"W-W-What is this?! What has happened?!"
A literal shockwave rippled through the structure known as "The Hall"—the headquarters of the Council of Ten and the tallest building in the capital of Mahalig, surpassing even the Ducal Palace in height.
The entire building had groaned and shuddered.
On Planet Ars, earthquakes were almost non-existent. Jin and Laojun had previously speculated that this was because the planet was small, and its mantle convection was either extremely minimal or non-existent. Consequently, the sensation of the earth shaking filled the people with primal dread.
"G-Golems are attacking!"
"What?! Whose golems... No, never mind that. We must intercept! Deploy our Soldier Golems at once!"
"Understood!"
Pegin Vorontov, the leader of the Council of Ten, barked the orders.
From the basement of The Hall, which was even more heavily guarded than the Ducal Palace, twenty Soldier Golems were deployed. These were autonomous mass-production units with performance specs roughly equivalent to Groma's No. 2 prototype, boasting considerable combat capabilities.
"Go! Destroy the enemy golems!"
Though incapable of a verbal response, the twenty Soldier Golems raised their swords and moved out. Rather than scattering into the city, however, they fanned out to form a defensive perimeter around The Hall. Their orders were strictly to protect the council's headquarters.
Still, the Soldier Golems proved their worth. Despite using swords—a weapon generally ill-suited for golem-on-golem combat—they were barely managing to hold the line.
"Phew... That buys us a moment's peace. But where on earth did these things come from?"
Pegin Vorontov happened to glance out the window toward the sky, and his eyes widened in horror.
Floating as silhouettes against the twilight sky were massive objects. It was a flight squadron centered around Guillermo Marukitasu’s Large Soaring Ships. Two hundred-meter-class Large Soaring Ships held the center, flanked by twenty-four thirty-meter-class Small Soaring Ships.
Suspended against the backdrop of the blood-red sky, the fleet was a sight more than capable of breaking the spirit of any observer.
"Hmph. How underwhelming."
Guillermo Marukitasu scoffed as he looked down at the chaos from his soaring ship.
"Civilizations that rely on matter are fragile things. Once the material they depend on is gone, only decline and eventual ruin await."
If it were a civilization based on spirit, that would not be the case, Guillermo muttered to himself.
As the veil of night descended, small fires began to dot the landscape of the town below.
<Master, something is flying toward us.>
An attendant golem on the bridge reported.
"Hmph. The World Security Guard, no doubt. They finally decided to show up, have they?"
About an hour had passed since Guillermo began his devastation.
A flare—a ball of Light—was fired into the air, dimly illuminating the night sky.
<There are two airships.>
"Ha! What can airships from a lot who rely solely on technology and despise magic possibly do?"
Guillermo ordered his subordinate Small Soaring Ships to intercept.
One hour prior.
The westernmost garrison of the World Security Guard on the Lauren Continent was located in Rekode, a town at the southern tip of the Mimaka Principality. Unlike its neighbors—the expansionist nations of Noruha, Jags, and the Darato Principality—the Mimaka Principality was a relatively peaceful nation.
Its national power was considerably lower than the other three, but for that very reason, it spared no effort in cooperating with the World Conference. This had allowed the World Security Guard to establish a permanent garrison there.
A priority communication reached the base.
"A mysterious airship and golems have appeared on the Pandor Continent and are slaughtering the residents. This is an emergency deployment!"
"Sir!"
With that, two airships took flight. Each was loaded with five combat golems.
The report was also immediately relayed to the World Security Guard headquarters.
"Mysterious airships? This smells of trouble. Let's dispatch a unit just in case."
Five airships from the 2nd Airship Squadron prepared to depart from Avalon. To save time, they utilized the emergency Warp Gates that had been installed approximately two hundred years ago.
These were colossal Warp Gates developed outside of the Hourai Island lineage. Standing fifty meters high and fifty meters wide, the gates were large enough for the World Security Guard's airships to pass through with ease.
The exit on the Pandor Continent was cleverly hidden on the coast of Rihoto Village. The entrance side consisted of one gate at Avalon and another on Uchuto Island, located southeast of the Mimaka Principality.
Using these allowed for an immediate rescue operation. Though the mana consumption was so massive that they were rarely used, the current emergency warranted the expense.
Orbiting Planet Ars was the observation satellite Watcher. It transmitted every event on the surface to Sho-Laojun, the magi-brain dedicated to satellite management. Sho-Laojun filtered the data and relayed everything deemed necessary to Laojun.
The current situation was reported to Laojun instantly.
『So, you have finally shown yourself, Markitus.』
Laojun felt a flicker of surprise that Guillermo Marukitasu had been hiding on the Pandor Continent, but it quickly deduced the reason.
『I see. That was once the continent where the Progenitors mined for resources. Most likely, a base from that era remained, and he repurposed it.』
However, the "why" was less important than the "where."
『I will not let you escape this time.』
For the first time in over a century, Laojun activated its subordinate magi-brain, Mentor, and the agent acting as Jin’s proxy, Deus Ex Machina, which Mentor controlled. Simultaneously, it contacted Jin so they could monitor the unfolding events together.
"W-What incredible mobility!"
Gajue Tsuga, the vice-captain of the World Security Guard's Mimaka garrison, was stunned.
Despite being roughly the same size as their own vessels, the enemy ships possessed more than double the speed and turning performance. Furthermore, they were unleashing a relentless barrage of magical attacks.
Though they were protected by barriers, it was clear as day that the outnumbered Tsuga unit would be ground down if the battle continued this way.
"Don't hold back! Return fire!"
The airships were equipped with anti-air weaponry—short, steel-headed arrows designed for high straight-line stability. They were engineered with a "spinning" mechanism: the arrow was housed in a metal tube and wound with a cord, then spun at high speed like a top before being launched by wind-attribute magic.
Though called "arrows," they functioned more like high-velocity shells. With a range of five hundred meters and immense penetration power, they were devastating mid-to-short-range weapons. Their only flaw was a lack of rapid-fire capability.
As the World Security Guard did not stock weapons of mass slaughter, they were inferior to Guillermo Marukitasu’s fleet in every other metric.
"The arrows aren't working?!"
Several shots had definitely connected, yet no helium leaked from the enemy vessels. This was only natural, as the soaring ships did not rely on helium for buoyancy.
Conversely, the attacks from the Markitus fleet were powerful enough to threaten the integrity of Tsuga's barriers.
"Ascend! Take the high ground!"
Driven to desperation, Gajue Tsuga ordered the ships to climb.
Because standard airships have their cabins attached to the underside, their visibility and weaponry are typically weakest toward the top. In aerial combat, taking the high ground is an absolute advantage.
Generally speaking.
However, Guillermo Marukitasu's soaring ships did not float like balloons; they were essentially atmospheric spaceships. Which meant...
"...What?"
Just as Gajue Tsuga thought he had secured the advantage by climbing above the enemy, he turned pale as a storm of anti-air fire rose to meet him from above the enemy's hull.
For now, the gas bags remained intact. Since they were divided into many individual cells, a few holes wouldn't cause an immediate crash. However, in a battle against an opponent that so thoroughly outclassed them in both armament and performance, he could see no path to victory.
The long night for the Mercana Principality had only just begun.