“What!?”

They had been about to yell at the man who entered without knocking, but Dogesha and Wolfram’s expressions changed in an instant upon hearing his report.

“What happened!?”

Dogesha shouted, demanding further details. Naturally, we were also curious about the movement of the Sea Emperor Turtle.

“Sir! The Sea Emperor Turtle’s head has surfaced above the water!”

“…And?”

“Yes, sir! It appears to be a twin-headed Sea Emperor Turtle, with two heads.”

“Hmm…”

I had a bad feeling about this. It better not start firing those beams like last time. Those had serious firepower.

But a twin-headed Sea Emperor Turtle, huh… Was it always like that, or was this some kind of mutation? Thinking back, when those beams were fired at me and Rio, they came in two simultaneous shots. If it had two heads, that would make sense. I might as well consider those beams to be the turtle’s breath attack.

“It might fire the same beams as before.”

“What? The counterattack Linford reported?”

Wolfram reacted immediately to my words. Despite telling us to stay out of this, at least he seemed willing to listen to our warning.

“So, you’re saying it might fire at us. Strengthen the base defenses!”

“Sir!”

At Dogesha’s command, Wendy saluted and quickly left the room.

“We’re heading out as well.”

Wolfram stood from the sofa, giving us a quick glance.

“Good work. You are dismissed.”

Leaving only those words behind, he exited the room.

“…”

Left behind, we shared a look before bursting into laughter.

“They just left us in here. Are they not worried about security?”

I glanced around the room, but there weren’t any documents lying around.

“Maybe it’s just a meeting room.”

“Probably… Anyway, let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

There was no telling when the Sea Emperor Turtle would fire its breath attack. We hurried outside, heading toward the coast where we could see it.

Now that I thought about it, Nir was still in the military’s stables. I had a vague sense of his direction thanks to our connection. Maybe I could call him over.

—Nir, come here.

“Wafu!”

With a wagging tail, Nir happily came bounding out of the building.

“Oh, he came.”

That was fast. This might be more useful than I thought. But for now, I needed to focus on the Sea Emperor Turtle.

“It really does have two heads.”

“Ah, it’s looking this way.”

The turtle was still over a kilometer away. I wasn’t sure about the range of its breath attack, but we needed to stay on guard.

I retrieved the Ancient Red Dragon Shield from my subspace storage—something I hadn’t used in a while.

“Think an Absolute Barrier will block it?”

“I think so, but just in case, it’s better to deflect it rather than block it head-on.”

“Agreed.”

As we braced ourselves, the Sea Emperor Turtle opened its mouths.

The faint rise in magical energy signaled an impending breath attack.

Then, just a few moments later, a blast of light erupted.

“Damn, that’s fast…”

“…Did you see it?”

Rio asked without taking her eyes off the turtle.

“Yeah, now that I’m expecting it, I can react in time.”

“I barely caught it…”

“Make sure you’re ready to deploy a barrier at any time.”

“Got it.”

The breath attack had destroyed one of the warships docked at the port. I hadn’t expected it to attack even without taking damage. But considering we didn’t understand its behavior, it was pointless to dwell on it.

With one ship obliterated, the military base descended into chaos. According to records from 150 years ago, the turtle had ignored attacks and passed through without retaliation. This unprovoked attack must have been completely unexpected.

“They told us to leave, but it doesn’t feel right just walking away now.”

“Haha, yeah… No way.”

“Wafu!”

Nir seemed just as eager.

“At this rate, we’ll be wiped out… Deploy! Deploy immediately!”

Near the burning wreckage of the ship, Dogesha’s voice rang out. Wolfram was beside him, rapidly issuing orders.

Rather than staying in place and getting picked off, their only option was to sortie—even if it meant forcing their hand.

“Tch, it’s you lot… Don’t interfere.”

As we approached, Dogesha shot us a glare. Not exactly the time for that, though.

At that moment, the tingling sensation I had felt before—a warning deep in my mind—suddenly returned.

“Rio! It’s coming!”

Ignoring Dogesha’s confused expression, I darted forward, keeping my position in the turtle’s line of fire.

The Sea Emperor Turtle’s mouths glowed.

In the next instant, a brilliant beam of light streaked toward us.

I activated the Absolute Barrier while raising my shield just in case. A deafening crash rang out as the beam deflected, grazing the top of the building we had just been standing in.

It seemed the barrier alone was enough to divert the attack.

Looking back, I saw Rio had expanded her barrier to cover Dogesha and Wolfram as well. Dogesha’s face had gone pale, while Wolfram had collapsed onto the ground.

“Sorry, did I just interfere unnecessarily?”

Neither of them could do anything but shake their heads frantically.