CHAPTER 2

Inside the tent, the general threw a card on the table, the place suddenly became darker and a hologram of the planet appeared out of nowhere, there it was possible to see the various battlefields around the world, this was an extremely difficult war, the relationship between the humans and the mages were already at its worst possible level.

In fact, on their side, if a human were to be born with the gift of magic, he would most surely be used as a lab rat if not killed, not everyone liked that, but what could mere commoners opinion do in a war where a single mistake could mean the end of an entire city?

Neither side had room for pity or a truce, it was too dangerous to make something like that if the Earth still existed then maybe things could be resolved more easily, but a pity that this is no longer the case.

The general then made a gesture and the holographic globe approached the battlefield in one of the entrances to the Lemurian continent.

"A few weeks ago an entire recon squadron was annihilated near the borders of the Lemurian continent, they were investigating a suspicious activity that one of our satellites detected, we thought that the mages were testing explosion magic somewhere near this ravine, however, the moment they entered the place we lost communications with them, it has been more than three days since it happened, and we have no news of them yet, they were probably captured or killed in action."

He sat down on a chair and looked once again at them.

"The thing is, ever since this weird activity happened there, other battlefields had shown a similar situation..."

Jameson stroked his beard and looked thoughtfully at the hologram.

"Do you think this was a mere trap to kill some of our men?"

"No... that would be a waste of time and resources, what could a few dozen deaths do when it comes to a war that involves millions of people on each side?"

At that moment Harrison looked at him and said. "Show us the aerial view of the area. Focus on the ravine."

The general nodded and made another gesture.

Soon, the hologram changed to a video showing a few explosions happening around that place. They looked at it for some time but couldn't get any conclusion.

"Have you tried to send someone in there again?" Harrison scratched the palm of his hand as he asked.

"Yes, and the result was the same, the moment they entered the area around the ravine we lost all forms of contact with them, after that there wasn't any news."

Before Harrison could reply, Jameson said exactly what was on his mind.

"Have you tried to bombard the area? Why waste human resources if we could try blasting the whole place?"

The general made another gesture and showed the recording of a fighter shooting missiles at the area, surprisingly after a few tries, the place remained intact.

Seeing this Harrison's eyes lit up, around the Lemurian continent there was a powerful spell that acted like some sort of shield, even nuclear missiles couldn't break up the thing, and all the radiation was cleared in a single day, perhaps they managed to develop a weaker version of the shield spell?

"Don't you think this is extremely similar to the shield spell?"

Before the general could say anything Jameson opened his mouth to spout some bullshit.

"Are you stupid? Only mages above the 5th rank can cast shields, why would they send such a powerful mage to this place without any reason!? Only an idiot would think such a thing!"

"Yeah, but only if the idiot thinks I'm talking about the same shield spell we know, after all, there is no such thing as research and development on the mages side, they would never discover new spells and would remain stagnated forever until we developed better weapons and destroyed them!" Harrison stood up and punched the table!

"You bastard watch out how you speak to your elder!" Jameson clenched his fist as he shot him an enraged gaze!

"With your intellect, it's more appropriate to call you my junior, hehe!" Harrison laughed at the old man.

Seeing how Jameson was getting red with anger, the general intervened.

"That's enough you two! Harrison, tell me your thoughts on the matter."

He nodded and smirked at Jameson with an expression that clearly said 'I won, you old bastard'.

"You told us that every time our troops entered the ravine, we lost contact with our men and that the fighters can't destroy it, this situation is pretty similar to the times we invaded the mages territory, this makes me think that someone must have managed to develop a weaker version of the shield spell and decided to try it, although I don't know why our men didn't come back."

The general nodded and thought for a while before saying.

"Alright, that's all for today, you two should rest on your tents, I will call you if there is any other matter to discuss."

Jameson muttered something on his way out but Harrison completely ignored him and went to his tent, when he arrived there he found a woman sitting on one of his chairs while eating a cereal bar.

Harrison looked at her and sighed, this woman with blonde hair, blue eyes, and more muscles than him were one of his friends inside the military, they participated in quite a few missions together.

"What are you doing here Anna?"

"What!? Can't I come here to see my good friend." She gave him an innocent smile.

He raised an eyebrow at her statement and smirked.

"Is that so, then I will sleep now, I see you later." He threw himself on the big bed that was placed in the middle of the tent.

"Ahh, come on, don't be like that, you know that there is no better biomechanics engineer here other than you, could you please check my augmentations? Or even update them?"

Hearing her words, he sighed and stood up, "Alright..."

He opened a notebook that was on the table next to the bed and after booting some software he gave her a cable that she inserted on a little hole on the back of her head.

