Steel and Mana
Chapter 421 – Pop

We had been flying for nearly nine hours by now, and we were about to fly past the borders of Markoth and enter the most eastern kingdom on the map: Airosia. Beneath my Camelot, the landscape was nothing but a wholly ruined world, something that we got used to after the first hour or so. We just passed by the eastern flatlands of Markoth, where, according to Edric's words, the old kingdom got most of its wheat. I could see that, as they were still growing but no longer showing any organization that a field would, especially from this altitude. Instead, they were overgrown, spreading like massive splotches.

But we found no people or animals. Not real ones, that is.

We did come across a few nests, and the Camelot's sensors picked up multiple underground presences of monsters, but for now, we didn't attack. I didn't want to poke them and unleash a horde towards Edric or down south. As for the possibility of more refugees hiding somewhere? Maybe. But we would need days just to fly around, trying to find them.

I was standing at the center of the bridge, next to Kustov, watching the scenery drift past through the Imaginary. We passed over the old border between the two countries and a massive fortress, or more precisely, over its ruins. I expected to find some people there, if anywhere, but it looked empty and collapsed. However, our sensors also showed that there was another city nearby, in Airosian territory, so we were heading there.

"Another ruined city confirmed," Kustov sighed from my right, his tone audibly disappointed as the images began changing on the projection, slowly clearing and showing an overgrown, abandoned town. "There are no thermal or magical signatures." He continued, relaying the information to me, "Also... The structural collapse seems inconsistent with standard decay. The walls were torn apart."

"That makes it the fifth..." I murmured, mostly to myself. "And still no survivors. Damn."

Kustov didn’t respond to that, and there was no need. Hearing about it was one thing, but seeing it for myself was another. The devastation that befell this part of the continent was way worse than any report could paint it. It was already a miracle that it didn't reach Khulman, but it also told me that they were simply lucky. What I was afraid of now was that if we don't do anything, once this part of the world is stripped of its resources or the beasts that nested here breed, those will start moving down south and west. It was inevitable... it was indeed the case: Life finds a way.

The first city we flew over was nothing but charred remnants, the empty shells of its buildings already swallowed by creeping vegetation. The second we found fared even worse as its entire center collapsed like a great fist had pounded it from above, collapsing in on itself. The third was no different. From what we could tell, it was because of the beasts digging under the city, eating whatever they found down there until they moved so much earth away that the ground above them simply caved in.

Well, this one was also a lost cause, so I ordered the Camelot to make some circles around the ruins, make a good reading, and try to get some pings back from underground. I was about to turn towards Merlin when it happened.

"Captain! Sovereign!" one of the sensor officers exclaimed, his voice surprisingly tense. "We have a visual anomaly! It's bearing southeast and is moving! Coordinates are being marked... now!"

The projection shifted at once, focusing and zooming towards the east, and I leaned forward, even though I didn't need to. At first, I thought it was another crater, a perfectly round depression in the earth, easily the size of a town. But, of course, it wasn't natural. No meteor had made that, as it looked like the ones we had already seen before. That was another nest, and the fact that we got readings off of it, it wasn't empty this time around.

"What in the Gods' names..." the officer muttered as the airship began flying forward to get a better look.

"Raise the alarm and prepare for battle!" Kustov ordered, preparing for the worst, which I also agreed with.

In the projection, we could see how tiny dots moved down into the sinkhole. There were movements, alright, but they were not clear enough to tell if they were humans or not. However, I had a hunch that they weren't. Within a few moments, new data began to stream in as we got closer, and I saw the skeletal remains clearing up, its pixelated view becoming sharper. It was a town or a mine once, but it got overturned, quite literally. The underground strata were exposed, and veins of visible CC ran through the rock like blood vessels. Bingo.

"This is... or was a CC deposit," Merlin muttered, standing by my side. His eyes were focused as he was reaching out mentally, getting a feel for it in a way only a mage could. "Damn... That is a huge one. They unearthed it completely... They dug it out from below and brought it to the surface. It is like how some animals make a nest."

"Imagine how big it was originally if they also ate it," I said grimly. "Maybe they also harvested the region; who knows?"

"Could be the case. All the other ruins looked empty." Kustov agreed as he frowned. "Damned beasts..."

"There are monsters here, alright..." Merlin nodded, licking his lips. "I can feel magic being used here."

The assessment made the bridge silent for a moment.

