Chapter 123: Shattered Citadel

Inside the inner courtyard of the harbor citadel, the silence was broken only by the ragged wheezing of wounded heroes and the steady drip of blood onto cold granite.

The air smelled of charred flesh, scorched wool, and ozone.

The Aegis was fully sealed once more, humming with its familiar golden light high above the towers. But to the priests and paladins huddled against the walls, that golden light no longer brought comfort. It felt like the ceiling of a tomb.

Goddess Viona remained on her knees in the dust, her trembling hands pressed against the stone.

Her regal beauty was entirely ruined. Her golden gown was torn at the collar, blackened by smoke and splattered with gray dust. Her ears were ringing with a high-pitched whine from the bomb’s detonation, and her divine mana core was spasming from the sudden shockwave that had rattled the edges of her barrier.

"L-Lady Viona..." Belis stammered, crawling over to her side with tears streaming down his face. "Are you unharmed, Your Divinity?"

Viona didn’t answer right away. She slowly raised her head, looking at the stone terrace.

Shin, the S-rank Gravity Weaver, was lying flat on his back. His chest barely rose, shallow breaths whistling through broken teeth. Dark blood pooled around his head, staining the pale flags. The black Torment Band around his left arm was humming weakly, its red gemstone dim and flickering.

Beside him, Kenji Sato was on one knee, using a splintered piece of wood to prop himself up. His radiant longsword was gone, lost somewhere off the sheer edge of the bluff. His school uniform blazer was reduced to burnt ribbons, and his skin was covered in ugly red burns from deflecting five-inch explosive shells with his bare holy aura. Even with his free will erased, his mortal body had reached its absolute physical limit.

Miyuki was slumped against the bottom step of the high altar, clutching her wooden healing staff to her chest like a frightened child. Her knuckles were bone-white, but no green light came from the wood. Her mana pool was entirely dry. Her eyes stared straight ahead at the dirt, dull crimson and unseeing.

Only Ayanokoji remained standing upright.

His dark hair was dusted with gray powder, and his left sleeve was torn open, revealing the black metal thorns digging deep into his skin. His black abyssal spear was resting against his shoulder, unchipped and gleaming darkly under the golden dome.

He stood like an emotionless statue in the center of the ruined courtyard, looking down at his defeated master.

"Why...?" Viona whispered, her voice cracking with pure disbelief.

She pushed herself up, staggering until she caught hold of a cracked marble pillar to steady her shaking legs.

"Why did the iron birds drop fire through the opening?!" she screamed, her voice echoing through the silent keep. "The gap was only fifty yards wide! The sky was completely dark! How could they drop a bomb through such a narrow space from miles away in the clouds?!"

Ayanokoji’s lips parted, his response arriving in that flat, unyielding tone.

"Laser-guided munitions do not require human eyesight, Master," Ayanokoji explained calmly. "The aircraft loiters at twenty thousand feet outside the visual horizon. An electro-optical pod paints the transit aperture with an invisible infrared laser beam. The bomb’s computer tracks the reflected light code and steers its control fins directly to the center of the beam. To a modern precision weapon, an opening fifty yards wide is not a narrow gap. It is an open door."

Viona gripped the stone pillar so hard her fingernails cracked against the marble.

"An open door..." she murmured, her chest heaving as bitter fury fought against cold, overwhelming terror. "I sacrificed the blood of my champions... I burned three months of holy reserve mana... and to them, it was just an open door?!"

"Correct," Ayanokoji stated. "Furthermore, the enemy strike wing anticipated the opening. The engagement on the bluff drew imperial attention while two stealth aircraft bypassed your acoustic watch. The bomb dropped was a standard penetrating warhead. Had it detonated inside the courtyard rather than eight hundred feet in the air, this entire keep would have collapsed, resulting in the termination of all personnel."

Belis let out a pathetic whimper, clutching his head in both hands. "We were almost killed... right here in the heart of the sanctuary..."

Lord Justin limped into the courtyard from the lower garrison tunnel, his sword belt missing and his face gray with shock.

"Lady Viona," Justin choked out, his voice shaking. "The fifty thousand legionnaires outside... they saw the explosion on the bluff. They saw the barrier shake. The rumor has already spread through the ranks that the heretics can breach the Aegis at will. Three entire infantry cohorts have dropped their arms and are fleeing down the southern trade road. We cannot stop the desertions."

Viona turned on him, her starry eyes flashing with hysterical rage.

"Execute them!" she shrieked, spitting blood onto the ground. "Execute every soldier who abandons his post! Hang them from the city walls! I am a goddess! I am the supreme sovereign of this land! They will die for me or they will die by my hand!"

"There is no one left to carry out the executions, Your Divinity!" Justin shouted back, desperation finally breaking through his fear of the deity. "The garrison commanders are fleeing with their men! Even the junior paladins are tearing off their holy sun crests! Outside this golden wall, the imperial military has ceased to exist!"

The words struck Viona like a physical blow. She staggered back, her back hitting the stone pillar.

Ceased to exist.

The proud Holy Solarian Empire, whose iron legions had conquered half the continent and whose fleets had sailed every sea, was gone. Wiped out not in a glorious clash of armies on an open field, but stripped away layer by layer by unseen machines, shattered bridges, burning granaries, and cold iron delivered from the clouds.

She turned her frantic gaze back to Ayanokoji.

"You," she breathed, stumbling toward him and grabbing the front of his torn uniform. "You are an S-rank! You know their world! What do we do now?! How do I kill them?!"

Ayanokoji did not pull away. He looked into her terrified, golden eyes with completely blank, red-tinted pupils.

The Torment Band on his arm hummed quietly, feeding on his life force, but his logical calculations remained cold and absolute.

"You cannot kill them, Master," Ayanokoji replied without hesitation.

Viona’s breath hitched. "What... did you say?"

"The operational reality remains unchanged," Ayanokoji said in his steady, emotionless drone. "The United States Navy possesses absolute air dominance, infinite logistics, and unmatched standoff firepower. Your ground forces are routed. Your food reserves are gone. Your heroes are heavily damaged, and your personal mana is severely depleted."

He slowly raised his left hand, pointing through the golden glass of the Aegis toward the dark ocean.

"They are not going to leave," Ayanokoji continued. "They will sit five miles out on the water. They will watch your food run dry. They will watch the citizens of Port Solis tear the remaining grain from your hands. Every time you open this barrier to strike, they will drop another bomb through the gap. Every time you stay inside, you bleed resources."

Ayanokoji looked directly down at the trembling goddess.

"The war is already over, Master," he concluded in a hollow whisper. "You are simply waiting for the clock to hit zero."

Viona’s hands slipped from his coat. She sank slowly to the ground, her golden robes pooling around her knees in the dirt.

Five miles out across the pitch-black ocean, the steady white and green navigational lights of the USS Gerald R. Ford blinked silently against the waves, cold and patient, waiting for the dawn.