Chapter 231
Chapter 231
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 231
Chapter Title: The Mad Inventor's Rampage
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It's hard to objectively evaluate a great figure of one's own country from within it.
Thanks to that, discussions arose about whether the madman Tulbo was truly a great inventor, as claimed by the people of the Empire—especially the ogres of the Pabilang Imperial Territory.
It was true that he had a great many inventions, but many argued that most of them were worthless, and that Tulbo himself lacked any exceptional engineering knowledge.
However, unlike what outsiders might think, the people of the Empire—precisely, the ogres of the Pabilang Imperial Territory—knew Tulbo all too well.
Most of the inventions credited to Tulbo had originated as his ideas, but they were technically imperfect and had been refined by artisans of other races.
Even so, Tulbo remained a beloved hero.
The future he strived for was a beautiful one, aimed at bringing happiness to the people.
Tulbo, the eighth apostle of the Pantheon, had come to represent all engineers and technicians, and the Empire's own engineers and technicians had no complaints about their advocate being a goggle-wearing ogre.
That was why Tulbo possessed the ability of a grand inventor, known as "Great Invention"—the power to create any desired object exactly as envisioned.
"Spin! Hopper 3!"
The drill of Hopper 3, floating in midair, began rotating ferociously.
-Whirrr...!
Hopper 3 slammed its drill head straight into the bow of the Union Kingdom's 4th Fleet command ship.
Before the explosive torque that could pulverize bedrock into gravel, a wooden airship was reduced to a mere handful of dust.
"Lower turrets two destroyed!"
"Bulkhead breached!"
"Military supplies spilling from the hull breach...!"
Panicked voices echoed from the command ship's telegraph tubes.
The admiral stammered in shock.
"Damage report later! First, locate that crazy ogre!"
But contrary to the admiral's expectations, the response didn't come from the telegraph—it came from the spotter right beside him.
"S-Something under the deck...!"
Before the spotter could finish, the drill burst into view.
It shredded through the wooden deck as if devouring it, and Hopper 3 hauled itself up, planting one massive hind leg on the deck.
A nearby staff officer shouted.
"We need to evacuate!"
"Damn it...!"
The command staff scrambled to flee.
But Tulbo, still clutching the receiver, spotted their movements.
"Leap! Hopper 3!"
The moment Tulbo set the direction, he shoved the lever forward with all his might.
The tremendous thrust from Hopper 3's legs rocked the massive airship, rated for a 60-ton payload.
Contrary to Tulbo's "leap" command, Hopper 3 stomped the sturdy deck hard and rocketed forward in a straight line—no parabola, just a razor-sharp trajectory piercing the bridge.
Through his goggles, Tulbo witnessed it all in sequence: the darkness as it smashed through the bridge, the bright light seeping into the gasbag as the drill punctured it, and then the clear sunlight pouring over the dispersing clouds.
The instant Hopper 3 reached the apex of its arc, Tulbo glanced back at the command ship.
Now ablaze, it was clearly plummeting.
"As expected, Hopper robots are the answer!"
There were many ways to counter airships, but Tulbo believed the simplest was to vent the helium from their gasbags.
That was why he had lightened the mining-designed Hopper robot and greatly enhanced its jumping ability to fit the role.
"Alright, then..."
As that thought crossed his mind, Tulbo had another realization.
"...Huh?"
Hopper 3 was still in midair.
Having passed the peak, it began a slow descent, gradually accelerating.
"Gaaah!"
Tulbo screamed as he plummeted alongside Hopper 3.
But the fall didn't last long.
With a jolt, Tulbo saw a blue flame.
-What are you doing, you idiot?
"Lady Aruna!"
The phoenix Aruna had grabbed one of Hopper 3's legs and was slowly circling.
The airships twisted to intercept Aruna above them, sending soldiers scrambling onto their gasbags, but all their efforts were slow and clumsy.
Aruna spoke.
-I have business to attend to.
"Slacking off...?"
-No.
"Oh, then... But as far as I know, birds flying in the sky still need to..."
Aruna hovered silently, then shook Hopper 3.
Dazed, Tulbo dry-heaved.
-This isn't the time for jokes, Tulbo.
"...It wasn't a joke, but what is it then?"
-They wouldn't send an airship fleet without any protection.
"Pardon? But right now, I don't see any guardians or apostles..."
-They're there. I just shook them off temporarily. ...Incoming.
Aruna shot forward rapidly.
A beam of light sliced through the clouds, striking where Aruna had been.
The immense heat warmed the air, even reaching Tulbo.
"That's..."
Tulbo removed his goggles and peered beyond the clouds.
Its body was long.
But twisting sinuously through the sky, it was hard to gauge its full length at a glance.
Even so, the opponent was well-known—not just in the Union Kingdom, his own faction, but in the Empire and the Pantheon too.
Its body measured just under 500 meters.
At first glance, it resembled a serpent.
But slightly below the head were forelegs, and around the midpoint, a pair of hind legs.
The tail was extraordinarily long, about half the total body length.
