Rhea, Commander of Yggdrasil, a government-approved branch of the military that supervised Mystery Quakes, was in quite a pickle.

Two of her best officers, not to mention her friends (biases aside) were in danger. Luckily, they heard her order them to the underground base. Now they were trapped there while the pilots led Atlas away.

The options weren’t the best. The pilots could never hope to defeat Atlas completely, no matter how cold that might sound. No, that power only rested in certain individuals.

The best they could do was-

“Squadron A-E! Fire your missiles in a formation Y, with a final push from Fighter 6!” Rhea yelled.

“Understood, sir!”

On the huge plasma screen, it showed dozens of missiles hitting the earth in a designated way, creating a square that stretched out 10 meters on each side.

“Fighter 6!”

A different rocket was launched, not meant for explosive firepower, but rather for impact. As the other missiles all imploded and weakened the ground around Atlas, the unique rocket hit the ground and sent it collapsing inward. The roar of Atlas filled the air as he fell.

“Good work, pilots. Engage all fire on his aura!” Rhea commanded.

The air was filled with orange streaks as they fired bullets nonstop. The sound of Atlas faded more and more until, at long last, an eerie silence filled the air.

“Merry?”

“His aura is still active and going strong!”

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Rhea narrowed her eyes. “He doesn’t want to come out of that hole. . . . Hogan, check for any subway or tunnels along that street!”

“Yes, ma’am!” He typed as fast as he could and showed the result onto the plasma screen. Rhea smirked.

“Looks like I was right,” she murmured to herself. Out loud, she stated, “Fire a remote-controlled rocket at building N, wait for my command.”

The fighter did so, the missile logged into the side of the structure. Rhea tensed and waited, as did everybody in the bridge and the fighters.

“Locate his position!”

A secondary image of a dot popped up, getting closer and closer to the designated spot. “Come on, you bastard, fall for it!”

The ground imploded and sent a plume of dust into the sky as Atlas popped out, creating an earthquake that rattled the entire eastern side of the city.

“Explode!”

The missile exploded and the building toppled over, straight onto Atlas’s unsuspecting back. Rhea grit her teeth as the dust began to settle down. The Alpha Duo had already done this, but they needed a way to slow him down.

“Drop tank 1 onto rooftop S!” Rhea ordered after a brief moment of concentration.

“Yes, ma’am!”

A deployment fighter flew over the designated building, with a special model tank hanging over the belly by steel chains. At her command, the chains were dropped along with the tank.

“Switch your radar to Aura and fire one round!” Rhea ordered.

A specialized tank round, designed to be more effective against the Aria, was fired. The motor zoomed inside the building and exploded with the fiery passion of a dragon.

Suddenly, alarms blared.

“Ma’am, his aura’s spiking!”

Rhea clenched her armrests. He was about to utter the incantation! And the tank took too long to reload, while the bullets would be ineffective during this time!

“Implode the bombs!” Rhea shouted. It was a last-ditch attempt but it was necessary. If he used his Willful Construct, there was no way Yggdrasil alone would be able to defeat him.

“Commander! We have a new signal coming in!”

Rhea’s eyes widened. “Scan it!”

There was the clattering of keyboards and then-

Brisingr popped up in big bold letters.

For a moment, everything stopped as everybody gazed at the letters in astonishment. Then a huge grin slid onto Rhea’s face. “Okay, now that’s what I’m talking about! Get back to it, we have to assist them the best we can!”

“Aye!”

Rhea’s eyes never left the orange dot that flew at record-breaking speeds towards the other signal. “Let’s see what you got, Brisingr,” she said, opening up a lollipop and sticking it into her mouth.