Seeing the rows of codes appearing on the screen he decided to test his AI capabilities.

'Eir, I want you to update her augmentations and try to increase its efficiency by 20%'

[Very well, estimated time to complete the task: 10 minutes.]

Seeing that Eir started working he turned to her and said.

"So... 3 months without seeing each other, how have you been? Any interesting mission?"

She stopped eating the weird cereal bar and shrugged.

"Not really, after you decided to take a holiday, the mages seemed to have done the same, the best mission I participated in on these few months was merely a search and destroy one at one of our abandoned bases in the southern parts of Ageon."

"Fortunately we only faced a group of rank 2 mages being led by a rank 3, it was quite easy to kill the bastards."

"Ha, it seems to me that you were the one taking a holiday." He leaned on the chair and massaged his temple.

"You look tired, didn't sleep?"

"Not really, I have been working on something these 3 months, I only finished it today after spending an entire day in my laboratory."

"Oh!" She smiled hearing his words. "And what is it that you made this time? The recovery chamber from last time was quite good! It's amazing how that thing can heal any wounds in a few hours."

"Haha! If I told you I would have to kill you, it's a business secret."

"Tsk, stingy!"

"Hey, I'm helping you for free here, how am I stingy?!"

She shook her head and finished her snack. They stood there for some time without talking to each other.

"You know, there is a rumor spreading around that the mages had found the reverse you."

"The what?"

"The reverse Harrison, a mage equally talented and a legendary genius, haha!"

Seeing the expression on her face, his smile disappeared and he shrugged.

"Not even in a million years! I'm a genius without equal, no one will take my throne!"

"We will see that in the future, but you must be careful, they say that this new genius is looking for you, some even say that he made a promise to kill you if you happen to fight on the same battlefield."

"Humph. We will see who's going to die!" He looked at the screen and seeing that the update finished he asked her.

"Alright, it's finished, how do you feel."

She unplugged the cable and looked around surprised.

"Wow! What did you do! It feels like I have a new pair of eyes! Everything looks much better, I swear I can even see the air particles!"

Anna's augmentations are minor ones designed to enhance her senses and thought speed, it's not comparable to Harrison augmentation, but still, much better than the military version, a gift he gave to her after she saved him a few years ago.

"Of course, I'm Harrison Forgrave after all, there is no one comparable to me! Hahahaha!"

Seeing his mad smile and crazy scientist vibes she laughed. Harrison would always react like that every time he was praised.

"Alright, I will let you rest now if you have time tomorrow, come to the firing range to practice a little." She patted him on the back and left.

Yawning, he lay down on the bed and said.

"Eir, wake me up at 7 am."

[Yes, master.]

...

Meanwhile, inside the general's tent.

The general was sitting on his chair as he looked at the projection of a few men, all of them had the same rank as him.

They would always have a meeting each week to discuss some important information.

"So, General Urien Tyrrell, today the young bastard must have returned, did he cause problems again?" Said one of the projections.

"Humph!" Urien, Harrison's general replied with a dissatisfied tone. "Watch how you speak about my soldiers, do I have to remind you who has the highest efficiency between all of us, General Tavish Linkovich?"

"Tsk, you can't be seriously protecting that brat! Have you forgotten how many he sacrificed before!?"

"He had an objective to accomplish and a decision to make, he would either return as a traitor and deserter or die trying to complete his mission, in my eyes he's no different than a hero for being capable of coming back alive instead of in a coffin."

This time however another general replied.

"We can't deny the boy's contribution to the human race as a whole, be it the new vehicles resistant to the lower-ranked mages spells or the recovery chambers, both of them were inventions that changed the tides of war in our favor."

Some nodded at his statement while others shook their heads.

"Have you read the last reports? They say the mages have a new genius at the same level as ours, I'm worried about this new addition to their armies, who knows what this new player might be capable of doing? Do you still remember that battle near the borders of Trazil 15 years ago? That descendent of Tesla, Damien created that long-range lightning spell and killed more than forty of our snipers in a single night..."

Their faces sunk at this remark, this was the first time the mages managed to destroy one of their bases at the south of Ageon, after that, one base after the other was destroyed until they built the giant walls, this is the size of the damage a single genius mage can bring to the war.

They were lucky that his spell was really complex and wasn't something that anyone could learn, how would they fight against an army that could strike you from kilometers of distance without giving you any time to react?

"We will investigate this matter if this is all, I will take my leave," Urien replied.

Seeing that they nodded, he made a gesture and ended the meeting, sighing he stood up and went to his tent to rest, he would have a lot of work to do for the next few months.