Chapter 581: Naval Gunfire

“Gotcha!”

“You’re not so fragile that you’d die from something like that,” Lily muttered to herself, standing atop the black‐iron cannon.

“Reload,” she called.

“Roger!” Ray replied cheerfully.

At her feet lay the massive cannon; Ray clambered onto its mounting pedestal, where red lines of magic crackled to life across the gun’s surface.

“Incredible power,” Lily remarked, eyes alight. “And this is just a secondary battery. The main guns must be stronger than the Black Dragon King’s very breath.”

The cannon Lily had just fired was one of the secondary batteries salvaged from the ancient sky‐warship Shangri‐La. After vanquishing the Night Frame—an azure‐hued war‐machine—in bloody combat, she had wrested control of the vessel and devoted herself to restoring its arcane systems.

Having already interfaced with the Taurus power loader during the Garahad War and mastered basic ancient‐magic devices, Lily had no difficulty reactivating Shangri‐La’s simpler functions. Of course, a sky‐borne dreadnought dwarfed the Taurus in complexity, and Lily understood only a fraction of its controls.

At present, she could fire only this one secondary cannon. Two more secondary guns braced the forecastle, and the sole aft secondary gun also lay dead in the water. The triple forward and rear primary turrets remained inert. Even if they had come online, Shangri‐La’s power core—revived to a mere 0.2 percent capacity—could not sustain a single main‐gun salvo, let alone lift its colossal hull back into the air.

Yet with Lily’s own formidable magic fueling the starboard secondary cannon, it still unleashed devastating salvos at her foes—three unwitting adventurers. Like antifauna underfoot, they had approached with deadly intent, so she had no choice but to answer in kind. For their challenger was none other than those who sought Chrono…

“Ahh, you’re still alive,” Lily purred, monitoring the floating holo‐map of her arcane targeting array. Three red enemy icons glowed in the ruined cityscape, each marking Fiona, Sariel, and Nelle.

They still clung to life, zig‐zagging their retreat, the map noting in Ancient Script: “High‐Mana Shield Active.”

“How many more of these rounds can they endure?” Lily mused.

She would grant no mercy. No quarter. All her might would see them slain. For none but those three would dare storm her domain…

“Come, let the war begin! Anyone who craves Chrono—Fiona… Sariel… Nelle… welcome to my paradise. I bid you greeting…”

Her voice trailed off as the cannon roared once more, echoing through the shattered streets.

“That was… impressive,” Fiona gasped as she and her allies neared the subway entrance Lily’s gunfire could not quite reach. “I never expected that level of recklessness.”

“Her attacks outmatch our worst predictions,” Sariel said coolly.

“Oh, if any one of those strikes had landed true, we’d be ash,” Nelle added grimly.

Three salvoes had slammed into the rubble‐strewn wasteland. A direct hit would have obliterated them, even with full defensive magic bristling about them. Instead, only the cannon’s shock-waves reached them. Fiona swallowed the worst of the heat with Ignis Wall: Flame Barrier, Sariel deflected the concussive blast with Line Shield: Thunder Roar, and Nelle absorbed the residual force using Lux Wall: Holy Heart Barrier. Even so, they’d fled by the skin of their teeth.

“If she could sustain that rate of fire indefinitely, we’d all be dead before reaching her,” Nelle panted.

Fiona nodded, still catching her breath. “Even if we each charged her alone at full speed…?”

“We’d be cut down halfway there,” Sariel reasoned. “No matter how strong our defenses, they’re not enough to stop those rounds.”

“I suppose she can’t fire forever,” Nelle ventured. “She must exhaust her magic reserves eventually.”

“You’d think so,” Sariel replied. “But her cannon’s energy signature matches the lighthouse at Serené. Its engines are online, and the power feed is stable.”

“My god… she’s tapped the ancient core.”

The marvel of an actual sky dreadnought came to life under Lily’s command. The little she’d revived could sustain a secondary cannon, but more than that…

“Then it is like facing a dragon enthroned in its lair,” Fiona said quietly. “A dragon with no intention of ever closing its maw.”

“I’ve fought that battle once,” Nelle confessed.

“So have I,” Sariel said.

“I twice,” Fiona added.

All three had weathered dragon‐den assaults before—crudely analogous to their present predicament—and emerged victorious.

“How did you manage it?” Nelle asked.

“When I faced the creature,” Nelle recalled, “it nested beside a sprawling lake. It rose from the waters to scorch intruders with hydro‐breath. My Wing Road party used a living-doll homunculus as decoy, then charged in during the distraction. The wyrm was only newly hatched, so we triumphed.”

Fiona smiled faintly. “Mine was a volcano‐dwelling flame drake. I couldn’t best it in open combat—so I gave up and harvested the rare Phoenix Dragon Flower growing at its lair’s summit instead. Got what I came for, so I left.”

Nelle gaped. “You call that a strategy?”

“Effective enough, in that instance,” Fiona replied. “Your turn.”

Sariel shook her head. “My two dragon fights relied on Apostle‐granted miracles. No longer applicable.”

Nelle frowned. “So we’re back to square one, yes?”

“Not entirely,” Fiona said, rising to her feet. “We have one trick left. Sariel… deploy.”

“Understood,” Sariel said—and charged off ahead.

Fiona settled back down, resting her chin on her hand. A smile curved her lips.

“So you do have a plan,” Nelle said, narrowing her eyes.

“Had to keep it under wraps until the last moment,” Fiona replied.

“And… how do I fit into this?” Nelle pressed.

“Oh, you’ll be our decoy,” Fiona said breezily.

Nelle bristled. “Are you ordering me to die?”

“Don’t worry,” Fiona said, “we’ll decoy with Sariel, too.”

“You plan to off us both?” Nelle hissed. “Such candor—”

“You’d be alone against Lily,” Fiona pointed out. “I need every hand.”

Nelle gaped at her.

“Let me explain the operation,” Fiona continued.

Nelle sighed and braced herself.