February 19th, Monday, 2:33 p.m. Weather: cloudy.
On the outskirts of Tengu City, the dense forest stretched along the mountain ridges into the distance like an ocean.
Suddenly, a strong wind blew through. The sea of trees rose and fell in waves, and between the shifting light and shadows, several giant steel birds swept across the sky above the forest.
(Phew… Looks like we're almost there.)
Looking at the scenery gradually approaching outside the window, the captain of DEM's Second Executive Departnt vanguard wizard squad silently took a deep breath, then turned to remind her team mbers.
"Everyone, we're about to arrive at the base. Be ready."
If she had not spoken, things might have remained fine. The mont she opened her mouth, the originally relatively quiet standby room instantly beca noisy.
"Huh? So that's Tengu City? It looks more intact than I imagined. I heard spacequakes happen all the ti there, so I thought it would've beco ruins by now."
"Such a calm looking city on the surface, yet inside it's the den of a terrorist organization sheltering Spirits… Ah, just imagining it gives chills!"
"Haha! Finally, real combat? All this ti it's been training, training, training! I was almost dying of boredom!"
"All right! I'm going to earn myself so proper military rit!"
"Spirits… die… die…"
"Who cares about that? Is it true Executive Director Westcott and Chief Executive Ellen are here?"
"Ah~ if I'm lucky enough to see Captain Ellen's heroic figure in battle, even dying in this deploynt would be worth it."
Hearing her subordinates's conversations, the wizard could not help pressing her brows together in pain.
Just last year, DEM's wizard units had undergone a large scale reorganization. Not only had a large number of trainees been assigned to combat formations, but SSS mbers and even illegal rcenaries had been mixed in. Rumor said this was to concentrate forces against a terrorist organization that controlled nurous Spirits.
Unfortunately, the squad she led was precisely a temporary team cobbled together from these wildly different groups, almost as if they were just making up the numbers. Not only did they lack experience fighting Spirits, their coordination was also terrible. They often clashed over differences in opinion. The only thing worth noting was that every mber possessed an almost fanatical, death disregarding ferocity.
The reason they had been assigned to the vanguard was probably because they were being treated as disposable cannon fodder.
"Captain? What's wrong? You look like sothing's on your mind."
"…It's nothing. I'm only conserving my energy for the upcoming battle."
"I see. As expected of the captain! I want to hurry up and fight the Spirits too!"
Looking at her subordinate, whose bright eyes were filled with intense fighting spirit, the captain did not find that gaze unfamiliar. Once upon a ti, she had also been so fearless and full of confidence.
That could not be helped, as in the minds of most DEM wizards, Spirits were not undefeatable natural disasters. Ellen Mathers, the Executive Departnt Chief, had proven that with her own strength, giving them a direction to strive toward.
"Yes… If possible, I hope we won't encounter them…"
Calmly averting her eyes, the wizard answered quietly and vaguely. Her heart could not help filling with a little lancholy. Once upon a ti, she too had been so fearless and confident.
Helplessly swallowing a sigh, the wizard tried to cast aside her pessimistic thoughts and quietly waited inside the airship.
Before long, a light hiss of ventilation rang in her ears. Along with a slight pressure change in the hull, the wizards and their airships landed at the DEM base.
[Airship—Galdrabok , landing complete.]
[Airship—Honorius, landing complete.]
[Airship—Armandal, landing complete.]
"Vanguard squad reporting in! The rear troops are also expected to arrive within the hour."
"Thank you for your hard work. Next, please return to your ship and proceed to the designated location for combat."
After disembarking, the reception officer did not guide them into the base. After a simple greeting, they got straight to the point and issued an order.
The wizard could not help frowning.
"Combat? What's going on? Isn't the battle scheduled for tomorrow?"
"Please understand, this is a battlefield. Operation timings may change depending on the situation. Furthermore, this is an ergency order just issued by Executive Director Westcott. The mission details have already been transmitted to your terminals. Please complete your preparations within ten minutes."
"Executive Director Westcott… Understood."
Although she felt sowhat dissatisfied that they had rushed all the way here only to begin a mission before even finishing preparations, there was no way to refuse a direct order from the director. The wizard quickly adjusted her emotions, returned to her unit, and opened her terminal to inspect the mission details.
