Chapter 301: Malevolence

"Commander!"

"I'm aware," Kotori responds to the sudden cry of the man with a solemn look on her face, "Head north-west at maximum speed."

"Understood!" comes the response as the man begins furiously pressing keys on the keyboard in front of him.

Likewise, everyone present has a serious expression on their face as each focuses on a computer monitor in front of them.

---1st POV---

Arriving in front of the room that Reine and twin spirits are supposed to be in, I use Clairvoyance to quickly check inside the room.

"She's not here," I mutter due to not locating Reine.

However, the twin sisters are present, and both of them are sound asleep.

"Who isn't here?" Origami, who is right beside me questions.

"Reine," I respond while raising my arm and pressing the earbud before saying, "Hey, Reine, where are you?"

Moments pass by, but I get no response from the intercom.

Weird. Everything was fine just a few minutes ago. Did something unforeseen come about?

Unsure of what to do, I remain motionless in front of the door while deliberating on where Reine could be right now.

Well, this does not go on for any longer than ten seconds, as the only place that comes to mind is nowhere other than the Fraxinus.

As to how she could've gotten there… It could be one of Reine's possibly numerous secrets that I have yet to uncover.

Nevertheless, what am I supposed to do now? Earlier Reine suggested that I spend the day with the twins, but that doesn't seem to be much of a plausible option right now.

Hah~ What am I even thinking? I should check on Jeanne and the rest for now.

With that thought in mind, I begin to make use of Clairvoyance to relocate my sight over to the last location I remember the Fraxinus being at.

Due to a small test I had conducted earlier, I had found out that if I were to focus properly, making out an 'invisible' ship would be easy.

As such, I am immediately alarmed upon noticing that the Fraxinus is not where it's supposed to be at.

"Darling," a low voice resounds within my ears, causing me to retract my vision back and turn to face the source of the voice with a questioning look on my face.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Nothing," I respond before using Clairvoyance once more, only this time, I 'move' my sight high above the city in order to get a broad view of everything.

Moments pass by, and nothing abnormal occurs, leading to me concluding that either my initial guess regarding the enemy's plans was wrong, or they're in a different location.

Not much later, my question seems to get answered – in the form of a blaring explosion far out in the outskirts of the city.

"So, they really were under an attack…" I mutter while moving my sight over to the source of the explosion.

Immediately after I do so, I am stunned by the sight of a certain golden-haired lady that seems to be standing in the air while holding a beautiful banner.

Seriously? What the heck is she doing up there? The only reason I can think of for her to do this would be to protect Fraxinus from some sort of attack.

As if confirming my doubts, a blue ray of blinding light suddenly appears out of nowhere, or more accurately, out of an enemy ship's artillery and pierces through the air in Fraxinus' direction.

This could be bad…

"Origami," I say as I retract my vision once more, alerting her by no small margin, "We're heading to battle."

"What do you mean?"

Instead of giving her a proper response, I immediately make use of Norse Magic to form a gateway in front of us that connects with the location the battle is being held at.

Then, I reach my arm out to grab Origami's left hand before pulling her along as I walk through the gateway.

Following this, I pull Origami into my embrace and utilize Flight to remain in the air as we find ourselves right in the sky with a lot of noise assaulting our ears.

At this moment, she raises her hand to her head before pushing herself away from me, after which, I witness the sight of her body get covered in light before fading and revealing a combat realizer unit.

Looking into each other's eyes, we both nod our heads once before looking over at the flying ships which are now completely visible for some reason.

Remembering what happened a brief while ago, I directly look over at the Fraxinus, only to find Jeanne standing with her back straight and a solemn look on her face.

Her banner seems to have gotten a little more damaged, while she herself remains unscathed.

"Alright," I say as I shift my focus over to the rather large enemy ship, "Let's make this quick."

Having said that, I begin circulating Holy Essence within my legs and utilize Godspeed to appear right at the ship's side before dealing a heavy blow to it.

Due to the abnormality of my strength, a loud bang resounds all over the place as the flying vessel's balance gets ruined, along with an enormous hole appearing on its side.

Sparks of electricity escape from the damaged area while the sound of an emergency alarm reaches my ears from inside.

Already set on ending this early, I proceed to coat myself in Destruction before dashing forth and smashing through whatever comes my way.

The next thing I know, I am standing in the middle of some corridor with multiple clunks of iron and other debris lying all over the place.

"Wait," I hear a voice behind me that belongs to none other than Origami.

Turning my head to face her, I say, "Everyone aboard this vessel is an enemy of mine."

With that said, I look away from her and begin walking in the direction I sense a lot of people in.

So far, everything is going well. Although Origami's presence wasn't something I had accounted for in my thoughts regarding a possible attack on Fraxinus, it still works out for me in a way.

After all, I could take this opportunity to have her glimpse at 'me' and not Shido Itsuka.

