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The solid fuel was ignited on the Type 99 air-to-air missiles (AAM-4) installed on the F-15J Kais. The missiles, boasting a range of over 100 km, shot forward at Mach 4 with a loud boom, shooting forward to obliterate the wyvern overlords flying in the southern skies over the imperial capital.
Papaldia Empire, imperial capital Esthirant, southern airs.p.a.ce
Twenty wyvern overlords were on guard in the skies a bit south of the imperial capital Esthirant. They belonged to the 2nd squadron of the 18th dragon knight order. Squadron Leader Derius was talking to Pukrate, a veteran originally from the 1st squadron, via magic communications.
"Let"s monitor that section of the sea over there as well."
"Sure, sounds good."
The wyvern overlord formation moved as though it were a single unit, showing off how well-trained they were.
"Squadron leader, about the enemy…"
"What is it?"
"According to the memo we got a few days ago, j.a.pan would be using Mu"s aircraft to fight us. But, you know, in the last two battles, I feel like our losses were way too high. When I asked the military top bra.s.s about it, they wouldn"t give me a straight answer and told me to just refer to the memo. What are your thoughts, squadron leader?"
The empire"s upper management, afraid of the military"s morale taking a huge dive, decided to limit the distribution of information on j.a.pan to only some of the military officers.
"It"s true—I"ve heard that the top bra.s.s has been really tight-lipped about this war. It"s clear they"re hiding something, but I"m not sure exactly what. However, an enemy stronger than Mu, who else is there?"
"Other than the ancient sorcerous empire or the Holy Mirishial Empire, I guess there"s no one else."
"By the way—"
"What the h.e.l.l are those?!?!"
One of the sharp-eyed dragon knights interrupted their conversation. Every other dragon knight looked over in the direction that the one knight was pointing. They saw a number of specks in the clear blue sky. They were like crumbs that had been spilled on a clear, beautiful photograph. They quickly grew in size, though, which made it clear that they were some kind of flying object.
"T-They"re fast! Evasive action!!!"
Derius yelled the order at preternatural speed owing to his intuition screaming "Danger!" when he saw those things coming at the dragon knight squad. The squadron of wyvern overlords dispersed, but the things also changed direction, continuing to pursue them.
"No… No way!!!"
The missiles, wrapped in shockwaves, chased the otherworld dragons. The air friction at the edge of the shockwaves heated up the air to high temperatures. Each of the twenty AAM-4s fired by the F-15J Kais found their designated wyvern overlord targets.
BOBOBOOMBOBOOMBOBOOM!!!
The dragon knights died without even letting out a single cry. The Papaldia Empire homeland had just become a battlefield for the first time since they had earned the t.i.tle of "superpower." The entire city of Esthirant reverberated with the sounds of the explosions, the eerie noises totally inconsistent with its sense of peace. Some felt fear. Others wondered if the clock had begun to count down on their ruin. Citizens who were already awake, prompted by the explosions, looked up at the sky and saw the shocking scene play out before their eyes.
The wyverns belonging to the strongest defense force defending the imperial capital of the Papaldia Empire, a superpower, were plummeting from the sky like giant raindrops. Some drops were just wyvern heads, trunks, legs, wings, and other parts; some were bodies with the entire upper half missing, things that had ceased to be humans. It was a shower of meat and blood.
"AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!"
All over the capital of Esthirant, screams could be heard from people unable to stand the gruesome sight. The residents began to chatter noisily, doors and windows opening everywhere. When they looked up into the sky, they saw ten somethings shaped like arrows zoom by at a speed they had never thought possible. Those things each spurted two flames behind them.
Immediately after that, a blast of sound a.s.saulted them, loud enough to make them cover their ears. The gla.s.s in the buildings closest to those things shattered from the ensuing shockwave.
The residents were overcome with pure fear.
"What was that?! What were those?! What"s happening?!?!"
The shockwaves from the F-15J Kais continued to echo throughout the imperial capital Esthirant while the residents were infected by terror.
