"Lady Nagato, please, come in!" Ryan's distressed voice reached Nagato's internal radio.

"Shikikan, what's wrong?" The short battleship responded in concern.

"Oh, thank God," he breathed out. "I've lost contact with everyone in the inner sector!"

"What?! How is that possible?!" She exclaimed in disbelief, startling her retinue.

"I don't know. They all suddenly went radio silent on me," he explained. "I thought you were also gone…"

"Shikikan, please calm down," Mikasa intervened. "Tell us what happened."

Ryan took a breath. "It happened right after Helena detected the new wave of Sirens approaching. I was about to tell everyone to head to the edge of the survey area to help the vanguard, but then everyone started reporting being attacked by some Scavengers… and then they stopped responding."

Nagato turned to the others as they exchanged distraught glances.

"S-so they are gone? Just like that?" Mutsu whimpered, her eyes already welling up with tears.

Shinano placed a hand on her shoulder. "Fret not, little one. If they weren't with us anymore, Shikikan would have realized."

"Shikikan, we noticed a strange light earlier in the distance," Kawakaze spoke up. "We thought we'd go and check. Could it be related to anything?"

"If it is, then all the more reason to hurry up and investigate," he responded. "Lady Nagato, can I entrust this to you? Freedom and the others here are starting to have a breakdown being stuck here."

"Leave it to us, Shikikan," Nagato replied.

"Thank you. Meanwhile, I'll tell the others to fall back and regroup. Good luck,"he said before shutting off the comms.

Nagato turned to the others. "You heard that. Let's go. We need to find out what happened."

"Ryokai!"

"Ahahaha! Now I'm getting excited! This is how a true battle must be fought!" Akagi laughed hysterically at the enemy as she threw batches of paper planes at them, engulfing them into a series of red, swirling fireballs.

The Sakura carrier was excited. The booming of the cannons resounded around her, going in both directions as the other shipgirls returned fire, close enough to make her sensitive ears ring and her heart pound in her chest.

Finally, the boredom seemed to have passed. No more silly back and forth, no more playing tag with the Siren drones, and no more standing around idly. The escalation of the battle was all she had been waiting for, and now that it was here, she wanted to get the most out of it.

Aquila, in contrast, wasn't on the same page.

After the trial by fire that had been the first training sessions with Akagi, the Sardinian carrier had begun making progress in leaps and bounds, which only improved when Yorktown joined them in their training after her recovery. She had been looking forward to showing off what she had learned, but right now, she felt completely out of her depth.

A round exploded right beside her, sending her off her feet but leaving her unharmed, if a bit dizzy. When she recovered, she found herself being held by the shoulders by Yorktown, who was using her rigging to shield the both of them from the enemy onslaught.

"Aquila, this is no time for daydreaming, you need to stay focused!" Yorktown said as she helped her up.

"I-I know…" Aquila grimaced, turning to look at the enemy.

A large fleet of Siren mass-produced vessels filled her vision, their alien-looking hulls sailing in formation unrelentingly.

But those weren't the same mass-produced vessels the shipgirls were so used to fighting—the ones the Original Sirens had reprogrammed after seizing control of the seed.

TB had said that the bulk of those had been deployed during the siege to the Sanctuary, and the other rescued Antiochus had confirmed it. The remaining few had been used as cannon fodder during the many sorties the Kansen had been taking on. The ones making an appearance today were the Original Sirens' direct equivalent, coming straight from the seed's main assembly line.

It was only a matter of time before the enemy exhausted their reserves of stolen, reprogrammed vessels and were forced to deploy their own, and that time seemed to be now. After all, with all the Cubes they had stolen and those they recycled from the destroyed mass-produced units and the low-tier humanoids, they had enough resources to replenish their ranks.

What was putting the shipgirls off the most, though, was their appearance. The old vessels used by the Antiochus resembled actual ships, but these ones were twisted, grotesque... alien in the strictest sense of the term. They could be called "ships" only because they were able to move and fight on the water, but that was it. Their superstructure was reduced to the bare minimum, replaced by a bulky chunk of metal devoid of any superfluous equipment. It covered most of the deck, making it indistinguishable from the rest of the hull. Even the armaments seemed to be integrated into the whole thing, varying between the different types of vessels.

