The sky is falling.
That's the only way to describe it. Looking up, a darkness deeper than pitch black ripples. If someone were to shine a light on that darkness, it would shimmer like the night sea.
But while water in nature tends to fall downwards, right now the water all around is being pulled up towards the sky.
And it spreads in all directions, covering the sky.
The mountain range to the east, illuminated by the slanting orange twilight, appears more than half submerged in water. Conversely, the sea to the west reveals black mud. As the seawater that should be filling that space is pulled into the sky, the bottom keeps getting exposed.
But it looks like the entrance to hell from mythology, so no one even considers approaching that direction.
Let's turn our gaze elsewhere.
To the north, it's sea all the way up, and to the south, a massive river blocks the way.
However, since the river is no longer there, if one runs hard enough, they could reach Bern City. But because of the water blocking all light from the sky, that direction also appears as mere darkness, so it's effectively blocked.
Common sense that a river should be flowing there stands in the way. In the late evening, with the faint light from the sky obscured by the sea and the ground invisible, who would have the courage to cross?
There's nowhere to run.
And slowly, the water surface descends from the sky to the ground.
Everyone watches it blankly.
There's no meaning in fighting anymore.
Both the soldiers here and the resisting citizens all raise their heads to look at the water surface.
Some deluded themselves, thinking they could swim and escape if the water came down slowly like this.
But after seeing the top of the highest spire crumple with an ominous creaking sound as soon as it entered the water, they quickly abandoned that thought.
Crushing pressure.
It's not simply water floating.
Almost no one understands what this is. But people clearly realize now that there's nowhere left to run. They clearly recognize only the fact that touching that water means death.
There's no particular magic, and the world is deathly quiet. No magic, and the air is terribly quiet and bone-dry.
That's why they don't know the culprit.
No, from the start, no one thinks this is something possible for a human to do.
So they can't reach the conclusion that if they deal with whoever is creating this, they might be able to survive.
So what do people do?
Flash!
At that moment, a beam that had been melting the ground shot up from the surface towards the water.
Not knowing why the water is floating, but thinking that if it's just water, they could evaporate it. With that thought, they attack the target before their eyes.
Simple and intuitive.
But water is heavier than expected and can store tremendous heat.
That beam disappeared before long.
And if there's a force that can forcibly change the evaporated water vapor back to liquid, the damage from heat is practically nonexistent. The disturbed water surface soon returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
No, it didn't just return to normal.
Baaaang!
As if the water surface had been made up of countless blocks, the wall above the position where the light had flown crashed down vertically.
The crystallization of magical science called Craft Nine that was in that place was instantly torn apart and disappeared, crushed by the mass.
A small port located away from Bern City.
The people in this village now deny that what's happening could be real.
But even if they deny reality, the water covering the sky doesn't disappear.
Rather, it slowly descends from the sky, like laying wet tissues one by one over the respiratory tract. Or this land is sinking.
As soon as people realize it can kill them, they spasmodically attack the sky. Out of fear, because others are doing it, because hitting that water might allow them to survive.
Magic or objects rise up from here and there.
Light, heat, fire, ice, rocks, steel, arrows, bullets, fire, bricks, every imaginable attack soars upwards.
People frantically unleash magic to escape the crisis of death.
But just as a drop of oil in the sea makes no difference, the magic falling into the water soon turns to darkness as if it had never existed.
Because it briefly brightened the surroundings while using magic, when all magic ceased, that darkness seemed even darker.
Along with that darkness, despair and fear also crept into hearts.
In many societies, rivers symbolize death. This means that floods have cruelly taken human lives for a long time.
People looking up at the sky fall into despair.
And that despair shatters people's minds.
Foolish people say that human nature emerges in extreme situations, but in extreme situations, only the debris of broken minds scatter in all directions.
Only an idiot or an artist would smash a small glass bottle with a hammer and claim that's its original form.
While some pray aimlessly towards the void, others try to shift blame for this situation, saying it's because of you. While some try to create something to escape from here with the items they have to somehow survive, others just despair and sit on the ground waiting for death.
All sorts.
Most stand holding their shattered minds like glass shards. Even if despair bleeds from their hands, letting go would only lead to madness.
Creeeeak-
And the water surface passes the second floor. Now buildings are being uprooted by the pressure pulling the water and dragged up to the surface.
More and more people fall into panic all around. Now all the buildings that could support them are being dragged up to the sky and crumpled, and the sky is suffocatingly low.
The sky is full of a sea of death that will kill you if you touch it.
A fear that could be called claustrophobia spreads, and those who can't bear waiting for death, unable to overcome despair, jump into the sea to ease their minds.
Dying is ridiculously simple.
Just a small hop and your head plunges into the water, instantly bursting from the water pressure and causing instant death. And that pressure doesn't end there, it drags up the body that was on the ground.
Like a ship about to sink, the village slowly sinks.
And in the middle of that village.
One girl standing with a broken heart.
Victoria Bete.
