Ateia stood at the observation deck of one of the Northern Court’s airships, watching the field below. The group had joined up with the reinforcements from Corvanus, and were now on their way. It would have been faster if the group had flown directly, but in this case it was important that they showed up at the same time as the Legion. Ateia turned her head, scanning the countryside, and frowned. Amulius walked up behind her.

“What’s wrong?”

Ateia furrowed her brow.

“...my eyes can see further than a normal person’s. This one,” she pointed to her robotic eye, “is like a far-seeing artifact, so can I see out into the distance. And my regular sight is empowered by my connection to the world, and I see through the mana flows within it.”

She then sighed.

“So…I can see what’s going on down there. I can see the people fleeing from their homes. I can see the caravans getting attacked, I can see farmers desperately trying to defend their homes.”

Amulius went silent for a moment.

“And you want to help them?”

Ateia sighed again.

“I…know that it’s important to stick to the plan. Magister Canus chose these targets for a reason, and we’ll save the most lives by focusing on the key areas. But…I still don’t feel right just…flying over these people.”

Amulius’s face fell. He slowly reached out and patted Ateia on the shoulder.

“...I know. Sometimes you can’t save everybody. In times like that, you just do as much as you can.”

Ateia rubbed her chin.

“As much as I can, huh?”

She then closed her eyes, and began to focus.

“Seero, I know this is a tough ask, and I know we don’t know those people but…can I help them?”

It only took a moment for the response to come in over the CELIU network.

“Affirmative Response: Units requested are affiliated with a current ally. Assistance is permitted.”

Ateia smiled.

“Thank you.”

And then she connected to the flow of Holy Mana in the world around her…

On the ground, a family of farmers were fleeing down the road. The father was warding off a pack of wolf monsters with a spear. He had dealt with the occasional monster as all those who live outside the cities must, but never a pack all at once like this. The mother was supporting him with Water magic, but she had focused on non-combat spells. She couldn’t cast anything stronger than a Water Bolt, and her lack of experience made it difficult to do even that without assistance from the Aesdes. A young boy, only a year or two past ten, was standing over his younger sister, trembling as he struggled to hold the spear in his hand.

Just then, the wolves pounced at the farmer. His wife, in her panic, failed to cast the Water Bolt spell and the farmer fell back with a wolf on top of him. Another wolf took the opportunity to rush past the adults, charging towards the children in the rear. The boy trembled as his sister screamed.

But then, something warm began to fill the boy’s body, causing his heart rate to slow. For a brief moment, he thought he saw a girl in shining armor. She smiled at him and whispered.

“Don’t give up.”

Golden and silver light wrapped around his hands and spear, and he felt them pulling his arms into shape. He pulled his spear back, and then threw it, much like a Dobhar might throw a harpoon.

And to his surprise, the spear flew straight into the head of the wolf, bringing it to the ground.

Another wolf ran around the first…only for a jet of water to slam into its side. The boy’s mother was staring at the completed spell circle in front of her with wide eyes.

And then a wolf flew into the air and slammed into a nearby tree. The farmer stood up after tossing his attacker aside, looking down at his arms glowing with light. He then picked up his spear and grinned at the remaining pack.

Scenes like this repeated across the countryside. Soon, a flood of refugees would arrive at Velusitum, each carrying fantastical tales about what could only have been the blessing of the Aesdes…The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Ateia wobbled as the power drained from her. She had kept it simple this time, focusing on basic spells and skills, but she had assisted more people than ever before, and across a much wider area. Her father then steadied her with a hand on his back.

She turned to him and smiled.

“Do as much as I can, right?”

Amulius’s eyes widened. But Ateia didn’t wait for him. She sat herself on the floor of the airship and took a deep breath. There was still a lot of countryside to go.

Seero and her monster subordinates were doing all they could, taking down dungeon after dungeon. So Ateia would do all she could as well.

R landed in the center of a dark, crackling cloud hovering just above the ground, unleashing a wave of Holy mana from one of his Rat Paladin skills. Lightning crackled and high-pitched screams wailed as the Lightning Elemental faded. 01R then leapt to the side, barely managing to move before another elemental shot a bolt of lightning at his former position. He took one of the Holy Blades over his hands and swung it towards the elemental, launching an arc of Holy mana that bisected the creature. He grit his teeth as he saw more storm clouds approaching. In the distance, a single mountain rose above forests and plains, its peak obscured by black storm clouds. 01R and the others had just begun to climb the slope to their target at the very top.

This assault was not going as planned.

