Chapter 1302 — The Awakened Aerial Fortress

"Oh, Mother—!"

That was the last thing the siren Korolin left her comrade and her commander—a single cry of alarm. The next second, her figure was swept up and swallowed by that incomparably powerful torrent of energy, swiftly reduced to one streak of flowing light among many, hurtling away into the distance. Beside her, the Abyssal Commander and the sentry Vera had not even had time to react; by the time they reached out to stop her, it was already too late.

Not far off, the Water Elemental Lord—just then drifting in the seawater, trying to heal his body—happened to witness the scene as well. The enormous elemental giant rushed toward the "downstream" of that blue pulse current; in this boundless sea saturated with elemental power, his speed was nearly that of a lightning bolt—yet still no match for the deep-blue torrent. The Elemental Lord only just managed to stretch out his arm before the blue-violet figure that was Korolin vanished utterly from everyone's sight within the current.

Silence fell. The sudden turn of events left the sirens and water elementals near the deep-blue pulse current unsure how to react, until at last Vera was the first to speak: "...I think she's dead in there."

"Not necessarily. After she jumped in, she didn't seem to get 'melted,'" the Abyssal Commander said, stroking his chin in analysis. "Our life form is relatively inactive in this world's magical environment, so maybe she'll have to soak in there a while before she kicks it..."

Vera shrugged. "Sooner or later, anyway. In a bit I'll go to the outpost and adjust the shifts for the next watch."

By then the Elemental Lord—that liquid giant of an elemental—had slowly swum over. The enormous lord stared blankly at the spot where Korolin had fallen in, and only after a long while did he murmur: "She didn't have to jump in... I just came to ask for an explanation. No explanation, fine, no explanation..."

"...I don't think she jumped in on purpose..." Vera said, her expression somewhat awkward—then she suddenly noticed that the Elemental Lord seemed to be drifting in the seawater as nothing but an upper half, and she was startled. "Ah—where's your lower half?"

The Water Elemental Lord blinked, then turned to look back at the spot where he had been drifting before he charged out—only to see a swirl of pure water brimming with faint blue light slowly dissipating in the boundless sea. A look of dejection and regret surfaced on his hazy features: "Ah... I forgot to bring it along when I rushed out."

"Don't be too upset," the Abyssal Commander could not help stepping forward to pat the Water Elemental Lord's arm. "I actually observed it just now—that lower half of yours definitely wasn't going to hold. One little twitch and it would've come off. We'll have to look into this business later, but before that, we can help treat your 'wound' first—if you trust siren technology, the outpost has an elemental reassembly matrix. When we accidentally take serious injuries and don't plan on dying back home, we use it to heal. Native water elementals can use it too..."

Though a companion had just been swept into the deep-blue pulse current, the two sirens before him were remarkably calm—and that reaction left this rather young Water Elemental Lord distinctly ill at ease. He could not help recalling certain records of the "Elemental War" from years past, and the things the ancient Elemental Lords had told him, and a chill came into his heart: these starfarers known as "the Absorbers"... truly were a fearsome species.

Then he could not help lifting his gaze to the shadow floating on the distant sea surface—the outpost the sirens had built. Ordinarily the water elementals nearby would go as far out of their way as possible to avoid that place, but as an Elemental Lord he held no great fear of the thing, only some doubt. "Your technology... can it be used on pure water elementals like us? There won't be any aftereffects?"

"Of course not," the Abyssal Commander said at once, thumping his chest with a look of pride. "We're the same as you—we're all water elementals. Come, come, don't be shy, let me tell you about our medical technology... Oh, that's right, Vera—you go to the communications station first and report up the chain. Say Korolin was swept away by the deep-blue pulse current and might die back home at any moment. Have the sisters on garrison duty at Antaveen go to the rally point and recover her when they have time..."

Vera waved a hand to show she understood, flicked her tail, and swam off toward the outpost. The Water Elemental Lord, meanwhile, could not help sighing. "Ah—I'd heard about it long ago, but seeing it with my own eyes, I have to say... your way of life really is one of a kind."

...

North of the Dark Mountains, west of Xuanyao City, within a cluster of colossal engineering facilities hidden by the rolling terrain and the surrounding jungle, Gao Yang—come in person to inspect the situation—stood on a high platform overlooking the entire assembly yard, while Rebecca stood not far from his side, intently checking the parameters her assistants had just submitted.

Below their feet, across the vast assembly yard, high-output mana crystal lamps lit everything bright as day. A gigantic steel structure lay quietly amid countless support modules and construction frames. The main body of that steel structure was now almost entirely complete; its outline was roughly a slightly elongated hexagon. The energy arrays, power spines, anti-gravity engine clusters, and the various weapons, control, habitation, and shielding facilities—once like bones and organs—had all been properly wrapped in layer upon layer of compartment hull, so that now only the neat and orderly "deck structures" could be seen from above, along with the large weapon bastions distributed at every point of the hexagon.

Gao Yang cast his gaze into the distance and saw bright flashes continually coming from the edges of that magnificent "deck." Ant-like construction workers and machines bustled about those areas: arcanotechnical engineers were welding the last stretch of armor plating along the edge of this aerial fortress, and fitting sturdy alloy shells over the last exposed section of biological nerve conduits. Only when their work was done could this astonishing "fortress" be considered basically complete.

Yes—basically complete. Everything here was only the main structure of the aerial fortress, enough to ensure it possessed basic flight and combat capability. Many auxiliary installations—detection arrays, airborne data centers, alchemical synthesis plants, and the like—were still far from finished. By Rebecca's original plan, these things would need at least another year or two before they could be installed in their corresponding compartments, but the current situation would not allow it... Gao Yang could only urge the fortress to finish a prototype as quickly as possible.

As for the things that could not be installed for the time being... if it came down to it, once the aerial fortress was airborne, they could slowly assemble them in the sky while carrying out missions.

Gao Yang's gaze moved slowly across the broad deck below, and in his heart he marveled at the scale and grandeur of the thing—yet the majestic figure of that "Sentinel Ship" rose unbidden in his mind, and after a moment's comparison he could not help but sigh: the gap between the two was still rather large...

Rebecca noticed Gao Yang's sigh, but she had no idea what the Frostvein Sect was thinking about; she only tilted her head curiously. "Ancestral Inkstone, why did you sigh? Are you still not satisfied with the current progress?"

"No, I was just thinking of something else... The progress here has already far exceeded my expectations," Gao Yang said with a shake of his head, offering Rebecca no detailed explanation. Then he glanced at the arcane-net terminal behind her and asked casually, "How's the control core doing?"