Chapter 616: Fierce Battle

“The current enemy formation consists of the Third and Fifth Legions of the Olympus War Temple, and the Guna and Hlökk Brigades of Valhalla—”

“Detected over 1,600 legendary enemies, approximately 130 demigods; specific numbers are being tallied.”

“High-power electromagnetic wave and magical energy jammers have been activated for directional interference! The effect appears limited; the armor of these Einherjar and battle spirits may stabilize their spiritual bodies.”

“Shit! These guys are all equipped with holy artifact-level gear.”

“Impossible, that should be the effect of divine power amplification. Both Odin and Ares have the divine office of ‘armament.’”

The alarms in the bridge command center of the battleship ‘Circum-Pacific’ had ceased, and various intelligence reports were now converging into the command room.

Brigadier General Wallace Clayton stood at the command table, issuing orders without hesitation: “Except for the Sixth, Eighth, and Ninth Companies on standby, all Storm Companies will deploy as planned. The Fourteenth and Seventeenth Companies will swap targets with the Fifth and Sixth Companies of Light Magic Industries. Inform Roa, tell him he must hold off the battle goddess.”

Legend has it that Odin commands ninety-nine powerful Valkyries, known as ‘Valkyrja.’ They are either princesses from earthly kingdoms skilled in combat arts, daughters of Odin himself, or virgin warriors sworn to serve the gods and chosen by Odin to ascend. Each commands an Einherjar brigade and holds a divine office related to battle.

According to intelligence gathered by the Wiltonshire Group in recent years, among them, ‘Hlökk’ is the goddess of multi-weapon mastery, while ‘Guna’ is the goddess of battle. The latter’s martial prowess and her brigade are extremely formidable, ranking among the top ten of all Valkyries!

“Order the Third Destroyer Squadron to provide full artillery support for the western battlefield.”

“Except for the battleship division and the Third Destroyer Squadron, all ships will continue concentrated fire to eliminate those pirates as quickly as possible! Lieutenant General Alec Bass, you will serve as overall fire director. Twenty minutes! You must rout them within twenty minutes!”

“Inform Lieutenant General Bertrand Petz, the ‘Wiltonshire’ will make its own decisions; coordinate with all ships before their morphing fighters launch.”

“Inquire with Brigadier General Rasa: Why have our five submerged submarines not acted yet? Has an accident occurred?”

Just as the many staff officers here were bustling around Brigadier General Wallace Clayton, within this massive fleet, a full twelve armed merchant ships opened their deck hatches and released one after another small magical power armor units.

At the same time, the ‘Wiltonshire,’ surrounded by numerous warships, launched from its deck the W3 morphing fighters that had long been poised for action.

This was the latest morphing fighter developed by ‘Light Magic Industries’ five years after acquiring the technical data for the F41 morphing fighter. It was a size larger than the standard F41 morphing fighter currently in service with the Amerikan military. It could freely transform between a multi-role fighter and a large magical power armor, with the military designation ‘Warrior.’

Due to high costs and various other factors, it was never formally incorporated into the military, but ‘Light Magic Industries’ had produced nearly five hundred of them over the past two years to bolster the air power of the two groups.

Their top speeds could reach an astonishing Mach 90. With the aid of the auxiliary piloting system, pilots with magical energy levels of fifteen could execute various high-difficulty evasive maneuvers, even possessing agility and speed comparable to demigod-level experts.

The munitions carried by these fighters could easily destroy a battleship.

Lieutenant General Alec Bass also began to take over command of all warships and armed merchant ships except for the two battleships.

His abilities were equally outstanding, in no way inferior to Brigadier General Wallace Clayton. Within just five minutes of his taking over as overall fire director, seven more pirate ships located seven hundred nautical miles away had sunk, while on the First Combined Fleet’s side, only two merchant ships had been sunk and one frigate lightly damaged.

He even managed to divert some attention to the western battlefield. He knew that was the key to victory, determining the fate of the combined fleet.

As time passed, Lieutenant General Alec Bass’s expression gradually relaxed.

The battle between the Storm Companies and the chosen warriors and Einherjar began with shooting from a distance of two hundred nautical miles. The former used the numerous high-tech thermal weapons equipped on their magical power armor to pour firepower at the enemy. The ammunition, developed by the Machine God Anthony Braden specifically for targeting spiritual bodies and souls, could not be directly resisted even by demigod-level Einherjar with their soul bodies. The enemy was forced to scatter their formation under the intense bombardment and use their holy artifact shields to withstand the fire.

Yet even so, the Einherjar and chosen warriors paid a heavy price, suffering over two hundred casualties before they could approach the Storm Companies’ defensive formation.

Only when they entered close combat did these divine warriors fully display their superb combat skills and rich war experience. Their individual strength was clearly superior to that of the Storm Company members. Even though the latter had advanced combat assistance intelligence, they were far from matching them.

However, these living human soldiers excelled in coordinated operations. With the help of auxiliary intelligence and data links, their cooperation was as precise and seamless as a cold machine.

At this time, large formations of W3 morphing fighters were already charging toward the enemy’s cloud ships. They accelerated to the limit and launched magical energy-guided bombs only after closing to within one hundred nautical miles, evading the dense rays fired back at them with agile maneuvers.

This kept the numerous small escort boats guarding the cloud ships busy; they had exhausted themselves with barrage fire but achieved little.

The missiles launched by the morphing fighters were far more lethal than battleship artillery or ship-based missiles. They were fired at extremely close range, then accelerated to an astonishing Mach 150 in a very short time, overcoming inertia during flight to perform unexpected trajectory changes.

As each missile hit and detonated, the outer defense arrays of the cloud ships were torn apart like paper, erupting into mushroom clouds in the sky.

