"So, they had antic.i.p.ated someone to strike that railgun first," said Hope. His eyes stared at the huge hole in the wall. "A clever general."

"Generals," said Freya.

When I s.h.i.+fted my attention to her, she flinched. Perhaps it was out of instinct, nevertheless, that kind of reaction was expected. After all, I literally burned her hand into ash the other day.

"What should we do now?" Freya asked Hope in a soft voice.

"Hmm . . . We could go down there and start slapping every soldier we find. Our current goal is to grab as much attention as we can, so that's an option."

"I think we already grabbed a lot of attention," I said. "Moscow's military base is literally a hundred feet away from here."

Freya and Hope nodded.

As we were about to move out, a screeching sound attacked our ears, growing stronger and stronger every few seconds. My Aegis knew what was coming, and it formed a huge s.h.i.+eld from my back. Hope did the same, but with his right arm instead. We pointed our s.h.i.+elds in the sound's direction, only for the Tower to be blown into pieces by a turret's projectile.

"Aargh!" The three of us were thrown out of the Troitskaya Tower. It was only for a moment, but I managed to catch a glimpse of the Tower crumbling.

"Hold on!" said Hope.

Golden whips sprouted out from his back. Quickly, it wrapped both me and Freya. He then shot an X-shaped hook from his right palm; straight at a ground turret. Once the hook pierced through the turret's sh.e.l.l, the three of us were pulled abruptly towards it.

"Erk!" shrieked Freya.

I formed a crimson scythe from my right arm, and it sliced the turret in half. After that, we landed on the graphite road safely as I caught Freya with both hands.

"You're heavy!" I said.

She leaped on her two feet and gasped for air. "I thought I was going to die!"

Our Aegis crystals disappeared into thin air a moment later.

However, dozens of foot soldiers poured into the street and quickly aimed their rifles at us. It was slow, but more of them started to come out of the military base as well.

"Ugh," grumbled Hope.

"As much as I dislike this, we did manage to grab a lot of attention," I said.

The soldiers stopped moving, with dreadful silence then filled the air. Without warning, they fired at us and I wasted no time in using my white flames to disintegrate the bullets. When the soldiers stopped firing, I expanded the flames in an instant.

"Aaaaaah!"

The soldiers screamed in pain as my flames took its time burning them. It devoured every inch of their bodies before it turned into black ash.

"Hm?!"

The ground shook for a few moments. A square section of the graphite road disappeared and a ground turret popped out of it. The turret aimed its muzzle at the three of us.

"I'll take it down," said Hope. "Freya, you stay here with Ava."

"Right!"

I formed a tunnel using my flames, allowing Hope to head straight towards the turret. It took him no time at all to take the turret down. The remaining foot soldiers started to run away when they saw that, but of course, I burned them using my white flames.

If they were indeed soldiers, then dying on the battlefield for their country wouldn't be so bad. They chose their path a long time ago. Though, unconsciously, I bid my time killing those people.

"Ava," said Hope with a worried expression. He had regrouped with us as we made our way to the military base itself.

"I know . . . That wasn't necessary," I said, glancing at him after he called my name.

Our team was about fifty meters away from the single military base building when three Vasquez emerged from its entrance.

"Look here, a bunch of rebels!" said one of the Vasquez.

"More like, a bunch of kids," said another one.

"Did you just call me a kid?!" I said.

I summoned more white flames from the back of my Uniform and it engulfed the three Vasquez. After being called a kid by my enemies, there was no way I could let them live.

"Wow. That's . . . quick," said Hope. He shrugged when I smiled at him.

"Look, more of the soldiers are coming out. Let's hide for now," suggested Freya.

We took her suggestion and hid in a narrow alley near the base. We had to do so, in order to think of what we should do afterward.

I grabbed a mineral bottle from a backpack Freya was carrying.

"That hits the spot," I said after drinking half of it.

Hope was still catching his breath. After that, he took a peek at the soldiers fumbling about outside of the military base. "They are looking for us."

