Epiphany Of The Weak 166 The Great Transcontinental War Planning

3:00 P.M

Somewhere around Alaniemi, Finland

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[7th day of the Great Transcontinental War]

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It didn't feel like it, but somehow, a week had pa.s.sed since the Great Transcontinental War started. I never left Finland since then. From what it seemed like, I wouldn't be able to help in the actual war zones unless I fulfill my mission here first. And my mission was to defeat Kian with Lily by my side.

Though, no one saw him since that time in Moscow.

"Hmm."

Also, waiting for that guy to show up bored me. I wanted to fight with everyone too.

"Ava! What are you doing here?" said Lily.

Two armored vehicles were fast approaching us from the road up front. Without any hint of slowing down, Lily had no choice but to use her Aegis Gear: Gloves.

She raised her hands when suddenly, pink Aegis crystals engulfed those vehicles from thin air. It didn't take more than a few seconds for it to stop the enemies in their tracks.

A few minutes later, a military truck belonging to the coup stopped by to pick us up. Oh, but, it would be appropriate to say that those guys came to bring me back to our base.

"Ava . . ." Lily looked at me with narrow eyes.

"Hehe. I want to help, so I rushed here by myself. Can I?"

"No. Maltyie said you don't need to be on the frontline yet. This is just a skirmish with a small enemy squadron. There's no need for you to be here."

"B-But, we are near Sweden's border. There's a chance that Kian will show up anytime."

"You have a point. But Maltyie antic.i.p.ated Kian's involvement in her plan from the very beginning. She said that he will not show up unless we get really close to Sweden's border. Right now, this skirmish with the enemy is to determine the real defensive line he is guarding, and so far, we are not that close to the border yet."

"Ah . . . I see. We are about to reach that limit, huh. Any further than this spot in the map, we will meet with more resistance."

"Exactly."

The military truck driver pointed at the sky, and we looked up. No one realized how long those three Teria airs.h.i.+ps had been there, including me. Teria airs.h.i.+ps were known for its invisibility feature. It had some offensive capabilities as well, like that small turret equipped underneath its hull. Whenever it wanted to attack, the invisibility cloak would be disabled first.

And of course, at that time as we stared at those three aircraft, their turrets were pointing at us.

"Oh, I just arrived here, and we have to go back!" I said.

Both Lily and I threw ourselves into the military truck's empty s.p.a.ce and it quickly drove far away from that area. To protect the truck, I formed an umbrelllike structure with my crimson Aegis crystals. It was good enough to hold off the turrets' a.s.saults long enough until we finally escaped.

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"Ava!"

Maltyie, with her hands on her hips, was glaring at me.

Lily and I successfully escaped from the Teria airs.h.i.+ps and were back at a nearby temporary fortress. As soon as I got inside, Maltyie didn't waste any time to scold me.

"I told you not to go to the frontline! It's not the time yet. Unlike Lily, you don't have the stamina to continuously fight for days. She can help in those skirmishes and come back here as if nothing had happened, but you are not the same. It's important that you are at your peak condition when Kian appears," Maltyie said.

I lowered my head. "Sorry . . . It's just that Kian hasn't appeared for a week now."

"I noticed. At first, I thought that he's helping in the war zones somehow. But, there has been no sight of him there either."

"Could it be that he is waiting for an opening to strike?" I said.

"Hmm." Maltyie placed her hand at her chin. "It is good for us that he is not partic.i.p.ating in the war. However, taking him out of the equation is the more preferable option. Someone with a crazy Aegis specialty like him is bound to turn the tide of the war whenever he steps in."

I glanced at Lily who was sitting on an old couch at the corner of the room. While staring at me, she shoved a sandwich into her mouth.

"Are we still going to meet the C.U's forces in skirmishes the next few days?" I asked Maltyie.

"Yes . . . Oh, right. You will not be in them, Ava."

I pouted. "Hmm. I'll just stay here and train."

"Good. The most logical place for Kian's location right now would be at Sweden's border. I'm sure he's waiting to singlehandedly destroy the coup d'etat forces we have here once they get too near."

Maltyie took a seat next to Lily and grabbed herself a coffee on a wooden table.

"What about the coup inside Sweden itself?" I said.

"Hmm?" Maltyie took a sip of her coffee. "Well, I already gave up on them."

"Feeeh?!"

