- Avalon Empire’s Border -

- Several kilometres above the sea level -

- 2320hrs, local time -

The hum of the AC inside the Condor’s cargo bay filled the room alongside the chatter of the Alpha fireteam as they discussed what they would bring to the next operation area since this infiltration mission was rather ambiguous. They’re currently waiting for another call from Hornet’s Nest before making a plan for it since infiltrating a trade city while being inconspicuous is rather tough to do. Right as they were talking, the pilot suddenly told them through their radio that a Hologram call from the base was about to begin.

The four then went silent as the projector booted up between them and the door towards the cockpit compartment and projected two females that were standing before them. It was Jeanne, crossing her arms as she looked quite impatient and Christina, who had an astonished look since she never saw hologram tech before.

“Alpha team, I received your sitrep from your pilots, we got a confirmation of the destruction of the altar and…” she stopped for a moment, as she saw two more people behind them which were the Priest who was hugging and calming down the little girl, Alicia, who is still sobbing. “uhhh… who’re those two?”

“It’s the two civilians that we… ahem… due to a circumstance, retrieved from the AO. The priest seems to be from a faction that’s against the central church.”

Jeanne was silent for a moment before she asked with a concerned look, “What happened to the village, Lieutenant Colonel?”

“With all due respect Commander, didn’t all of you watch the headcam live that you set up just to flex on how efficiently we do s**t on the field?” Jeanne sighed at his remark, her limit due to her stress was broken.

“With all due respect Lieutenant Colonel, all of your damned camera was busted and the broadcast was cut off right when you fought that adventurer and you f**king traumatized half of the nobles present by giving footage about children being imprisoned! Now, just tell me, what the actual hell happened to that village?! I need answers!”

The room was quiet as they never saw Jeanne raged about something. However, Jaeger wasn’t intimidated by her angry tone. “It fell down along with the catacombs. The structural integrity of the pillars was rather ripened as most of them have massive cracks. The cave itself is quite unstable too. It’s pretty obvious what will happen if we blow up the whole thing”

She sighed, pressing her forehead as her stress came back. “For the love of god Achilles, I did say destroy the church if you found something related to human experimentation, not the whole damned village!”

“We did find it right? Some talk about sacrifices here and there yet nobody suspected anything about them. In the end, those villagers were turned into some sort of zombies by the… thing we fought so having the village wiped off from the map isn’t a big deal.”

“Isn’t that a bit too insensitive of you even though you have a point?” She didn’t continue the unnecessary debate with Jaeger and changed the subject. “Anyway, what was the “thing” you fought earlier? I’ve seen the footage from the gunner’s camera, it looked like a humanoid creature.”

“Well, about that…” Jaeger looks behind his shoulder towards the priest who’s still hugging the little girl, his attitude is rather calm for someone who’s being forced to go with them, but then again, he knows that Jaeger’s team might be able to do the thing that was impossible for someone like him to do alone. “You can ask that man there, he’ll say everything about it”

Jeanne raised an eyebrow, “Him?” she asked sceptically. Jaeger then told her about their encounter, about how the Priest is part of a faction that’s against the central church and how he told details about the monster. “That creature you encountered must be called [Fallen Angel] by him, am I right Achilles?” added Christina as she joined in the conversation. Her presence there was supposed to be just to remind them about the adversary that they will face. But to think that she also knew about it, surprised Jeanne by a mile.

“You knew about that too Mom?”

“Wait, you’re calling her mom now Jeanne?” Jeanne rolled her eyes at her brother’s remark. “If she’s Dad’s actual wife, then that means she’s my foster mother in one way or another. Am I wrong here?”

“…you do have a point”

To Jeanne’s surprise, Christina suddenly wrapped her arms around her shoulder, snuggling onto her, “Aww that’s sweet of you~ You know I’ve always dreamt that I want to have a daughter right after your brother was born. Hey, hey, how about we do some mother-daughter bonding later?~”

“h-hey! Stop this! It’s embarrassing to hug me here! I’m not a kid!”

“Look at you all shy and bashful ~ How cute~ August definitely adopted such a sweetheart~” Even while she was playing around with Jeanne, Christina’s tone changed as she turned their gaze towards Jaeger and his team. “But still… to think they have one of my forbidden research grimoires…”“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Christina lets go of Jeanne, her frown shows how concerned she is. She explains how she once researched the beings called [angels] since she also met one before, mentioning how it could be achieved to summon a [fallen angel] and their usage as a mana pool for the summoner. She also stated that it requires someone with a title that has a connection with the church or [Light] element and also many sacrifices. However, she stated that the [Fallen angel] that Jaeger faced wasn’t a complete one. Her conversation with Jaeger and his team attracted the attention of the Priest as he lay little Alicia on the seat beside him while blanketing her with his coat. “Still… I stopped that research long ago before I even started doing any of those since I felt repulsed after hearing it…”

“Someone said those to you?”

“Yeah… it was the angel herself, saying that I could be trusted to eradicate such monsters. Back then, [Fallen angels] were roaming a lot in dense forests, preying adventures to make them their minions. And also, at that time, It was the moment before I met your father several days later.”

“Wait, the angel herself? Are you…” The priest who stood up and took Christina’s attention who’s now smiling at him, stood there in shock, though, not in fear. “Yep, we meet again, Thales~ it’s been 200 years huh? The last time I saw you back then, you were still a child in the orphanage i went to. How time flies~”

“200 years? It’s like only 20 years since you set yourself out on a journey!”

