A luminous construction was seen flying across the sky at high speed, leaving a faint trail of light in its wake. It sped through the air at three to four times the speed of an orbiter.
Aboard the construct were a group of people - Magus Bellaine with the surviving dozen or so men, Emery's group of six, the Bird of Prey Vida and the Dragon bloodline Zach, the two Nephilim descendants plus six other privileged acolytes.
They were those who had survived the massacre by the stage 7 abyss creature.
In such a short period of time - a mere two hours, the initial group of fifty had lost a total of twenty-two saint-level fighters, five privileged acolytes, and two magus-level figures - Magus Kenneth and the Chief Commander of this operation, Magus Raynor.
The Dragon bloodline protégé whose body had been heavily injured by the Royal Centipede had now regained consciousness and recovered. Most of the wounds on his body had healed thanks to the extraordinary endurance his bloodline bestowed him with, leaving only a few light and shallow wounds.
Realizing that he had just escaped a perilous situation, he nodded his head at the Nephilims, expressing his gratitude for helping him.
An unnatural silence enveloped the interior of the moving construct, as they were all still trying to accept the fact that they had just been in a bloodbath and brushed against death itself.
They might have escaped the danger, but now they were at a loss as to what to do next.
"We should find a way to kill that abomination!!"
Everyone immediately turned towards the source of the voice, and saw Vida whose face was red and her eyes bloodshot. It seemed that she was still bitter and unwilling to accept that they would only let Rofos die in vain.
Hearing such words, Jinkan couldn't help but laugh. Vida of course immediately glared at her, but the Nephilim wasn't affected by the sharp gaze. Instead, she smirked at the bereaved girl and said, "You are free to get off this ship and go back there, you know… No one is going to stop you."
Vida, who was clearly emotional, replied to her remark in a hoarse voice. "I am the Commander of the 2nd Platoon. I will abandon all objectives and mobilize everyone in my platoon to kill that creature and complete this mission." As she said those words, her hands were clenched so tightly that blood could be seen dripping.
Her words confirmed Emery's assumption that Zach had relinquished his authority in Platoon 2 to Vida and gone hunting the Abyss creatures on his own.
On the other hand, Jinkan who heard Vida's extremely emotional words shook her head before mockingly saying, "Please don't embarrass us women any further with your emotional outburst and short-sighted decision."
Ignoring Jinkan's words of ridicule, Vida turned to Emery and said, "What about you Emery? Your platoon should join us too! If we work together, we shall eradicate that creature!"
Emery shook his head and calmly voiced his disapproval. "Sorry, but No"
Even though Emery very much wanted to know and get to the bottom of this Primordial Wisp situation, He would not recklessly charge ahead and throw himself into danger, much less endanger others for his own personal objective. Thus the reason for his firm response.
This time, it was Annara's turn to open her mouth. With her gaze sweeping over everyone on board, she said, "So what should we do now?" Stopping at Jinkan who was supposed to be in control of the ship, she asked, "Where are we headed now?"
The Nephilim girl folded both of her hands. "Back to Platoon 1 base. As for what to do… I think right now we should just follow the one given by the academy."
Hearing the word 'right now' from the Nephilim, Emery raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. "What do you mean by right now?"
Jinkan did not immediately answer his question. She calmly approached the glass window of the ship, lifted her face and looked up into the sky before saying, "They should be arriving anytime now."
"Who do you mean by 'they'?"
Moments later, just as Emery was about to ask her again, he was startled by a sudden rumbling sound from outside. He quickly turned his gaze to the window following where Jinkan's eyes were. There, in the sky, a small spaceship was seen entering the atmosphere.
"There they are!"
Everyone ran to the window to look at the approaching spaceship. Seeing the discernable emblem on the spaceship's body, it didn't take long for them to recognize it as one of the Magus Alliance's.
There were five different yet equally overwhelming presences emanating from the spaceship. Even though there was still quite a distance between them and the spaceship, they could clearly feel the aura as if whoever was in that spaceship was standing right in front of them.
"Who are they? What do they want?"
Those questions were rapidly asked by one of the privileged acolytes, and Jinkan answered the inquiry in a casual tone.
"They should be the enforcers who were deployed by the Magus Alliance for this kind of situation. I had asked them to meet up ahead at the base."
She then glanced at the only surviving magus, Magus Bellaine, who seemed still in shock by the death of her subordinates and companions, and said, "After all, someone has some explaining to do."
At this moment, Emery once again affirmed his belief that this girl Jinkan was truly someone who couldn't be rashly messed with. Not only was she resourceful, the female Nephilim was also extremely intelligent and able to predict things several steps ahead.
As the construct arrived in the sky above the western continent and continued to fly towards the Platoon 1 base, Emery's attention was caught by the sight of tens of thousands of hordes of the Abyss creatures on the ground, heading south in a frenzy.
Seeing how the ship they were on was moving in the same direction, the Abyss creatures were most likely headed for the Platoon 1 base.
Realizing this, Emery was suddenly worried about his own base and thus quickly sent a message to Julian who was there holding the fort. The reply from the Roman didn't come until a minute later.
[It's fine for now, but the situation isn't looking good. The hordes gradually increased in number. If you are all done with the business there, then hurry back. We need more manpower]
The message made Emery want to return to his base immediately; However, Jinkan stopped him.
"No, can't do," said Jinkan seriously and firmly. "You are a Platoon Commander, so you must join the meeting with the enforcers. Only then will you return."
Emery was about to say his argument, but ended up dropping it and just sighed. The girl's words were most likely right, and knowing that it was only an hour from the base, he decided to hear what the enforcers had to say to them.
After sending a reply to Julian, asking him to hang in there as they needed more time to return, Emery could feel the ship descending. They have finally arrived at the Platoon 1 base.
Looking out the window, Emery was surprised at the sight that greeted him. There, on the ground, stood a huge fortress made entirely of metal with walls about 20 meters high, covering an area that looked more like a city than a settlement.
From above the sky, he could see the millions of survivors occupying and bustling around the place. However, what surprised him even more was the fact that the transport, which sent the acolytes to the mid-test, was parked nicely within the wall.
Emery was speechless and dumbfounded.
These Nephilims really know what they're doing.
A few moments later, the ship landed on one of the tallest buildings in this place, and soon after, the enforcers' ship join to land next to them.