“Larissan city of Rivostov has been struck by an Orlish strategic strike last night at two AM local time. Hundreds of Orlish missiles reportedly hit important military targets and critical city infrastructure. Rivostov’s C2 Artillery Plant also detonated from the strikes, leaving potentially hundreds of workers dead. Naval Base Rivostov was also heavily struck, with satellite images showing docks, fuel silos, and buildings destroyed by surgical missile strikes. The Confederation has so far not commented on the matter.”
- Geopol Press
+++
West Orland
Duchy of Rimwurz
November Palace
August 24, 2025
“Shall we begin?” William respectfully asked. The various ministers of the Heiss Cabinet immediately nodded. William turned to Director Marie Wittfield of the Royal Investigations Unit. The woman nodded calmly, as she stood up, and walked toward the presentation area.
Clearing her throat, the first slides finally appeared on the screens.
“Good Evening, everyone,” Marie said, eyeing Amelie a bit. “Your Majesty, as you well know, we have been deep for the last few months…even I had to join the expeditions myself…trying to find out information about those who executed the attack against Princess Yumi Kawasaki of Asanai. And of course…the same group of people who attacked our Queen recently.”
Amelie felt discomfort in her guts upon hearing that. She could still remember the awful scenes that had transpired when she was attacked. The sheer brutality that the men and women under her went through…was still fresh. And the worst part about that nightmarish problem was that she didn’t know who did it.
Now, she hoped to find out who these people were.
“They certainly are a strange group,” Amelie said. “I hope we now have proper intel on how to deal with them.”
The slide changed into that of a simple flag. It was a full dark purple field, and in the middle, was a white emblem. It was the King’s Cross, as always. It was the same as the NRF’s flag with either the red field or black field. This one however was just…a bit more esoteric and terrifying.
“They call themselves the Restorationists,” Marie said bluntly. “More accurately, the full name of their organization is the Global Restoration League. Or the GRL. And as you can see by their name and their actions, their operations are global.”
“Restoration?” Jacqueline asked, already greatly worried by that. “What the hell do these nutheads want to restore?”
“I’m going to make a quick guess,” William said, leaning forward from his seat. “They want to restore the rule of men. The same thing that existed before magic appeared.”
“Precisely,” Marie said. “That’s what these Restorationists want. Their ideology however becomes even more concerning when you dig deeper. The few pieces of intel we have acquired from their liquidated facilities show that they subscribe to ‘Accelerationism’. They want to bring about a massive war between men and women.”
Amelie frowned further, as the atmosphere in the room chilled. They were already there.
Does that mean they already succeeded?
“We have reason then to believe that these ‘Restorationists’ have been responsible for promoting terrorism from male rights groups and supporting reactionary nobles and politicians in various Kingdoms to polarize society greatly. From one of their destroyed facilities in Lozewic, Poznek—”
“Poznek?” Walter asked.
“Yes, we managed to infiltrate the Pozneki Republic and conduct a raid on one of the facilities of the GRL. The RIU lost eighteen girls in that fight, but we managed to get some records before they detonated the compound. They had entire hit lists to execute moderate political figures in the Pozneki Republic.”
“...We have had a lot of leaders in the old male rights movement dying or disappearing to criminal activity for decades,” Walter muttered. “I remember Karl Gustav. He led the workers of the Wuringen Union ten years ago. He was getting traction at negotiating with Queen Areya to at least begin enforcing basic labor safety standards. Then he was found in a ditch in Eirhow. Executed with a pistol, presumably by Eirhow’s criminal syndicates…or so they say…”
“We probably shouldn’t start conjuring up conspiracy theories out of nowhere,” Pristina said, as she wiped her forehead with her handkerchief. “That’s ridiculous. Some…fringe groups can’t possibly cause that much damage. I know that. I’ve dealt with a lot of terror groups from…”
“And what’s the most common nature of terror groups originating from men?” Marie asked. Pristina merely gulped.
“They’re erratic. They target anyone and everyone. They usually don’t target nobles and women first. Whenever the Royal Guard investigates them, the usual first targets…are men.”
Marie nodded.
“Essentially, it would appear that the GRL had extensive ties with a lot of these terror groups. They seem to have supplied and influenced many of them. Thus, the focus of these terror groups usually is to first and foremost terrorize men, before women. It seems to be by design. Our governments wouldn’t protect the average man, and by making crazy men kill normal men for no reason, you create an incredibly unsafe environment. That’s bound to create paranoia and radicalism.”
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“They wanted to kill me,” Amelie muttered. “And Princess Kawasaki. And perhaps…did they do it to my mother too?”
“We don’t know about the last part,” Marie shook her head. “We’re still…trying to chase them. But as of now, considering their behavior, alongside the retrieved electronic records or communications from them…it indicates that these ‘Restorationists’ are hell-bent on causing chaos. As much as possible. And sowing severe rifts between men and women.”
“I don’t understand it,” Amelie said, pausing a bit. “Why? How does this benefit them? How does any of this help their cause? It doesn’t help men. It doesn’t even…help anyone. It’s just…causing chaos and violence for the sake of it.”
“Again, they want to accelerate radicalism amongst men,” Walter said. “Combined with the enthusiastic support from our dear matriarchies in the last decades, and especially the First Great War, it seems that they have succeeded in that regard. Though, I question the idea of them being the main cause. Sure, they did this and that, but, it probably only just sped things up a bit. We were headed to this disaster regardless.”