"You heard him," I chuckled, heading back to my seat. "Make sure our cannons are ready and keep the ship a safe distance away while getting a read!" I was thinking about when they would notice us, but the moment my thoughts went there, I couldn't help but shrug. "Leon, you jinx..." I whispered to myself.

"Update!" said one of the junior officers. "We're detecting movement!"

"Where?" Kustov barked at him at once.

"East of the sinkhole! Coming out of... holes. Wait, no! The whole earth is getting overturned; it is moving... Magical waves detected! It is a massive monster! Visual contact in two seconds..." he added in a hurry, his voice nervous but not fearful. "Magnifying now!"

The image changed at once, displaying what I could only describe as the worst nightmare for those who feared holes.

The creature was massive, easily forty meters tall, if not more. It was either still sleepy or always like this, a lumbering monstrosity, as its movements were at a snail's pace. Examining its body, it looked like it had been carved from the ground, turned into an open beehive, and made to move on its own, in some fleshy... things at its bottom. Its entire surface was pitted with holes, going from small to massive, some of which flexed and pulsed as if breathing. Maybe it was because, from some of them, pale smoke wafted from its openings.

Then, just as we were looking in disgust, from those pits, from dozens of them, small creatures erupted like some nightmare... the same type of creatures my father had seen. Great.

"Prepare for battle!" I ordered, not that I had to. The ship was already turning towards its sides so our broadside cannons could take a shot.

"Full power to the weapons," Kustov barked. "All decks! We have incoming. Lock down all non-combat sectors!"

"Merlin?" I asked, looking at him while he was still standing, looking at the image of the bigger one, and not at the cloud of monsters heading our way.

"It is weird..." he muttered. "I feel a kind of connection between the moving nest and these others, but I can't put my finger on it."

"Well, it doesn't matter. Instead, go, make sure our cores are functioning to their best!" I ordered him, finally making him nod and hurry away. By then, the creatures had covered half the distance already, coming at us like angry hornets whose home had been hit by a bat. "Don't worry..." I murmured to myself, "It will be hit, alright... Kustov! Use scatter formations!"

"Understood!" Kustov nodded. "Fire when ready!"

The first volley went out like actual thunder, echoing within the ship's hull. The fire-based spells flew in an arc, eight in total, but only until they burst midair, sending four times the arcs through the sky all of a sudden. It was an instant, clear hit. The leading edge of the swarm had no chance to evade, and they evaporated in a blaze of fire. Their bodies began falling out of the sky as burnt chicken nuggets... But, of course, more came behind them.

They were fast, I gave them that.

I clenched the edge of my chair, watching as the wave of creatures approached, flying through the fire and smoke still in the air. Those who managed to do so twisted through it all, and suddenly, their wings shimmered with a translucent sheen, flapping them once and twice, sending some kind of wind-blade spell our way.

"Shields holding," Kustov reported as they hit us, but their spell didn't even scratch our barrier.

"No breaches... Their spells are weak," came Merlin's voice from the radio as he reached engineering and was now monitoring the situation personally from there.

"It can be a probing attack," I added. "Don't lax now! Give them a second volley; don't let them retreat."

More fire burst from the side of Camelot at my order. This time, we fired in tight bursts, tracking the monsters with lethal precision, causing the spells to fly between them, exploding midair, tearing holes into their membrane-like wings, if not outright killing them. Each bang was a flash of light, and thanks to their way of attacking, the swarm being dense, it was raining dying monsters over the land.

Then, we were hit.

A jarring clang echoed through the command deck as lights flickered. The projected Imaginary became static for a moment while the whole Camelot rocked a bit, throwing me to the left in my chair for a moment.

"That came from the big one!" one of the officers said. "It was a beam attack, too fast to track down!"

"Minor damage," Merlin quickly confirmed, "No penetration; our anti-magic solution was not fast enough to react to it... It may be a slow beast, but its magic activates almost instantly."

"Take us a bit higher! I exhaled, furrowing my brows.

"Leon, I think they're testing us," Merlin said, probably analyzing the swarm's attacks, where their weak spells hit us, still more and more coming out from the big one's body. "They're looking for weak points."

"Visual change on the big one," Kustov exclaimed warningly. "It’s stopped moving. It's… settling into place."

The giant monster had halted just outside the crater, its body twitching. More flying beasts were still emerging from its sides, but this time, they weren't coming towards the Camelot but began circling around its top.

