"Yes, Ava. I remember Mommy said it should take those s.h.i.+ps an hour long," replied Aya to my question.

I was not a patient person. The time for me to actually deliver my wrath upon those Aegis Users was near, and yet I could not move from that spot.

Consequently, my eyes were keeping Relly, Alicia, and Bart in check. They were discussing something at the far end of the s.p.a.ce, while Alexander brooded alone nearby.

He was probably thinking the same thing. To take down Relly would not be an easy feat, but it had to be done.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I looked back. It was Lily, with her creepy smile.

"Kid... let's play a game," Lily said. "The first one to take Caesar back to the airs.h.i.+p wins. What say you?"

"No. I don't want to play your game."

Every time I encountered her, the topic would certainly be s.h.i.+fted to Caesar somehow. I never did ask her about it, so that time was a good opportunity for me.

"What's your connection with Caesar?" I asked.

Lily frowned at my question as if she did not even know the answer, to begin with. "Caesar..."

I waited for her. However, Lily seemed to be pondering about it, trying to express why Caesar mattered in her life.

"Caesar..." She mumbled. "Is my... friend?"

"Oh. That's it?"

Lily shook her head. "No, no, that's not right. Caesar's my best friend!"

It appeared that I could pry more about her. "How so? Did Caesar do something?"

Her yellow eyes glinted, remembering all the memories she had with him. "Caesar cooked for me! Meatb.a.l.l.s. Yes! It's so good! And, when I can't sleep, he tells me, uh, bedtime stories. He also talks to me often, when I'm... alone."

'Alone?' I repeated in my mind. I could see why she had to be in that kind of situation. Her strange demeanor basically demanded it.

"Oh, oh, and when I'm sick, he's the first one to ask me if I'm fine, or not. He takes care of me," said Lily.

"So, he's a brother to you?" I asked.

"No. Wait, I'm not sure. Caesar... Caesar..." Lily rubbed her unruly hair vigorously and attempted to squeeze her head after that. "Caesar, what am I to him? What is his connection to me?"

I simply nodded at her soft whispers and she walked over to a corner, seemingly absorbed in her own past memories. When I thought about it further, she could have suffered from the effects of her Aegis that went berserk in the past. And those effects were permanently etched in her mind, clawing at the remaining sanity she already has left.

Pity was the feeling anyone would have felt for her at that point, but she brought it onto herself, I suppose.

An hour was not that long to wait for, and soon, the Great Corporate United's fighter jets flew past our airs.h.i.+p, heading straight to Algeria. The fact that they were deployed means our battles.h.i.+ps had begun their battle at the coast of Nigeria.

I focused on those fighter jets dropping their missiles onto Algeria, but a peculiar thing happened. A barrier made from orange crystals cl.u.s.tered beneath the jets, defending Algeria from the missiles. It exploded upon contact with the crystals, yet it was unscathed.

"Isn't that... How?!" exclaimed Bart.

Confusion wrapped at the other Aegis Users, unsure of what they were seeing.

"Does that mean Gheele is in Algeria? But that huge scale of crystals doesn't make sense," said Alicia.

Relly clicked his tongue. "Our mission is to confront Gheele at his palace in Chad. His presence in Algeria is not quite right."

"But that's his Aegis crystals," said Aya.

"We can't change course now," said Alexander.

They all nodded and continued to observe our fighter jets flying in the sky, while our airs.h.i.+p made its way to Chad.

It did not take that much time until Gheele's palace at Goz Beida was within sight.

Relly signaled at us and we stepped into a large pod at the side of the airs.h.i.+p, along with the Vlasta's Maidens. We had a little bit of s.p.a.ce separating each of us. It made a subtle buzzing sound before the pod dis-attached itself from the airs.h.i.+p, throwing us directly at the palace ground.

I looked upward and our Teria airs.h.i.+p that had become visible ruptured into flames from anti-aircraft missiles.

Our pod s.h.i.+mmered in blue light and crashed onto the ground hard. Frankly, the inside of the pod was cus.h.i.+oned so we suffered no injuries whatsoever.

I guessed it was a cost-effective method to send in elite soldiers right at an enemy's base.

The pod spiraled open and all of us leaped out from it.

"It's been some time since I get in one of those things," said Bart, cracking his neck.

My ears picked up a crackling sound in the air. "What is that?"

In just a few moments, Lily was engulfed in orange crystals. And not only that, the sky itself spread out into the same glittering crystals, forming a thin barrier across the area. Which meant that all of us were trapped.