All in all, they looked more like the enlarged versions of some of the Executor-class' rigging, a mix between animalistic traits and an unsettlingly alien technological complexity.

And as if that wasn't enough, the Sirens had another ace up their sleeve.

Flying above the shipgirls' heads was a flock of serpent-like mechanical creatures. The shipgirls had never seen them before but had learned to know them thanks to the shipboys' stories. Those things were called Harbinger-types; they resembled giant mechanical moray eels and were considered the Sirens' elite units in aerial combat.

Their elongated bodies were around a hundred feet long and covered in thick, dark metallic armor plating. They had stocky heads, angular jaws filled with sharp teeth, and whip-like tails. They also sported a single dorsal fin on their backs and a pair of equally large ones at the front. Their intimidating appearance was complemented by the yellow lights coursing through their bodies, unmistakably marking them as Original Sirens.

Those were the things Akagi had spotted approaching from afar that had made her so excited, and for good reason, one might add. Their armor was thick enough to deflect most of the AA fire the Kansen were sending up at them, and their sinuous movements made them hard to hit with other weapons.

The only saving grace was that their speed wasn't off the charts. They kept their bulky forms afloat thanks to their integrated hovering system and used their front fins to steer, but they were too large and heavy to be nimble and were easily outmaneuvered by the carriers' planes.

However, they made up for it with firepower. Their serpentine bodies were riddled with multi-role high-caliber weaponry, whose barrels peeked through their armor plates on both sides of the body, easily shooting down the allied aircraft. The sections in their bellies constantly opened up to drop bombs and launch missiles, forcing the shipgirls below to scramble out of the way.

All of this occurred while the mass-produced vessels rained fire upon them, forcing them further back into the survey area with each passing minute.

The boring back and forth from before had been subverted, and the situation was leaning heavily in the Sirens' favor. The only saving grace was that the Harbingers were susceptible to high heat, as it disturbed the radar system they employed to track down their target, which meant that Akagi's fox fire was particularly effective at holding them off; that was the only reason the situation was still manageable, despite the Kansen clearly being on their back foot.

As the battle dragged on for what felt like more interminable minutes, all of a sudden, Ryan's urgent voice resounded through the comms.

"All Kansen in the outer sector, fall back and regroup immediately!"

The shipgirls were all taken aback by his order.

"Commander, why?" Yorktown inquired in confusion as she kept maneuvering her aircraft. "We can hold them off if reinforcements arrive…"

"The situation has changed. Reinforcements aren't coming. You'll have to deal with the Sirens on your own for the time being," he stated grimly, much to the shipgirls' bewilderment, leaving them to wonder what he meant by that. "I want you to split into multiple fleets and draw them into the inner sector. Use the rocks and islets you find to take cover. Make them spread their forces as much as you can and pick them apart little by little. Don't let them overwhelm you with their numbers, got it?"

"Loud and clear, Comandante," Littorio responded. "You heard him, ladies, fall back!"

They did as they were told, with Littorio, Musashi, Peter Strasser, and King George V leading a contingent of shipgirls each. They fired a few more shots at the mass-produced vessels before turning their backs to them and sprinting away, but not before making sure to have gathered their attention.

Seeing that the contingent of Kansen was retreating, the mass-produced vessels, having finally been given an opportunity to push into enemy territory, immediately jumped at the chance, setting off in pursuit.

A couple of the Harbingers also turned their noses toward the retreating Kansen, but before they could even start moving in their direction, a flurry of fireballs impacted their sides, making them stop midair.

"Now, where do you pests think you are going, right when the fun is about to begin?" Akagi sneered as Yorktown came up to her side and maneuvered her aircraft right in the faces of the other Harbingers.

The flying serpents swiveled their heads and began closing in on them as the mass-produced vessels slowly left the area. The other Harbinger-types, instead, began encircling the two carriers menacingly like a flock of vultures around a carcass.

"Aren't you going with them, Yorktown?" Akagi asked.

"I was thinking of holding the Harbingers off while the others retreat," Yorktown said. "They'll have a much easier time dealing with the mass-produced vessels if we keep these monsters separated from the rest."

"Looks like we had the same thought," Akagi smirked, readying another bunch of paper planes. "Do try not to get sunk again. I'd hate to have to fish you out of the water again."

Yorktown grinned back at her. "No need to worry. I'm not planning to."

