Chapter 80 - Despairing Realization

(Sorry, I forgot to post this morning. I got an appointment at Hospital and forgotten about posting a chapter.)

The journey had been mostly uneventful. Not a bad thing per say. But not fun either. But he had to because the risk of fighting with people on board is very dangerous especially when Siren is a very accurate shooter as expected since they are controlled by AI. So, Adam had been directing the course to evade most ambushes and encounters. The Siren had to send out more Aircraft Carriers fleets to track down and capture them. But some had been mysteriously shot down by beams and barrages of missiles that came out of nowhere.

Anyway, two and a half days later. The fleet arrived close to the gigantic tree that floats on water and thick roots that anchored down to the seabed.

Looking from the observation footage really doesn't do the tree justice because its main root is big enough to make a Goliath Grimm look like an ant in comparison. The trunk? It's so big he didn't even know what to compare it to.

The crown of the tree is almost three times wider than Atlas's floating city according to his calculations and that's very fucking massive with deceptively small looking vines hanging from it's branches that actually probably as wide as a house that he had seen capable of attacking by lashing like whip.

During its arrival, the tree looks shriveled and less healthy after its fight with the Leviathan's Shadow. However, right now. Adam can clearly see it's recovered and the yellowed leaves become green again.

The ship slowly moves close to the gigantic tree and stops a few hundred meters away as Adam can sense a growing energy radiating from the tree along with emotions of its residents that isn't exactly welcoming them.

"Why did you stop?" Alan asked when he noticed the ship slowed to a stop and hadn't moved for a few minutes.

Adam turns to look at the diplomat for a moment before opening his right palm which projects an holographic screen that shows a zoomed in image of the visitors on the tree with weapons in hand which tells that they aren't exactly open for a visit. However, Alan and his bodyguard are more surprised by the hologram screen than what it is showing.

"They are wary and sending out hostile intent. I wager if we approach any further, they might start attacking us." Adam said which made them pale as they had also seen the tree in action and how it repelled the shadowy dragon.

"But… we need to establish contact with them. We must ascertain their intentions and hostility. It is not just the matter of our national security, it's involving the whole world." Alan the diplomat, insisted sternly and reminded Adam of his duty and role in this mission.

Adam takes no offense from Alan's word although his shipgirls aren't the same as him. In their eyes, Adam is trying to be cautious but Alan's words are saying like Adam should make sacrifices because it's his job and it's for the benefit of the world and its people. It's understandable that the shipgirls that he earned their trust will be angry. Even more so when they are the one that should make sacrifices and not the person speaking. However, Adam himself is interested and curious about the Elves. He intended to make contact regardless and learn about them even if the government didn't tell him to.

When he saw New Jersey who usually look bubbly and happy suddenly look like she is about to wrung the soul of Alan out of his mortal body, he had to step in.

"Easy there NJ. He is right. It's my job to safely bring them there to meet these otherworldly visitors." He said with a headpat that easily lowered her hostility to zero and softened her up.

His headpats are always effective to calm down anyone, it's almost like magic.

Anyway, New Jeans did calm down along with the other girls and Alan had his ego stroked up by Adam's words.

"That's right. It's his job to get us there no matter the cost. The world is at stake here and it's to no surprise you don't understand that. After all, you all are just bunch o—" Alan riding his ego, trying to assert his power since he is under the direct order of the president for this mission, giving him privileges that he tried to abuse. However, he found his words stuck and shoved back to his throat when he suddenly felt a terrifying presence looming after him that felt like his neck was hanging on the blade of the grim reaper's scythe.

"I said. Enough." Adam's light blue pupil stared down at Alan who had his entire life flashes over him at that moment and fell to the ground when his legs turned jelly. "I will complete my part of the mission. So, cease this needless nonsense " He demanded with finality before he turned his sharp gaze at the denizens of the gigantic tree.

