The time has come. It is for us to finally attack the last domain of and finally fix my… oversight of relying on spells alone on killing the demon lord. Those messenger vampires have informed much of the entire Toratoga Fleet. I cannot believe they are not useless for once in an important event such as this. Most of the time these idiots from the vampire nation would fail to reach their message destinations due to ‘weather’ or the ‘sun’. I thought they finally found their immunity to their greatest enemy? With all expected disappointment, they have but only for their ‘chosen’ ones. What a useless race they are if they can’t even best the sunlight.

“Admiral. The fleet is in position for fast travel.” Drake Morgan finally returns at the helm to greet me with the status of the fleet.

“At long last! All hands! prepare for fast travel!” Excitement rid my head of the complaints I had with our unity with the vampires. With all the preparations ready, I signaled the fleet with a Lvl. 2 Flare Magic that briefly lights the sky. This flare gave the sky the brightest color of green which is the fleet code to start the battle.

“With the power of the Heroes of the Otherworld, bless me with great magic as I cast a Special Skill: Fast Travel Lvl. 10!” All special skill spells from each of the heroes of each tower needed to have long cast time to avoid being replicated by other heroes. Why in the gods were that even implemented? It just makes one an easier target as you cast a spell? It is not like one could simply completely replicate such a spell that was made by heroes themselves? One would even need a vial of pure magic and the one-third of a hero's mana pool for this to even work.

Multiple magic circles with the incantation appear below the entire fleet. These circles were gold to signify pure magic is used. This circle was not massive enough that it could fit the entire sea area of where the fleet would be, no. It appears below on every ship and turns their exterior with the glow of gold. There are 137 ships in this combined fleet of the Toratoga fleet and Cardavenia Empire. The smaller ones, 65 light frigate ships, were the first to be finished by spell and have moved so rapidly that it would appear they have teleported from thin air. This is not a fast travel spell as one would use for an army. Fast Travel skill does not teleport you but rather automatically navigates for you faster than yourself. It requires an available path from you to your destination as it moves you at a speed of lightning through it. Mass teleportation does not need an available path but it requires more mana to cast as well as time. More and more ships were moved to the center of the storm as the only that remained were the flagships of the fleet. The Transylvannia finally fast travelled towards the storm as we on my greatest ship, The Aiyan Conqueror, did the same afterwards.

The scenery as my flagship entered the eye of the storm filled my face with nostalgia. Ahh… it felt like the time when I defeated the Aqua Dragon Queen myself. My men barely scratched the beast and I took all the glory of defeating it. It was not only excitement I felt as we entered the vicinity of the island. Surprise and fear riddled in the back of my head as I see the massive tower looming over the entire sky.

“...That tower is massive!”

“...Could we even take that down with all of our ships?”

“We need more men for this, Admiral!”

I too am in awe at its demonic construction. It appeared in front of me as if it was an enlarged version of a spell obelisk, a tool in some rituals. It was taller than any of the clouds around its tip that it almost pierced the heavens. It even dwarfed most of the towers of other empires, no, it dwarfs it all! This is not even the 9th tower the demons have in their mainland. The demons do know how to intimidate their enemies with their massive creations. One would admit, this is not something any hero could take down easily. Its black exterior tells even these fools that it is made of metal, much like that of the fortress that flew and escaped our control.

Chatter below deck and even on the other ships began to reach my ears.

“Nonsense! We took control of the fortress before it was activated by the Demon Lord! A tower is no different!” I denied their doubts. Only more chatter enveloped the noises on deck but I paid no heed to it anymore.

“All of the sea, hear my voice. Special Skill: Aqua Armada.”

As a precaution and a show of my power, I casted another spell that would increase the morale of the entire fleet. Their doubts were annoying to my ears but they are not wrong. If the fortress we entered to fight the Demon Lord flew, god knows what else this tallest tower one has ever seen could do against our expectations. Water from the sea flows upwards into the sky, forming a replica of each ship in the fleet. Our numbers doubled by the second after I casted that spell. My mana could still make a recovery as this spell is not forgiving in the aspects of mana. The water illusion ships spread out and took formations ahead of the real fleet, almost entirely blocking the view between us and the shore of the island. Despite their liquid nature, once they are hit by magic or otherwise, they fall. This spell was meant to be casted in a display of strength of the Great Toratoga Fleet. They are mere illusions of the real ones after all. Their damage is minimal but it is enough to distract the enemy from our main weapons.

