"This isn't working!"
"Try getting to the eyes or the fins! It should elicit a reaction!"
The carriers were starting to get restless.
Tower's rigging was getting further and further away with each passing minute, while the sound of gunfire coming from behind them was getting less and less loud as they desperately tried to stay on its tail.
But whatever they tried, the giant rigging would simply ignore them. It was flying too high for their escort's guns to hit it directly, so the only thing they could do was use their aircraft, but even that wasn't that easy.
Bullets would do nothing to such a thing, and bombs needed to be dropped at a certain angle to ensure they hit, but if the bombers got too close, they would just be swept by the air currents created by the rigging's massive frame. The result was that the Kansen had to be extra careful as they maneuvered their aircraft around it, making their attempts at slowing it down look more like a bunch of flies harmlessly swarming around a large animal.
Whatever they did, the giant whale shrugged it off like nothing, not even deigning them a look as it kept moving forward.
"Okay, ladies, this clearly isn't working!" Emperor spoke up from the front of the formation, sailing forward with his rigging out and his hand holding his hat firmly on his head as he tried his best to keep up with Tower along with the rest of the shipgirls around him.
"What else are we supposed to do, brother?" Chaser asked from beside him.
"I usually don't do that, but we could try taking a page out of Sparviero's book," he suggested.
Those who knew what he was talking about exchanged unsure looks, while the rest simply looked at him in confusion.
"Which means?" Béarn inquired as part of the latter group.
"Sending our planes directly at it in a massive kamikaze attack," he stated matter-of-factly, much to the shipgirls' dismay.
"Are you sure it's a good idea, Master? This approach seems a bit... drastic," Hermione said, her and her sisters being part of their escort along with other shipgirls.
"I know it's a waste, but desperate times call for drastic measures," he responded. "As long as we don't exhaust our reserves, we should be fine."
"Dammit, I really don't like this," Béarn said, looking up at Tower. The shadow the giant rigging was casting over them was slowly moving away. The feeling of urgency and the fact that her comrades were putting themselves in danger to keep the swarm of Drone-types away from them were enough to erase all her doubts, a sentiment shared by all the other shipgirls as well. "Okay, how are we going to do this?"
After a quick explanation from the male Kansen, a literal swarm of miniaturized aircraft appeared, taking off collectively from the carriers' rigging. Almost all the planes they had at their disposal were deployed all at once. There were so many that it looked like a flock of starlings arising from the surface of the water in a harmoniously coordinated flying pattern. When they reached sufficient altitude, each of them turned to their full size before falling into formation to head toward their target.
Tower's rigging was giving them its left side, and the Kansen guided their aircraft toward its head, aiming for the part of its body that would definitely elicit a reaction—the eyes.
The aircraft didn't stop at the head; they kept going further ahead, until the entire flock was ready to make a collective U-turn. With so many aircraft in such a tight formation, the maneuver was one of the hardest the Kansen had ever performed, but they managed. The planes were now aiming their noses directly at the giant whale's face, heading for a frontal clash.
And what did it do? It took them all to the face. The aircraft crashed headlong into the rigging, and for each of them making contact, an explosion followed, until the entire left side of its face couldn't even be seen through the smoke and the fire.
The cacophony kept going for only a few seconds, but for the Kansen, it seemed like an eternity, their hearts tearing at the sight of their beloved crafts being purposely reduced to smithereens in such a barbaric way.
But their efforts were rewarded, as the giant whale arrested its momentum midair, its face still half-hidden by the smoke.
The Kansen were about to celebrate, but something caught their eye. A flicker of blue energy appeared around the giant rigging, spreading over the side of its body like a slick, transparent shield.
"It's got a barrier?!" Someone exclaimed amidst the general disbelief.
"Was it among the Creator's notes?!"
"No, it wasn't! We would have known!"
Emperor gritted his teeth as anger and frustration took over the fleet. How did he not see that before? The Original Sirens hadn't had Tower to themselves for that long, but that didn't mean they hadn't managed to make some adjustments to Aoste's project.