"New Jersey, follow me." Adam said with his uncharacteristically stern voice before he stepped on the edge of the deck and casually jumped off much to everyone's surprise.

When they rush to the edge to find him, they see him casually stand on the water without any rigging. At that point, they didn't even know what to say. That oppressive aura he released and how he was able to stand on the water like a KANSEN despite having no rigging equipped. The girls just realized how little they knew about him.

As for the diplomat and his bodyguards, they did hear about him being also another human from another timeline brought here by Siren. But the ability he displayed made them doubt Adam is even a human. Especially not after basking in his terrifying presence. Those soldiers know what that presence was because they know how it formed. It's the killing intent of a killer that amassed mountains of corpses and created rivers of blood while bathing in the blood and gores of his enemies. Not the type of person any of them want to mess around and find out.

Adam, with the help of New Jersey, glides over to approach the base of the tree. With his arm slung across New Jersey's shoulder, Adam sighed and apologized.

"I'm sorry, if I scared you and the others, NJ. It seems that I was under a lot of stress without realizing it." He said with an apologetic look which is a complete 180 from when he was angry a moment ago.

"Don't sweat it, Commander. After all, you get angry because that guy is trying to talk bad about us." New Jersey had a grateful and happy look on her face to have a reliable commander. "Besides, it makes my heart race to see Commander gallantly come to our defense!" She said in an exaggerated manner.

"Alright, enough nonsense. I can see you are alright." Adam pushed her face away when she tried to take advantage of the situation and get closer.

"Come on, Commander. No need to be shy~ We all know what you did with Enterprise. I have to say, her taste isn't bad at all because I think I am also falling head over heels for you too, Co~ mman~ der~ Ahaha!." She blew a small gust of wind at his ears.

Although she might look flirty right now, Adam noticed a random twitch in her hand and face earlier like she is forcing herself to look normal. That's why he asked her to follow him. Perhaps she is still shaken by his sudden lash out earlier even when it was never aimed at her or any of the shipgirls but she is the one standing next to him at that moment and he felt guilty about it. But now isn't the time for that.

"Focus on the mission first, New Jersey. We can have fun and play as much as we want later." He purposely stated her full name instead of nickname to emphasize his serious tone.

"Eh?" She looked at Adam in shock with the 'I didn't think I got this far. Now what?' face because she fully expects Adam to dismiss her playful flirting.

As if reading the question on her face, Adam replied.

"As I said. Focus on the mission first and we can have fun and play later."

"Have fun and play later…?" New Jersey mutters and repeats it a few times as his face blushes deeper with each repeat.

"As I said. After we are done with our mission." Adam said exactly what he stated. Oblivious to the other meaning his words convey.

"R-Right… I am New Jersey… the Indomitable Black Dragon of the Eagle Union and I have a mission to complete…" She reminded herself to try and regain her usual confidence but somehow it evaporated away like hot air especially with him so close to her, she could feel her heartbeat beating faster and faster the more she tried to calm it down.

Meanwhile, Adam didn't notice the look he was receiving as his eyes and attention were fully on the Elves and the tree that progressively gets bigger the closer he is to it. He only did notice it when he felt her heartbeat is being abnormal fast like she is about to have a cardiac arrest or something.

"Are you alright?" Adam worried that his unconscious releases of Haki might have affected her and quickly checked her pulse and body temperature.

"I am alright! Definitely. Yes. Definitely. Let's focus on the mission!" She suddenly shouted and increased her speed.

Seeing she is looking alright, Adam says nothing of it although he notices she is forcing herself and thinks it's his unconscious releases of Haki that make her act weirdly.

———

On the base of the gigantic tree, Adam climbed up one of the giant roots and waited for someone to come and greet him.

Someone did come although not to welcome or greet him and instead screaming at him with a bow aimed at him.

"Yom we Sared hegoumerourom hed welcere Yomareed hed wegomacon! Trese Youmaree Trelconcome acer Sarene hum Yot San! Saroman! Tred Beed hur pred we were! Yon! acomaregoulce oum Yonou nese he! prere! fre! fre You acr fouree! wesese!"

