.

“Prepare the dud missile. Lady Destroyer will be moving in once we confirm that all wyverns are airborne to pick them up.”

“Understood.”

The Celestina Empire’s 1st Expeditionary Fleet prepares twenty dud missiles to attack the Dragon Carrier. Since Celestina plans to capture at least five dragon carriers from twenty carriers, they will deploy the dud missile to deceive the Papaldia Empire.

“Target locked.”

“Firing.”

Twenty dud missiles from the Seraphic Ocean are launched from the VLS, heading into the destination. Tiamat was standing-by to capture the Wyvern Lords.

“You can capture them if you want once all of them are airborne, Lady Destroyer.”

“You’re not going to blow the entire carrier, do you?”

“No. It’s just a dud missile to force the wyverns to go airborne.”

“Good.”

Tiamat follows the missile, knowing that capturing the Wyvern Lords in front of the Papaldia Empire Navy will be quite a show to her. Following her is the 1st and 2nd Undine Assault Battalion, serving under Junior Lieutenant Lapis Lazuli. They intend to capture the Dragon Carrier and transport it back home for examination by Alicia.

Looking at the radar, it would seem that the Papaldia Empire Navy is going on a large front line formation. A MAC gun on the Magnetic-class destroyer must aim properly to score multiple kills, but this can give the Plasma-class destroyer an advantage since they can tear each ship with a Plasma Cannon.

The sea bustled with ships as a third of the Papaldia Empire’s imperial navy's main force was spreading out. Each ship was half of the kilometer away from any other ships, presenting a gigantic front line. If any enemy ships pierced that line, they would be assaulted from all sides by several imperial ships. Even if they had the same quality and quantity of ships, they would never be able to defeat every line of ships. This formation was conceived using the concept of attrition; with their overwhelming number of ships, even against long-range cannons, the formation would guarantee that their side would be dealing damage to the enemy.

For a Third Civilization country, with the quality and quantity of ships that they had, for the superpower Papaldia Empire who had continued to outperform any other country, using this strategy at all was a disgrace. However, their enemy was strong. They could no longer afford to look down on them.

Arkaon, admiral of the 3rd fleet, was on board the Dios, one of only three 150-gun ships-of-the-line in the empire, looking out to sea. The enemy fleet would probably be coming for the imperial navy’s headquarters.

“I have an update,” called a communications operator. Because he sounded rather flustered, the other officers all turned to see what he had to say.

“The Imperial Capital Defense Army’s ground base has been destroyed by Celestina’s ancient dragon. Based on that report, headquarters is commanding us to declare the highest alert to our fleet. They are also dispatching both the first and second fleets from Esthirant port.”

“D-d-did they use what!?”

“An ancient dragon, sir.”

“My… My word!”

“This is the first time in history that our entire imperial navy is being deployed.”

“But… the imperial capital has been attacked!”

All of the officers on the bridge expressed their astonishment.

“There is an extremely high possibility that Celestina’s fleet will invade next. Triple the number of scouting wyverns!”

“Yes, sir!!!”

Wyverns from the 3rd fleet’s dragon carriers flooded the clear blue skies, flapping their wings to catch the wind. It was a powerful, exalting sight. Admiral Arkaon smoldered with hatred at the incoming Celestinian forces.

The Papaldia Empire, Dragon Rider Rakami, 3rd Fleet, 50km south of the dragon carrier fleet

Dragon knight Rakami was riding his wyvern lord on patrol when he felt that something was off about the sea. He concentrated all his nerves on figuring out the discrepancy.

“What the hell are those?!”

He then noticed a large number of arrow-shaped objects flying low at extremely high speeds.

“Patrol squad to rear admiral! I’ve spotted unidentified objects traveling at high speed toward the dragon carrier flotilla! More than twenty of them! Be on alert! I repeat…!”

>

“I can’t! They’re already past me! They’re too fast; pursuit is impossible!”

