Chapter 247.

PART 1.

After the devastating attack where the entire cabinet died, the country is paralyzed. The reason being, the complete absence of a government. Even in this chaotic time, people tried to take advantage of this large vacuum, so they had to be crushed, and a new cabinet needed to be constructed immediately. A new Prime Minister was announced, and after all these preparations were done, another emergency demand was made from Avinash to give them warders so they could protect their cities from this threat.

Hatori, along with these new warders (as well as the old ones), is working overtime to put the protective enchantments and buriers over the cities, as well as the fields to nullify the bombs so they won't explode.

"Fuck." He cursed, as he sensed the bomb coming towards them from the sky.

"Sir, we don't have much time." Said the junior mage working with him. "What do we do? We can't evacuate people so quickly."

"Simple." Said Hatori with a smirk. "We don't."

In reality, he is not certain of this idea. But he must project confidence. If he as a leader falters, then what would happen to his subordinates?

"Step back. I am about to construct a rune script of my own." He spoke. They quickly retreat. They have no intention of getting caught up in whatever Hatori is planning.

The glowing symbols appear in the air around him, and he quickly configures them in the formation to create the teleportation script. The runes then fly up and surround the bomb which is right above their heads, and it disappears in front of their eyes like it was never there.

"What happened?" Asked the young man.

"I teleported the bomb to space. Looks like it worked." Said Hatori. "Now, hurry up. We still need to complete the wards of this city."

"Yessir!" Said the people working under him.

PART 2.

"The attack is foiled, mam." Reported Connor.

"Curses!" Salima slammed her hand on the arm of the chair. "Any damage?"

"None whatsoever." Said Connor. "He teleported the bomb, for the lack of a better word. We realized it only when we saw the news of some satellites being taken out in the explosion."

Salima is at a loss for words. It is finally dawning on her that she is not dealing with a normal force. True, she also has some knowledge of magic, but the true potential of this new force is not understood.

Given that there is an entire world consisting of people who know how to use this force, it makes her worry. Even if they are not as skilled as this Hatori, the fact that they exist in such large numbers is concerning to her. It is also likely that they have their own nasty secrets which are not known yet. After all, they are trying to establish a connection with the government here. They won't show their nasty side yet.

"Activate our agents on the ground." She orders. "Kill the mages."

Maybe the ground operations will succeed where these bombs failed?

"At once mam." Said Connor.

A few hours later, she is raging once more. "They are all taken out." That was all Connor said.

They are not taken out by mages, no. It was the military of India that got in the way. Those agents never reached their targets.

PART 3.

After the latest attacks, Hatori is attending a meeting. Avinash told him to be in that meeting. There were some conflicts, as other officials wanted him to continue the work of supervising the wards, but Hatori decided that someone else could handle this. Besides, the mage who is working within his group is also good with rune work. Hatori is certain he can handle his absence. The fact that he has not gotten any pesky emergency calls yet is proof of it.

"The teleported bomb destroyed some satellite equipment. Other countries are demanding compensation from us." The new Prime Minister Ankit Kisana is explaining to Avinash. "However, given the amount of people who would have died if that bomb landed on the city, we can keep them away for a while."

"Shouldn't they, I don't know, back off? I mean your entire leadership got slaughtered." Asked Avinash, ignoring the point that if he and his entire group running the country died, the same thing would happen in the Subcontinent, from inside as well as outside.

"The world doesn't work that way, unfortunately." Grumbled Ankit. "In any case, do not worry. We won't let any problems come in Mister Hatori's way."

"Good." Said Avinash. "He is my trusted mage; it would be quite sad if something stopped him from performing his work."

"We cannot let this proceed like this though." Said Kartik, the minister of defense. He is also handling the home ministry because there is no one to take that position yet. So, Kartik is stuck handling both external and internal security. "We need to hunt these cyborgs down, and bring them to justice."

"How?" Asked Naresh, the first Chief Minister to speak. "I recall that the previous honorable Home Minister told us that the group is operating out of a space station which is equipped with weapons, and never stays in one place. How can we mount an attack on such a thing?"

"Indeed." Kartik agreed. "Some skirmishes have taken place in space, but nobody has succeeded in a large-scale military operation. The logistics are difficult to handle, and you need precise timing."

