Chapter 241
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 241
Chapter Title: The Halting Sky Fortress
Kramphus stood up and spoke to Seong-un in a challenging tone.
"What are you going to do now that you've said that?"
"I've only been suspecting until now. I was convinced just a moment ago."
"Why didn't you tell me when you first suspected?"
"There's no other way, is there?"
Seong-un was right.
If they didn't go to war, they'd have to hand over the Rasdasil ruins to Hegemonia as they were.
If they did go to war, Hegemonia would reach the Greater Domain and be able to destroy the Rasdasil ruins.
Once Kramphus understood that, he sat back down.
Wisdom spoke.
"We'll need to come up with a plan."
"Yeah. But unlike before, there's no special alternative."
"Is that so?"
Seong-un said.
"The best option right now is to force Hegemonia to burn through Faith while we fight. And that's exactly what we've been doing."
"Couldn't we push her a bit more aggressively?"
"Like how?"
Wisdom said.
"What if we burn through more of our Faith?"
"We'd suffer too, but the United Kingdom already has a modernized fleet. Unless it's something on the level of the Greater Domain of the Sea, we can't expect massive consumption from a Subdomain like Waves or any ordinary miracle."
Of course, there were powers worth banking on.
'Like the Unique Domain of Magic.'
Thanks to raising mages, Seong-un's Unique Domain of Magic had reached a usable level. But he was reluctant to employ it aggressively.
When he opened the Unique Domain of Magic window and checked the skill list, garbled characters appeared—text that even Seong-un couldn't make sense of.
'...What am I supposed to do with this?'
Clearly, something beyond even Seong-un's comprehension existed in this Unique Domain, and the only way to investigate was to activate it.
In his view, it was an infamously tricky Domain to acquire. Given how well Lost World treated such Domains, he figured there was a high chance of something good happening.
But Seong-un wasn't the type to rely on gambles. Low odds required commensurate expected value—and this didn't even allow for those calculations.
'We can fight plenty without leaning on something like this.'
Wisdom spoke.
"But don't we have the Greater Domain of the Sky?"
"Right. If they push into coastal waters we treat as our territory, it'll deliver solid efficiency. We'll have to use it soon anyway."
"Not enough?"
Seong-un pondered how to soften the blow for the other players before speaking.
"Using the Greater Domain of the Sky will yield better results than not using it. But regrettably, even with it, we won't get the outcome we want."
Wisdom's head wobbled lightly side to side.
"Come to think of it, you said we can't stop Hegemonia's landing?"
Seong-un nodded.
"Yeah. She's gone all-in, so we have to match her."
The Radiant Lightra tore Aruna's head off with its massive jaws.
Blue flames licked at its mouth, scorching its scales, but it paid no mind.
-Die...
Next, Lightra seized Aruna's wings, ripped them free, and hurled the body into the sky.
Lightra glanced down at its front paws, charred black from the fire while holding Aruna, then back at the mangled remains.
The divine beast's body, plummeting unconscious, swirled with blue flames that converged into a single point.
From that pinpoint of blue fire, wings erupted, flapping powerfully as a long neck stretched out—it was Aruna, revived.
-Reviving... Aren't you sick of it?
Aruna glared at Lightra, which promptly snatched it up and spun through the air at ferocious speed.
Aruna laughed.
-Aren't you sick of breathing?
-Hmmm...?
Aruna plummeted then soared, pulling off dazzling aerobatics.
A phoenix could die and revive, regulating the temperature of the flames rising from its own body. No other winged creature could match a phoenix's aerial acrobatics.
-Death and rebirth are just our species' physiology. Why would I be sick of it?
Lightra surveyed the battlefield below.
The airship clashes looked downright dull to it.
Each airship bristled with cannons and machine guns, closing on enemies while desperately climbing for superior altitude. To avoid exposing their cannon-poor rears, they spun in circles, making the fleets seem to spiral upward like dancers.
Falling airships descended slowly, their helium-filled gasbags keeping them afloat—like a fish tank violently shaken, sand grains settling.
'Pathetic mortals.'
Lightra was one of the Wrathful One's apostles of exceptional might.
Setting aside a few bad matchups and the top apostles who had claimed the highest seats, no apostle surpassed Lightra. It was confident in that assessment.
'And yet you deem this right, O Wrathful One?'
Lightra posed the question to itself, knowing full well the Wrathful One was correct.
Even a dragon like Lightra struggled to fathom the Wrathful One's mind at times, sensing something shallow and dubious there. Yet the Wrathful One had always marched unerringly toward the values it pursued, never once faltering.
Lightra knew the name of that value.
*Victory*.
