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Chapter 324: Asgard
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The clouds that drifted in the skies were parted by that loud and raging roar of power.
The players closest to the dragon all died.
Some of them, those who were 2km away, were all blasted off their feet and was sent tumbling in the air or in the ground.
The lands quaked at the devastating power this one attack carried and even if it’s still in the middle of the day, the intensity of the illumination of this attack had dimmed the light of day.
Like a lantern burning brightly in sunset, it caused the air to ripple and the majestic sight of the beast in the midst of the parting hoop made out of a sea of dusts clouds, were all recorded by the cameras that floated around it.
Accompanying this loud cry was fluctuations of the light that surrounded it.
Then, in a snap of a moment, the Dragon Roar’s cannon blast that I directed to the sky, thinned out as it vanished. The dragon’s silhouette, still facing up with its mouth open, staggered as it coughed out a last batch of fresh dragon blood… before its body suddenly disappeared.
“What…?”
“What?!”
“WHAT?!!”
.
.
.
.
“WHERE DID THE DRAGON GO?!!!”
While everyone was aghast as to what happened, a few people with keen eyes looked up and saw a figure… no, it wasn’t a figure but an object.
“Look! Up there!”
From one person to another, they all focused their eyes to the ‘object’ they all saw; it was a big black ball.
“Who’s that?”
“Below that object… there’s a person!”
“That’s… that’s Siva!”
“Goodness gracious, that’s truly him! Siva!”
Siva… was carrying the big black ball on his hands as he raised them up. From the ground, it looked like Siva was carrying a black sun.
The ball was 95m large and in fact, it wasn’t an entirely giant black ball as it had few swirling white plated ‘drones’ that supported the structure like a mother, injecting electricity on places that seemed to need it.
“By the Gods, did he… did he stuff that dragon in that large thing he’s holding?”
When an NPC spoke at this part, brains started to work as eyes fixed on Siva’s figure.
He was wearing a deep sea blue-themed armor set with a red cape that fluttered in the winds. His hands were raised up to support the black sun while his helmet’s Y-shaped gap for the eyes and mouth only had darkness in it.
*****
“Siva!”
Back on the Miranda, Rafaela shouted with all her elation and this sight caused the eyes looking at Siva to look at her twice.
[Commander… then…]
The first to speak up was Momonga and he was not happy with Siva getting the whole dragon and (maybe) stuffing it on that black sun; and also to Rafaela’s reaction.
Rafaela was also guilty. Her heart jumped in joy when she saw him safe and so that reaction was entirely her fault for not being able to stop it.
“My apologies.” She sat down on her chair. “Just as all of you know, he is my friend from way long back and of course, as a friend, and as well as a Contessa and an Ambassador, I have to remain as neutral as I can in regards to this matter. But now that we had seen the original owner of the supposed dragon’s corpse actually getting it by himself, we could only proceed with negotiation.”
Of course, having said this much, the unhappiest of all of them was the scar-faced Oswald.
[This is bullshit! It appeared on our city! He had no right to claim it all for himself! No, in fact, he’s trespassing and so he’s stealing the properties of The Union! He must be punished!]
Having said this, his Real@D rendering blinked out of the conference and on everyone’s view, Battleship Mercurous flew out of their deadlock and headed straight for Siva.
The Cyclones flew out and went straight for Siva while the two Flagships and their escort warships all proceeded into their battle formation.
“Admiral, please sto—!”
[Commander.]
The strong admonishment from Admiral Momonga stopped Rafaela from issuing her attempt to stop him.
Rafaela, having been yelled at calmly by Admiral Momonga breathed deeply. Just as she thought that she was out of the deadlock of the rock and the truck, she now found herself in a quagmire of her own doing.
She tried to protect Siva’s interests by stating that he was the one battling the opponent and that he might perhaps had some relationship with The Union’s City Lord.