>

Dragon rider Rakami veered south rather than pursuing the missiles to find the enemy. But later, he found something terrifying.

“T-they release the ancient dragon here as well!!”

>

“Y-yes, they… Aaaahh!!”

The connection cut out. Rakami fell into the sea while the Wyvern Lords are following Tiamat. Using the Dragon Domination, the Wyvern Lords patrol squadron is effectively put under the influence of Tiamat.

UUUUUUU—!!!

The alarm for the highest level alert went off within the dragon carrier flotilla.

“All dragons launch!!!”

Wyvern Lords, the empire’s air force, flooded into the sky from each dragon carrier, forming into squadrons higher up. The 20 dragon carriers were each transporting 15 knights, so in total, 300 dragon knights were flitting about in the sky, evacuating from the ships. The dragon knights all faced the direction of the magical communication that called in the report, preparing to shoot their fire blasts. The extremely-fast unknown objects were most likely an offensive action from the Celestinian navy, so they prepared to intercept it.

“I bet there’s never been this many dragons sent to defend against a mysterious attack in all of history,” Rear Admiral Bhan muttered while watching the dragon knights take off.

“Probably not. Let’s go watch what this enemy can do,” responded Amoll confidently. He was the strategist for the dragon carrier flotilla.

“Oh? It looks like they’ve started.”

He could faintly make out the flashes of light from the fire blasts being shot out as numerous “Fire!” commands came in from the magical communicator. The entire 300 knights from the elite dragon knight order were shooting fire blasts; watching from far away, the consecutive bursts of flame sparkled brilliantly like something out of a fairy tale.

Amoll, the strategist, spread his arms out wide and began delivering a rather pretentious speech.

“Rear Admiral Bhan, feast your eyes on this beautiful sight. The brilliant lights, the devastating firepower being released!!! Hahah, with this battle, we have already surpassed the limits of man. This is truly a battle of divinities!!! Having taken this many fire blasts, there is no doubt that our unknown, flying assailants have departed from this realm of existence.”

Even more fire blasts were being fired.

“Reporting!!!” a magical technician suddenly yelled. “All of the dragon knight order’s fire blasts missed! There was not a single hit!!! The flying objects are still heading for the flotilla, unharmed!!! There are twenty of them!!!”

“Wh… What…? That’s, that’s not possible!!!” Amoll stuttered.

The missiles, which were about to go up, suddenly exploded in mid-air.

“W-What!?”

GROAARR!!

The seven-heads dragon suddenly appears before them. The entire dragon rider becomes shaken in fear after witnessing Tiamat’s appearance.

“I-It’s the ancient dragon!!”

“Aaaahh!! We’re done for!!”

“Fire again!! It’s just one dragon!! We can beat them!!”

But, Tiamat’s effect of Dragon Domination soon takes over the Wyvern Lords. They toss each of the riders out to the sea as the Wyvern Lords are being dominated by Tiamat. Once the Wyvern Lords are secured, she starts to cast a spell. One of the seven heads, the red-headed part, begins to glow brightly, indicating of using a fire-element attack.

“Sun spear!”

The spell made by Tiamat is manipulating the sun. The Celestina Empire immediately put countermeasures in advance once Tiamat unleashes a spear from the sun. She already informs them that she will use the power of the sun to eliminate the Dragon Carrier.

The spear from the sun struck the Abys at an angle. With a blinding flash… the explosion that consumed the Abys was several times larger than the ship itself. Milliseconds later, the sound of the blast reverberated across the surface of the ocean.

“Hiiiiiiiih!!!” shrieked Amoll, the pitch of his exclamation conveying his terror.

There was nothing left of the Abys; it was like it had evaporated from the sea. Everyone was shocked… no one could say a thing.

“……Dragon carrier Abys, lost,” the magical technician whispered hoarsely into the communicator.

BAM!!!