Although the nuclear warheads of these missiles had small yields, they were equipped with precise programming and guidance systems to direct the blast force toward the target, making their lethality only slightly inferior to the ‘Holy Spirit Annihilators’ mounted on battleships.

“The battle can be resolved within half an hour at most—”

Lieutenant General Alec Bass made this judgment based on his extensive war experience.

He believed that in this local engagement, even if other variables arose, they could maintain an undefeated position.

But the next moment, the lieutenant general regretted this thought and recognized his naivety.

At that instant, he saw to the left of their fleet, about eleven hundred nautical miles away, a large number of sea monsters and giants suddenly appear.

—That was an area their mages had been unable to accurately observe, shrouded by the enemy’s powerful illusions.

The First Combined Fleet had long prepared defensive plans for this direction, but Lieutenant General Alec Bass had not expected the Olympian pantheon to make such a massive move.

“Finally broke through the enemy’s illusion. Visual count: three hundred and twenty Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires, fifty Titans, and five hundred and ninety legendary and demigod sea monsters—”

—These were indeed legendary and demigod-level transcendent beings! Any creature weaker than legendary would be directly shaken to death upon entering the core battlefield without fixed fortifications or magical arrays.

“It’s Poseidon’s forces. This is troublesome.”

A nearby staff officer showed a pained expression.

In terms of pure strength, their combat power was still not inferior to the enemy. But this was the sea, where Poseidon’s divine authority and his forces could nearly double their combat effectiveness. Conversely, they would be greatly suppressed.

That king of the seas could even easily intensify the winds and waves tenfold, capsizing most of their ships directly.

“Commander, I suggest we accelerate the Second Combined Fleet? The reserves can also be deployed.”

Another operations staff officer, wearing a second-level security badge, also looked grave: “They are approaching quickly; estimated to reach within one hundred nautical miles of the fleet in at most five minutes.”

“We can signal the Second Combined Fleet!”

Brigadier General Wallace Clayton remained focused: “No need for the reserves. His Highness just told me personally that Poseidon’s subordinates will be handled by someone else.”

He then remarked with emotion: “Fortunately, we also have allies, and my lord has prepared some other things for this war.”

Lieutenant General Alec Bass knew what his lord had prepared: six ‘Paladin Knights,’ whose overall combat power was said to be infinitely close to that of intermediate gods, surpassing the ‘Chosen Knights’!

According to the information he had, the ‘Paladin Knight’ armor had been developed but was still in testing.

However, the fourteen divine-level biological suits possessed by their lord had already been put into use.

This was the most core secret of the Wiltonshire Group, known to no more than forty people. He himself was only privy to it because he was the first successor to the commander of the First Combined Fleet.

According to regulations, if Brigadier General Wallace Clayton were to fall in battle, he would take over command. Thus, his access level to Level 12 intelligence within Wiltonshire was as high as Level 9, second only to his commander.

“Allies?”

The staff officers in the command room soon learned where their allies came from. It was also deep in the ocean, about five hundred nautical miles away, where a group of sea monsters and giants had appeared.

They had only seventy giants—twenty-six Titans and forty-four Cyclopes—but a large number of ‘six-armed Nagas’ and ‘eight-armed Nagas,’ totaling over two hundred. The number of sea monsters was also as high as six hundred.

The Naga serpentfolk were a race descended from the Hydra, also possessing Titan blood. Their strength was usually distinguished by the number of arms. Six-armed ones were typically legendary, while eight-armed ones rivaled demigods.

Their combat style covered both ranged and melee; they were excellent archers, able to wield more than three longbows or firearms simultaneously, and could also use six or more ‘Naga war blades’ or other weapons.

The sea goddess Thetis had spent a thousand years subduing three Naga tribes, earning their loyalty, and thereby established her hegemony over the seas. Relying on this force, she could barely hold her own against the combined attacks of the Vanir and Poseidon.

“The sea goddess Thetis?”

“But these forces are far from enough!”

“This is the advantage of the spread of myths. Even though Poseidon has been away from this world for thousands of years, his faith remains strong. Not only does he have far more followers than the sea goddess, but the number of sea monsters under his command is also double hers!”

“I think we can breathe a little easier. At least we don’t have to worry about Poseidon capsizing our ships directly. It is said that Thetis’s divine power is close to pseudo-truth, and she recently fought Poseidon in person; she can contend with him.”

“Look to the east—are these also our allies?”

Indeed, a dragon flight appeared in the eastern sky. There were about forty of them, mostly shadow dragons and blue dragons, nearly all with bodies fifty meters long, like adult dragons.

Lieutenant General Alec Bass recognized that they were not the guard force of the Destiny Township magic tower, as those guardian dragons were of mixed composition. He guessed they came from ‘Ancient Shadow Dragon Yvette’ and ‘Ancient Blue Dragon Delmer,’ who served the Lord of Destiny.

As an ancient dragon, Yvette had numerous offspring and considerable authority among the shadow dragon lineage.

As for Delmer, Lieutenant General Alec Bass knew little, only that he had recently joined the Lord of Destiny and was a blue dragon nearing the end of his lifespan. The intelligence he had did not include further information about this ancient blue dragon.

In any case, these greedy dragons would not fight for their lord for nothing; the latter must have spent a huge sum to hire these dragons to participate in the battle.

“Ten days ago, Lord Delmer became an ancient dragon.”

Garcia Ferron cleared up everyone’s confusion while issuing orders: “The Sixth and Eighth Companies, deploy to assist our allies. My requirement is to maintain the front line there and do everything possible to avoid their casualties!”

At the same time, Ares, who had descended in person aboard a cloud ship, could no longer restrain himself and stood up. He walked directly to the front of the ship’s observation deck, staring at the battle ahead with an incredulous expression.