Ch.323Blood Paradise. Kreeks Hall (2)

“Multiple heat signatures detected from the ground! Missiles incoming!”

The observer’s radio transmission, almost like a scream, burns through the bridge.

In an instant, red alerts fill the corridors, and soldiers finish their recreation and rest, rushing toward the armory.

“Intercept them!”

As Viktor swings his hand and shouts, as if hearing his command, Sky Warden’s unmanned system automatically activates the CLWS, intercepting tens of thousands of missiles.

Drrrrrr!

BOOM! KABOOM!

It was a sight painful to the eyes, like tiny suns dying out, but unfortunately, the CLWS couldn’t shoot down all the missiles.

Missiles burrowed into the most vulnerable lower flight deck, and those targeting the turrets also successfully hit, causing massive explosions and vibrations that shook the Sky Warden.

“Damage report!”

“Flight deck sections 1 through 12 damaged! Fire breaking out!”

“Starboard turrets 22, 87, and 13 silent! Port turrets 11 and 76 silent! No response!”

“Everyone to battle stations!”

WEEEEEEEE!

Viktor gritted his teeth.

It was his perfect oversight.

Despite having allowed a surprise attack in the past when distracted by New Year celebrations, allowing another surprise attack and taking damage meant the blame fell squarely on him.

“Simon! I leave the bridge to you. I’ll meet the enemy with my party members!”

“Leave it to me. From now on, I command the bridge!”

As Simon shouts this, the officers nod. Seeing this, Viktor rushes out, joins his armed wife from the captain’s quarters, and begins searching the corridors to gather his party members.

“My lord!”

“Where are my party members!”

“The elves were at the flight deck… I last saw the dwarf in the engine room…”

Flight deck.

Suddenly, the report that missiles had destroyed the flight deck flashes through Viktor’s mind.

If they were on the flight deck, it meant they were directly exposed to the missile attack. As this thought struck him, fear of losing his companions clouded his eyes.

“Gather the soldiers and head down to the flight deck. Search for the elves! We’ll head to the engine room!”

“Yes, my lord!”

The ship was shaking chaotically.

The fires caused by the missiles were spreading, and enemy air forces had arrived through the clouds, engaging with the anti-aircraft gunners.

-Currently engaged with unknown enemy aircraft! Approximately 300 in number! Still increasing!-

-This is the lower deck! Enemies are attaching to the armored deck! They’re melting through the armor! Request support! Request support!-

As they move through the corridors, desperate and despairing voices flow through the voice tubes.

Why?

Why didn’t I notice?

I should be a god… a being with divinity that pervades even personality!

“Found you… Sun God!”

“You…!!!”

And that question vanished instantly upon seeing the enemies breaking through the armor.

Ah… how could I have forgotten? I’m not the only one with divine status in this world.

“Slaves of Karil! Do you think you can commit blasphemy against the sun and live?”

“This is Karil’s command! If we die, we go to Valhalla, so try to kill us! Killing you means ascension, and dying by your hand promises heaven!”

“Blood-crazed fanatics! I’ll purify your pitiful souls myself!”

FZZZZZT!

Thunder-like aura and lightning-like rupturing sounds begin to fill the corridor.

Karil.

The god of bloodshed and war wants to see the sun extinguished.

*

“Cough..! Cough…!”

“Kasia! Don’t get up! Stay still!”

Lower flight deck.

The elf sisters, who took direct hits from the missile bombardment, were crawling across the deck with faces shamefully covered in soot.

Kasia, unfortunately being closer to the airship, was covered in shrapnel when the airship’s gas bag exploded from the missile, and she was bleeding profusely with thousands of fragments embedded from her face to her feet, losing blood to the point of no return.

Fortunately, being an aura user, she could somehow cling to life, but that was all.

Having been complacent as companions of a god, they had neglected to improve their skills as adventurers should, resulting in not even knowing how to recover from critical wounds.

It was truly the consequence of complacency and laziness.

“There they are! The elf sisters!”

“Kill them! Blood for the Blood God!”

And what the elder sister heard as she watched her younger sister’s gaze gradually dim was the followers of Karil in red armor who had boarded the flight deck. They pointed their blades at her with wild cries, and she too began to draw her bow at them with a battle cry.

THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!

“Argh!”

“Guaaagh!”

“Grrrrrk!”

With each arrow imbued with aura and rage, armor shattered and clothing tore as arrows buried deep into bodies with ominous sounds.

They too were aura users, so they didn’t lose their lives from just that, but fortunately for Lucia, she wasn’t fighting alone.

RATATAT! TATAT!

“Urrrgh…”

THUD!

“There they are!”

“Lady Lucia! Lady Kasia! Are you alright!?”

Following Viktor’s orders, about 30 soldiers formed a platoon and descended to the flight deck, and they began supporting the critically wounded Kasia and Lucia, who was facing hundreds of enemies, with expressions of shock.

The gunfire was incessant, and the heavy machine guns set up in the narrow passage began turning aura users into minced meat, buying time for the elves to retreat.

THUDTHUDTHUDTHUD!

“Stretcher! Bring a stretcher!”

“Medic! Medic!”

Urgently, medics began carefully lifting Kasia onto a folding stretcher to transport her to the infirmary.

KABOOM!

“AAAAARGH…!”

“Machine gun lost!”

“Form ranks! Lady Lucia! We need your supporting fire!”

And at that moment, as if perfectly timed, the machine gun mount and its operators were killed by grenades thrown by the enemy, and the Sun’s soldiers began forming ranks and pouring fire.

“Push forward! Burn the Sky Warden!”

“Stop them at all costs! If this area falls, the barracks, mess hall, and infirmary are exposed!”

RATATATATAT!

Bullets rained down, and Karil’s fanatics fired rockets and threw grenades to break through the defense line.

BOOM! KABOOM!

“Damn! That cursed elf!!!”

However, due to Lucia’s pinpoint shooting, all rockets and grenades exploded in mid-air with meaningless shrapnel and pressure waves, and Lucia, her face flushed red, was frantically drawing her bow.

“I’ll kill you all! Come on in!”

*

At the same time, desperate resistance continued in the main corridor leading to the engine room.

The expressions of the Sun’s soldiers, who had built improvised barricades in the corridor and were stopping aura users with grenades and rockets, were nothing short of desperate.

The main corridor they were defending connected to the armory where tanks and armored vehicles were stored and to the engine room responsible for the Sky Warden’s power. If they failed to defend this area where large forces could infiltrate, the power would be lost, and the tanks and armored vehicles would be seized and turned against their rightful owners—a terrible scenario.

“Forces of the Sun! Hold firm! Justice is with us. Meet your end in a way that would not shame your brothers!”

“These diseased ones of blood and pus dare to envy the radiance of the sun and try to taint its purity with blood! Send these pitiful sick ones to the abyss! Glory to the Sun God!”

And the Sun’s priests, when the lower section took a heavy impact, began to cut down enemies with their nodachi.

Though not aura users, the divine power bestowed by the sun could overwhelm ordinary aura users, and since the god they served was physically present in the same space, their divine power was further amplified, allowing just a few of them to block the main corridor spanning dozens of meters with their martial prowess.

“Dogs of the Sun! Face us! We, the hounds of war who spill blood, will be your opponents!”

“Come! Hounds of festering blood! The Sun will burn you all!”

And the priests of Karil and the priests of the Sun clashed with axes and swords.

When the white-hot glowing blade of the sword collided with the blood-soaked edge of the axe, tremendous shockwaves began to distort the inner walls, and soldiers poured bullets and grenades at each other, engaging in hand-to-hand combat near the defense line with swords and axes.

Armor splitting, heads cleaving, arms and legs being severed and rolling—these sounds filled the main corridor. And as this continued, the servants of the Blood God grew stronger, but this was the flagship of the Sun, where a god resided, and they were the divine soldiers of the Sun.

Blood sizzled, flesh burned, and the Sky Warden, as if possessing consciousness, began to emit light, seemingly deliberately hindering the soldiers of the Blood-God.

“Hail Karil! The sun will be extinguished!”

“Eternal glory to humanity’s Sun!”

Invoking their respective gods, a proxy war between two deities was unfolding in the main corridor.