“Then we’ll treat them as just another terrorist organization,” William said. “I believe in that case it’s kinda pointless to understand their lunacy. Shoot first, no questions to be asked later. That’s going to be our policy against them, considering how dangerous they are.”
“Have we even captured a single member of this organization?” Amelie asked.
Both William and Marie shook their heads.
“No we haven’t,” Marie said. “They possess extremely advanced weaponry that can go toe-to-toe somewhat with our battlemages. Their men also seem to have built-in self-destruct equipment that kills them before they are even captured. It’s the most horrifying thing about them. They seem to have an obsession with not being caught.”
“That explains how they hid for so long then,” Pristina said. “If everyone who meets them dies brutally, no one will know them. And in the case of their men being defeated, if they just explode violently, no one will know anything about the pink paste left behind.”
“That just points to cult-like behaviors,” William took a sip of his glass of water. “I’ve made my conclusions at this point. These bastards will only understand superior firepower. Otherwise, it’s impossible to communicate or reason with them. The fact that they’d willingly fight while chained to a detonator means they are absolute fanatics.”
“William,” Amelie hissed. “There’s no need to dehumanize these people. For all we know, they’ve been brainwashed. We need to find out how we can communicate with them. At least find out why they’re doing all this. If we can talk to the CFN somewhat, we can talk to them.”
“Amelie,” William narrowed his eyes. “You’re deluding yourself.”
“What?”
“The Lieplatzan State, to these lunatics…are moderates.”
+++
“So how are we dealing with them?” Pristina asked. There were now just five people in Amelie’s office. William, Pristina, Marie, General Albrecht, and Amelie. Night had already set outside, and the clock had ticked to midnight, but they were still up awake. “And by that, I don’t mean policies of talking or what-not with them. I mean, how are we countering their weapons?”
“Director Wittfield, I’m afraid outside of an M8 IFV going ham with its autocannons, my soldiers cannot deal with these bastards,” General Albrecht admitted. “I doubt we can do much with our small arms either. They’re only going to scratch their armor.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” William said. “That armor is directly on top of their body. Even if an anti-materiel rifle can’t pierce it, the energy alone should liquify whoever poor sod is inside.”
“Magic,” Marie said. “These people use magic with their weapons. There are dampener enchantments on their armor alongside a slew of other improvements. They’re magical weaponries. My agents noted that their armor seems to carry active mana on these backpack-like power packs.”
“The implications alone…” Pristina shook her head. “That’s just impossible. Even if these men can carry mana on their backs, they absolutely should not be capable of actually using it to cast spells or channel it into the enchantments of their tools.”
“Defense Minister, we can deny it all we want, but it’s in front of us,” Marie huffed, a little bit annoyed. “Let’s not fall into the comfort of denial. There are men using magic, cheats, by technology, it doesn’t matter. They’re using it. And they’re using it very well.”
Amelie and Pristina both gulped at the idea. It was extremely bad. Though, for a second, Amelie felt herself slightly relieved by that news. Even if whatever techniques that allowed these men to use magic were only available to a bunch of terroristic lunatics…the fact that it existed…
Maybe there’s hope for more equality in the future.
“Don’t panic too quickly, you two,” William said, a bit reassuring. “Not like those losers can actually cast the spell themselves. You’re not going to see billions of smelly dudes finally do actual magic anytime soon.”
“William, that’s not our big problem,” Amelie replied. “In fact, that’s actually sad! No, what I meant is…is that this wonderful technology isn’t in the hands of good people, but the damned worst ones.”
“Well, it is what it is,” William said. “I’ll try to work with the OPM to create effective countermeasures against this. I’d appreciate some magical support from the damned Royal Guard and RIU in this endeavor.”
“I can do that,” Pristina nodded. “I’ll send some of my best mages to create enchanted weapons. The best that the Kingdom can procure. Though…I don’t know if they can make ones that men can use.”
“Sucks then,” William crossed his arms. He then looked at Marie. “Hey you, send more of your girls to the Palace Security Unit.”
“The RIU is a small organization,” Marie frowned. “We can’t keep bleeding talent. I already sent some of my best…and it already caused a decline in the teams that they were originally in. It’s not easy to find good, brave, and talented battlemages. Especially brave ones. You wouldn’t believe how many volunteers I had to kick out because of how twitchy they are.”
“You didn’t train them?” William asked.
“No, it’s a waste of resources to train a spoiled noblewoman who runs from the first crack of gunfire even when she can cast simple spells against it,” Marie groaned tiredly. “So I always just send them back to the Royal Guard.”
“Outside of Alpha Squad, even the Royal Guard girls of the Palace Security Unit completely shat the bed during the attacks,” William said. “My boys from the OPM fared even worse.”
“W-well,” Amelie smiled awkwardly. “I feel mightily confident right now at my chances of living then.”
“Yeah, well. You better hope we figure out something before another attack,” William said, scratching the back of his head. “Now, don’t look at me. The best I can say for now is ‘we’ll work on it’.”
“And what if they target my Prime Minister or my Ministers?” Amelie asked, now even more worried.
“Rest in peace then,” General Albrecht blankly said. “I mean, it’s obvious, right?”
No one was able to deny his words.