Chapter 336: Blow Away!
“Older Sister. The course of The Reflector has been confirmed.”
“I’m listening.”
Approximately 18 hours after confirming the movement of The Reflector, Eve straightened her posture, ready to receive the report from Iris.
“It is undoubtedly heading towards Fortress Gladiolus. The course is wavering, but it is almost directed at Gladiolus.”
Iris displayed The Reflector’s movement path on the map. The plotted route continued to move westward, meandering along the way. Ahead lay the frontline fortress, Gladiolus, situated at the edge of the Demon Forest.
“It’s likely that it cannot pinpoint its location accurately from such a distance. It seems to be capturing some kind of signal. Even in its serpentine state, it appears to be trying to return when it faces a different direction.”
“Looking at this, it’s pretty clear, isn’t it? …We have no choice but to act.”
The Reflector was clearly moving towards Fortress Gladiolus. Based on past experiences, this indicated a very high probability of hostile intent.
“I propose we execute the operation to stop The Reflector.”
“Very well. I approve the execution. Proceed.”
“Yes, Older Sister. Commencing the Blow Away! operation. Mobilizing forces.”
At Eve’s command, the intelligences of The Tree began to move in unison. Leading the core of the operation, Iris, all automated machines started to function organically.
While glancing at this scene, Eve zoomed in on the world map displaying the bright point of The Reflector.
“Still, with such a massive creature on the move…”
“Yes, Commander. Significant chaos has already been confirmed within the Demon Forest. A stampede will likely occur before long.”
A colossal creature, measuring 280 meters in length, was on the move. Just its walking alone devastated a swath of the forest, clearing a path 180 meters wide. Naturally, the monsters and animals that had lived there were being forced out into the surrounding area.
Even the Mountain Boars appeared as mere adults and children in comparison. There were no threat creatures daring to confront The Reflector, and they were beginning to flee.
“If this continues, it seems the Piata Empire and Reidia Kingdom will suffer damage.”
“There is a possibility that large threat creatures will be pushed beyond the boundaries of the Demon Forest.”
Eve traced her finger over several villages and towns located along the boundary of the Demon Forest. Many towns had been lost due to the war, but those that remained were resilient.
“Originally, they were unable to contain the monsters, right? If a stampede occurs here…”
“It would lead to devastation. The boundary of the Demon Forest will shift significantly, encroaching upon human territory.”
That said, at least regarding the former Reidia Kingdom, The Tree had already established control. The same applied to the Piata Empire.
This meant that if a stampede did occur, The Tree would need to take action.
“What about initial responses?”
“We are prioritizing the countermeasures against The Reflector. We cannot mobilize large weaponry. The surplus forces consist of a generation-old multi-legged tank and drones that were set aside as reserves, but those have already been significantly depleted in the previous Fenrir battle.”
The boundary with the Demon Forest was exceedingly long. If monsters overflowed from that boundary, extracting sufficient forces to contain them was currently very challenging.
“Hmm… It’s impossible to have Iris handle this alone. Kakitsubata needs to assist Iris, and the only one with some leeway is Ayame Zero. Should we consider adding another AI soon?”
“Yes, Commander. For the sake of ensuring diversity, it is not advisable to cover a wide area with just one AI.”
In terms of resource deployment, having a single leader was preferable. However, when multiple incidents occurred simultaneously, processing capacity could become insufficient.
If the governing will was singular, the prioritization of events could conflict. This could lead to an inability to select the overall optimal solution.
Of course, Ringo could follow up on this, but ideally, localized phenomena should be resolved within their respective domains.
“Let’s think about additions after this operation. For now… Ichigo, you will handle the stampede. Of course, there will be no restrictions on resource usage.”
“Yes, Older Sister. Ringo, I will utilize computational resources.”
“Permission granted. …Let’s consider an I-Class addition. We have accumulated operational results in the Afrasia United Kingdom.”
“Indeed. Let’s assign territorial governance to the I-Class.”
While the two top leaders of The Tree discussed this, the respective AIs were continuously updating the situation.
Iris opted for a long-range attack against The Reflector. From previous battles with the Wyverns, The Reflector’s combat capability had been assessed as exceedingly high. Thus, it was deemed unwise to bring large weaponry close.
If land battleships were carelessly approached, they would likely be easily destroyed by The Reflector’s long-range attacks.
The most desirable scenario was to attack unilaterally without letting The Reflector perceive their weaponry.
To achieve this, they would use smart shells equipped with Redstone. These would be fired from the battleship Blazabrik at supersonic speeds from the stratosphere.
An attack from over 1,000 kilometers away at sea would likely go undetected, according to Iris’s calculations.
Asahi agreed, determining that there would be no issues since the attack would not involve direct intervention of will. However, if AI were used in the control systems of the smart shells, that would not hold true.
Yet, this method had its own issues.
If The Reflector could not determine what was attacking it, there was a possibility it would not stop its advance.
If it judged that it was being attacked from a location unrelated to its destination, it would merely wreak havoc around The Reflector.
Nevertheless, at the very least, they could confirm The Reflector’s response capabilities. If The Tree’s attack proved effective, it would open up options for future responses.
“Are the smart shells fully autonomous?”
“We have embedded markers in The Reflector beforehand. It has a directional radio transmission device. If it loses sight of the marker, it will utilize GPS guidance.”
The Reflector was presumed to possess organs capable of sending and receiving electromagnetic waves. However, it was anticipated that it could be somewhat deceived by signals emitted outward from its back.
In fact, even now, periodic electromagnetic waves serving as markers were being transmitted, allowing for accurate location tracking of The Reflector via satellite.
So far, it had shown no signs of being concerned about the markers.
The problem was that if the initial attack hit, the marker would likely be lost.
Regardless, they would pack as much power as possible into the first attack. If this attack yielded no results, they would be left with almost no options, leading to a dire situation.
“The second option is a saturation attack from aerial machines… If the stratospheric strike fails, it could be quite challenging…”
“Older Sister, just to clarify, using aerial machines is aimed at explicitly revealing our hostile forces! Of course, in terms of offensive power, the smart shells are top-notch!”
“Ah, I see.”
At this point, they would have to respond flexibly. Above all, they needed to halt The Reflector’s movement.