The deathly-quiet bridge jumped at the sound of something slamming into a table. Rear Admiral Bhan’s fist was now stained with blood.

“Im… Impossible… Those damn…! No!! This can’t be!!”

“Dragon carrier Gargaon lost! Dragon carrier Sirene lost!!!”

The enemy’s assault continued to sink ship after ship with each hit.

“Grah! So this is it.”

Rear Admiral Bhan saw the enemy arrow flying towards his ship. The arrow pierced the ship. Bhan departed from this world along with a fierce burst of light. The other eight dragon carriers remain afloat, but the crew lost their will to fight, let alone reporting it back to the capital.

After destroying 12 Dragon Carriers, retrieving the Wyvern Lords, and bringing them to safety, Tiamat opens a portal and takes the Wyvern Lords away to where Celestinian’s Animal Handler will take it from there for examination. She speaks with Armada with telepathy. Of course, Shiela can hear it since Armada can speak as plainly as normal speaking.

“It’s wonderful to have plenty of Wyverns in my hands.”

“Hmph. Future to be broken toy, that is.”

“How rude of you, brother. I also plan to nurture some of them, you know. So that they can become stronger.”

“Nurture them? Nurture, you said. That’s a joke! This reminds me of what happened in the long past when you decided to personally kidnap one of the Etanaru Empire’s ancient dragons for you to play, just for that dragon to die shortly because of the stress.”

“What’s the big deal with it anyway?”

“Shouldn’t you try to hand it over to me if that happens?”

Shiela interrupted their conversation. She desires to ride an ancient dragon. Riding on Kagefumi all day makes her bored, so is Kagefumi himself. She wants to ride another ancient dragon to test its capabilities.

“It’s already dead…”

“Yeah… Next time, probably.”

“I heard Ishiene is going to make some games. I will see ya later.”

While Tiamat flies to the 1st Expeditionary Fleet, Junior Lieutenant Lapis leads the assault by quickly going out from the water, boarding the ship, and eliminating any crew that tries to resist. The remaining Dragon Carrier was captured by Lapis’ unit, with half of the captured ship’s crew are dead.

“Capture complete. Let’s tow this ship back. Everyone, attach the ropes! We will be pulling this ship into the extraction zone.”

“Yes, Ma’am!”

The Undines quickly use magical equipment to attach the ship with ropes, so the mermaids tow it back into where a Cromwell-class Support Vessel is waiting to extract it back to the Celestina Empire for examination.

The Papaldia Empire, 3rd Fleet, Flagship Dios

In the bridge of the flagship Dios, the 3rd fleet’s Admiral Arkaon glared out to sea before him. Any minute now, they would engage with Celestina’s navy. He just had that hunch.

“Reporting!” a magical technician called out.

“What?”

“Our third fleet’s dragon carriers were just attacked by unidentified objects and annihilated!!! Three hundred dragon knights were launched prior to that and also encountered an ancient dragon. The dragons are captured, and we’ve lost contact with the dragon carriers.”

“Wh… What?!”

“That can’t be! The dragon carrier flotilla is even further behind our main forces here, and even a single dragon can’t beat all of our wyverns at once!”

Various words of shock rang out across the bridge, the officers expressing their disbelief. Admiral Arkaon raised a hand, silencing the room.

“This means that the enemy has a weapon capable of precise, long-range attacks, and an ancient dragon,” he explained firmly. “However, instead of challenging our ships-of-the-line directly, they aimed for the most important core of our navy, our dragon carriers… That’s proof that there is a limit on the number of long-range attacks they can perform. Don’t panic.”

At Admiral Arkaon’s calm analysis, the officers on the bridge, who were on the verge of being overcome with panic, regained their cool.

“Report from the ship-of-the-line Addis!” the magical technician continued. “They’ve spotted a fleet about forty kilometers ahead! The number of ships unknown!”