After skimming over the water for a while, Nagato and her group eventually came across a weird sight. The body of a Scavenger-type, floating motionlessly on the water, so close to one of the many islets scattered around the place that it was on the verge of washing up ashore.

It was likely one of the Scavengers that had attacked and had been defeated by their comrades. That wasn't weird in and of itself. It made sense that the currents would drag what remained of the Siren away from the location of the struggle.

What was weird, though, was the fact that, despite the Siren being clearly dead, the body was still emanating a faint glow. It showed clear signs of battle; its armor was covered in dents and scratches, some of its tentacles were missing, and the top of its head, where the grinder they used as a mouth would be supposed to be, was torn apart.

Whoever it had ambushed had most definitely come out on top of the confrontation; otherwise, it wouldn't be dead. And yet the yellow light coursing through its metal plates was still there, pulsing weakly but very much alive.

"This must be one of the Scavengers Shikikan Travis was talking about," Mikasa mused, scanning their surroundings. "And as expected, there's no trace of the Kansen assigned to this sector."

"This doesn't make sense," Mutsu said. "They couldn't have just disappeared into thin air."

"The only thing that comes to mind is that they've been trapped inside a Mirror Sea," Shinano said.

"It would explain why we lost contact with them so suddenly, but we would have noticed something odd around here if that were the case," Nagato said. Mirror Seas usually didn't go unnoticed. Some of them even sported "entrances" on the outside, even if it varied between cases.

"What if they were teleported away?" Mikasa offered.

"That's unlikely…" Nagato said. Her mind wandered back to something Ryan had told her: a snippet of conversation he had had with Observer a few days prior after inquiring about the way the Antiochus used to teleport entire fleets around the place.

…

"Teleporting was something I could do while I was still connected to the seed, but it still had its limitations," Observer had said. "It was one of the many programs Zero developed during the various simulations. It worked like a complex network that covered most of the planet, but I only had access to the nerve centers. It was how we used to check on humanity's progress and put you through the test when necessary."

"Wait, does that mean the Sirens have access to it now?!" The Commander had asked.

"Of course not. If they did, humanity would be doomed already. Thankfully, the warping system was among the programs Zero was able to erase before they captured the seed…"

…

"Anyway, we don't have time to waste," Nagato declared. "Let's take a look around, maybe we'll find some clues on their whereabouts."

The five of them split up, still remaining within sight of each other as they began checking both sides of the islet. Something, though, caught Mutsu's attention.

She tilted her head in confusion. She could swear she saw the faint glow emanating from the Siren's body increase in intensity, if ever so slightly. She approached it and scanned it with her eyes, frowning in confusion.

"Um, Nagato-nee?" She called out to her sister.

Nagato came to a stop. "Uh? What's the hold-up, Mutsu?"

"This thing is… pulsing?" Mutsu said.

As if answering the battleship's question, the glow suddenly grew much more intense, to the point that it was hard to look at, making her stumble back in surprise.

"Mutsu, get out of there!" Nagato cried. She dashed toward her sister, with Kawakaze promptly following behind her.

From the other side of the islet, Shinano and Mikasa, alarmed by the ruckus, turned their attention behind them, right on time to see the sudden burst of light envelop the three shorter shipgirls. They shielded their eyes from the blinding white glow, and when it subsided, of the three of them, only Nagato was left.

Mutsu and Kawakaze had vanished.

"No…" Shinano uttered, her eyes wide as saucers. She made to move toward Nagato, but before she could take a step, Mikasa stopped her.

"Wait, Shinano-sama, it's dangerous."

"Mikasa?"

"I'm not sure I understand what's happening, but just in case, let's not get close to the body," Mikasa said. "Let's go around it."

That they did. Instead of making a beeline for their flagship, they skimmed around the dead Scavenger in a circle, making sure to keep their distance.

Nagato was there, a few feet away from it, on her knees, staring blankly at the Siren's body, its light having dimmed down to how they first found it.

It had all happened in the blink of an eye. Kawakaze had grabbed her just as the light flashed into existence and had thrown her back with all her strength. It was only by sheer luck that Nagato had ended up right outside the area of effect.

She was still trying to process all that when she was called back to reality by Mikasa.

"Nagato-sama, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Mikasa asked, gently shaking her out of her stupor.

