Chapter 337 - Space War I

The appearance of energy similar to the Cube of Paradox was quite concerning… The 'Sacred Relic', as per his mother's research, have many uses… However, only a method to harness a bit of the cube's power was discovered…

Luckily, the Empire seems to be unaware of how to properly use it until now… 

'Well, it's not that easy to study it especially after the death of its main researchers…'

Ace was talking about the first people from the galaxy that has entered the Magic Earth… 

It is the team lead by the Prince or Aeolia who didn't manage to survive the rejection of mana in their bodies.

"We have to destroy those two spacesh.i.p.s… Coordinate with the Mech Knights Division. We will be needing their support."

[ Affirmative. ]

'Mhmm… Their main fleet would recover from their restraints in a few minutes… and the five conquerors in front would be dealt with later on… We don't have much time…'

Ace analyzed the situation quickly… The planted liquified Celestial Blood wouldn't immediately take effect but the corrupted energy would certainly damage the starship's internal system…

"Avalon, what Mana Artifact can they use at this time?"

[ There are three of them. Modified Mirror of Trace, Stealth Armor, Blazing Thunder Spears ] 

The Mirror of Trace that was capable of deflecting Grade 4 Magic Spells was modified to be capable of handling advanced tech weapons as well. Theoretically, it could also return a particle beam if they have enough mana reserves.

This mirror made of Ancient Abyssal Glass was just too powerful.

On the other hand, the Stealth Armor that they have also had the latest Archon Series. This is a Mana Artifact that he made in consortium with Vector Organization who made the said Series. 

Finally, the Blazing Thunder Spears were Mana Artifacts influenced by Lacus Minerva…

All of them were quite useful but not in terms of dealing with the two Black Sovereign Spacesh.i.p.s.

"Tsk… It's not enough…"

[ All of the powerful Mana Artifacts that can damage the spaceship were installed in the Providence Spaceship. ] 

Avalon replied. The Mech Knights weren't meant to fight these gigantic spacesh.i.p.s in the first place… They were meant to fight smaller machines like Mech Frames, perhaps Destroyers, or Marauder Gears of the enemies…

"Haa~ I understand… Let's just try something out… They are still Adept Mages… There should be something we can do."

[ Affirmative. Just give your orders. ] 

***

Ferdie Sigma, one of the elite solo players in the Alien Invasion game, was fascinated at the thought of seeing genuine spacesh.i.p.s…

Not just an orbital spacecraft but one that is capable of interstellar travel… 

This is the reason why he was so interested in the recruitment at the Mt. Raven before. He met with other players and this was also the first time he realized that he was ranked 15 at their Server Rankings.**

He wasn't playing competitively and was only enjoying the game so he wasn't checking the leaderboard at all…

He was mostly focused on learning the top-secret Magic Structures and mechanics of the Advanced Techs…

He even felt bad about learning them for almost free… After all, they are things that can be used in the real world and would surely benefit them.

Nevertheless, he spent most of his time studying these Magic Structures and Technology while also enjoying the game through the missions that Freya was giving to him from time to time…

When he arrived at Mt. Raven and successfully passed the last examination, he felt truly happy and even wanted to have a Mech Knight similar to the Radiant Knight that he used in the simulation…

He accepted the final interview and agreed with all the contracts given to him… He didn't find anything negative about the contract as it was full of benefits except for the fact that they will be facing real aliens in the future…

When he was 23 years old, he was just working as a Fabricator. At the age of 27, he managed to luckily complete his Arcane Baptism but he was just promoted as a Fabricator Manager since he has no other interests… He was overqualified but he wasn't really interested in researching Magic or becoming a powerful Magician.

Anyway, he's unable to accomplish anything amazing in his life.

However, he was very interested in joining Wallace's cause, to stop the invasion from happening in the real world… It was like fantasy and he somehow wanted to be part of it.