"Can you describe the issues in greater detail?" Asked Hatori, finally deciding to speak. 'Also, why Raven or Suresh are not attending this meeting?' He thought but decided not to ask Avinash this question for now.

"It mostly boils down to the station orbiting around the planet, so we need precise timing to launch and board. They will see us coming, and since they have weapons, any boarding attempt will be thwarted before it can even start." Explained Kartik.

Hatori looked at Avinash, and the king nods at him through the screen. "How about if you could appear out of nowhere, instead of boarding from a military ship?"

"How?" Everyone asked.

Hatori spreads his arms. "Magic."

Kartik shakes his head. "We all walked into that one."

"Do you have such a method?" Asked Ankit.

"We do. But for this, we only need to know the precise location of the station, and where it will be present by the time we perform the spell to teleport. As long as I have those coordinates, I can take us there directly. However, there are limitations. Mainly the amount of weight. I can't take an army with me." Explained Hatori.

"We can give you those coordinates." Said the general Vansh. "It is not like that station was ever hidden. It is the weapons present on board that are the problem. That is why no one ever attempted to take it back."

While Hatori continues the plotting, Avinash knows that he will end up in the middle of the combat. He does not like the prospect of Hatori being left alone in the world in case he is incapacitated. 'I will send Raven and James there as soon as this meeting is done.' He decides. 'Those two should keep him safe if anything bad happens.'

Hatori has taken the position of Zeko. The king considers him very important, A heavyweight like him cannot be lost, it will weaken the country.

"Then it is final." Said Hatori. "I will teleport us to the coordinates of that station with a small force. I will participate in the battle, and we will take out this group."

The meeting comes to an end by the mutual agreement of everyone.

PART 4.

Hatori prepares to teleport. The military would be coming after him, once he has landed on the station. At first, he was about to teleport with a small force, but they had to reconsider this idea. The general quickly realized that his troops were not used to fighting alongside a magic user, so they killed the idea.

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Instead, Hatori will land at the station, and then the military will follow after him. After making minor adjustments to the runes floating around him, He teleports right in front of the station. Immediately, the weapons begin to fire at him. Hatori counts his lucky star for these weapons are not enchanted with magic yet. He wouldn't be able to shield himself so easily otherwise.

The weapons failed to stop his landing. The cyborg forces on the station start to target him, but they are unprepared. They did not think that their fortress would be invaded like this. They are not ready to guard against him. They are not alert enough. Hatori uses a spell, and fire comes out of his mouth like a flamethrower. All the cyborgs in his way turn to ash, though the fighters behind who are furthest from him suffer less impact. Walking through the screams and groans of pain, Hatori levitates and bashes their head to the roof, and keeps one shield around his body to keep himself protected by the fire.

Hatori sensed around and found a surprisingly high number of people living in this small place. But they are not coming out to face him anymore. A giant gate opens, and a woman walks out. Judging by her haughty expression, and the sudden shift in the mood he sensed in the people who are hiding from him, Hatori deduces that this must be the leader of this group.

"You dare to invade my station, and expect to get away with it?" Said Salima.

"Shut up." Said Hatori. He is not in any mood to banter with her. Besides, those dialogs got old during the war 23 years ago.

Casting a Fireblast, Hatori expects to see the woman in ashes. But she surprised him. He sensed her using magic, and by the time the fire went out, he saw the glow of a shield disappear as well. "I won't be so easily taken out." She said and sent a wave after him. It came out of her arm, which opened like the barrel of a gun.

Hatori steps aside. "Plasma." He recognized the superheated wave. "It is damaging your own station, more than my own attacks."

"Never mind." Said Salima. She does not care about it one way or another. She could easily hijack another station if this one is destroyed. As long as she could kill this man.

He has given her a golden opportunity. She will not let this slip through her fingers. He is on her territory now. He will not escape alive.

Her hair shifts and a small gun comes out of her head. "You would get along with James just fine." Said Hatori before she fired. "If you weren't such a bitch."

Hatori avoided the direct impact of this enchanted cannon blast with his shield, but he was still sent flying. Much to Salima's annoyance, he lands on his feet.

"I don't know who this James is. But I will break him when I am done with you." She approaches Hatori, but his own hair shifts, and comes at her like the quills of a porcupine who has a spring-loaded system to fire these quills at his enemy.