And a barrier was the simplest, but most effective, addition one could think of.
At least now he knew what that strange feeling he'd felt since the beginning of the battle was. Tower's passivity, the Pilots not protecting their pack leader... They were protecting the Hive-types instead of Tower because her rigging already had enough protection. No wonder the giant whale didn't even deign to look at its attackers. It didn't see them as a threat. It had stayed passive since the beginning of the engagement because it had nothing to fear. It could just keep going unperturbed, saving its energy, while its escort dealt with the Kansen.
"We barely even scratched it…" Chaser let off, demoralized.
"We can't let it get away. The Cardinal has put her trust in us. She's even playing the part of the bait…" Béarn declared.
"But what could we possibly do?" Charybdis asked aloud. "Our guns can barely reach it, and you are almost out of aircraft…"
As morale fell around him, Emperor racked his brain to find a solution. He looked up at Tower and noticed that the energy barrier had stayed up a few more seconds, only remaining visible around the spot they had targeted with their all-out assault before flickering back to non-existence.
It seemed like it wasn't always active.
"No wonder," he thought. "It must consume a lot of energy to keep up a shield for a body of that size."
At that moment, realization hit him. If the shield was too energy-consuming, maybe it came up only when Tower sensed imminent danger, gathering the energy necessary for its deployment only around the areas targeted for an attack. That's why it had only deployed then, because Tower had sensed the danger coming from their all-out assault.
"Master, is everything all right?" Hermione asked from beside him.
Emperor realized that a grin had appeared on his face only when he turned to look at her and saw her concerned expression.
"I've never been better, Hermione," he declared, his grin enlarging. "I have an idea."
Lenin was sure he didn't like Unicorn.
He wasn't the latest Kansen brought to life by the Cubes in his world, but he was effectively the youngest ship, which meant he had a lot less experience under his belt compared to his brothers and comrades. He figured he could make up for it by training, and he had been diligently practicing for ages just to catch up to them. Unfortunately, back in their world, it had taken him months just to perfect his control over his Cube, to say nothing of Wisdom Crafting, which he had never been able to unlock; in fact, he was the only one of his brothers still able to summon his hull.
The others had told him multiple times not to think too much about it and that having in their group at least one Kansen still capable of calling out his ship was very helpful, but even their kind words didn't help with his sense of ineptitude.
The fact that Unicorn had learned Wisdom Crafting in the span of a few weeks and without even trying when he had been struggling with it since forever had made him so upset that he had arbitrarily decided that he didn't like her.
He just couldn't accept that, so he had started making up excuses to justify his dislike of her, like how she seemed like an attention-seeking brat, a spoiled little princess whom everyone went the extra mile to accommodate and who had no idea what struggling in life meant.
But as he let himself slip off Yuni's back, he felt compelled to mentally apologize to her. When he had proposed his plan to Leviathan, she was the one who had offered to carry him all the way up there after overhearing them, even though she was scared.
In actuality, there was nothing to apologize for. The thought of causing her trouble had never even crossed his mind, as he had mostly ignored her since the beginning, but still, he felt the need to do so. Her courage had opened his eyes, and he finally understood how dumb he was being and how wrong he was about her.
And now that his turn to act had come, he wasn't going to be outdone, not when so much was at stake.
As he let his body be taken by gravity, he took a deep breath and called out his rigging, the pair of big, bulky, bear-shaped cestuses appearing on his arms in a flash of light.
The wind whipped at his face, dampening the sound of battle coming from the battlefield below, but he was too focused to pay it any mind.
The Hive-type was right below him, hovering midair. Its core—the big, round, shiny orb embedded in the middle of its circular frame like a target's bullseyes—was pulsing with an intense yellow glow.
Its escort was being distracted by Illustrious' planes, and Lenin had all the time to mentally prepare himself while freefalling. He focused on his Cube and began to feel the familiar heat of his reactors activating, spreading through his body, his skin taking on a darker hue as his body temperature rose.
