Appalling Interlude

It was the 1st day of the 2nd week of the 10th month since the start of the war. On the shallowest waters of the Little Lake, several dozen ships of the same size except for one were sailing in formation together, moving northwards.

In the morning, just morning of this day, Ciemnosc led his naval military but was not alone on the sides. From early this morning, the ships around at the two ports whose overall size was more oversized than the port he first built and the ones that have been rebuilt now by the major organizations by a not small margin. And now, there were not just 1 but 2 close to the base, and another 2 were being made farther away from the first 2 ports by the rest of the naval military personnel who still needed more training or experience in the water.

The first port built, nearest to the base, was facing the eastern south of the Region with its end. It was several thousands of kilometers long, not just because for the sake of a large number of ships planned to be built around and docking them to such, but also to work as blockades. Though they were also made of wooden materials, the engineered wood they used to build them wasn’t enough, so Ciemnosc had the Craftsmaking division take care of it.

Though the Craftsmaking division did well, they received much more advice from Ciemnosc to rearrange and ultimately strengthen those ports’ defenses; in the end. They weren’t to have cannons built on them, for they were not actual blockades and would mostly work to deter the enemy from trying what they had tried. In any case, as for the concern of not having weapons for defending these ports, there would be the several innumerable ships around equipped to destroy - now to safeguard.

Being just a little past a few hours of walk from the base to the shore, where that first port was, the second port was a little lower and towards the south, as well as on the other side’s lakeshore. It was instead aimed at the western north with its end. The profundity of the water was still adequate since it was the shallowest water section of the Little Lake still.

They were more or less ‘facing each other’ but also at entirely different distances apart from each other. Just some hundreds of kilometers after the 1,000th kilometer mark below the 2nd port, a small part of the deep waters of the Little Lake. This section of the deep waters was like a hand without fingers trying to close into the 2nd port, only a tiny part of itself was close by, and there was a thick, wide ‘U’ shape defining the end of the shallowest waters and deep waters of the Little Lake.

Some thousands of kilometers away down the lake towards the south was where the 3rd and 4th ports were more or less being built and right towards the center of the deep waters of the Little Lake. The 3rd one is once again on the western shore of the Little Lake, and the 4th one is on the eastern lakeshore of the same.

Though the shallowest waters of the Little Lake were much longer traveling than the deep waters of such, the volume of water in the latter was more abundant than the former by a large enough margin to make the shallowest waters of the Little Lake look like a natural pool of water trying to be a small lake.

On the other hand, the depths of the deep waters of the Little Lake were already beyond the thousand, so further improvements and new ideas for the building of this port took a bit of a long time to make. Ciemnosc let it all to the Craftsmaking division, interjecting from time to time with little problems, just because he wanted to and not because of any other reason, though.

The 3rd port was then facing the south at the center of the Region with its end as long and wide as the 1st and 2nd ports. The 4th port was facing more the southern west of the Region as a whole. And on the Region’s map, it was as if it was directly facing the bottom left corner of the Region.

Since the deep waters were that deep already, it took some time but was already started being built as it was being successfully constructed with the idea of not having to make supports that reach the deepest parts of the lake at this section of the entire way up to the end of each port. Only at the end of said ports would there be a hell of long supporting pillars for that matter. They were meant to be semi blockading ports, after all.

The number of ships sailing into the enemy’s waters wasn’t by any means little. From the 1st and 2nd ports, there were more than several dozen already prepared during the last 16 days for the sole purpose of sailing on this day and for a long trip all the way up to the enemy’s ports. Or at least as close as possible, for they weren’t the only ones with ships that had built massive numbers of them.

In the case of the base, the Craftsmaking division didn’t have any problems with the fabrication of these larger and simply better ships than those of the major organizations, the comparison already having been made with the previous, most recent mission and only naval military-related mission of the base. Or, at the very least, its first naval military mission.

Now, however, Ciemnosc was leading what was considered a semi operation, for he had no intention to directly end the enemy here once and for all. It was simply a battle on the lake and for the ownership of the lake, or at least some chunks of it that were barely being traversed. It wasn’t going to shake the foundations of the enemy, and neither was it going to definitely stop them from building more ships and recruiting more ‘brave warriors’ to try out the academy’s power.

The Craftsmaking division of the base didn’t have any problems creating ships, especially with the machines that work without pure energy nor Power Energy, pure metal, wood, and some other thingies, and fuel like ordinary people’s stuff.

However, the Craftsmaking division wasn’t given much time to learn how ships fully worked. The process of building them was simple and without the need for any more precision than when making cannons. It was similar to the armored cars’ armor but also needed more detail than such. It was somewhat in between the making of armored cars and cannons in overall difficulty.

Still, it was enough to slightly comprehend how these ships worked, but not well enough about the differences between using typical materials like the major organizations did, and engineered wood as the base does.

