"Turn to starboard! Flank speed!"
"Yes, my lady!"
I did not waste a second to order our escape.
Considering how the giant golem decimated the entire Zeref army with a single attack, I did not wish to discover what a creature three times the size of that golem could do with theirs.
The airship swiftly turned and the two propulsion devices at the back of the ship roared with greater flame than ever.
We propelled away from the sea dragon, forming greater and greater distance between us every second.
However, blue light enveloped the landscape around us as if the sun had turned blue.
Only it was not the sun.
The actual sun was still dimming and gradually overcame by darkness.
What was causing the blue light was from the radiating scales of the gigantic sea dragon.
Even from afar, I could feel massive amount of mana was flowing from each scale. All were directed to the dragon's jaw, concentrated into this intense pool of energy.
I immediately knew what it was about to do.
"Evasive maneuver!"
The sea dragon suddenly spat out a ball of energy which dispersed into a thousand blazing meteors.
The blazes rained down on us like a storm in spring.
Boom. Boom. Crash.
The torrents of fire were overwhelming.
The entire landscape below us was completely devastated. No creature on the ground could survive such attack.
The helmsman tried his best to maneuver the airship through the meteors.
Just as we were barely surviving the attack, the sea dragon launched another hail of fire upon us.
Despite the great distance between us and the dragon, the meteors did not have any problem reaching our location.
I quickly examined a way to bring us out of the sea dragon's firing range.
"The clouds! Bring us there!"
I pointed to the thundering dark haze beyond us.
If we could just hide ourselves inside the cloud, the sea dragon would not know where to attack.
"Yes, my lady!"
The helmsman nodded and skillfully piloted the airship.
We soon reached the massive cloud screen, sheltering us from the dragon's gaze.
The meteors were then no longer reaching us.
Our airship cruised through the clouds and maintained our course within them, providing us refuge from the sea dragon's attacks.
"Let's stay like this until--"
Screech.
A terrifying scream interrupted my order. It came from above.
The whole airship suddenly trembled by a huge draft of wind streaming from somewhere beyond us.
"What was that?"
I asked the crewmen.
"I'm not sure, my lady. There is interference all over, the magic radar is not working."
Darn.
No wonder we could not detect the sea dragon earlier. Not to mention this new guest.
We were not alone in the clouds. I did not intend to acquaint ourselves with it either.
Judging from the screech earlier, I was certain our basic armaments could not handle such creature.
"Reduce altitude! Get us out of the clouds!"
I ordered.
The airship swiftly descended through the gaseous mass, leaving whatever creature was journeying within.
Unfortunately, before we could be relieved to have escaped another danger, we found ourselves in a fiery scenery.
An entire town wrecked and torn in flame. The town was unrecognizable to me even though we were supposed to be somewhere near the Damai region.
People's scream and monsters' roar were blending in together, echoing to the sky where we flew.
But their sounds were muted by something larger.
Striding right through the middle of the burning town was a nine-headed hydra the size of a mountain. Each head spewed fireballs which turned the town ablaze.
The titanic creature caught sight of our airship.
It promptly directed all nine of its heads toward the airship and shot out a flurry of house-sized fireballs.
Given our close proximity with the monster, we had no way of avoiding the attack.
There was only one thing to do.
"Brace for impact!"
I immediately waved my hands to form a spell that could mitigate whatever damage we would face. Though I knew I would fail.
[Shield]
A translucent barrier manifested at the side of the airship, right at where the magic core was stored.
If there was one thing should be protected of an airship, it would be the magic core. Since that was what kept the ship afloat and it would surely blown us all to nothing if it got destroyed.
Three fireballs struck us.
One hit the foredeck, one on the propulsion devices on the back, and one right on the middle of the hull where the shield was.
The entire attack set most of the airship on fire.
The shield managed to protect the magic core. But it could not prevent damage on the sub-engines necessary for flight.
"Airship's losing buoyancy, my lady! We're crash landing!"
We were rapidly descending to the ground.
Though I knew telekinesis, I was not powerful enough to slow the entire airship down and minimize impact.
We would hit the ground hard.
I waved my hands once more to cast the same shield spell.
This time, the translucent barrier was formed around the bridge. I wasn't sure if it could hold up against the crash. As such, I left our survival to fate.
Whether this would be the end for me or I would still be given another chance to fulfill my mission, I did not know.
But I was certain that my determination to reclaim my homeland had not wavered, despite all the overwhelming enemies I had seen.
Boom.
The ship crashed and I lost consciousness immediately.
The last thing I remembered was my shield shattering upon impact.
I opened my eyes and found myself lying among the burnt buildings of the town we crash-landed at.
The airship was to my side, wrecked into unrecognizable pieces.
I spied the corpses of my crewmen and the lady servant strewn around the wreckages.
I turned to myself and noticed bruises and open wounds all over my body as well as broken arms and legs.
I was no longer in a condition to move myself, let alone fight.
Screech.
Another terrifying scream reached my ears.
I turned and found the hydra was still spreading chaos over in the far distance.
To the sky above I witnessed the sun being devoured by something, causing the world to gradually overcame with darkness.
"Haha…"
I could not help but to chuckle, fed up with the situation.
"This was not fair."
Recalling the fact how the monsters were multiplying every second and there was nothing we could do about it.
Nor could we investigate the ruins from which more monsters and the gigantic beings emerged.
"This was a losing battle to begin with."
I said.
"There was no way for us to win this fight. This is it for us."
I clicked my tongue.
"If only…"
My mind was suddenly filled with rage.
"If only there's a way. I don't care how difficult. If only there's an actual way for us to win."
I clenched a fist with the last bit of strength I had.
"I'd do anything to win. I'd work myself till I bleed from my eyes and only bones were left of me. I'd fight till the end!"
[Were those words came from the heart or were they just hollow promises?]
Suddenly a voice reached out to me.
It resonated both to my ears and in my mind, casting me with an otherworldly sense.