Chapter 1.22: Who needs a plan?

Axel, Mikah, and Riot both immediately climbed out of the vehicle. However, Mikah and Axel were stunned when they looked at the vacated back seat. All three youths appeared to be still sitting there quietly!

"Wha..." Axel was dumbstruck, but Mikah had a contemplating look on his face.

"Illusory formation? But Lucky, how can you make one of these without magic?" Mikah was very knowledgeable as merchants raised him. Information was always available for a price at the guild. However, even with all the information he had, Mikah didn't understand what he was seeing.

"Ancient crystal technology. With the proper configuration and spell talismans, almost any spell can be cast and maintain in this way," Riot replied in a hushed voice. "Less of that now, let's get to Haan!"

Ducking down low, they soon disappeared into a nearby alleyway. Five minutes later, Sergeant Willows returned to his hovercraft and detached the charging port. After entering the vehicle, he glanced at the back briefly before starting the engine and instantly ascending. Breaths later, the hovercraft zipped away at 40 kph.

It didn't take long for the sergeant to notice these kids were a bit too quiet. Instead of growing suspicious, he only grew slightly guilt-filled. Had he been too harsh with his earlier words? 'Youths need a balanced amount of discipline and encouragement.'

Thinking up to here, the sergeant knew what to do next.

"Listen, kids, I'm not being unreasonable," Sergeant Willows tried to keep his voice as soothing and easy as he could. "This world is full of danger, the powerful rule with an iron fist. One day, when you three become powerful, you will be the ones in charge. It'll be you who faces countless battles and decides who should or shouldn't participate in the battles. Next time...huh?"

With a strange whizzing sound, the ancient crystal formation ran out of power and stopped functioning. It was only then when the sergeant noticed a suddenly empty back seat with a letter on it. He paled immediately, terrified by the implications.

"FUCK! How could this happen? I have to identify the culprit immediately," The sergeant cursed privately. However, he couldn't just stop in midair to read the note.

Thus, he was forced to land once more.

"What in the actual fuck?" after landing the hovercraft, Sergeant Willows cursed when investigating the back seat.

He discovered the crystals and paper seal on the back seat and was immediately appalled. It's not that Sergeant Willows was unfamiliar with the ancient crystal technology, as it would likely revolutionize technology in the next 100 years.

What left him angry and confused was that three humble students had duped with such advanced methods!

"I'm an Earth Extremist already, yet a bunch of humble kids...somehow fooled me. No, that's not right," a thought suddenly occurred to Sergeant Willows as he reconsidered the situation. "Didn't the Lieutenant Colonel's student radiate a weak hero aura earlier? And the one with the dreads, the profounder's son. He also seemed different somehow..."

As Sergeant Willows mused to himself, he had already pulled out his communicator. With the experience of a warworn soldier and new formulator, he had already surmised the idiot brats' objective. They were likely headed to play the heroes and rescue a damsel. The sergeant had no choice but to report such a dangerous situation as soon as possible!

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While Sergeant Willows braced himself to endure the fury of his superior officer, Lucky and the gang were already on an adventure in the slums. The slums of the outer sector were full of dirty and desolate buildings. Some were stone vestiges of former homes, while many were made from quite questionable materials. However, despite its appearance, one-third of the outer sector's population lived in the slums. Lucky and the gang currently hid behind two trashcans on opposite sides of an alleyway. On the left were a solemn-looking Axel and a pensive-looking Mikah. On the right was Riot, calmly looking around the edge of the receptacle.

Seeing the coast was clear, he dashed several feet ahead before dropping to his belly to peek around the grass and wooden gate to his right.

Where the boys currently hid was situated a mere ten feet away from the end of the alleyway. Past the point was an area full of ragged brown complexes. However, right now, this 250-meter area had become a battlefield! Beams of energy and small explosions could be heard all over. There was even that loud crashing sound of two mighty swords clashing. However, no swordsmen were seen.

Soldiers wearing the World Government's standard fatigues fought fiercely against the pirates, who were at no noticeable disadvantage. A barrier of light surrounded the complex in an eerie glow. Another Black Tyrant Battleship seemed to have been slashed in half with a sharp blade. One half was on each side of the light barrier. Clearly, it tried to beat the speed of the barrier but failed. Glowing graffiti painted this area's walls in dazzling colors, the patterns reminding Riot of ancient texts he had read at the Wonder Corporation. These texts were the ancient recordings of a prehistoric ruler of what was now the Supreme Plato World, Ultra Pluto.