"Is he serious?!" muttered Relly. "Gheele's planning to protect the entire region of Chad with his Aegis?"

But I know all too well, that was not the extent of his potential. If I was far up into the clouds, perhaps I could see the entire Neo Africa covered in an orange barrier. At that time, we could only see so much. So. that kind of conclusion by Relly was understandable.

Lily broke through Gheele's crystals easily with her Full Aegis Form.

"Vlasta's Maidens, spread out," ordered Relly.

"Understood," the trio answered. They each darted into three different directions away from the palace and disappeared from sight.

Bart, in his black combat suit, formed an emerald spear connecting to his right palm. "Caesar! I know you're there! Come out, come out!"

'Is he an idiot?' I thought. It was like he announced his presence to his enemies in the area. Not that Gheele did not know since he deliberately attacked Lily just a few moments ago.

From the corner of my eye, I could see a daunting number of Neo Africa's soldiers in green. They took their positions surrounding us with rifles locked onto its targets. Since I had canceled my first Aegis's involvement, my eyes were back to normal. So I was not sure about my eyesight when a silhouette emerged from the ma.s.s of soldiers.

"Is that Agatha?" I said. The soldiers were about two hundred meters away from us, and the woman leading them seemed to gesture some form of orders to her men.

"They're annoying..." said Lily, her yellow eyes marked on the poor soldiers.

"I guess we have to clear them out first," said Relly.

Like a predator starved for food, Lily lowered her body, sharp teeth gleamed under the streaking sun. Without further order, she ran at a tremendous speed towards the soldiers, undeterred by relentless bullets piercing her body.

"R-Run!" shouted one of them, but it was too late. Lily got her hands on him first and punched through his chest, red blood tainted her right arm.

"Not yet!" Lily activated her Full Aegis Form, turning a hundred meters of the ground in diameter into glittering, pink crystals. The confusion on the soldiers' faces sealed their fate, as countless spikes impaled their bodies.

The remaining soldiers lowered their guns and started to run away from the site, except for Agatha. Half of her face was still covered in bandages as she stood firm amidst the chaos.

'Well, isn't that the girl I cut in the face? She seems eager to die," said Alicia. "I might as well fulfill her wish right now."

Agatha raised her hand and quickly took a dozen steps back, followed by a subtle quake coming from her direction. Sure enough, a tank was sighted. There were two other tanks coming from our left and right respectively.

"Tanks? This is getting old," said Miranda.

Alicia smiled at Aya after that. "Sweety, why don't you take care of them for Mommy?"

Aya nodded. "Okay!"

I watched onward as Aya trotted to one of the tanks slowly. It did not wait for her of course. The tank fired its projectile and the ground shook from the impact. As expected, Aya was not harmed, as her blood-colored crystals had formed what appeared to be a ma.s.sive claw from her right hand. With that monstrosity, she swiped at the tank with ease and its body shredded into large pieces of metal.

The other tank fired at me, but Alexander stepped in time to cover me with a huge magenta s.h.i.+eld.

"Ava," said Alexander, holding onto his Aegis s.h.i.+eld.

"I'm fine."

Aya swiped at that same tank and it was destroyed in an instant. Forming a second gargantuan claw, she gouged out the last tank's hull with it, rendering the tank useless.

I was impressed by how quick she could project those large objects in a moment's notice.

"Should we get inside?" asked Relly.

"Yeah, we should," replied Bart, wielding his emerald spear.

Miranda already took a few steps ahead of us, walking to the front door of the palace. She was about to push the bronze doors open when a yellow javelin punctured a hole in the door and pierced her throat.

"Caesar!" shouted Bart.

Surely, his dark figure walked out of the bronze door casually, staring at Miranda's condition. "Miranda, Miranda. When you're in an enemy territory, you should be extremely cautious of your surrounding. The enemy might swoop in at any moment, you know?"

"CAESAR!" yelled Lily, her hands had grabbed two bodies of dead soldiers.

Caesar adjusted his yellow Aegis mask in place and looked at everyone there. "I guess, His Supremacy underestimated Neo Africa to the point where the Aegis Users can forget what they've been taught at the military school, eh?!"

Bart gritted his teeth. "I'll take you down, Caesar!"

Lily stomped the crystallized ground. "I'll have Caesar!"

Oddly enough, everyone there wanted a piece of Caesar. But I knew the fact that him alone was not enough to handle this many of us. Perhaps he was just acting as a decoy.

And the purpose of him being a decoy was very much unknown at that point, as the rest of the Aegis Users prepared their wits for the inevitable fight against Caesar.