Lightra understood what it meant, but the gods' notion of *Victory* differed slightly from the dragon's—mere triumph over foes.
The gods' *Victory* was concise and absolute, dismissing the countless byproducts gained along the way—wealth, honor, pride, power—as worthless.
For *Victory*, even the world's fate that Lightra had pondered for millennia, the history of ancient gods, and the denizens of the demon realms were trifles without value.
Unlike other dragons, Lightra was captivated by that *Victory*.
And so it stood here now.
As Lightra gazed down at the Sky Fortress for a moment, Aruna noticed something and cried out.
-Look! The Sky Fortress has stopped. It's too late to accelerate now.
-...Indeed.
It was true.
Lightra spotted the spiral wings rotating from the Sky Fortress's heading.
Lightra turned to Aruna.
-But it doesn't matter.
-...What?
Lightra seized the circling Aruna with magical hands conjured via silent incantation.
-...!
Lightra focused, shaping the hands.
In an instant, they tore Aruna into dozens of shreds.
'Can't even kill it with this?'
The rent flames swirled slower than before but recombined.
'Still, I can set this annoyance aside for now.'
With that thought, Lightra flew toward the Sky Fortress.
"Lightra's coming!"
At the goblin's shout, Ramin flicked his eyes over.
Fortunately, Lightra seemed uninterested in the battle atop the Sky Fortress and flew overhead.
Ariega Rob chuckled darkly.
"That damned wyrm. Saw everything and just flies by?"
"Bad blood between you two?"
"Bound to be. I killed his grandson."
Ramin couldn't brush it off as bravado.
He'd gotten a full sense of what it meant to fight someone who'd slain a dragon during his twenty-odd minutes clashing with Ariega.
The surroundings were splattered with bloodstains.
Most goblins had withdrawn.
According to their chief, excessive pain or injury made it impossible to maintain their bodies, forcing them back to the pantheon.
Ramin felt a familiar weariness.
'But I need to stay sharp. The Empire could crumble. No cozy afterlife then.'
To Ramin, it seemed odd that living souls held the deciding power despite all those heroes dwelling in the Primordial Lands and pantheon.
But if it was unchangeable, he had to accept it.
Ariega said.
"Haha, your arm's dangling, vampire."
Valid point, even from an enemy.
Ramin propped his left arm with his right and bit down on the sleeve.
His left shoulder, badly torn by Ariega's claws, was in rough shape.
"'You're limping too, werewolf,' ...the chief said."
The chief's interpreter had relayed it.
The interpreter goblin lay sprawled, legs severed.
Only the chief stood on two feet.
Ariega was in bad shape too—his regeneration overwhelmed, healing slowed.
As they stared each other down in stalemate, a sharp bolt of lightning lanced toward Ariega.
Ariega had sensed it beforehand, leaping aside before it struck, then snarling at the newcomer.
Ramin recognized him.
"Lord Heuhung!"
Owen was blood-soaked but moved lightly, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
"You've had it rough, Ramin."
Ariega said.
"Hah, resorting to numbers after all? Classic weakling tactic. But victory... hmm."
Ariega's ears perked, then he flapped away.
"Hmm... unfortunate."
Ariega glanced at the Sky Fortress.
Ramin, propping his arm, said.
"Running away?"
"Yeah."
Ariega replied.
"For *Victory*."
With that, Ariega departed.
"...He's really just leaving?"
Perplexing, but a relief for Ramin.
He'd lost too much blood to stand.
The chief approached Ramin and Owen, speaking to them.
Ramin reflexively looked for the interpreter—gone.
Returned to the pantheon.
"...Ah."
Owen said.
"He says he has to head back. Happy he could repay the favor."
"No, I owe you my life, Chief."
The chief signed a gesture even Ramin could understand—a palm shown and shaken.
Ramin mirrored it.
As the chief left, Owen tended Ramin's wound. Slumping down, Ramin asked.
"What about the propellers?"
"I've done my share."
"Just Master's share, then...?"
Owen cut in.
"Didn't know how your side was faring, so I did two extra. And that Froglin seemed to handle his load."
"Ah. Seven total?"
More than expected.
Should suffice.
Ramin relaxed, but Owen's expression remained grim for some reason.
"What's wrong?"
"Our efforts might've been for nothing."
"Pardon?"
"Can't you feel it?"
Owen placed a hand on the deck and swept it along.
"The Sky Fortress's engines are dead. They shut them down themselves. It's tilting."
Ramin blinked, not grasping it.
"What does that mean?"
Answering was the belated arrival of Gorgota Palu.
"Elder! The elder's speaking!"
Gorgota rushed up to Ramin and Owen.
"The Sky Fortress is plummeting toward the Rasdasil coast!"