Chapter 31: The Servants of God
Western Ocean of Iris Libre
Saint Louis follows God's order to engage enemy fleets in this area.
No matter how many shells and barrages are fired upon her, she dodges all of the incoming fire and fires back with pinpoint accuracy. Her unstoppable charge caused quite a panic among the enemies.
As she destroys several Ironblood and Vichya Dominion's mass produced-ships, she advances toward the enemy fleet leader's position.
It is only a matter of minutes before she reaches the enemy leader.
"Strange…" said Saint Louis
So far, she has destroyed roughly 72 mass-produced ships. However, she did not see a single Kansen on her way. Her advance has been going smoothly.
Almost too smoothly.
She sees Bismarck and Prinz Eugen in her sight. They must be the enemy leader.
While Bismarck and Prinz Eugen seem surprised that Saint Louis can charge to this depth alone, they soon begin to engage.
The whole battle lasted only 30 minutes, she successfully destroyed Bismarck and Prinz Eugen. They resisted with quite a firepower, which cost Saint Louis stamina and ammunition.
As she takes a break from her exhaustive fights, she feels her enemies have strange reactions.
That Bismarck and Prinz Eugen got obliterated by her alone? Not to mention they were the only Kansens. Something seems suspicious.
Suddenly several barrages fall from the sky.
There are still enemies she did not destroy? Saint Louis dodges the attack and moves quickly to find the direction.
It only takes a few minutes to find the attacker.
"You…," St Louis stares at the Kansen in front of her. Like Saint Louis, she also holds a long weapon with a cross shape. If Saint Louis holds a cross-shaped spear, then this Kansen wields a cross-shaped staff.
"Gascogne…" said Saint Louis
"Approaching target confirmed, shifting the operation to phase 2. Engaging," said Gascogne.
Saint Louis and Gascogne soon begin a fierce battle. She dodges all shells that Gascogne has been firing, and Gascogne deflects Saint Louis's all-out attacks.
"If ranged attacks don't work, then how about this?" Saint Louis charges forward to Gascogne to attack with her spear.
When Saint Louis's spearhead almost reaches Gascogne's body, a sudden force pushes her back. She quickly takes two steps back.
A purple sphere surrounds Gascogne.
Saint Louis looks at Gascogne's neck. Gascogne wears a dark-purple necklace that has a glowing purple stone in the middle.
"The Stone of Lucifer! You… how dare you," said Saint Louis.
As fellow servants of God, Saint Louis had respect for Gascogne who also executed God's orders. Since they excel at different purposes, they received different kinds of orders.
"Target threat level succeeds rank S, activating pseudo-mode."
Why is a loyal servant wearing the Stone of Lucifer, an act of betrayal and fallen?
"So you are the cause of his order," said Saint Louis.
Saint Louis fires an all-out attack on Gascogne.
Her shells bounced away from the barrier. She watches closely, for each shell the barrier deflects, it shrinks to a smaller size.
Saint Louis continues to fire her barrages toward Gascogne.
With her relentless firing, her cannons become overheated, making them unable to fire any shells for a while. It does not matter, however, as they successfully eliminate the barrier.
Saint Louis ignites her boosters to full speed and points her spear toward Gascogne.
As she dashes toward Gascogne, she notices all of Gascogne's cannons simultaneously facing her and shining with purple light.
Saint Louis senses a massive amount of heat from Gascogne, a temperature that can melt down steels.
A purple laser fires toward Saint Louis with lightning speed and extreme heat.
Saint Louis cancels her charge and dodges with her maximum abilities.
The path that the laser traveled ignited the surface of the ocean which caused boiled smoke to fly into the air.
As smoke thinned out, Saint Louis barely made her stand. While she avoided a potentially fatal strike, The heat melted Her left rigging and burned her left arm.
"Gascogne…" mumbled Saint Louis. "Looks like I won't be able to witness the happiness Cannan brings to my friends."
Saint Louis touches her necklace which has a silver sphere like a pearl, an artifact that God bestowed to her.
"Dear omnipotent, I require a shard of your almightiness, your wisdom, and your courage. My petty strength cannot defeat the evil in front of me."
The silver sphere responds to Saint Louis's prayer.