Papaldia Empire, north of imperial capital Esthirant, military ground base
On the first floor of a gaudy stone building, magical operator Paie was tracking signals on the magic detector. Wyverns were the only flying creatures with high magic power; compared to humans, they were basically overflowing with magic. The magic detector was created to track magic power for anti-air defense purposes, but it could also be used for ground monitoring as well.
Currently, the detector only displayed friendly forces in the sky; there were no other creatures in the vicinity with high magic power.
"Hm? Did something just happen?"
Paie noticed that the friendly wyverns, which were previously flying in perfect lines, began to scatter in a disorderly fashion. Right when she was about to report the oddity to her boss, the twenty dots on the screen suddenly brightened, then disappeared. There was no other explanation for that phenomenon…… They had been shot down!!! Paie immediately grabbed the magical communicator next to her and screamed into it.
"Emergency, emergency! A patrol of twenty dragon knights from the eighteenth dragon knight order, second squadron, in the southern skies over the capital have all disappeared from the detector! There is a high chance they were shot down! Third squadron on standby, you"re cleared for urgent launch, go check the southern skies! Furthermore, there are no enemy responses on the detector; there"s a high chance they"re using aircraft!!!"
Right after Paie"s order went out, the military ground base became lively with the sound of crashing and clamor. The ruckus immediately alerted everyone to the abnormal situation.
"All twenty signals are gone?!" Paie"s boss exclaimed, his face changing color before her eyes as he stared at the detector screen.
"Yes sir; in a very short amount of time, each signal blinked out one after the other."
"Twenty! There were twenty of them up there! That"s a sizable patrol squadron, and they were all the strongest dragons in the world, wyvern overlords!!! How could they be done in so quickly?!"
"But it"s true! They all disappeared in the s.p.a.ce of twenty seconds!!!"
"Are you sure it"s not some kind of malfunction?!"
"That"s out of the question!!!"
"Kh! What the h.e.l.l are we fighting?!"
While the two were bickering in the communications room, the 3rd squadron was getting ready to take off having received their orders.
"The second squadron got taken out?! Dammit all! Make sure you"re on alert when we get to their last known location, don"t get distracted!!!"
With wings spread wide, the wyvern overlords began running, preparing to launch themselves into the air. Because this was an emergency situation, all the wyverns ran together in a single file.
"Enemy detected!!!" someone yelled into their magic communicator. The dragon knights all looked up into the sky.
"Wha—!!!"
The dragon knights, about to take off, heard the sound of back-to-back blasts from the short-range AAM-5s fired by the F-15J Kais.
After hearing the strange noise, Imperial Capital Defense Army Lieutenant General Mayga looked out the window. At that moment, one of his men stumbled into the room without knocking.
"Lieutenant General Mayga! All signals have been lost for the eighteenth dragon knight order, second squadron! Please come to the war room at once!!!"
"I"ll be right there."
Mayga quickly walked over to the war room next door. As soon as he entered, he received a report.
"Just now, we lost the signals from the second squadron, which was patrolling the southern skies over Esthirant, on the magic detector. On that detector, right before the signals disappeared, a large light appeared, so the probability that they were shot down is very high. Right now, the third squadron is preparing for emergency deployment."
The subordinate pointed out the window. As ordered earlier, the 3rd squadron"s wyvern overlords were on the runway, just about ready to start their takeoff run.
"These enemies… how strong are they…?" Mayga mumbled.
"What are those?!" someone yelled suddenly.
Seconds later, numerous arrows of light slammed right into the dragon knight squadron running down the runway. All the arrows flew true and hit each member of the 3rd squadron, turning them into lifeless pieces of flesh before Mayga"s eyes.
He was so surprised he couldn"t find his voice, but then some kind of aircraft pa.s.sed by with tremendous speed, spewing flames out their rears. They could feel the shockwaves… There were probably ten of the aircraft. They suddenly began to ascend into the sky at an unbelievable speed, quickly disappearing from sight.
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU—!!!
The base"s emergency alarm began to howl, stirring the people in the base who began running about frantically.
"Everyone hurry and get ready for combat!!! All dragon knight squadrons, anyone who can launch, launch!!!" Lieutenant General Mayga roared.
