Cyber Era Witch
Chapter 663 - 555 The End of the War

Chapter 663: Chapter 555 The End of the War

The battle of the Asahara Sea was drawing to a close.

The Yokozuna, gradually melting, had lost all power, while the Baraya was retreating toward the Taiya Archipelago. The distance between them was sufficiently great that pursuit was no longer feasible.

The internal signal components were completely burned out, making even exterior control impossible. Inside and out were separated, with no communication whatsoever.

Allied warships could only signal it to sink quickly by escorting it with fighter jets, as a plethora of pale medical drones, rescue units, and support ships had already arrived near the Yokozuna, ready to assist any survivors on board.

Yet the Yokozuna still moved onward.

It traveled through the sky at a uniform speed, as if its soul had been drained but its carcass still roamed. Despite such damage, it had not yet completely perished. People couldn’t help but feel a desolate respect for the precision of its construction. The space mothership was indeed the most resilient war machine that humans had developed to date.

Pan Ruiyi refueled and then approached the Yokozuna, marveling at the mighty warship.

"It’s still flying!" Pan Ruiyi couldn’t help but exclaim, her voice full of unease.

The warship before her was merely a skeleton, like a maroon beast that had been completely skinned. Its eroding hull was riddled with holes, tormented to the brink by an anomalous reality-warping power.

"I’ll go in and remind them!" 102 saw a gaping corrosive hole on the side of the Yokozuna and flew inside.

She ran down the burning corridors, where molten metal flowed. Contact with such superheated material would melt even 102’s armor.

fortified her entire body with magic power, acquiring an extremely high temperature resistance. Following directions from others, she made her way to the control room of the warship. Instead of operators still striving to do their work, she found nothing but charred skeletons and ashes. At least 20 people had burned to death at their posts. All fabric had turned to remnants, and the molten metal and plastic slowly trickled across the ground.

Shaken by the sight before her, she remained silent and approached the control console.

After a brief check, 102 found that the few remaining instrument panels and control stations were attached to what was left of the engine module. The core conduits related to weapons and power systems were encased within the Yan Duo Metal interior, the final resources of the warship.

Under 102’s control, she heard a deafening metal tearing sound coming from a distant chamber. The teetering Yokozuna finally began to sink.

The descent accelerated; the Yokozuna was already short on power for such a vast vessel. Now totally out of control, it crashed violently toward the sea.

frantically pulled the lever to minimize secondary damage from the collision—if there was anyone alive, an impact would have ensured their death.

Hiss—

Through 102’s valiant efforts, the Yokozuna’s engine room emitted an explosion, and every part of it resonated with thuds as it slid across the water’s surface. The scorching ship’s underbelly burned the seawater, rapidly vaporizing it into billowing white fog.

Accompanied by the shrill clamor of metal quenching, its hull boiled the sea, and the surviving frame floated on the surface amid rising mist. Not even the vast ocean could cool it down.

This was the might of the Command Reality, which destroyed Nestor Corporation’s strongest and most well-defended space mothership.

The surrounding rescue teams immediately surged forward. Forty heavy-duty rescue shuttle machines exerted their force together, anchoring onto it with giant armored hooks, keeping this 1500-meter-long warship wreck afloat on the sea.

"Get on board!"

"Everyone, move in quickly!"

"Everyone aboard this ship was a hero!"

Search and rescue personnel, clad in specially designed fireproof thermal suits, entered through the cracks in the hull to look for signs of survivors.

climbed out of the Yokozuna’s wreckage and onto the hull, gazing at the rolling seas around her.

"...You saved this ship; you saved everyone... you helped so many people, including the war... your performance was exceptional." 101 flew over, bestowing all the praise she could muster on her sister, though her voice was faint with exhaustion, for 101 had also reached her limits.

thought only of the people burned to death inside the Yokozuna.

"They’re dead," 102 said, troubled. "Can they be reborn?"

Before 101 could answer, she heard the sound of birds.

She looked up and saw a huge, translucent, and ugly black bird circling in the sky. The bird had a long, thin neck and wilted feathers. It made a piercing noise, exuding evil in its posture. On one side of its narrow head were seven eyes, while the other side was lined with withered, oozing sockets.

The monstrous black-feathered bird was at least 50 meters long, akin to a gigantic bomber. It circled in the sky as if following an invisible track. Clutching a long, black metal staff in its talons—a likely magical tool and instrument inlaid with obsidian and etched with countless patterns for enchantment.

"...The souls of the dead are being harvested," 101 looked up to say. "Lady Farosa used to tell the Little Witches that this black bird captures souls and takes them to the Afterlife World. They are then cast into the Great Maelstrom to be reborn in a different form—which is to say, reincarnation and transmigration."

also watched the large black bird, which didn’t disturb anyone around nor did anyone capture it on film.

"Only those close to death can see it. Lady Farosa said it’s one of the Grim Reaper’s minions," 102 said blankly, watching the bird. It was the battle and the high density of death that summoned it, fulfilling the Grim Reaper’s malevolent will.

As she watched the bird, 101 was afraid it might come to seize what little life span was left for her and her sister.

The black bird continued to harvest the wandering souls on the battlefield, all the while fixating its seven eyes on them, as if they were next to be collected.

"After their next life, they might run into even more trouble than they’re in now. They died in this war and then lost everything," 102 quickly shifted her gaze, her eyes falling on the melting warship.

102’s mind was consumed with thoughts of the deceased—their melting visages, the bones turned to ash. Mortals all must die, and so must Witches.

