Chapter 104: Outrage

The golden throne room of the Holy Solarian Empire was usually quiet, smelling of sweet incense, fresh flowers, and honeyed treats. But today, the grand chamber was filled with fear and tension.

Priests knelt on the cold marble floor with their heads pressed down against the stone. Palace guards stood along the towering pillars, gripping their spears so hard their knuckles were white. Nobody dared to breathe loudly. Nobody dared to look directly at the marble dais.

On the white velvet throne, Goddess Viona was shaking with pure, unbridled fury.

Beside her, a golden side table lay flipped over on its side. Delicate porcelain plates were smashed into sharp pieces across the red carpet. Candied berries, honey cakes, and sweet fruits were crushed into the fabric, staining the pristine velvet dark red like spilled blood.

"A single bird?!" Viona shrieked, her voice echoing off the high vaulted ceiling with terrifying pressure. "You tell me an entire squadron of thirty elite dragon knights went out to hunt the enemy, and only one wounded captain crawled back?!"

Prime Minister Belis was kneeling at the base of the marble stairs. His elderly hands were trembling against the stone. Behind him knelt Lord Justin, who had arrived through the royal teleportation gate barely twenty minutes ago. Justin was still covered in soot and sea salt, his expensive gold-inlaid armor dented, his forehead bleeding from a cut.

"Speak, Lord Justin!" Viona yelled, standing up from her throne. Golden divine light flared around her body, making the air in the room grow suffocatingly hot.

"Y-Your Divinity, forgive us!" Justin stammered, his face pale and soaked in sweat. He did not dare lift his eyes. "The reports from Captain Ragnald are... they are beyond comprehension! The enemy does not fight with ships! The knights searched forty leagues of open ocean and found nothing on the waves! Then... from the clouds above... an iron beast descended!"

"An iron beast?" Viona repeated with disgust, her starry golden eyes narrowing into dangerous slits. "You let thirty imperial wyverns be butchered by a single flying beast?!"

"It was not a beast, Lady Viona!" Justin cried out, his voice cracking with hysteria. "It was made of solid metal! It had no beating wings, yet it flew faster than thunder! It spat fire that chased our riders through the sky! It ripped twenty-nine knights and their mounts to shreds in less than five minutes! Captain Ragnald only survived because his dragon plunged through the gate of the Aegis before the iron monster could strike him down!"

Justin pounded his fists against the floor in desperation.

"And the harbor, Your Divinity! The ships! Six galleons are completely sunk! Five more are burning to ashes! They are striking our vessels from beneath the waves! The holy barrier protects the sky, but the water... the water is turning into a graveyard! We cannot even untie the mooring ropes before another underwater explosion rips a hull in two! If we order the armada to sail out through the breakwater, they will all be sent to the bottom before clearing the bay!"

"Useless! All of you are utterly useless!" Viona screamed, raising her arm.

A wave of raw golden divine mana erupted from her hand. It crashed into the marble floor like a hammer, blowing Justin and two adjacent priests backward across the carpet. Justin groaned in pain as his armored back slammed into the base of a stone pillar, coughing up a small mouthful of blood.

Belis kept his head low, trembling in terror. "Your Divinity... please calm your wrath. The imperial legion is doing everything they can, but—"

"Doing everything they can?!" Viona interrupted, her voice shrill with rage. "I am a Goddess! I rule this world! I blessed this empire with divine power, sacred magic, and holy artifacts. And now, a man-less discard... an E-rank anomaly that I threw into a hole to die... is making a mockery of my holy military?!"

She paced back and forth on the dais, her silk skirts swishing violently. Her heart was beating fast, not just from anger, but from a strange, creeping sensation she had never felt in her entire immortal life: frustration.

Every calculation she made was failing.

When John Smith sent his ultimatum, she assumed he was an arrogant fool with a handful of foreign weapons.

Then came the flying iron arrows that hit the barrier.

She had mocked the attack, believing her Aegis made the empire invincible. But then came the explosions under the water. The enemy didn’t even try to break the golden dome from the air anymore; they simply slipped weapons beneath the surface and broke the keels of her proudest ships.

And now, when she sent her fastest aerial predators to locate the enemy fleet, a single gray machine had appeared from the clouds and slaughtered twenty-nine veteran knights like cattle.

They couldn’t find the enemy.

They couldn’t see the enemy.

They couldn’t touch the enemy.

Every time she tried to raise her fist, John Smith struck her from an angle she didn’t even know existed.

"If the armada cannot leave the harbor without sinking," Belis spoke up carefully, his voice shaking, "then our planned invasion of the western continent is... impossible. We cannot transport our ground legions across the sea without a fleet. And our dragon knights are refusing to leave the protection of the barrier after what happened to the third squadron."

"Cowards!" Viona hissed. "All of them are cowards!"

"Lady Viona," Belis continued, swallowing hard. "We must accept that this enemy does not follow the laws of warfare in this world. Their machines move faster than sound. Their weapons strike from beyond the horizon and beneath the tides. We have no spells, no tactics, and no scrolls that explain how to fight an army of iron."

Viona stopped pacing. She looked down at the old Prime Minister.

Her teeth were clenched so tightly her jaw ached. She hated admitting weakness. She was a supreme divine entity. Mortals were supposed to worship her, beg for her blessings, and carry out her divine will. But right now, her grand empire was bleeding, and she had no idea how to stop the bleeding.

Suddenly, a memory flickered in her mind.

Two students standing on the palace terrace hours earlier.

The boy with the dead, blank eyes who had stood before her without a hint of fear. The boy who had looked at the smoke over Port Solis and instantly named the flying weapons Tomahawks. He had explained the speed, the guidance, and the exact reason why the ships were being targeted before anyone else in the room even understood what had happened.

Ayanokoji.

And the girl beside him, Miyuki.

They came from the same world as John Smith. They knew what those iron machines were.

Viona hated relying on the summoned heroes for mundane military matters. She had summoned them to be weapons against the Demon Lord, not strategic advisors. But right now, her own generals were shivering on the floor like frightened children.

Viona took a deep, shaky breath, forcing her wild divine aura back into her body. The golden light faded, leaving the room cold and quiet once again.

"Belis," Viona said, her voice dropping into a low, icy tone.

"Y-Yes, Your Divinity?" the Prime Minister replied, lifting his face slightly.

"Where are Hero Ayanokoji and Hero Miyuki?"