The plan to exterminate Amibus=Neptunus had multiple layers details.

However, first they needed to find and immobilize the monster in place long enough to wage a proper battle.

Normally, finding anything in the ocean with the zero landmark would be an issue, but the nature of the threat solved that problem for them.

“Field Commander Apolline,” a mermaid said through the communicator. “We are approaching the curse’s hotspot.”

“Is the protective artifact holding out fine?” Apolline spoke.

“Yes, we expect to reach the destination with no problem,” the mermaid reported. The conversation paused for a beat. “Commander… Can we really win?”

Apolline gazed outside her underwater carriage.

Around her were all the combat forces the mermaid could scrounge up. In an ironic twist, the supreme hegemon of the sea had almost no investment in an active army. Most statements would be right to call this error a tactical suicide, but there was a reason for this decision—namely, a lack of need for actual arm force.

The mermaid was the sole intelligent civilization in the ocean. Living undersea without the threat of dedicated invaders meant investment in war machines and weapons wasn’t a priority. Sure, they did fortify the castle with cutting-edge weapons, but that only highlights the mermaid’s preference for a defensive war. It could even be argued that the castle, housing the Pond of Genesis, where all mermaids were born, was the only place the mermaid spared no effort defending.

Peace was nice and all, but it led to the tragedy that Apolline currently experiences.

There was no special force. No heavy vehicles. What they had was simply a school of arm mermaids with a moderate amount of training. The same school of mermaids failed to stop Apolline’s advances previously.

“Seriously, Sharley,” Apolline launched the question at the Mermaid Queen sharing her carriage. “Is your nation an unguarded treasure warehouse or something?”

The embarrassed mermaid squeezed out a lame excuse.

“We are not very warlike people,” Sharley said.

“Sharley, your people backstabbed a Lord,” Apolline growled. “You are not peaceful people. You merfolk just dropped off a steep cliff!”

…

Above the wave, the first woman on the assault team was struggling in the heavy winds.

Tasked with carrying the entrapment of Amibus=Neptunus, pressure wasn’t kind to Hikari. Her failure would be a disaster of unfathomable magnitude. No one wanted the swimming apocalypse to slip away despite the group's best effort and end the world twenty-four hours later.

Thus, the fastest and most observant of the elite force was tasked with locating the problematic entity and trapping it. Hikari wasn't pleased to receive such an honor. The sheer difficulties of flying through a hurricane were pulling every wrong lever in her mind. Alas, they didn't have another candidate.

Her teammate, who was waiting on the back line, wasn’t of any help either.

Xia: Hikari, Are you sure you can handle this? The storm is worsening in record time.

“I have it under control, Xia,” Hikari yelled out loud. “I am only a minute away from..."

Whoom!

The roiling sea, amidst the unrelenting storm, had upturned itself. The humongous island of flesh—the force from hell—crashed through the water surface and created a tidal wave large enough to doom a small coastal city.

As someone who wasn’t on the anti-pirate team, it was Hikari's first encounter with Amibus=Neptunus.

At this inauspicious moment, the young woman had only one thing to say.

“I have no idea it is this big,” Hikari said.

Betty: We told you it was the size of an island.

“I thought you were overexaggerating,” Hikari screamed. “How do we kill this thing?”

Amibus=Neptunus sensed the woman, observing it, and greeted the interlopers with the waterspout.

From Hikari's point of view, it was like a mad god decided to kill her with a continental-size water gun. Cross that, said the mad god, who was emptying the warehouse of water guns to nail her.

In normal circumstances, the EXOS: RAITEI’s sheer speed would allow her to handle this murder attempt from heaven. The surrounding hurricane was hardly a normal circumstance. The hostility forced Hikari to phase through the column of water with her [Magic Eyes].

Knowing that she couldn’t afford to dally her job, the Reaper enacted the plan.

[CODE BREAK: STEEL_FALL]

The wings of CODE: RAIDEN glowed as the awakening attack activated. A circle of light built and spun around Hikari, expending the barrel on her armory beyond its limit and pouring forth every single blade—over a thousand KUROHANE and an uncountable number of swords—down on the island-sized monster. The swarm of aerodynamic blades cut through the storm in a cloud of sun-blotting steel. Each sword found its marks on Amibus=Neptunus, with the velocity surpassing the speed of sound.

A normal monster wouldn’t leave a corpse behind after facing such an almighty attack. Even a behemoth would bleed out after being turned into a pincushion by the storm of steel.

Amibus=Neptunus did neither. The thousand pieces of implement planted in its flesh had barely stung it or drawn blood. In response, the island monster opened its humongous mouth to cut the path through the sky.

The energy gathered by the monster was mighty. The sheer presence of power stirred the very clouds. Had the energy been processed and unleashed, it would have no problem flattening an entire country in a single blast. Such sheer, barely comprehensible power was a league above even the Lord.