R’s forces had been instructed to target the Stormy Veil. Its Lightning Attribute monsters struck with fast, precise, and powerful ranged attacks, and so were causing casualties among the Legion troops guarding the Empire’s borders. And under the circumstances, casualties could not be tolerated. Every attack by the Stormy Veil’s monsters brought the Utrad province that much closer to collapse.

The problem being the Stormy Veil was located in the territory of the Thunder Harpies. They were not hostile to the Empire and even had some agreements. But they were fiercely territorial, and the aforementioned agreements acknowledged this, and they would consider it a serious betrayal if Legion troops suddenly marched into their lands. So the task fell to 01R and the others. The Thunder Harpies kept an eye on them, but ultimately chose not to interfere in the fight between two groups of monsters.

However, 01R had failed to consider what the Lightning Attribute meant for his own forces. Electronic components tended to react…badly to being struck by lightning. Of course, the cyborgs utilized military-grade technology based on the Wise-Mighty-Gracious Boss-Queen’s own, which had been originally designed to confront something called ‘superheroes.’ So they did have some countermeasures to electrical surges and EMP effects, not to mention their magical elements.

But the countermeasures did not remove the vulnerability altogether. The drone-golems, which largely ran on electricity, were particularly vulnerable. But even the cyborg monsters could find themselves temporarily disabled if they took a bad hit, despite reinforcing their components with mana. In fact…it turned out their mana itself was vulnerable to the Lightning Attribute. 01R had, unfortunately, just discovered that the Cyborg Attribute had developed enough to interact with other attributes. This was why the group was now climbing the slope, instead of flying. Being disabled even temporarily was extremely dangerous while flying.

Speaking of which, 01R gasped as a bolt of lightning struck his back, magical electricity now surging through his circuits. The lightning attacks, being exceptionally fast and precise, were difficult to dodge, even for the nimble 01R. And this was made worse by another effect 01R did not predict. The sheer amount of electromagnetic radiation being thrown around was disrupting electronic communications in the area. Voice comms were filled with static, visuals from other CELIU units distorted and wobbled, and connections with the autonomous drone-golems grew weak at times. Normally, the CELIU units would cover one another, combining their senses together for supreme situational awareness and assisting each other when in danger. But now those senses were more distracting than helpful, and the assistance was lagging behind the attacks. All of this was making it far harder for 01R to keep track of incoming attacks.

He grit his teeth and sent a surge of Holy mana through his body, purging the hostile energy from within him. The Holy mana also repaired burnt flesh and damaged circuitry, allowing 01R to retaliate against the offending enemy.

But then, a red alert began flashing in the corner of his vision. 01R’s eyes grew wide and he spun around, glancing every which way.

A cyborg unit’s vitals had just gone critical.

WE the Cyber-Giant Water Elemental had been hit. Its Water exterior had conducted the lightning throughout its entire body, sending the attack directly to its cybernetically-enhanced core from every direction and dealing severe damage to it. Its water was spreading out on the ground into a puddle as the elemental struggled to hold itself together with a damaged core.

A mighty roar cut through the storm. 00B charged towards the fallen elemental as quickly as he could, and activated every defense skill he had available while his cannon, machine guns, and laser beams fired rapidly at everything that moved. 00SO the Sacred Otterkin boosted over as well, channeling as much healing Holy Mana as he could into the fallen monster.

“I-I can’t fix it all! The cybernetic components are too damaged! I need help!”

Just then, a glowing dome covered over the cyborgs, separating them from the Stormy Veil’s monsters. Lilussees winced as a storm of lightning assaulted the Prismatic Dome spell. The Cyber-Arachne’s spell-jet had been grounded by storms and lightning, and she was not pleased to be walking on the ground.

“01R, we need to, like, retreat, or something.”

R growled.

“Not yet! We cannot fail-disappoint the Wise-Mighty-Gracious Boss-Queen!”

Lilussees scowled.

“Like, don’t be an idiot. You think she’ll, like, consider it a success if we all die, or something?”

R gnashed his teeth as he glanced around. 00B was covered in scorch marks from taking attacks for the others, 00WE was barely holding together. 02R’s fur was burnt and smoking, 01S was still twitching from when he was hit by a stray bolt. And all around them lay the smoking and sparking husks of fallen drone-golems.

He clenched his paws.

“We retreat-regroup.”

Lilussees nodded.

“Like, get out of here, you idiots. Holding this shield is, like, so much e-word!”

SO surrounded 00WE with a bubble of Water magic, then leapt on 00B’s back. The cyber bear then carried them off the field. All around, cyborgs and drone-golems picked up the wounded and the fallen drones that could still be repaired, and then boosted away from the field. 01R stayed behind until it was just him and Lilussees remaining, then the two of them ran. 01R slowly closed his organic eye as the storm clouds shrank into the distance.

They had lost.