Boom!
The impact rocked the cruiser.
The shock reached the Combat Information Center as well, which was filled with dozens of screens, radar, and sonar displays.
From people rolling on the floor to those gripping their chairs to hold on.
Those who were still relatively conscious stared at the combat situation board.
The cruiser’s sector markers drawn on the combat situation board were beginning to turn red.
The red markers started from below the ship’s flank.
That was where the flooding had begun.
Weeeeeee!
The damage alarm spread throughout the ship.
"-Ammo magazine flooding!"
"Seal the bulkheads! Evacuate the people and check the seals!"
The officer in charge shouted at the urgent report, but
Kuuung!
His shout was rendered meaningless as another shockwave rolled through.
"-It’s not the outer wall. The inner wall! The next bulkhead has been breached! Flooding spreading! Compartments 3 and 4, port engine room flooding!"
The red markers on the situation board spread like blood.
The red markers were closing in on the CIC, the information center, right here.
Those looking at the situation board muttered with shocked faces.
"That means it’s not a torpedo, right?"
"How do we stop that?"
People’s gazes turned backward.
They looked back at the fleet commander and staff officers sitting in the fleet commander’s position in the rear.
One pale staff officer made a suggestion to the commander.
"The water will push all the way here. We must evacuate immediately."
The enemy coming this way was a problem, but the water surging in with him was also a major issue.
To avoid drowning, they had to evacuate in haste.
At those words, the fleet commander let out a short laugh.
"Do you really think you can run? From a superhuman who flies through the sky, blocks missiles, moves through the sea at two hundred knots, and tears ships apart?"
Boom!
With those words, another impact followed.
This time, the impact came from close by.
"-Next bulkhead destroyed. Central passage flooded."
The report, unlike before, felt somber rather than urgent.
The officer who should have been giving orders silently removed his headset.
Other operators closed their eyes instead of looking at their screens, and some drew guns they had never once used.
Seeing that, the commander said.
"It seems the superhuman is targeting me, so all of you withdraw."
The staff officer who had told him to evacuate shook his head at the commander’s words.
"It’s too late."
It was the moment the staff officer’s words ended.
CRAAAASH!
One wall of the information center burst apart.
The electronic equipment installed on the wall flew in all directions, and people were all flung away.
The information center turned into a scene of carnage in an instant.
Those who had been relatively unharmed by the impact looked at the burst wall.
A steel plate had burst inward, leaving a gaping hole.
Strangely, water was not coming in through the broken wall.
Water churned behind the broken wall, but as if blocked by something, it didn’t enter inside.
Water didn’t enter, but someone did.
An Oriental man who entered through the broken wall.
He was someone they were seeing for the first time, but everyone couldn’t help but look at him with frightened faces.
The man was entering through the hole, as if walking on air.
Seeing that, there was no way they couldn’t know that this man had caused all this.
Bang! Ta-tang!
At that moment, gunshots rang out.
It wasn’t the clumsy gunshot of an operator, but the properly fired gunshot of a security guard defending the information center.
Tung! Te-tung!
But the bullets he fired all bounced off the translucent shield surrounding the man.
"He blocked even missiles; there’s no way bullets would work."
The soldier put down his gun in despair.
Seeing that, the expressions of those who had held out hope darkened.
Those who came to their senses looked around.
It had been an enormous explosion, yet more people were alive than expected.
Though puzzled, as everyone was trying to force themselves up, the man’s voice was heard.
"Are you the fleet commander?"
The Oriental man who had just entered was already standing before the fleet commander.
At his words, the commander who had fallen raised his head.
The commander wiped the blood flowing from his forehead with his hand and looked at the man standing before him.
The commander spoke.
"I had heard there was someone who used magic on Earth… I didn’t know it was such a superhuman."
Even at those words, the man’s expression didn’t change.
The commander continued speaking.
"So you were the comrade the President mentioned who delayed Earth’s destruction. If it’s you, the President’s words must not be lies."
The commander, letting out a sigh, asked again.
"Seeing how you came before me without killing me, I suppose you’re here to ask for my surrender?"
He looked around.
People looked at him with desperate faces.
The commander hardened his expression.
"However, I have no intention of surrendering. Even if that’s true, what has already happened cannot be undone."
At the commander’s words, the staff officers who had forced themselves up turned pale.
"Commander!"
Despite their shouts, the commander did not change his words.
The commander shut his mouth tightly and glared at the mage.
The Oriental man, the mage—me—I tilted my head.
"I don’t know what stubbornness this is, but that’s not the reason I came all the way here."
"What?"
At the unexpected words, the commander’s expression turned strange.
"I simply wanted to know the location of the Ohio-class submarine attached to this fleet."
"What? Why that submarine?"
The commander’s eyes went wide.
I continued asking the commander.
"I heard that even the assigned fleet doesn’t know the submarine’s exact location, but you should know which area it patrols. Is the submarine inside the Gulf of Tadjoura?"
The commander’s eyes trembled.
I examined his eyes and entire body with my senses.
His gaze turned to one side, and sweat sprouted from his arm.
His breathing and heart jumped irregularly.
His entire body revealed the answer.
Combining the magic that could distinguish truth from lies with my senses, I could know the result without hearing the answer.
"It’s outside. Since it’s escorting the transport fleet, it won’t be far. Is it to the north, south, or east?"
Since I was deriving the answer without waiting for one, he spoke hastily.
"South! It’s to the south!"
This didn’t even need to be confirmed with my senses.
"Understood. So it was to the north."
I had obtained everything I needed.
Before leaving, I asked the commander one last time.