He drew back his fist and waited for the right moment. Time seemed to slow down as he inexorably approached his target, and right as he was about to smash into the Siren, he punched.
The impact was so powerful that the reinforced casing of the Hive's core cracked under pressure, unable to withstand the sheer force of the blow, caving in in an instant. The force spread over the rest of the body, the metal plates covering the Hive-type grinding against each other, unleashing an earsplitting screech, almost as if the Siren were crying in pain at the surprise attack.
What followed was an explosion that made the Hive's body collapse on itself. The next spawn of Drone-types that emerged from its insides desperately tried to abandon ship, only to be caught and roasted by the flames.
In a matter of seconds, Lenin found himself in the air again, but this time, he had no control over his fall. The launching pain spreading from his arm forced him to stay conscious, and as he gritted his teeth, he tried to get his bearings back.
Only to realize that he was flying straight toward another Hive-type.
His eyes widened, and a grin spread over his face. Forgetting the pain, he adjusted his stance and focused on trying to seize the opportunity. Judging by his trajectory, he wasn't going to make it for a direct hit, and his right arm was busted, with only half a chunk of cestus remaining attached to it, but his left one was intact.
He decided it was going to be enough. As soon as he got close to the flying saucer, he focused on his Cube and dismissed his rigging, immediately calling out his ship. His namesake appeared in a flash of cubes right below him, only to nosedive toward the Siren from above. The icebreaker crashed into the unfortunate target bow first, right as he landed on the deck.
Another deafening screech filled the air as Lenin felt every inch of his hull below his feet cleave through the Siren's armor plating like a knife through butter. He gritted his teeth and did his best to keep his balance, and when the pain and the screeching subsided, he recalled his hull.
As his body was taken by gravity once again, he laid his eyes on his handywork. The Hive-type was literally split in two, the two halves only hanging together by twisted chunks of metal, and even though he had missed its core, the Siren was essentially out of the fight, as the damage was so serious it was no longer able to hold itself up in the air.
Lenin's smirk left his face as he realized that the flying saucer was now falling with him… and that he was right below it!
"Shitshitshitshitshit!"
As he flailed helplessly, a flash of white and purple appeared in the corner of his eyes, and he felt his body jerk in one direction. It took him a second to realize that he was being held by the scruff of his neck by Yuni and that he was being dragged away right on time as chunks of the Hive-type fell around them in a rain of steel.
Unicorn had come to pick him up.
"Lenin, are you all right?!" The shipgirl inquired, peeking down on him from Yuni's back.
Lenin let out a huge sigh of relief at the close call, his heart hammering in his chest. He tried his best to wiggle through Yuni's hold, turning to look up at the shipgirl.
And then he began freaking out.
"No, I'm not! My arm hurts like hell, and I'm slipping through my jacket! Put me down!"
"H-hold on, stop squirming! You are going to fall!"
"Gahhh! Is it too late to admit that I'm scared of heights?!"
Unicorn knew it was rude, but she couldn't help choking on the laugh that left her lips, even in such a situation. So the shipboy wasn't as stoic as he appeared to be; that wasn't enough to make her lose the newfound respect she had for him. If anything, it only helped consolidate it.
After all, if she had learned anything from him, it was that being brave didn't mean not being afraid of anything; it meant facing one's own fears.
She spurred her ride, and Yuni, with a twist of her neck, threw the shipboy in the air, making him land on her back right behind her owner. Then, tucking her wings against her body, she dove down, bringing the two of them back to the surface of the water.
"Master, are you sure about this?" Hermione asked Emperor in concern.
"Don't worry about me; the shield will hold," he reassured her with a smile. "I'll tell you when to stop, so you and your sisters don't have to hold anything back."
"More importantly, are you sure this will work?" Béarn asked Emperor skeptically. "Or is it going to be another failure like your previous idea?"
"Hey, that wasn't my brother's fault!" Chaser intervened in his defense. "No one could have predicted that!"
