Industrial Cthulhu: Starting as an Island Lord

『What！？Did Nini’s report actually come true？』

『Huh？』

『Impossible！Absolutely impossible！！』

『This is bad, this is cognitive interference！』

『Forget cognitive interference, I think if everything Nini reported were true, the world would explode the next day.』

『Hahaha, everyone, I thought Gwen was the crazy one—turns out I’m the one who’s crazy.』

For a moment, the Mind Link exploded into chaos. It wasn’t that the Banshees had any prejudice against Nini; it was mainly because many of Nini’s reports were so outrageously absurd that if they really turned out to be true, half of Castel would go insane on the spot.

『Forget about Nini for now, hurry and look at Gwen！』

The Banshee Squad heading for the rescue had started live broadcasting through the Mind Link early on. All the Banshees who could connect stared dumbfounded at the scene before them.

After Jeremiah’s Black Pearl and the cargo ship departed, the metal platform Gwen was standing on suddenly began to tremble.

The Banshees were not creatures of the land; their abilities underwater were far stronger. The live feed in the Mind Link included not only the view above the sea surface, but also the view below it.

From the underwater perspective, one could clearly see that the twisted, gnarled scraps of obsolete metal beneath Gwen’s feet all came from countless ships that had sunk to the seabed.

Those abandoned steels were now slowly gathering beneath Gwen. Steel plates and keels fell away one after another, steam engines exhaled bubbles as they drifted, all converging together to form an incomparably massive undersea mountain range.

And the small metal platform Gwen stood on was merely a corner of the mountain peak exposed above the surface.

Above the sea, only slight disturbances could be seen; below the sea, the changes were nothing short of earth-shaking.

『My god…』

『This…』

『Even the murloc tide during the Deep Sea War wasn’t to this extent, right？That was triggered by the Sea God, who gathered pollution from the entire Storm Ocean. Gwen can actually rival the Sea God？？』

Hughes: 『No, look carefully. This sea area had already accumulated a massive amount of sunken steel. Gwen merely gathered them together, whereas the Sea God relied on his own strength to gather pollution from the entire Storm Ocean. That’s not the same thing！』

Hughes: 『And I have a feeling that Gwen didn’t use her own power, but guided the will of the Machine Souls—or rather, the Ship’s Souls. You should know that my affinity with Machine Souls is relatively high. Sometimes when I pass by that sea area, I can feel the agitation of countless Machine Souls below.』

『Lord, you should just change your name to Soul of Ten Thousand Machines.』

『Indeed, Lord doesn’t need to please the Machine Souls; it’s the Machine Souls that please him.』

『Lord, you’re right, but I still think Gwen is ridiculously strong！』

『Stop calling her Big Gwen—call her Giant Gwen instead.』

『Whoa whoa whoa, look! The steel from the shipwrecks around Gwen has stood up！』

『What？！』

After the steel mountain formed by the gathered shipwrecks beneath Gwen reached a certain extent, it suddenly surged upward.

A patrol airship arrived overhead at just that moment, and the Banshees aboard happened to record this shocking scene.

Centered on Gwen, the azure sea surface suddenly turned deep black. That profound darkness then rapidly expanded, and in just moments it grew as large as a sea island.

Immediately after, the blackness deepened further, and soon the first steel plate emerged above the water.

Then came a sharp steel bar, a rusted iron plate, a wall of steel, an entire steel cliff-like barrier.

Seawater lifted into the air cascaded down in a steady drizzle, splashing onto the lower steel curtain wall before finally flowing back into the sea.

The steel curtain wall stretching beyond the limits of sight was constructed from countless ships that had sunk to the seabed. Their wills merged into one, nearly condensing into substance, gathering together to form this colossal Steel Ark.

Yes, the Steel Ark. The shipwreck remains piled like mountains had once again converged into the shape of a vessel. The souls that had sunk into the depths of the sea were once more sailing upon the Storm Ocean.

The usually noisy Banshees all fell silent, staring blankly at this awe-inspiring scene.

The patrol airship above was already quite large, comparable to several train carriages in length, yet atop the gigantic rusted hull below, it looked as tiny as a seagull perched on a deck.

Gwen was now standing at the prow of this deep-sea vessel, stepping upon steel. She could feel the will of this colossal ship she had summoned, transmitted from beneath her feet.

“No, Nora-sama, did I do something incredible?”

Nora lay stiffly in Gwen’s arms, motionless. She had indeed seen this summoning process described in the newspaper, but she had never imagined it would summon such a massive ship—no, at this scale it shouldn’t even be called a ship. This was practically a moving sea island.

Nora’s vacant gaze slowly shifted as she surveyed her surroundings. This vessel was entirely composed of the steel from sunken warships. Whether on the deck or the hull, there were traces of rust everywhere, along with many barnacles, sea anemones, and other organisms attached to it. She even saw a curtain-like cluster of massive coral in the captain’s cabin.

The overall style of the ship was an extreme mishmash. There were tall masts on the deck; the twisted keels of sunken ships had been distorted into masts and rigging, with entire rusted iron plates clinging to them, as if pretending to be sails.

Along both sides of the hull, enormous circular external paddle wheels resembled gigantic waterwheels. Each rotation hurled vast quantities of seawater into the air, which then drizzled down again.

Meanwhile, underwater, the Banshees could see the propeller at the stern. Its disproportionately massive blades had razor-sharp edges, like honed blades, shredding seawater—and anything else caught within—into fine fragments.

“This ship looks like it was forcibly assembled from many ships—no, it is many ships stitched together!”

Gwen swallowed hard.

“T-This is Castel Syndrome, right? Am I hallucinating?”

“Possibly. I think the probability of both of us seeing the same hallucination is still more reasonable than this being real.”

“Nora-sama, did I cause trouble?”

“Whether you caused trouble or not, I don’t know,” Nora murmured. “But I think you don’t need to worry about not finding a job in Castel anymore.”

While Nora and Gwen were talking, a large crowd had already gathered around them.

Jeremiah’s Black Pearl had recently been refitted with the latest model of marine steam engine. Combined with its relatively small hull, its overall power was the strongest, which was why it was among the first to arrive for support.

Next came the Banshee Squad. They had originally been patrolling near the docks and were a bit late upon receiving the news.

After that came the patrol airships. They had spotted the anomaly from the air at the earliest moment, but their overall flight speed was not very fast, so they arrived later instead.

By now, such a massive disturbance had already awakened the entirety of Castel. Coastal patrol ships, Castel’s regular navy, and the Transcendents currently on the island were all rushing over at full speed.