Chapter 65 - The Unexpected Gift

While the battle already commenced at the port, Enterprise had just arrived to find someone else was already fighting against the Siren.

"Odd. I don't remember if there is another KANSEN. Then who is fighting the Siren?" Enterprise wonders and sends a fighter plane to spy on the battle while she relays this information to the Command.

"Could it be KANSEN from the allied faction? I remember the Royal Navy was an ally of Eagle Union from the start along with Dragon Empery." She thought while the plane she sent finally got a visual of the battle only for her to discover who the Siren was and the group fighting her is definitely not KANSEN. At least not those she recognised.

When Enterprise informed this to the Command, she was ordered to spy on the battle for now to gather information and assist if needed.

———

"This is not fair. Not fair at all!" Purifier complained with a groan. No longer smiling. Instead, she has a sour look like someone cheated on the game and now she feels it's unfair.

"Said that to yourself, Purifier." Adam replied while still shooting at her while his three servants were holding her down as best as they could for him to land more hits.

Purifier isn't complaining about the numbers of enemies she has to fight alone, neither is it about the magic used by the Servants which is very effective against her or the Orbital Fortress raining beams on her. What she felt is unfair were the mysterious energy that continuously weakened her that she is now almost half of her original strength and it continues to drop lower. It was dangerous for Siren and she is trying to gather information about it but she just can't figure out what caused it since it wasn't visible. The only reason she realized she was weakening is because she noticed her sudden drop in power. She hits less harder and her defense is getting more fragile as the time goes. However, even with her strength reduced by half. Purifier can still fight against three Servants while defending against the beam attack from the Orbital Fortress and not losing any ground.

Purifier suddenly disengaged and jumped back before summoning a hammerhead shark-shaped rigging.

"Playtime is over. Your threat again Siren and the Creator's plan is very dangerous. Hence, I will eliminate you here and today." Gone is the playful look on Purifier's face and the cannons on her rigging are charging up a beam attack.

Adam's armor has a built in supercomputer and AI to constantly gather information from his surroundings, especially when monitoring threats. Right now, his HUD is flashing red and filled with warning notices about the destructive energy inside that charging beam attack.

"Estimated destruction level is enough to wipe out the whole city from the map." Adam read the warning on his HUD before he turned his eyes to Purifier in the distance. He isn't worried because he has Jeanne. Though he might protect himself and the rest of the team, the city will become the collateral.

"Die." Purifier said and shot the beam once it's done charging.

Jeanne is going to use her Noble Phantasm but Adam holds her shoulder and stops her.

"Let me handle this, Jeanne."

"Alright, Master." Jeanned nods and relaxes herself with unwavering trust to Adam.

He then stepped forward quickly with his Aura gathered and projected like a shield with his left hand to block the incoming beams. The beam once collided with the shield, disintegrated as Adam expected as his Semblance caused his Aura to essentially corrode any type of energy it came in contact with and fell apart. However Purifier caught on immediately and increased the power behind the beam in hope to outpace Adam's Semblance but Jalter and Siegfried aren't just going to sit on the side and watch as they immediately attack her to interrupt the attack.

The fight eventually fell into a stalemate as Purifier now figured out what weakened her through Adam's display of using his Aura to counter her beam. She avoids any incoming attack from Adam as her power continues to regenerate.

"Master, let me use my Noble Phantasm." Jalter said in the midst of battle but Adam denied the request and said, "No need to reveal our cards that early. We just need to drive her away instead of killing her."

The reason why Adam hesitated about killing Purifier is he feared it would attract the interest of the Siren too early. He knows little about the Sirens and showing he has the ability to kill a powerful Siren like Purifier will cause their interest to shift towards Adam and his companions. Instead, he just wants to reveal that he has strength to counter the Siren but not enough to be a threat to their plans to change her mind. For that to work, he needs to show he has the ability to repel Purifier but not enough to kill her even when he could actually do that from the start if he used his Armaments Haki alongside his Semblance in a CQC fight with Purifier.

Although Jalter sighed that her request was denied, she understood his reasoning and said no more of it.