"I don’t know." 101 hugged 102 tightly, "All I know is that I need you to be alive, I don’t want you to die, I wish I could see you forever, I need you, 102, I need you..."

pursed her lips, thinking of many bad things, she couldn’t help but start to question many things, suspecting whether her sister’s love for her was pure.

Wisdom is sometimes a curse, she chose to remove the magic power enhancement from her body.

People’s recognition of death generally goes through three stages. The first stage is confusion due to unfamiliarity and resistance; the second stage is overwhelmed by a vast sense of void, seeking the meaning of life in vain; the third stage is reconciling with death, no longer fearing it, achieving transcendence.

Now 102’s thoughts were gradually becoming simpler. In the face of death, she regressed from the second stage back to the first. Thus, when she remembered the recent sight of death and the soul-snatching black bird in the sky, she immediately became anxious, instinctively rejecting these negative images, and instead seeking her sister’s protection.

"Sister... I’m so scared..." 102 knelt on the hull of the ship, also holding 101.

They closed their eyes, quietly feeling each other’s heartbeat.

The black birds kept circling in the sky, their cries piercing, as if performing a last rite for the souls, marking the end of a battle with heavy casualties.

According to the final count, on the Yokozuna, including Captain Shinjo Mori, 3,015 people lost their signs of life; 70 survived.

...

The Baraya’s retreat was anything but smooth.

Because it was hit by a missile from a kamikaze attack by Yokozuna, it now had huge black smoke billowing from the tail, with damage control teams and logistics witches desperately working to save it.

"Baraya recovering," murmured Huang Feng, but the magic power inside her was completely drained.

Command Reality took a huge toll, and she could only use it when her magic power was fully restored, a cycle ranging from 1 to 15 days, depending entirely on Huang Feng herself.

Between the ages of 10 and 18, Huang Feng had practically destroyed herself, using an excessive amount of drugs, stamps, and mixed addictive substances, ravaging her nervous and sensory systems, with infections and severe diseases all over her body. It was hard to say how much effect normal magical stimulus methods could have on Huang Feng.

Now, bombardment and missiles from other fleets further weakened Baraya, especially from the Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing corporate troops, who were huge in scale and advanced in equipment.

"The bow has been hit!"

"Power has dropped by 33%! Repairs underway!"

"The third wave of bombers from the Tianxuan is here! Crew members take off to engage!"

Inside the battlefield communication channel, Baraya’s emergency situation was known to the staff officers.

"Other friendly warships are on their way! We still have hope!" shouted a staff officer, trying to boost the morale of his colleagues.

"Friendly warships arrive in 4 hours!"

Captain Cavalier’s face showed a bitter taste.

Friendly forces were on the way, that much was true, but it wasn’t good news.

When Black Fire Innovation’s top headquarters dispatched more space motherships to support Baraya, it meant giving up a large combat zone.

The warship being called away from the frontline, with their protection gone, regular ground forces were quickly overwhelmed by the firepower of Kyushu High Pavilion and Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing. Ground-based missiles were launched without regard to cost for destructive strikes, and more and more islands and strategic strongholds were being captured and destroyed. It was as if the war gains of the past half year were all being regurgitated, a significant loss for Black Fire Innovation’s corporate strategy.

Then, the beyond-visual-range warship confrontation began.

At 4 p.m., a large number of fighters from the Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing warship launched a bombing operation, significantly weakening Baraya’s defenses.

At 5:04 p.m., another missile hit Baraya, penetrated to the power room area and exploded, affecting the nearby soldiers’ dormitories, dining hall, and armory; 600 Black Fire Soldiers were killed, causing continuous internal explosions in Baraya and losing 40% combat capability.

At 7:20 p.m., two Black Fire warships, "General Songcai" and "Martinez" arrived at the scene to rescue personnel and machinery from Baraya.

At 8:01 p.m., after several rounds of volley fire, witch combat, and night air battles, each ship suffered varying degrees of damage; Orochi needed repairs after being hit by an anti-ship missile.

At 11 p.m., Black Fire Innovation chose to retreat, taking with them key personnel from Baraya. The key modules of Baraya itself were dismantled and abandoned, beginning to sink.

Black Fire Innovation lost their fleet’s honor.

According to corporate diplomatic negotiations, Kyushu High Pavilion and Heavenly Cardinal Manufacturing agreed to hand over the wreckage of Baraya to Nestor Corporation.

When Nestor’s airborne troops landed on Baraya, the Elite Soldiers shouted and searched for enemies.

Captain Cavalier of Baraya sat in the empty command office, enjoying the time alone with his ship. He caressed the gun in his hand, knowing that even if he returned to corporate headquarters, he would be court-martialed, so he might as well end it all here.

Thinking that Baraya would be dragged to Shangjing Bay for those clueless citizens to see, maybe even turned into a floating park, Cavalier felt a touch of bitterness, but such was war. If Storm Princess had not failed, or if the crew of Yokozuna had cowardly abandoned ship and fled, Baraya would have achieved a great victory, severely damaging Nestor’s three ships by now. There was also the military base in Sato City, which could have served as a point of defense, but it was attacked... When everything goes wrong, you lose it all.

Cavalier listened to the dense footsteps around him, knowing that Nestor Corporation’s people had come to take over this crippled ship, water splashing loudly, the sea being the graveyard for warships.

This world needs the forge of Blackfire to be reborn, Cavalier believed that people would eventually come to this end, Black Fire Innovation will have the last laugh.

"Where’s the enemy!" An Elite Soldier kicked open the door to the command office, a gunshot sounded, and Cavalier’s body fell. The tightly wound strings all snapped.