"N-no, I'm fine," Nagato stammered, as she accepted Mikasa's hand to stand up. "Mikasa, it was Kawakaze… She saved me at the last moment… But now she and Mutsu…" she trailed off, choking back tears.

"It's okay, Nagato-sama. We'll find a way to bring them back… wherever they've ended up," Mikasa said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible with her tone. There was a problem with that, though: they had no idea where to start.

At least now they knew the cause of the disappearances; that mysterious light was likely responsible for the others as well. All those Scavengers sent to attack the inner patrol groups were probably just bait, a red herring used by the Sirens to spring their trap when the Kansen would lower their guard.

Now that they thought about it, this one's body had reacted to their presence as soon as they approached it, almost like a proximity mine. Not only that, but the light hadn't disappeared, it had just dimmed down to a seemingly harmless level. Mikasa had made the right call when she said not to get close to it.

Now, onto finding a way to bring the others back…

"Where do we even start?" Nagato breathed out, distraught and worried sick.

"For now, let's inform Shikikan of our progress," Mikasa said, still desperately scrambling for a course of action. "As soon as TB is done with the ARC, we can ask her for help…"

Was there even a way to reverse the trap? And would TB know it? Was everyone even still alive? The three of them had been operating on the assumption that the light didn't seem lethal, but they had nothing to prove that. They were mostly clinging to that belief as a way not to give in to despair at the loss of their comrades.

As they lost themselves in their thoughts, the blasted corpse began acting up again.

"Hurry, we should get to a safer distance," Mikasa urged the other two.

But as Mikasa and Nagato got ready to depart, Shinano remained there, peering intently at the Siren. As opposed to the other two, the laid-back carrier had managed to keep a more level-headed state of mind, and thus, she was the only one to notice that the Siren's body wasn't pulsing like a heartbeat. This time, the ever-present white glow, instead of gradually increasing in intensity, began flashing on and off haphazardly, like a light bulb on the verge of burning out.

Nagato stopped in her tracks when she noticed that the carrier wasn't following.

"Shinano, what are you doing?"

"I wish to ascertain something," Shinano answered as she began moving toward the Siren, much to Nagato and Mikasa's incredulity.

"What are you talking about?! It's dangerous!" Nagato called out to her.

But Shinano didn't answer. Instead, she kept moving forward until she reached the Scavenger's dead body. Ignoring her comrades' pleas, she placed a hand onto it and closed her eyes.

The Siren's body kept flashing all the while in an increasingly more chaotic pattern, as if something inside of it was going haywire.

"Shinano, please, you'll just get swept into the light! We can't lose you too!"

Shinano's eyes fluttered open. A small smile tugged at her lips, and she turned to regard her flagship with a sober expression.

"Nagato-sama, haven't you considered that perhaps we might not be the only ones struggling to find a solution?" She asked as she began making her way back.

Nagato paused at her words. She was unable to find a retort, too focused on staring at the white-haired carrier so nonchalantly walking off what looked like a ticking bomb.

Then, a crack appeared in the Scavenger's armor, adding itself to the series of wounds it already sported, then another one, and then another one…

Each one of those cracks opened the way for the light to the outside, making it harder to look at with each passing second. It looked like a cracked jug slowly coming undone, with its content spilling out of it in a steady flow.

And then it reached its breaking point, bursting outward with a full-on explosion and forcing the shipgirls to shield their faces once again.

The one that had ensnared Mustu and Kawakaze earlier was just a burst of light—blindingly intense, sure, but it was just that. This one was an actual blast, and even if small, it was definitely going to hurt if they got caught in it.

When the light and the smoke subsided, and they could finally set their eyes on the result of the explosion, they were greeted by the sight of the Siren's body split open like a cracked egg.

Between the two halves were the shipgirls who had previously been ensnared by the trap; some of them were wounded, others were panting in exertion, and they were all holding each other for support. And then there were Mutsu and Kawakaze standing in front of them, no worse for wear.

Kawakaze, who was holding her katana in her hands as if she had just performed a powerful vertical swing, raised her gaze to meet Mikasa and Nagato's bemused ones and huffed in exertion, her eyes faintly glowing with energy.

"Nagato-sama, it was a Mirror Sea…"

"Dammit, why can't I go help them?!" Freedom let off in frustration. "I'll be back in the blink of an eye as soon as the portal opens!"