Surrounded by dozens of small ships, Ciemnosc’s ship was in the center towards the rear of the formation. There was only a line of small ships at the tail of his medium sized ship where they all advanced at mid-full speed and looked like robotic ducks being led by mama. Only that mama was at the center and behind instead of at the front and directly conducted the little ugly ducklings around.

The medium ship, which was only 3 currently built, was more enormous and could now carry 4 cannons… on each side of the ship. Its starboard and port were now with 4 cannons each, which made them quite the potent monstrous mobile fortress on water. Its speed was exactly the same as that of small ships, though they had just as much agility and sudden nimbleness as the smaller ducklings.

With a length of 180 meters and a width of 78 meters, it had an unusual height without the masts 3 times the altitude of the small ships. Its width was a lot but also capable enough to traverse even up to the very beginning and smallest parts of the Little Lake. It had 3 masts, each one 53 meters tall and 9 meters thick, making this monster of an oversized cultivator’s work into a fine piece of wood that could float at high speeds and destroy whatever was its target at an even quicker pace.

The medium ship was pretty to take out with several dozen small ships jointly, just a bit over the current amount surrounding it. It had a semi-intranet system where it could ‘bond’ with small ships for good. This way, the communication between the ‘mama’ ship and the ‘ugly duckling’ ships was to be untraceable, protected, and solid against intervention.

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It wasn’t a connection to the point of the captain o the medium ship being able to move several dozen small ships while steering the helm of their medium ship. But there was a sort of ‘guidance’ in which the mama’s movements were shared with the ugly ducklings at the same time. Together, with maximum precision, they moved as one for the time being as there wasn’t much need to be alarmed. Their surveillance array formations were also many times better than that of any organization in the world, including the Rocaloi Academy’s if excluding ‘their’ grand array.

On the ship, Ciemnosc watched over with his modern uniform from the academy. He wasn’t around the panels or before the large helm of the ship, which was strangely of standard size.

“... Hasaaah,” while Ciemnosc watched far away to the thousands of armored cars both the east and west of the Little Lake, he heard the whispering of a breathless, cold, and intimate sensation prickling at his left ear.

Crrr~, gurgle gurgle, splash~.

He wasn’t the only one, for he could see that everyone else on their ships also heard it as well. They were looking around themselves, looking at each other questioningly only to ‘answer’ one another that it wasn’t them and that they thought it was the other who did it. For a moment, a sensation of bitter coldness enveloped the dozens of small ships and the medium ship.

“...” Ciemnosc’s eyebrows frowned a little every few seconds at seeing the current situation develop. After looking left and right, moving his head a little and from the corners of both his eyes, he made a simple gesture backwards with his right hand towards the captain, who in return saw it and began to change the steering wheel’s position and then talked to his collar.

… GURGLE, gurlge, GURGLE…

Everyone knew the sound of bubbles popping out on a surface of a liquid, but even as the sailors and captains looked at the water, be it in the distance or right beside their ships on the water, not a single thing could be seen with the shallowest waters of the Little Lake being as pristinely light blue as always. At the same time, an unbecoming, mystical fog began to seep between the ships and around them all.

“Sheesh, what is happening now?” A voice that sounded dumb said in askance. But not expecting to be heard. Yet everyone around the dozens of ships heard him clearly and almost as if he was speaking right into their ears. Right away, both of Ciemnosc’s eyes opened widely, and his pupils constricted slightly. He showed away some sailor that was passing by and came down the stairs to the deck of the medium ship.

“Everyone is to stop making any movement. Let the ships sail at the slowest speed possible forwards, nobody talk!” Ciemnosc used his communication device, his words were first calm and like steel, but turned a bit anxious when the 2 last words came from his words in an exclamation that immediately shut the slightly chatter among the ships.

It was already normal to have small chats, especially since they were a few hours away from the enemy’s territorial waters and had just been a little over a quarter of an hour since they started sailing to the north of the lake. But with their Chief’s orders, even if oppressive or seemed nonsensical, everyone shut up. However, in Ciemnosc’s eyes, it showed how much he knew it was too late for some even as he already spoke out himself.

“Bluaarrggh!” - “Uwuwegff!” - “Blaarghk!” - “Bowaaaarrgssh~-...”

Plop. Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud. Splash, splash.

Sounds of vomiting resounded, one after the other, the sailors who had been on a chatter after the whisper were now vomiting their eyes, tongues, teeth, and even shit. It was all being sucked in from their faces and going out of their mouths, with the last disgusting element being accompanied by some with their entrails coming out as if turning into significantly sized worms residing inside their bodies or after their feces went completely went out.

But right after that happened, with their entrails lying around their feet lifelessly, the rest of their organs was next. The Power Energy that only some managed to employ didn’t help at all. It instead made their mouths close like they were possessed as they munched on their own organs one after the other, shredding them but not eating them back and continuing to expel them from their bodies.