"Of course, there is a language barrier." Adam sighed and he sort of expected it but hated that he was right because now his problem increased.

Adam then tried to communicate with broken English like trying to talk to a foreigner with hand gestures, signals and simple words, trying his best to convey his words across. Only for him to be stared at by the Elf in front of him with a deadpan face.

'I will pardon your transgression, Human. I doubt you meant what you say when you are oblivious to our spoken language.' The Elf said through telepathy with a face filled with disgust and contempt. 'Again, I warn you, human. Begone from our Holy Tree! You and the presence of your ilk are not welcomed here!' The Elf said with an odd mix of contempt and resignation in her voice.

Adam wondered just what he said to cause such contemptuous looks from the Elf. He is familiar with the fantasy Elves trope. Either they were mistreated by humans or they saw themselves as superior and eventually caused this hatred. But he didn't think much of it and replied back.

'Unfortunately, I cannot do that. I have to ascertain the intention of your kind in this world.' Adam said. 'In fact, I already notice your people are doing something that can harm our world.' He turns his head down and taps the tree root with his boot which is constantly siphoning some kind of energy which may explain how it recovered so quickly.

The elf flinched when Adam mentioned about the tree siphoning energy from the seabed with its roots.

'How? The humans of this world should be incapable of using magic. How can you see the flow of spirit energy!' The elf demanded an answer and sounded very offended.

To answer her question, Adam simply willed his Aura to fully awaken and form a layer of armor above his skin.

'S-Spiritual energy! Such a dense and pure spiritual energy Impossible! How? How could a human… No, you—' The telepathy link suddenly cut off and the elf gracefully leaped back to a crouch and drawed her bow with an energy arrow nocked to its string, aimed at Adam.

Out of nowhere, a few more elves appeared and one of them is an old looking one wearing a rather ornate tribal robe and holding a staff made of ancient wood.

The elf stood before the previous one and blocked her arrow before she screamed something angrily and the old elf frowned before saying something in return that shut the previous elf up and dismissed her arrow before standing down and retreat behind the old elf to join her other comrade that dressed in similar manner as her.

Meanwhile Adam is really grateful New Jersey trusted him when he signaled her to wait after the elf drew her bow at his head.

'I apologies for the rudeness of my people, I am Irelia Aila Arwyn. The 14th Guardian of the Holy Tree and the chieftain of the Holy Tree Sentinel.' The elf leader introduced herself through telepathy. 'Adam White, the Commander of Eagle Union KANSEN fleet.' Adam introduced himself when it's his turn.

Both vaguely understand the meaning of the title they bore but not it's real significance. The elf leader, Irelia, is the leader of this elf village or city even. As for Adam, he is a leader for a naval fleet. But it seems that is not what the Elf Chieftain, Irelia care about.

'You are not human of this world are you. In fact, I know what you are. The cursed ones, defiler of the cycle of rebirth, a Reincarnator.' The Chieftain said with a not so friendly nor outright hostile manner that pique his interest. 'What it is that you wished from us? We are merely a fleeing refugees. As long as your request are reasonable, I will promise to adhere as the guest in this world.'

Adam is pleasantly surprised that it would be easy to deal with them suddenly. It made him wonder. What is it that he shows which made the Chieftain suddenly so cooperative? Is it his Aura or something else?

'Hmn, you are mistaken. There is someone else that will talk with you who are the representative of the people from this world. I am merely trying to establish contact and emsure the meeting will be done. What happen after that isn't my business.' Adam corrected the Chieftain. 'However, I do have some questions that I wanted to asks about.'

'Questions?' The Chieftain repeat as if she misheard what he said and quickly realized it and faked a cough. 'Ask ahead then.' The Chieftain said with a slightly more friendly tone compared to before.

Adam nod and asked about how they ended up here and why she mentioned themselves as refugees.