Which was why Ciel couldn't let it be unleashed.

As planned, Hikari activated her second secret weapon.

[CODE BREAK: ARRAY_ERUPTION]

It could be debated that Hikari was a special case among the Unity Lord’s spouses because she could wield an almost unlimited number of CODE modules at any given time. By such logic, the ultimate attack of Battle Suit 2.0—the CODE BREAK—that would normally be limited to a lengthy cooldown could be rapid fire by the Reaper by the simple act of changing weapons.

[CODE BREAK: ARRAY ERUPTION] exploited this logic of every marrow in the bone.

It was an attack activated by linking every single copy of CODE: KUROHANE, linking every blade into an array, and unleashing their latent power. This simple process multiplied the output of the attack by the quantity of over a thousand artifacts.

The impact of this single move was so massive that even the zombie, the girth of Amibus=Neptunus couldn’t ignore it.

Networks flashed, linking the countless swords together and releasing the destructive weight on the hulking zombie before the breath attack was unleashed. Stunned, Amibus=Neptunus wasn’t prepared for what came next.

It wasn’t only KUROHANE blades that had been fired at Amibus.

On the blades sticking from the monsters, countless hilts glowed. On each of them, the Mana Modulator—inspired by the Lord of Mechanical Magic’s design—activated. Together, they converted the vast amount of Blue Mana from the ocean and injected Amibus=Neptunus with a calming effect.

Hit by the sudden surge of drowsiness, the monster slowed significantly.

Feeling the surrounding hurricane had subsided, Hikari gave the signal for the assault to commence.

…

Receiving the message, Apolline issued the order to the mermaid army waiting beneath the wave.

“The enemy has been weakened,” Apolline said to the communicator, linking to the rest of the army. “Anyone who hasn’t eaten those cookies should do so now. We will engage with Amibus=Neptunus the moment we resurface.”

With that command, the underwater army came to the surface of the sea for the battle of their lives.

…

In the meantime, a crack opened in the sky.

From there, the Unity Lord’s frontline member charged out.

Xia came in, casting [Sanction] to further suppress the enemy.

Her partner, Carolina, conjured the [Necronomicon] and summoned forth an army of zombified isopods.

Ciel also joined, not wasting time to open with his ultimate attack.

CODE BREAK: DUALITY_BLASTER

In Ciel’s hand, the energy emitter glowed, sprouting a glowing wing as the wave of energy was unleashed. The heat from the output warped the very space on its journey to BBQ a portion of an island. 

Sensing the threat from the glowing white light of doom, Amibus=Neptunus reignited its suppressed power and raised up a wall of curse energy to block Rem’s attack. All around the monster, the mud of life expanded out, birthing an army to fight against Ciel. That was within the calculation.

However, what wasn’t in the calculation was a tower of jellyfish monsters breaking through the seas and erecting the pulse of Mana, who shoved back the Sanction that Xia had cast.

Seeing the monster again, Carolina, riding on her sea monster, made her grip perfectly clear.

“The jellyfish again? And four of them? Where exactly did they come from?”

Comparing the reading of data to the one from the prior battles. Rem stumbled upon a headache-inducing idea. After a brief debate about whether to release the information, he decided to tell it despite his better judgment, rebelling against the idea of treating this revelation as irrelevant.

“That thing is likely the Witch Pirate.”

Xia reacted with shock.

“That?” exclaimed the Princess of White, pointing at the jellyfish tower with brains and eyes all over its translucent body. “That is supposed to be Rami and her bloody crew.”

“I know it is a shock, but considering what we saw, it wasn’t absurd,” Rem explained. “We already confirmed Amibus=Neptunus have the power of life-creation. Adjust that talent by a few degrees, and we truly have the option to modify life. Enough exposure to Amibus=Neptunus power would transform any species, human included, into a spawn under its influence.”

Carolina pointed at the monsters charging with energy.

“But why did she look like an art project from a five-year-old?”

“Carolina,” Ciel scolded. “You are insulting the five-year-old. Moreover, it is not only her alone. The entire crew of the Witch Pirate was corrupted and merged into a tower defense system for Amibus=Neptunus. It even managed to clone them from the original blueprint to create four more of those towers.”

It was then that an army of sea abominations rose from the mud.

From the ocean, a ragtag army of mermaids surfaced to meet the charge.

On that patch of the sea, a full-blown war commenced.

...

Outside the hurricane’s sphere of influence, Betty relayed the message to the crews of the Five Oceans.

“Amibus=Neptune have been placated. It was our time to go in.”

Gordon whistled, kicking up the ship's engine.

“Let’s hope we can get there before it's over.”

Beside him, Nuan and Santino glared at Gordon.

“Why are you so enthusiastic about this?” Nuan said.

“Why not?” Gordon smiled. “This is a brand new experience.”