Even though I was going to fight a fleet alone, my comrades weren't worried.
Catherine handed me a walkie-talkie as I left the conference room, and Margareta merely waved.
Faces that naturally believed I would return safely.
[I fought and defeated a Demon King who had withstood a hydrogen bomb—would I be afraid of Earth's fleet?]
Besides, Sopeu added to that.
Rather, the ones who were worried were the U.S. government officials who had been hostages.
Those who hadn't known me looked back and forth between me and the others with bewildered faces.
Leaving them in the conference room, I went outside.
There would be various matters to coordinate with the U.S. government besides cleaning up the remaining rebels, but those could be left to Margareta and Catherine.
Exiting the conference room and continuing up the stairs, I saw a locked door.
A door connected to the rooftop.
Even here, cold air from the air conditioning was rising, but I could feel heat radiating from the door.
At this level, I couldn't help but know how intense the heat outside was.
A shield unfolded around my body. It was the shield Sopeu had cast.
Once the shield was deployed, I grabbed the handle and forced the door open.
Click.
As I opened the door, hot wind rushed over the shield.
Fwoooosh.
No sound actually came, but it felt as if such a sound had erupted.
Stepping outside immediately, I closed the rooftop door.
And then, I completely sealed the door with heat magic.
The lock had melted, rendering the door impossible to open by force.
Checking the door, I looked around.
"This is... severe."
All the surrounding air rippled like heat haze, and the objects on the rooftop had melted and burned black.
The area around the base beyond the rooftop was the same.
Grass, landscaping trees, and palm trees were all dried up, and a desert—so arid that even sounds seemed parched, where an ordinary person would find a single breath agonizing—stretched out.
[At this rate, it must be around 70 or 80 degrees...]
It really was the tropics.
Winter hadn't even passed yet, but the temperature was similar to Australia when the entire continent had been burning.
The only reason this place hadn't been engulfed in flames was because it had been a desert region from the start.
The city beyond the airport looked completely dead, but there was nothing I could do for it.
Turning away from the frozen city, I lifted my body into the sky.
Rising into the sky, I saw a large bay beyond the city.
Tajura Bay, where over a hundred large ships floated.
Inside the bay, passenger ships, cruise liners, and transport vessels were clustered together, while warships were lined up along the outer edge of the bay.
At a glance, it looked like they were there to protect the civilian vessels, but now I knew it meant something entirely different.
Moreover, the lined-up ships were moving wildly now, breaking their formation.
I headed first toward where the civilian ships were gathered.
While flying over the dead city, I heard rebel communications through the earpiece connected to my walkie-talkie.
"This is an order. Return to your original positions at once."
"Whose order is that? We decided to follow the President."
"You heard the commander! He said we can't trust the President!"
"No, how are we supposed to trust the commander?"
Arguments broke out between ships leaving the formation and other ships,
"Kzzt, we're surrendering too."
"Take your hands off the key right now! That's mutiny!"
"We were rebels from the start. Just think of it as another rebellion!"
"Stop immediately or we'll fire!"
"Go ahead. We're more than ready to fire back too."
"Hey, you—... Bang! Ratatatata!"
The sounds of combat erupting inside the ships came through without filter.
Kwa-boom!
An explosion rang out before the gunfire even ended.
This wasn't a sound from the walkie-talkie.
A destroyer that had been trying to break formation stopped, spewing smoke.
Looking at where the smoke was rising, it seemed the bridge had blown apart.
Thus, the warships fought amongst themselves inside their vessels and aimed their cannons at other ships.
On top of that, the communications network grew increasingly chaotic.
"It looks like they'll destroy themselves even if I just stand here."
I arrived above the transport convoy without delay, but it seemed I wouldn't even need to intervene.
[Times like these are precisely when it's most dangerous.]
Sopeu's words snapped me to attention.
Sopeu was right.
When crisis struck, people lost their reason.
Now was no different.
"To demonstrate our will, we will now sink one passenger ship. From this point on, we will sink ships in turn every hour, so the government must come to negotiate as quickly as possible."
At the declaration of the rebel fleet commander, the noisy communications network fell silent in an instant.
The next moment, the network exploded with sound.
"Have you gone mad! You're really going to kill American citizens?"
"Good Lord. This isn't right."
"That's why you should've accepted the demands quickly."
"Stop right now! Do you know how many people are on that ship! You're killing thousands!"
Though there were some on the communications network cursing the President for not complying with the demands, protests far outnumbered them.
But the rebel fleet commander did not stop.
Shoooosh!
A missile launched from one destroyer.
The missile flew toward the transport convoy.
"It fired!"
"The target is a passenger ship!"
"They actually fired! Those are civilians!"
Hearing the shouts from the communications network, I quickly descended.
At that moment, the destroyers that had been breaking formation moved their guns.
"Our ship will intercept with ESSM. Match the radio frequency!"
"Don't interfere! It's the commander's order!"
"Ridiculous! This isn't rebellion, it's massacre!"
Ignoring the orders from above, those ships launched surface-to-air missiles.
"Fire ESSM!"
"Launch! Launch!"
Multiple missiles chased after the missile flying toward the transport convoy.
Surface-to-air missiles pursuing and exploding.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
But the distance was too close.
"Damn it! We missed!"
"We'll stop it! CIWS active! Breaching 1,000 meters!"
"Please stop it......"
Machine guns on another ship spat fire.
Too-too-toot-toong!
Thousands of rounds per minute of cannon fire enveloped the incoming missile.
Thus, the missile approaching the passenger ship detonated near the vessel.
Kwa-bang!
"We stopped it!"
"Good job!"
"Try firing again! We'll stop them all!"
Cheers erupted from the walkie-talkie.
