Scathach tried to stop it, but not even the gods could stump momentum Rem created. Instead of halting the train, Scathach found herself hoisted along the ride of doom with no brakes.

…

Phase One of Rem’s plan was researching.

“How the hell do you get all this book?” Scathach cried as she witnessed the metaphorical train wreck in progress.

The camp got a do-over. The chair was gone, and so was the campfire. Horizon Dawn was on the warpath. Foldable table positioned strategically inside the base with books stacked high. Blackboards and message boards stood tall, with the mission’s objectives written in bold. For three hours, Scathach was on a deathwatch as she watched the Mission Impossible in-progress.

“A gift from a Jedi Master,” Rem said, gesturing at the girl working on overtime amidst the pile of books. “The Horisearch will handle it.”

“Horisearch?” Scathach said.

“Cytortia’s division,” Rem said. “She is digging any usable data. We need to know what we are dealing with before further planning.”

“You can’t be serious?” Scathach said. “You know who you are fighting, right?”

“Illma,” Cytortia answered. It appeared Rem wasn’t the only one fed up with Scathach’s attitude. “If we win, Chuang will come after us eventually. Not that I mind, we are already enemy.”

“You will never beat her!” Scathach spoke, flabbergasted. Where was that cowardly goddess when she needed her. “It’s too soon for you two to clash.”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Cytortia replied, tossing one more book onto the discarded pile and grabbing another one. “I am tired of running away to cry in the corner Scathach. I am putting my foot down this time. You can either help or go back to my aunt and say you quit.”

Scathach knew this was a disaster. Two options stood before her: the rule of the gods or her promise. It was a hard one. Despite her mercenary approach to life, she never broke a vow. In the end, she picked the third option: find an ally to put a stop to this madness.

Maybe Luxinna would work.

“Lux, Can you please tell these two to quit?”

“No. Freaking. Way.” Luxinna was helping Ebony unpacking. “Fighting against a force of evil to save an innocent town from a bloody dragon? I am practically living my childhood dream. Where do I put this box?”

“Left counter, loser,” Melody answered, and wrote something about nerve gases on the blackboard.

“Shut up, bandage-face,” Luxinna stuck her tongue in defiance, but nonetheless followed her instruction.

Scathach looked for more option.

“Ebony...”

“Shut up, traitor,” Ebony snapped. “I am concentrating. If you don’t want to help, dig yourself a grave, and set yourself on fire.”

“Melody, talk some sense to your mother. You hate Rem, right?”

“Miss Scathach, please drown yourself. I might hate that idiot, but I won’t let my home burn for it.”

The warrior maid’s mouth twitched. That was it. Screw everything; she had to stop this disaster with violence. Scathach conjured up her spear and readied to take them all out in seconds.

Sadly, Rem happened.

“Are you sure, Scathach?” Rem, the manifestation of carnage, appeared behind her. “Let plays a game of what if before we get violent, shall we?”

Scathach’s stomach sank. Rem loved winning before playing.

“If you beat all of us,” Rem said. “Then the dragon will land on Chuang’s hand. That will be bad if we have to fight her later, right?”

Scathach nodded. Oh shit, she was so screwed.

“Am I right to say this is the best chance we will have to stop Illma Road for good and removed the X-cution from Chuang’s arsenal?”

Scathach nodded.

“Now imagine how piss Satholia will be if we don’t take this opportunity,” Rem whispered sinisterly. “Not only we fail to cripple one of our contenders, but we also hand her a weapon to use. What if the X-cution and the dragon prolong the Heavenly Daughter’s conflict and weaken Phantasia enough that the World Enemy got us?”

Scathach turned pale.

“For your safety, I hope we succeed,” Rem delivered more dosage of the red-pill. “If not, it’s lost and lost. Assuming Phantasia survives — which I doubt it — the boss will gun you down for ruining this mission the moment she has her chance. Phantasia dies; the boss will strangle you to death for running away while we valiantly fight to the last. We must succeed or else you are screwed.”

“Tai Hua can beat that dragon,” Scathach said.

“She might,” Rem admitted. “But are you willing to entrust your livelihood in the hand of a tyrant on warpaths, or your hand and skill? You can make that choice right now.”

Scathach dropped her spear.

“What do I need to do?” The badger cried.

“Excellent,” Rem grinned sinisterly. “To win a war, we need to know ourselves and our enemy. We need to understand how Illma plans to deal with a dragon. You should take Luxinna and do reconnaissance on Illma. Try not to get detected we need all the advantages we can get.”