Now that Oswald was acting on behalf of The Union itself, as a ‘mere’ Ambassador, when Siva was declared a trespasser by one of its Generals that held actual military authority, this had become an internal problem that The Union must solve by themselves.
[Our business is done here. Commander Rafaela, we hope that you can give us a heads up when you try to negotiate with Siva… or The Union at that matter… the Haven Dust Company will make sure that it will be worth your time. Let’s go.]
Flagship Kannada’s Commander bid her goodbye as she blinked out of the conference.
Next, the Commander of Flagship Luta spoke to Newgate and told him a few thing before Newgate gave the man a nod as the commander blinked out of their conference as well.
Their Hyperdrive Jump was still on cooldown so they departed the city and headed straight for the direction of their continents —aside from Flagship Kannada— to exit Alexandria.
In the air, separated by kilometers of distance, are the Miranda Battle Fleet and the Manhattan War Fleet.
[We are also getting out of here.]
As she heard the stiff admonishing voice of the Admiral, Rafaela felt that her heart was aching.
The relationships and the situation had become complicated now because of the declaration of The Union’s Admiral Oswald.
[I will not question your relationship with Siva but I will have to ask you to compensation me for not reporting all of this to The Empire by contacting Siva to negotiate with that dragon resource.]
Rafaela listened and bit her lower lip.
“I will tell him.”
[Good.]
Upon his comment, the Manhattan Fleet began to turn around and flee to the direction of southwest but before the Miranda managed to turn fully, he also heard Rafaela continue.
“…to kill that ugly bastard.”
Hearing this, for the first time since she knew him, Admiral Momonga laughed out loud and nodded his head in accord.
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[Tell him I send my regards.]
“Yes sir.”
For the first time ever, Rafaela called him sir.
*****
[Kill him for me… and the Admiral.]
“I will.”
[Oh it’s really nice to see you.]
“Sorry that we have to part this way. I will make it up to you for the help. Send me your Blueprint or your much desired equipment set up and I will do my best to create it for you.”
[I will.]
The call blinked out and Siva looked in front of him with a darkened expression. (AN: LOL)
“Akhenaton, prepare to jump.”
[Yes, My Lord.]
Siva was surrounded by Cyclones and in front of him was the large sky blue-themed Battleship that almost became as large as Rewloola.
On the side of it was a name written in white paint with a static watery lettering: MERCUROUS.
Vulcan cannons were pointed at him while he just stood there in midair, looking at the battleship.
“There’s an incoming open channel call from the large battleship.”
“Connect and record it. I wanna see the face of that bastard.”
[So you are Siva?]
“And you are?”
[Admiral Oswald, Union Special Forces. So I won’t speak of pleasantries here. You have something that belongs to The Union and I demand to you as an Admiral tasked to uphold the peace of this city, to surrender everything that you have gathered from the dragon.]
“Are you perhaps mixing things up? This dragon attacked me without reason and I fought with it with my own two hands… and killed it. Tell me, as a smart person, where is the hole you’re using to put your finger into my loot?”
Siva’s sarcastic remark ticked the Admiral and his face raged into an ugly look, with the ugly scar on his face transforming into an utterly horrifying appearance.
[You have a snippy vocabulary there, son. You’re good at twisting the facts to serve your aim. That dragon appeared on our city because it was there, sleeping all along, and it was your presence that had ticked it. You’re the one who trespassed on our territory and as its guardian; of course it will be angry and assault you. Tell me then, as a person who trespassed on our territory and then killed and stole a valuable asset of The Union, is your brain working properly or do you see that that act itself was not a crime in its entirety? You should even be glad that you’re still able to talk back to me with that tone of yours. If you are not keeping our asset as a hostage, you would have been shot where you’re standing at since earlier.”
Siva couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Who’s the one who bends lies into truth? This guy is as shameless as a pig’s arse!
“Hahahahaha….” He couldn’t help laughing. He was really mentally tired and had no more time to play trash words with the Admiral and so he gave Cortana a thought command.
