Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Northern Ocean***

***Ascathon***

“Hahaha. They are joking with us. Why are they coming right at us. That's not what we planned.” I laugh while the formation of enemy ships is approaching us.

“I guess I overestimated their ability to forge a decent strategy.” Fingulf watches the approaching enemy and scratches his cheek.

“Probably they counted our numbers and then decided that using their numerical advantage would be good enough?” Celestial frowns while sitting on the railing.

“You know... fuck this! I will take the nuke and teleport right into them. BOOM!” I turn to walk down to our weapons arsenal. But immediately several people cling onto me to stop me from doing so.

“Don't you remember what Lidith said!? You have to keep a low profile with that ability! The other gods will immediately notice that something is off!” Jazira is holding me from behind at an arm and Celestial appeared right in front of me. Fingulf and Den hold me from the left and the right.

“But it would be so simple! Just Boom! You understand? No screaming, no blood, no splattered organs. Just a single instant and they transform from enemies to dust!” I wave my hand frustrated at the enemy fleet.

“And what should we do if the enemy gods really decide to act? Can you already defeat a god?” Den shakes his head.

“One has to try! Ok! What if I teleport that thing the old fashioned way! No even better! Celestial! Throw it at them! That won't raise any eyebrows!”

Jazira gasps. “She can't possibly...”

“~Ok!~”

Everyone turns towards Celestial and she grins. “If my husband tells me to lift the world on my shoulders I would do it.”

I bash my fists together. “That's what I want to hear. I will get the device and you do some warm ups!”

Five minutes later we have my little baby on deck and ready for use.

“I still have a bad feeling about this. Shouldn't nukes be sensitive devices? Can you simply throw a five ton metal ball like that?” Jazira points at the monstrous thing on deck while Celestial is rotating her arms in front of it.

“Now that I see it I have my doubts too.” Den looks a little sick while looking at the ball.

“Don't worry, I built it sturdy enough.” I smirk while Celestial grips the metal ball that's twice her size and lifts it above her head.

Then the thing disappears in an almost straight line towards the enemy fleet and a gust of wind almost throws me to the deck.

“Perfect!” Celestial takes a winning posture while a red ball of fire ignites behind her and a visible shock wave starts to spread from the epicentre.

I throw myself to the deck and cover my head. “Brace for impact!”

The seconds tick by and I start to doubt my abilities after making a quick calculation in my head. The shock wave should have reached us at the speed of sound by now.

I look up and see everyone gaping at the fireball behind Celestial. A second sun appeared between the enemy fleet. But the force of the atom is contained to a certain area which isn't fully enclosing the enemy fleet.

“It just hangs there... Are nukes supposed to do that?” Jazira ponders over the strange scene.

Then the small sun starts to shrink. First slowly, then faster and finally it disappears completely, leaving nothing but a huge empty space behind. If I had to guess, I would say that half of the enemy fleet disappeared with it.

“They are cheating!” I call out in pain. “First they destroy my ship and then they play with the laws of nature!” I start slamming my fist onto the deck.

“How long are you going to complain about that one ship?” Den asks with pity in his voice.

“Until I've made them pay! It looked cool! Like the flying Dutchman!” I grab my blade and point it at the enemy fleet which fell into disarray after having a huge part of it simply eradicated. “Attack! Slaughter them all! We have to use this chance!”

Den and Fingulf start to give commands through their communication devices. And the huge carrier buckles under my feet as the engines roar to life.

I focused all my industrial capacity on creating a fleet of carriers because I deemed them to be the most effective against the enemy. But in this situation I think that it would be most effective to bring my eighty carriers into the fight too.

Their main weapons are huge railguns which run along the entire length of the ships. The only drawback is reach and firing rate. The carriers are huge and their size alone puts a heavy strains on the engines. Diverting energy to fire a huge cannon is a huge problem in terms of power distribution.

The problem might be solved with time, but like with many other things in this world, I had to choose between a perfected product and having very few of them, or a product that performs poorly and having more of it.

“~I'll take the lead in dealing with the rest.~” Jazira raises a finger and points at the approaching enemy fleet. A small orb of light forms on her fingertip and then a literal ray of death is unleashed at the enemy.

The beam of light makes contact with one of the silver ships and disperses into smaller rays, away from the ship. The silver ship continues on its way unharmed.

“~Huh? My ultimate long range weapon got countered?~” Jazira looks at her finger with a stupefied expression.

“It's only reasonable that their ability to bend light in order to become invisible has other applications too. In short, light based attacks are useless.” I shrug my shoulders.

“The attack which beat my fleet. With one finger.” Fingulf falls to his knees and starts to gnaw on his nails. “She is a monster.”

“~Kukuku... I guess I'll go all out for once. HahahahAHAHAHA!~” Jazira raises both hands above her head and a huge white orb appears between them. She points it at the same ship and a jet of plasma shoots out.

I take a step back because of the wave of heat which is emitted by her spell. Then Jazira starts to swing both hands and the ray of plasma follows her movement. The silver ship is cleanly cut in half and explodes. Debris rains down, but the rest of the enemy fleet continues to advance. It looks like they intend to turn this into a brawl.

The ship shudders under my feet as the main gun is fired and one of the enemy ships turns into a wreck.

But the tide of the battle turns as the first enemy ships reach weapon range. A stream of shining, silver orbs are ejected from their frontal gun-ports and several of my carriers are felled instantly.

The smaller crafts which were released by our carriers fire up their engines and engage while pouring a stream of railgun fire into the closest enemy ships.

“Their offensive strength surprises me.” I point my sword at the closest silver ship and start pouring my mana into the blade. The runes on it start to glow and assist my spell. I grin as a red orb starts to form on the tip of my blade.

Then I release the spell and the orb shoots out, punching straight through the enemy ship where I would place the engine room. The ship starts to fall while the orb travels forward and changes its course slightly. The red orb impacts another ship behind my first target. The ship is torn to pieces as a torrent of red energy erupts from it and expands to twice the ships size.

“You guys are slow. I already took down four!” Celestial complains from beside me and raises her hand with an iron bullet which should be normally used in one of the smaller railguns. A pile of the ammunition is right beside her. She throws the fist sized metal ball at one of the enemy ships.

Something like a barrier spell flickers at the side of the silver ship and a big tube at its side explodes. The tubes seem to fulfil a similar role as our engines. Three more tubes follow in the same manner and then the silver ship starts a spiralling descent towards the ocean.

Then both fleets pass through each other and everything turns into chaos. My flagship rocks as one of the silver ships pours a stream of the silver projectiles into our left flank, but the barriers hold.

My flagship is the latest carrier prototype. It was just completed and left the docks as our fleet departed Sarn for this expedition.

In comparison to the other carriers my flagship has three mana cores instead of one. This makes this ship three times as pricey compared to its predecessors. The excess mana cores enable it to pour far more power into the barrier spells.

A wing of our attack crafts swarms the silver ship and the attacks from all directions start to show effect as the bullets get through and start causing damage. The silver ship starts to descend as explosions rock its insides.

That's the moment when Den points to our right. A huge silver ship is approaching fast from slightly above. Den pulls his communication device from his belt and starts to scream. “They intend to ram us! Dive! Dive! Now!”

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