Transcendence?

***Norfolk, Sarn-Valley***

***Ascathon***

“NO!”

“Please Celestial! Be reasonable. I want you to stay here and coordinate the defence against Mislow. It's not necessary that both of us go with the air fleet.”

My left eyebrow is starting to twitch in annoyance. Celestial doesn't want me to leave with our ships to intercept the fleet from the Nation of Mist.

She actually stopped me in front of the entrance to my mansion and demanded that I stay here.

“I wont allow that you run off alone to throw yourself into danger!” She shakes her head while standing in front of me.

“Ok! Then you command the air fleet and I stay here with Sera. That's the other possibility.” I turn to walk back inside but Celestial grabs me from behind.

“I don't want you to! It … it will be dangerous! And there is no need for you to be with the fleet. Shouldn't they be fine on their own?” She looks at me with a disturbed expression.

“Hah!? Most of them don't even know how their own ships work. And we have no experienced commanders either! So someone has to be there to ensure that nothing goes fatally wrong. Besides, we have no idea of the other side's intentions! Maybe someone with authority has to be there to negotiate. It's still the Nation of Mist. We can't shoot at them without justification.” I fold my arms in front of my chest. “And someone has to hold the position in Sarn. Your parents might be able to help, but they aren't nobles of Norfolk. On top our enemies timed their arrivals. So if we don't act, they will attack us from the land and the ocean at the same time.”

Celestial looks at me with a doubtful expression. “And you think that you are such a good commander?”

“You are looking at the great demon general Zod! Three hundred years of experience against the forces of light!” I stay a little straighter until I remember whom I am talking to.

“Three hundred years isn't very old for a demon …” Celestial expression becomes sceptical. “How did you die?”

“I crashed my flying command fortress into the angels' capital city and eradicated their forces. When I emerged from the rubble, I died. I don't know what killed me that time. A blinding light came down from the heavens and I reincarnated.” I look down at the ground.

“And you want to command air ships!?” Celestial is screaming now.

“Fine. Then you go.” I turn to the entrance and see that Sera is listening in on us while using the door to keep standing.

“But I have even less an idea of how your ships work!” Celestial holds me back by my clothes.

I turn around again. This game is becoming a little tiring. “Fine. Then I go.”

“YOU! … Do what you want!” Celestial stomps off into the mansion and I see Sera headpalming herself.

“Is it that time of the month?” I look at Sera who drops flat on her belly and moves no more.

She starts to mumble, while lying on the ground. “Keeping them together will be a job for the rest of my life …” Then she looks up. “~Listen idiot-dad.~ You both are individualists and dull like stones! Mom is afraid of losing you, so this should have been the scene where you hug all of us and tell us goodbye and that you love us! AND THAT YOU WILL COME BACK AT ALL COSTS!”

“I never told her that I love her. Why should I start now?” Now that I think about it, we are already married since quite a while and I never told her that I love her.

Sera sits up and holds her head with both hands. “Then why are you married? Why did you have me?”

“Because it was the most convenient way to get a citizenship for everyone. And she blackmailed me a little. And you were some kind of -planned accident- by her.” I click my tongue. “Although it didn't surprise me after screwing her like that.”

Sera has a dead expression now. “I see. I am an accident... I guess there is still much work to do. First I will have to talk to mom to get the whole picture. Goodbye daddy, beat that fleet fast.” She waves at me and starts to toddle back inside.

I shrug my shoulders and walk to the carriage in front of my property. Hopefully Sera won't meddle too much in her parents' affairs.

She is clearly trying to improve my relationship with Celestial. Although I have to admit that she already managed a big deal, I doubt that I will ever have real feelings of love for Celestial.

My mind blanks out while thinking about the complicated situation in our family. When I return from my daydreaming, I am in front of the dry docks.

Okay. Better to turn back to the important stuff. I decided on intercepting the fleet from the Nation of Mist. The reason is that the fjord may be heavily fortified, but those ships are still able to deal serious damage. I don't want them to play target practice with my watchtowers.

When Phenex attacked us, the watchtowers did a fine job. On the other hand it has to be mentioned that we had to concentrate all our fire power on a single enemy vessel to break their barriers.

I investigated the barrier techniques of the captured Phenex ship. The ship's barriers broke, that's a fact. But the barriers broke only because we attacked from all directions at once. Obviously the designers sacrificed adaptivity for strength.

So as long as all our attacks would come from the same direction, we wouldn't be able to scratch the barriers with our railguns. But the barrier management on the Phenex ship tends to pour most of the power into the barrier, which is currently under attack.

A flaw, which wasn't a big deal on sea. The practice of sailing directly into an enemy fleet doesn't seem to be used in naval warfare. Going by that knowledge, it should be similar to the Nation of Mist.

I could hope that they fall into the same trap as the Phenex fleet, but that would mean that I am forced to shoot it out at close ranges with them. Something I am not confident with, because my watchtowers don't have good barrier protection.

Because of that, I want to intercept them at their waiting position. Their fleet actually has already been in striking distance for quite a while. But they were waiting for the army from Mislow to arrive, because they were faster than them.

This gives me a hint on their relationship. They aren't moving independent from each other.

I jump from my carriage and walk towards the waiting ships. The big converted hulk from Phenex will be my command-ship.

If we manage to sink the fleet from the Nation of Mist and turn around immediately, then we should arrive in time to help with repelling the army from Mislow.

It's a good thing that my fleet of fisher-boats are very useful in detecting foreign ships which are coming close to Sarn. There are about six hundred river boats with new engines. I forced their production after the incident with Phenex.

Normally, a fisher boat would have to be sailed or rowed. But I designed a small and cheap motor which acts on the same principle as my air jets. Just with water.

We simply converted all existing boats and stuck one of the new motors onto them. They are still very slow with twenty miles per hour.

On the other hand that's quite fast if you don't have the wind on your side. They spotted the fleet from the Nation of Mist already weeks ago. The reason for this early detection is that the fishing fleet isn't fishing blindly. They are always spreading out from Sarn in search patterns. So it's not by chance that they found the enemy fleet.

I walk up a ramp to board the Resurrection. That's the new name of the Phenex ship. I found it quite funny to see the hulk being repaired after being pounded by dozens of railguns.

“Commander on board!”

Some people snap to attention, but I smile and signal them to relax. Den did quite a good job on training our military. I have to ask him about his past if there is time. The werewolf curse was created to make better use of normal people in warfare. That means that Den and his men were in the military once.

I turn around and look at the two shadows, who are always lurking close to me. I already forget to notice their existence sometimes. The guards are never far when I am not inside my mansion.

A higher ranking officer greets me with expectant eyes. “The orders?”

I smile. “Lift off. We are going to meet the guys from the Nation of Mist.”

The officer smiles and walks away to give orders to his men.

I walk closer to the railing and have a good look at Sarn. It doesn't feel real if I think back on how this city looked when I first arrived here. The place is buzzing with life and new buildings like sawmills and smitheries are being built everywhere.

The biggest change are the green houses, which are covering a great area around Sarn.

The ship shakes a little when it lifts off. There wasn't much noise, because we are currently using just the new levitation magic. The air jets will come into action later to propel the ship forward.

A wide grin starts to creep onto my face while the first flying ship of this world makes its entrance. I see people looking up in awe, as the fleet turns and heads out to meet the enemy.

.