I Became The Tyrant Of A Defense Game [EN]: Chapter 458

Gooooooo-!

The Imperial Army’s airships, which had been on standby, soared into the sky all at once.

“The enemy ship is coming from a super high altitude! Intercept it!” Reina shouted, ordering the boarding.

“We must stop them no matter what! The Imperial Palace right now… !”

Reina’s eyes flicked towards the Imperial Palace.

The palace with its rows of black spires, the Thorn Palace, was there. Reina cried out with a shudder.

“His Majesty Emperor Fernandes is in the final preparations for the ‘Ark’! We absolutely cannot let them interfere!”

Fernandes was directly connected to Everblack, preparing for the final stage of his plan.

They couldn’t let those bastards ruin it at the very last moment.

“Share the thermal scan results with all airships in real-time! Battleships, follow the heat source and deploy a defensive formation along the predicted path!”

“But, Lady Reina! The enemy is invisible!” A mage on a nearby airship shouted urgently.

“The enemy ship is cloaked! Thermal detection has its limits for tracking… !”

Scan magic was always a beat slower than the naked eye.

And in aerial combat where the situation changed in an instant, a beat’s delay was as good as eternity.

The Geronimo’s cloaking function was truly, maliciously, a cheat-like performance.

“…I’ll guide you.”

Reina, gritting her teeth, boarded the Alcatraz herself, and the Imperial flagship lifted its massive body into the air with a heavy engine roar.

“If we land a single hit, the cloak will be dispelled. After that, unleash a barrage.”

“But, how will you land the first hit-”

“Shut up and prepare!”

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

Kiiiiiiing!

The Alcatraz shot into the sky in an instant.

“Kuh… !”

The sudden movement of the airship caused immense pressure. Reina gritted her teeth and endured, staring into the sky.

It was invisible to the naked eye.

But- for a veteran mage who had lived on the battlefield her entire life.

For this old soldier who had always returned alive from the battlefield where if you didn’t kill first, you would be killed.

There was a transcendent intuition that could be called a sixth sense.

“… !”

In the distant sky, a faint magical light flashed for a moment.

Reina reached her arm through the half-open hatch and conjured magic as fast as the wind.

“There you are-!”

Thwang!

A wind magic bullet was fired.

A single shot. It was a low-powered attack that could easily pierce human flesh, but would barely scratch a solid machine.

But that magic bullet surely grazed the side of the cloaked enemy airship-

Chwaaaaaak!

Dispelling the cloaking veil.

Suddenly, a huge airship appeared in the sky.

An airship with a crude appearance and two rotating propellers, completely different from the Imperial Army’s standard design – the Geronimo.

Swaaaaaaak!

The Geronimo was falling straight down from the sky to the ground like a meteor. The end of its trajectory was undoubtedly aimed at the Imperial Palace.

「The enemy ship has revealed itself!」

「Fire-!」

「Shoot it down!」

The Imperial airships, which had hastily blocked the Geronimo’s path, fired a barrage all at once.

Red bullets covered the sky like a downpour. But even in the face of the firestorm that decorated the sky, the Geronimo did not slow down.

With the unbreakable Siren statue – [Steadfast Superstition] – held out like a shield, the Geronimo toughly endured the hail of bullets with its thick armor and protective magic, and descended like a thunderbolt.

When the Geronimo continued to charge without flinching from the barrage, Reina had to make a decision.

“All ships, listen! Block its path! Block it with your bodies!”

「Kuh… ! Understood!」

The Imperial airships stopped firing, raised their barriers, and stood firm in the sky.

The defensive power of an airship in defensive formation was comparable to the walls of a fortress. A normal ship would explode upon impact.

But Reina recalled the ramming attack the Geronimo had attempted just yesterday. The Geronimo might have a way to break through their defenses.

‘Can we stop it?’

Reina gritted her teeth, staring at the enemy ship falling with terrifying momentum.

But if that thing was determined to break through, they could at least aim for mutual destruction.

Reina began casting wind magic. The moment the Geronimo rammed into them, she intended to hit it with a point-blank tornado.

Swaaaaaaak…!

And then, the Geronimo, which had fallen to within striking distance-

Tu-hak-!

Suddenly, it spewed flames from its side thrusters, drastically changing its course.

It bent its entry angle, then gently changed its path, bypassing the Imperial airship formation from a distance.

“…?”

The Geronimo slowed down, flew parallel to the horizon, and changed its course away from the Imperial Palace, heading out of the Imperial Capital.

As if it had never charged so fiercely… it leisurely changed its course, leaving the airspace above the Imperial Capital and moving away.

“What.”

Reina, who had been blankly watching the receding trajectory of the Geronimo, muttered in a bewildered voice.

“…Is it running away now?”

That’s right.

The Geronimo was making a run for it. As if its desperate charge just moments ago had been a lie.

Reina opened her mouth slightly, unable to understand the situation.

What? What the hell is going on?

「Lady Reina!」

Then a communication came through.

「The enemy ship is fleeing! We will pursue!」

“No, wait a minute…”

「Now that its cloak is dispelled, we must pursue and shoot it down!」

「Kite One, Kite Two, pursuing the enemy ship!」

「Feather One, Feather Two, joining the pursuit!」

The airships that had been in formation left the Imperial Capital one after another, chasing after the Geronimo.

