Verde Crows: Lost In Another World (completed)

Vol. 2 Chapter 21: The Subjugator

In quite an awkward atmosphere due to the whining of Alumina, I promptly withdrew, taking distance and gazing down at the surroundings.

I finally realized the extent of destruction I had brought down to earth. Countless craters, glassed surfaces, and molten lava poured and flowed through the artificial crevices created by the weapons I fired. In the middle of it all was a gigantic lava lake, kilometers deep, and it wasn't going to harden any time soon based on my readings.

That's the current situation after merely one hour of attack, with so much holding back to not destroy the world.

"Looks bad, right?" I uttered, waiting for Noel's response. On this scale, it was quite bad from my point of view.

"Not really. Rather, this scale of battle is quite common among ancient dragons, albeit we were in the devil's den, which was a labyrinth. Any damages would be restored the next day," Noel hummed, having returned to her usual self. "It's not an excuse to unleash such destruction on the surface," she muttered in protest, her words tinged with dissatisfaction. It was likely Alumina's influence.

Then, my warships floating in the air began to ascend in a massive organized convoy to space. It resembled an ocean-going fleet formation, with long lines of ships heading into the cosmos. Based on my counters, there were at least 214 ships. The combined tonnage alone was likely more than all the metals mined in this entire world over the last century.

"Don't be cocky," said Alumina. She likely could still read minds. Please strictly adhere to common sense and tact, not intruding on others' thought privacy.

She clicked her tongue in response, a very un-Noel-like action. I was greatly disturbed by such behavior. There was much to be done to save Claire, so I had to hurry.

"Yes, obviously, you virgin, so we can wrap things up and I can finally leave this mortal body," Alumina retorted, using Noel's mouth, without a shred of politeness.

"Please don't say something disturbing like that," I said to her. "That's unbecoming of a goddess." She pouted in response.

A few minutes of silence passed as we ascended to almost 50,000 feet. I was about to ask Noel to go inside the bridge when she said, "Hmm." It sounded carefree, so it was likely Noel, curious about something.

"Something wrong?" I asked, but then my satellite constellations detected a massive heat signature on the surface of the planet, particularly in the devil's den.

"There's a massive mana gathering somewhere in that direction," she said casually. I looked northwest, in the approximate direction she indicated, where the heat signature was strongest.

Then I understood. A blinding flash of light tore through the earth. I saw a massively thick, pillar-like laser cutting through the sea of clouds, penetrating into space - towards my orbital cannon, Prometheus. In an instant, my system labeled it [Prometheus Destroyed]. Without needing diagnostics or analysis, I saw countless fiery debris of my orbital cannon like falling stars from the sky.

"Who the fu..." What is happening? How can someone shoot it down? It's flying over 500 kilometers above the Earth, and it's by no means fragile either. It's almost a kilometer-long orbital cannon, orbiting at over 17,000 kph around the world. Just - my head is spinning wildly in contemplation - what kind of computational genius and level of guidance, combined with luck, is required to hit that orbital cannon? It's large, without a doubt, but space is too vast, it's flying too fast, and at almost indiscernible heights. What kind of cheat bastard is able to do that!?

"That attack just now," uttered Noel, unsure of who it was, maybe Alumina. "It's coming here," said Noel, uncertain whether it was Alumina or herself speaking. It wasn't Noel's usual carefree tone, nor was it the whining or tantrum typical of Alumina.