The Future Fights In The Deepest Waters

That battle also gave meaning to what Ciemnosc, at that moment, recognized as the beginning of the authentic contests for the Little Lake's ownership. It was impossible to think the enemy would just grant them the rest of the Little Lake's southern waters, satisfied with just the beginning of the Little Lake as theirs. They would look for ways to get into a fight in the fundamental, most immense, deepest, and darkest blue waters of this wonder of the world and the cultivation world.

The enemy had brought their ships from afar, sneaking into the Little Lake’s deepest waters, and was doing everything to keep the element of surprise in their hands. The chasers they sent after the scout weren’t returning. But that was fine as it meant that the scout was still being pursued and didn’t successfully flee or that the scout was rescued somehow. Though it could also mean they were killed, it was very likely that they at least killed the scout.

So when they neared the 4th port, and all they saw was the many small ships floating there without sinking slightly down before surfacing up again and again, they became more excited as they could already feel their first victory about to be achieved.

Looking at their sides, behind the port was the outpost built recently with its lights lit up as if it would always be alive. Seeing how their enemy was so clueless about their ‘impossible to invade fortress’ had already been breached and were about to suffer their own first sweeping defeat, they became excited and could already envision themselves returning to their own ports and being celebrated.

Who knows, they might even be able to bring back Ciemnosc’s head and his head only. Only Obsidiafying realm cultivators could evade the direct disintegration against a pure energy shell. No matter that monster’s battle prowess, he was still far away, possibly a couple of hundred years away from the Obsidiafying realm.

They neared the 4th port without any trouble. It looked so peaceful and completely manless, or womanless for that matter. Which was, in turn, not what Po Zhao had warned them about before. As such, though everyone in the enemy party was excited and couldn’t wait to get to destroy these small ships and steal a few for further investigations, Po Zhao was instead incredulous but glad that there wasn’t anyone nearby.

If anything, he thought that their enemy was still celebrating and that such was the reason why there wasn’t anyone guarding the ports. It had also been just a few days since their enemy had won such a victory and after what a ‘kind-given’ excuse from one of their one.

But there was the expected change when they neared just about 2 km away from the 4th port. And that was, without a doubt, dozens and dozens of small ships, a few medium ships, and a large ship simply waiting there afloat and… behind a goddamn illusory array formation!

Since the beginning of Ciemnosc’s ‘military career’, he had been known for tricking the other 3 major organizations other than the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect with array formations. These array formations weren’t the best to be used for war or direct combat. It was barely any good to have them inscribed that didn’t have to do with a fight, just like how the academy has ‘its’ grand array to protect the academy’s territory from sight and not just from attacks.

Before, all the enemy could see was a port and several small ships that weren’t little but also had a quietness like no other. After, however, the enemy could see a flash without much brilliance and then a severe number of small ships, some with the medium ships that corresponded to them, and a large ship at the front that was… simply vast.

The small ships were already known, but the medium ships were still somewhat unknown. Yet, there were already quite a few and not just 1 as they had thought. But, forgetting about that… there was actually a much larger ship! And so damn bigger it was. It was gigantic compared to any other!

With a length of over 260 meters, a width so crazy it was 107 meters, and its 4 masts were an incredible 116 meters tall and a thickness of 18 meters. A total of 16 canons and a crew for about a 1,000-people battalion regiment unit. They had the very same wooden material as the small and medium ships. However, their structure, even just from outside without scanning over it, was thicker and yet smoother-looking than the other ships in the base’s arsenal.

Seeing such a towering behemoth in front of them, of the enemy whose ships were even about half that of the base’s small ships, there was a sudden truthful, never more authentic silence descending all over the deep parts of the Little Lake where the base’s 3rd and 4th posts were.

The battle commenced, but only when the large ship sent a type of flare-like tool into the sky, flying simply above itself with an orange color as if it was simple fireworks, flying into the sky before showing their dazzling beauty. Only, that wasn’t fireworks, though they were indeed fire.