I looked at Hope, and then at Freya sitting next to me. While we were severely outnumbered, their overall combat strength couldn't even compare to us. The only way they could actually hold us back was to deploy an Aegis User or two. Of course, the plan had accounted for the possibility of them guarding the city. Still, their forces could've been reduced by half by the time they arrived.

Kian, who I a.s.sumed had gone back to his comrades somewhere, was sure to be a major threat. Klaus said Kian was not a Pillar that only me, Freya, and Hope could defeat. We would need the whole Lutalo squad to do just that.

"Ava," called Hope.

"Yes?"

"Can you use Bart's Aegis to control those soldiers out there? If we can exclude them from combat altogether, there would be no one stopping us from waltzing into the building," he said.

"Yeah . . . That will work."

I formed a cl.u.s.ter of green crystals on my right palm immediately. More than a year had pa.s.sed since I possessed Bart's Aegis, and no doubt, I had more control of it than before.

"Here I go."

The green cl.u.s.ter started to glow. A moment later, I took full control of the soldiers. I ordered them to stop moving, as the three of us went inside the building.

"Squad three, respond!" A man's voice echoed throughout the white hallway. The voice came from the speakers propped up at the ceiling.

"Squad four? No one's responding, dammit!"

Hope turned to me when we arrived at what seemed to be an office. "How about the soldiers inside this building?"

"I took control of them as well, but there's no telling if more of them will show up later on. I can only tell there are about forty soldiers inside this building, thirty-five of them under my control."

"Anyone inside this office?" asked Freya.

I nodded. "Only one. I'm a.s.suming it's the general. He is under my control too."

"Great." Hope twisted the metal door open, and sure enough, a soldier with his dark blue military uniform was sitting on a leather chair.

"It's not the general. Probably one of the higher-ups," said Freya.

As soon as she said that, a crimson spike shot out of my arm and pierced the soldier's throat.

"It's necessary," I said out loud before Freya could speak up.

"Alright. Let's head back downstairs," said Hope.

We rushed to the huge lobby, where we came across five soldiers that weren't under my control.

"How can these kids get inside? What are the guards doing?!" said one of them. "No one in charge of surveillance activated the alarm?"

Another one of them waved his hand in front of a soldier I took control. There were nine controlled soldiers in that lobby.

"Sorry, but we have to take you down," said Freya. She dashed towards those five and sliced at their necks with incredible precision. A few seconds after that, she sheathed her gray Aegis blade.

"They let their guard down in front of us," mumbled Hope. "It's expected when you see your friends just stood idly like robots."

I turned to face Freya and Hope. "We should buy more time for Jessie and Caesar."

"Yeah," agreed Hope. "Though, by this time, the soldiers belonging to the military coup had entered the city. They should be helping Caesar and his team right now."

"Should we go back outside?" suggested Freya. "I'm sure there are soldiers out there that just arrived. Perhaps confused as well."

We agreed. However, when we went outside, instead of soldiers, there were two Teria airs.h.i.+ps floating up high in the sky. At first, there were no new enemies, but we were surprised by a sudden burst of bullets flying towards us from behind.

"You two!"

Freya s.h.i.+elded both me and Hope with her body and she fell down. Her injury regenerated after that.

"Freya!" said Hope.

I knew that her action was unnecessary, but the bullets could render us immobile, allowing the Teria airs.h.i.+ps to have clear targets for them to attack.

"I'll take care of the Teria soldiers," I said.

,__.__,

,__.__,

An hour later, we were still fighting.

"Hah!" I sliced a Vasquez in half with my crimson scythe. Hope took down another one.

"Freya, you okay?" I looked over my shoulder.

She was gasping for air, trying her best to keep up with all the fighting. She was only a Pseudo Aegis User, so we couldn't really force her to wear herself out this early.

"Ugh! I'm exhausted." My legs gave up and I fell on both knees. "This is . . . Never gonna end, isn't it?"

Hope's face was covered in fresh blood as the injuries all over his body started to heal. "Up there. Helicopters. And jets too?! Oh, come on."

The dark helicopters and jets had their attention on us. As much as I would've like to stop right then and there, our goal was still the same. We were to draw as much attention as we could towards us.

"Let's just get rid of them and push forward," I said.