"First, let there be light."
"Sea Lord Leviathan is a dark monster born from the depths of the abyssal trench, a creature that takes centuries to emerge.
Only under the sunlight can its seemingly invincible dark magic be nullified."
Upon hearing this condition, Lin Lan immediately looked up at the black, oppressive clouds in the sky and clenched his fists.
No wonder the Sirens used the weather control device to cover Yunhai City in thick clouds, blocking out the sunlight and rendering his Clear Sky Talisman ineffective.
The Sirens were indeed the most meticulous of enemies—they had even accounted for this.
"As for the second condition, it's actually even more difficult than obtaining light..."
"You must completely obliterate Sea Lord Leviathan's body in an instant—down to the very last shred of flesh."
"Both conditions are indispensable. Without them, Sea Lord Leviathan and its offspring will endlessly regenerate."
After listening to the two conditions outlined by Braun, Lin Lan's eyes widened.
"You're kidding, right? We have to blast that enormous monster into dust—without leaving even a scrap of meat—to truly kill it?"
Seeing the shock on Lin Lan's face, Braun smiled bitterly.
"What did you expect? If the conditions weren't this stringent, why would the Church have suffered such devastating losses back then?"
"That selfless Pope sacrificed decades of his life, the High Tower mages of the Mage Association exhausted nearly all their mana crystals to fuel a super-tier spell, and the entirety of the Templar Knights gave their lives to delay the Sea Lord's advance, and only then..."
Lin Lan wiped the rain from his face and cut Braun off again.
"So what exactly are you doing here now? Don't tell me you can use super-tier magic?"
Braun wasn't offended by Lin Lan's repeated interruptions. Instead, he calmly raised the crucifix pendant in his hand and said:
"Heh, super-tier magic is far too complex for me, of course... But I can give it everything I have to cast a simplified version of Divine Judgement. Maybe it'll be enough to force the Sea Lord back into the sea."
Lin Lan looked at Braun—soaked through just like him in the rain—and shook his head helplessly.
"First, I should thank you for coming here alone to protect Orlan. But unfortunately, I have bad news for you."
"That Sea Lord is a bio-weapon modified by the Sirens. Your Divine Judgement probably won't work on it."
Upon hearing this, Braun's face turned pale. He staggered back several steps, unable to believe what he had just heard.
"Commander, we need to retreat to the shore. Please fall back with Sui Qiong immediately!"
At that moment, Ulrich's grave voice came through the communicator, and Lin Lan immediately turned around to look toward the sea.
The Ironblood shipgirls and the Orlan pawn shipgirls had already pushed the front line to the shallows.
The previously deployed Ironblood mass-production models had been almost completely wiped out.
Even without a telescope, he could see the Siren Executors were now within visible range.
The Sea Lord Leviathan's eight golden, menacing eyes loomed like a descending demon, its massive body rising higher and higher—clearly stepping into the shallows, ready to march onto land.
Below, Qi Yue and the others had fallen into complete despair. They never imagined the Sea Lord Leviathan would possess such overwhelming and unreasonable power.
Even against a single Leviathan, their pawn shipgirls struggled to hold out.
Now, facing a swarm of Leviathans and the Siren fleet pressing forward step by step—this was far beyond anything they'd ever imagined battle could be.
"We… we're too weak. So this is the Sirens' true strength..."
The naval commander in charge of the operation collapsed to his knees on the soaked ground, red-eyed and hopeless, staring at the monstrous sea creature with thrashing tentacles and the Siren fleet raining fire upon them.
Along with Qi Yue, all the commanders bitterly smiled and gave up resistance.
This was simply not an enemy they could fight.
Only one thought filled their minds:
Yunhai City—no, the United States of Orlan—is finished.
"Is there really nothing we can do against this nightmare?"
Just as Lin Lan watched the Sea Lord Leviathan approaching, preparing to accept reality and order his shipgirls to retreat—
"BOOM!!! BOOM!!"
Suddenly, within the Siren fleet that had been unleashing continuous fire, massive explosions erupted one after another.
Both Busters III-class units were struck by a barrage of intense blasts and immediately engulfed in fire and light, suffering severe damage!
What's more, waves of concentrated heavy artillery shells came flying in from the darkened sea in the distance, striking the Siren Executors and mass-production fleets like a relentless carpet bombing.
In the blink of an eye, vast sections of the Siren fleet were obliterated on the spot!
Such a massive and concentrated bombardment was clearly not something Ulrich and his forces could have accomplished.
