Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

The bell tower atop Castel’s main cathedral roof rang out with a deep, heavy toll. This was the first time it had ever been struck since the cathedral’s completion.

Workers in factories across the island raised their heads in unison, shock written across their faces as they stared toward the cathedral. The Church Guard had already begun rushing toward the machine-gun positions on the cathedral roof.

The gigantic vessel that had suddenly appeared near the harbor triggered Castel’s alert mechanism. According to contingency plans, the entire island immediately entered an emergency state.

Castel had long since been highly fortified—so much so that even its most important factories were located within the walls of the cathedral fortress complex.

After the main cathedral bell rang, surrounding bell towers followed one after another, their low chimes echoing across the entire island.

People everywhere on the island immediately rushed toward the nearest Network Path entrances. Only a few years had passed since the Deep Sea War, and most islanders had lived through that period. Their bodies reacted instinctively.

Throughout the cathedral, alarms blared. People sprinted through the corridors, busy yet orderly as they executed the emergency protocols.

Very quickly, fully armed units of the Church Guard flooded into firing embrasures across the cathedral. Machine-gun arrays began loading ammunition, and Castel bared its fangs.

At the tallest main cathedral, as the Church Guard pulled down a control lever, the steam engine let out a shrill roar. After a burst of mechanical clashing sounds, the newly installed steel ceiling above the atrium split open along a seam and slowly retracted to both sides.

At the same time, with a thunderous rumble, a massive opening appeared in the atrium floor. Beneath it lay countless interlocking gears and mechanical structures—and

  an airship.

The airship slowly ascended, rising through the gap left by the retracting steel ceiling.

This was a newly added configuration of Castel’s cathedral. The airship harbor was originally located near the island’s outer port, far too distant from the central fortress cluster. In the event of a foreign invasion, it could easily be overrun first.

Thus, mechanical opening devices had been installed within the cathedral’s atrium, and the Network Path had been expanded into an underground space where several airships were docked in subterranean hangars.

Now, with all land-based external passages sealed and the cathedral entering combat readiness, the airships were launched for reconnaissance.

Meanwhile, islanders outside the fortress rapidly returned through the underground Network Path, reporting back to their assigned posts.

Castel’s violent reaction was hardly surprising. Though the black ark rising from the sea looked stylistically similar to Castel’s creations, it was absolutely not any version of a Castel-built ship—and

  it was simply far too large.

Compared to the entirety of Castel Island, the steel ark was naturally smaller. But compared to ships—any ship at all—it was absurdly enormous.

At this moment, Tata stood at a lookout aperture atop the cathedral, staring at the steel ark on the sea with a flushed face, brimming with excitement. “Look at it! What a massive ship! I told you ships should be built big—bigger is better! Now it seems I was still too conservative. A mere thousand-meter-long ship is nowhere near enough. Only a ship like this really feels right!”

“Ah… if only I could build a ship this big with my own hands.”

He smacked his thigh in frustration.

Someone else was also smacking something—Nini. To be precise, she was slapping her tail.

“How did I never try running my own process?” Nini slapped her tail repeatedly with all six hands, full of regret. “If I’d done it like this and summoned a monster this big, even dying afterward would’ve been worth it!”

“Then why didn’t you try it back then?” a Banshee beside her asked curiously.

“I’m not stupid. Why would I ever try such a ridiculous process… I’m really stupid, truly.”

Several Banshees nearby stepped back, huddling together and whispering.

“What do we do? Lady Nini looks like she’s already gone mad.”

  “What’s that supposed to be? Castel Syndrome?”

  “No, that’s not right. Everyone else goes mad when they come to Castel. Gwen comes once, and everyone except her goes mad. This should be called Gwen Syndrome.”

“So… what do we do next?”

“What else can we do? We watch from the sidelines. That thing was summoned by Gwen. If she can control it, great. If she can’t, we call in the airships and bomb it until she can. The Celestial Behemoth is parked on the island anyway. From the looks of it, it hasn’t taken off yet—she’s probably busy loading aerial bombs.”

“And if Gwen can control it, but decides to turn against Castel, take the cathedral, and seize Hughes’ lordship—what then?”

“…Nini, speak properly in your main body.”

The Banshees all turned toward the source of the voice. Sure enough, Nini surfaced from the water with an awkward smile. “Sorry, sorry—occupational habit.”

“That ship is moving!”

The Banshees jolted and quickly turned toward the steel ark behind them.

They were far too close to the massive vessel to see its full shape—only the seawater churning violently beneath its cliff-like hull filled their vision. Only the patrolling airships in the sky could barely make out its entirety.

The colossal ark suddenly unfurled its sails. Paddle wheels on both sides began turning, while underwater propellers churned up frothing waves.

It seemed… normal enough.

Yet upon closer inspection, everything was deeply uncanny.

The fully billowed “sails” were nothing more than steel plates forced into a curved shape. The paddle wheels on either side lacked bearings entirely, crudely bonded to the hull—yet they still rotated slowly under some inexplicable force.

As for the underwater propellers, at first glance they appeared fine. But upon careful observation, each propeller was rotating in a different direction.

It was like an enormous cosplay performance, the ship’s structures merely mimicking the appearance of movement.

Absurd—like train passengers swaying their bodies, pretending the train was moving.

And yet… the steel ark truly began to move.

The Banshees aboard the airships stared wide-eyed, bewildered, unable to tell whether they had gone mad or the world itself had.

The Banshees in the sea floated there blankly, watching the steel ark part the waves and advance forward, momentarily unsure whether they were swimming in the Storm Ocean or the Sea of Unawareness.

The cathedral’s reconnaissance airship had only just arrived when it witnessed the bizarre scene. It hovered in midair for a moment, then turned around and flew straight back to the cathedral.

The silence that fell over Castel was deafening.

The more one understood ship mechanics, the more indescribable this steel ark became. Its madness and strangeness seemed to turn reason and knowledge in people’s minds into red-hot needles, stirring their brains until they ached.

This steel ark was a perfect counter to Castel. Nearly everyone here had completed advanced classes and understood ship principles. Going mad was almost unavoidable.

Of course, there were exceptions.

For example—Gwen.