"There are non-combatants here too. You said you won’t surrender, correct?"
Stubbornness still remained on his face.
His decision hadn’t changed.
"Understood. Then."
I flicked my hand and dispelled the shield that had been blocking the water.
Kwaaaa-r-r-r!
Water poured in through the burst wall.
The expressions of those blankly watching changed.
The commander looking at me with a surprised face.
People watching the commander with angry faces.
Even people bowing their heads with vacant expressions.
The people’s screams were drowned out by the pouring water.
I avoided the people rushing toward me and leaped into the surging water.
I retraced my steps, firing magic behind me.
Toward the location of the ammunition magazine I had confirmed with my senses.
Kwaaaaaang!
The moment I escaped the ship, an enormous impact struck my shield.
The ammunition magazine had exploded.
The magazine explosion split the cruiser in half.
Shhhoooaaaack!
I soared into the sky with a pillar of fire behind me.
Flames shot up behind me, and waves spread out.
My target was the northeast of the Gulf of Tadjoura.
I crossed the sky at a speed incomparable to what was possible underwater.
Perhaps because the fleet flagship was destroyed, the rebel communication network was so noisy it was difficult to listen to.
"- We surrender, we surrender!"
"- That’s a monster! Why is a guy who should be in movies here in reality!"
"- We’re taking control of this ship from now on. The officers who mutinied have all been arrested."
"- Combat inside the ship! The officer bastards are fighting! Someone help!"
"- You crazy bastards! If you want to die, die alone! We’re abandoning ship!"
At this level, it seemed I didn’t need to worry about the rebels attacking me.
Ignoring the noisy communications, I crossed the Gulf of Aden.
This sea was a narrow gulf leading into the Red Sea.
Narrow width and shallow depth.
If I just knew the direction, my senses alone were enough to find it.
Flying low over the sea and expanding my senses, I felt large, solid things under the water.
They were submarines.
'There’s more than one?'
The escort fleet didn’t have just one Ohio-class nuclear submarine.
But there was neither need nor time to check all of them.
If I checked them one by one, I might receive a barrage of torpedoes or missiles.
Fortunately, there was a way to pick it out.
A spell I had learned with the Demon King.
I had magic to detect radiation.
I spread magic over the sea.
The magic swept past the submarines.
Perhaps because they were all nuclear submarines, radiation could be felt from every one of them.
But one submarine was different.
"Groups of four, a hundred in total… So there are a hundred nuclear warheads loaded on that submarine?"
That submarine was loaded full of objects emitting radiation.
If they were normal US military, they wouldn’t be able to easily retrieve nuclear warheads from the submarine, but the nuclear submarine currently belonged to the rebels.
In the current situation, even if a few warheads went missing while sinking the rebel submarine, it wouldn’t be a problem.
I, who had been flying low over the water, dove into the sea near the submarine.
This time, I approached the submarine carefully enough not to be caught on sonar.
Water magic unfolded.
Shortly after, one Ohio-class submarine that had been submerged quietly settled onto the seabed.
Without a grand explosion, without a trace of destruction, with only small wounds remaining, it disappeared into the darkness of the seabed just like that.
Though the nuclear submarine had been silenced, people didn’t realize it for a long time.
It was because they were preoccupied accepting the surrendering rebels, and because the fleet flagship had been destroyed.
Passing the frantic warships, the base I returned to was also extremely chaotic.
Government troops confining surrendered soldiers, operations that had been halted until now, and people running around to transport refugees.
The formerly quiet base was as noisy as a marketplace.
The conference room was similarly noisy.
On one side, generals were holding communicators, accepting the rebels’ surrender.
Bureaucrats were also busy with satellite phones, communicators, and grabbing people to talk, and the President was also talking with someone else.
Magreta and Catherine were just as busy.
They were so busy they didn’t even know I had come; I went to the side of the President, who looked relatively free.
The person talking with the President was the science advisor I had seen before departure.
"We’ve confirmed with observational equipment! The carbon dioxide and methane that had been increasing by large margins are no longer increasing!"
"So we really did buy some time."
The US government hadn’t just believed my words; it seemed they had checked for themselves.
The President, who had let out a sigh of relief, soon made a regretful expression.
"But they haven’t decreased."
At the President’s words, the advisor shook his head.
"Civilization has been largely destroyed so they should have decreased, but glaciers have melted and wildfires broke out even more than that. We should simply be grateful that they’ve stopped increasing."
"So in the end, the evacuation plan must continue."
"We can’t live on Earth anymore anyway. Farming is difficult, and the oceans are a mess."
"Were we wrong?"
"It couldn’t be helped. It was the best option, and thanks to that, we were able to buy time."
It seemed like a conversation giving each other absolution, so I interrupted right away.
"I’ve finished the work."
At my words, the President and the advisor looked at me with surprised faces.
"So you came."
"G-good work."
Looking at the two people who seemed fearful of me, I spoke of my plans.
"Since I’ve finished what I had to do, I was thinking of going back soon."
Magreta and Catherine might still have work left, but there was nothing for me to do here right now.
To tell the truth, I was worried about Trappist.
The Demon King was dead, but the half-destroyed moon was still revolving in the sky.
In a situation where monsters could come down from the moon at any time.
Since I had gathered all the necessary nuclear warheads in my magic box, it was time to return now.
As the two made vexed expressions at my words, Soph’s voice rang out.
"-Before you go back, why don’t you go see your father. There’s still time."
A suggestion from Soph, different from before.
I looked down at the spear in my hand.
A cracked and worn spear.
The spear was still emitting light.
Hometown (1)