Loud and terrible rumbling pierced the winds with its movement. The tower at its tip began to move and pieces of it moved around the tip. Around the tip of the tower, the clouds could not even dare to enter. The sun blinded most of us here when we tried to look up towards the tip of the tower. A wall of heavy storm encircled the island and prevented us from seeing anything outside the storm. A bright white light began to shine directly at The Aiyan Conqueror and only the conqueror.

“WHIR NNNHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGN NNNNNNNNNNGG” sounds from the tower stunned me and all of the entire fleet. It took 5 seconds of loud heavy humming and groaning until it stopped into complete silence. A voice began to speak to the entire fleet, as loud as the humming.

“THIS AREA IS UNDER AINEURAN TERRITORY. STATE YOUR BUSINESS OR LEAVE AT ONCE!”

“...Aineuran Territory? What insolence! I am Admiral Petrel of the 7th Tower of the East Toratoga Island States and West Cardavenia Empire. We know you are hiding the demon lord behind the walls of your cowardly fortress! Surrender her life to me and there shall be no further bloodshed!” I called out to the tower, shouting. I doubt they would even hear my voice from this distance. The voice from the tower has caught me completely by surprise. The last remaining demon would be the Arika, wouldn't it not? Then who is this woman speaking behind this massive tower? This voice sounded young, unlike that of the demon lord Arika. This has enraged me that there are survivors of the demon race that I asked Morgan to explain such a matter.

“Who is this woman speaking behind the tower? I trusted your reports about how we of the 7th have wiped out every last demon in this world. You are telling me some have escaped?! How is that possible?”

“...We. Did take them all out. Their body count confirms it! Unless there is some hideout of the Aineura Empire that has not yet been discovered as of this day. Such as the tower we see right now.” Indeed, no one would have guessed that there is a tower fortress inside the Aiyan Typhoon. No one even dared to cross such a gruelling storm. It relieved me that they have not lied in their reports but the possibility that there are more demons left in that tower is frustrating for me to think about.

“THERE IS NO HOPE FOR YOUR NEGOTIATIONS. TURN YOUR FLEET AROUND AND LEAVE OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED.” The voice responded again. How did they even hear me far from here? Such a trivial matter. We will not take no for an answer however for this is for the betterment of the world. A world rid of evil!

“Your threats mean nothing! All hands, signal the fleet to fire at the tower!”

274 ships made from water and metal began to fire at the base of the tower. Light arrows and water arrows streak through the air and reach the tower. A sudden appearance of blue lights that form a 6 sided shape blocked the arrows from the fleet. Multiple of these blue shapes blocked the incoming fire and each broke apart after several blocked hits. After a few salvos, the fleet stopped firing to see if the tower was damaged. To some who have survived the encounter against the flying fortress, it did not surprise them. However, only a few ships including The Aiyan Conqueror have seen what they could do to block our attacks. Most of the fleet were left bewildered and shocked.

“Did I tell you all to stop firing?! Aim at the center base of the tower together and fire!” The symphony of arrows began to continue as even some of the mages from each ship began to cast fireballs at the tower as well.

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The white light on top of the tower began to turn red and removed the beam of light that was aiming at the flagship. More blue lights appeared on several parts of the tower but this time it did not try to block the attacks. The lights instead appeared to be summoning something. There were 20 of them at the base of the tower alone. After a minute of summoning, the tower had these smaller versions of itself sticking on its base. It had a long black singular rod that was sticking out of the smaller towers or monoliths. At that point it rotated itself to face the direction of the fleet.

“BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT” A loud noise once again is heard from the wind as gold streaks of light began to travel towards the fleet with incredible speed.

“Is that.. pure magic?!” Drake Morgan has predicted my fears as I have seen pure magic beams are created the same way. What it would do to my fleet would be so destructive that I could not even imagine it.

