Chapter 428 — "Taking Over"

Gaoyang should have known better: no amount of talking would get through to a saltwater fish like Tyr, whereas one bite of "snack" worked wonders. Seeing the eager look on her face, he concluded that all his earlier spiel had been a waste of breath.

No matter. The process didn't matter—so long as this saltwater fish was willing to help.

The prototype prismatic ray device was a weapon of considerable size, and compared to its own bulk, the supporting power modules it required were an even bigger headache. According to the technical report Kamael had provided, the prismatic ray device needed a long-term, stable energy supply to operate effectively, and the mana capacitors currently used in all manner of arcane-crystal railguns fell far short of that requirement. This meant a prismatic ray device either had to be built on a fixed magic-net as a stationary emplacement, or else "drag" a great swath of magic-net onto the battlefield with it—and with Cecil's current transport technology, hauling the device overland to the front lines and keeping it running once there was a formidable problem indeed.

Not that it was impossible—shipping the parts over piecemeal in batches and assembling it on the battlefield could be managed. But that would take far too long and fail to meet Gaoyang's demand to "take Boulder Fortress in short order." Besides, with the time it took to slowly put a prismatic ray device together, Philip could likely just keep pounding away with arcane-crystal siege cannons until the fortress walls came down—which would rob the new weapon of any point in debuting at all.

The best option was by ship: use the Whitewater River, that natural waterway, to deliver the prismatic ray device straight to the foot of Boulder Fortress.

Under any circumstances, the transport capacity of large cargo ships far outstrips that of overland vehicles. The ships themselves were large enough to make it easy to install all sorts of magical mechanisms inside, and river transport would also make it easier to implement Gaoyang's plan of using Whitewater River water to cool the prismatic ray device. So no matter how one looked at it, water transport was the optimal solution.

In fact, even without the "prismatic ray device," Gaoyang had long been arranging the construction of his own surface combat force. After annihilating Count Peibo's army on the Whitewater River, he had seized a batch of "warships" from the southern nobles, then assigned a group of craftsmen and mage-engineers to attempt modernizing and refitting those vessels. It wasn't that he hadn't considered building a new fleet from scratch—shipbuilding was a genuine technical craft, and the book knowledge he'd accumulated as a keyboard warrior in his past life was nowhere near enough to produce actually serviceable modern vessels. The shipbuilding technology in this world had suffered severe generational gaps and regression; the shipwrights he could recruit were capable at best of building river-going vessels on par with those of the "Peibo Fleet." So he had no choice but to modernize and refit the captured warships—saving time and cost on one hand, and accumulating technical expertise on the other.

But the refitting of those ships was still unfinished—and recently they had even run into technical difficulties with propulsion.

With battle at Boulder Fortress imminent, he had no time to wait for his own warships to be slowly refitted. So after much deliberation, he decided to seek help from the ready-made "maritime expert" in his territory. Tyr called herself a "Tide Master"; she ought to be trustworthy in this field.

Of course, in keeping with his cautious and steady style, Gaoyang didn't put all his hopes on Tyr. If this saltwater fish was dead set on sleeping in her pool until the end of time, he had a backup plan: at worst he'd allocate Philip a few more siege cannons—was there any fear of not breaking open Boulder Fortress's gates?

No matter how strong Boulder Fortress's magical shield was, it couldn't withstand the continuous bombardment of heavy artillery.

After promising her help and repeatedly confirming that she really would get snacks to eat, Tyr's excitement gradually faded. She gave a huge yawn, sleepiness surfacing in her eyes once more: "So, anything else you need? If not, I'm going back to sleep... I'll head to the docks once I wake up..."

Gaoyang glanced at the sea siren, who was already slowly sinking back into the water, and suddenly did recall something: "Actually, there is one thing—the Storm Children are fighting the sea sirens again. Do you know what that's about?"

"Huh? Fighting again?" Tyr surfaced once more with a bubbly burble, her face a picture of bewilderment. "Isn't it barely past the season when the stars return to their places? My sisters should all be down on the seabed digesting their meals... We're not out digging for giant squid, and we're not swimming around the Storm Children's reefs. What's got those brain-addled humans in such a frenzy?"

Gaoyang studied Tyr's utterly genuine look of confusion and knit his brows slightly: "So you don't know what's happened either."

"Of course I don't," Tyr said, shaking her head. "I've been right under your nose this whole time—how would I know what's going on in the deep sea? Though speaking of which, how did you come to know about it?"

"I have my own channels," Gaoyang said evasively, not answering directly. Then, noticing Tyr's bland, unconcerned expression, he couldn't help asking out of curiosity, "Aren't you worried about how things are back home?"

"Nothing to worry about. Those Storm Children can't stir up much of a storm—the ocean belongs to the sea sirens," Tyr said offhandedly, then yawned again. "Besides, it's a long swim back from here. I'd rather save up my strength... when I've got the energy... I'll think about going back to have a look..."

Looking at this lazy fish spirit, Gaoyang felt she might never make it back in this lifetime.

He shook his head helplessly and turned to leave Tyr's pool with Amber. But just as the two were about to reach the door, a splash of water suddenly came from the pool again. The sea siren lady had propped herself against the pool's edge, looking at Gaoyang: "Ah—I just thought of a possibility..."

Gaoyang turned to look at her: "What possibility?"

"The Endless Sea is shrouded in mana storms. The open sea is where changes in mana can first be observed, and where one is most easily affected by mana," Tyr said, a thoughtful look on her face. "Those Storm Children have been at sea for far too long. Perhaps... they can sense that a mana tide is coming."

Gaoyang's expression turned grave. After a half-minute of silence, he gave Tyr a slight nod: "Thank you for the warning."

Tyr said nothing more, merely waving a hand from within the pool. Then she tipped her upper body back and flopped over, continuing to soak in the water with that insolent, sprawled sleeping posture, belly-up, and began to sleep.

Only after leaving Tyr's room did Amber finally mutter: "Mana tide, mana tide... if only such a thing didn't exist... Every time someone brings it up, I get goosebumps all over."

"You get used to it. We were closer to the mana tide back then," Gaoyang said calmly. "No matter how the mana tide comes, so long as people are still alive, life has to go on as usual."

"Fine, fine—like you always say, if the sky falls, there's always someone tall to hold it up—and a big one like you could hold it up for ages," Amber said, her ears twitching as she set the matter of the mana tide aside for the moment. "I'm dead tired. Nothing else today, right?"

"Nothing today," Gaoyang nodded. "But there's something tomorrow—you're coming with me to the Gehran domain."

Before the army set out, it was time to go "receive" the Gehran domain with great fanfare.

...

Gaoyang Cecil's army marched into the Gehran domain.