"What's happening?!"
Lin Lan immediately raised his binoculars, eyes wide in shock as he peered into the distance.
At that moment, a gentle yet confident voice came through his communicator—a voice that was all too familiar:
"My child, the Ninth Symphony I personally perform for you—are you pleased?"
"This voice... Friedrich?!"
Lin Lan almost blurted out her name. His heart was flooded with disbelief.
At the edge of his telescope's view, a line-formation Ironblood mass-production fleet slowly emerged from the dark ocean.
Such a fleet could only be the Ironblood forces led by Friedrich der Große herself, who was originally supposed to head directly to Li Lake County's harbor from the Ironblood fortress!
"That's right, my child. We're here."
Clad in her black dragon-themed rigging, long black hair billowing, Friedrich der Große wore a calm smile as she raised her black conductor's baton toward the Siren fleet while speaking over the communicator.
"Odin, Thuringen—engage the Busters at 1 o'clock. Seydlitz, you and Heinrich and Prinz Adalbert hit the one at 12 o'clock."
"Z18, Z19, Z20, Z21—cover U-73, U-410, U-557, U-47, and U-552 as they approach the Siren fleet and launch torpedo strikes."
"Eliminate all enemies that stand in the path of the Ironblood fleet!"
"Let's go meet the Commander!"
Friedrich der Große's voice was like a shot of adrenaline. Every Ironblood shipgirl around her broke into excited action, quickly executing her battle orders.
"Hahahaha! Finally, we get to see the Commander! Why were we left in the last batch?!"
With silver hair and lively red eyes, the tall, energetic heavy cruiser Prinz Heinrich and her rigging companion "Little Iron" were full of excitement—their main cannons even seemed to reload faster.
"That's what you get for drawing such a lucky number. I must've lost my mind to let you pick for me."
Beside her, Prinz Adalbert—wearing red-rimmed goggles—glared at her while managing her cannon fire, not missing a beat in her snark.
"Pfft, well it's your fault for hiding in the gym all day."
While the two sisters bickered, the sword-wielding "Ironblood General" Seydlitz, the white-haired, single-ponytail battleship lady Thuringen, and the silent, red-highlighted white-haired battlecruiser Odin all unleashed Ironblood's fearsome firepower toward their targets.
"Everyone's really fired up! Let's go too! We can't let the Z-class kids rush in too far ahead!"
Heinrich tossed her long hair back, laughing excitedly as she and Little Iron charged toward the Siren fleet and the Leviathan swarm.
"Always so full of energy... Alright, if I want to see the Commander sooner, I can't fall behind either."
Adalbert cracked her knuckles and charged forward alongside her, gunning for the Busters III-class.
...
Because Friedrich der Große had issued her orders directly on Lin Lan's communication channel, Ulrich and the others heard her too.
"Heh, what an unexpected reinforcement."
Just as she was about to set foot on shore, Ulrich chuckled softly.
Seeing her Ironblood comrades' morale reignite, she raised her voice and shouted into the communicator:
"All units, begin a counteroffensive on the spot! Coordinate with Friedrich's fleet—begin the encirclement and annihilation!"
From the upper floor, Lin Lan watched the one-sided despair of a moment ago get completely overturned by the sudden arrival of Friedrich der Große's surprise force.
The two Busters III-class units were helpless—torn apart by waves of heavy bombardment, wolfpack torpedoes, and aerial bombs from the Z-class destroyers.
After all, they were merely Executors—not elite Sirens.
Against max-leveled Friedrich der Große and her top-geared companions, Busters III-class units were no match at all.
The rest of the Siren forces, relying on numbers alone, were quickly melted away under the pincer attack of the two Ironblood fleets.
"Friedrich der Große, how did you find your way here? Weren't you supposed to..."
"Weren't you supposed to head directly for the New Harbor District?"
Now that the Siren fleet's defeat was nearly certain, Lin Lan finally let out a deep breath. Ignoring the stunned Braun beside him, he asked over the communicator.
But Friedrich der Große seemed to have anticipated the question and responded smoothly.
"Hehehe, my child—why, it's because someone pointed us the way, of course."
Hearing the motherly affection in her voice, Lin Lan froze for a second before suddenly realizing who she meant.
The only one who could have foreseen the Siren attack on Yunhai City and gone to find Friedrich and her team was... Helena META!
Oh no—once again, he had become the helpless child in the eyes of all these "mothers."
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50 advanced chapters on p@t re on (.) com/SenatusTheta
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