Béarn and the other carriers were getting more and more restless. Each passing second without progress meant that they were leaving their comrades in the vanguard to face the brunt of the enemy forces. Despite its craziness, they firmly believed their previous attempt would have worked. The resulting failure had not only left them with barely a handful of planes each, but it had also decreased morale, and now they were all feeling the pressure even more than before.
"I'm certain I can break Tower's barrier, but I don't know if her rigging will actually stop," Emperor admitted, interjecting as the two carriers glared at each other. "It surely wouldn't hurt to try, would it?"
Béarn grimaced. The idea of sending all their planes on a massive suicide onslaught had been his, so of course she'd be hard-pressed to keep listening to him. She was also a bit upset that the Cardinal had decided to assign command of the operation to him instead of her, her trusted fleet carrier.
She knew why, deep down. The shipboys were more knowledgeable in dealing with the Original Sirens, and Emperor had already earned the respect of many other high-ranking Kansen with his exploits. What upset her the most wasn't the fact that he had essentially replaced her for the sortie; no, what was bugging her was that she recognized her shortcomings.
She admitted that she wouldn't have had a clue how to deal with Tower if she had been in command. She wasn't as resourceful as him, and she would never have come up with such wild ideas. If anything, they would have made even less progress than they had; she understood that.
"We should trust in Lord Emperor's plan," Charybdis said as the general feeling of restlessness spread around the fleet. "It's the best we've got, and I'm sure he knows what he is doing."
Béarn let out a resigned breath at that. As fucked up as that sounded, seeing one of his plans fail had brought her a bit of relief, and she hated that.
She wondered how many prayers she'd have to say to atone for her conceitedness.
"I know; I'm sorry about that," she said. "We'll do as you say. I mean, what choice do we have?"
Emperor smiled at that.
"Don't say that, my dear," he said, taking off his hat. "We always have a choice."
The first explosion took Richelieu and the others by surprise, and when they lifted their heads, they gaped at the sight of one of the Hive-types being torn apart by a series of blasts before crashing down into the ocean.
They weren't even given enough time to react that an actual icebreaker appeared out of nowhere, smashing into another Hive and splitting it in half before disappearing into thin air.
Those who recognized the ship understood immediately what was happening, and those who didn't, realized it only after seeing Lenin's figure come out of the smoke. Dread took over everyone for a second when they realized that the shipboy was going into a freefall, only for it to be replaced by relief when Unicorn and her ride caught him midair.
Then, realization dawned on them, and the vanguard exploded in a powerful war cry, doubling down on repelling the enemy.
During the entirety of the engagement, their planes had managed to barely score a hit on the Hive-types because of the Pilots protecting them, and when it happened, it was never accurate enough to damage the core.
Now that two of the cursed Sirens had been taken down, the number of Drone-types coming at them was literally cut in half, and a huge weight was lifted off their shoulders.
"Your boyfriend sure knows how it's done, soeur!" Le Terrible piped up next to Le Malin, both of them looking up as Yuni flew down with Lenin and Unicorn.
Le Malin, who was staring up completely entranced, was shaken out of her stupor. "He is not... my boyfriend," she stammered in embarrassment.
"Yet~" Le Terrible purred, making her poor sister, already flushed from the fatigue of fending off all the Drone-types, blush even harder at her teasing.
L'Indomptable, on the other hand, was seething so hard that they could almost see the smoke coming out of her ears.
"He was holding back," she growled under her breath, thinking back to the sparring sessions with the shipboy. If he was able to pull out so much power, he shouldn't have needed to put up with her provocations. He could have just crushed her rigging with a well-placed blow and told her to piss off. Instead, for some reason, he had decided to go easy on her, and that's exactly what was so infuriating.
"Lenin!" Le Malin and her sisters rushed to the shipboy as Yuni landed on the water a few feet away from them, allowing him and Unicorn to climb down her back before switching back to her smaller form.
