Pillar of Yita

Lair immediately left the swordsman behind and turned around to ask, ”The other party’s position and course?”

”To our southeast,” the sailor immediately replied, ”They are heading towards the Onoi, without changing course. We are not sure if they have already detected us, but the Torch and Seagull have already approached them.”

Lair quickly turned to the swordsman and said, ”The Onoi is a Seawind Guild ship, the Torch is of the Orca Guild, and the Seagull belongs to the Iron Casting Spear Guild. Contact these three guilds right away and repeat what I’ve just said, tell them we are on our way.”

The swordsman nodded immediately and turned to leave.

”Follow me.” Lair said to the sailor, and then immediately turned around towards the chart room. When he arrived, it was already a scene of bustling activity, with navigation officers in different uniforms coming and going. Occasionally, someone marked the navigational map spread out with a ruler and compass or pinned down a thumbtack.

The thirty-three thumbtacks represented the positions of thirty-three airships in this airspace. In their north, a striking boundary line was drawn with red ink. Beyond that was the military-designated exercise area.

Lair subconsciously glanced at the astrolabe in the center of the room. A faint beam of light was being projected above from the crystal below the astrolabe, projecting three blinking light points in the airspace over the astrolabe.

And those three light points were precisely the positions of the Onoi, Torch, and Seagull airships, located by the wind detector.

A middle-aged man in a captain’s coat was watching this scene with a pipe in his mouth. He turned his head when he saw Lair come in and said, ”You’re here just in time. The target has appeared, and as long as the Onoi, Torch, and Seagull aren’t too stupid, there’s no way it can escape.”

”How does it look currently?”

”Currently, the Onoi, Torch, and Seagull are handling it quite well. I heard that the opponent is just a small boat, and both the Torch and Seagull are larger than it and much more heavily armed. The Onoi is almost as powerful as our ship, there’s no chance for that little boat.”

As the captain spoke, he picked up a thumbtack and pressed it into the chart.

”How far are we from there?”

The captain glanced at his pocket watch: ”Half an hour.”

”Captain, it’s in your hands.”

”Don’t worry,” the native captain replied, ”I’ve been doing this for over twenty years, this is nothing.”

But just during their conversation, one of the three light points on the astrolabe suddenly began to blink. The largest light point flickered two or three times and then abruptly vanished, disappearing without a trace, as if it had never existed in that place.

Both were stunned, thinking there might be an issue with the projection crystal of the astrolabe. The captain reacted quickly, stepping forward and pressing on the crystal. But even after seemingly adjusting it several times, the projected light points on the crystal stubbornly remained only two.

Lair’s eyebrows slowly furrowed, and he suddenly asked, ”Which ship is the disappearing light point from?”

”It’s the Onoi.”

The captain instinctively answered, but after responding, he suddenly realized the problem—the airship that was heading towards the Onoi. His expression changed, and he suddenly stood up, shouting towards the sound transmission tube:

”Contact the Onoi, ask what happened over there!”

The sound transmission tube echoed back a string of meaningless static, and after a while, a voice finally emerged: ”Captain Odemile, we can’t reach the Onoi... no, we can’t even find any shadow of the Onoi, it’s just like... it’s just like it vanished from the wind detector...”

”We’re not sure if there’s an issue with the wind detector, the captain’s magic guided conductor and craftsman are conducting an urgent check.”

”No need to check—” Lair abruptly interrupted, ”Where are the nearest Wind Riders, have them go over and take a look immediately.”

But before he finished speaking.

Another incredibly urgent voice suddenly came from the sound transmission tube:

”Falcon People calling Torch, Falcon People calling Torch, or any ship that can hear us—”

”We are in trouble, repeating, we are in trouble...”

”We are Wind Riders on the Torch, we’ve been attacked... They, they are...”

The voice was filled with panic and tension, causing it to sound a bit fragmented. This sudden communication startled everyone, leaving a moment of silence from the sound transmission tube. After a moment, Lair shouted: ”Quickly ask them what happened!”

”Understood, Captain, we’re on it right away...” The sound transmission tube immediately erupted with chaos, as if someone was shouting, but also something dropped to the ground.

But suddenly, a terrified scream broke everyone’s actions:

”...They’re coming... Constructs! So many of them, one, two... three, at least three fleets...”

”They’re diving down from the clouds, scatter, scatter quickly!”

What followed was a piercing noise.

It was like the sound of metal or something shattering, then all sounds fell into silence, leaving only the rustling Ether background noise.

Lair recognized the source of that sound—it was the sound of the communication crystal cracking.

He remained silent for quite a while before speaking somewhat calmly:

”In fifteen minutes, contact the people on the Onoi.”

”Ask them...”

”What happened.”

Lair turned back: ”Captain, please have this ship approach that direction immediately.”

The native captain seemed still immersed in previous shock, unresponsive. Though he was also a seasoned sailor, he had never experienced such a thing. Let alone such a thing, he had actually never even encountered a real sea battle—not counting a few skirmishes with sky pirates.

He hesitated for a while before hurriedly nodding.

...