"Captain, the 12th squad is in position. Awaiting orders."
Hishiri Adashino was pulled from her thoughts by the firm voice in her earpiece. She grabbed the microphone and brought it close to her lips. "Activate the weapons system!"
"Understood."
With the response from 12th squad leader Amelia Morse, the enormous cruise ship began to hum with activity. The top deck opened up, revealing twelve quad-mounted 12.7mm anti-aircraft guns, gleaming coldly in the sunlight.
These were replicas of the anti-aircraft guns found on the HMS Warspite, a British Royal Navy battleship. Though originally outdated, they had been specially enhanced for this operation, making them deadly against any target.
The weapon systems had initially been added as a precaution—an emergency defense for unforeseen situations like this.
"Fire!" Adashino commanded.
At her order, the 12th squad members manned the guns, and the deafening roar of gunfire erupted from the ship. Orange tracers lit up the sky, streaking toward the massive cloud of crows.
The air was filled with thunderous explosions as dozens of crows disintegrated in midair, their blood raining down into the sea below. Modified rounds, imbued with magical energy, were tearing through the swarm.
The 12th squad worked in synchrony, their magic mitigating the immense recoil, allowing them to unleash an unrelenting barrage. Within seconds, the entire sky looked like a battlefield filled with bright orange trails and bursts of gore.
The crows continued to fall, and blood rained down from the sky. But the onslaught was far from over. The sea turned red as the blood mixed with the waves, while more and more crows replaced the fallen ones.
Adashino's face was calm, though tension was evident in her gaze as she looked at the ever-growing tornado of crows. "Elena, is the magic formation ready?"
"It's prepared," Elena replied from the front deck, where a massive, intricate magic circle was spread out before her, glowing with an eerie blue light. The formation was a seven-pointed star, a Septagram.
The number seven held immense power in magic. It was the number of days of creation, the Seven Deadly Sins, and even the Seven Lords of Hell. In magical history, seven was the number tied to immense strength.
This particular Septagram was derived from the legendary sorcerer Solomon, who was said to have wielded ten rings of unimaginable power. His seventh ring inspired this formation.
Elena, along with a hundred other mages, had used precious gems to construct the Septagram, a spell formation near the peak of the sixth magic rank. It had taken only minutes to set up, despite normally requiring days of preparation.
"It's the sixth-rank spell formation, near the level of Grand Magic. 'The Seventh Ring.' When an enemy attacks, it will inflict debuffs, lowering their attack power, sealing their magic, or causing dizziness," Elena explained, raising her hand to channel her magic through the formation. The blue light of the Septagram surged upward, creating a barrier around the ship, replacing the basic defensive shield that had been used earlier.
...
Li Xiang stood on the shore, gazing at the sky as a flock of crows practiced their magic. He felt an odd sense of satisfaction.
Suddenly, he felt someone grip the back of his neck.
Before he could fully register what was happening, a loud voice boomed from his small beak. "I am the servant of the Supreme One! Who dares lay a hand on me?!"
Despite his protests, the iron grip around his neck held firm, leaving him powerless.
"Little one."
Li Xiang heard a cool, soothing voice behind him, reminiscent of a cold spring flowing through a mountain at night.
"I'm the one who summoned you all."
At that, Li Xiang stopped struggling.
"Interesting. You can understand my words," the woman mused. Her quiet laughter flowed like a gentle breeze. "Had this been in the past, I might have considered making you my true familiar."
She set Li Xiang on her shoulder and knelt down, brushing her pale, slender fingers through the sand as if searching for something.
Li Xiang, still perched on her shoulder, hesitated to move, though he strained his neck to get a better look at her. However, the black hood of her cloak concealed her face, leaving only glimpses of her neck and the golden strands of hair that peeked through.
"Ah, here it is."
The woman pulled a seashell from the sand and washed it clean in the nearby waves. After a quick spell to dry it, she held it up to examine it.
Something about it seemed familiar to Li Xiang.
The woman glanced at the seashell. "There was a time when I lived by a lake. The creatures there had shells like these. Whenever I grew bored, I would play music through them, though back then, only my two sisters were around to hear it."
She brought the shell to her lips, and a beautiful, lilting tune filled the air.
It was the same melody Li Xiang had heard when he was first summoned. She had used the song as a magical incantation to summon tens of thousands of crows and give them magic, controlling them with ease.
When the melody ended, the woman sighed. "I thought I had left those times behind. I didn't expect to play this tune again today."
With a dismissive flick, she tossed the shell back into the sea, where it sank beneath the waves.
Li Xiang turned his head, confused.
"Mother."
A knight approached from the distance, clad in shining white armor. His golden hair framed a chiseled, handsome face, the kind one might expect from the heroic figures in legend.
Li Xiang's eyes, however, were drawn to the knight's sword. It was enormous, with a handle that glowed faintly blue, and its length rivaled that of the knight's entire body.
It was the largest sword Li Xiang had ever seen.
"The preparations are complete," the knight reported.
The woman turned to follow him inland, waving her hand toward the sky. The crows, still circling in formation, obediently followed, swirling in a tight spiral like a dark tornado.
The knight's face showed a brief flicker of surprise. "Such precise control over magic... Mother, you are truly one of the three legendary witches."
The woman raised her head slightly, smiling faintly. "The little one on my shoulder deserves the credit. He's quite clever."
"I've never heard you speak so highly of a familiar."
From then on, Li Xiang lost all control of himself.
The woman treated him no differently than the other crows, as she had mentioned before. To her, the past no longer mattered, and she had cast aside her once-gentle nature. He was just another tool.
Following her, Li Xiang and the other crows fought and killed, moving from battle to battle, death and destruction marking their path. With each fight, more crows died, and new ones joined their ranks.
Eventually... Li Xiang died too.
He was consumed by eternal darkness.
There was no light. No sound. He was trapped, frozen at the edge of death.
Time ceased to exist in that void.
'Master, wake up!'
Li Xiang heard a familiar voice.
'Irigar?'
Li Xiang snapped awake and sat up straight, his mind racing. He glanced out the window of the ship and muttered, "I'm back on the boat? What happened?"
[The seashell's song trapped you in a powerful illusion. Hishiri Adashino and her team had to pull you out of the water and bring you back to the rest cabin.]
"I feel like I just had a long dream," Li Xiang rubbed his temples, trying to recall. "I think... I became a crow or something. It's all kind of blurry."
[Illusions are basically a form of dreaming. Since this one was cast over two thousand years ago, its effects weren't as strong, which is why you don't remember much. If it had been a fully intact illusion from the Age of Gods, I would have had to pay a much higher price to wake you.]
"Thanks," Li Xiang said, feeling grateful to Irigar. He suddenly noticed the noise outside and asked, "Did something happen while I was out?"
[I'll explain everything. To break the illusion, Hishiri Adashino and Pascal had to get creative. But despite their precautions, human ears can't perceive the full range of sound that crows do, so...]