Debra (4)
"Th-this is…."
The staff's rod split into four prongs, each firing a beam of blue light at the jewel at its core, and in the blink of an eye the metal of its body multiplied and swelled into a massive cannon barrel over two meters long.
The mechanical devices whirling around the barrel vented heat, belching out thick, acrid smoke.
The Crown Prince knew he would never forget this sight for as long as he lived.
Standing there, holding the enormous barrel with her head held high, she bore none of her usual hysterical edge. Like some great warrior, her expression was ashen, burnt-out — almost hollow.
Something about the way she stared blankly at the energy fragments scattering through the barrage like cherry blossom petals stirred an unexpected solemnity in him, too.
And that wasn't all.
The target had vanished without a trace. Molten rock seethed along the path the bombardment had carved, pooling like melted steel, and behind where the thing had stood a colossal hole gaped open to the sky. Even the clouds had been punched clean through, layer by layer, air currents forming along the trajectory.
Gulp—
The Crown Prince's Adam's apple bobbed.
He hadn't even registered the passage of time until he swallowed.
'Absolutely….'
He swore to himself that from this day forward, he would never, ever cross her.
'At the very least, I'll never call her an old spinster again.'
Yes. That was the right call.
He had no particular desire to experience a dragon's breath firsthand.
"This is… what is this?"
She, meanwhile, was in a state of sheer panic.
This was power beyond anything she had imagined.
Wh-what did I just see?
She was certain the creature had activated some kind of defensive barrier. A blue glow had wrapped around its body, shimmering faintly. And yet whatever it had done, the colossal beam had simply punched through it without meeting any resistance at all.
The magic staff(?) was slowly crumbling into ash and drifting away, but she had no spare attention for that.
With the Crown Prince present, she sent it as a message. She had no desire to become the madwoman who talked to herself.
"…."
Even at the Juddak's playful tone, she couldn't manage a laugh.
'That's impossible….'
She was no fool, either.
Whatever being had wrought a miracle like this with a single joke of a staff(?) could not possibly be some windbag full of lies.
Thinking back on everything he'd said in the community sent chills down her spine.
So when he'd casually mentioned blowing up planets and whatnot… that had been real, too.
He was almost certainly a being she couldn't even begin to imagine.
She looked down at the hacking chip that had come with the package.
Peering closely at the stubby, jet-black thing, she could see a faint blue glow leaking through the microscopic seams.
'This isn't an ordinary trinket either, I suppose.'
Recalling the usage instructions he'd given her, she tossed the hacking chip toward the massive machine in the laboratory.
Shocked as she was, she hadn't forgotten what needed to be done.
The chip flew through the air, struck the pillar, and clung to it, spinning out thin filaments of light.
Vmmm—
The pillar was radiating blue light, just as it had when she'd first entered this place. But now a faint tremor ran through it, and its shape began to shift, little by little.
The researcher in her wanted to lean in, hungry to understand. She resisted. Right now, figuring out what that creature had been plotting took priority over curiosity.
'A hacking chip…. If it came in the package, there must be a reason.'
The vast pillar, its blue light flickering, pierced up through the palace above, forming a colossal spire.
Supposedly it was for establishing communications with its homeworld, but no one knew its exact purpose.
The Juddak maintained his silence for a while, despite her questions.
Just as impatience drove her to send another message—
"I'm sorry, what?"
Vmmm—
In that instant, just like when she purchased items from the Dimensional Store, something dropped out of thin air with a soft thud.
It looked similar to the hacking chip from the package.
She quietly did as he instructed.
'Ether?'
After a process much like the one before, the Juddak spoke up.
"…."
The Juddak, who until now had answered every question she posed, kept his mouth shut about this. No — he seemed to have sunk entirely into his own thoughts, paying her no attention whatsoever.
"…."
Still, when she waited quietly, the Juddak shared a few facts.
"!!"
She struggled to keep her head above the flood of the Juddak's words.
"Wh-what are you saying?"
Her voice burst out of her aloud. There was no room left in her mind to worry about the Crown Prince.
"I'm sorry, what?"
It was all she could do to follow the conversation as it hurtled forward.
She chewed over his words — and then something clicked.
"Th-then! We really shouldn't have killed it, shouldn't we!"
The Crown Prince was looking at her like she'd lost her mind, but who cared about that right now?
"It wasn't?"
"What? You sent what?"
What?!
I'm sorry, what?
For a moment she thought she must have misheard. Why had she spent all this time wringing her hands in anxiety? Why had she assassinated(?) that creature in the first place?
Wasn't it to halt the acceleration of mana contamination and stop the invasion of Debra — that thing's home world?
Her head spun, and somehow a massage chair drifted into her thoughts. Even now, in the middle of this, the massage chair he'd given her was what came to mind. She felt a wave of self-loathing.
Her head was throbbing. The planet was about to face an invasion on a planetary scale and he was making jokes?!
"How am I supposed to NOT worry!"
"WHAT?!"
A helper? What on earth was that supposed to mean?
Was the Juddak actually just a lunatic? A powerful lunatic, at that.
For some reason, she felt afraid.
But then a murmur began rising from outside, and she had to snap back to her senses.
Oh… oh no.
Come to think of it, there was no way the people outside could have missed a commotion this enormous.
She lowered her head and looked down at her clothes.
"…."
The greatest crisis of her life had just arrived.
The Debra Planet was densely packed with spires, the tallest of which towered high above the atmosphere itself.
The command tower that governed the planet's security and held authority over the entire military also bore responsibility for defense against any alien civilization that might appear. It rose higher than any other spire, unmistakable at a glance.
It served many other functions besides, but lately one duty had been commanding its attention above all the rest.
The exploration fleet. All of it.
Some three hundred exploration vessels were currently ranging outward beyond the star system, and oversight of the entire operation fell to the command tower.
Beep—
In the upper levels of the command tower, a Debran officer whose uniform glittered with a forest of insignia went wide-eyed, his black pupils dilating.
"That makes the third one already?"
"Yes, sir. Truly wonderful news."
The first suitable planet had an expedition force being assembled for terraforming — slow and methodical. Its resources were meager, but it looked promising as a forward base for expanding their territory.
The second, however, had been slated for 'incineration.' They were currently erasing the primitive civilization on its surface and preparing the planet for resource extraction.
And now, on top of everything, a third suitable planet.
It seemed they would have no need to worry about resource depletion for quite some time.
Moreover…
Though the report was a little strange, the third suitable planet was said to overflow with resources. The Etar reserves in particular were said to surpass all imagination.
Etar — the great power source that had enabled the Debran species to conquer the stars.
Still, the request for reinforcements nagged at him.
Even so, the report could be trusted, because exploration soldiers were constitutionally incapable of filing false reports in the first place. Anyone who wasn't Debran couldn't even send a transmission.
"Hmm."
Primitive natives who hadn't even reached the stars were putting up resistance? It was difficult to believe.
Judging by the soldier's biosignature, it had sent a full transmission and then died. Either way, whoever had killed an exploration soldier might as well have provoked the entire Debra Planet.
"Then we shall answer in kind."
To provocation, only retaliation.
How dare some insignificant alien species.
"Report this to the high command and prepare to muster the entire fleet."
"Sir?"
"We cannot afford to take Etar lightly."
"Then shall I…"
"Prepare for total war."
"!!"
Before long, warships amounting to sixty percent of the Debra Planet's entire military power began mobilizing for launch.
Altogether, some twenty-four thousand space warships rose toward the planet where Keisha stood.
It was a lightning-fast movement that even Karlstein had not anticipated.
To the Debrans, Etar was a resource more precious than life itself.