Interlude: Two Sides of the Same Calamity

“Goddammit! How can things escalate this quickly?!” The leader of the Bureau exclaimed to no one in particular as she read the emergency report on her desk. A report that, in all metrics, was as unbelievable as it could be.

Casualties were still being counted right now, but all estimates were going at least thirty thousand and up to almost sixty. A third of Moem’s fleet was destroyed or beyond repair, with most damage focused on capital ships. Another third was in need of repairs that had to be made on land. And the Leviathan itself was out of commission for the foreseeable future. All that without mentioning that the admiral himself was a casualty, although he was still, technically, alive at the moment.

Worse even, almost half of the Leviathan’s damage was caused by their guests. One of which was, at the moment of the last report, still missing after causing a massive explosion to deal with, as unbelievable as is, the hero himself.

The only good note was that the damage seemed many times bigger on their enemy's side. They even managed to disable the moving fortress at the last stretch of the battle, although the turtle still managed to retreat.

In the end, all gained was a couple of prisoners that likely knew nothing and many wreckages though.

“The chief maiden is in a temporary coma, one of the inquisitors is missing, and we lost Moem, maybe forever... All in exchange for some information and a tactical victory.” The succubus sighed as tried to organize the little information she had. “What’s the best way to lower the damage here… No, that’s not the point anymore. How can I make the hit weaker…?”

No matter how she looked at it, Louise couldn’t say this was nothing less than a disaster. She was even unsure of how to deal with it when the information came out to the public and, worse even when it reached the Federation.

It was a fact that they knew about the hero being a terrorist, but the people on the continent would want to keep it under wraps. Having the civilians know that the hero wasn’t only alive and well instead of MIA, but was an anti-government terrorist would be terrible for them.

Meanwhile, the more radical elements of the Archipelago’s army would want to use it against the continent. The tooris would jump at the chance to either steal more power or further their isolationist agenda. And the less savory groups in the city would use the opening to worsen the chaos.

All of which were moves that they would manage much sooner than anything Louise could do. Acting properly had way too many bureaucratic walls in her actions.

The admiralty would be too stuck in their own discussions to do anything of worth until it was too late. The government was never able to do anything against the three factions alone, to begin with, so the best, or worse, they could do was side with someone else. And then, there was her own faction that, at the moment, was at an all-time low in popularity.

The only thing Louise could do right now was force her way through the problem, even if she had to overdo her authority a little.

*****

It was laughable how bad the situation went for the young hero she decided to help.

He never failed to make things interesting to watch, and today wasn't an exception. She even got a front seat to see a multi-layered trap fail this hard even when all of its goals went right.

Their organization recovered the old techniques to domesticate sea leviathans and got one of the rare remaining ones. Managed to enthrall every criminal and pirate through the sea, and equip them with as many smuggled weapons and ships as possible. Brought all remaining dolls and mind-controlled thralls they still had to buff their forces even more. And even managed to find a bonafide pirate captain with decades of experience and enough fighting power to rival a saint.

But even with this much, random events kept throwing wrenches into their plans.

A sudden interference on the ley lines allowed the Archipelago fleet to break the initial encirclement. The cause of such was still unknown, but what matters is that the problem was still there, and controlling the dragon turtle was harder due to that.

Then, after they went after the fleeing fleet, half their detachments were blown up by fairies. The surprise was so big, they even failed to manage a proper counter when the enemy screens joined the main fight. Which brought even heavier losses and forced a general retreat.

Worse even, their leader ended up engaging the one person he couldn't defeat and was now heavily wounded. All because he got too greedy and tried to take down someone that wasn't in the plans.

If Huntress hadn't helped, it was possible he would even be dead. Although it was possible that everyone else around them would too if that spell went off.

If it wasn't for the fact that all their other objectives were completed, then this operation would be a complete failure.

In the end, they managed to cause enough damage to take the most dangerous fleet out of commission for a good while. Their captured assault team members were rescued, even with heavy losses of cannon fodder. Admiral Moem, their biggest problem around the sea, was as close to dead as possible. And they even managed to steal part of the rare crystal used on the engine of their enemy’s base.

As things ended, it was a strategic victory that came at the cost of a crushing tactical loss.

“We should be able to repair the fortress on the dragon turtle and control it again in a while, but by the hells, they made a number on you.” Huntress spoke with a small smile as she tended to the wounds of her nominal leader. “Was it so hard to fight that phantom? You would be dead if my interference was not so timely.”

“I was taken by surprise, and that’s all.” The hero who was now known as Watchmaker answered as the last bandages were applied to almost half of his body. “I don’t even know how she moved so fast, more even, from where she came…”

“Is that so? I thought it was about how you force this body of yours to use a weapon it should not be capable of... Or is it about the fact you can’t go all-out on your cute little sister?”

“Sigh… I would be a failure in her eyes if this much was enough to make me hold back. And I have a duty to free that girl as fast as I can… How she’s now is mostly my fault either way.”

“The dutiful speech of the worthy hero, eh? I always like to hear it… And I like even more to see these people lose their ideals.”

Huntress was smiling at the thought of seeing the hero losing all that was left of his worthiness and purity, and the sight of such was chilling as is. Heroes like this were rare as most of them died much before reaching this point, so they were good to observe.

“You’re really a demon, Huntress…” The ex-hero sighed with a tired outlook. “But a demon is what I need right now, so I hope you’ll stay interested in my quest.”

“Ah, yes, do not fret over it, but don’t kill yourself before getting me satisfied...” The dark fox finished her treatment and turned around to leave the room in search of something more interesting to do.

“I had souls leave the circle forever for much less.”