For the first few seconds, Reina thought the sky was ablaze. It was a crimson orange, shining its brilliance down upon everything it touched. Embers floated through the air like snowflakes. The intensity of the heat was enough to ripple the air and cause Reina to choke.

“W-what is this?” Angel stammered.

Reina hauled herself out of the tube and clapped a hand onto solid ground. A sizzling noise rang out as the heat tried to broil her flesh, but all Reina focused on was getting onto the ground without further distress for her arm. The tube hadn’t quite reached the same level as the ground so Reina had to pull herself up. She could only hope this would be the last time she needed to do it today.

“Reina? What is this?” Angel repeated. "My sight. . .the air here is too hot. My vision isn't working as well as usual."

“At first glance, I’d say Hell. Then I’ll call it humanity.” Reina answered stiffly. Angel came up next to her and scanned the destruction with a look of horror on her face.

Melting slags of metal dripped onto the floor and formed puddles. Cracks traversed through the ground, chunks of it elevated. Whenever Reina put more weight on her feet, the ground made an unsettling noise. The walls and ceilings of nearby structures were completely gone, leaving only the bare metal frames. Even those were all bent out of shape to the point that if there had been a roof, the frames wouldn’t have been able to support it.

So many items cluttered the ground, Reina was having trouble trying to find anywhere there wasn't. Mountains of fiery debris burned the area and Reina couldn’t find an empty spot. Even the place they were on right now had glass turning to sand due to the heat.

And the bodies. Oh, the bodies.

There actually weren’t as many as she expected; no, as she knew there needed to be. She didn’t desire to be mean but an attack of that magnitude would have disabled everybody here.

Except there were only a couple dozen bodies she could see. Sure, large portions of the ground were gone, having sunken below, and there might be some people below there like Angel and Reina. Similarly, there were other rooms and they may have been blown there by the concussive force of the explosion.

Reina doubted that would only leave about 25 people out of more than 100. Barely a class worth. Something was up, and Angel caught it before she did.

Her head perked up as she let out a surprised yelp. She pointed some distance away. Reina narrowed her eyes, trying to spot what she was indicating.

Oh, what she would give to have a sight like hers too!

Reina discovered what Angel had: a robot sliding its way through the carnage. From the distance, with the flames casting flickering shadows, Reina thought it looked a little like a demon.

“What is that?” Ange asked.

“A robot. And I think I know what it is.” Reina admitted. Posters promoting Neverstien, the Everlasting Utopia, had robots like these plastered all over them.

“You just said-“

“I know what kind of robot it is. It’s a common one, seen in Neverstien. It acts as a helper and usually comes out during the nighttime. They pick up trash and lead citizens to safety in an earthquake. The fact that one is here though is unbelievable. . .” Reina trailed off, trying to sort her thoughts. The island the Academy was on was a couple of miles off the coast of Neverstien. While it was plausible the school faculty had bought some to clean up the school, it was highly unlikely. And it was for this exact reason: robots tended to be a bit too intelligent for the teachers’ liking.

“Because of technology?” Angel asked.

“Technology,” Reina confirmed. “The Academy may have grown to use technology a lot more in recent years, but it won’t use drones or robots for many reasons. There shouldn’t be one here.”

“What’s it doing?” Angel once again asked the important question.

Reina looked back and saw the robot dragging a body away. Boiling rage filled her up. How dare they take somebody else’s body? What were they going to do with it?

“Are they rescuing them?” Angel asked. “I hate robots, I can never tell what they want to do.”

Reina hesitated. Should she tell Angel the truth? “. . .I don’t think they’re helping them.” Reina said at last. It would be cruel of her to lie.

“Why do you say that?” Angel asked only to gape as the robot extended a shocker and electrified somebody who’d woken up and tried to move. They fell unconscious and the robot dragged them away.

“That’s not typical helpful manner,” Reina stated.

“What do we do? It’s one robot, we can take it down. What is its offensive capabilities?” Angel asked.

“It’s a clean-up robot. It doesn’t have any, or at least it’s not supposed to. Then again, it’s not supposed to shock people either.” Reina reasoned.

“If they’re trash pickers, why do they have shockers anyway?” Angel asked.

“Who knows? Okay, let me clarify. Other than the shocker, no offensive capabilities.” Reina said.

“Then let’s take it! Reina, you approach it on the left, and I’ll–crud.” Angel cut herself off.

“Crud? That’s never a good sign.” Reina searched for what may have incited a reaction from her friend. When she saw it, she cursed.

Dozens of robots were entering. Each one of them looked like an agent from Hell, fire reflecting off of their metallic shells. Their pincers and ominous glowing red eyes weren’t helping with the notion they weren't miniature devils.

“That’s a problem,” Reina said, clenching her hands. What could they do?

“Understatement of the century! What do we do now? I take out half and you take out the other half?” Angel asked. The wind picked up, ruffling their hair.

Reina examined the robots. They were solidly constructed with few weak points. Two primary parts made up the robot; three if you wanted to be technical.

The first half was the lower one. It was a simple half-sphere that allowed the robot to float a minuscule amount off the ground. From far away and not too far away, it would seem like the robot is traveling on the ground rather than levitating.

The second half was a thicker cylinder shape. There was the standard insignia of the business that made it, and the serial code underneath. Stretching out from either side were long flexible arms with pincers for hand. Reina noted they could suck their pincers back into the arms and absorb everything into them. The hinges were all spheres, allowing for more range of motion. It also put a damper on her plan to attack the joint points.

The third and final level was the head. A quaint dome, there was a large glass ‘eye’ in the middle with smaller red ‘eyes’ next to it. A metal rod poked from the top of its head to receive signals, spiraling into a signal dish. its ‘mouth’ was a set of increasingly larger bars that lit up when the robot communicated.

In totality, it was a strong build with few weaknesses.

“This isn’t going to be easy. We need to strike hard and fast. We can’t allow any mercy to any of them, do you understand me?” Reina asked. They only had one chance of getting this right.

“I know. They’re only pieces of scrap in my book.” Angel lowered her center of gravity, allowing air to coil around her like a shield.

Reina tightened her cast, clenching her teeth. It wouldn’t do for the cast to drop to the floor or something similar in the middle of the fight. Reina bounced on her feet, pumping herself up. She was prepared to give it her all.

“Don’t make any noises and try to remain undetected until right behind them. We attack my signal. Got it?” Reina asked. Angel nodded in response before she groaned and covered her eyes.

“Angel? What’s wrong?” Reina dropped to the ground to wrap her arms around the shaking girl.

Angel tensed, her hands dropped to reveal a slackened face. “I-I can’t see!” she screamed.

“What?” The danger sense went off and Reina spun around, landing a punch against a robot that appeared behind them. The super-powered blow ripped the metal apart, chunks of the robot landing on the ground. Reina stumbled backward, trying to put as much space between them as possible.

{Notice} The Skill [Fortitude Rank D] has been activated. Pain suppression activated. 20% of pain is suppressed.

The crackling of electricity filled the air and Reina started turning her head before a rod jabbed into her side. She screamed as lightning shot through her systems, surging through her body and rendering it useless. The Skill did nothing to prevent the electricity from wrecking havoc on her nervous system.

Reina fell to the ground, unceremoniously landing on her broken arm. As she convulsed out of her control and darkness crept in at the edge of her eyes, Reina wasn't certain if she would ever wake up again.