'It's a long story that I doubt we had enough time to talk about. But in short, we are victim of the gods expanding their domains. Our world was conquered by another god an we are forced to flee because we would accept him as our lord. We had always worshipped the Holy Tree which is the guardian of our Forest Elves race.' The Chieftain explain.

'As for how we ended up here… we basically take a gamble and fled into within his domain which his minions are less likely to expect to find us. Which did work and we ended up in this ownerless dimension only to find ourselves sorely mistaken when we were attacked by one of his minions laying in hiding and almost died had we not escape again and ended up in it's alternate timeline which is were we are right now that it somehow couldn't enter.'

Hearing the explanation, Adam noticed something important that the Chieftain just said. The Leviathan is the minion of the god? Everything suddenly clicked now. From the Wisdom Cube, Origin Cube and how he is the key to defeat Deus X which is the god behind Leviathan and the invasion on the Elf's world.

The Steel Leviathan is minions of the Deus X. The power that allow the creation of KANSEN is power of Deus X that Wisdom Cube siphoned from another dimension. Logically, he can't be defeated by his own power. That's why Dr Aoste and Siren's plan to save humanity is doomed from the start because there is no way for them to conceivably defeat Deus X when one Steel Leviathan can wipe the entire floor of all KANSEN and Siren conbined, which is merely a minion of Deus X that Siren experimented on billions and trillions of timeline on to defeat but still fail.

If that's the case, how is it even possible for them to defeat Deus X? It's like a pipe dream. Something that is impossible to happen.

This realization hit Adam like a truck because even Purifier can easily kill him if she wanted. So, defeating a Steel Leviathan is already like impossible for him. But when he learned the true enemy he need to defeat is Deus X which created the Steel Leviathan and basically impossibly powerful in a scale he cannot imagine, he cannot say that his conviction didn't waver and he didn't question if his assumption of his System is wrong after all.

No wonder his System called the previous world a tutorial. Compared to Deus X, the Outer God from the previous world does indeed look like a joke in comparison. It's like heaven and earth kind of difference.

Seeing the look on Adam's face. The Chieftain raised an eyebrow and wonder what could had give him that despairing realization.

'Is that all of your questions?' The Chieftain didn't really care that much about what he feel and wanted to get this done with immediately.

'One more.' Adam said and the Chieftain snorted. 'Ask ahead then.'

Adam asked about the Deus X. Any information that can be provided. However, he was left disappointed as there not much is known other than he is a God of Reincarnation which is why his minions are very strong because he always send a reincarnator as his agents to infiltrate a world to spread and strengthen his faith before steamrolling the world once the local gods are weakened enough and he is the strongest.

After that, Adam said that he will send in a diplomat to establish contact with them. The Chieftain didn't really care and accepted because they will not stay long in this world either because Deus X had spread his webs over to this dimension. Once they done recovery and rest, they will leave. Until then, they will keep the governments around the world satisfied until they are ready to leave.

"Let's go back, NJ." Adam sighed tiredly after learning that his life isn't as easy as he expected.

"Yes, Commander." New Jersey nod and help him glide through the water as they return to Laffey's ship.

New Jersey is worried and wonder what happened for Adam to went there with a hopeful look but returned with hopelessness.

—————

(Fk, for hours I keep trying to change and improve this chapter and even exceeded the words limit. But still far from what I want it to be. Whatever.

Anyway, if the chapter above isn't all that clear. I apologize. Basically, I intended to progress the Azur Lane world Arc after doing enough preparation (Ship upgrade) and revealed enough informations to the readers.

So, after this. Adam will really start to prepare for the final showdown with Deus X. But before that, he will be doing bunch of quest like uniting the KANSEN, establishing Azur Lane, poaching Siren, etc etc. Also side quests or Interdimensional Contract.

Did I just wasted almost 20 chapters with 'prologue' maybe. I just didn't expected it took that long.)