120 Chapter 119: A New Player

I glance over the massive screen of the command room. We are currently monitoring the bases we assaulted a few days ago, and the Freedom Movement has reclaimed most of them. It's a strange sight; those bases, which used to house thousands of men, are operated by less than a hundred for the smallest ones and two hundred at most for the massive fortresses we struggled to conquer.

The plan of the Freedom Movement seems to be to regain the Wolfheart territory they lost, but those understaffed fortresses are just a drain on their logistics rather than a strategic asset. Their skeleton crews will not be able to put up any substantial resistance against any assault, especially from the Empire.

The Stonecrushers must be beyond pissed that the rebels killed so many of their soldiers, or at least they believe so. As far as I know, our involvement in this conflict is still unknown, and I intend for it to remain that way for the foreseeable future.

I lean against a wall and massage my temples. The Shard has been pretty shaken up recently. A massive explosion erupted in the area dedicated to Alan's special spatial warehouse, and they lost days of progress along with a significant stockpile of materials. We didn't lose anything of real value; it was only raw materials. But there's a silver lining, at least we learned something from this incident.

As it turns out, the essence of frost we are using to cool our machinery has slightly corrosive properties, and it has been slowly eroding the pipes of our cooling system. The resulting metal flakes thickened, and they finally clogged our cooling lines, which caused them to explode.

The ensuing panic was nothing to scoff at, and two Fabricators were almost gravely injured had I had not intervened thanks to the Rewinder. As a result, we changed all or cooling lines to be made from a better anti-corrosive material, which should stop anything like that from happening again.

Of course, changing the massive cooling system forced us to stop all our machinery, but production went back to normal fairly quickly considering the colossal amount of work required to replace all those cooling lines.

But, aside from this unfortunate incident, nothing of note really happened. We are all waiting on a response from the Stonecrusher Empire. It's obvious that they will attempt to regain the bases they lost. We will intervene in the conflict once we are sure that we successfully blocked any potential reinforcement from arriving, then the tanks will take care of the rest.

As it turns out, a tank charge is way more economical than using the Hammer, so we are slowly shifting away from using the Hammer to take care of everything. Of course, the weapon is still a key component of our arsenal, and we will not send our men against something like a gigantic demon.

Terrence also took it upon himself to monitor other, shadier channels and smaller factions. He reasoned that the Oracle might be tempted to influence a minor faction to upset the current balance of power and escalate the war even further. I shudder to think what a Family would do with weapons provided by the Oracle.

As of now, we don't have any counter to her railgun, and I bet it's only one of many terrifying weapons at her disposal.

But let's stop thinking about the Oracle, we all know that she will strike in some way or another, and our monitoring might be completely useless anyway.

Instead, I focus on our next operation. The success of our first real assault on the Empire showed that, as long as we strike quickly and destroy everything, it couldn't hit back. Of course, I doubt that it will be as easy as it was before, the Stonecrushers must have reinforced their security after the disastrous defeat they suffered.

Nevertheless, it's impossible that they developed a barrier strong enough to stop the Hammer. Even the demon-powered Tower Of Justice failed to contain the weapon completely, so nothing that the Enforcers have will be a problem for us.

I sigh, just thinking about the monumental tasks ahead of us is enough to make my head spin. Warfare is a massive financial drain, The Order is still making profits, but we are one bad month away from losing Credits. We have massive reserves, but they aren't infinite, and we are pretty much dead in the water if we cannot buy resources anymore.

I toyed with the idea of playing the stock market again to increase our capital, but the amounts I could realistically earn are a drop in the ocean compared to the sums we are amassing in the Hidden World.

In the end, we might be defeated by financial collapse rather that battle. I bet the Oracle could ruin our income by flooding the market, and-

I shake my head; I feel like even thinking about it would be enough to make her act. After all, we know that mind-reading is a thing that is possible thanks to Sarah, so it wouldn't be far-fetched that an entity as powerful as the Oracle has something similar at her disposal.

The overbearing pressure of the Oracle weighs down on everyone who knows about it. I see how all the concerned personnel hurries in their work, always pushing harder for the sliver of hope that their contribution will make us able to win against her.