“Aghhh!.. AAAAAAA… BOOM.” These continuous beams of pure magic pierced the blockade of water illusion ships that it passed through and hit the real ones behind it. Most of the crew were directly hit and vaporized the moment they touched the beam. How could they have so much pure magic? Pure magic could not be easily made and it costs a fortune to buy even a vial of it! They are wasting all of their riches for such an attack?!

“Report!” I shouted towards the deck

“Most of our ships have been hit. Only 5 remaining water illusion ships are still afloat. 90 frigates have been damaged and most of them are on fire. 10 of our monitors are completely destroyed!” Morgan has reported to me the unbearable.

“They are still firing! How can they have so much pure magic?!” A crewman yelled to me from the lower deck. I looked around and saw most of the heavy frigates taking the most beating out of this. The tower has finally stopped firing after a minute of continuous attack.

“All ships! Return Fire! Fire while you are still afloat!” I shouted commands over and over again to fire until they managed to damage the enemy. The tower created more of these blue mana shields that blocked more of our attacks. To my surprise, a visible crack from the tower’s mana shielding appeared after being hit several times. The blue lights… can be damaged? This might be the fleet’s chance!

“All monitors and remaining ships, aim at the smaller towers on the base! The enemy has no shield strong enough to block a concentrated fire!” Multiple of our own arrows hit each smaller tower one by one and are destroyed on them. The experimental monitors I told the fleet to bring managed to hit a direct score and destroyed their shielding with one hit. The ballistas and crossbows on those monitors give far better damage than those of the best heavy frigates we have. The crew cheered in response to one being destroyed as more were damaged. The smaller towers were ablaze. “They have consumed all of their mana! This is our chance to fight back! Everyone, advance!” A captain from another frigate started to rally some of the ships and charged directly at the tower with raider crews on their decks. Although they did not act as I commanded them, they had the initiative to attack which I did not complain.

“All remaining ships, join them and land your raiders on the shore! It is time to attack them in their walls!”

“Aye Admiral!”

A long silence has enveloped the battlefield for a good 5 minutes. A short pause of the battle did not last long. As the ships went full canvas and charged towards the shore, another loud rumbling has again reached our ears. This time it was not coming from the tower. Behind the tower appeared the black flying fortress hovering and slowly filled the bright sky. It casted a shadow that darkened the entire sea. The entire fleet stopped moving in awe at the size of the fortress covering the entire sky. It moved to the left of the tower facing us and completely hovered above the entire fleet. If this fortress would suddenly drop down, the entire Great Fleet of Toratoga would be instantly crushed under its massive body. The clouds surrounding the entire battlefield even retreated far away from the tower. The eye of the storm has gotten larger than ever before in its entire 3000 year life span. The Aiyan Typhoon never had this happen before.

“...?! what in the gods?!.. They have a bigger fortress?!.... It is even flying over us!” Pure fear has held the crew of every remaining ship in the fleet stationary as they look above. They were never briefed about the details of what the fortress would look like or what are we even fighting against. Not even the survivors could explain it to them, only the fact that it is a flying Aineuran Fortress were the rumors of fools on every deck.

Another odd scene has displayed itself to the fleet. The flying fortress seemed to hover over us for a minute. Another volley of pure magic arrows came from the flying fortress this time.

“WHIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRR” Loud high screeching was heard from below the fortress as it two separate large pure magic arrows towards the sides of the formation of the fleet. The wind on the spot where the arrows landed consumed all the air and sea around it. A white orb of wind slowly appeared as it increased its spin. It pulled nearby frigates towards the imploding orb and held them stationary mid air as if it were simply crumbling paper. Not even heavy frigates or the crew manning each ship survived that. Each person being pulled by the wind does not even reach the center of the orb. The debris and hull of the destroyed ship as well as the torn bodies doused the white orb in blood red color. The red wind orbs then explode outwards towards the other unaffected ships which damage both the hull and morale of its crew. 35 remained of the fleet out of the 137 combined. 20 of the remaining ships were bringing the raiders towards the island. The fortress moved backwards towards the tower and tilted its front, facing the incoming raiders.

