Chapter 641: The Airship (3)
Oliver had experienced few emotional disturbances like disappointment, anger, or confusion throughout his life.
This was because, through the Necromancer’s Sight, he could always gauge others’ minds and intentions in advance.
As a result, he rarely felt disappointment, anger, or surprise, regardless of the circumstances he faced.
After all, those emotions generally arose when things deviated from one’s expectations or predictions.
But it wasn’t as if he was completely devoid of them. The world was full of mysteries, and unexpected events could occur.
Right now was one of those times.
“Don’t worry. You know Yareli’s skills, and I’ll vouch for Derek’s abilities myself.”
The airship from Landa headed toward the outskirts of Gallos.
Kevin said this to reassure Oliver as they made their way to the highest deck of the ship.
One might wonder why he bothered, but it was necessary.
Although Oliver appeared as usual on the outside, he had just insisted on going directly to confront Rosburn.
Even in a critical situation where the airship might crash at any moment.
His head was still spinning. It was fortunate they had barely managed to talk him out of it.
“Yes, I understand,” Oliver responded briefly to Kevin’s reassurance.
Though his tone was the same as usual, Kevin detected a subtle change.
Perhaps it was just a misperception after seeing Oliver slice through a Necromancer in an instant.
Whether it was or wasn’t, it wasn’t the priority at the moment.
“But something feels strange.”
As he simultaneously erased his presence and sensed his surroundings with magic, Kevin spoke up.
“What on earth are these guys up to?”
Kevin found himself puzzled by the actions of the Necromancers.
And it was a very reasonable question.
Hijacking an airship was a crime that was not only heinous but also came with considerable risk.
If they made a mistake, they could end up crashing with the airship itself. Not to mention, there was a time constraint due to fuel limits. The large size of the airship made it an easy target for tracking, which made escape difficult as well.
For such a crime, their goal had to be unmistakably clear.
Destruction of the airship, kidnapping of important persons, or perhaps using it for terrorism by crashing it into buildings.
Naturally, precision and coordination were required, but none of that was evident in these Necromancers.
Regardless of their skill level, they lacked the numbers to seize control of such a large airship, leaving their defenses poorly structured, and they had not taken any significant action after occupying the passenger cabins, ballast, and engine rooms.
Their actions were absurdly half-hearted, as if they had only been ordered to reach this point.
The question was who gave the order.
“Well, I suppose we can capture them and find out.”
The highest deck of the airship. Just below the ballast control room.
Kevin looked up at the ceiling through the Necromancer’s Sight and marked his targets.
Thanks to the Clairvoyance skill he gained with Oliver’s help, Kevin could use the Necromancer’s Sight more freely than most necromancers.
According to Oliver, there were six of them, and they didn’t seem aware of the situation here.
Without hesitation, Kevin drew out the chain given to him by a Holy Knight.
The silver chain rattled, creating a soft clinking sound.
The shining chain almost looked like a rosary, but Kevin wrapped it in magical power and manipulated it.
Swirling around, the chain crawled up the wall like a snake, adhering to the ceiling just below where the Necromancers stood in the ballast control room.
Bang!
With a wave of his hand, Kevin released an explosive burst of magic. The chain pierced through the ceiling, capturing the Necromancers on the other side in a single sweep.
“What—what is this?”
“Argh! Are we being strangled?”
A clean ambush, made possible by Kevin’s highly refined magical power and the experience he had gained in battles.
The Necromancers, taken aback, struggled to resist, but as soon as Kevin began chanting, they could no longer move.
“[Necto]”
With the incantation, a blinding light radiated from the chain, neutralizing not only the Necromancers' dark magic but also their physical freedom.
It was a special ability of the Chains of Repentance, an artifact that, according to the Holy Knight, could completely immobilize both the magic and bodies of sinners.
As proof of this, the chain assumed its full function and slipped out of Kevin’s control.
Although the Necromancers were already restrained, so there was no issue.
In this way, one of the three Necromancer groups on the airship was subdued without any trouble.
The other two groups would likely meet the same fate.
Just as Kevin and Oliver were preparing to ascend to the ballast control room, a loud explosion erupted, shaking the airship.
Boom!!
The explosion came from the engine room at the stern.
As Kevin began to wonder if the Holy Knights had failed...
Boom!!
A second explosion followed immediately.
The sound came from above.
Alarmed, Kevin nearly broke down the door as he entered the ballast control room. Inside, surrounded by reinforced glass and filled with various machinery, he could see the massive ballast through the transparent ceiling.