“Hoh, they’ve found them!!!” Arkaon raised his hand again and made a declaration. “All ships, battle arrangement one! Maintain this fleet formation. Head for the enemy fleet at top speed! We’ll attack them in waves from the air and from the sea!!!”

“Yes, sir!!!”

The orders were relayed precisely to all other ships.

“Damn it, Celestina… You will pay for this!! I will see your fleet destroyed by our hands!” Admiral Arkaon asked out loud, and his eyes focused on the sea before them.

The Celestina Empire, the 2nd “Ocean Crystal” Division, Below the Papaldia Empire’s 3rd Fleet

“All set?”

“Yes, Ma’am! All are set.”

When Tiamat arrives at their position, the Mermaids quickly make distance while Ishiene looks at her.

“Party is set.”

“Excellent. Let’s start the show.”

Taking the floating camera, Ishiene starts to broadcast the battle live at the Celestina Empire.

The Celestina Empire, the 1st Expeditionary Fleet

“We will destroy targets that were not marked by the bomb or inside the game.”

Commander Brunestud orders the ship to ready their weapons. The Seraphic Ocean will be in the middle, the Magnetic-class destroyer, including the Golden Lion, is in front, and the Plasma-class destroyer, including the Destructo, will be at the rear-line. They will charge using the arrow formation. A total of nine ships are charging towards the Navy Headquarters, with the objective is to destroy the Headquarters and all the Navy units.

“Now we’re in the 22km range.”

“Use the Combat Gun first, then use the MAC accordingly to score multiple kills in one hit. Plasma-class Destroyers, eliminate the side attack!”

“Yes, sir!”

A moment later, the gun roared, and a shell flew at the Papaldia Empire imperial navy 3rd fleet ship-of-the-line Addis.

Later on, the world would come to know of the Empire of Celestina as simply “powerful,” and the naval battle that was about to begin would be memorialized in history books as The Naval Battle of Esthirant or in Celestina’s operation, Operation: Sea of Despair.

The Celestina Empire, Royal Capital of Regnieburg, Town Square

“Hoo-rah!! Hoo-rah!!”

The people of the Celestina Empire are cheering to see the battle has started.

“Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. As promised, now we will begin the vote! The rule is simple! The bottom twenty of the votes will be sunk by us, and thirty ships will move on to the next round. If there are more than twenty ships at the bottom votes, we will make a quick vote to choose which ship will be spared and move to the next round.”

Ishiene now displays the fifty ships in a thirty kilometers radius from the Papaldia Empire’s warship, Addis, in the monitor. The Celestina Empire citizens are now opening their interface, linking themselves into the live feed from Ishiene.

“Vote close in thirty seconds!”

The citizens are choosing which ship they want to spare. Since all of them are look-a-like, they choose whatever they want. Twenty ships in the twenty bottom votes receive less than two million voters when the time is up, while in the thirty positions receive at least two million votes.

“Alright, then! Enjoy the show!”

The Papaldia Empire, Main Navy Forces, 3rd Fleet, Flagship Addis

“The enemy has fired their cannon!!!”

Even though they were still 22 km away from the enemy ship, Celestina’s warship fired on them. The captain turned to the commander.

“They’re still that far away from us, but they fired their cannons… for what purpose? Is it a show of force?”

“I can’t understand it at all. Even if their cannons have a longer range than ours, we’re clearly still too far out.”

They felt a slight sense of foreboding. It was a feeling they had never had before on any battlefield, a gut feeling of imminent death.

“Hard to starboard! Just in case, we should take evasive action!”

At the captain’s order, the ship-of-the-line Addis languidly changed orientation. Suddenly, the ship shook violently.

There was an explosion. Various debris rained down on the captain and commander, including some human parts mixed in.

“Damage to the rear hull! There’s a breach near the waterline!”

A large hole had opened up on the left side of Addis’s hull, quickly taking in water.

“This… This is bad!!!”

The Addis began to tilt, having suddenly been flooded with water from the attack.