“...Oh god…” Drake and I aboard the Conqueror only watched in awe as the fortress looked at the fleet dead in its eyes. The fortress was triangular in shape and in front of it there were two holes that looked like massive red eyes that even the biggest ship, the Aiyan Conqueror, could not even bare to fill the hole. Its red eyes gave a sound of high pitched screeching, more like a dying female wyvern. The eyes began to glow brighter and brighter red that inside it looked like what hell would be for a man. A massive red beam of light destroyed the area of where the raiding fleet stood. None have survived the blast, not even a wreck or a body part. All of it vaporized in one shot. The fortress now slowly aimed to stare at the us of the remaining fleet. Fear has taken control of me and I shook in panic as I stared at its red eye.

“...What shall we do now Admiral?! That thing is going to destroy us all!” one more of these crew of fools wailed in fear. I am not planning to back down now with all their deaths in vain. Honor must be earned here as I die fighting this battle against the demon race! “Tch!.. Retreating will yield us no good. We must fight here to the last ship! We already lost this battle, what else is there to do?!”

The moment I replied to the crew, the fortress slowly immersed itself with blue light as it slowly fell on the sea. The blue light collected itself on the waves as the enormous fortress behind it melted and disappeared, consumed by the glowing blue light. It slowly made its way towards the Conqueror. It closed the distance that it was about a hundred meters away from the flagship. The glowing blue liquid light slowly took the shape of a woman standing on the waves. As if she was a water illusion that took the original into its form. How is that even possible?! The sea was so calm that it appeared like she froze the waves beneath her feet. It caught us all off guard as the woman fully appeared in front of us.

“So the demon lord finally appeared in front of us, huh. Talking about adding insult to our injury!” Morgan chattered. These demon acts of power have greatly insulted me! It is not just you Morgan that has not thought of that?! “Drake Morgan. Come with me on the sea, support me with magic as I defeat this demon once and for all.” I told him as I leaped overboard, hitting the sea as if it was a floor made of glass. Sea Walker Lvl.20 allowed me to run as well on sea as it is on land. Arika did not have any skills that made her float on water, this woman must be someone else or was that Lvl 1. skills were merely a ruse. Not that it matters now, all demons must be killed!

“So you have finally shown yourself to deal with us personally, Arika Tenevris Aineura.”We have stepped closer towards the demon standing on top of the waves. I must distract her attention from Morgan who is now casting support spells to me silently. We were not that far apart from each other as Morgan must be close to me.

“Arika Aineura is dead because of your curse. I am Ai Magicnet. Ark Class A1 Supercarrier. The thing you called ‘flying fortress’ is me in human form. The 3rd Demon Queen of The Aineuran Empire. As the previous demon lord’s last words commanded, you are to suffer eternally worse than her fate.”

Her appearance looked similar to the demon queen Arika but it was not her. She wore a black crown with the strikes of red, resembling those of a ship's mast. She wore a black coat with the same color patterns as that of the flying fortress. It cannot be seen from afar before but behind her back stretched a cape that covered her red wings.

“Human form?! You jest. Fortresses and all of the non-living objects are not alive. You are not even a golem. Not even golems and swords can exist as a human let alone a demon!”

“Ohh..? It seems it will be your first and last time to see one.” This woman as she named herself Ai giggled and smirked as she said this. This is getting on my frustration. Anger boils once again to me. I need to kill and torture this woman once she kneels at my power. She made the wrong move facing me on the sea. The sea is my home and ally, it will never let me go down.

“HAHAHA Is that so? Then it cannot be helped. I am Admiral Astin Petrel. One of the heroes of the 7th Tower. Admiral of the Great Toratoga Fleet! You are one of the demon race’s creations. You call yourself now as the new demon lord of the dead Aineura Empire! It is YOU who deserve more suffering than what the bitch has felt. Prepare to meet my blade!”

I unheathe Shiva from the side at my cover and casted Regina Aqua once again. This time, it will pierce and cut this demon woman in half! I charged towards the new demon lord and prepared to cut her with my sword. There were many surprises in this battle, I hope this fortress turning into a woman will end all of suffering once and for all of humanity. My sword hit her dead on the neck, but is that it? Was it that easy?! The new demon lord had something similar to the ones the tower had with its weapons. This one is very small and it has a long black rod. She pointed it at me while I charged. I did not know what it would do but it matters not as I am already charging at her.