But the cheers didn't last long.
The fleet commander's dark voice came through again.
"Even so, it's meaningless."
With those words, the destroyer that had fired the missile turned its cannon.
The cannon aimed at the passenger ship the missile had targeted.
"Damn it! They're firing the main gun here?"
"We can't stop shells!"
"Just sink that destroyer!"
"No! Then it's war!"
"So what if it's war! Civilians are dying!"
Leaving the heated communications network behind, the cannon fired.
Kuu-uung!
"No!"
Along with screams, a shell flew at tremendous speed.
Several kilometers vanished in an instant.
In that moment, I could sense people clinging to the passenger ship's windows, screaming.
People embracing their families. People praying to God. People closing their eyes.
The images of those people vividly seeped into my senses.
I saw the shell rushing toward the passenger ship—no, toward me.
The next moment, the shell collided with me.
Kwa-boom!
An immense explosive pressure engulfed the surroundings in flames.
"Kuh!"
The impact, greater than expected, sent me flying backward.
Thud.
And I slammed into the side of the passenger ship, shield and all.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
Debris and fireballs rained down on the shield.
I shook my head and pulled my embedded body free.
"The impact is worse than I expected."
Hearing my words, Sopeu made excuses as if sorry.
[I never underestimated Earth's weapons, but they are indeed no pushover.]
Contrary to those words, they had indeed been underestimated.
It was a shield that had remained intact against attacks far stronger than this.
There was no way it should have been pushed back by a mere cannon strike.
"Well, I let my guard down too."
I, who had relied solely on Sopeu's shield, created an additional shield and wrapped it around my body.
People's voices reached me.
"Could it be, we're alive?"
"Are you alright?"
"It must have been a dud. We need to get away quickly!"
"But where do we go?"
They were the voices of refugees on the passenger ship.
People rejoicing at having survived yet flustered.
There was no need to frighten them further.
"Let's go."
I propelled my body toward the destroyer that had fired the cannon.
Puaaang!
My body shot forth along with a shockwave.
"The shell was blocked!"
"Who blocked it?"
"Was it a dud?"
"No! It was stopped right in front of the ship!"
"I must be crazy, but it looked like a person......."
Listening to the chaotic transmissions, I reached the destroyer in a single step.
Stopping in front of the destroyer, I looked down at the bridge.
Perhaps not expecting combat to occur, people were gathered on the bridge.
People looking at me in surprise.
"It really is a person."
"A person is flying!"
It seemed the people watching the destroyer had seen me.
I extended my palm toward the bridge. And then, I cast a spell.
"Fall, lightning."
Flash.
A bolt of lightning fell from the dark sky.
Though it was a destroyer well-prepared for lightning strikes, this lightning was not that kind of lightning.
Kwa-boom!
The bridge, struck directly by the lightning, burst apart.
"Ship 3 is hit! All hands, battle stations!"
The commander's voice came through the communicator.
I examined the ship with my senses.
When the voice rang out, there was no one actually speaking.
Unfortunately, it seemed the fleet commander was not aboard this ship.
'Where is he?'
Floating beside the smoking bridge, I looked around.
Now all the ships were moving chaotically, ignoring formation.
"It's definitely a person. And they called down lightning!"
"So there really was a mage?"
"What's a mage?"
Amidst the chaotic atmosphere, I continued to expand my senses.
The sound of wind, the sound of water, the flow of air, the refraction of light.
Even the movement of radio waves.
"The enemy is a human flying in the sky! All units, attack him!"
At last, the fleet commander's voice was heard.
"Found him."
I identified the direction from which the radio waves containing the fleet commander's voice were coming.
The source of the radio waves was behind the clustered destroyers—a ship larger than a destroyer, an Aegis cruiser with radar domes packed across its deck.
While I was figuring out where the fleet commander was, they too had found a way to attack me.
"It's too small! It's not showing on radar!"
"Release the small target filtering!"
"Acquired! Unidentified flying object confirmed! It's registering as smaller than a little bird. Stealthier than even the latest stealth aircraft."
"It doesn't matter. Activate all interception systems! Catch it no matter what!"
With those words, I could sense dozens of radar beams sweeping the sky in unison and pouring down on me.
"Missile interception system active, drone interception system active, target confirmed! Intercepting!"
Machine guns blazed, and missiles launched from the destroyers.
Too-da-da-da-da!
Machine gun fire blanketed the sky, followed by missiles exploding.
Where I had been floating, the sky burned.
The destroyer with the destroyed bridge took a secondary explosion and blew apart.
"Keep firing! It's the bastard that stopped the main gun!"
It was an attack that would have turned anything to dust, yet the fleet commander kept screaming.
As flames covered the sky, a different sound came through the communicator.
"Sonar is picking up noise...... No, this is a torpedo! 200 knots, an incredible speed! Good Lord! Sharp directional change underwater, heading toward the cruiser! Impossible! What is this?"
Hearing the startled voice, I parted the waters.
The water pressure pressed on the shield, but this time it held without issue.
Shoooosh!
My position was 50 meters underwater.
Destroyers passed overhead.
I wasn't an airplane, and I didn't need to insist on flying through the sky.
Before my eyes, the keel of the cruiser carrying the commander was visible.
"It's him! Stop him!"
Along with the voice coming through the communicator, I could sense the person shouting through my senses.
The place where he could be sensed was the center of the cruiser.
It seemed the commander was in a place called the Combat Information Center of the cruiser.
I cast a spell toward the keel of the approaching ship.
"Pierce!"
A spear of water shot forth.
Kwang!
The side of the ship burst open.
"The ship is under attack!"
The commander's scream was heard.
Along with the rushing water, I plunged inside the cruiser.
Escort Fleet (2)