"Oh no, you are hurt," Le Malin said after noticing his right arm.
"I'm fine, this is just a scratch," Lenin replied. He tried to hide his hurting limb, but when he turned to the side, he found himself staring at L'Indomptable's upset eyes.
She didn't waste any time. "Why did you go easy on me?"
"What?"
"You heard me. You were holding back on me during training, weren't you? Tell me why!" She insisted with an accusing tone.
He narrowed his eyes at her but didn't react, as if he were half expecting the question, then glanced to the side.
"No reason," he stated.
"Don't fucking lie to me!" She snapped, grabbing him by the collar before the other's incredulous stares. "I bet you were having so much fun looking down on me while I made a fool out of myself!"
"Soeur, stop!"
"You guys, this isn't the time to argue! These things are still coming at us! Focus!" Algérie's powerful voice reached them as the sound of gunfire resumed around them. Her mace swung in a powerful arc, smashing through three Drone-types at once before she addressed the group again. "Lenin, Unicorn, get behind me; I'll get you to safety! Girls, cover us!"
Whatever they wanted to tell each other would have to wait for later. Even if the situation was taking a turn for the best, Tower was still perfectly fine and out of reach. All they could do was keep doing what they had been doing—keeping the Drone-types occupied to give time to the carriers to attack the giant rigging.
As another swarm of Drone-types attacked the vanguard, this time with half the number but double the ferocity, the destroyers raised their weapons and got ready to engage, as the shipboy and the purple-haired light carrier ducked their heads and did as they were told.
The battle was far from over.
When Emperor had explained his plan to the shipgirls, it had left them bewildered.
The shipboy figured it made sense. Those with whom he had already fought alongside had seen him use his Morphing Polyhedron in many different ways, but they had never seen that particular form. He had used it only once since coming to this world, but none of them were present at that time, so when he told them that they needed to shoot their guns at him for his idea to work, they all just balked.
The situation didn't admit any hesitation, though, and after a bit of reassuring and persuading, Hermione took position in front of him with Dido, Sirius, and Charybdis.
The four sisters stood side by side, aiming their guns at the contraption in front of them, still a bit unsure but ready to proceed. It was a barrier—a large, transparent, curtain-like energy shield—with golden linings and elaborate embroidery at the edges. It was standing between them and Emperor like a large partition, and it was being deployed and powered by the shipboy's polyhedron, which was hovering midair in the middle of it.
The solution Emperor had come up with to deal with Tower's barrier was simple. If riddling it with bullets, carpet-bombing it, or straight-up launching planes at it hadn't work, then maybe a single, concentrated blow should be enough to break it.
And luckily, he had something in his arsenal that was just what they needed.
"Now!"
At Emperor's cue, the four Royal Maids opened fire, unleashing one volley after another at the shield, the impact of their rounds causing ripples to run along its surface. When they realized that the shield was actually holding, their insecurities washed away, and they doubled down on it without hesitation.
Covering his face, Emperor grinned as he noticed that the color of the shield was slowly changing to orange thanks to all the damage it was absorbing from their volleys. It was only a matter of seconds before it was ready, so he waited.
And when it was, he shouted, "That's enough! Hold your fire!"
His voice reached their ears, and they stopped, allowing the other shipgirls to observe the result of their actions. The formerly transparent energy barrier had turned a bright, pulsing red, and it was ready.
Raising his hand toward the Morphing Polyhedron, Emperor mentally ordered it to recall the barrier, which suddenly retreated inside the contraption. Then the polyhedron started humming with a low, menacing sound and emitting a light of the same red color that had been saturating the barrier, making the shipgirls instinctively take a step back.
Focusing on his craft again, he made it change shape and size. The contraption's structure began rearranging itself to fit its owner's will, until it took the form of an elongated, futuristic spear. It was shaped like a spiral, plated in gold and silver, and decorated with small metallic wings and feathers, just like his rigging.
The gold and silver winged spear was pulsating with the same ominous red hue and was hovering a few feet above him. It was massive, almost half as long as a small destroyer and as wide as a truck.