When that thing reached the sky, a net-like ‘drawing’ was suddenly made around the base’s ships and the enemy ships, ‘trapping’ everything under it with a net-like design… It was… incredibly… an array formation the size of kilometers long covering double the size of the battlefield!

And right after the large ship made that move. The medium ships followed up. Light blue strands of energy began shaking and soaring high up like electric snakes. Effectively destroying all communication from the enemy side.

That was when it was the enemy itself that fired the first shot. One of their ships became emboldened after feeling afraid and then humiliated, eventually leading to their crew suddenly firing away their 4 canons towards the large ship.

But, incredibly, to everyone’s eyes and minds, the large ship didn’t seem to have a protective barrier of its own. Instead… it had a layer of protection! The canons’ pure energy shells didn’t explode as a light green ‘sphere’ barrier showed itself and protected the large ship from the enemy’s fire.

But, attached to its structural body like skin, the large ship didn’t even tilt after receiving that attack, which in turn looked like a person trying to spit on an incredibly gigantic boulder. And so, the large ship was the first ship from the base’s side to respond in kind, firing all its 16 canons towards the enemy, immediately destroying an enemy ship without needing any extra shot to be fired. The enemy ship in question turned to a little cluster of pure energy on and in the water.

That allowed for hell to break loose.

Right away, all that could be seen within the waters of the Little Lake was an absurd, unbelievable, yet amazing show of both tactics and might. The large ship, for instance, didn’t just float there like the medium ships were doing. Allowing half their dozen small ships to join together in a joint assault against the enemy ships who were now trapped within the large ship’s netting array formation. The other half would continue to fire at the enemy ships from afar.

The large ship advanced into the enemy ranks, with 8 canons at its starboard and port, but they were not placed on the same level on top of the deck. There were several little floors differentiated from one another on the large ship’s deck, unlike the small ships or even the medium ships, the latter only having an extra floor for the captain’s deck out in the open.

Rushing into the enemy straight, the large ship with Ciemnosc on board crushed some small ships, that were already almost in the hundreds, directly with their protective barriers seemingly finding their bane in the large ships’ colossal structure and its ‘new’ protective array formation.

Each time an enemy ship was just slightly crashing against the large or vice versa, the enemy ships would be as if attracted to the bottom of the Little Lake right below the large ship. Their protective barriers would scintillate a few times in just a moment before completely dulling, exposing the enemy ships to be dragged down to the bottom of the Little Lake.

Any part of their structure immediately crumbled, like cookies in a hungry child’s mouth, like flesh, meat, and bones in Ciemnosc’s mouth - they disappeared as they half-fully broke before they were even pushed down the surface of the cold water by the large ship’s hull.

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On the other hand, while the enemy ships fired away, their canons would randomly aim at the small ships. But whenever a small ship had its protective barrier taken down, the enemy ships would directly aim at their small but long rectangle-shaped ship’s sails. And as the small ships had their sails focused on, though resisting quite a few attacks and their canons intercepting as many enemy projectiles as possible while its crew used missile tools and other similar tools, they were still being bested by the enemy ships’ tactical objectives.

Yet, though the aiming at their ship’s sails was just right, for this battle where they were even trapped, it was naturally not the best course of action. Where would their enemy, which was already holding the advantage, try to run off to or maneuver when they were already so close up, and ships were already boarding other ships?

The fight continued for not a small amount of time. The large ship was constantly attempting to be boarded. But before any enemy cultivator could make it even halfway up to the deck, they would be taken down by the self-defensive measure tools installed, hidden, at every ‘edge’ of the ship.

The large ship was, by far, the most destructive ship ever created when it came to the history of the world and that of the cultivation world. It could shoot 6 times in a row, and 8 canons fired at the same target below with even extensions allowing them to shoot at those who wanted to escape its aim by sailing over to float right beside the large ship. All it required was for those 8 canons to fire at the same target, and any enemy ship would be blown to barely anything remaining of such.