"Because, we need you at your best when we are on the other side," Emperor replied bluntly. "If something happens to you now, what are we going to do, idiot?"

"You mean to tell me you aren't worried about them even one bit?!" Freedom seethed.

"We are, Freedom; don't even try suggesting otherwise," Leviathan retorted sharply.

Freedom grumbled audibly at that. As soon as he had learned how things were going out to sea, his agitation began steadily increasing until he reached his breaking point and declared that he couldn't stand there doing nothing while everyone else was in trouble. That had led to an argument with the other two shipboys, who tried to tell him that it was best if he stayed put since the portal was on the verge of opening, but it hadn't been enough to convince him.

Right before he could summon his wings and take off into the sky, completely disregarding their words, Leviathan had promptly called out his chains and wrapped them around his wrists to prevent him from leaving.

Now, unable to deploy his rigging and activate his Wisdom Crafting, Freedom could do nothing but tug at his bindings as he told his brothers off, knowing full well it was all for nothing.

Breathing hard through his teeth, he went to sit back onto the steps leading to the temple grounds. He began nervously tapping his foot as his eyes darted between the ARC and Ryan.

The mass of black matter, previously the size of a bowling ball, was still in the process of enlarging, and even if it had reached the size of a person, the contraption hadn't yet established a connection with the other world.

Meanwhile, the Commander was standing on the opposite side of the clearing, constantly talking in his earpiece, barking orders at the shipgirls out to sea as South Dakota and Aoba dutifully stood next to him, both looking as restless as him.

"Okay, okay, I get it, alright? I'll stay put. Can you take these off now?" Freedom said, bringing his bound wrists up.

"Oh, you think you are so smart, don't you?" Emperor said in a mocking tone, making him click his tongue in annoyance.

Leviathan came to stand next to him. "I understand how you feel, brother, but we have a job to do," he said with a level tone as he placed his hand on his shoulder. "We need to trust the girls to handle this. They aren't weak by any means, you know this."

"Yeah, there's nothing to worry about," Emperor supplied. "Besides, Sparviero is with them, and wherever Kurama has ended up, I'm sure he'll come back with a vengeance."

Freedom let out a sigh at that. To his ears, Emperor's words sounded a lot like his brother was trying to convince himself more than anything, and that seemed to calm him down a bit.

He didn't say anything as he hung his head, and the three of them fell into a gloomy silence.

Until the piercing sound of the alarm resounded in the air, coming from the distant harbor, prompting everyone to pause what they were doing and look up in the distance. They could clearly see a dozen glints on the horizon approaching the Sanctuary at high speed, each one leaving behind a faint trail of smoke.

"Ryan!" Freedom shouted in alarm, knowing full well what those things were.

"Don't panic! We were prepared for such an eventuality!" Ryan responded. "TB, it's up to you now!"

For the first time that day, TB detached herself from the ARC's control panel.

"My cognitive processor is a bit strained, but I'll do my best," she said as she attached the cables sprouting from her back to another device, this one looking much more modern and less alien.

A few miles away, down at the port, the Kansen standing guard by the anti-missile system were startled as it came to life on its own.

The turrets sprang into action under TB's control. They swiveled into position, locked onto the threat, and then began shooting their own missiles one after the other in quick succession. A whole host of anti-air projectiles rose up from the Sanctuary, traveling through the air toward the incoming threat.

Normally, the anti-missile system was perfectly capable of dealing with such a threat, but there was a chance the homing system wouldn't be enough to shoot down the warheads if the Sirens were personally controlling them. So, just in case, TB and Ryan had come up with this solution.

This was the second time TB did something like this—the first being at the joint base, when the Commander and most of the Kansen had left to help during the first siege at the Sanctuary and she had to protect the base from the Sirens' missile attack. So, she was confident she'd be able to shoot down all the threats at once.

But she had miscalculated how demanding setting up a portal to another world was going to be on her computational capacity.

Of the twelve warheads, one was able to slip through her defense, much to everyone else's shock.

"Don't worry, everyone! Everything's under control!" Ryan's reassuring voice resounded. "TB, proceed!"

TB obeyed. This was going to be much easier, as she only needed to flip a switch.