“It can’t hold! Abandon sh…”

A burst of light and noise drowned out the captain’s words. Inside the capsizing ship, a large number of explosives were set off, inducing an explosion that erased the empire’s ship-of-the-line Addis from existence.

The Papaldia Empire, 3rd Fleet Flagship, Dios

“Ship-of-the-line Addis lost! We’ve… analyzed the enemy ship’s attack! They have a range of over twenty-two kilometers, and they hit us with only a single attack!!!”

“W… wwww… what was that?! Twenty-two kilometers?! Do they have a cannon range of over twenty-two kilometers?! That’s eleven times our range…… Plus, they hit one of our ships in only one shot?! If we wanted to hit a moving target, we’d have to fire a hundred times at a distance of two kilometers!!!”

“Their accuracy at twenty-two kilometers surpasses ours at two kilometers with a hundred attacks. So what happens when we’re within two kilometers? In any case, we shouldn’t jump to conclusions after just one attack.”

“The enemy’s cannon has enough power to sink a ship-of-the-line with only a single attack. They may simply have far more firepower than we can possibly imagine!”

The officers were shocked at the enemy’s might, and they began to feel hopeless at their far superior capabilities. While they were discussing, ten ships-of-the-line had been sunk without any warning.

“W-w-what’s happening!?”

“C-captain!! Some of our ships start to act strange!”

“What!?”

Looking around, he saw ten ships-of-the-line starts to getting sucked into the whirlpool by an unknown entity. The momentum was stopped and some fire spitted into the ship, causing the rear part of the ship to catch on fire.

“W-where did the attack comes from!?”

The rear part of the burned ship causes panic for those who are boarding it. When the flame reaches the gunpowder, the ship explodes.

“W-w-what’s just happening!?”

“W-we don’t know, sir!”

Underwater, Tiamat, Ishiene, and the Undine mermaids continue to play their games. The mermaids mark the Papaldia Empire’s warship that was inside the bottom 20 of the votes. On the surface itself, the 1st Expeditionary Fleet continues to push. The plasma cannon vaporizes the warship while the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon pierce through multiple ships in one hit.

“Man, these guys are persistent… How many ships left?”

“Around nine hundred… Six hundred on the base has yet to deploy.”

“This is getting annoying. At least we also can participate in the voting games. That should keep us updated on which ship Ishiene and her gang will take it down.”

“True that. We’re now entering 250km from the base.”

“Once we enter 150km range, prepare the Plasma Bombardment. I want each Plasma-class Destroyer to fire two rounds to the Navy Headquarters.”

“Yes, sir.”

Inside the ocean, Ishiene looks at the progress.

“How’s the progress?”

“So far, so good, Ma’am.”

“Excellent. Lady Destroyer, let’s continue the party.”

“No problem.”

With that, the battle continues.

The bridge was quiet. Everyone had fallen into despair. They were beginning to realize they had no hands to play with.

“Ships-of-the-line Martus, Regeel, Kamio, and Tarrus has been sunk…”

The only voice that continued to break the silence lifelessly was that of the communications technician. Even the 3rd fleet’s Admiral Arkaon, a venerable war veteran, was speechless, sweat slowly accumulating on his brow.

The operation that imperial strategist Matal conceived would have been effective if they were fighting against Mu. However, this enemy had 100% accuracy and the firepower to sink a whole ship with just one shot of a cannon; they were basically cheating. They have not identified the attack coming from when the ship suddenly explodes, unaware that the Celestina Empire is using the underwater units to strike their fleet. This strategy became completely pointless, and their ships just kept sinking.

The enemy had a range of over 22 km, 100% accuracy, and their reloading speed was godly. In order to get in magic cannon range, they would have to travel at top speed for over 40 minutes. Factoring in the enemy’s sail speed, that time to battle would obviously go down, but he wasn’t naïve enough to believe things on the battlefield would go the way he wanted; avoiding cannon fire that accurate for less than 10 minutes was impossible.