“Ah, I see. So you’re affected by the [Hibernation] spell huh? No wonder.” Thales had a slight headache as she mentioned [Hibernation] as if the word itself is some sort of catalyst. However, his headache didn’t last long. He grunted as it went away, and he glanced back at her slightly still in pain. “Yeah, I think I did…”

“So, what did you tell them about?”

“oh right…”

The Priest starts spilling the beans one at a time. They know he’s a priest from one of the branch churches in one of the Avalon Empire’s territories, though, what they didn’t expect is that he’s the Head Priest. His suspicion towards the central church started several years before, years later after when the new nun that was sent from Nelimista became a member of the church he was coordinating. Sudden disappearances of children here and there, several people with absence of minds, and most were even abstinent from praying as if they feared the church. The next thing he knew there was an underground complex similar to the one in the village Jaeger’s team raided, just slightly larger than it. The difference is that the catacombs were filled with corpses looking as if their blood sucked dry, but it wasn’t, rather their mana is. The magic circle wasn’t there, since the new nun already accomplished her objective. Making herself into a complete [fallen angel] and flying back to where she came from. What’s left of it is just a book she left in her room which is a copy of Christina’s forbidden grimoire.

He read it thoroughly, every word and sentence to find clues on what the Archbishop was planning. And he found out about a portion of the plan in a memo. He felt enraged and disgusted, to think that the example of their religion would make use of human lives just to make himself into a god. Thales started a secret organization that was against the Central church’s plan, the members were mostly people that are from the village he was in, however, it grew into a massive one that connected many country’s underground operatives and adventurers as they slowly flocked in. Their motives are mostly because of the central’s overbearing way of treating their believers, splitting the praying halls for the monarchs and nobles from the ordinary and treating them badly most of the time, especially how they highly charge a simple healing spell and limit it to commoners that’s pretty much ineffective against monster poison and other things, which what an advanced mage could even do easily.

“I see, they’ve done it huh…” Still crossing her arms, she then glances back at Jaeger. “Achilles, listen. This other place you’re going to is on the outskirts of Comertora trade city. However, it is also the city where the queen of the Kingdom of Nelimista vacation mansion is located. If you’re lucky enough… please… Assasinate the queen”

Jaeger was slightly in shock, to think that the next phase of the mission was to assassinate a high-ranking monarch, not to mention a queen. “why exactly must be the queen? I thought it was about the Archbishop of this region’s religion and his attempt to whatever the heck he’s up to”

“That’s the thing, the queen is one of the major supporters of that Archbishop. Taking her out of history will ease our fight against him. can you?”

He then glanced towards his squadmates, with an eye questioning if they were up for it. Point let out a small chuckle as he replied; “Well… we are already contracted to begin with. I’m up for it.”

Followed by 60K’s reply, “We’re mercs, of course, we’re the ones who do the dirty job, count me in!” and also Coyote, “We didn’t even get scratched last time, guess you lead us to quite well Jaeger, what’s your next order?”

With a prideful grin, he looked back at Christina. “Looks like you got yourself a deal. Though, it’ll cost you extra, hehe” The archmage let out a wild laugh since this was the first time that someone was daring enough to go on this mission with a prideful smile. But then again, she knows that her son is more than capable of doing so. Looking at how he even survived his first S-rank monster encounter proves that he and his team are more than enough to accomplish it.

“Hahaha! Alright, alright! I’ll tell the king to grant your request when you return. Though, personally, I suggest that you should just try to court the princess~ she’s quite head over heals on you right now~”

Jaeger received a bunch of teasing whistles from his teammates and also from the background of the hologram call, though what can we see from Jeanne is that she’s quite disapproving. “For multiple times I told you Count Eoflora, my relationship with the princess isn’t like what you’re currently thinking”

“Whatever you say sweetie~ A mother’s intuition will never be wrong~ Anyway, gotta go! I have a meeting with the King again in 6 minutes! Stay safe out there!~” And with that, she casually teleports away. leaving all of his teammates flabbergasted.

“Ain’t no way she just teleported so casually like that…!” Coyote remarked as he was in a jaw drop before the scene that just unfolded in front of him.

“It happens, she regularly does that since 2 days ago,” Jeanne remarked, rolling her eyes at Christina’s carefree attitude inside a military base. “That aside, there’s your mission update. Additionally, there’s a change in the ROE, I do not want any freaking civies to get involved unless they’re attacking first. Got that? Just make less commotion and try to not make the City wiped clean off the map or something.”

“Yes ma’am”

“Good, godspeed gentlemen” As the hologram call fades away, the team quickly opens up the weapon crates that are sitting behind them. Changing their weapons and pieces of equipment. Looking at how they swiftly do their thing, Thales returned to his seat and watched from a distance. Thinking how intriguing their equipment is and how well-trained they are. He then looked outside the window, hoping that they’d make it out alive later on since he knew… the queen… isn’t an ordinary one. He thought for himself that he’d tell them before they arrived, but as he was feeling sleepy, he tried to sleep in his seat, The comfort of the chair that was out of his world just felt amazing for him and he quickly went to sleep. Forgetting his early thoughts.

Now, what lies ahead will be unpredicted for the squad and the dormant reptile shall be awakened in a certain time….