On his vision was Thorn’s and the marshal’s faces who were twitching in rage with the scar-faced Admiral’s shameless declaration.
Siva stopped laughing and then faced the Admiral on his Real@D image.
“You’re really good at this, old man. It’s a shame that you’re stupidly greedy…”
[What did you just call me? Kid, my patience is running out. Give. Me. The. Dragon.]
The Admiral’s tone was layered with ill-intent. He was really threatening Siva. The Cyclone opened their side panel doors and countless people with their readied weapons and spells grouped around to lock him on his location.
[My patience is thinning out, kid.]
Siva’s sarcasm ended there and what replaced it was his sinister voice layered with hate and will to kill him.
“Too bad for you, ugly scar-faced bastard, you’ve just drained my patience.”
The call was cut to an end.
Before the Admiral could even retort back or even react, Siva produced a T-Device on his hand and pressed a button as he spoke a name, “Asgard.”
On the next moment, his body was filled with light and he vanished there and then, along with the black sun that he was holding up in his hands.
Admiral Oswald’s eyes balled wide as he saw it all happened in front of him.
He couldn’t quite make out the proper reaction as to what had just occurred.
But then, one of the crew members on the bridge yelled a report that snapped him out of his stupor.
“High-density energy output detected!”
Then another one added, “Detecting a high-level spatial distortion! Mana Field activated! It’s right above us!”
With a loud gong sound, a large magic circle had just appeared above the Manhattan Battleship.
With the help of the all-view rendering installed on the walls of the command bridge, everyone inside the Battleship could see the magic circle hovering above their heads.
“What is that?!” one of the crew questioned.
Just three seconds had passed since Siva had vanished and his thoughts jumbled as he recalled Siva’s last words and the earlier report.
“Where is that high-density energy—“
Admiral Oswald wanted to ask where that high-density energy output was coming from but his sentence was cut short by a familiar bombardment that exited from the mirror surface of the magic circle.
Searing red flames erupted on the solid shells that penetrated the caught in surprise Manhattan Battleship. Its outer shell crumbled and melted, its command bridge the first to take the hit.
The entire main deck and the succeeding layers of the Battleship were all melted into burning hot metal and the impact was sudden… there were no kinds of preparation to defend at all.
But the attack didn’t end there.
The [high-density energy output] report from four seconds ago reached the Cyclones and the other Flagships and their fleet straight on their central bridges, decimating their ability to make reports and as well as defend, much less retaliate.
The beauty of the combination of D’Catch’s Hyper Strong Arm Punch and the Rewloola’s 16 Bloody Mary Cannons, as well as his new Lambda-Class sniper fleet —had erased the foundations and the remnant threats that is the Manhattan War Fleet in mere seconds.
The watching world, The Union, the other people not involved, the people that almost got involved, and the third and fourth parties who just happens to be there to see it happen… were all frozen stiff at the sight of en entire war fleet, burning in the skies of their own territory.
Right at this moment, they bore witness to the magnificent display of Marshal D’Catch and his newly upgraded and improved sniper fleet.
With the addition of the Rewloola Battleship, his Hyper Strong Arm Punch had just painted a large shadow of a threat on every Admiral and Fleet Commanders out there.
But what’s even more scary than is the fact that he was working in the service of Siva.
At this very moment… the Manhattan War Fleet is officially gone.
*****
The Union HQ, Dakar
One of The Council member cried bloody tears as he saw what happened to the precious War Fleet of The Union.
He was the one who gave the okay with this visit to The North.
It was one thing to lose just one warship but to lose them all in a single attack, and it was even showed to the world, and even to a petty lie of a reason as well, what heartbreaking event is this?!
Everything happened because of greed and it all centered with “SIIIIIVAAAAAAAAAA!!!”
*****
18km away, Siva was watching the scene unfold in a projected panel video.
Beside him were the members of The Company.
“Let go.”