“……Damn it!!!”

Arkaon steeled himself. After all, the empire’s main naval forces were the last bastion standing between Celestina and the empire; there would be hell to pay if any imperial forces were to surrender or retreat. From the start, they never had any choice but to plow forward.

“All forces, charge at these invaders, these Celestinian!!! We’ll show them how stubborn the imperial navy is!!!”

Magic gems on every ship sparkled. Wind summoned with the Tears of the Wind God filled sails, and the fleet rushed towards the enemy’s giant ships at maximum speed. Unfortunately, their ships continued being destroyed.

The Celestina’s 1st Expeditionary Fleet, in an arrow formation, sailed right into the sparse, spread-out imperial formation like they were skewering it. The escort flotillas traveled 15 km into the imperial formation, demolishing and sinking every ship along the way, leaving wreckage drifting in their wake. The 3rd fleet was completely without hope.

“Celestinian fleet, our warship will face you head on!!!”

The Papaldia Empire’s 3rd fleet flagship, the super-F class 150-gun ship-of-the-line Dios, sailed right at the 1st Expeditionary Fleet. They had gotten within 22 km of each other.

“Admiral, we need to adjust course to port and get some distance from the Celestinian fleet! We cannot lose command from the flagship!!!” one of the officers pleaded to Arkaon.

“Nay! Maintain our current course, the flagship cannot turn aside!!!”

“B-But!!!”

“Enemy ship’s main cannon is aiming at us!!!”

“Admiral! Please, hurry and change course!!!”

“I will not!!!” Arkaon roared.

Right then, the lookout shrieked a report. “We’re taking enemy fire!!!”

Everyone tensed up.

“The shell is coming! Hard to port!!!” the captain yelled, and the helmsman worked the ship’s wheel. The ship began to turn at an excruciatingly slow rate.

A flash—

The sound of an explosion—

“GYAAA!!!”

“This is… impossible…”

The explosive pressure pierced through the ship, and it tears the ship apart. The Papaldia Empire 3rd fleet’s flagship, the Dios, split in half and sunk into the ocean. Admiral of the Third Fleet Arkaon and the entire crew are killed-in-action from a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon fired by the flagship of the fleet, Seraphic Ocean. The 3rd Fleet never identified the cause of the sudden explosion and the disturbance, unaware that it was the work of the 2nd “Ocean Crystal” Division and Tiamat.

The Papaldia Empire, Navy Headquarters

Vice-Admiral Balus was looking out at the port. Ships were constantly leaving; pretty soon, the entire 1st and 2nd fleets will have set sail. It was reported that the 3rd fleet had already engaged with Celestina’s fleet.

The navy’s leadership were gathered in a strategy meeting room, poring over a nautical chart. The empire’s greatest mind, Matal, was also among them. As reports on the progress of the battle kept coming in, Matal became less and less able to hide his frustration. He could never have imagined this difference in ship capabilities. The Papaldia Empire and Celestina, a superpower and an uncivilized country, should have been an insurmountable gap between their fleets’ abilities.

“……The third fleet flagship, the Dios, has been sunk.”

Silence.

“All right!” With a decisive exclamation, Matal began to speak. “Vice-Admiral! Have both the first and second fleets cluster together as close as possible and charge straight at the Celestinian navy! I don’t think they should be that far above our ships. Luckily, Celestina only dispatched a small number of ships. In order to defeat them, we just need to crush them with numbers.”

“……I’ll permit it.”

At Vice-Admiral Balus’s order, the empire’s 1st and 2nd fleets formed into a tight group and headed to intercept the Celestinian navy.

The Celestina Empire, Royal Capital Regnieburg, Town Square

“We will be back in thirty minutes~~ Enjoy your break until then!”

