In Bishop's Restaurant, several passengers stood up in panic, "...is it a gunshot? It was a gunshot just now. How could there be a gunshot?"
"Everyone, calm down." The first rescuer to enter here stood up. "There are some unsafe factors on the ship, and our soldiers are investigating."
"Insecurity?"
"Yes, it has something to do with a special guest on this ship," the man said. "Boshanfu, have you heard of this name?"
The crowd started talking, and Rico sat next to Hesta with half-closed eyes, saying nothing.
In the wheelchair, Hesta suddenly stretched out his hand, and Rico looked sideways, "...are you okay?"
"It's almost done." Hesta replied in a low voice.
"what happened?"
"...Anna plotted against me."
"Where is she? Did she run away?"
"Run away."
Suddenly, a strange vibration came from the ceiling, and a lot of dust fell on the door. Rico immediately stood up and stared at the changes above with vigilance.
"What's going on?" The rescuer also became nervous, "Where is it up there?"
"It's a mezzanine, sir."
"Mezzanine?" The man's expression was slightly stern, "Isn't it the seventh deck above?"
"No, it's the place where we used to go to the night banquet every night." The passenger replied, "There are a lot of weird guests inside... But the mezzanine is only active at night and is empty during the day."
"There is a place like this on the ship, why didn't you tell me earlier!?"
The passenger looked innocently at the person in front of him, "...you didn't even ask."
The rescuer immediately took out the walkie-talkie and tried to contact his companions. However, before he could bring the walkie-talkie to his mouth, the vibration above everyone's heads turned into a huge roar, and the entire six-story deck began to jolt, like a building shaking in an earthquake.
Several chandeliers fell to the ground one after another, and the passengers spread out towards the edge. Rico had already carried Hesta on his back and came to the window, ready to jump out at any time. Amidst the roar, Rico found that the wall at his hand was cracking laterally, and the sea breeze blew in from the broken wall, making everyone shiver.
"...The ceiling is floating!" Someone in the crowd shouted. Everyone looked up and saw that the crack had penetrated the entire deck, as if someone had used an invisible giant ax to directly destroy this layer. The deck was cut in half.
The separated upper half—along with the top seven decks—is slowly rising away from the main body of the Ascension.
Adhesive building materials continued to fall from the air. Rico jumped and dodged among various flying stones and wall debris. Her and Hesta's eyes never left the sudden appearance of the behemoth in front of them. As these waste materials peeled off, The giant thing that had been hiding between the six and seven decks finally appeared.
It is almost a pure black field of vision, and even the searchlights of helicopters from high above can barely illuminate a vague outline. From that little bit of reflected light, people can't even accurately perceive its three-dimensional shape and surface texture.
This aerial flying object, which is as big as a deck, stops quietly about 20 meters away from the passengers. There is no tail flame or exhaust port around it. As it floats up, the passengers directly below it No one had ever felt the extra heat - it was like a black hole suddenly opening up in the sky, an extraterrestrial visitor arriving from nowhere.
The dark clouds in the sky were fading away, and a faint moonlight fell from the gaps in the clouds. Along the damaged wall, Hesta looked at the sea in the distance. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"Rigo, look over there, that's...a cruiser?"
Rico also turned around and looked. On the sea in the distance, three cruisers were arranged in a staggered manner. The one sailing at the front was obviously adjusting its fort, and several small destroyers were surrounding their flanks... Such a configuration would have been far away for a long time. Far beyond the "search and rescue" function.
Suddenly, the giant thing above them began to move, its speed was even and slow, its posture did not look like flying, but more like a fish moving along the current. When it moved far enough, the main cruisers in the distance had already adjusted their launchers. With an order from the command platform, each ship opened fire with full firepower, and the sound was deafening.
Those artillery fires with bright fire illuminated the night sky tonight in an instant, and also shone in the eyes of every onlooker.
Hesta held her breath.
Before the artillery fire arrived, the dark flying objects in the sky suddenly began to flicker, as if a nearly damaged old monitor provided intermittent images. People opened their eyes in unison, everyone thought there was something wrong with their vision. , until the cannonball smoothly passed through the airspace——
In full view of everyone, a huge flying object disappeared out of thin air.
The shell landed further on the sea, and the explosion's water mist and gunpowder smoke dispersed together. Hesta was unable to speak for a long time. She looked at the still rolling waves in the distance, and her mind was still recalling everything that had just happened.
Is that Anna? It must be Anna...
Showing "miracles" in front of everyone is too Anna's style.
…
As the storm on the sea subsided, more heavily armed soldiers came to the damaged six decks. Under their guidance, people left the restaurant, went downstairs in an orderly manner, left the Shengming from an emergency escape ladder on the bottom deck, and got on the small boat leading to the cruiser.
When boarding the ship, Hesta heard Bree behind him chattering to the soldiers about the whereabouts of Gobelin and Roboglier. A more senior officer came over to explain to him that they had already left the Ascension first. , is now receiving treatment on the cruiser Lancelot, along with several injured female passengers among his entourage.
Hesta leaned on Rico's back and followed her slowly down. A gust of wind blew by, and Hesta couldn't help but turn around. The Ascension looked particularly majestic in the night, and even the overturned deck on the topmost floor showed a sense of ruins and history.
Countless soldiers stood beside the ship with guns, and they monitored all the movements on the ship with stern expressions. The black muzzles of the guns were pointed towards the ground, but they were ready to raise and shoot at any time.
Just one night passed, and a new order appeared on the ship... This short voyage was like a beautiful and cruel dream, leaving no trace.
"Good evening, ladies," the soldiers on the boat greeted Hesta and Rico friendly, "please find your names on this list and sign at the back."
The two of them glanced at the list and quickly found their names. Rico took the pen handed by the soldier and quickly wrote his name. However, when he wrote the last stroke, the ink suddenly disappeared.
"...The pen is broken again." The soldier frowned, turned around and shouted to the others, "Do any of you have any extra pens? Lend me one!" Then, he looked at Hesta again, "Please wait a moment...Oh, did you bring a pen?"
Hesta lowered her eyes slightly and did not answer.
Before the soldiers turned around, she had already signed her name on the list - using the red pen reserved for adjudicators.