Adam looked at Purifier who similarly stared at him still hungry for battle. Neither side sustained any debilitating injury and equally matched even in terms of stamina. At least that's how it seems from the exterior.

"Are we going to continue fighting or what? You should know by now that I can weaken you and eventually subdue you and your attacks will not work on us." Adam said.

Hearing this, Purifier grinned and said, "Indeed, over countless timelines. You are the first to do that to me and I had plenty of fun fighting with you. But this is not the extent of my strength you know." Purifier replied with confidence. "Also, I finally figured out who you truly are. A Commander from those experimental timelines where Zero introduces people from another world to lead the KANSEN. You are one of them Commander of timeline number 134342434, AoiSekai. As for how a human of that world was able to gain such power and arrived here is a mystery even to me. But is undeniably a very successful Commander to unite all KANSEN and defeat even the Siren of that world. But made no mistakes to think it would be the same. The Siren of that world are simply clones for the sake of simulation. They are inferior copies unlike the real Siren that is us."

"Make no mistake, you might be able to win against me but you cannot win against all the Siren no matter how you struggle. Even if you did, you should know the Siren isn't the real enemy." She said threateningly but then her fierce appearance melted away, returning to her playful persona. "But work aside, I am very happy to have you as a friend. It's hard, you know, to get a friend I can play with without worrying about breaking them. That's why, if you ever get tired playing with those KANSEN. I will be waiting for you with open arms to join the Siren." She said and approached Adam which made others worried but he signaled them to stand down because he sensed no hostility from Purifier right now.

Purifier pulled out a box from nowhere and gave it to Adam. Adam accepted it although he was a little confused until he peeked open the box and saw the content of it.

"Think of it as a gift. What you do with it depends on you. You surely understand what it can do." Purifier said before she left without further explanation.

"It worked out somehow…" Adam sighed that at least his plan to drive Purifier away worked but what's with her sudden change in behavior? She certainly looked intent on killing Adam but suddenly changed her mind in a flick of a switch and now gave him the Black Wisdom Cube.

However, taking a look at the black cube was perhaps his mistake as Adam suddenly fell into a trance. In his vision, the destroyed port was replaced with black void. In front of him is Earth. However, instead of blue and green sphere. It was red all across as if the land and sea was set ablaze. It's not hard to understand. The world is in ruin and possibly due to a war. Also, above Earth's atmosphere is a purplish red swirling storm like a portal as big as Earth itself.

Then the scenery changed, he was now standing on the sea covered with fire that burned tall like a curtain to obscure his vision. He heard the sound of cannon fire. He turned around to find its source and found Siren and KANSEN. Instead of being on each other's throats, they were fighting side by side against an enemy which Adam couldn't see with a literal mosaic on them which covered their appearance.

When Adam look up to the sky, he found himself directly below the swirling storm and in the center of it is a gigantic eye which looks small to him at this position. The demonic looking eyes turn away from the ongoing battle between the mosaic covered enemies and the shipgirls, straight to Adam's eyes as they lock into a stare.

Adam immediately felt like his brain was swelling as if inflamed, it hurt like it was going to burst. Something is forcing their way into his mind, incomprehensible information trying to invade, shatter and break his mind but was repelled by a sudden instinctive burst of his Aura that triggered his Conqueror Haki as his mind refused to yield and exerted all his willpower to resist the invisible tendrils that tried to rend his mind apart.

"MASTER!" x4

Adam last heard the call of his companions before everything went black as the Black Cube cracked and leaked out prismatic light and tremendous energy like a ticking bomb that was going to explode.

Jeanne immediately deployed her Noble Phantasm while Jalter and Siegfried carried Adam away in a hurry before the Black Cube reached critical.

Jeanne stabbed her flag on the ground and chanted swiftly "Oh flag of mine, protect our comrades! Luminosité Eternelle!" She hastily finished the chant before everything was consumed by a blinding light.

*BOOOMMM!*

The entire port was reduced into nothing but a deep crater instantly from the violent explosion resulting from rapid uncontrollable discharge of energy contained in the Black Cube.

Everyone survived but Jeanne is exhausted as she barely blocked the explosion. Meanwhile Adam was bleeding all over from his ears, eyes, nose and mouth but still breathing although very weak. However, neither of the Servants or Agent is worried because as long as Adam's body is intact, dying would be impossible with his Aura and his Nanosuit rapidly healing and fixing his body.