When she did, an intense flash of light burst forth from the center of the harbor. One after the other, various spots around the base lit up as well, and soon, the entire port was enveloped in a blinding glow, which forced everyone to avert their eyes. Once the light subsided, it revealed a giant shield of azure energy hovering in the air above the Sanctuary. Just like the ones issued at the major bases around the world, it was shaped like a huge dome consisting of multiple hexagons, similar to a beehive. It was transparent, and it looked ethereal, but as opposed to those, this one was much larger, even reaching well over the top of the Sacred Sakura Tree to make sure to protect it as well.

By itself, it wouldn't be able to withstand a full-on missile strike, as it was designed to take on a much lower level of ordnance, but if the threat was posed by a single warhead, then it was more than enough.

The missile went off right before impacting the shield. The explosion resounded so close to the Sanctuary that it hurt the ears, but not even the shockwave reached the harbor. The smoke it produced enveloped the side of the shield it came from, obscuring the view for a good couple of minutes.

Of course, a barrier of such size was very energy-consuming, and it wouldn't last forever. As soon as the smoke dissipated and the view of the horizon was clear, TB immediately shut it off.

Cries of jubilation arose from the Kansen patrolling the harbor, who had a front-row seat on the show. Ryan and the others breathed a huge sigh of relief as the shield flickered back into nonexistence, and TB hummed in satisfaction as she returned her focus on the ARC.

Freedom turned to address Ryan with a questioning stare. "Hey, Ryan, don't tell me you were expecting all that."

Ryan scratched his head. "Well, TB did say that the Sirens had a few of those things left, and last time, they destroyed the shield's generators before launching them. I wasn't sure they'd try it again, but I decided to take precautions regardless."

"Well, I'm glad I didn't have to turn myself into a toast this time around," Freedom said.

"Is there anything else you are hiding from us, Commander?" Emperor inquired with an amused grin.

Ryan shrugged, matching his expression. "You'll have to wait and see. Though I'd rather it doesn't turn out to be necessary."

"I'm afraid they won't be around for that," TB interjected, raising her gaze from the display she just checked. "It's time."

Everyone paused at her words, their expression turning serious.

Freedom, Emperor, and Leviathan took positions right before the ARC. The firework display from before had drawn their attention so much that they hadn't realized that the portal was now enlarging at an alarmingly quick rate. They watched in awe and with slight concern as the four mechanical arms sprouting from the metal platform began moving backward. They were following the expansion of the black mass, almost as if they were the ones pulling on it from different directions, and they were doing so with such power that the whole contraption was shuddering.

The shipboys were so captured by the sight that it took them all a second to realize that it wasn't the ARC that was shaking, but rather the ground itself.

Now, as much as it wouldn't be weird in the Sakura Empire, they understood immediately that it wasn't an earthquake. No, something had just hit the promontory they were standing on, making the whole clearing shake.

The clearing itself was located in the back of the Sanctuary, behind the temple grounds, opposite the port. It overlooked a steep, rocky cliff that plunged into the water below, so it wasn't that much of a surprise to those present when the infamous Worm-type—the same one that had destroyed the Basilica—reared its head above the edge of the cliff.

The thing had a long, segmented, snake-like body covered in black metal plates, traversed by yellow energy lines. Its head and neck seemed to almost merge together, unrecognizable from each other like those of a worm. Its mouth, though, was big enough to swallow a dozen people whole, especially since it could be opened on four sides. Rows of sharp metal teeth ran along its four jaws, and a single yellow-glowing eye-orb was situated at the center of its gullet.

Not to mention the low, build-up sound reverberating in the air and the intense glow emanating from said eye-orb. The thing had already begun charging up its attack in advance, and now, the light it gave off was blinding.

Everyone paled at the sight of it. Aoba's finger moved on instinct to snap a picture, Emperor reached for his hat atop his head, and Freedom began pulling hard on the chains binding his wrist, prompting Leviathan to free him.

If someone had asked Ryan why the place chosen for the installation of the ARC had to be so close to the coast and so open to attacks, he would have shrugged and said that it was the only available space. Then he would have argued that there was no way the enemy would have managed to reach that spot with all the shipgirls patrolling the area. He would also have mumbled that it would have been dangerous to build such an unstable contraption too close to the other port installations.

If that weren't enough, he would simply have reassured them by saying he had a plan in case things went awry. And that plan had a name.