Ultra Pluto was a wondergod who was said to be born when the world itself was born. As the strongest celestial body created along with the world, he naturally became ruler of his time. When the humans had only just started their studies on formulation during his ancient society, Ultra Pluto helped his most intelligent human disciple create ultra crystal technology. Ultra crystals were the result of a natural condensation of elemental mana and an immense amount of pressure. By using ultra crystals of different elements, humans could gain powers comparable to the dominating and terrifying direbeasts and even some wondergods.

This led to a shift in humanity's path and a new era of technological prowess. This ancient crystal technology was what Wonder Corporation planned to use to recreate that era. However, their enemies weren't the hiding members of the ancient direbeast race. Instead, they wanted to recreate this technology to usurp power from the formulators for the humble man. At least, that was their claim on the surface.

Having worked in the secret labs of the company for years, Riot knew better. Nonetheless, the ancient characters of that text were extremely similar to the markings currently on the wall.

"Are there hieroglyphs hidden within the graffiti? I can detect strange but familiar energy. Could it be magic?" Riot was stunned by this discovery. He squinted his eyes in an attempt to read the hidden characters. "Protect this child, bring life from strife. No...is that light from strife?"

[Protect this child, bring the light from strife. To activate great hope, I surrender life!]

Riot's mind trembled when he finally comprehended the words on the wall. He couldn't explain such a feeling well, but he felt like he had just understood some sort of truth. Just like that, he felt as if this phrase was burned into his memory. However, it would be quite some time before he understood what happened.

"This is the area Haan lived in? Then the reason her grandmother is so sick...could it be this barrier of light? That doesn't bode well, right? But why is the battle at such a scale? And what is that barrier of light? Is it a formation?"

Riot had never seen formations like this, so he couldn't confirm his guess. However, before Riot could take a deeper look, a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Riot, are you insane?" Mikah suddenly appeared next to Riot.

Riot frowned, as Mikah rarely called him Riot. The next thing he knew, Mikah was dragging him back to the trashcans before the latter could react.

"Why would you go out there?" Mikah whispered frantically. "Can't you feel that pressure? These guys are way more than what we can handle! We should head back and..."

Smack!

"Calm down, man, relax!" Riot suddenly slapped Mikah lightly on the cheek, but the latter fell straight on his butt.

"Ow...what the heck, bro," Mikah rubbed his stinging cheek with resentment in his voice.

Unfortunately, Riot wasn't completely aware that his strength had increased by a large amount. However, Mikah had indeed calmed down from his slight panic. However, he still sulked, as he thought he might be stronger than Lucky now that he was a hero. This encountered had assured Mikah that this was not at all the case.

"Okay, Big Luck, what's the plan?" Axel asked with a highly focused gaze.

Riot nodded as he recognized this state of Axel. Whenever Axel had this look during competitions, even Riot found it challenging to outscore him.

"There's some type of light barrier stopping the pirates outside from getting into that apartment," Riot crossed his arms and focused. "However, there's a huge ship already halfway inside the barrier. I have no idea what the situation inside is, but if the pirates can't get into the barrier, neither can the army. I haven't seen any of the elite pirates my sister mentioned. "

"Then that means we can't get in either, right?" Axel asked, feeling rather dejected. He really wanted to save Haan! He didn't quite understand why, but the thought of Haan being in danger made his chest tighten and breath short. 'NO! We must save her. I must save her.'

Riot calmly watched the continuous changes on his friend's face before turning to look at the end of the alley. He seemed to be considering something.

"Guys, we're out of our league here. I think we should just go back..." Mikah waited a few moments before finally deciding enough was enough. He was prepared to deal with whatever refusals Lucky had.

"I agree," what Mikah didn't expect was that Riot wouldn't refuse at all. He didn't even turn his head as he said, "I think you should go back, Mikey. Micky's safe now; you don't have any more worries. After all, that's your sister. Axel and I came to help you because Micky is our friend. You're my friend, and I'd be there to save you too, even if I could do nothing but die trying. Haan is our friend too."

For Mikah, who had much more timid and innocent thoughts, Riot's words were quite impactful. After talking up to here, Riot turned around to look Mikah in the eye. His gaze was fierce and determined, like a great hero. Mikah was stunned and left speechless when Riot said, "Just like I won't tolerate them touching Micky, just like I wouldn't tolerate them touching you, I won't tolerate them touching Haan either. Until I know Haan is safe, I'm. Not. Leaving."

Mikah's mouth dropped slightly, and his eyes looked lost and a little guilty. Meanwhile, Axel was completely pumped up by Riot's words.

"Whew, you scared me there, brother!" Axel dipped low and rolled over to the trashcan where his two friends were. "That's exactly the spirit we need. Now, what's the plan?"

"Plan?" Riot looked away from the dumbfounded Mikah and smiled at Axel. "Who needs a plan?"

This time Axel was dumbfounded.