"Everybody, stand back!"
The shipgirls didn't need to be told twice. As they retreated to a safe distance, gazing up at the weapon in awe despite the almost blinding light and the loud buzz, Emperor positioned himself as if he were throwing a javelin.
His eyes settled on Tower's rigging. The giant whale had put even more distance between them during the time it took him to prepare, but that didn't matter; its flank was still wide open.
This was definitely going to draw its attention.
"Master, watch out!"
Hermione's cry didn't reach him in time.
As he prepared to release the spear, Emperor's eyes widened in shock when he felt a sharp pain piercing his chest.
The air completely left his lungs, and he coughed up a spurt of blood from his mouth. When he looked down, he noticed multiple holes in his torso. Blood began copiously pouring out of it, the enlarging dark red stain marring his pristine uniform. Gritting his teeth and fighting back the pain, he turned his head to glance behind him, and his eyes went wide.
"Shit! Fuck! Why now of all times?!" He thought, his mind going into overdrive as he tried desperately to evaluate the situation despite the panic.
The Northern Parliament did say that the Siren convoys they had been tailing right before Tower's awakening had all vanished without a trace. Now, Emperor realized that those ships hadn't simply disappeared into thin air. They had been concealed, camouflaged by the power of a certain Elite, the last Antiochus who had fallen prey to the Sirens' yoke.
Indeed, standing a few feet away from him, manta ray-like rigging out and smoking barrel aimed directly at him, was none other than Tester. Her eyes were unfocused, her posture stiff, and her body and rigging were both traversed by thin, glowing lines, like bulging veins brimming with energy.
It was clear that she had received the same power-up as Observer, and that also gave him another idea.
If the Royal Navy hadn't missed their encounter with Tower, they could have reported that it was being escorted by a group of Hive-types, and it would have saved them the surprise of finding out the hard way. But no one could blame them for that, for now Emperor understood why that happened in the first place.
It was Tester's fault. With the power-up the Original Sirens had given her, they must have made her capable of spreading her camouflage to the convoys first and to Tower later. It must have been how the giant rigging had managed to escape the Royal Navy.
But why not skip over their fleet as well? Why would Tester intervene now, of all times?
To the first question, he came to the conclusion that, despite her strengthening, concealing multiple external targets outside of herself still required a lot of energy and that she could do it only temporarily. All the more so with Tower's rigging, as camouflaging a weapon of such size in its entirety would take a huge toll on her, and she couldn't keep it hidden for too long.
To the second question, instead, he surmised that when she had seen him wide open and had realized that the shipgirls had moved further away to a safe distance, she had decided to take the chance to sneak up on him.
Wait, Tester saw fit to intervene personally, giving up the element of surprise that she had kept all this time. Why?
"Because she cannot afford to let this attack go off," Emperor came to that conclusion.
The world that seemed to have come to a standstill around him began moving once again. The pain in his chest, the hum of the spear in his ears, the intense light emanating from it, and Tower's rigging keeping perfectly in his line of sight.
He called upon every ounce of strength he still had, sucked in as much air as he could, straightened his back, and shouted.
"Until the end!"
Tester fired another volley, scraping his shoulder, but it was too late.
The spear took off like a missile, traveling the distance toward its target in a few instants. The shield made it in time to appear, but it didn't last even a second. The energy gathered by the spear was concentrated into its tip, and when it made contact, it unleashed the entirety of it in a single spot, overcharging the shield and breaking it like a mirror.
Then it embedded itself deep into the heavily armored plating of the whale's left side, right behind the neck, before exploding in a red and golden flash. The shockwave was so powerful that it made it flinch and cry out in pain, the first reaction that the Kansen were able to elicit from it since the beginning of the engagement.
When the smoke of the explosion cleared, there was a hole in its left side, large enough to fit a battleship. The plating had been disintegrated in the explosion, and the inner casing had been darkened by the heat. It had also lost one of its fins, which had been right below the point of impact.