And so, I continue to walk through the unusually long corridors while ignoring all the shaking and abrupt shock-waves that happen every few seconds.

Shortly, Origami and I both arrive in front of a thick metallic door that has been shut. Behind the said door, almost everyone aboard the ship is present in a room that appears to be the main control room.

Just as I'm about to destroy the door through Destruction, Origami takes a step forth and pull out a sword hilt-like device.

The next moment, the device in her hand changes its form a little before a beam of energy escapes from it and forms the blade of the sword, reminding me of the weapon that Ellen used back on the island.

Anyway, I focus on Origami as she approaches the metallic door and raises the sword, seemingly planning to cut through it – which is exactly what she does.

In one swift motion, she swings the sword a few dozen times in all directions, dealing significant damage to the door with each slash.

As expected, the metallic door doesn't last long and soon breaks down, no - melts.

Huh? Doesn't this make it harder for us to enter now?

As if reading my thoughts, Origami reaches behind her and grabs another device-ish weapon?

A pistol-like device that's similar to the ones carried by the assailants on the island.

Then, she aims the device's nose at the molten door before pulling the trigger, following which a beam of energy escapes and simply 'dissolves' a huge chunk of the deformed metallic door.

Seeing this, I conclude that the device she used just now is different from the one used by the girls despite the similarities.

Shaking such thoughts aside, for now, I begin walking once again and pass by Origami into the main control room.

"Intruders!" a man roars, his voice reverberating all over the place.

Following this, a dozen or so men hastily make their way over to our location while carrying 'futuristic-yet-odd' weaponry. I assume their weapons to be rifles with a special touch of advanced technology to them, capable of shooting out beams of energy or something.

True to my thoughts, the men don't think twice as they point their weapons at me and pull the weapons' triggers.

As a response to this, I immediately erect a barrier through Vector Manipulation and reflect everything back at them.

This results in huge chunks of the men's bodies to get blown off, straight off rendering more than half of them deceased.

As for the unfortunate ones who haven't died; they have already dropped to the ground and are rolling about while writhing in pain and agony.

Now then…

I cast a glance at Origami, only to find her wide-eyed as she gawks at the corpses in front of us.

"The enemy," I state in a loud voice for her to hear as I begin walking once again, "Doesn't deserve any mercy."

"Do you know the reason as to why?"

Following me from behind, the somewhat dazed girl has a deliberative look in her eyes as she thinks of a response to my query.

Before she responds, we manage to reach the center of the control room.

"What are you all doing?!" a loud voice suddenly assaults my ears, "Kill them!"

Oh? Is this their commander?

Looking over at the man who just exclaimed, I find a man that seems to be in his mid-forties with a rather fat physique glaring at me from on top of his seat.

All of a sudden, the whole place shakes wildly as a few females present in the room let out screams of fear.

Just now… Kotori or some other personnel of Ratatoskr must've had Fraxinus attack a core spot of this flying vessel.

The next moment, another blasting noise reaches our ears as the vessel shakes even worse than before.

Not minding it much, I focus my senses on our surroundings before beginning to make use of Telekinesis to raise any sharp object I find into the air.

{Report: Telekinesis has tiered up.}

Hearing AI's announcement, a wide smile forms on my lips as I continue to raise more sharp objects.

At this moment, a few more men grab a hold of weapons similar to those that welcomed us inside this room and shoot at me.

A blur occurs in front of me before I find Origami standing in front of me with a solemn look on her face.

"Hey, what are you-" I hastily say, only to witness an energy barrier form in front of Origami and easily block all the projectiles shot out by the enemy.

"This is the end," I state in a casual manner as I draw the sharp items close to myself and begin enduing them with Destruction.

Following that, I approach Origami's back and hug her from behind while telekinetically swirling the sharp objects over our heads.

"Hold on to me tightly," I casually say before making use of Flight to shoot to the sky while holding her close to my body.

The moment we pass through the mini-tornado of sharp objects, every single one of them gets hurled in all directions and lodges either into the vessel or someone in the room.

Wasting no time, I form a gateway that leads out of the ship and proceed to pass through it.

Just like that, Origami and I find ourselves floating in the sky once again, this time on top of a critically damaged flying ship.

"Rest in pieces," I mutter while willing the Destruction energy contained within the objects to 'explode'.

What follows after is the glorious sight of huge chunks of metal 'randomly' getting blown off as the whole flying ship practically splits into smaller pieces, while certain sections simply dissolve into imperceptible bits.

{Mahesvara: Destruction Effect discovered – Malevolence.}

Oh? This Effect sounds rather interesting.

However, now isn't the time to check it out… For now, I should hop aboard the Fraxinus.

"Darling."

"Hm? What is it?"

"That was amazing."

…

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

That was unexpected. Origami throwing out a compliment like that caught me a little off-guard.

"Let's go," I say as I give her a quick peck on lips before descending toward the top of the Fraxinus, where Jeanne is still standing, now, with her banner rolled up.