“That’s it?” Scathach asked.

“Nope, there’s another thing,” Rem handed her a stack of paper. “Please look at this.”

“What is it?” Scathach took the papers.

“The experiment results on Luxinna’s True Magic,” Rem said. “I suggest some modification, but given you are more knowledgeable in the combat department, I want you to talk to her about this.”

Scathach looked at the note; this would be interesting.

…

Crack!

“Ouch!” Luxinna grunted. The glass gauntlet on her arm blew up, leaving her arms scorching with bruise and welt. The elf painfully gasped. Cramping numbness ran up her arms and haunted her sense.

A notebook dropped from her lap.

“What? Are you about to give up?” Scathach said, without looking away from her binocular.

“Dream on,” Luxinna replied angrily. “I will nail this technique.”

Both women were on the roof of a random warehouse. They were trespassing, but as long as the sound canceling rune was still in effect, no one would mind.

Luxinna picked up the notes and reread the part about magic control and manipulation. She needed to forge her glass armor in a way that has more magic capacitance and less weight. Sadly, she was failing the entire morning.

Ebony’s and Rem’s theory that Mayor Port would be sacrificing the slums to satisfy Illma and the X-cution squad checked out. Everything in the area; from the hidden black market to Ebony’s house, got either charcoaled and dusted. People were being pulled from their home and man-handled. They were the lucky one. Scathach could identify patches of blood where several people got crushed to death. She could even see a torso connected to a pile of blood that was a leg.

Luxinna looked away from her binocular and nearly puked.

“Why are they doing this?”

Scathach looked at the elf with sympathy. The young girl never saw the scene of bloodshed before, none of them did. The warrior maid dreaded the day that her wards had to enter the battlefield. In her point of view, none of them were ready for this bloodshed. They should start the blood-stain path with a chicken, not a crying and begging human.

“Get back to the training,” Scathach replied. “You don’t have to look at this if you don’t want to.”

Luxinna wasn’t having any of that. In these last few months, she had gone from a hermit to learning she was born as a joke from heaven. Last week alone got a demon princess to punch her in the face. She had enough of this stupid downward spiral.

It was time she got back up.

“No, we are going to have a conversation right now,” Luxinna said. “I don’t get you. Scathach, you are like the mother I never had. My mom left when my sister was born. My father disowned me. All of my friends turned my back on me! My home kicked me out. Then you guys came along. Cy and Rem feel more like family than my family ever did, and I owe you everything. You were there checking on me every training session. You taught me how to do maths, how to use a spear, and even helped me pick out my clothes.”

“And you are a great student,” Scathach nodded somberly. “It’s a shame that I am the one teaching you everything your parents should have.”

Scathach meant it. These kids were annoying to deal with, but they were the brightest bunch she ever taught. Rem was a rebelling contrarian, but his unpredictability was impressive. Despite all the disasters she caused, Scathach would be lying if she said she wasn’t proud of the goddess’ dangerous concoction. But the elf was her favorite; diligent and eager to learn; who wouldn’t want that kind of student.

“Yeah, but there is one problem with that?” Luxinna said. “Why did you do all those stuff?”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know what I am talking about?” Luxinna pleaded. “Ebony, Marley, this entire town, why don’t you do anything? For heaven’s sake, you are an S-Ranker. I don’t get it. Why are you so obstinate to the point Rem had to threaten you into cooperating?”

Scathach sighed. She didn’t want to talk about this. However, she knew. Sooner or later, she must tell this to her favorite student. It was painful to dock her expectation, but beggar couldn’t be a chooser.

“Lux, there are many fucks up things in this world,” Scathach said. “If I help one person for free, then everyone will ask why I don’t help them all. It is impossible to help everyone. Even if I can pull that miracle off, aiding one person will be offending another. Do you think I can survive, provoking the like of the Isle of Knowledge or the gods on my lonesome?”

“Is that why you abandon Ebony?”

Scathach laughed sarcastically.

“Did Ebony tell you she only contact me when it was clear Majesty would lose the fight for the Demonic Continent’s throne?” Scathach said. “She was counting on me to disrupt the entire nation’s stability for the sake of her husband!? Would you prefer I throw an entire country into chaos for a friend?”

Luxinna hesitated, but she had another point.

“But you knew she was pregnant with Melody,” Luxinna said. “You prepare to let an unborn child die.”

Scathach threw her head to the ground.

