Gun of Ashes

”Hah, what a fat catch!”

The captain cheered. Under the encirclement of six ironclad ships, the Morning Glow Advance had already been driven into a desperate corner. Cannon fire and giant waves rolled before their eyes, dragging everything into a gray, muddled chaos.

The pirates were all fired up. Ever since the King of the Ice Sea ended the civil wars of the Viking kingdoms, they pirates had lost the soil they lived on. Under the joint hunts of various Lords, they hadn’t plundered such a rich haul in a long time. Each man wore a feral grin, already dividing up the spoils in his mind.

Their gaze shifted to the other side, to the three cargo ships trailing behind the Morning Glow Advance. They rocked in the storm, and when the Morning Glow Advance came under attack, they did not choose to flee—perhaps recognizing reality, they stayed where they were.

Once separated from the protection of the Morning Glow Advance, these three cargo ships had no means of protecting themselves at all. They could only pin their hopes on the Morning Glow Advance, yet now this ironclad was under a ferocious assault and could hardly protect itself.

”But what’s going on with the boss? Not a peep from him.”

The captain spoke as he looked toward the distant Black Teeth. They all belonged to the same pirate crew, the Black Tooth Pirates, but the highest command lay in Zeus’s hands. Yet after Zeus issued the order to attack, there had been no further word. The Black Teeth had gradually vanished into the wind and waves, leaving only a blurry shadow. As the seas swelled, they could occasionally glimpse the Black Teeth being lifted and swallowed by the breakers, but anything more specific was impossible to make out.

Did something happen on the Black Teeth?

The captain turned that thought over in his mind. He had seen Ascalon’s bombardment as well, but with the storm between them, the shock he felt was less than a tenth of the real thing. In his eyes it was merely some new kind of artillery he hadn’t seen before, nothing that warranted too much caution.

Yes, the Black Teeth that had taken the hit hadn’t fallen silent; it had still continued to issue orders. Ascalon’s barrage just made a big show of things. A single new-style cannon alone could not change the course of the battle.

The ironclads surrounded the Morning Glow Advance like a pack of wolves. Under normal conditions, she might still have had strength for a desperate fight, but the storm was raging. Once they fell to the disadvantage, this harsh natural environment would only hasten their deaths.

”Keep firing!”

The captain gave the order, and as soon as the words left his mouth, a streak of flowing fire tore across the night sky and slammed down with a boom in front of the ironclad, plunging into the sea.

He watched it all with a faint unease. This wasn’t some kind of mysterious shell; it looked more like half-melted metal. Thick steam billowed up from the sea surface, but was quickly swept away by the icy wind. The ironclad kept advancing. The captain lifted his head toward the Morning Glow Advance, where a savage silhouette stood on the deck, meeting his gaze from afar.

In his life at sea the captain had seen many twisted, uncanny things, but never anything like that.

Under the pitch-black curtain of night, ringed by thunder, a ghastly white light picked out that jagged figure in stark relief.

”A Demon...”

The captain murmured.

If there really were so-called Demons in this world, then it could only be this thing before his eyes.

The towering figure was sheathed in solid plating. In the gaps of the Iron Armor, scarlet flesh slowly writhed. The torso rose and fell faintly, spilling out billowing heat, as if this malformed monster were breathing and its heart was pounding with brutal force.

Iron chains wrapped around the Weapon Master’s body, anchoring the heavy Armor firmly to the heaving deck.

Endless threads of rain fell layer upon layer like a curtain, yet Bola still managed, relying on the first shot, to roughly trace the trajectory of the projectile. He calculated in his heart and spoke in a low voice.

”Adjust the trajectory. Second shot. Fire.”

He pulled the trigger. A heavy roar shook the cold Lance, sparks flared for an instant in the gaps of the mechanisms, and then a blinding stream of fire erupted forth.

Normally, this weapon’s range was completely unsuited to naval combat, but these ironclads had come too close and given Bola a chance to bring it into play.

Relying on the Weapon Master’s flexibility, Bola could adjust the firing angle however he wished.

He pulled the trigger, and the Spear of Melting rose into the night sky.

Everyone saw that rising streak of fire. It soared upward at speed, aimed at no one at all but the air above the ironclads. The captain watched as the burning spear was hurled to a great height—and burst.

The Spear of Melting detonated in the air above the ironclads’ formation. Half-molten steel scattered into a canopy of fiery rain, lighting up the entire stretch of sea in an instant. Crimson light washed over every face, and they stared, stupefied.

The fiery rain stretched into fine lines of light in the pirates’ pupils, dropping from sky to sea, threading heaven and ocean together. The icy downpour mixed through it, hissing as it fell and churning up ashen-white mist.

”Take cover!”

Only when the fire-rain came down before their eyes did the captain snap out of his awe. He shouted at the top of his lungs.

Some of the pirates reacted in time and rushed into the cabins. For the few who moved only then, it was already too late. Shattered steel, searing with flame, came down in a dense shower on the ironclads. The clanging of metal went on without pause, and in an instant thousands of charred holes were punched into the deck.

The pirates exposed on deck were also struck by the fiery rain. Fortunately, after such a long decay in power and the cooling of the downpour, it no longer carried much lethal force.

Steel punched through flesh and blood, its residual heat cauterizing the wounds. Aside from a few unlucky souls who were hit directly in the head, most of the pirates struck were still alive. They collapsed onto the deck, gasping in agony.