As for Monica, Theus truly had no leads. He had asked through the Banshees' Mind Link, but none of the Banshees had any memory of Monica.
She had simply vanished without a trace.
Before Theus could investigate further, an even greater problem quietly descended: the monsters had begun their offensive.
There had always been Fishmen and sporadic attacks before, but this time, the Transcendents on watch sent out an early warning: a massive force of monsters was already on the move.
Theus immediately ordered the airship into the sky. It carried a large stockpile of bombs and bullets, and after its modifications, it had become a purely military weapon.
Theus had also had someone paint it with the classic shark eyes and teeth. Don't underestimate that—in this idealistic world, a weapon's power really could be linked to its paint job.
Theus had long had a vague feeling that the bombs under his command were absurdly powerful. Once their yield rose even slightly, their destructive force became outrageous, and they had especially pronounced sound-and-light effects. Every explosion produced a world-ending mushroom cloud.
Later, he discovered that yield worship was widespread within the Faithguard Army. Alexei had even written it into the Holy Scripture.
Theus had initially worried that it might cause Cognitive Interference, but no problems had appeared in the battles that followed. The Faithguard soldiers were not blindly worshipful either; they still possessed basic scientific literacy. Yield worship was merely a hobby.
So Theus stopped paying attention to it.
After all, they genuinely liked it. Whenever they had nothing to do, they loved reciting a few yield prayers. And the increase in explosive power was not exaggerated enough to warp reality—it merely slightly increased damage and exaggerated the visual effects.
The Faithguard Army did not worship only that. Machine guns