“What do you expect me to do?” Scathach said. “Help them escape, and Jekyll would know it was me in an instant. The friends Ebony has can call on can be counted in one hand. The moment he felt anything funny, he would call my enemies for aid, and the situation will be even worse.”

“You could call the rest of the gods!?”

“They won’t help,” Scathach explained. “The gods won’t help anyone unless they felt like it or get some compensation; a compensation the Solarmaria couldn’t give.”

Luxinna sat there, depressed.

“Then why did you take me in,” Luxinna said after a long silence. “Why are you willing to piss off my family and not the Aztellic?”

“Because you have potential,” Scathach answered. “I admit I care little about casualties and the random joe on the street. They are going to die anyway. But I respect something that would bear fruit. I am a great warrior, so is my sister, but we have limits. Having old legend like us around won’t turn the world, so I want to invest in a warrior who will bear fruit and surpass me.”

“Surpass you?” Luxinna struggled to find an answer. “I don’t even know what to do next? How can I become a knight who can save everyone when saving everyone is impossible?”

“I don’t know,” Scathach admitted. “But you deserve credit for at least trying to be something. That is why I am so angry at the Drakokia. Your potential could accomplish so much, watching you grow will be a wonder. Imagine how insulted I felt when they threw away something I wish for so long like garbage.”

Luxinna looked at the burning region of screams and tears. The X-cution, the lumbering suit of metal, tore apart another house as the elf watch in silence.

“Scathach, what should I do?” Luxinna said.

Scathach sighed and picked up her binocular.

“Lux, your reason for living is something only you can tell?” the badger tiredly said. “Right now, unlike most people, I can say you will surpass me one day. I suggest you took a step forward. That is how the impossible got disprove. People see a possibility others can’t and move toward it a step at a time until they got there.”

Luxinna watched the distant scene of the tragedy in silence. Her entire being was a cosmic joke; her history was a complete sham-in-making. All she ever wanted was to be a knight who would save everyone. It was a dream of a tomboyish girl who never met the difficulty of real life.

Now things become complicated; reality and dream weren’t meant to coexist. The elf looked at the sky, wishing for a godly savior to come down, and stopped Illma. At least, she wanted the ghastly scene of children's tears and mechanical menace tearing down houses to break.

The elf saw one girl searching for her mother.

“I want to make it stop.”

“What?” Scathach asked the young elf.

“I know I can’t save everyone!” The elf stood up. “But I don’t want to see anyone in front of me suffer! I am fine if it was just a person, but want to save as many people as I can.”

Scathach stared at her, amused.

“You know you will eventually end up having to fight the entire world with that attitude,” the badger said, excitedly waiting for the answer. “Even Rem don’t dare do that. That is why he is playing this like a stealth game.”

“That’s true,” Luxinna stood tall. “As long as nobody in front of me is crying is enough. I want to do at least that much.”

“You are talking like Marley,” Scathach pointed out, observing the troops through her binoculars. “You can’t save everyone, Lux. You have to choose who to save.”

“Yes,” Luxinna said. “But that is why I have these powers! If I can’t help everyone at once, I will save them one at a time. If I am too slow to protect all of them, then I have to be smarter and faster the next time. You said impossible happens by taking one step forward until you reach the goal. Then I will be that. I refuse to believe I can’t save every in my sight, so I will keep searching, keep innovating, and keep getting better so that no one can be hurt in front of me ever again. One day, I believe I will reach it, the knight who fast enough to save everyone.”

“Not everyone has what it takes, you know?” Scathach got up. She couldn’t help but smile a little as she watched the young elf.

“Yes,” Luxinna said. “That’s why I have Rem and the rest. I alone may not be enough, but together we will end the tragedy of the world.”

Scathach laughed.

“Good, but don’t act rashly now. You are nowhere near ready,” Scathach pointed to the distance. “We have to report that to the idiot?”

Luxinna looked in the direction the badger was pointing; several levitating vehicles carrying a set of mechanical parts such as a long metal cylinder or a complicated-looking engine. Luxinna couldn’t help but have a bad feeling looking at those metal objects.

“What is that?”

“The Isle of knowledge’s issued Signum-S4,” Scathach answered. “It was a high-power magic cannon fuel by a high-grade power-core for Strategic Plasma Battery. Given enough time and fuel, one of them has enough output to wipe Millian of the map. I guess Illma plans to assemble that artillery on site and kill the dragon with mass bombardment. And she doesn’t bring one of them.”

Luxinna looked at the Binocular and counted the transport.

“There are seven of them.”