"More troublesome than expected!"
In the parking lot near the Hidden Management Department.
Lana sat in a black van, her right eye closed and left eye open, staring intently at a crystal ball the size of a human head.
Within the orb's blurred images, scenes of Emilia and Puck fighting together against an enemy played out.
Watching the crimson flames that erupted skyward, nearly filling the entire crystal ball's view, Lana's expression darkened unusually:
"To think the SDS had a Flame Arts Demigod hidden away. Even Emilia and Puck together can't stop them."
Though Lana had anticipated the Hidden Management Department keeping reserve Demigods and secret cards...
The presence of another Demigod still surprised her.
Counting the light-wielding Demigod, the black-haired Demigod with countless clones yet to appear, and now this Flame Arts Demigod...
Could the SDS's Abyss Artefact really create three pseudo-Demigods?
Such power suggested their Demigod-class artefact might rank as Apostle-tier... or higher?
An Angel Rank divine-class Abyss Artefact?
Quite possible!
In reality's constrained environment, an Angel Rank Abyss Artefact could indeed produce three powerful pseudo-Demigods.
'If it truly is Angel Rank... that complicates matters. Even if obtained, keeping it might prove impossible...'
Just as Lana was feeling a headache coming on, a witch monitoring the battlefield with a mental-type technique suddenly opened her eyes and reported:
"Lady Lana, the Glittering Jewel has breached the first checkpoint and infiltrated the underground of the Hidden Management Department."
Hearing this report that only delivered good news, Lana couldn't help but raise her hand to cover her right eye, sneering coldly:
"No need to tell me, I can see it myself!"
Her eyes were directly linked to the vision of the activated Glittering Jewel, naturally allowing her to witness how it effortlessly destroyed the SDS's autonomous mechanical armaments and entered the underground first floor.
But compared to this smooth progress, the other routes were facing much bigger problems.
On the topmost route, Emilia and Puck were being suppressed by the SDS's hidden Demigod.
Among the three assault routes on the first floor, one of her sorcerer-witch squads had already been completely annihilated by the SDS's autonomous mechanical armaments.
Another squad led by Echidna had vanished from the surveillance of crystal balls after entering the Hidden Management Department's garrison.
Out of the four routes, only the Glittering Jewel's path provided positive feedback.
At this rate, the Hidden Management Department might truly manage to exhaust her Desire Faction's forces within their garrison.
These were all sorcerer troops under Lana's direct command.
The thought made Lana's heart ache, yet she didn't know who to blame.
The fire Demigod was an unforeseen variable - she couldn't fault anyone for that.
As for the annihilated sorcerer-witch squad, their captain's decision to use electromagnetic pulses against the autonomous mechanical armaments seemed perfectly reasonable to Lana.
Yet who could have predicted that the SDS had developed robots immune to electromagnetic pulses?
This intelligence failure resulted in an entire sorcerer-witch squad being wiped out, devastating Lana.
She only possessed nine such squads in total. Now one was destroyed, one remained guarding her, another had been taken who-knows-where by Echidna, while the remaining six were divided into two teams carrying special Abyss Artefacts to capture Luo Shu and Origami Tobiichi using grand ritual techniques.
Losing one-ninth of her forces in one blow without any gains made Lana feel like vomiting blood from sheer frustration.
Seeing the deteriorating situation, Lana realised she couldn't afford to wait any longer. With most of the SDS's trump cards revealed, it was time to deliver the decisive blow.
"Send orders - first squad assemble immediately! We'll charge straight through the passage opened by the Glittering Jewel!"
"Yes, Lady Lana." The reporting witch immediately departed to prepare, gathering all members at maximum speed before advancing towards the breached passage into the Hidden Management Department as instructed.
...
Meanwhile.
Hidden Management Department, Underground First Floor.
What should have been an underground parking lot had transformed into a desolate wilderness of brown rocks.
Amidst a cyan-green whirlwind, a dragon tore through the entrance passage, landing at the wilderness's centre.
The gale howled.
A figure wrapped in cyan-green winds materialised upon the wasteland.
Ocean-blue waist-length hair, pale grey thigh-high boots, a loose dark blue gown.
A maiden with emerald eyes, enveloped in cyan-green tempests, descended upon the wilderness like a spirit of the wind.
As the girl raised her head, her vacant emerald eyes reflected two figures standing before her.
"No way?"
Chisato Nishikigi, holding a gun, stared in astonishment at the girl before her:
"The enemy is such a cute girl? How am I supposed to fight her!"
"And..." Chisato's expression hardened as she scrutinised the girl's vacant eyes, clicking her tongue:
"Mind-controlled? How despicable... those witches from the Desire Faction."
"Chisato, be careful. My Spiritual Power is warning me she's dangerous."
Takina Inoue, standing guard nearby, kept wary eyes on the hollow-eyed girl as she warned her teammate.
"I know." Chisato pressed the bracelet on her right wrist. Though they'd come to test the Skill Demon God, she'd worn her IS combat suit as a precaution.
As her body became encased in azure armour with four floating drones surrounding her, Chisato sighed slightly in relief:
"By the way, the system's reaction earlier... she might be a Familia candidate!"
"So we should try to capture her alive!"
Orange IS armour covered Takina's body, an electronic tactical visor appearing over half her face:
"Considering the enemy's threat level, we'll discuss alternatives after disarming her."
"In that case, we can't use any excessive force." Chisato exchanged a meaningful glance with Takina.
In that instant of communication...
A massive Skill Demon God's arm suddenly emerged from the shadows, launching a surprise attack.
The Skill Demon God Black Iron instantly deployed its gravity field. Under Chisato's control, it forcibly altered gravity, pinning the wind-wrapped figure in place.
Meanwhile, Takina summoned the Skill Demon God Silver, swinging its silver greatsword capable of spatial slashes - using the flat of the blade against the wind-shrouded girl.
A tremendous impact resounded through the air!
At that moment, Chisato and Takina's expressions froze.
Their gazes locked onto the wind girl's casually raised right hand.
From half a metre away, Silver's greatsword was completely halted, unable to advance even a centimetre - as if striking an invisible wall.
More alarming than the blocked spatial slash were the intermittent bursts of black-red lightning in that half-metre gap.
The dark electric sparks illuminated their surroundings, but plunged Chisato and Takina's hearts into despair.
Taking a deep breath, Chisato grimaced:
"That's insane... we drew the worst possible lot."
Takina also inhaled sharply, staring at the vacant-eyed wind girl:
"A Demigod..."
"Seems there's no need to hold back anymore."
Puffing her cheeks, Chisato retorted:
"Yeah, yeah, if anything, we should be considering whether to run."
Two Hero Rank fighters without Classes, armed with just a few magic-tech devices, challenging a mind-controlled Demigod?
How were they supposed to fight this?