"How many more can it produce?" Kustov asked aloud, feeling it sent shivers down his spine, watching so many appear from its body.

"Probably a lot," Merlin answered, his tone unreadable. "But I am more worried about what I am feeling. It is preparing a spell!"

That decided it.

“Kustov,” I said, looking at the beast's figure. “Prepare the Camelot; we are firing our main weapon.”

The bridge fell silent, and I saw the flicker of nerves ripple across the crew's faces, but only for a brief moment before excitement took over. It was to be the first time we used it against an actual target. Kustov gave the slightest of nods and turned toward the weapons station.

“You heard him!” he yelled, “Full stabilization, shields to the maximum!”

"Cores are stable!" Merlin answered through the comms, "Fire whenever ready!"

I reached for the hidden panel on the side of my command chair, sliding aside the compartment where it was placed. The ship began to hum as I did so, angling itself towards the target in a straight line. Maybe the creatures also felt my ship gathering energy as they began to scatter... afraid.

“Shields are at maximum,” Kustov reported, holding onto the Camelot's controls. “Brace yourselves, this will be... explosive."

Outside, the great hive-beast had begun to tremble, probably sensing it just the same, trying to hurry up its own spell. Its surface rippled like muscle under the skin as more holes opened, and the swirling creatures it was producing attempted to build a meatshield for it.

It was too late for it anyway, and this abomination wouldn't know what was about to hit him, even if it was smarter.

“Firing,” I spoke, exhaling, pressing down my thumb.

Then, the Camelot bucked as if kicked.

A blinding line of light erupted from the bow of the ship, with no sound but enough power to cause a physical reaction from the ship. Through the Imaginary, we watched it reach its target immediately, at the speed of light.

For a heartbeat, nothing happened; we just watched it flicker and disappear. Was it ineffective? Of course not. It simply took time for the beast to even recognize that it was dead and for reality to catch up to what just happened.

The flesh around the impact site liquefied at impact. No, it was not burned, nor was it shredded. It turned to glowing slurry, bubbling grotesquely. The holes along its body spasmed open at once, throwing out maggot-like larvae as they writhed outward, bubbling and exploding the moment they appeared.

But the biggest reaction came from the core inside the creature, wherever it may have been. Something that we didn't expect. Just a few seconds later, the entire beast glowed from within.

“Oh no—” Merlin’s voice crackled through the comms. “It’s going critical! It’s—”

The explosion that followed was the biggest one I have ever witnessed in both of my lives.

First came the light as a surge of radiant plasma that exploded upward in a column, punching through the clouds like a second sun that had been born. It made me look away, and I felt my eyes sting and get watery. Then, like a bomb full of gore, the entire body of the hive detonated, sending up a geyser of flesh, bone, and unidentifiable organic matter in the shape of a mushroom cloud of viscera.

“Brace!” Kustov shouted as shockwaves hit the Camelot the next moment.

The ship was rocked hard as if we were stuck in a typhoon. Alarms howled on all decks while warning lights lit up red across the bridge as the atmospheric pressure surged, signaling that we had some breaches on some decks. Coming just next were the splattered guts slamming into our shields and armor in a thick, wet-sounding rain. Blood had rained for a moment, even kilometers away from the impact.

"Stabilizing!" Merlin yelled as we somehow managed to remain afloat.

Wel... That's good... And the hive was gone. So... double good?

Where once stood a forty-meter-tall nightmare, there was only a rapidly expanding crater rimmed with bubbling slag and smoking chunks of what used to be living matter. I would call that a win. I watched as chitin plates spun through the air like broken armor, stray larvae, half-melted, writhed briefly on the scorched ground before disintegrating.

The swarm in the air? They were obliterated. Anything still flying had been vaporized when our strike ignited the hive’s core. Nothing remained behind, not even ash.

“…" Then, the comms crackled again, and Merlin began speaking in an amused voice, "Huh... Weapon output reached 96%. There is no permanent damage to the core systems. But the reaction was more violent than we expected...”

"We saw that," I chuckled, looking at my crew, who began finally calming down and realizing what had happened.

“Shield integrity at 74%,” Merlin added. “Minor surface corrosion from the organic blast and a few holes on the lower decks.”

"Well..." I exhaled, standing up. "I don't want to risk it. Collect every data we can, and let's head back to Markoth." I continued, looking at the others. Better be safe than sorry, and I think any monster around these parts of the world had to have felt that. Even if they are stupid, they should realize it's best to stay away."

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