"... Is it?"

"Don't try me, I will kill you Venessa."

Aiming her rifle at her friend Mare remained completely expressionless, even as she had covered herself in blood. Her and Lux were the ones that found the surviving elvers and out of respect had Lux let Mare handle her friend while she wiped out the rest.

"So you want to capture me so I can be executed later?"

Showing a scornful expression Venessa fully revealed her disdain for other races, something she had kept hidden for a long time.

"... No. Although I don't know what's going to happen to you, Dax will decide that."

"That monster? Then you might as well kill me here, if you can even muster it."

Slowly starting to back off Venessa stealthy started challenge mana as she prepared to escape while her words had an effect on Mare.

"Stop moving!"

As Mare figured out what Venessa was up to she started getting increasingly panicked, letting loose a warning shot that gazed her friend's arm.

"... Do what you need to do."

Seeing tears stream down Mare's face Venessa judged her to be unable to kill her even if she tried to make a run for it, and so she went for it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!"

She didn't make it far however, as Mare turned off her safety and squeezed the trigger she screamed out in pain as if she herself was the one being shoot. Even under the stress she was under, Mare's shoot grouping was tight and tore right through Vanessa's legs, much to her own emotional pain. Bone fragmented, mussels exploded and tendons tore but Venessa didn't utter a single cry of pain, she was dead before she hit the ground.

"What the f.u.c.k?"

Right before Lux was about to begin memory extraction on the fresh corpses on the former elvers something strange happened. Like time sped up, their heads rapidly decomposed as the skull was bared in mare seconds their brains were destroyed and thus all possible intelligence eliminated. Immediately Lux went to confirm if there was any recoverable intelligence left and ran over to Mare, only to arrive and see her cradling Venessa's copse.

"... It's not your fault."

"I know… But I still hurt my friend."

Seeing how deeply Mare had been affected Lux walked over to her and sat down behind her, cradling the crying beastkin in her arms as she contacted Dax.

[X.O. To command, primary objective failed.]

-

"Tch, f.u.c.king useless all of them… Oh well, there's no way It'll trace back to me."

Inside a darkened room, a single figure talked with himself in frustration as he peered into a crystal ball that shone out in a clear red light. Even if the mission he had been a.s.signed ended in success, the mage was still disappointed that his p.a.w.ns had failed to bring the demon back to him and they had even failed to take vengeance for his slain disciple.

"First that s.h.i.+tshow in the great sea and now this?... At least the self destruct spell worked perfectly and that sad excuse for an angel managed to live through most of it even after she had died."

Leaving the crystal ball that gradually dimmed in light, the mage sat down in a large leather armchair as he evaluated the mission.

"Not bad I guess?... But that craft at the end worries me somewhat, it was completely immune to the demon's spell… I knew we should have send more people to the White lagoon, if we only had secured the craft before them.. What wonders we would have archived…"

Losing himself in thoughts the mage stroked his long white beard while looking towards the ceiling, only snapping out of it when he remembered he needed to report.

"Shadow."

Calling out into the empty room the mage confirmed that a formless presence had taken place in the corner furthest away from him before he gave his report.

"I managed to a.n.a.lyse what I needed and there's almost no chance of detection, but sadly we lost both the demon and the other p.a.w.ns. Tell your master that I will be ready for the next phase in a few years."

As the shadow left him the mage sank back into his armchair as he started the long and tedious task of reverse engineering a particular spell formation he had gotten his hands on.

---

"... That's not normal."

"Dax?"

"Stay back, unless you want cancer."

Having finished wiping out the lesser demons Dax stood in the centre of what had once been the magic academy, he was busy examining a copse when Solaris walked over.

"Cancer?"

"Or worse, this angel is radioactive."

The only thing that remained of the 3 winged angel Melisha was an irradiated headless copse. Her body was filled with deep burns Dax immediately recognized as stemming from a radioactive blast and her body had only been half healed by some sort of green slime which now separated from the copse and gave out a truly horrid smell.

"So it really is the same one I nuked…"

Ever since Dax first saw Melisha at the academy he had had his suspicions, but seeing the damaged corpse confirmed it: This 3 winged angel in front of him was the same one that had attacked Lux's group on their way towards the White lagoon.

(This means I absolutely need to confirm each kill, or there's a chance they'll just come back to bite me later… Still, I would like to know what kind of spell that partly saved this specimen from blowing up along with that AEHWP I scuttled to kill her.)

"Dax?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

As Dax had entered his own little world Solaris got worried and started to walk over towards him, but she was stopped by a hand signal from Dax as he answered still absent minded,

"If the copse is dangerous somehow shouldn't you also stay away from it?"

"Nah, there's no need. My skin protects me from most ionizing radiation, this isn't enough to hurt me. You on the other hand will die a slow and painful death if exposed for too long so back off a bit more."

"... Are you worried about me?"

Seeing Solaris' sincere and meek att.i.tude as she back away a bit more, Dax decided to answer truthfully, even if it was a bit awkward.

"Of course I am, we are family after all."

"Y-yeah, that's right…"

As Solaris entered her own little world while she repeated Dax's words and fluttered her wings like some kind of pigeon suffering from parkinson's disease, Dax tasked ICI.

(ICI prepare for directives.)

(READY.)

(I want to know what this gel like substance is, give me a full a.n.a.lysis. Also, set up a protect to understand how these wings gathered mana and used it. I want a working bio interface before the year is over.

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, TASKING LAB #1 PRIORITY SAMPLES INCOMING.)

(Set up a new protocol to triple confirm all HVT eliminations.)

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, NO LONGER MARKING HVT'S Pa.s.sIVE AFTER CONFIRMED TERMINATION, ALL SYSTEMS WILL CONTINUE SEARCH.)

(Good, next I want all surveillance of this continent revived. Go back and look for any signs of these elvers making contact with an unknown faction, also I want to know how they linked up with that angel.)

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, TASKING SERVER FARM #1-#19 FOR DATA PROCESSING, SETTING UP HIGH BANDWIDTH DATA BRIDGE.)

(Lastly, I want you to task drydock #1. We need an escalation of conflict, bring a type delta strike group online within 90 days, with 9 more before the year is over. Direct other resources if necessary.)

(DIRECTIVES CONFIRMED, RUSH ORDER RECEIVED, DIVERTING ALL NON ESENSIAL RESOURCES TOWARDS CONSTRUCTION… COMPLETE, 564 NEW ITEMS IN CONSTRUCTION QUEUE.)

Standing up straight Dax stretched his back as he looked around at the carnage which had struck the academy because of his involvement.

(So you want to take away my toys? Fine, I can play dirty too.)

Flaring in bloodl.u.s.t for a split second Dax remembered that Solaris was nearby and restrained himself. Finding his calm Dax left the 3 winged angel's corpse behind for his drones as he patted Solaris on the shoulder when he pa.s.sed her, making her snap out of her daze.

"Come on Solaris, we're done here."

"R-right."