Imperial capital Esthirant
The capital"s residents were all talking about the explosions that went off earlier.
"What was that just now?!"
"I saw the dragon knights over in the south get butchered! All I know is the empire just got attacked by someone!!!"
"Who attacked? It couldn"t have been j.a.pan, could it?"
"No way! They"re just some barbarians outside the civilized areas blowing smoke. The Papaldia Empire is a superpower and the strongest country in the Third Civilization, there"s obviously no way they could attack our capital!!!"
"Then, who exactly did it?"
"Another superpower, or… I don"t really think so, but maybe the ancient sorcerous empire?"
"Now that"s just silly…"
The citizens" conversation was drowned out by the thunderous roar that suddenly blared. Twenty F2s carrying bombs flew overhead at the super-low alt.i.tude of 50 meters at subsonic speeds.
"W-W-W-What are those?!"
Some people were so shocked they couldn"t move, while others ran around panicked; the city fell into a panic. The F2s which had invaded the capital"s airs.p.a.ce turned to climb into the sky, dropping bombs as they rose. The unguided bombs soared through the air, drawing a parabola as they fell.
HYUUUUUuuuuu…!
Numerous shrill whistles cut through the air. Even though they had never heard a noise like it before, the people who did hear it instinctively felt their senses of danger ring out.
After dropping the bombs, the F2s let out another thunderous boom, releasing a giant flame as they climbed into the sky and disappeared from sight.
Western imperial capital, military ground base
HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu!!!
"What is that?! What"s that noise?!" Lieutenant General Mayga bellowed upon hearing the unsettling sound. There weren"t just one or two of the them, but a bunch of things making that racket. Mayga looked out the window. Right then…
A blinding light…
Countless flashes…
Detonations that tore apart his ears…
The bombs dropped by the F2s, missing their intended targets by tens of meters due to variance, hit the wyvern runway. Relentless explosions, one after another. The windows shattered from the explosions, shards of gla.s.s plunging right into Mayga"s eyes.
"GAAAAAAAH!!! MY EYES!!! MY EYEEEEEES!!!"
He clapped his hands over his eyes, writhing on the ground in intense pain. Mayga had temporarily panicked from the pain, but forced himself to come back to his senses.
"Situation report!!! Someone tell me what"s going on!!!"
Blood flowed freely from the Lieutenant General"s eyes; he knew instantly that his sight was lost. However, he had not lost his ability to lead.
"Those explosions were caused by bombs dropped from the sky, we believe. Currently, the runway is on fire, we cannot confirm the extent of the damage just yet," one of the officers stated.
"Bombs from the sky?! Unbelievable… what terrifying power!!!"
While the Papaldia Empire did have bombs, they didn"t have any bombs that could be dropped by wyverns. The flying dragons couldn"t fly with too heavy a load. They could shoot fire blasts from the sky as supporting fire, but there had been no precedent for dropping bombs out of the sky. All the people in the room were shocked.
"The smoke is clearing up."
Wind helped to blow away the smoke obscuring the runway.
"Wha—! N-Now we can"t…!!!"
"What is it?! Tell me what you see!!!"
The base was littered with giant holes, like those on the moon; the runway that appeared behind the smoke was completely unusable.
"The… The runway has been totally destroyed. We can"t launch any more dragon knights now!!!"
It was a disastrous report. Mayga felt himself succ.u.mbing to despair upon hearing it.
"The-Then… What do we do about the capital?! Do we have no other options?!"
"There are none. We could gather all of our wyvern overlords, but without a way for them to take off, there"s no point. As of now, we have lost control of the airs.p.a.ce over the capital."
Lieutenant General Mayga and all the other officers present had completely lost all hope.
Imperial capital Esthirant
"Hey! Look!!!"
Some agitated residents were pointing to the north. But, with no prompting needed, the people were already looking in the direction of the ma.s.sive explosions. Enormous, never-before-seen billows of flame were blossoming over the military ground base. No words were said; they all just stood there sweating. Some women were crying at the sight. Unfortunately, they then heard something that brought on even more fear.