The Celestina Empire’s citizens are cheering and enjoying themselves. It was a one-sided battle, and yet, the Celestina military knew how to entertain the people. Should the Papaldia Empire send a diplomat to the Celestina Empire, this will never happen.

“I feel pity about them.”

“Yeah, but… They’re quite arrogant.”

“They should send a diplomat here, instead of keep rambling about it.”

“I heard the witch is also getting scared to death.”

“Haha! Anyway, let’s take a break for a while. We have to be here in thirty minutes, or we will miss the fun again.”

Some people are queueing at the restroom, resupply the food and drink, and do other errands. This broadcast is not held only at the Royal Capital of Regnieburg, but also the entire land. Around a billion people are watching this.

The Celestina Empire, the 1st Expeditionary Fleet Flagship, Seraphic Ocean

“Oh, look at that.”

Brunestud looks at the Papaldia Empire’s Navy that comes in a close-pack formation.

“Inform the Lady Destroyer and Blue Ice to change the games.”

“This means we got less work to do.”

“Now we’re like 170km, 20km more, and we should be able to bombard the base, barracks, and supplies to smithereens. Chess Mind and Royal Maid already marks the key targets for us.”

Despite the range between ships being 50 meters, if Tiamat is willing, she can create a whirlpool to bring the ship together and crush it with flames.

“It will be nice fireworks if it went well.”

“Agreed.”

The fleet remains in an arrow formation and continues to push.

“Shall we change the game mode into cluster fireworks?”

“How’s it work?”

“We bring a group of the ship together, put it on fire, and have the ship explodes to create large fireworks.”

“That’s interesting. I will try it out. You make the game for it.”

“Aye aye.”

The Papaldia Empire, 150km south of the navy headquarters

The game becomes intense as when the Papaldia Empire Fleet is in close formation, several ships cluttering in a group are being sucked into a whirlpool, fire spitted on it, and emits a small mushroom explosion when the ship explodes.

No matter how many the ship was sunk by the hands of the Celestina Empire, they won’t budge or even surrender. They do intend to defend the country down to the last man. If it was at the Celestina Empire, they are worth earning a Silver Star Imperial Medal. If they deploy some unconventional tactics, the Legion of Council, a medal equivalent to the Medal of Honor, can be awarded.

The people who watched this saw every desperate attempt made by the Papaldia Empire to destroy the Celestina Empire’s fleet. With just nine ships, the 1st Expeditionary Fleet continue to make their push, destroying any warship that was not at the bottom four clutter group from ten clutter group through the vote made by Ishiene.

“The base is in range in one minute!”

“Start charging the cannon!”

The Plasma-class Destroyer is charing its Plasma Cannon, aiming straight to the Navy Headquarters.

Even though Celestina will also assault the port, it was meant to ensure that the warship ready to combat is destroyed or not eligible for sailing.

“Inside the combat range!”

“Fire!”

Each Plasma Cannon installed at the Plasma-class Destroyer fires a round of plasma bullets. The destination was the Papaldia Empire’s Navy Headquarters.

Irruka, hired as a temporary worker, was cleaning around the port.

“Hey, you! You dropped trash over there! Cleaning is easy and simple, so make sure you’re actually cleaning!!!”

“I’m sorry.”

Irruka continued to work through the verbal abuse from the low-rank soldiers. Pathetic. As he was now, he was just pathetic. He gazed up at the Papaldia Empire’s navy headquarters.

“That guy… he’s got it made.”

He felt his eyes tear up as he thought back to the class reunion the other day. Balus had shown up, revealing that he was a top officer in the imperial navy. During their student days, he and Balus were rivals. Their grades and physical training were nearly the same, and he was just behind a little bit. That small difference from back when they were students accumulated over time and became immense. Now, it was the difference between the sun and the moon, heaven and earth, a god and an insect, that was what he felt.