In an instant, most of the airship fleet had left the airspace, chasing after the Geronimo.

“…”

Reina watched this scene without stopping them, but her mind was not at ease.

Certainly, the Geronimo was a dangerous ship. Now that its cloak was dispelled, it was only right to pursue and finish it off.

But… what was this unsettling feeling of unease?

‘Prince Ash…’

Reina rubbed her troubled forehead and gritted her teeth.

‘What are you aiming for? What’s your next move?’

Reina looked down at the cityscape of the Imperial Capital.

The city she wanted to protect, sleeping in a precarious peace.

“I have a bad feeling…”

Reina, who had been grinding her teeth, looked at the cockpit and shouted.

“Lower the Alcatraz! We’re going down to the Imperial Capital… I need to check the inside of the city myself.”

***

At the same time.

Inside the Imperial Capital. The outer slums.

In the empty streets, five people dressed in Imperial Army uniforms were moving stealthily.

It was the Gambler Party, Gamble Club, who had successfully infiltrated the Imperial Capital as spies just yesterday.

“What… is this?”

They looked around the inside of the Imperial Capital, where there was no trace of people, as if they were bewildered.

“Is this really New Terra?”

“There were rumors that the streets were blocked and going out was prohibited, but…”

“Even so, there’s absolutely no trace of people.”

The city was eerie, as if it had been devoured by ghosts.

The footsteps of the five people echoed in the desolate streets where not even a rat could be seen. The five gamblers headed into the slums as if they had committed a crime.

Besides the lack of people, there were many other strange things.

“…The doors are blocked from the outside.”

Every house on the street had its doors boarded up and nailed shut from the outside. The windows were the same.

As if they were forcibly preventing the people inside from coming out…

‘Why?’

Without knowing why, the five gamblers reached the center of the slums. There was a particularly large and fancy bar.

It was the headquarters of the organization that possessed the ‘back door’ that these five gamblers had originally intended to trade with.

At first, the Gamble Club had heard rumors that they could only survive by boarding the Ark of New Terra, and they tried to get into New Terra by any means to survive.

But by then, New Terra was already firmly sealed off, and there was no way to enter.

That’s when they got in touch with this organization. These people, who had been smuggling through the sewers of the Imperial Capital, were now one of the few who could travel in and out of the sealed city.

They made a business of charging exorbitant tolls to those who wanted to enter and leave the Imperial Capital.

In just a few months, this organization had grown tremendously, and they had heard that business was booming…

“…”

Whhiiing.

The bar, where a desolate wind blew, also had its entrance and windows nailed shut.

The gamblers looked at each other. They were reluctant, but there was no other way.

“Tear it down.”

“Damn it, I have a bad feeling…”

Kkiiik! Crack!

The five gamblers struggled to tear down the boards blocking the entrance. All five of them were far from being strong, so it took them a long time.

When they finally tore down the boards, a normal door was revealed. Violet, the party leader, swallowed hard and grabbed the doorknob.

“Sh-shit, even if a ghost or two pops out now, it won’t be that scary… !”

They were already in the belly of the beast. What more was there to fear?

Violet slowly opened the door.

Kiiik-

The hinges made a messy sound as if they hadn’t been used for a long time, and the door opened.

And inside this bar, the largest in this slum…

“…?!”

There were people.

Standing leaning against the bar, or sitting at the tables. Holding dried-up glasses. All of them were sitting still, staring blankly into the air, without moving.

Why were they all like this, slumped over like stuffed dolls?

“Hey, hey! Can you hear me?”

“They’re still breathing. What the hell is this…?”

The gamblers, who had examined the people up close, were soon able to come to a conclusion.

“They all seem to be hypnotized.”

“So many people? Is that even possible?”

“What can’t the Imperial Emperor do?”

“Let’s try to break the hypnosis.”

Since all the gamblers were specialists in this field, they quickly found a way.

They used Lime’s clairvoyance, Orange’s mind-reading, and Violet’s illusion magic to break the hypnosis.

“Huh?!”

A middle-aged man, who was the first to be released from hypnosis, was startled and regained his senses.

“S-s-save me, Your Majesty! Please! I don’t want to die!”

The man struggled in panic, but immediately lost strength in his legs and collapsed to the floor. Violet, who approached him, shouted.

“Hey, we came from outside the Imperial Capital. What the hell happened here?”

“Huh… huh… what, Your Majesty…? He was just in front of me a moment ago?”

The man was still confused, as if the hypnosis hadn’t completely worn off.

After interrogating the confused man, they were able to obtain some general information about what had happened inside the Imperial Capital.

During the long blockade, discontent had spread throughout the Imperial Capital. The citizens were seething, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to suppress this discontent with military force.

Signs of uprisings and rebellions appeared, and clashes between the military and citizens became frequent.

Then, Fernandes used his specialty.

He used hypnosis and mind control using illusions on the entire Imperial Capital.

Using thousands of magic amplification artifacts, he hypnotized the citizens and forcibly injected messages.

And to prevent them from escaping outside, he sealed the doors of every house.

That was why the streets were empty. Right now, all the citizens of the Imperial Capital were trapped in their homes, under hypnosis.

“What message did Emperor Fernandes send to you?”

“He said, ‘Now we are going to paradise’ …”

The man muttered blankly.

“And that ‘we can gain eternal life there’ …”

“…”

“‘So, just wait a little more quietly’ …”