The ballast was so large it was hard to grasp its overall shape, yet he could spot at a glance a huge hole caused by the explosion.
It was puzzling. How could it have exploded... He had completely restrained the Necromancers so they couldn’t even move a finger.
Kevin, filled with doubt, inspected the restrained Necromancers.
To his shock, they were all foaming at the mouth and had already breathed their last.
They had bitten down on poison hidden in their molars to commit suicide.
As he struggled to make sense of the situation, Kevin’s mind became tangled, and he locked eyes with a man among the restrained individuals.
“The bomb went off! We need to act fast!”
The man, a member of the ballast control room staff, shouted urgently, his face pale.
It was a reasonable response.
Although there were many questions he wanted to ask, they first needed to deal with the current crisis.
Kevin conjured a small flame to free the restrained staff and began to handle the situation.
If the airship crashed from this altitude, they were all as good as dead.
Meanwhile, gas continued to escape from the hole in the ballast, and the breach grew larger by the second.
The only saving grace was that, through extensive research, they had managed to modify the gas so it didn’t ignite upon explosion.
“Deploy the emergency ballasts!”
Shoooom!!
Someone shouted as they pulled a lever, and emergency ballasts expanded rapidly from all four sides of the airship.
These emergency ballasts were safety devices designed to keep the airship airborne or allow for a safe landing should the main ballast malfunction.
As the emergency ballasts deployed, the falling airship gradually stabilized.
But only for a brief moment.
The word “safety” seemed almost ironic as explosions erupted once again from the front and back of the ballasts.
“What the...?!”
With explosions and the shuddering of the airship, people screamed out in terror.
The last line of defense had been compromised.
Kevin and Oliver were just as stunned.
It was one thing to understand how someone could seize control of the airship so quickly, but they couldn’t comprehend how they had managed to plant bombs throughout the external ballasts.
However, there was no time to dwell on it.
They had to come up with a plan now. Whether that meant escaping the crashing airship or somehow stopping its descent.
In this dire situation, their eyes met.
Having worked together for so long as professor and staff, it seemed they could read each other’s intentions through their gaze.
Kevin was the first to speak.
“Any way to stop the airship from crashing?”
“There is something I can try, but it will take time.”
“Good.”
Stopping an airship weighing hundreds of tons wasn’t impossible, but as Oliver pointed out, it would take time, to which Kevin only replied, “Good.”
Their exchange was beyond the bounds of common sense, yet, thankfully, it was feasible for them.
Kevin acted first.
He focused magical power into his feet to anchor his floating body to the floor as he released his magic into the air to connect with a spirit.
“Silf.”
Kevin spoke into the air. More precisely, he addressed the air itself.
Incredibly, the previously stoic atmosphere shifted, as if in response to his voice, forming currents within the airship.
These air currents were gentle and warm, like sunlight in a breeze. Soon, a translucent woman made of currents appeared before Kevin.
Her figure was almost ethereal, slender and beautiful, with delicate wings that hinted at her nature as a spirit.
Though Kevin had heard of his ability to summon spirits, seeing one up close was still surprising.
Kevin made his request to the spirit.
“Could you help?”
It was an abrupt request, without much context, but it seemed to matter little.
After all, the air was everywhere, and the spirit would have been aware of the situation even without an explanation.
Fortunately, she didn’t show any reluctance. As soon as Kevin asked, she vanished, and a massive current began forming around the falling airship, pushing it upwards to counteract the descent.
The airship’s rate of fall visibly slowed.
Kevin shouted.
“This only buys us time. Even for a spirit, holding up something that weighs hundreds of tons can’t last long.”
It was true. Spirits could not manifest unlimited power in the physical world.
Knowing this, Oliver wasted no time and took action.
‘Good thing I thought to bring this along.’
With a feeling of relief, Oliver reached into his pocket and pulled out a small branch.
It was not an ordinary branch, nor was it simply a natural piece of wood. It had been crafted by human hands and was a part of the “Fake Body,” a gift intended for Eve.
In other words, it was essentially a part of Eve herself.
“Eve.”
Oliver called out to Eve through the communication device attached inside his collar.
Upon assessing the situation via the device, Eve immediately instructed him on the next steps.
[Please reset the airship’s communication frequency. Set it to the Moirai School's frequency at the Tower of Magic.]
Though the command was unexpected, Kevin, who had served as a Military Mage and knew his way around airships, moved quickly to adjust the settings on the control room’s communication equipment.
