"Are you telling us that these aliens were completely subdued by Mr. Wallace?"

This question was in the minds of every individual present except Yumi.

"Correct…" Yumi answered. She was actually quite happy that they were all accepting the existence of foreign beings.

'I guess that game truly conditioned everyone's mind about their presence.'

She couldn't help but be impressed by Wallace's calculated actions. Aside from that, she also felt that they have benefited a lot due to the man's outstanding ability to invent new things.

'Right, we're also lucky that he managed to find that diary containing records of possible invasion in the future… If he didn't find it and made preparations, we would all be surprised once those aliens arrived…'

"Interesting… If there's a chance that they would die due to the presence of mana in our land, then they must be truly brave or they just trust him very much…"

"Heh~ Didn't he basically made them his slaves?"

"I don't think so… She just said that they have modern equipment that could fight against mana practitioners… Well, let me make this clear… Do you mean that they could be as strong as an Adept? Or are you referring to the strength that reaches a Sage?"

Yumi heard their question as she tried to remember her conversation with Avalon and Ace…

"I'm not exactly sure how to answer that… However, it seems that they possess weapons that could rival our highest grade of magic attack. What's even more troublesome is that anyone could use their weapons if you know how to operate it…"

"What? Even us?"

"That's right…"

"Then, it's really dangerous… No, this is also an opportunity… Most of our mana artifacts can only be used by practitioners… If we learn their technology, wouldn't that be the best?"

"Does it mean that we can make them too?"

"No… All of them are confiscated by Wallace."

"Then, we just have to negotiate with him…"

Yumi can only shake her head after hearing it.

"That's not appropriate as well. I already made a report about the enemies that Wallace was expecting… They similarly possess these weapons and maybe even a higher grade… He needs them up there."

"If that's true, then isn't it more appropriate to learn about them or even have these weapons for ourselves too…"

"Haa~ Those weapons were difficult to make with our technology. We can't even properly bring something out of our planet without Wallace's abilities… Listen, he said that we have to focus on our Mana Artifacts… We have to take advantage of being capable of utilizing the mana… That will be our way to fight against them…"

Yumi explained to the high-ranking officials of this nation as she returned to the main topic explaining the descent of the foreign species.

She was thoroughly briefed by Avalon prior to this meeting so she can confidently answer everyone's questions.

Ace wanted to exploit the Mana on this planet against the invaders and this is not a negotiable matter so she had to be firm about this.

Luckily, she had managed to convince them with her words, and through the help of Charles, the doctor who was acquainted to Wallace, she leads the conversation to her advantage.

Finally, she discussed the things that must be done while the Arians were present. The meeting lasted for more than two hours before they were all satisfied…

"Urgh… Wallace… No, Ace… You should be paying me heftily with this work." Yumi as she massaged her temple.

Talking with those high-ranking officials was very challenging since they always want to have some benefits…

The only thing that she could do about that was to tell them that Wallace would introduce another source of energy to them and they will be the first people to know about it…

It was actually Avalon's suggestion to calm them.

'However, once the chaos has truly arrived, who would care about profits and things? Isn't survival the thing that we should be looking at?'

Perhaps, aside from Wallace's group in outer space, she's the only one who was fully aware of the danger that was coming their way.

Wallace spread the information long ago but there were barely any steps taken… It was as if they are waiting for concrete evidence…

'Ahh! Maybe this is the reason why Wallace wanted to parade those foreign beings… It is so that the other countries would start taking this matter seriously!'

Yumi exclaimed after realizing Wallace or Ace's hidden plan…

Although the existence of the Foreign Beings was planned to be kept in secret, it was impossible to keep it in a wrap for a very long time…After all, high-level information networks like Veda would surely know about it…

***

[ Observer 4… Destroyed. ]

[ Observer 8… Destroyed. ]

[ Observer 12,16,22… Lost Contact. ]

"What happened, Avalon?" Ace asked worriedly. They shouldn't be making a contact with the empire's forces yet.

[ Unknown Force Field affected the system causing a malfunction. ]

"Tsk… I knew it… Switch to Mana-Based Equipment from now on…"

[ Affirmative. ]

Everything has been prepared and he similarly prepared everyone that was stationed in the Moon Base and the Lagrange Point.

They were only waiting until their contact with the empire's forces.

However, based on Avalon's calculation before, it shouldn't be this early since they used the coordinates that were previously used by Omen for their wormhole… It means that their ETA shouldn't miss by a large margin.

As a matter of fact, they should also be fixing their spacecraft after their dangerous exit in that wormhole. The data left by Omen made them aware of the danger of getting into this star system without the help of the Cube…

"Mhmm… It seems that their technology had also advanced by a tier…"

Ace was unsure what kind of technology they are using but he had to expect that they have similarly improved for some reason.

The current technology before he was transported here was already reaching the peak of humanity, so it isn't something that can be advanced in the several years that he has been away.

'So there must be something in the hands of the empire… Anyway, there's no point in thinking of these things for now. If I have a trump card, they should have it as well since they're planning to conquer a planet with true magic… That should be natural… Haa~ This might be tougher than what I expected…'

Ace sighed as he pinned his hope to Wallace…

'You should've had enough time by now… I'll kick you if you haven't reached the peak of the path you've chosen yet…' Ace thought while remembering the time when Wallace had chosen to create his own path through the Pathfinder.