With this command, the castle brightly emitted a light and it spread to the far edges of the floating island… of his [Asgard]… and in the next moment, it vanished without a trace.
*****
In a mountain range 50km away from the Walled City of Aarun… the floating island appeared with a boom as the space was rent and the 35km–large island was inserted.
Like a floating deity, Akhenaton was right above it as its one-armed figure hovered with indifferent eyes.
“Akhenaton.” Siva ordered.
[Leave to me, My Lord.]
With his affirmation, Akhenaton floated down from its position above the floating island and landed in front of it, its feet touching the forest floor.
After a while, “Fortunately, there are no people in this area with only high-ranked monsters in the populated area around us.”
“I’ve been in this place before… Thorn should be familiar with this as well.”
Thorn looked around them and stared at the not too far highest mountain peak.
“Is this Oz?” he asked Siva.
“Yes.”
“Wow. With all that had happened so far, it’s nice to be back here for some reason.”
Fuma ran at the edge of the castle wall and made a deep inhaling breath. “It felt like we’ve been far from this place for years now!”
This is Siva’s base of operations and as well as TOS Guild’s satellite bases. This was also the same place where they all first met.
…and that included Volt’s crew.
While everyone were merrily taking the nostalgic mood into their hearts, Akhenaton began to walk towards the highest peak of the mountain range.
Behind it was the floating continent following like a child to its parent.
Akhenaton climbed the peak that was around 9km high from the base, its peak hidden by the clouds that formed a perpetual sea of white mist in this dense monster forest.
“From this point on, this place shall be our base.”
When Siva declared it, everyone felt surprised by this because given Siva’s notoriety, being this close to a Walled City can spell trouble to come on their direction.
But of course, Siva had long considered that they will react this way and so he gave a command to Akhenaton.
With a ripple of Mana coming from the Crown on the Mobile Fortress’ head, the thick clouds that surrounded them thickened even further and this was a sight that was familiar to every member of The Company who came from Warjillis.
The tip of this mountain peak was covered with snow but the lower half of it was covered with the green of a dense forest.
It was a monster-infested forest 150km wide.
Oz Forest surrounds Walled City of Aarun from the Southeast to the North horizon. It was a very large patch of greenery and only the outer edges of it are guaranteed to have weak predators.
The inner parts up to the mountain range where Siva was located at were filled with B-ranked to A-Ranked monsters.
For normal players, not relying on group support, these are still high-ranked monsters that will be nigh-impossible to defeat just by themselves.
But Siva gave Akhenaton a command to activate one of its inherent abilities; «Defense Zone»
_____«Manual Control»
_____«Island Drop»
_____«Weapons Assimilation»
_____«Eternal Darkness Domain»
>>>>>«Defense Zone»
_____«Auto-Repair»
_____«Freedom»
_____«Island Barrier»
_____«Fortress»
“The Defense Zone shall ensure that this place is going to be hidden from any magical detection and will only be accessible physically. Within the range of 60km from the castle, there will be a high level detection function that will alarm us of any possible invasion before it happened. Coralline knows it had been actively using this function to defend us from sneaking retards.”
After they confirmed it with Coralline’s nod, there are no more words of complaint from Siva.
He continued, “In addition, after a month, the full powered effect of this Defense Zone will be fully implemented; giving us not just a 60km-wide full-scale detection ability, but also a Mana Barrier that can block all energy-type weapons and as well as physical projectiles up to a certain degree.”
When they heard this, they began to recall what Siva had called this before he officially named it Asgard in the papers…
Fortress
To block energy-type and physical projectiles is a very useful ability. Aside from knowing that there will be possible invaders that will come their way within a 60km circle, this passive ability was a very envy-inducing feat of their own base.
“Of course, it’s only to a certain degree and extent so in case of full-fledged invasions, unless someone from the inside betrays the location of this base, it will never be compromised.”
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Making enemy of The Union then hiding…
Siva consolidates his strength in secrecy!!!
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