[Mission objective… subjugate Spirit… number: one… target location… hot spring inn fifty kiloters outside Tengu City?]
Looking at the mission contents, for so reason, the wizard felt an even stronger unease in her heart.
"What is it, Captain? What's the mission?"
"Mm… It seems they've confird a lone Spirit. We're to seize this opportunity and subjugate it."
"A Spirit!?"
"Haha! Looks like our luck isn't bad. We just got here and already have a chance to earn military rit!"
Unlike her blindly confident subordinates, the wizard truly could not view this optimistically. Having fought Spirits several tis before, she instinctively sensed sothing strange about this.
(The mission doesn't ntion a specific codena. Is it an unregistered Spirit? Or simply that they haven't locked onto the individual? Without that, we can't form a proper strategy… No, I'm the captain.)
Realizing her own timidity, the wizard shook her head and comforted herself inwardly.
(It's fine. Three airships, this many wizards, and drones too. As long as it isn't 'that' Spirit… Even if we can't subjugate it, this much combat power should at least be enough to repel it.)
"Captain, unknown individual detected at eight o'clock, nine hundred ters out, approaching the base entrance."
At that mont, her subordinate's words suddenly dragged the wizard back from her thoughts.
"Unknown individual?"
Following the indicated direction, the wizard saw, at the distant base entrance, a brown haired girl who looked to be in the bloom of youth and wore a high school uniform, leisurely walking toward them.
Yet for so reason, facing this girl who seed to pose no threat at all, an uncontrollable chill spread from the wizard's spine through her entire body.
"…A student? No, could she be a wizard? I heard Japan also recruits quite a few child soldiers from schools."
"Hey! Don't look through the sniper scope! What if you misfire?"
"Hehe~ What does it matter? If she's one of DEM's wizards, she'll definitely be able to easily avoid that level of attack with a Territory. And if she's not, then executing a suspicious person who trespassed into the base on the spot is perfectly convenient, isn't it?"
"You people…"
Seeing that her subordinates were about to argue again, the wizard did not stop them as usual. On the contrary—
"…Open fire."
"…Eh?"
Hearing the wizard's order, her subordinates were instead left bewildered.
"All units! Equip CR-Units imdiately and attack! Do not hesitate! Eliminate her before she manifests her Astral Dress!"
Hearing the wizard's almost hysterical voice, her subordinates seed to faintly realize the danger as well. They swiftly equipped their CR-Units in unison and aid their weapons at the girl.
In an instant, dense bullets tore through the air with explosive sounds, surging toward the girl and kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
However, when the smoke scattered, the firepower that should have been enough to reduce a heavily armored tank to scrap iron did not blast the girl into minced at as they expected. Dozens of bullets seed to have been blocked by an invisible wall, silently suspended in front of the girl.
Then the girl casually extended a hand and made a flicking gesture toward one of the bullets hanging in midair.
The next instant, the bullet turned into an orange beam, piercing through the wing of an airship behind the wizard.
The enormous chanical wing crashed heavily to the ground. With blazing flas at her back, the wizard felt as though her body had frozen solid, losing all sensation.
DEM wizards did not fear Spirits, nor did they fear death. As subordinates chosen by Isaac Westcott and Ellen Mathers, they believed themselves special, different from others. Like heroic spirits chosen by gods in ancient myth, they were willing to dedicate everything to a great transformation and battle.
However, only once, after fighting a certain Spirit, so wizards had awakened from that fanatical illusion.
It was not because their limbs were torn off, nor because their comrades were cruelly slaughtered. The other party had rely removed the wizards's weapons and, as if mocking them, placed the unard wizards before disaster itself, making them feel their own helplessness and fragility.
And most wizards who experienced that could no longer pick up weapons to fight.
"Really, DEM wizards are far too brutal. Opening fire without a word—what if I really were just an ordinary student passing by?"
Like a devil whispering in her ear, an indifferent voice sounded. At so point, the girl had already appeared before the wizard.
Her long hair surged with lightning. The uniform on the girl's body turned into particles of light, reconstructing itself into a black coat. A chanical longbow flashing with dark blue radiance suddenly appeared in the girl's hand.
The familiar scene made the wizard, who had thought she had already walked out of that shadow, rember the terror from back then once again.
The wizard widened her terrified eyes and read the other party's codena in a trembling voice.
"H-Hacker…"
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