“What the hell?!! They misfired it!?
The Principal exploded in anger due to the failure, demanding explanation from the commander at the bridge. In response to his outrage, it didn’t take long for another holographic screen to appear.
The background was the interior of the bridge room and standing right in front of the camera was a man in Nexus military uniform. A mix of regret and anxiety was apparent on his face.
“My sincere apologies, Principal. We have made a terrible mistake.” Stuttering, the man continued, “We will immediately try once more! Of course, we will also send more drones to help!”
The Principal was ready to scold the man when he realized who he was talking to. Pointing his finger at the screen, an angry expression appeared on his face. “You!! It’s you again!!”
The man was no other than the leader of the envoy team, Julian. The Principal spat out a series of curses before he finally gave the order.
“Upss, I thought I could get to shoot a few more,” said the imposter man on the screen.
“Wilf, go capture that man!” He roared loudly.
However, this time the magus vice commander didn’t immediately move. Realizing that, the Principal turned his head and stared at the latter, suspicion filling his eyes. “Why don’t you move! Are you rebelling too, Wilf?”
He then turned to the other four magus and saw that all four were occupied with restraining Emery and Stildar, and they didn’t seem to have any intention of making a move.
Once again, the Principal returned his gaze to Magus Wilf, realizing the four of them would not budge without the latter’s words.
“Are you all rebelling?!!” The Principal’s tone rose high. He is enraged.
It was only then a response came. “No, Principal. We are not.”
The vice commander magus looked towards one of the magus that restrained Stildar.
“Bex, you go.”
The man with a glaring scar on his face quickly nodded. He let go his hold on Stildar and stood up, heading out along with hundreds of soldiers to retake the bridge and capture the intruder.
In the meantime, as he left, Emery glanced at the screen and saw that Julian had managed to take control of dozens of mechanical drones. With them, he helped Klea and the others kill the hordes of orcs, bringing about explosions and smoldering flames on the ground outside of the colony.
Seeing that the Principal was annoyed by the situation unfolding on the screen, one of the ministers leaned closer and advised,
“My Lord, everything is prepared already. We really should just leave right now, before the elves arrive.”
Before the Principal could consider that advice, Magus Wilf stepped in and said, “My Lord, I ask you to please reconsider; we must first destroy the stargate before we leave.” Even though it was faint, a twitch could be seen on the Principal’s body.
“No.. as I said Wilf, we already have an agreement with the Elves, they have prepared a rich planet for us, it’s part of the deal!”
However, instead of stopping here, Wiff continued on saying, “My Lord, I have seen firsthand how the elves treated humans. That’s why I can confidently tell you that even though they really gave what they promised, we are still better off finding a planet of our own in the neutral zone, away from war!”
This suggestion appears to be affecting the principal mind.
Hearing the magus’ words, and his position on the matter, Emery couldn’t help but add, “I will help you! As long as you stop the elves from coming through the stargate, I will help stand on your side with the alliance!”
The response he received, however, was laughter. “Hahaha, don’t make me laugh! What kind of authority a Rank 9 acolyte from a lower realm like you have!? How much does your word really weigh?”
Of course Emery knew that what he had just said was a longshot, but right now he understood that he just had to do something – anything.
Therefore, with unfettered confidence, he said, “We might be from a lower realm, but we are highly regarded by our faction, the Nephilim faction!”
In an instant, all laughter stopped as the area fell silent. Just a mention of the name Emery had just said – Nephilim – was enough to shock them entirely, proving how influential one of the 12 Grade 5 factions were.
Emery of course never liked to lie, but the half truth he was saying currently was something necessary to help their situation. Even then, the Principal could still choose to not believe him and go on with the plan.
Thankfully, although his words still didn’t seem much in the Principal’s mind, the way Magus Wilf behaved seemed to have succeeded in making him rethink his choices.
But then suddenly, at this exact moment, an alert sound rang out in the air and from the screen appeared another face of someone Emery recognized.
It was the dark elf magus that he had fought before.
In the next second, the cold voice of the elf resounded in the room for everyone to hear.
“It’s been 48 hours. Activate the gate, we are ready to send our first batch through.”
All eyes immediately turned to the Principal, waiting for him to make a final decision.
Among these people, Emery stirred the energy within his body, readied himself to use all his power to break free and stop the Principal if the situation called for it. At the same time, he observed the man, or rather, his decision.
Hidden by his clothes, sweat appeared on his neck as the Principal spoke as calmly as he could. “We still need a few hours to prepare. We will contact you once we are ready.”
To everyone’s surprise, the answer caused a small smile to appear on the dark elf’s face. He then said, “Hahah, I know you humans can’t be trusted.” His gaze turned sharp as he added, “You don’t understand the meaning of honor!”
“W-What… What do you mean, Lord Kasin? We just ask for a few hours to prepare. Four hours, no, just three hours.” With a confused tone, the Principal asked, “Is that too much to ask?”
Unfortunately, the only response he received was a mocking laugh.
“Ha! You don’t think we didn’t know?” Disdain was apparent in the dark elf’s eye. “We have spies everywhere. We knew that an alliance cruiser was heading to the planet as we speak. Coupled with you killing the orc hordes we painstakingly bred just now.. It’s enough to say that you have broken your end of the bargain.”
The Principal’ face quickly turned when he heard such words. “N-No..! This is just a misunderstanding!”
“It’s just a small mishap, and we are currently dealing with it right now. Just give us another hour, and I will certainly open the gate for you.”
However, contrary to expectations, the elf chuckled as he said, “Do you think your puny technology can be compared to the elves’ ancient technology!?”
When he heard, the Principal quickly panicked and seemed to understand what the elf meant. The images displayed on the holographic screen changed, replaced by the aerial view of the South Outpost instead.
“Principal, we detected a huge energy spike coming from the ground.. It’s the stargate!”
“WHAT?!”
It was apparent that the elves never needed the code in the first place. From the space station, everyone could see the ground near the South Outpost suddenly split open, revealing an opening one mile in size.
A strong tremor shook the ground, followed by the sight of the underground facility being revealed to the surface.
In the center was a huge formation that began to activate. As the light reached its peak, a few seconds later the dimensional portal was created.
Emery and the others watched as the stargate opened, and a warship the size of a mile came out of it.