"South Dakota!" Ryan called out.

The battleship didn't hesitate. Rigging out, she rushed forward, putting herself between the Worm-type and the ARC.

She took a deep breath and focused on her Cube.

"Wisdom Crafting."

A flash of light passed through her eyes, and she felt energy coursing through her body, surging from her Wisdom Cube.

She had been preparing for that moment ever since she heard what the Worm-type had done to the Basilica. Now, she was ready to give it her all to do what she did best: protecting those behind her.

She did as she learned, projecting outside all the energy she had. It came out of her rigging and condensed around her body, taking on a shape and a color similar to the energy shield TB had just activated to protect the Sanctuary. Then it expanded outward until it covered the entire area, placing the ARC and the people present under its protection.

And then, the Worm-type unleashed its attack.

The laser beam impacted the barrier with a sharp, piercing whine, immediately followed by a humming note of sizzling vibration as the stream of condensed energy tried to punch through the barrier.

But South Dakota held on. For a series of interminable seconds, she held on, barely able to keep her eyes open at the blinding display of firepower that was being thrown straight at her face.

Then the light slowly began fading, replaced by a flickering noise as the Worm's attack lost power until it disappeared completely.

She finally let out the breath she was holding. Her energy shield was next to vanish as she fell on her knees, completely giving in to fatigue. She felt her consciousness slipping from her mind and her eyelids becoming heavy.

The last thing she saw before falling unconscious was the Worm-type reeling back under artillery fire as she felt someone pick her up and take her away.

"Commander, I think I know how to deal with the Worm-type."

When South Dakota had come up to him with those words, Ryan didn't know what to expect.

It was a few days before, when he and Nagato were planning the defense of the Sanctuary together. The points of biggest concern to them were two at that moment: the few warheads left in the Sirens' arsenal and the Worm-type.

By assembling the ARC right next to the Sacred Sakura Tree, they had given the Sirens the perfect chance to kill two birds with one stone, so it was almost a guarantee that the enemy would employ at least one of those assets, if not both.

To deal with the former, it was decided to have TB interface with the anti-missile system of the base and shoot them down.

For the latter, though, they were at a loss.

The silver lining was that, thanks to the information carried by Observer first and Tester later, they were able to confirm that, yes, the Sirens only had one Worm-type at their disposal, so they didn't need to work around more than one.

But even in that case, how do you stop something capable of bringing down an entire fortress on its own? Even the shipboys didn't have a clean method to deal with it. Theirs usually required the use of a decoy, which usually translated into someone having to risk their lives to give their comrades an opening to take it down.

The obvious thing to do was to intensify underwater patrol around the island to prevent the Worm-type from getting close at all, which they did, but they needed a contingency plan in case that failed—which it had, since the subs were also among the missing shipgirls the Commander couldn't get into contact with anymore.

The only other thing that had come to their minds was the base's energy shield. According to the shipboys, though, the thing was too large and consumed too much energy to keep itself up to withstand the concentrated firepower of a Worm-type; it would have cracked like a broken mirror.

And that's when South Dakota had spoken up.

"What if we had another shield capable of withstanding such an attack?" She had said.

The Eagle Union battleship had never let up with her training, and even when things had become too hectic for Freedom to personally follow her, she had kept practicing control of her Cube by herself whenever she had the chance until, eventually, her efforts paid off.

Now, what kind of Wisdom Crafting would someone with the title of "Strongest Shield" develop?

A big fucking energy shield, of course.

That's why it was decided to assemble the ARC in such an isolated place: to give the Sirens an opening to send the Worm-type in and to reduce the amount of stuff South Dakota would have to shield with her power—and the collateral damage, of course.

But that's not where the countermeasures ended.

As soon as South Dakota collapsed, Ryan didn't waste any time.

"Freedom, hurry! Go get her!"

Freedom rushed in with his wings to pick her up and take her to safety. Meanwhile, Ryan was already barking in the comms.

"Jean Bart, now!"

But before he even finished, the sound of cannons going off resounded in the air, and a series of powerful explosions impacted the Worm-type. The thing was still recovering from the feat that had left it temporarily depleted of energy, and the surprise attack made it reel back as it screeched in surprise.

"Way ahead of you, Commandant!"