No matter how angry she is to the tips of her hair, if she couldn't think calmly here and now, she would have already died at the Great Kraken's forward base.
She's doing this because it's necessary, after calmly thinking it through.
She heard from Polaris about everything that had happened so far.
The fact that they came on an airship, clockwork machines killed people, and some forces even attacked with powerful weapons to crash the airship.
And the information that people trying to enter Bern City were tied up at this port, protesting to be let in.
Just a moment ago. She saw the scene of soldiers killing the protesters.
So thinking calmly, making this place safe is the first priority.
Then, after finding out what's happening in Bern City, somehow returning to the house where her family is, is the goal she clearly set as the priority.
When the water reached slightly above Victoria's head, Victoria stopped it.
She's average height among girls, but small compared to adult men.
In other words, lowering the water to this level would make the enemy's movements uncomfortable, so she did that.
Judging that she had secured some degree of safety with this, Victoria moved towards the place where the protesters had been demonstrating.
The barbed wire is damaged, and a few soldiers clutching their heads and trembling are visible. Some have died by stabbing weapons into their own heads, and some are trembling with their eyes closed, praying.
Victoria checked the line drawn by the soldiers and dropped the water.
The defense line disappeared into the water. All objects that enter the water instantly shrink and shatter to pieces.
After clearing away people like flushing a toilet in this way, Victoria stepped forward.
It's too late to be surprised and saddened by seeing dead people now, because she's so mad.
Rather, she built walls by lowering water columns around buildings so no one could escape.
As she went inside, if there were people, she dropped water columns on them. Most objects under the water columns shatter to pieces, unable to withstand the pressure difference.
Like a simple task, she killed low-ranking soldiers while entering a building with everything above the first floor torn off.
When Victoria entered the building and looked up, the ceiling was still there. This would create gaps when attacking, so she lowered the water slightly and tore off the second floor, which was also the ceiling of the first floor.
Then shrill screams rang out from inside.
Instead of walking towards that, Victoria carefully examined the interior from the entrance. She could instantly turn everyone here into cellular fragments, but she carefully searched each room one by one, starting with the closest.
Leaving the large central corridor as is, she went around the corridors to the left and right, searching each room one by one.
Victoria's eyes take in papers scattered messily everywhere, and used-up weapons lying all around.
She picks up the papers and skims through them one by one, and picks up each weapon to check its rough operation.
After searching the surroundings one by one like that, Victoria carefully went further inside.
She leaned her back against the wall behind the large door inside and gently pushed it.
"Uh, uwaaaaah, protect me!"
Hearing someone shouting loudly inside, and the sound of murmuring and footsteps, Victoria carefully distanced herself from the corridor.
And while preparing to block the entrance with a water column at any time, she held her breath and waited, then immediately blocked behind the door with a water column when a soldier rushed out.
One person, realizing he was isolated, the soldier realized he had fallen for the bait, but the passage back was blocked.
So he aimed his weapon, which looked like a gun made using a power device that converts magic power into kinetic energy, in all directions.
Then he discovered a girl crouching and looking this way.
Did she come to ask for help in this situation? The soldier thought so and slowly lowered his gun.
He misjudged.
The price for that fell upon him.
Thin streams of water came down from all directions and coiled around the soldier like snakes. He wasn't dragged up by pressure like before, but with his face covered by a mass of water, he was pulled up into the air without even being able to scream.
He struggled for a while, then went limp when he ran out of oxygen. But the water still entered through his airway and filled his lungs.
Only then did Victoria lower him to the floor and search his body. She checked the weapons he used, and checked by piercing water streams through the protective gear he was wearing.
Then Victoria took out something to identify him and frowned. Combining the information found in the scattered documents earlier with the identity of a soldier from a certain marquis family, an outline emerges.
"Marquis Gaston? You're the mayor of Bern City and you made it like that?"
The target was set.
Victoria immediately entered the room.
"G-girl?"
Two men who look like guards. One woman. And in the middle, a man holding a shiny sword stands, all hunched up.
Originally a big man with a manly face, but he looks very miserable crouching down.
"Marquis Gaston. Did you seal off Bern City?"
"You wench, do you know who I am to-"
Be confident when negotiating.
And if necessary, it's okay to make light threats.
Recalling Beatrice's words, Victoria pulled down a rectangular water column from the surface to where the soldier at the very front had been.
The soldier at the very front was sucked into the water column without time to scream and disappeared, crushed in front of everyone.
"I'll ask one more time. Gaston. You only have two refusals left."
Victoria said that while looking at the man and woman remaining on either side.
Recalling Beatrice's teaching that negotiation is safest when you cut off all limbs, push their head into the mud, and pull them up by the hair, Victoria did just that.
Of course, Beatrice meant to bring unavoidable benefits or weaknesses and negotiate with those, but Victoria, who took after her father and had more aptitude for science than language, did it literally.
This is more of a threat than a negotiation.
"Tell me why you sealed off Bern City."
At least she's certainly created a reason for the people here to answer.