"So, nothing remains...?"

Loki Jotunheim frowned after listening to his subordinate"s report.

On the bridge of the battleship Naglfar, the atmosphere was unusually tense.

The ship was on its way to NIFL"s branch on the American west coast where Loki was scheduled to stand before an audit committee for a hearing—However, this tension in the air was not because of that. As a mere formality, the whole affair had been smoothed over beforehand.

Despite the slight ha.s.sle, it was a simple procedure following a script to reach a predetermined outcome.

The problem was that his destination had disappeared.

"Y-Yes—All means of detection including radar has failed. The spherical unknown territory, impenetrable to electromagnetic radiation, has devoured the vicinity of the branch base... I will now display it."

Satellite imagery was shown on a monitor in the bridge.

On the vast American west coast, there was a black dot like the spilling of ink.

"Three hundred kilometers or so in diameter... A height of approximately a hundred fifty kilometers. Oh—The latest news has arrived. The same kind of unknown territory has appeared in the arctic, northern Africa as well as the Atlantic coast. There are also reports that outlines of gigantic creatures have appeared inside them—"

Hearing this, Loki narrowed his eyes.

"Gigantic creatures... Could they be new dragons?"

"Please wait a moment—I will project the images."

After saying that, the operator displayed an unusual scene on the biggest monitor.

It was very big—a pitch-black sphere hovering on top of a ma.s.sive black dome.

Neither the shape of a something capable of flight nor the silhouette of an animal—However, Loki knew why it had been described as a gigantic creature.

After all, it had a heart.

Around the humongous heart floating in the air, a network of blood vessels were wrapped around the sphere.

The heart inside it was beating strongly, causing the blood vessels to pulse accordingly.

"Was it like this in the beginning?"

When Loki asked, his subordinate shook his head.

"No—In the beginning, there were no blood vessel-like organs..."

"Is that so? Then it would not be a surprise if flesh and bone were to grow and cover it up eventually."

Loki commented with his hand against the corner of his mouth. Then he commanded his subordinates sharply.

"Contact all reachable branches immediately! This is a dragon disaster of unprecedented magnitude. We, NIFL, are the only ones who can step up as representatives of mankind!"

Swallowed by confusion and fear, his subordinates put on tense faces as a result of Loki"s orders. "Yes sir!", they replied.

Seeing their reaction, Loki took out a portable terminal from his front pocket and whispered quietly.

"—Well then, Atla, what are our chances of victory?"

Words appeared on the terminal.

"Impossible to calculate. Including the Atlantis files that have been recovered so far, there is no data regarding matching targets."

"Hmph... Then what is closest to that thing? There must be data in those files about such gigantic creatures, right?"

This time, the answer only took a short while.

"None. However, similar data exists in the fragments of information from the Akashic Record salvaged from Yggdrasil"s remains."

"Then tell me that."

Major Loki urged but the answer was delayed.

"Using information from that rubbish tree is highly ill-advised."

After a while, that message appeared on the screen. Reading it, Major Loki smiled wryly.

"Although I understand your att.i.tude towards Yggdrasil, I would still like to have some data for reference at least. Private sentiments must not interfere with official business."

Then as though putting hesitation aside, the following words appeared on the screen.

"Search complete. One match. Registered Code—"Eternal Longevity" Bahamut."