The briefing only lasted for a short while, before it was quickly dismissed by the Magus Commander.
After the Magus Commander left, Emery was also about to get moving when he noticed Roran approaching him, prompting him to halt until the man was in front of him.
“As expected, looking at the commander’s expression, it appeared the headmaster’s mid-test idea was not well-received by the magus alliance,” Roran said, before taking a glance at the direction where the commander left. “If this project goes south, we will probably see a new headmaster soon.”
As soon after Roran finished speaking, another group of people slowly approached from behind them.
“I see the Harlight is quite well-informed about the matter,” the person at the forefront commented.
Hearing the familiar condescending female voice, Emery and his friends tensed up and simultaneously turned to look at the incoming group.
The person who just spoke was Jinkan Nephilim, who came with her usual entourage of familiar faces. To Emery’s surprise, even the famous young protege of the Nephilim faction, Eesho Nephilim, was present in Jinkan’s group.
However, out of everyone in the Nephilim’s group, Emery was actually the most interested in seeing the acolyte ranked 34th, Abrafo. He had previously injured the earth acolyte quite severely with his [Spirit Devour], so Emery was a little relieved when he saw the acolyte seemed to have recovered well and was able to join the test.
Like all their other encounters, Jinkan looked at Emery and his friends with a sharp and condescending gaze.
“Emery… I haven’t congratulated you on your success in becoming a commander, have I? I hope we can help each other during the mission,” the female Nephilim said with a faint smile.
Right away, Thrax, who was previously standing next to Emery, stepped forward.
“I’ve been wondering where this disgusting smell was coming from, so this is where it was,” the gladiator remarked, glaring at Jinkan and her entourage with a dark expression.
To their surprise, Jinkan, the individual to whom those words were directed, only maintained her disdainful smile. Instead, Eesho had a disgusted look as he looked at Thrax step forward and muttered, “Apes…”
“What did you just say!? Say it to my face, you #%$&!”
Chumo and Julian quickly stepped forward. The two held the gladiator, but they did not pull him back and only warily looked at the people in front of them, keeping Thrax from getting physical.
They did not want to cause trouble here, but that did not mean they were going to be the ones to retreat.
Not wanting the situation to get out of hand, Emery also stepped up and calmly asked, “What do you want?”
Upon hearing his question, Jinkan walked closer, looked directly into his eyes and replied in a relaxed tone, “I just came showing good intentions, that’s all.”
In contrast to her words and the smile on her face, the Nephilim did not bother to conceal her contempt.
While Emery was taking a short glance at the individuals in her group, he noticed Eesho’s eyes were fixed on someone behind him. He turned his head to check to find that the person the man was looking at was Atlas.
“You have made your decision, it seems,” Esho said with his eyes narrowed.
Atlas only silently nodded in response.
The man did not say another word and immediately turned around to leave upon receiving the half-machine’s response. On the other hand, Jinkan took a step closer to Emery and whispered in a barely audible voice, “I hope you will do the right thing when the time is right…”
The Nephilim then chuckled, before turning around and taking her leave followed by her entourage.
Once again, Jinkan gave Emery a growing sense of anxiety. However, this time, as if knowing how he felt, Klea held his arm
The red-haired girl, Annara, quickly realized the anomaly and turned to ask Emery, “What was that about?”
Emery silently looked at the resourceful girl. He thought of telling her about his problem, but he did not really know what Jinkan’s plan was. Hence, after a brief moment of contemplation, he decided to keep her out of it.
“So it’s a secret, huh? I hate secrets.”
Still, despite the girl’s words, she did not pry.
After the Nephilim left, Roran suggested a meet-up with the whole platoon. As expected, out of all the squads, the Arcana squad did not come.
Fortunately, the other squads all came.
In their discussion about strategy, Trish’s squad was the most communicative out of the four present squads. Unlike Reyne’s squad, the members of her squad all appeared to have come from simple backgrounds.
While Emery was looking at the elites behind Reyne’s squad, he was surprised to see two figures among them.
Lodos the maniac and Micah the crystal user, the two annoyances from group 7.
This time, however, although the two had a sour look on their faces, they no longer dared to look down on Emery.
The last two squad leaders, Wage and Ryan Gasa ranked 40th and 41st, actually came from the same planet and were unsurprisingly related.
After getting to know their new commander, Roran once again used his talent and began sweet-talking the other groups in hopes they would start the mission with greater cooperation.
Emery brought the nine squads to one of the available practice rooms within the ship and suggested a little sparring to get to know each other’s strengths.
While the spars were ongoing, Julian quickly took notes on their abilities and, after their friendly spars were over, Julian started to brief them on the plan and guided them to practice a little formation.
Some of the other squads were reluctant at first, as they knew about Julian’s low rank, but with the commander’s authority, they decided not to make trouble.
After spending one full day getting to know each other, Emery decided to let everyone do whatever they wanted to prepare.
As for Emery, he decided to use one of the personal rooms to once again concentrate on mastering the divine spell [Aegis of Void]. At the same time, he summoned the mineralized warriors and plant creatures to practice by themselves.
Three days quickly passed and they finally arrived on the outskirts of planet Andora. As instructed, each acolyte wore a unique uniform and each platoon then entered three different areas of the ships.
These areas were special rooms. After everyone entered their respective areas, they were instructed to sit on a chair and strapped up tight.
Tutttt!!
[Commencing in 10]
[9… 8… 7…]
It was a little unusual, but as soon as the countdown reached zero, the reason dawned upon them as the ship loudly rumbled.
The ship had detached into three separate tube-like constructs that simultaneously started to descend from the sky, each towards a different continent of the planet.