On the other hand, small ships boarded an infinitude of enemy ships, who would in turn fight to the death and desperately. The enemy sent itself into their enemy’s maws and became trapped. It was already bad that they were aware of the risks and sure death in case anything turned for the worst. But they had been obviously ambushed by their enemy instead…

Fighting with such brutal ‘honesty’ to themselves and already being prepared for the worse even before the start of the mission - the enemy was no scaredy cat as they faced almost similar firepower and amount of ships. Flesh flew to the sky and then fell into the water. Blood was drawn left and right, first up and then down into the water; too. Lives were being reaped, one side dying at a 100% rate while the other had continuous saves from others of the same side.

Even then, the base’s losses were also piling up. Despite there being so many rescues when it was needed, they couldn’t just drag or carry injured away without receiving injuries themselves or without another putting him, her, or themselves at an even higher risk than they can already be in the middle of a war, sometimes dying to save that one injured or so.

Naturally, those worse-case scenarios were rare. And at most, it was a safe retreat for the base’s forces with varying degrees of injuries. Though the enemy’s casualty rate was the highest, their war-addicted ways allowed them to maybe not resist for long, but it did help them give some back and kill a very satisfactory amount despite them being ambushed.

In the end, with the deepest waters of the Little Lake turning darker than possible in the night, after about no more than an hour since the battle had started, it concluded with the last few enemy ships being taken care of.

For the last enemy ships, they had tried to escape the netting array formation, retreating all the way to their rear, hoping they could find a way, a gap, or a mistake in the array formation… but alas, it was just impossible. Who created such a large array formation if not Ciemnosc? Maybe he would have had some errors here and there, especially since it was basically with the use of a pre-inscribed array formation… but that was only if it was the Ciemnosc from the past who wasn’t being taught by that unknown force about array formations.

Which… was strange. Especially considering that Lady Calisneia’s greatest talent, according to the records… was only at alchemy and handling flora for the sake of alchemy.

That day, easily; half the enemy’s casualties were all the work of the large ship that had to be both: driven by Ciemnosc and commanded by him. The large number of sailors needed for this ship to work was amazing to say the least, compared to a medium ship that would only require about ⅕ of its total crew size.

But those missions were over, and the victory over the enemy had been achieved, one way or another. Every sailor was precious, and every troop was also precious. Ciemnosc couldn’t get new students just whenever he wanted. The 1,000,000+ students sent to his base were already the academy’s limit, more or less.

And that didn’t stop there, for other missions were already in the making while the 4 large ports were also to be made very soon. It was only a question of time for all that to keep going, and Ciemnosc just had to relax and continue working on his ‘homework’. Practicing and meditating, Ciemnosc spent his days with much more calmness than when he had first started creating this base and leading its— his —people.

… Right now, at these moments, after all those mini operations and mini defense had happened. Ciemnosc was in his VIP room and was, in tranquility, executing some brushes and some touches directly to the air here and there. In his right hand was his Inscription Pen, while in his left hand, his fingers continued to move, poke, twist, and hook with every move of his right hand and with the Inscription Pen.

The Inscription Pen was the same as when elder Apegos had given to him, only now that it had a bit of its color faded away, which Ciemnosc didn’t bother preserving or re-painting. If he was to do that with something, it would only be with the bike that was always warm and comfy beside his commanding vehicle in his Covert Space bags.

He had 17 Covert Space bags since… he escaped the east and up until now; 13 in total. With 8 of those were used for currency, though it was mostly empty as of late, and the other 9 are for the main Covert Space bags where he would keep his stuff. Especially his vehicles, the Cloudless Eagle, and his ordinary, top notch and thin Mortal swords.

“What you doin’?” From his private bedroom door, the light steps of the now 3rd Conflagrate realm Fatima were ever so explicit in his ears before she peeked and spoke, resting her left arm right below her elbow against the doorframe.