But despite the success, the shipgirls couldn't bring themselves to cheer.
After throwing the spear, Emperor fell to his knees, clutching his chest while coughing up blood. The first to react were Hermione and Chaser.
"Master!"
"Brother!"
Eyes wide, mouths agape, and hearts filled with dread, the two shipgirls dashed forward, while Sirius and Dido immediately shot their guns at Tester still standing behind him. Everyone expected the Antiochus to press on with the attack, but instead, she just disappeared into thin air, seemingly retreating after activating her camouflage, allowing them to approach the wheezing shipboy.
"Master, we're here!" Hermione knelt beside him, propping him up in her arms. She tried to stem the bleeding with her hands, but her already concerned expression turned into one of pure horror as she felt the warm, red liquid slip through her fingers.
"Hermione…*cough* Did it work?" He asked her between a rasping breath and the other.
"Yes, Master, it worked," Hermione replied, her hands still pressed on his chest and her voice on the verge of cracking at seeing him in that state. "You did it. Tower's barrier is down, but please stop talking now; you need to save your breath."
After a quick evaluation of his condition, Charybdis turned to the rest of the Kansen. "Everyone, please, give him some space!" She gestured to them to take a few steps back, then she addressed Chaser. "Miss Chaser, quick, he's losing a lot of blood."
But the light carrier was frozen on the spot. Her mouth was open in disbelief, and she was breathing heavily as she looked down in shock at her brother, her wide eyes fixed on his wounds. She was on the verge of a panic attack.
"Miss Chaser!"
Charybdis' voice made her snap out of it.
"H-hold on, brother, I'll take care of this, I promise!" She stammered, kneeling beside him, trying to fight back the dread and to focus on her Cube.
"Hehe… Surrounded by so many beauties... Not a bad way to go if you ask me…" Emperor blurted out, his voice getting slurrier with each word. He was starting to look paler and paler, and his eyes were getting more unfocused.
"At a time like this... You are incorrigible, idiot brother," Chaser said, biting her lips as she tried to hold back tears.
Emperor playing down his condition assuaged a bit of her anxiety, and she was able to concentrate more easily. In a matter of seconds, the stasis chamber she had copied from him appeared in a flash beside her.
But right as they were about to breathe a sigh of relief, Béarn's voice drew their attention.
"Um, guys…"
They all turned toward where she was looking and blanched.
Emperor's plan to slow Tower down by tearing down the barrier worked far too well. The idea had been to destroy the shield and use the remaining aircraft they had at their disposal to keep harassing the giant whale, but his attack had caused even more damage than expected. Tower's rigging had stopped advancing and was slowly turning in their direction, its attention unequivocally on them.
As the gargantuan rigging paused to look down at them, they could finally have an upfront view of its face, and if they could read anything from it, it was pissed.
"T-this is bad." They felt like rodents being stared at from above by a raptor. If they moved an inch, it would be upon them in an instant.
It opened its mouth and let out a long, angry bellow, revealing a maw capable of swallowing a whole stadium and a gullet so bright with energy that it was hard to look at. The cry was deafening, and the sound wave was so powerful it forced them to huddle together to not be swept off their feet.
Then the lights coursing through its body increased in intensity, and some of the plates around its head began shifting, revealing hidden compartments in its armored hide.
From within those compartments, a series of armaments came out. Laser barrels, cannons, missile launchers, and batteries—all kinds of alien-looking weaponry were aimed at the Kansen, who could only watch in utter horror as the giant rigging prepared for a frontal all-out assault.
Some of them braced for impact, others began praying. Chaser and Hermione clung tighter to Emperor as the other maids huddled closer around their sister.
The last thing they heard before everything turned dark was the sound of Tower's weapons going off.
AN: *Cue Dio's voice* You thought you'd get to see Bismarck and Jean Bart fighting this chapter… But no! It's a goddamn cliffhanger!
Next Chapter: Divine Providence