"After all, Amathelia already antic.i.p.ated a rebellion inside Sweden a long time ago. That's why she took out a good number of soldiers inside Germany, Italy, and Sweden and replaced them with Anciles. Those three regions were the ones that had a high probability of traitors coming from inside the military."

"So . . . She killed them."

"Precisely. That's why we don't have any choice but to rely on the coup here in Finland and also Russia. Eliminating Kian first is our top priority. That's why we are pus.h.i.+ng towards Sweden to draw him out."

"After that, there will be no one to stop us from getting to Amathelia herself," I said.

"Except for Mara and Yvonne . . . Oh, you can count Ivar out since he's not in any shape to fight after everything that happened. He suffered defeat in Gheele's hands and that caused his Aegis to be unstable," said Maltyie.

I nodded a few times. "More like, a narrow defeat. But anyway . . . I'll go train outside. Good luck, both of you."

Lily didn't say anything since she was having trouble eating an entire loaf of bread. Maltyie just nodded at me. At that moment, she was weirded out by Lily's peculiar behavior.

"Ah. You'll get used to how Lily does things, Maltyie. I had spent so much time with her, so it doesn't affect me, I think."

Five hours later, I was drinking my own cup of coffee in the very same room. No one was there with me. The fighters had gone to the frontline. Even so, my ears picked up a distant sound coming from the stone hallway. It got closer and closer until I heard familiar voices just outside the room.

"Oh, Ava, you're here," said Odval.

Qara and Khenbish were behind her, each of them was carrying a tall stack of papers.

"Hi, h.e.l.lo," said Qara as he placed his stack of papers on the wooden table in front of me. "Phew! Ah, Ava. Can I sit next to you?"

"Sure . . . But, you might want to sit on that empty couch over there. Odval would like it if you sit there with her."

"Eh? Why?"

"She wants us to have a lovey-dovey time together," said Odval with a smile. "We are a couple now, after all."

"No!" Qara shook his head a few times. "Since when?! You established that yourself," retorted Qara.

"Ohh. No need to be shy. Everyone knows it already," she said.

Khenbish and Qara looked at each other.

"Just accept her proposal to be your girlfriend already," said Khenbish. "She's been trying for years now."

"Ugh . . ."

Qara didn't say a word after that and just sat next to me. He divided the stack of papers on the wooden table and a.n.a.lyzed them. Then, he looked at Khenbish.

"All these war reports can be very . . . Confusing."

"Oh. Why do you guys have these reports?" I asked.

"These ones are copies only. We want to see how things are going at the warzones," said Khenbish.

"Hmm. Maltyie didn't tell you anything?" I said.

Qara shook his head. "We are just extras, unlike you, Ava. There's no reason for her to tell us anything if we are not directly involved in it."

"That is true . . ."

"Still, we did evacuate some civilians to safety this past week. Oh, wait. Odval also cared for the wounded from time to time," said Qara. "Right?"

Odval just stared at him. "You ignored me."

"You are supposed to get used to me ignoring you."

Odval pouted and slowly moved over to sit at my right side, unlike Qara who had taken a seat at my left.

"Haha. You two never change," I said before I took another sip of my coffee. "This does tastes . . . Bitter."

"Anyway . . ." Khenbish held a sheet of paper in his hand. "What do you think about this, Ava? The enemy's air forces are dominating our own as it is."

"Hmm. I'm not very versed in war tactics and such. But, I'm sure we can push back when more fighter jets arrive here from Russia."

Suddenly, an idea popped up inside my mind.

"Wait a minute . . . What if we let Lily ride one of those jets? Her Aegis can be extremely powerful when there's no Aegis User to stop her. She alone can destroy the enemy's aircraft."

"Woah."

"Not bad, not bad. I like it."

The trio nodded in agreement.

"For a kid, you are quite smart," said Qara in the end.

"I'm not a kid!"

Odval giggled. "I'll prepare some food for you after this. You haven't eaten yet, right?"

My eyes gleamed in an instant. "Yes! I want chicken, and also some beef. But, mix in some veggies as well. I don't want Hope to get mad at me."

"See? She's a kid," repeated Qara.

"Ugh."

"Haha. It's fine, isn't it?" said Odval. "Ava's cute the way she is."

"I want to agree, but I just can't see how she—"

The three of us looked at Khenbish.

"How she . . . She is indeed cute! Yup."

"Oh, you guys are making me blush."

We all laughed out loud after that, and Odval continued to tease Qara like she always did.