Its entire form was covered in pale green scales, with bright yellow eyes like topaz and horns branching in all directions.
In one foreclaw, layered magic circles adorned a massive crystal.
The third apostle of the Enraged One, betrayer of dragons.
"'Lightla of Glory'?"
Aruna murmured.
-I planned to link up with you all right after transferring to Yacheon, but I spotted that thing from afar. I judged it better to buy time, even briefly.
"...Ngh."
The Empire's late recruitment of the divine beast Aruna was, in truth, due to the Union Kingdom's Lightla.
Unlike Seong-un's belief that dragons were rare here, the land actually hosted quite a few.
Many of those dragons had banded together on the Second Continent to oppose the Enraged One and failed.
But it wasn't simply because the dragons were weak.
One dragon had been captivated by the power and strength displayed by the Enraged One—Hegemonia—and betrayed its kin to become an apostle in the Union Kingdom.
That didn't mean Lightla was weak among dragons, however.
As the third apostle, it was rated the strongest aside from the Enraged One himself and Sal Kait. Flying through the skies and spamming breath magic rendered it untouchable by current ground tech—making it a greater threat than even Sal Kait.
'That's why they sent three.'
Aruna flared its flames brilliantly while eyeing Lightla.
-Don't worry, Tulbo.
"Yes?"
-Yacheon said our goal is to stop this Union Kingdom fleet—not that thing.
"Ah, yes."
-I'll hold it off. Smash the fleet in the meantime.
"Understood!"
With that, Aruna flung Hopper 3 away.
Straight toward the airship below, where Tulbo immediately spun the drill and pierced its gasbag.
'This isn't good.'
Aruna knew it all too well, but honestly, it was weaker than Lightla.
Even in raw physical power, the size difference was vast, and Lightla's breath magic was rated the strongest among any dragon seen so far.
Better apostles existed to face Lightla.
'Rakrak, Redin, Keiju—they'd all handle Lightla better than us three...'
Of course, Aruna understood Yacheon's intent.
The goal was halting the fleet, not repelling Lightla.
'This isn't an ideal spot for a decisive battle.'
If someone inflicted a mortal wound on Lightla, the Enraged One wouldn't stand idly by.
It would send other creations and apostles to save it, no matter the cost—and the Pantheon would do the same.
The gods called such an all-out escalation the "decisive battle."
'Right, if we just hit and run well...'
As Aruna wheeled toward Lightla's side with that thought, it heard Lightla's voice.
-You look lost in thought, sparrow.
-Hah, just deciding where to peck your head first.
-Hmph.
Lightla took the bait easily.
But Aruna questioned if the taunt was wise.
Lightla immediately began chanting its breath spell.
A single beam at lightspeed—Aruna could only dodge if it saw it coming.
-Gah!
The third volley clipped Aruna's wingtip, sending it reeling.
Lightla seized the opening.
-Die.
The beam from Lightla's maw engulfed Aruna's head.
-...
A brief silence, and the headless Aruna plummeted.
Lightla watched the flame-dimmed corpse pierce several cloud layers, lingering on the sight.
Lightla muttered.
-...Annoying pest.
With those words, a blue flame rose anew from the clouds.
-Kill me as many times as it takes!
The resurrected phoenix cried out.
-I am truly immortal!
"Oh, Lightla, is it."
In the bridge, wrecked by Tulbo stripping its mechanical parts, the Pantheon's sixth apostle, Obin Marbru, confirmed the battle between Lightla and Aruna through a telescope.
"Lady Tulbo's made something fun again this time."
Tulbo was hopping between airships, smashing them to bits.
With the command ship down first, their chain of command had collapsed.
Only now were they belatedly widening distances between ships, but it wasn't enough.
'Still, they're not complete idiots.'
Though battered randomly by Tulbo, the fleet's true purpose wasn't ship-based attacks.
'More like escorting the transports.'
The transports were keeping well out of Hopper 3's reach.
'Tulbo's robot can't leap that far now, and Lady Aruna's tied up with Lightla... Guess I'll handle it.'
Obin surveyed the bridge.
Almost nothing left to steer the airship—which made finding what he wanted easier.
'Even without flight controls, there has to be a way here to direct the sky serpent eel pulling the ship from the prow.'
Obin knew creations like sky serpent eels had near-zero intelligence, mass-produced by gods for ease.
Pulling a lever on the floor, he watched the tether to the sky serpent eel veer sharply left.
'Ah, like reins.'
Though his first time, tales of his "Jack of All Trades" prowess let Obin adapt quickly.
Once oriented, Obin shouldered his universal armament and strode onto the half-wrecked deck.
"I'll give you a nice gift."
The Empire's war hero, dubbed the most vicious in the Union Kingdom, began recreating his legend.
At the same moment, the bridge of the approaching transports spotted Obin too.
"Occupied airship approaching from ahead—identity unconfirmed."
"So the enemy apostles are Tulbo and Aruna?"
"N-No, sir. Someone's aboard."
"Who?"
"Confirmed passenger: one..."
The spotter shouted.
"'Bomb Demon' Obin!"