"Ah, it's shaped like a doughnut with a tiny hole..."
On Hourai Island, Jin was monitoring the enemy mobile base through the Peeper.
The Shinobi Squad and Land 11 through 15 returned through the Warp Gate aboard the battleship Hotaka.
"Good work, everyone. No casualties, I hope?"
"No, sir. Everyone is safe," Land 11 reported on behalf of the group.
Meanwhile, Helente had already used a teleportation magic circle to return from the Hotaka to Onogoro Island.
The enemy mobile base had shaken off the last of the ice, fully revealing its form.
"What’s that sphere attached to the doughnut?"
A single sphere, about fifty meters in diameter, was fixed to the edge of the ring-shaped structure.
"Is it some kind of marker for the front of the vessel?"
『No, My Lord.』
Laojun interjected, negating the suggestion.
"Laojun? You have something?"
『Yes. Information just arrived from Reiko. It appears that sphere is the actual spaceship the Invaders used to reach Ars in the ancient past.』
"What?...I see. That makes sense. And where is Reiko now?"
『She is currently on standby on the bridge of the Hotaka.』
"Understood. Connect me to her."
Jin wanted to personally commend her for her hard work. Her image soon appeared on the mana-telecam.
『"Father, I have returned."』
"Welcome back, Reiko. I’m glad you’re safe."
『"Yes, thank you."』
"Good work. It sounds like you’ve secured some vital information. I appreciate it."
Jin kept his praise brief but sincere.
『"You are most welcome. I spent as much time as possible gathering intelligence from the Control Brain at the other mobile base before I left. I have already forwarded that data to Laojun."』
"That’s a huge help. I can’t predict how this will go yet, so please stay on standby there for a while longer."
『"Understood, Father."』
Next, Jin reached out to the Mermaid unit stationed in the ocean.
"How is the status of the original mobile base?"
『Stable, My Lord. It’s staying underwater for now, likely to avoid detection,』 Mermaid 1 replied immediately.
"Right. We don’t know what that enemy vessel is capable of. Keep your distance for now."
『Understood.』
Jin turned his attention back to the Peeper’s feed.
『My Lord, it seems that vessel is actually unfinished,』 Laojun reported, sharing the data he’d processed from Reiko. 『The ultimate goal was for it to be space-worthy, but like on Onogoro Island, the Control Brain resisted quite fiercely. Construction was remarkably inefficient, and it was never completed.』
"A blessing in disguise, then."
Still, the enemy vessel was two kilometers in diameter. It was massive.
『My Lord, the enemy vessel is apparently called "Disaster."』
"That’s a grim name..."
Jin immediately associated the phonetic name with the English word. If it truly meant "disaster," he couldn't help but feel a certain malice behind the choice.
The Disaster began moving north. From the perspective of the South Pole, however, any direction it moved was north.
『Its course is roughly toward Onogoro Island.』
"Which means it’s heading toward the inhabited continents."
An urgent alert interrupted them.
『My Lord, something is approaching the vessel.』
"What?"
Jin hadn't ordered the Sky squad to move, but as soon as he saw the screen, he understood.
"Flying Discs?"
Two reconnaissance discs from Onogoro Island were closing in. They had likely been sent to test the enemy's defenses or gather intelligence.
"Does Marikka know about this?"
『No, she likely has no idea. She’s currently in Kaina Village.』
Marikka wasn't directly involved in this operation. Jin had instructed her to remain under his command while allowing the base’s systems to exercise some independent judgment. The latter was a precaution to ensure the base could react to emergencies without waiting for slow communication. It seemed the Supervising Brain had taken that autonomy to heart.
"It probably got word from Helente, too."
Onogoro Island’s core mission was the protection of the planet. It wouldn't tolerate the presence of the Disaster.
"But Onogoro doesn't have the combat power for this."
『Perhaps, but we might see a glimpse of what the Disaster is armed with.』
"I suppose... but still."
Jin knew the specs of those Flying Discs. "They're going to be swatted out of the sky in seconds."
The magi-engineering of the Progenitors who built Onogoro might have surpassed Jin’s, but their technology was never intended for war. From what he could see, the Disaster did not share that peaceful heritage.
"I'm starting to think the Progenitors didn't build that thing at all..."
Just then, a massive whirlwind erupted from the Disaster.
"Is that a Cyclone!?"
It was a step above a beginner-level wind-attribute spell—a whirlwind usually used to gather or scatter targets. It was the kind of magic one might use to collect trash, but this was on an entirely different scale of power.
『My Lord, it appears to be firing a fine powder into the wind at the same time.』
"What!?"
On the screen, the Flying Disc caught in the tornado was being ground down before their eyes.
"It might be adamantite dust."
Jin thought of sandblasting—a process where abrasives like sand are blown onto hard surfaces with compressed air to strip rust or etch stone. This was the same principle. The adamantite particles acted like a high-speed file, stripping the Flying Disc's armor away in heartbeats.
Once the tornado dissipated, the mangled wreck of the disc plummeted into the sea.
"Wait, where’s the other one?"
Only one had been downed.
『My Lord, it’s approaching the Disaster from the opposite side.』
The second disc had evaded the whirlwind by flying at a low altitude.
"A tornado is hard to maintain that close to the water."
If it sucked up seawater, the wind’s velocity would drop and the abrasive effect would be ruined.
"Look, it fired something!"
『My Lord, those are metal spears.』
Jin wondered if they were the equivalent of armor-piercing rounds. The spears slammed into the Disaster, but they failed to penetrate. They bounced off the hull and splashed into the ocean.
Laojun, however, didn't miss the faint marks left on the vessel's surface.
『My Lord, the Disaster's hull seems to be made of nickel chrome molybdenum steel, or something very similar.』
It wasn't a legendary metal like adamantite, which was good news.
But the Disaster wasn't finished. It deployed a different weapon to deal with the remaining disc.