———

Meanwhile with Enterprise. She was spying on the battle when the Siren was engaging an unknown group of people.

"What should I do next?" Enterprise asked for the earpiece which connected to her Handler.

"Try to listen and gather as much information as possible. They could be a Prototype of another nation." Her Handler said. However, Enterprise highly doubts it. She already saw the future of another timeline, she knew none of those were a KANSEN that she could recognise. Moreover, there was never a male KANSEN.

As Enterprise did her job and eavesdropped on them, she overheard something that left her shocked.

"You are one of them Commander of timeline number 134342434, AoiSekai…" Enterprise lost interest in listening to the rest of Purifier's speech. She was focused on the name AoiSekai.

The world becomes still as memories flashes through Enterprise's head. The memories of their first encounter.

"I am a Yorktown-Class aircraft carrier, Enterprise. Reporting for duty, Commander." Enterprise recently arrived at the naval base in the Pacific ocean which will be the Azur Lane headquarter and base of operation.

"I am AoiSekai, the Commander of this base sent by the HQ. I am unfortunately a fresh graduate from the military academy and didn't have much experience. I hope we will have a pleasant time working together." The Commander was inexperienced and felt ashamed to be leading the legendary KANSEN.

Enterprise's impression of the Commander at first was nonexistent since he is exactly as he introduced, a complete newbie that knows next to nothing about live battle. All the theoretical knowledge was next to useless against Siren that again and again, defies common sense. However, ten years later. Times were fleeting and a decade felt like just yesterday they first met.

"The final battle is upon us. We are at the last bastion of the Siren's hold on our world." The Commander gave his speech on top of the podium, surrounded by leaders of each faction that gathered under his banner while looking over thousands of ship girls. "Let's win this battle. For our future and for the peace we all wished for!"

That was the last moment everyone saw the Commander. After his speech, the Azur Lane coalition led by him and the faction leaders wage war across the seven seas in a major operation to infiltrate the Siren's strongholds hiding in the mirror sea as big as the world and banish them from the world.

They did win. But the prize of their victory is a hell hole which made Enterprise and many others realize that Siren weren't their enemy all along. But at that time it was too late and the Commander vanished without a trace. Azur Lane coalition and Earth fell apart in the span of a single night.

"Commander." Enterprise whispers as she falls out of the trance and realizes she finally found her Commander.

When Enterprise looked back at the man in the armor, she noticed he had other companions with him. She saw his armor suddenly vanished and his gruesome state with blood bleeding all over his upper orifices and how his companions reacted.

Instead of worrying about the state of her Commander, a dark thought bloomed in her heart like a devilish whisper. She had spent so much time searching for her Commander and yet, when she found him, he already had a new group of people surrounding him. She felt disappointed, angered and jealous.

Dark mist is gathering around her Wisdom Cube and threatening to consume it. But before it could, Enterprise got a grip of herself and sighed. Trying to hack into the Siren terminal and forcefully download her consciousness into Enterprise of another timeline (reincarnate) had taken a toll on her mind.

She calmed herself down but panicked again when she saw the Black Wisdom Cube exploding. That thing is as powerful as the Hydrogen Bomb, if not stronger. Her instinct already kicked in as she fled before her mind could even process it. She saw first hand how dangerous that cube was in her past.

But before she could escape the blast zone, the cube collapsed and released all the energy stored inside in a destructive way which blew her away with great force.

Thankfully, she manages to summon a plane midair and land herself on it as she continues to fly higher to escape the shockwave that wrecks the land hundreds and thousands of miles away from ground zero.

"No! Commander!" Enterprise immediately tried to turn back, praying he is alright despite the chance of him surviving this explosion is next to none.

Unexpectedly, he did and so did his companions. But before Enterprise could approach them, she saw them vanish, consumed by blue light.

"Commander…" Enterprise called exasperatedly. But once again, he vanished into places far from her reach. Her calls were replied by a deafening silence as the aftermath of the explosion wiped out basically everything in a hundred miles radius.

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