Suddenly, the sky instantly turned to darkness. Gascogne looks to the sky.
The moon suddenly blocks the sun, causing an eclipse.
A white radiance surrounds Saint Louis. Her hair turns to holy white color and her eyes turn to sapphire blue color.
"Target threat level ascends to rank SS, requesting permission to activate prototype next-generation pseudo-state," said Gascogne.
A voice comes from Gascogne's receiver, "…permission granted."
Gascogne's necklace switches its glowing color from purple to jade-green.
She fires a green laser that wields even more firepower than its purple variant to Saint Louis.
If Saint Louis was still in her normal state, she would certainly be obliterated without any scrap metal.
However, something unbelievable occurred in front of Gascogne.
Saint Louis also created a barrier. This barrier not only can withstand the powered-up laser, but Saint Louis is walking forward toward Gascogne.
"Is that all?" Saint Louis speaks with a voice that pressures Gascogne.
The Kansen in front of Gascogne shows a much different attitude than Saint Louis.
Gascogne recognizes the cold and indifferent expression.
As if the pseudo-stone's mind effects disappeared, "Mai…Maitre," said Gascogne
"Go on, show me your power. You have my permission to use your full arsenals, including the ones I did not bestow you."
"But… I cannot hurt you," said Gascogne, who fears the figure in front of her.
"Do not make me repeat my words. What did I design for your algorithm?"
"… Maitre's orders are absolute," replied Gascogne.
Gascogne displays all arsenals that were provided to her. Dozens of cannons manifested around her. All of them shine green lights simultaneously.
A total of five green lasers launched toward Saint Louis, or rather, a deity who possesses Saint Louis who Gascogne considers as her Maitre.
The five lasers travel with a near-instant speed that no Kansen can see it traveling.
Contrary to the speed of the lasers, the Maitre casually stands in his current position. His expression has not changed in the slightest.
His eyes catch the movement of incoming lasers but he does not show any intention to dodge them.
"Impressive power, so this is the power of the Stone of Lucifer."
He raises Saint Louis's spear and holds it with a reverse grip. The entire spear shines with a dazzling light.
He then throws the spear in the lasers' direction, where Gascogne is right behind them.
The shining spear travels like a railgun shell and confronts the concentrating lasers.
However, contrary to their appearance in their sizes, the spear pieces all lasers and scatters the contained energy all over the place.
Seeing the impossible scene, Gascogne quickly switches all available energy to create a fortified multi-layer barrier.
Alas, those barriers meant nothing to the shining spear.
Gascogne suddenly coughs with her blood. Before she realizes it, her body has been impaled by Saint Louis's spear.
"Maitre… my apologies,"
The Maitre looks at her.
"You were forced to wear the Stone of Lucifer, weren't you?"
Gascogne did not reply. She tried but as if something in her brain prevented her from speaking, regardless of her will.
"A nano-silencer? So they have researched deep enough to implement such a device. To think mortals can limit my options," said the Maitre.
He pulls out the spear from Gascogne's body.
Gascogne lowers her head and closes her eyes, waiting for the execution of her sins.
He swiftly slices her throat, giving her instant painless death.
"You have served me well, my child, and so do you." He talks to Gascogne and the slumbering Saint Louis.
He faces the direction of Ironblood HQ, which at his current sight is only a plain ocean.
"If you desire my children's power, then so be it. However…"
He summons a floating touchscreen and taps some numbers.
The touchscreen scans his eyes. A mechanical voice comes out from its speaker, "Authentication confirmed, ejecting Gascogne's wisdom cube. Authentication confirmed, ejecting Saint Louis's wisdom cube."
Since his body is Saint Louis, rejecting her wisdom cube will soon cease her functioning.
He raises the two wisdom cubes to the sky.
"Their true strengths, their memories, and their beliefs belong to the ones who they find worthy without my guidance."
"Target location confirmed, transporting the wisdom cubes," said the mechanical voice.
He can feel his vision gradually fade out.
"Whoever you are, I shall leave them to you. May you be a worthy master to my children."
The two cubes float up to the high sky and fly to the target location.
Saint Louis and Gascogne's coreless bodies sink into the ocean.