And just now, the biocomputer noticed the change in Country Eater. Upon reaching maximum luminosity and gaining directionality, the light emanating from its core was starting to draw out symbols and patterns. The slime was using mana to strengthen the energy it had absorbed from Uranos’s particle beam and preparing to shoot it back out as an even more powerful attack.
A warning message began flashing insistently on the screens in front of everyone. This meant there was an imminent attack that could break through the ship’s defenses and that, despite the ship’s high mobility, evasion was no longer possible.
However, the All Dragon did not summon an Astral, nor did the Elven Queen or the Demon Lord seem to take any action. The person who reacted to the clamorous message and alarm and flew into a flurry of action was actually Reen. Perched in the middle of machinery only slightly less impressive than Sol’s, she started jabbing and dragging the nine glowing displays around her helmet that she had in addition to the large ones she had in common with the other girls. All nine showed Country Eater from a different location, such that together they provided a feed of the slime from all angles.
This was a defensive measure that Gawain had suggested when outfitting the airship. The idea was to co-opt Reen’s defense-focused Numbers armament with the vessel’s system, thereby giving it nine extra shields with complete freedom of movement, each of which could deflect much more powerful attacks.
On each screen was the name of the corresponding shield. Based on knowledge that Sol had shared with her from Biblioteca, she had named them Heaven One, Lake Two, Flame Three, Thunder Four, Wind Five, Water Six, Mountain Seven, Earth Eight, and finally, Axis Nine. All of them usually moved with full autonomy, with Reen being able to take control at any moment. In emergencies, she actually had to do so, or else the shields would default to focusing on protecting her alone.
“Sorry for the trouble, Reen. Think you can handle it?” Sol felt bad about it, but he had purposely created a situation where the feature had to be used because he wanted to see it. Now that it was happening, though, he was wholeheartedly placing his trust in her.
“Of course!” Reen replied. She radiated happiness at being relied on but had to promptly return to focusing on the task at hand. She was practically controlling nine copies of herself that were zipping around at high speed, which did not leave the mental bandwidth for much else.
The light that filled Country Eater’s colossal form intensified further. The surrounding floating islands had even less defensive capabilities than Sol’s airship, so Reen positioned Heaven One through Earth Eight such that they could intercept attacks aimed at them. This left the monster with the obvious choice of targeting the airship directly above its head.
“Axis Nine!”
The shield kept in reserve for the sole purpose of protecting the airship, Axis Nine, the largest and sturdiest of Reen’s shields, instantaneously deployed a barrier exactly large enough to cover the vessel. As the torrent of light was much larger in diameter than the airship, it looked to the members of the ruling class on the surrounding islands that it had been swallowed up and erased in its entirety. The ship was, in fact, completely safe, like a bubble riding a stream. Sol was even thrilled at the experience of watching pure destruction surging past on the monitors from inside the bridge. He never felt for a moment that he was in danger.
When the stream, which reached the stratosphere, shrank until it was only the size of the ship, Country Eater finally understood that it wasn’t achieving anything and abruptly redirected its attack at the floating islands as if slashing with a sword. However, the eight shields on standby reacted with godlike speed and perfect coordination. Before long, the light simply fizzled out. This counterattack that had dealt such catastrophic destruction—partly because the Church had refused to accept that its trump card was ineffective and used it a few times—had been utterly shut down. There was nothing that Country Eater could do, as its repertoire mainly consisted of either absorbing opponents with its enormous body or absorbing and returning their attacks.
The exchange that had just taken place was a very convincing demonstration of what a privilege it was to live in the sky. Whereas those on the ground could only look up at the looming threat, nothing could touch those in the sky where the All Dragon reigned supreme.
“Thanks, Reen.” Sol looked down at the helpless wriggling mass below. “Well, since the experiment is over, let’s unseal Country Eater’s taboo territory and get the interisland teleportation network up and running.”
The quietly falling rain and the clouds that had covered the sky all the way to the horizon were instantaneously wiped away by a streak of magical light. This did not mean the airship and floating islands were exposed to sunlight, however. Rather, it was even darker than before. The sight of Garlaige’s entertainment district as seen from its city walls at night, a rugged surface dotted by lights of varying intensity, color, and frequency, seemed to have taken the place of the clouds, hanging upside down in the sky. Of course, this was no mirage but the underside of a massive landmass. Under Sol’s instruction, the Floating Continent had been teleported over, with its sudden appearance dispersing all the rain clouds in one big blast. When something the size of a whole continent appeared so abruptly—as opposed to slowly moving there—the aftereffects of both the displacement of mass and the sheer amount of mana being expended had a strong tendency to very conspicuously alter the weather.
“Right, of course that happens.” Sol chuckled a little, then began deftly manipulating the small display window he had brought up. Right away, the auxiliary brain components surrounding his seat blinked furiously and kicked into top gear.
Sunlight fell onto his airship despite it being positioned under the Floating Continent. Not something fancy and artsy like crepuscular rays, but a full-on sunbeam from directly overhead. A quick look revealed that this was because the continent blocking the sun was disappearing from the center.
The Floating Continent wasn’t falling apart, nor was it being teleported away. Like the surrounding display inside the bridge of his airship, Sol was applying optical camouflage to the bottom of the entire landmass. It was beyond even his power to hide the entire thing in the blink of an eye, so the effect was starting in the middle and radiating outward. It picked up speed the farther it went until there was nothing left in view but a perfectly cloudless blue sky.
Those on the floating islands still had their heads craned up and their jaws on the floor. The sight before them, with Country Eater fully illuminated by a seemingly open sky, encircled by numerous floating islands surrounding an airship packed with futuristic technology, set their hearts racing. They never could have imagined any of this mere months ago, yet here they were, waiting with bated breath—for the defeat of Country Eater, the boss that the world feared was a hair trigger away from annihilating the human race. For the gong that would mark the start of Sol Prosperitas, the age of great expansion when everyone would be fully rewarded for all the effort they had put in, knowing for certain that tomorrow would be better than today.