A shadow was cast over the clearing as Jean Bart's flying ship appeared over everyone's heads, descending from above the Sacred Sakura, the frontal guns trained on the Worm-type.

The Siren quickly recovered from the shock. It screeched at the flying vessel and opened its mouth, charging up another shot.

"You wish, connard!" Jean Bart hollered, looking down from atop her deck.

A shockwave was unleashed from her vessel, its pulse spreading all over the place, causing the Worm-type to keel over and the energy it was accumulating to disperse. Her guns, which had all the time they needed to reload, fired another salvo at it. Most of them missed their target because of its serpentine body, but those that hit, this time, managed to punch through its armor, revealing its body's glowing insides.

With another threatening screech, the Worm-type shook itself out of the daze the jamming wave had sent it in. Instead of keeping itself upright to retaliate, it turned on its tail and plunged into the waves, its head disappearing from sight.

"Oh no, you don't!" Jean Bart hollered. "I'm not done with you!"

The stabilizers keeping her vessel in the air hummed louder and louder as she willed it to give chase, raising a large cloud of dust as she passed over the clearing, forcing everyone below to shield their faces.

"Shikikan, was that the ASD?" Aoba asked as the wind blew on their faces.

Ryan grinned smugly. "That's right."

He had had it moved and replaced with a fake unbeknownst to everyone. If he had just moved it, the Sirens would have noticed its absence and would have been reticent to send in the Worm-type. By leaving the bait out in the open and assembling the ARC far away from it, he had lured the enemy into a false sense of security.

Where was the real ASD? But on board the Jean Bart, of course.

Not just on her vessel, though; the antenna-like contraption was completely integrated into Jean Bart's flying ship. The bulins had worked tirelessly to fit it onto her deck, and the shipgirl had done the rest. A quick round under the Reality Lens to prepare, and her Type II rigging had allowed her to easily accommodate the foreign body into her Cube and her hull data.

Ryan had come up with that idea on his own. When he had first relayed it to Jean Bart, the shipgirl had jumped at the opportunity and had immediately accepted his proposal; the prospect of kicking the Worm-type's butt was too good to pass up for her.

And so, following Ryan's instructions, Jean Bart had climbed atop the Sacred Sakura Tree, hiding amidst its branches, waiting patiently for the accursed Siren to show up. When it did, she called out her ship and flew down to give it a warm welcome.

And Ryan was ecstatic. His plan had worked out without a hitch—for once—and now Azur Lane had obtained what was effectively a moving ASD system.

But this wasn't the time to celebrate. There were more important matters at the moment.

"Good show, Ryan," Freedom said as he laid an unconscious South Dakota down on the soft grass and the Commander kneeled to check on her. "We didn't even need to lift a finger."

"You weren't supposed to anyway, not this time at least," Ryan said, nodding resolutely at him. "Now, hurry up, you three! Take this chance and go! Before it comes back!"

"Got it," Freedom replied as he waved at him and turned to the ARC. "Say hi to everyone for me."

By now, the four mechanical arms on the ARC had stopped moving, and the portal had reached the size of a large van, standing in the middle of the metal platform like a dark curtain ready to swallow them whole.

The shipboy hurried beside his brothers, and the three of them exchanged glances. Then, one last nod from TB, and they stepped forward.

Freedom was the first. He took a deep breath and dove in.

Only to slam into something that came out of the portal, or rather, someone, bouncing off with a jolt, and ending up with his rear on the ground.

The other person also ended up on the ground. It was a man in his late twenties, wearing a naval uniform and a pair of crooked glasses under short black hair.

"Ouch, we're off to a great start…" the man lamented as he soothed his aching forehead.

The shipboys gawked in shock at the sight of him.

"Liam?!"

AN: The Harbinger-types are the copy-paste of the Chitauri Leviathans from the Avengers. No, seriously, they are more or less the same in shape, although they are obviously completely mechanical and more similar to Siren rigging in appearance.

The inspiration for their name, though, comes from the Oarfish, a type of deep-sea fish that was once known as the "harbinger of doom," as its appearance was often historically associated with disasters and other tragedies at sea… since, you know, they are both snake-like creatures, and the Sirens are harbingers of doom, and I was struggling to find a connection that wouldn't make me settle for the much more boring "Serpent-type."

Anyway, CLIFFHANGER!

Next Chapter: Arrival