“Practicing, sit down and watch,” Ciemnosc responded by slightly turning his head to the left and gesturing to the corner of his bed, closer to him, for Fatima to understand. She nodded, then went over, wearing skimpy shorts and sat on his bed to watch his firm yet slim bare back.

Fatima watched her Spirit Sense gently floating over to Ciemnosc’s hands, the back of his hands, fingers, and then to his work of art. It was, in her eyes, beyond beautiful and consisted of simple colors and array formations’ drawings, but was still beyond her knowledge and acceptance in both appearance and depth. She couldn’t figure it out. But she could feel it as she saw the mix of golden, navy blue, and steel gray intertwining and dancing to both his hands’ movements.

She was now at the 3rd Conflagrate realm, while Leen and Gallah were the same. Missa, on the other hand, had reached the 7th stage of the Conflagrate realm. From the 5th stage to the 7th stage of the Conflagrate realm in less than a year… that was unprecedented!

While the academy was taking note of the base’s ways and the methods Ciemnosc used, and just seemed to work… Whether because of being too proud or having too much confidence in their own ways, the Rocaloi Academy didn’t seem interested in knowing why there were much easier breakthroughs into the Conflagrate realm for the students who had been in a harsh bottleneck for years, even few tens of years at the peak of the Spirit Gathering realm when coming to the base.

If anything, and in fact, Ciemnosc could almost guess that the academy was attributing all of that… to themselves! As if they were the reason it even happened in the first place and that it was only because of the academy being opened to the world for the first time that allowed their blocked minds to open and to reel in the truths of the world because bla bla bla…

“...” Fatima looked in silence, her eyes tranquil, already used to seeing Ciemnosc’s incredible feats in the formation of arrays. They still shone beautifully by the array formation’s drawings as they became more and more complete each time.

“!...” At one point, Ciemnosc was close to ending and, with his right hand bringing the Inscription Pen below to his solar plexus, he seemed to have a strand of his dark Power Energy drift right out of there and extend towards the Inscription Pen. It almost looked like Ciemnosc was able to simply send his dark Power Energy out of his body!!

But he was not. All he was doing was part of the array formation he was currently… in; physically in, without Fatima noticing. His left hand was brought over to his solar plexus as well, from which his right hand then abruptly crushed the Inscription Pen. The Inscription Pen’s breaking gave off a glow that lasted for an instant before being dragged and engulfed by the array formation’s drawings as if it was an incredible supplement.

Then, the array formation’s drawings expanded and thinned out, forming a coarse square shape, like a portrait. In it, Fatima’s eyes were sucked in, her face glowing brighter every second. As she looked, Ciemnosc felt his body becoming separate from the drawings as they thinned out and hovered a bit higher into the air.

Slowly starting to form a patron, with the navy blue color creating the background, the golden seemed to make a strand of something in the middle of the ‘painting’, and the steel gray seemed to start forming a body.

The golden turned to hair, a beautiful long hair, while the navy blue changed and became darker where the steel gray was outlining a body. The steel gray ended up as the outline color of all objects within the painting. But all that was in the painting was a seemingly very long bed… that wasn’t as proportionally wide as it was long.

Meanwhile, with the steel gray and the new dark blue, a congenial and decent dress was formed, while the golden revealed creamy skin as it shed and spread downwards like water ruining the painting. But it instead made it all even more beautiful.

In the end, Fatima’s painting was completed as she looked at the ‘first point of view’ from the painting, staring at anyone who saw it to feel like they were her world.

The real Fatima was more than wondrous, she felt like a lightning hammer with a weight over millions of tons hit her head as she slowly stood up, and the Fatima painting within the paint itself stood up as well. But the Fatima in the painting was still staring at the first point of view from the painting; while the real Fatima looked at the painting itself. She felt weirdly… fantastical.

…