1:00 P.M

Atlantic Ocean

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[17th day of the Great Transcontinental War]

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If I ever have the chance to tell my old self that he would be partic.i.p.ating in a war, there was no way that boy would believe it. After all, someone as timid as I was back then could only dream of doing something like that. Sometimes, I even recalled back some memories from those old days.

"Hey! Stay on your guard!" yelled a marine officer a dozen feet away from me.

I turned my head to face him and nodded. "I am!"

He clicked his tongue before s.h.i.+fting his attention to the enemy battles.h.i.+ps facing our fleet. Looking back at it, even after two weeks I had been here on the sea, nothing much had changed from this side. The C.U's naval fleet didn't seem to be budging when it came to the number of their battles.h.i.+ps. Trading blows day after day, week after week, our own resources had depleted significantly.

We couldn't retreat, as that would allow the enemy to advance closer to Neo Africa. With their firepower, even Gheele's Aegis dome would not stand a chance if they bombarded it all at once. If they concentrated their point of attack at one side, then the Aegis dome would eventually crack. Taking into account of Gheele's Aegis particles, he could repair the dome almost instantly.

Even then, the surrounding area outside of the dome would suffer from those attacks. Of course, that was why Caesar and I were with the Neo African fleet, in order to prevent that from happening.

I wiped the sweat trickling from my forehead. "Huff . . . This is tiring." My Lutalo uniform was drenched in sweat, its cold material hugged my back. I was standing at the edge of a wars.h.i.+p's deck. There was only one person other than me there, and that was the cold-looking marine officer.

"It has been two weeks. The C.U's naval fleet is pressuring us!" I said out loud.

The marine officer from before cast a glare at me. "An Aegis User like you should just sit tight and do your job. You are still young, so you don't understand what it's like to be in a war. You haven't done anything much aside from shooting at one or two battles.h.i.+ps since this war started. Make yourself more useful. You have all that power to begin with."

"Uh-huh."

"And . . . What's with that look? Do you have something against me?"

I blinked. What look? I was just bored from having to put up with him these past few days. Every now and then, he would spit some insults at me and I had to hear all of it. I couldn't move from my spot after all. My job, like Maltyie had said, was to destroy any battles.h.i.+ps that got too close to the Neo African fleet. I helped with treating the injured once a while, but compared to Caesar who was at the command center with the admiral, my job was easier.

Caesar was tasked to help to command the fleet. So far, with him and the admiral as the leaders, the casualties were lesser than Maltiye had predicted. Though, if nothing changed from this point onward, we would deplete our resources and the enemy would take advantage of it.

"What is Maltyie planning?" I said to myself, "I wish she could have told me the full scope of her plan for this western front."

I ignored the marine officer and looked up at the cloudless sky. It didn't occur to me before the war started that I would be fighting on a Neo African wars.h.i.+p, with one of the enemy's own approaching from a good few hundred meters away. It was time for me to do my job.

"Alright . . . Don't go away," I muttered.

A large, golden s.h.i.+eld manifested from my right arm and I pointed it at that enemy wars.h.i.+p. I didn't know why, but more often than not, a s.h.i.+eld was something that I used whenever I went into combat. Even though my Aegis lacked any offensive capability, like Ava's flames or Caesar's animated Aegis crystals, I always try to make up for it with my trump card. My Aegis could release the Aegis crystals it had previously absorbed in the form of plasma, and that had been my go-to offense for a long time.

"s.h.i.+eld . . . Huh . . . It's hilarious to think that I always make this. One way or another, perhaps I want to protect everyone with this power."

Suddenly, Ava's smiling face popped up in my mind. It felt like she was really there with me. That young girl had been my sole reason to keep fighting, and that would never change.

I aimed my s.h.i.+eld at the enemy wars.h.i.+p, and a few moments later, a beam of light burst out. The beam went straight towards the wars.h.i.+p.

BOOM!

The s.h.i.+p exploded from it and sunk deep into the ocean. I sighed and put away my Aegis s.h.i.+eld. That had been the tenth wars.h.i.+p I destroyed in the course of two weeks. It was surprising how the C.U's fleet could be so uncoordinated, allowing the few wars.h.i.+ps I had previously destroyed to get close before.

"Edgy blond teen," said Caesar through my earpiece.

"What?! Oh. It's you. Don't startle me like that!"

"Huh? You should have been used to me doing this by now. Anyway, I have some news for you."

"Good news or bad news?" I asked.