RRRRRRRRRRRRR…
Where was it coming from? There were a lot of them; they made a noise like a deep growling.
"Now what"s happening?!"
"Over there, it"s from there!!!"
Someone with good eyesight pointed to the south.
"AH—!!!"
"NOOOOOO!!!"
There were many more of them than before. Big, white machines, descending from the heavens. White clouds trailed behind them, and they made that deep rumbling noise that so terrified the people. They were a lot slower than the previous machines as well, so much so that the residents thought they were be teased by them traveling at such a cruel, leisurely pace. Their slowness, size, and quant.i.ty engendered untold dread in the citizens of Papaldia.
"Are those dragons?!"
The formation of P3C bombers flew over the capital, accompanied by an escort of eight F15-J Kais. There were seventy planes in total; the vapor trails left behind by the pa.s.sing aircraft completely changed how the sky looked over Esthirant. The Papaldia Empire had no way of repelling them. The people of the empire could do nothing but watch as their destruction crept closer and closer.
"We will reach the drop point soon."
They saw a flourishing otherworld city beneath them. A hegemonic culture drunk on its own arrogance. To j.a.pan, they were a country that had no qualms with calling for genocide, including civilians, so there was no need to show them any mercy. However, these pilots were originally only sent on patrol missions; they could never have imagined that they would ever be bombing someone.
"Three… two… one… release!!!"
The JMSDF"s PC3 bombing wing reached the drop point as planned and, with the objective of incinerating the imperial capital"s northern military base, let fly countless unguided bombs.
"The enemy! The enemy is invading!!!" the Imperial Capital Defense Army officers screamed.
With the destruction of the runway, all of their wyvern overlords were now grounded. They had no weapons that could reach the enemies at their alt.i.tude, so there was nothing they could do.
"Those aircraft are huge! And there are so many of them, too!!!"
"What are they doing?!"
Everyone in the base was looking up at the sky.
"Hm?!"
"Th-Those are—!!!"
"Some kind of black things are falling!"
HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…
It was the same sound made by the weapons that destroyed the runway earlier.
HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…
There were a lot more of the noises than before as well.
HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…
Everyone"s eyes opened wide at the sight. There were dozens of enemy aircraft dropping an abnormally large number of the black objects.
HYUUUuuuHYUUUuuuHYUUUuuu…
The number of shrill sounds was increasing exponentially.
"They"re the high-powered bombs from before!!!"
"A rain of bombs is coming!!!"
"Take cover———!!! Take cover———!!!"
"d.a.m.n it! There are too many of them, where can we possibly run?!"
The base devolved into chaos, but the bombs didn"t wait for their curses.
The explosions were endless. The bursts of light were blinding. The blasts surpa.s.sed the height of a building dozens of stories high. Everything in the base was covered in clouds of smokes from the explosions—yet they continued. As if spitting spitefully on this level of trauma, fierce flames raged across the base ad infinitum.
After dropping all their bombs, the P3C bombing wing climbed up high into the sky and flew off to the south.
The JASDF"s RF-4E reconnaissance planes flew towards the military ground base north of the imperial capital to survey the results of the attack run. If the damage inflicted was insufficient, they would call in a second attack.
The reconnaissance planes confirmed the damage from high up in the sky. Using a camera to monitor the results, there were no longer any standing structures, and what was previously a base was now just a field of craters with no moving objects. They confirmed the base"s complete annihilation.
"Enemy base has been eliminated. Follow-up attack is not necessary."
The reconnaissance planes radioed in their report, then flew off, back to the base in the Kingdom of Altarus.
The Papaldia Empire"s Imperial Capital Defense large-scale military base had its runway destroyed by the JASDF"s F2 multirole fighters, then was wiped off the face of the planet by the JMSDF"s P3C bombing wing without any vestiges remaining.
Papaldia Empire, imperial capital Esthirant, southern seas
They stormed forward through the waves. There were two lines of metal ships, twenty of them, heading north. The j.a.pan Maritime Self-Defense Force"s fleet was coming for the Papaldia Empire"s main naval force docked at the large port on the south side of the imperial capital Esthirant.
— — Chapter 35