But I know better. I was the one who fought her; the extent of her incommensurable power still escapes me. It would be an understatement to say that she could reduce our entire Shard into a pile of ashes with just a thought.

She is nothing like the foes we faced before; even the Rewinder couldn't save me from her wrath if she got serious. I think I am the only one who realizes how hopeless our situation is, the people of the Order all place their faith in me, but I don't think I can-

We WiLl PrEvAiL.

Long time no sees, I was almost hoping that this damn voice would go away. I wonder why it is so confident; even the voice was cowering when we faced the Oracle.

PrOmEtHeUs WiLl NoT lOsE.

I think the propaganda we play to the population of the Shard got to its head, and-

"Unknown contact!" an operator shouts, and I snap my head towards the screen that shifts to a view of my old home. I blink a few times; there was no flash of light, not portal of any kind. It's just like these unknown people truly appeared out of thin air.

I reach for my weapon. This method of teleportation reminds me of the Oracle, and it could be possible that she already 'uplifted' a faction without us noticing.

Tension fills the room as we watch the seemingly normal-looking teenagers approaching the perimeter. We are all expecting them to reveal their real form.

A minute pass, then another.

So far, nothing has happened. Instead of attacking like we thought they would, they are bickering over trivial things.

I resist the urge to scratch my head at the sight. These creatures are really committing to their cover and are quite convincing, but why would they think that we would believe that they are regular humans for even a second?

We are not that dumb, are we?

The entire control room is speechless as we watch the invaders arguing about their choices in outfits.

I don't know what to say, is this a new tactic to make us lower our guard?

"Alright, enough bullshit!" One of them says before facing the barrier. She adjusts her thin helmet connected to her glasses and shudder as she presses a button on the protective device.

The red-haired woman shudders, "I always hate it when I connect to this damn thing..." she says before snapping her fingers to get the attention of the other members of her party. "Alright people, let's start!"

The others, who became serious in an instant, nod and repeat the gestures of the woman with their own helmets.

A blazing inferno erupts in an instant.

"The heat is astronomical!" one of the operators shouts, "It's near star-levels already!"

My jaw drops as the woman narrow her eyes and the flame shifts colors until they become invisible. It seems to put a strain on her since her pale skin gains a red hue, and sweat pours from her forehead.

"Still climbing!" the operator says before looking towards me for an order.

"What are the mana levels? " I ask as I turn towards another member of the Order. "Prepare the Spell Jammers! Deploy six of them!"

The machines are teleported in a large perimeter around the attackers, to make sure that the flames don't damage the expensive machinery.

"I-I can't believe it." The operator says as he shifts his view on a part of the big screen.

It shows a big zero.

"What?" I say, "Is the equipment working properly?"

"Prometheus, take a look at this." Terrence, who rushed to my sides as soon as the attack started, points towards the screen.

The flames, despite the Spell Jammers, are still roaring and large cracks are appearing over the barrier.

Even worse, a small group of attackers teleported near a Jammer.

"Adam says that this thing is the source of the cancellation." a tall and wiry teen says.

The other one, a girl with short blond hair, shrugs. "Who cares, we'll just take it home and be done with it." She says as she taps the Jammer.

The Jammer vanishes fro existence in an instant.

For fuck's sake, this is not good!

"Show me the location of the stolen Jammer!" I shout, and a couple of Fabricators frenetically write lines on their respective keyboards.

However, an error message appears since a signal cannot be found.

The barrier breaks in the next moment, and the trio of teens who were near the barrier take a step forward. The building is cut to pieces by invisible blades of air, and the mysterious flames disintegrate even the slightest fragment.

A heavy silence falls into the command room.

We lost my old mansion, which survived many assaults from Enforcers and mercenaries alike to a bunch of random teenagers who look bored out of their mind in less than a minute. Furthermore, their extraordinary abilities are entirely overpowered and, from the looks of things, aren't using mana.

I grit my teeth and grab my phone. Extraordinary problems require an extraordinary solution.

And I happen to be the most extraordinary being on this part of the universe.