Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume11 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 21===

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The Cape of Good Hope region was instantly transformed into the Bermuda Triangle or Sargasso.

A great number of ships sank into the ocean or tilted and just barely remained floating. There was no recovering though, so the crew used the time limit until the inevitable sinking to escape on the lifeboats.

Meanwhile, a girl in a blue dress ignored the lifeboats and stood tall on a broken fighter wing with her arms crossed.

As Heivia desperately clung to the upside-down boat so as not to be sucked in by the current of the sinking fleet, he stared blankly at his sister.

“I believe I forgot to ask before: how do you do, brother? What do you think of Second Generation Destruction Fes that I have received? Don’t you think it has the coolest shape, truly befitting the Winchell family crest?”

“What are you…saying?”

“Do I have to spell it out?”

Azureyfear pointed her thumb back over her shoulder to direct his attention toward the dreadful fifty meter form.

“That is my personal possession. It took some doing, though. Even for a noble, owning an Object is a bit of a hurdle for a private force that is not part of the military. I even had to cross borders to have it constructed in an Information Alliance factory.”

“That’s impossible.”

“I never said it was easy. We built the control system, but the Information Alliance found so many things to complain about and refused to hand over the Object itself. I was a little worried when they delayed it until today, but they have confirmed receipt of the money and it arrived in time for its launching ceremony.”

“Objects aren’t that simple! You need more than the five billion dollars it costs to construct! There are usage and maintenance costs! And since the Information Alliance is involved, there would need to make sure you can’t betray them with it and make sure their data isn’t leaked to the Legitimacy Kingdom!!”

“Oh, dear. But you’ve already seen the alchemy used to raise those funds. A rotten yet sweet sort of war that brings unlimited riches to whoever runs it.”

This time, Heivia Winchell felt his mind go entirely blank from that casual comment.

Instead, Quenser responded while clinging to the same boat.

“The drug war… So you were the one running it on the Legitimacy Kingdom side.”

“But…she’s a noble!” shouted Kevin as he grew pale. “Why!?”

Nobles were a symbol of law and order. The commoners trusted them enough to leave politics to them and they seemed so far removed from common life, but Azureyfear nodded with a wicked smile on her lips.

“How many manors outside the watchful eyes of the noble and royal councils do you think the Winchell family owns? Transforming a few of them into ergot plants was hardly difficult. Plus, the Information Alliance was willing to handle the production of Colorful Vanilla and use it to attack the Capitalist Corporations. I could have done that on my own, but they were kind enough to help.”

“Then the one who finished off the Special 15th Black Uniforms in the Rio Grande District was…?”

“They were useful pawns, but I couldn’t have them talking there. Although I only needed to keep it hidden until today, so I ended up using a fairly sloppy method of silencing them.”

A powerful wind roared through.

They were not the only ones who could not remain silent. The Princess in the Baby Magnum had begun rushing toward the unknown Object as if to say she refused to allow any more damage to be done.

But Azureyfear calmly pulled folding neckband-style headphones from the chest of her dress, unfolded them, placed them on her ears, and spoke three simple words.

“That is useless.”

Even at a distance, Quenser and the others could not tell what had happened.

An unknown explosive sound filled their minds.

Quenser’s thoughts were flashing in and out as he realized the Destruction Fes bearing the crest of the Winchell family had used some kind of weapon. He could not gather his thoughts. He could not tell front from back, left from right, or even up from down. If he had not wrapped a rope on the side of the upside-down boat around his wrist, he might have drowned.

His inner ear had been taken out.

But even if he had been in a normal state of mind, would he have been able to follow that with his eyes?

If the Baby Magnum’s movements were like the footwork of a mixed martial artist, the unknown Object’s were like lightning. It moved so sharply that the Princess could not keep up. She had been the one charging toward it, but it moved up to her and they glared at each other from less than ten meters away. For humans, it would have been close enough for their lips to touch. And even that close, the unknown Object moved around behind the Princess.

It was like grabbing a delicate girl from behind and gently kissing the nape of her neck.

The unknown Object tapped its main cannon against the back of the Baby Magnum’s spherical body.

It would be too late by the time she turned around.

A point-blank blast would vaporize the princess before she had a chance to eject.

“The inertial Gs a Pilot Elite is exposed to are said to occasionally exceed twelve Gs. A normal fighter has an acceptable limit of 9.5 Gs, so that range cannot be exceeded without creatively taking a step beyond standard anatomy.”

Azureyfear made it sound so simple as she brushed back her golden hair and let dark joy fill her voice.

“But my Destruction Fes is entirely remote-controlled by a great number of personnel, so that human limit of inertial Gs can be entirely ignored. No one can capture the Destruction Fes now that it has been freed from the yoke of gravity. It will simply evade, simply rush in, and simply strike a fatal blow. It is the ultimate ultra-mobile combat Object. A sluggish manned model cannot even hope to touch it. This is not something that can be overcome with effort. It is built into the design.”