Afterward, once their heart was also expelled from their biting mouths, their brains seemed to melt, causing all of their bodies to start shaking as if about to turn into mindless worms without any hope or intelligence left in them.

This all happened without anyone being to do anything within the duration of a few seconds. Everything went so fast that not even Ciemnosc had the time to study those on the same ship as him who suffered the same fate. Though he himself also felt an unknown, unnatural force begin to want him to throw everything up. Yet, with his All-Devouring Force Chronicles, such a mild attempt of bewitching was puny and pathetic as he had ultimate manipulation over every single tiny thing conforming him.

But even as he knew of the risks, he had to warn his troops. Otherwise, it might’ve probably been half his troops directly killing themselves, bewitched by… the unknown.

“Holy cow, fuck! What the fu- ck, eh- ah?! Chief, wh- wbghlasshh- aaaah!!”

Splash.

“I said, no one talk,” Ciemnosc said, right after plunging his thin Mortal sword directly into the heart of that sailor who spoke just now and towards the port of the medium ship he was on. The sailor didn’t even know what was up, and the sailors who witnessed which were virtually everyone who was terrified by watching these impossible things happen but still had their mouths shut.

The words from that now-gone sailor were clear and loud in the deathly silence amidst the misty fog. But it was already deafening when he fell on the water, a streak of blood along with black and brown accompanying the sailor down whose vomiting stopped the moment his heart was broken into a horrible sight in his body.

Everyone also heard the words their Chief spoke right after; of course they would, as it was the most audible thing in the world even as they were hundreds and hundreds of meters away from him. They were somber, no longer sounding anxious even if just a bit, but were now as serious as they had never heard him before. And that within itself was already terrifying too.

By now, their sights only allowed them to watch each other, even between ships farthest away from each other. So they could see how their Chief, despite being all - basically - mighty and powerful, was bleeding from the left corner of his mouth after that sailor fell in the water.

“Face down!” Ciemnosc shouted, gruesomely somewhat and barking. The sailors didn’t understand if it was because of seeing him murder a fellow student and sailor, a person of his own troops. But they listened to him nonetheless. And while Ciemnosc had no time to care about how glad he should be for not having impertinent attitudes and for having trained them well. He just strolled to the bow of the medium ship and began looking all around, stepping up onto it.

‘!’ Ciemnosc stood atop the bow, looking everywhere ahead, as if just trying to find something he failed to notice before when he was looking around and after the whisper sounded. His torso was heaving up and down; heavily. His eyes narrowed slightly and turned quite pained every few tens of seconds.

On the other hand, his troops were kneeling, even his captains, in a fetal position of sorts but facing the floor and their knees placed together side to side against it as well. With their palms against their napes, their elbows accommodating their bodies as they waited minute after minute. But, from time to time, there was the sound of a few noises here and there from other sailors’ mouths.

Or rather than just words, some directly made a shrill scream or exclaimed, right before vomit sounds would follow. From there, some other sailors felt disgusted and even clamored or reacted in response just to start vomiting and killing themselves in that gory process as always.

Each time it happened, Ciemnosc’s eyes would ripple, his stomach churn, and his throat would suddenly behave as if it had snakes, worms, and slugs intertwining against each other and dancing in his neck. At times, his eyes would slowly link as he felt the pain and the sensation of that unknown force again and again.

Phhshk! Phhshk crreeshhk, crreeshhk phhshk…

Ciemnosc was paralyzed at the moment. All he could feel was the unknown force rapidly lunge at him, exerting his body so that he would deliciously die as well. But at those moments, it was in which the captain of the medium ship reacted and sent some noises through the communication device on his collar, but towards the rest of the captains of the small ships.

There was then a change, and Ciemnosc felt the force trying to lunge at him once again after the sound of another sailor went out suddenly be disrupted and made failed attempts for the first time. Looking around while his Spirit Sense was focused and hence became exposed to the sailors even if they had no such long-range Spirit Sense, they all felt their Chief’s Spirit Sense as it traveled all around through the air and water so effortlessly!

With his eyes, then, Ciemnosc was able to see how his captains were moving all around on their own ships and executing the noisy sailors. It pained them, sure, but this was for their Chief and… truly, for the lives of the rest. But it wasn’t always needed. Some sailors who realized they had fucked up, with the last bit of conscience and ‘free’ will, directly killed themselves with their weapons. Be it blunt, edged, direct poisons, or by crushing their own vitals.

Ciemnosc was thankful for that, but he was busy searching. Until a few minutes later, when the owner of that unknown, unnatural force became desperate and anxious to clumsily show its tracks - Ciemnosc’s darkest pools as irises and pupils— eyes —opened in a certain direction outside the misty fog thousands of meters in front of their formation still advancing at the slowest rate.

…