“Will the frequency reach all the way from here?”
“It should.”
Oliver responded, gripping the branch made from part of Eve’s body.
Kevin quickly tuned the frequency.
“Done!”
The frequency now matched the branch from Eve’s body.
In an instant, an immense surge of magical power began flowing from the branch, as though an endless source was connected.
It was as if the World Tree itself had sent its magical energy through Eve’s fake body to this small branch, which now began filling the airship with an overwhelming force.
And this was only the beginning.
This flood of magical energy established a connection between the frequencies, allowing Eve to transfer vast knowledge stored in the World Tree directly into this space.
Blueprints of the airship arrived as well.
With the environment prepared, Eve cried out her next instruction.
[Dave.]
Oliver responded.
[Idea Construction of the Moirai & Spatial School: FS-824 Airship Model]
As he said this, the vast amount of magical energy that had filled the airship reorganized, casting an array of multicolored lights that overlaid reality with a new structure.
In that moment, the virtual world of the Root Net of the World Tree combined with reality.
Following the information and imagery sent by Eve, Oliver not only sealed the holes in the damaged ballast but refilled the escaping gas and restored the damaged engine.
The sight was so miraculous it left everyone inside the airship in awe, watching as the falling airship halted and began to soar again.
...
The project known as “Idea” under development at the Tower of Magic was a revolutionary magic that overlaid the virtual world of the Root Net onto reality.
By drawing in the World Tree’s immense power and knowledge, the results were extraordinary.
Oliver had first witnessed this magic through Lilith, then tested it himself in a dense forest.
This was his second time using it.
The difference here was that instead of using it in battle, he was applying it to repair the airship, which seemed far more efficient.
Under normal circumstances, Oliver would have analyzed and recorded the process in his notebook on the spot.
But he couldn’t afford to do so now.
There were more pressing issues at hand.
“How did you get here?”
Inside the ballast control room, Oliver, still helping Eve maintain the “Idea,” asked as he brought in Rosburn, despite his own busy state.
His question was entirely sincere.
He couldn’t understand how Rosburn had ended up here.
Rosburn answered candidly.
“I secretly followed you, Sir!”
The boy, despite his fear, tried to speak with confidence.
It was a brave stance, but Oliver still couldn’t comprehend it.
“Why?”
“To... to help you.”
Everyone, including Oliver, fell silent.
Even though Rosburn shrank slightly under the weight of their silence, he held firm in his intention.
“I want to help you, Sir. I may not be much help, but I’ll do my best—”
“Aah...”
For a moment, Oliver, normally so polite, held his head in exasperation, interrupting the boy mid-sentence.
It was an uncharacteristically careless action, yet it was also a testament to the sheer headache he was feeling.
Where Oliver was headed was a den full of Necromancers who worshipped him. And among them was a faction from Pater Church looking to exploit this situation.
It was a setup for a potentially catastrophic chain reaction.
Just the thought of having Rosburn along with him made his head ache.
And then, one of the causes of his headache made her appearance.
“We’re landing soon. All the passengers have expressed their gratitude to the Tower of Magic.”
A nun in a black robe came up to announce.
She was an attendant of the Holy Knight, Roderick, and had been calming the panicked passengers affected by the Necromancers’ terror.
According to Kevin, she was highly skilled.
“That’s a relief,” Oliver replied.
“Well, not entirely. All the Necromancers are dead,” Kevin interjected.
As he said, they had managed to subdue the Necromancers with minimal damage, but they hadn’t captured even one of them alive.
Most had died resisting, or had committed suicide by poison.
Kevin, baffled by the situation, explained it to the nun, then observed her through Necromancer’s Sight.
Her emotions remained perfectly composed.
“For now, we should be grateful that no innocents were harmed. Thank you all sincerely,” she said, taking a few steps forward to bow her head to the wizards of the Tower of Magic.
Considering who she was, everyone returned her courtesy.
Though Oliver, distracted by Rosburn, was slightly less formal than usual.
Just then, the nun took Oliver’s hand.
“Above all, special thanks are owed to you, Zenon, for preventing the airship from crashing. Truly, thank you.”
Oliver responded a beat late to her unexpected gesture, and the nun, smiling, stepped back.
Something felt off. Her emotions showed no hidden agenda.
But, in that fleeting moment when she held his hand, she had discreetly slipped him a note.
She had masked the gesture so smoothly it went unnoticed by others.
Her skill was undeniable, but even more intriguing was what was written on the note.
[Be wary of Archpriest Roderick.]