Salima is unable to avoid this sudden attack, and many of the thorns pierce her skin. "I won't let another crazy bitch close to him." Said Hatori. He punched the air, and a fist made of lightning descended on her, sending her flying. What happened to James is a sore subject among Hatori's group of friends. They don't talk about it. Then how dare this woman say such a thing? Hatori disregards the logical part of his mind, which reminds him that she does not know anything. He should keep his temper in check.

But he is done playing. Animating the broken debris of the station, he attacks her. The lightning attack has messed up her internal systems. Salima is not able to react and gets pierced by the blades coming at her. She has not felt this helpless ever since she became a cyborg. Finally, she can generate a burier to protect herself against Hatori's onslaught, but this burier also fizzles out.

"What have you done to me?" She asked, unable to get up from the ground.

Hatori gives her a smile full of cruelty. "Why, give you a shock of course! How about another one?" He prepares another spell to rain down lightning upon Salima, but Connor gets in the way.

"Not so quick!" He blasts Hatori and manages to stagger him. It upsets his spell, and it fizzles out with a few stray sparks in the air.

"You are going to die." Hatori casts a lightning bolt spell, the simplest one he learned while learning to control lightning elements for the first time. Connor avoids it with his hair left standing due to fear. He is certain that he will die if this attack hits him.

He flicks a button, and Hatori falls, as the floor suddenly disappears beneath him. "Mam, we should leave. The military is outside, they will try to capture you."

"Shut up!" Salima said to Connor. "I am not leaving without killing this man. I will sacrifice every one of you if I have to, so I can kill him."

"What?" Connor is shocked by hearing such words.

"Oh, don't be shocked. Do you honestly think I cared about any of you? You were nothing but pawns for me. If you did your job better, I wouldn't be in this situation."

Hatori comes flying out of the hole where Connor dropped him. "Nice trick. Prepare to die!"

The lightning bolt hits Connor directly, and he falls to the ground as well. The artificial system within his body is unable to handle this sudden shock. But it appears Salima has recovered.

Hatori turns around and gets ready to fight her. She comes close to him, but he just kicks her away. He kept doing that until she realized that she could not get closer to him. So, she decides to fire the cannon on her head directly. Hatori is unable to shield this time and goes flying, colliding with a wall. The wave of plasma heats up the wall, and carries him outside, where he is just a few meters away from the space.

Salima starts to walk outside. She will finish this man, and then deal with the military. "Maybe I will let this station be destroyed, and find a new and better one? In any case, I will be certain to get competent soldiers next time." She grumbled to herself.

"You are not going anywhere, you bitch!" Said Connor with a venomous tone. "I believed in you. I thought you would give us equality, but I was wrong. No matter. I will self-destruct this station, and take you along with me!"

"You traitorous bastard!" She turns around to stop him. She cursed, Connor has all the control and the access to perform this operation from anywhere. a terminal comes out of the wall, and he begins to type. With an energy blade, she cuts off his head. But his body continued typing and hit enter.

"Initiating self-destruct sequence." Announced an electronic voice over the speaker of the station.

"Shit!" Kicking the dead body of Connor a few times, Salima starts to run outside.

Only to get a face full of lightning once again from a recovered Hatori. He is burned badly, but his runes are working to heal him. He prepares another spell, but the pain of the burns is making his vision hazy. He is unable to focus, and Salima can crawl closer to him. She drags him to the ground, where Hatori hits his head on the metal floor. She then gouges his eyes out.

"What's this? Artificial eyes? So, you are like us then. Too bad you are not working with me." She says with a shaky voice.

"I'm not anyone's pawn." Hatori blasts her. But she also managed to blast him with the cannon on her head, and this time, Hatori was in the space. The lightning strike killed her, but the station lost control.

It is entering the atmosphere, and if it falls on the planet itself, it is going to kill a lot of people. Hatori floats, trying to keep his concentration. He comes up with another rune script to teleport this station away, while the military craft comes closer to him. He has no particular coordinates in mind. He wants the exploding station to stay away from the planet. So, he just pushed it towards the space.

His effort is successful, but it takes all the energy he has. Finally, with a pop, the station goes away into the space, and Hatori loses consciousness.

The runes on his body, unable to draw upon Hatori's reserves, start to extract the ambient magic present around him. They surround his body completely, and instead of a falling rock, Hatori's body stabilizes and starts to descend in a controlled manner.