1052: Fran"s Resolve...?

Fran turned her back to Marle and flew above the enemy fleet.

Meanwhile, Marle followed us through the sky in a straight line. Perhaps thanks to her improved magic, Marle was now capable of flying with wind magic alone.

We continued toward the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p, paying no attention to the other vessels.

When Fran tried to use aerial hop and jump aboard the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p, a film of light appeared to block our path.

「Hft!」

『A ward! I knew it! It’s definitely identifying us as an enemy!』

Fran made a funny face after slamming her face on the ward. It seems we have no way through, since it’s blocking our teleportation as well.

However, the ward apparently didn’t have any means for striking back at us, allowing Fran to stand right on top of it. Some people were attacking us from the nearby s.h.i.+ps, but my barrier was enough to deal with them.

『Now then, how about Marle?』

「GUGAAAAHH!」

「It went through!」

After Fran evaded Marle’s blast, it flew right through to ward to punch a huge hole into the deck of the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p. Neither the ward nor the damage transfer did anything to stop it.

That’s just as we planned, but our original plan of infiltrating the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p seems impossible now.

『Alright, let’s keep at it and sink all the s.h.i.+ps around us!』

「Nn!」

In contrast to our huge step of progress, the enemy sailors shouted in anger.

「Someone stop that creature! What are the d.a.m.n alchemists doing!?」

「I knew we never should have relied on the Eastern Madman!」

「Ahh! Princess Marle… What have they done to you…」

「Take ‘em down, Princess! Don’t worry about us, just murder those Raydoss a.s.sholes!」

I heard various people shouting. The angry ones must be the sailors from Raydoss, while the ones favoring Marle must be the Seedran sailors.

Fran danced around the top of the ward, guiding Marle’s attacks toward the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p and the larger Raydoss s.h.i.+ps in the vicinity.

One s.h.i.+p got blasted with a huge icicle, blowing a hole in the flank. Another s.h.i.+p got its hull cracked open after freezing over. A third had all the sailors frozen stiff after getting engulfed by a cold mist. Every pa.s.sing minute meant more damage to their fleet.

As expected, Marle’s attacks pa.s.sed right through the enemy’s wards. All of them landed direct hits on the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p and surrounding vessels.

Some of the Seedran wars.h.i.+ps took advantage of this opportunity to strike back at Raydoss. While they didn’t seem to be equipped with ranged weaponry like bows, they made suicide attacks by cras.h.i.+ng their s.h.i.+ps directly.

As the chaos continued to spread, I noticed something unusual happening to Marle.

「GUGAH…GAH…AAAAAHH!」

「Did she… get bigger?」

『That’s no mistake. She’s increasing her body size by absorbing seawater.』

Marle began growing into a giant. What was originally the body of a pet.i.te girl turned into a huge creature about five meters tall. The ma.s.sive ogre wearing a girl’s face was a completely bizarre sight.

Her body appeared to be very muscular at first glance, but that’s not possible since it’s entirely made of ice. Or rather, it seemed more like concentrated ice-aspected mana.

At the same time, I noticed a spike in the amount of mana cloaking her.

It seems her mana exceeded her capacity and overflowed from her body, leaking into the surroundings as frigid air.

So now Marle was a monster freezing everything just by standing nearby. She was practically casting the ice spell Diamond Dust pa.s.sively all the time.

「Gyaaah! My arm!!」

「P-Please spare…」

「Princess, we’ll be waiting for you on the other side.」

「Glory to the Kingdom of Seedran!」

The effects of this went far beyond our expectations, with both Raydoss and Seedran s.h.i.+ps sustaining ma.s.sive casualties.

About 10 minutes pa.s.sed since then.

The joint Raydoss-Seedran fleet was now a sh.e.l.l of its former self.

About 30% of the s.h.i.+ps had sunk, and pretty much none of the remaining ones were floating in one piece. Half of the remaining vessels had gaping holes in them, and the other half were entrapped in ice, unable to move.

Even if they tried to retreat, the majority would sink on the way home.

Only the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p was still up and running. The damage to the hull had been repaired before we knew it. And this was no temporary fix, all the holes had completely vanished.

Come to think of it, this world lets you instantly repair swords and armor with the right magic or skill. It shouldn’t be surprising if a s.h.i.+pwright had a skill for repairing s.h.i.+ps.

That must require a lot of mana, but they can always borrow it from the water dragon.

『This s.h.i.+p is even nastier than I imagined!』

（What now?）

『…Fran. I’m sure you’ve already realized it, right?』

「…」

There’s only two remaining threats. First, the Water Dragon Battles.h.i.+p, which is still protected by the ward. Moreover, we just learned that it has the ability to repair itself, so we need the sheer power to annihilate it in an instant.

And that’s difficult with the berserk Marle chasing us around all over the place. Well, I wouldn’t call it impossible though…

We’ve already neutralized the majority of the enemy fleet, so I’d love to take my time with the guys...o...b..ard. We could obtain so much information from the enemy commander in there.

『First, let’s take down Marle.』

「…Nn.」

Fran already knew this, but she must have been trying to avoid thinking about it. The trauma in her heart must be more than I can imagine.

We even used the roundabout method of luring Marle to hit her allies, all in an attempt to stall for time. Fran was always serious about fighting, but this might be the first time she wanted to avoid taking a powerful opponent head on.

That said, we couldn’t keep ignoring Marle forever.

Fran jumped up into the sky, with Marle immediately chasing after her. Our little game of tag was coming to an end.

「……I’ll do it.」

『You can always leave it to me, you know?』

There’s no need for Fran to deliver the final blow herself. However, Fran shook her head at my suggestion.

「I’m fine. Let me do it.」

Fran looked straight into Marle’s eyes, but her feelings still seemed to be wavering. Is she really gonna be okay?

However, yet another strange occurrence took place on Marle’s body to dampen Fran’s forced resolve.

「Gugagagagaga-GAAAAH!」

Marle suddenly burst into pain with her entire body convulsing. The wind magic keeping her afloat weakened, resulting in her losing her balance.

Then, for the first time, real words came out of her mouth.

「Ahhh… Everyone, they’re all dead…」

「!」

『She… came back to her senses?』

The color of reason had indeed returned to her eyes, which were dominated by madness only a few moments ago.

I could now see a hint of rationality.

However, the words escaping her mouth could hardly be called rational. She was mumbling her grief, a whisper of maniacal despair.

It seems she remembered everything that happened during her rampage.

All signs of madness disappeared for her face, leaving only a crying little girl behind. Hot tears welled up from her eyes, before freezing and crumbling away.

Perhaps she was thinking about all the Seedran citizens who fell at her hands.

At the same time, the terrifying mist overflowing from Marle’s body weakened in an instant. This was not due to any loss of power, but because she was controlling it all.

The girl’s weak eyes turned to Fran.

「…Is this h.e.l.l…?」