Chapter 114: Where is the Limit

Inside the Flag Bridge of the USS Gerald R. Ford, Rear Admiral Donovan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, staring through the thick glass toward the rocky coastline.

Beside him, the high-definition displays of the Tactical Flag Command Center lit up the room in sharp blue and green hues.

"Eagle Actual is on the secure line, Admiral," a communications specialist announced.

Donovan picked up the handset. "Eagle Actual, this is Donovan. We’ve completed our initial saber-rattling run along the coastal boundary. Visual and electronic intercepts confirm mass panic along their fortified ridge. The imperial forces are completely pinned in their defensive earthworks."

"Understood, Admiral. The demonstration served its purpose. Now we begin Phase One: Boundary Mapping."

"Boundary Mapping," Donovan repeated. "We’re testing the perimeter limit of that magic dome?"

"Affirmative," John answered. "A barrier capable of absorbing a salvo of Tomahawks requires immense energy density. Even a deity has limits on spatial coverage. If that golden bubble protects Port Solis and the imperial capital, it is highly improbable it covers every coastal province, logistics route, and outlying fort across a three-hundred-mile front. We need to find where the shield stops."

"Understood, sir. Firing targets designated outside the suspected radius of the capital ward."

"Authorize kinetic strikes on secondary military infrastructure," John ordered. "Leave Port Solis alone for now. Hit their coastal watchtowers, naval signal stations, and artillery magazines thirty miles north and south of the harbor. Let’s see if the umbrella reaches the yard."

"Executing now, Eagle Actual. Donovan out."

Donovan hung up the handset and turned to the tactical action officer. "Order the strike package. Weapons free on Grid Zulu-Three through Zulu-Seven. Tell the cruisers to let them fly."

Five miles out at sea, the guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill and two Arleigh Burke-class destroyers swung slightly in the rolling swells.

On their forward decks, the heavy steel hatches of the Vertical Launching Systems popped open.

Clank-clank-clank!

A deafening roar tore through the sea breeze.

Pillars of white smoke and orange fire erupted straight toward the sky. Long, slender Tomahawk cruise missiles and precision rocket-assisted munitions surged out of the launch cells one by one. The missiles rose into the morning clouds, leveled off, and turned eastward, leaving thin white exhaust trails against the sky.

Unlike the previous strike, these missiles did not fly toward the golden dome shimmering over Port Solis.

Instead, they split into two separate attack wings. One wing banked hard to the north, skimming low over the coastal waters toward the Cape of Spears—a massive stone fortress housing the empire’s northern coastal watchtowers and heavy ballista batteries. The second wing sped south, aimed directly at the naval supply depot and iron-smelting foundry at Fort Oakhaven, thirty miles down the coast.

Up on the stone promontory overlooking Port Solis, Goddess Viona was still watching the American carrier with tense, narrowed eyes.

Around her, the fifty thousand legionnaires were still gripping their spears, staring in disbelief at the iron giants resting on the horizon. The golden dome of the Aegis of the Sun hummed softly above their heads, radiating warmth and holy light.

Suddenly, a series of dull thuds echoed from the open ocean.

Lord Justin jumped, clutching his sword. "They’re firing! The iron ships are launching their fire-spears again!"

Belis fell back a step, pointing frantically. "Look! The white smoke trails! They’re flying high into the clouds!"

Viona’s eyes flared with intense golden light. Her divine aura surged, and she braced herself, pouring her mana into the overhead ward. She expected missiles to slam directly into the golden ceiling over Port Solis once more.

"Hold the ward!" Viona commanded through clenched teeth. "Let their iron arrows break against my light! They cannot pierce the Aegis!"

The seconds ticked by. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds.

The missiles did not dive toward Port Solis.

Instead, the white trails streaked past the harbor at incredible speed, flying high over the coastal hills and disappearing past the northern and southern headlands.

Justin blinked, staring in utter confusion. "They... they missed? They flew right past us!"

"Missed?" Belis murmured, looking sideways at Ayanokoji. "Did their machines malfunction?"

Ayanokoji stood stiffly behind them.

"I don’t know."

Viona turned her head sharply toward him. "What did you say, puppet?!"

"I don’t know, master. They might be targeting another location..."

Before she could finish the question, the horizon to the north exploded.

Twenty-five miles away, beyond the high northern cliffs where the Cape of Spears stood, a colossal flash of orange light lit up the sky. A second later, two more blinding fireballs erupted in rapid succession. Even from twenty-five miles away, the ground beneath their boots shook with a faint, rolling tremor.

A massive pillar of black smoke and dust boiled up into the clear blue sky, rising thousands of feet above the distant tree line.

A few moments later, the southern horizon lit up as well.

Flames and shockwaves tore through Fort Oakhaven. The secondary ammunition stores—hundreds of barrels of volatile enchanted fire-powder meant for the imperial fleet—detonated all at once. The explosion was so powerful that the shockwave flattened three watchtowers and tore the heavy stone walls of the supply depot to dust.

A second towering pillar of black smoke climbed into the southern sky.

At both locations, there was no golden light.

There were no glowing divine runes.

There was no magical dome to stop the fire.

The stone fortresses and supply stations were simply obliterated in seconds, crushed into rubble by high-explosive warheads that struck with surgical precision.

The imperial soldiers on the cliffs stared at the two rising plumes of smoke to their left and right. Whispers of sheer terror broke out across the ranks.

"The Cape of Spears... it’s gone!" a paladin captain cried out, his voice cracking. "The northern watch is burning!"

"Fort Oakhaven too!" another soldier shouted. "The holy barrier didn’t protect them!"

Belis fell to his knees on the stone floor, his hands shaking so violently he couldn’t speak. "They... they knew. They knew the ward only covers the central bay and the capital road!"

Viona’s divine light flickered wildly. Her face turned bright red with a mixture of humiliation and growing panic.

She looked to the north, then to the south. The two black pillars of smoke framed the horizon like dark gravestones.

Her sacred barrier was standing strong over Port Solis, but outside its invisible boundary line, the empire was completely defenseless. The Americans had not wasted a single bullet hitting her shield; they had simply stepped around it and burned everything else to the ground.

She spun around and grabbed Ayanokoji by his collar, pulling him close to her face.

"How do they know where the barrier ends?!" Viona screamed, shaking him. "How can they see what is shielded and what is not?!"

Ayanokoji looked directly into her enraged eyes, his expression completely blank, his red-tinted pupils unblinking.

"They do not know the boundary, Master," Ayanokoji replied smoothly. "That is why they fired. By observing which targets detonate and which targets deflect, their computers have just mapped the exact radius of your defense."

He looked toward the American carrier sitting calmly on the blue water.

"Now," Ayanokoji added in his hollow voice, "they know exactly where to strike."