The spaceship that Emery and Annara was riding shook violently, causing the latter to hastily reach for the control panel only to find that it had become unresponsive and appeared to have lost all its functions.
Emery couldn't help but become a bit anxious as he watched the huge ship gradually approach theirs. Even though Annara told him that it was the human alliance's ship, they were after all in desolate outer space where a mere small mistake could literally decide between life and death.
"Relax, will you?" said Annara when she noticed how nervous Emery was. "They are definitely friendly, so don't worry too much. Being a student in the privileged class and what we have done in Kurltulmak planet, I'm sure we will receive a hero-like welcome."
Those words were spoken by Annara with such confidence, a moment later a voice came out from the control panel.
"This vessel was reported to be stolen. Identify yourself immediately or we will open fire."
The confident expression on the red-haired girl immediately crumbled down like sand.
"Wait! Wait! Don't shoot! We are two of Magus Academy's acolytes! Please don't shoot us!"
"..."
After Annara frantically said those words, there was only silence coming from the other side for some time.
Suddenly a beam of light shone from the battleship. Both Emery and Annara watched as the beam slowly but surely pulled their spaceship to the back of the huge ship.
As they got closer, Emery could gradually see the entirety of a tremendous-looking ship. It seemed to be made completely out of metal, and upon closer scrunition, it was probably only half the size of the elven cruise ship they had seen before.
However, this particular battleship looked very threatening compared to the elven cruise ship, with prominent turrets placed in various places and numbering at least a few dozen.
The large hatch at the rear of the battleship opened as Emery and Annara's spacecraft approached, and they were ordered to dock into the hangar where they could see a group of people in uniform waiting near their spaceship's landing site.
Through his Spirit Reading that had been stretched to the limit of its range, Emery could roughly guess that there were at more than three, almost four thousand people in this battleship. About two hundred of them were present around the hangar, most of which consisted of rank 9 and saint-level individuals with half a dozen magus-level people.
When the two of them walked out of the spaceship, Emery finally realized that these people weren't actually in uniform. To be precise, they all indeed wore uniforms, but there were 4 different ones.
The only thing they have in common in their appearance were the black shoulder pads with special markings embroidered on them.
Before they stood face to face with the group of people who had been waiting for them, Annara leaned closer to Emery and whispered into his ear. "These people are all battleborn. They are part of the elite human fighters!"
Even though Emery didn't know what battleborn meant exactly, he could roughly guess from their appearances and the term that these people standing in front of him were all probably veterans of the war.
On the other hand, Annara still wasn't done yet with her words.
"They probably just finished a battle with all those wreckage still around." She nudged Emery and said, "You just need to stay silent and let me do all the talking, alright? Don't mess up this simple task."
One of the magus figures accompanied by 10 saint-level people approached with a device in his hand. He quickly scanned the faces of the two of them and the symbols on their palms.
Even though the magus seemed to have received their personal data, he still asked them questions.
"Name?"
"Annara Vermont," Annara swiftly replied, to which Emery followed right after. "Emery Ambrose."
The magus nodded his head when he heard their answers, but he still continued to ask more questions. It was evident that the man was being really cautious.
"Next question, explain why you are here with the reported stolen ship."
Hearing this question, Annara immediately explained about them being captured against their will by a Snake Bloodline clan, and that they had simply fled to return to the Magus Academy.
Once again, the man just nodded his head. He then gave a few more questions which were basically asked to confirm their position the last few days.
While they were being questioned, Emery took the opportunity to carefully observe all the people around them.
He couldn't help but feel some sense of familiarity with a certain kind of the uniform. It also didn't help that there was a woman that he found really familiar among the magus group.
Emery could have sworn he had seen her in the past. The female magus also seemed to recognize him as he saw her smiling in his direction.
While Emery was busy thinking about who she was, the female magus approached the magus who was questioning them. She told the man to stop the questioning while her eyes were still focused on Emery.
"I know who they are." The female magus said to the man. Then, she said to her subordinates. "Call the commander here."
The female magus did all of this while still smiling at Emery, making him even more confused about her identity.
Meanwhile, Annara was panicked. She quickly turned to Emery "You..! how many people do you mess with aniway? There's the Nephilim, then the Ouroboros, and now these battleborn?!"
Emery couldn't really answer her question because he himself was still trying to put a name on the female magus' face when suddenly a loud sound could be heard from on one of the hangar door and it was approaching fast.
The figure was a peak stage magus, with such an overwhelming aura.
As soon as the middle age figure saw Emery and Annara, he shouted loudly.
"You! Why are you here?!!"
Annara's body involuntarily shook under the deafening voice. She quickly bowed and said, "Commander, whatever issue you are having with this colleague of mine. Please… I… I'm sure we can resolve it peacefu-"
The figure whose steps were suddenly stopped by Annara quickly grabbed her shoulder and shout, "Move away." Under the red-haired girl's confused gaze, the figure smiled broadly at Emery and so did he.
The figure quickly walked up to Emery and put his arm around Emery shoulder before shouting to everyone around.
"Men! Let me introduce you all, this person here is my junior brother from home!"
The cheering figure was none other than Lord Izta, the Gilgamesh.