Irruka remembered Vice-Admiral Balus’s words when the topic of dying in battle had come up:

“Hahaha! There’s no way a vice-admiral from a superpower who never sees action in the front lines would die in battle. If it were to happen for any reason other than being assassinated, in my death throes, I would be lamenting the destruction of the Papaldia Empire itself.”

“Someone who has everything in his grasp, and someone who let it all fall through his fingers…”

He grieved over the absurdity of life. He was ridiculed by his classmates, who are also become Naval Officer when Balus became an Officer at the Headquarters decades ago. All classmates, except for him, earn a prestigious position. They conspire to remove him from the Navy, something that the Celestina Zealots find the information interesting and ashamed that Irruka can take Balus's place as a Navy Officer should he was away.

Suddenly overcome with a strange sensation, Irruka looked out to sea; he had very good vision.

“?! What is that…?”

Flying above the ocean, eight purple balls were closing in at an extreme speed. They passed right in front of him, heading towards the navy headquarters and other installations. He somehow understood that the empire was being attacked.

Vice-Admiral Balus may have been his rival, but he was also a good friend. He was proud of his friend.

Irruka looked at the navy headquarters, concerned about Balus, and felt the need to yell out.

“Balus!!!”

In the next instant, the plasma rounds reached the building and generated a blinding flash and a deafening roar.

The solemn, majestic navy headquarters and all its fancy decorations were consumed in an intense conflagration. When the plasma round hits the building, it immediately boils any fortifications away, while another three rounds destroy the building from inside-out, demolishing it. The Papaldia Empire, who ruled other countries with fear, had one of the symbols of that fear, its navy headquarters, destroyed, and the sound of that destruction reverberated across all of Esthirant.

With this, the Papaldia Empire had lost all ability to command its naval fleet.

Booom… Booom… Booom…

The sounds of battle, which sounded like magic cannons being fired from the warship, could be heard from Esthirant. Aside from the few people who ventured out to see what was going on once the fire blocking the capital and the navy headquarters diminished, all the residents returned to their homes, locked the door, closed the windows, and huddled together, shivering with fear from the attack by Armada and Shiela earlier.

Those who witnessed the navy headquarters at the port collapse into rubble were struck dumb.

Irruka looked out to sea.

The sounds of battle were steadily, unmistakably getting closer and closer to the port. The sources of those sounds then appeared over the horizon. The ship was gray, large, and fast.

With every blast of an enemy cannon, another friendly ship sank. The Papaldia warships that were on the close cluster are being sucked into a whirlpool and explodes, making a small mushroom due to the magazine detonation by Tiamat.

“Shit! Those monsters are here!!!”

Irruka froze. Nearby, the soldiers at the port ran around panicked, trying to operate the cannons installed on the port that were facing out to sea. Irruka understood the threat these enemies posed and slapped his legs frantically, finally getting them to move. He ran, past the barracks, past the ammunition depot, past the all-important gun battery. He ran away from the port, got up onto high ground, then turned to watch.

Some people also gather at the high ground, watching the Papaldia Empire’s navy's final days as the entire navy is being mauled mercilessly by the Celestina Empire.

The enemy’s volley hit the gun battery numerous times in a row, turning it into a giant bonfire. Then, after a plasma cannon hit the ammunition depot, the entire port was enveloped in explosions and black smoke.

“Damn it! Damn it!! We’re completely helpless!!!”

The Celestina Imperial Space Command Naval Unit attack on the enemy port resulted in the total destruction of the navy headquarters, the weapons storage facilities, and the barracks. Of the Papaldia Empire’s main naval forces, a thousand ships were sunk, and no warships remained. The only ship that survives is three Dragon Carriers. Eight dragon carriers, assigned to the 3rd fleet, are captured by the

Due to this attack, the Third Civilization’s superpower, the Papaldia Empire, had to consider its navy completely neutralized.

However, the nightmare has yet to subside as the capital receives word that this time, the Industrial City of Duro is under attack by the Celestina Imperial Space Command, where Feena Minazuki is leading the assault force.