He has many questions about how Wallace managed to prepare on such a large scale like this but it doesn't matter since his reason is genuine… He truly wanted to save their country or the world from destruction and even gave free knowledge and items to prove this.

Ferdie was in the first batch of Magicians that has arrived in the Moon Base. Then, he was assigned as a pilot as expected but he didn't manage to get the Radiant Knight that he wanted, it was given to a genius magician named Hilda.

He wasn't mad or jealous about it as he was soon given a Mech Knight that is more suited for him.

Avalon called it Issyl, a modified version of Lotus Mech Knight and embedded with interesting Mana Artifacts meant for fighting the Mech Frames similar to the Dorssia Empire's machines.

The Mech Knight was slim and focused more on its speed and maneuverability unlike the bulky ones with cannons and guns… He didn't like it at first but Avalon seemed to know him better than himself. After practicing or playing with it for several days, he has grown attached to it and found himself as one of the elite pilots.

He was even offered to lead a Knights Division but decided not to since he's not confident in leading a team… Nevertheless, it shows how talented he was.

Right now, they were given orders to fight the Black Sovereign Spaceship as Excellence and the Providence will support them will everything they got.

He thought that it was such an absurd idea but he quickly realized that it wasn't an impossible thing to do…

[ All the Mech Knights Pilot of the 1st and 2nd Division, use an Arc Formation and ready the activation of Mirror of Trace. If you do not possess enough Mana, use the emergency Mana Filler. ] 

The message repeated twice as Avalon gave the coordinates to where they should position themselves.

Ferdie followed the instructions but he first communicated with Ray Penber, their leader… He wanted to clarify some things…

"What is it, Ferdie?" 

"Are we just going to use the Mirror of Trace and wait? We can still use the Binding Traceless Oscillation once… I think we can use it before our two spaceship attacks with their main cannons…"

Ray didn't immediately reply as he thought about his suggestion.

"That's a good idea… But Avalon might be thinking of using it to stop the main fleet after they recovered… Let's not waste it for now…"

"Alright, I understand." He just accepted his explanation for now…

They have several Magic Spells and although it isn't very effective against spacesh.i.p.s, it might create an opening for the Providence… They have a wide variety of spells so he wanted to at least utilize them.

He's sure that they have enough Mana Reserves to use some of them…

'Wait… This might be one of Wallace's strategies as well… By limiting our Magic Spells, it would delude them into thinking that our mysterious spells weren't that diverse yet… We may be able to use this to our advantage later on…'

Ferdie mused while waiting for the signal. He no longer felt scared in front of the enemy spaceship now that they have clear instruction from the almighty A.I.

As long as he follows them, he will definitely survive this…

Whoozzsh!

The Providence's particle cannon fired at the two Black Sovereign!

He didn't notice it's acc.u.mulating energy or detected any heatwave at all! 

It was such a stealthy particle cannon and Wallace must've done something about it…

This is completely different from the Dorssia Empire! It is even more impressive in real life as it was assisted by various Mana Skills…

Boom! 

As expected, a battle at this level is very dangerous for their small Mech Knights… The size of that beam was perhaps enough for their whole Division to be wiped out…

[ Activate the Mirror of Trace Now! ]

As soon as the instructions were heard, none of them hesitated as they quickly activated the Mirror of Trace installed in their Knights…

Then, they were subjected to pressure that they were even forced to move back…

[ Thrusters at full force. Use the Mana-based boosters. ] 

No unnecessary words were made as they followed without any questions. They have already trained in this type of battle so they just have to possess a calm mind and avoid panicking…

[ Switch to Close Combat Phase. There are incoming 100 Enemy Mech Frames. The Excellence's support will arrive in 3 minutes. ] 

Avalon reported… 

Ferdie smiled after hearing the news, he wasn't afraid at all… 

He's excited… He was already getting frustrated as he can barely do anything against the Black Sovereign…

However, those Mech Frames were different…

"Finally…"