"Currently, our Neo African fleet has retreated far back from the center of the ocean. The C.U is advancing and we just don't have enough strength to push them back. But putting that aside . . . This western front is kinda quiet, don't you think?"

"You call this quiet? We have to do something. No matter how much I destroyed, their wars.h.i.+ps just keep on coming. And I can't really restock my supply of Aegis crystals here. My plasma beam eats up a lot, you know."

"But I just supplied you with my Aegis crystals yesterday," said Caesar.

"It's not enough. I can't keep firing my plasma like this. If Lily was here, she could supply me with her own, since she can produce a lot of it, like Ava."

"Ah, I see." Caesar laughed, "I know you are keeping some Aegis crystals you had absorbed, without using it! Why?"

"That is for an emergency. When the time comes for it, I will use it," I said.

"Why not now?"

"No . . . If I exhaust all of my absorbed Aegis crystals, I'm pretty much useless if the Pillars ever come here. I can't fire my plasma beam after that."

"Hmm. Good point."

"Well, it is what it is . . . Also, we should have our fleet steer a bit to the left. Your sister, Maltyie said so in order to buy more time," I said.

Caesar fell silent.

Earlier this morning, Maltyie contacted me about this part of her plan, and nothing else. Judging from Caesar's silence, it seemed like she didn't tell him. Or it was because of me calling Maltyie, 'his sister.'

". . . No word about my ident.i.ty to her," Caesar said with a firm tone.

"Alright, alright. I'm not someone who meddles with family affairs. Anyway, I'll head back to the command center."

And so, I went to a certain wars.h.i.+p in the middle of the Neo African fleet, where I met the admiral and also Caesar talking to each other. I bowed slightly at both of them after I entered the command center. Caesar turned to me, though I wasn't able to discern what kind of expression he was making from behind that Aegis mask of his.

"Sir Domitius," said the admiral in pale green Neo African military uniform.

"I'm guessing that you want to report about the enemy's constant deployment of fighter jets," I said casually.

"Ah, yes. Exactly. It is going like how the temporary commander-in-chief has expected."

"Yeah. Maltyie is a strategist after all."

Caesar nodded. "And she had also predicted that the enemy has gotten impatient from us not engaging them head-on. From now on, there's a high chance that their resources will wear out in a couple more weeks."

"Hmm. But will we be able to hang on until then?" I said.

"Perhaps not. But I believe Master Gheele will end the war before that happens," said the admiral.

"With Maltyie's help, yes," I pointed out, "We can't rely on her on every little thing though. We need to come up with something on our own as well."

The sliding door slid open and the vice admiral approached us hurriedly.

"Um, I have a report about the enemy's movement!" he said. "Aside from them having air superiority over us, it seems like a stray wars.h.i.+p from their fleet is advancing from the northeast. It's separating away from the enemy's formation."

"Wait . . . An isolated wars.h.i.+p? Or is this like the last time?" muttered Caesar.

"I'll handle it again if that's the case. It's my job," I said, my hand lazily waved at Caesar.

A large monitor over our head displayed a video in real time of the said wars.h.i.+p. After a few minutes, it had closed in pretty quickly. Then, something peculiar happened.

"W-What's that?" said the admiral.

"I can't believe it . . . It's a man-made tsunami!" exclaimed the vice admiral.

A hundred feet in front of the stray enemy wars.h.i.+p, a tsunami had formed quickly in a span of minutes. With that size, the fleet would suffer a huge blow if it hit.

"Get them to—"

Before the admiral could shout an order, the tsunami had crashed into our fleet's right side, with three wars.h.i.+ps gone in the blink of an eye. Not only that, the fleet's formation was broken as a result of the tsunami.

"Don't break the formation. Regroup!" shouted the admiral at the other officers in that command center. "What is happening here . . . Where did that giant tsunami come from?"

"It's obvious." Caesar spun around and made his way to the sliding door. "That tsunami . . . It's not the first time he did that."

I walked next to him. "What do you mean?"

"It's Alexander, edgy blond teen. The enemy must have captured him and then made him their puppet . . . Amathelia's puppet."

He halted just a few feet away from the exit and I stopped. "Admiral. Prepare a fighter jet for us. You're coming with me, edgy blond teen. It's going to be a b.u.mpy ride."

I blinked. "You want to get to that wars.h.i.+p with a fighter jet?! Are you serious?"

"Yes, yes I am."

He exited the command center and left everyone there to their own duties. Of course, I followed him as we made our way to our wars.h.i.+p's hangar. There was no choice. If that tsunami was indeed Alexander's doing, then we would have to stop him from unleas.h.i.+ng it again.