Side B II

...Alison's PoV...

I can't believe what I'm seeing; I even pinch myself to make sure that I am not dreaming.

"Is this a joke?" I ask Adam, but his serious expression tells me that the events displayed in this video actually happened.

My attention focuses back on the surreal events playing out on the screen. What looks like state-of-the-art tanks, similar to those I saw in movies, are plowing through a slightly hilly area, they are weathering magical attacks like it's nothing and releasing a terrifying payload that destroys everything in its path.

The destruction is mesmerizing, and I have to keep closing my mouth since it keeps opening without me realizing it. The Empire soldiers have no chance at retaliating; the tanks are simply too mighty. Those that are not disintegrated by the main cannons are picked off by the sniper-like submachine guns that make them explode in an instant, completely ignoring their armor and personal barriers.

"Holy shit..." I mutter after an entire squadron, which was readying some bizarre and ancient-looking contraption, is wiped off the map with a single shot.

"Indeed," Adam says while glancing at the screen. "The Empire was taken by surprise; they were completely unprepared."

"No shit, I think that nobody would be expecting a massive tank charge out of nowhere like that." I give my honest opinion on the matter. Even we would be hard-pressed to handle something like this. However, unlike the Empire, we have better ways of dealing with attackers, and we would have easily won the battle after the initial shock.

"And you haven't seen anything yet," Adam says as he clicks his mouse, and a dozen of similar footage appears all at once.

My jaw drops again. "Don't tell me that this happens on all those locations at once?"

Adam nods, "It did, the attacks started at the same time, and they all followed the same plan. Tanks appeared out of nowhere and utterly crushed the Empire."

I point towards a destroyed wall, "It looks like the bases were already assaulted before the tanks came in."

"Maybe, it's very likely. We monitored the area, but we didn't dedicate a lot of resources to it. We noticed a massive surge of magical power and checked with our satellite network, but the bases were already pretty battered by the time we got a video feed." Adam replies.

So this organization probably has even more firepower at its disposal.

I turn towards the Director, "By the way, why are you so certain that it's linked to this John Thomson? I have a hard time believing that some random guy has the clout and the resources to do something like this."

"A fair point," Adam says, "In fact, I thought the same thing at first. But I checked with our spy network, and we are certain that this intervention wasn't mandated by any organization we know or any government."

"Are you sure it isn't the US government?" I ask with a raised eyebrow, "The equipment these guys are using are very similar to was the US Army is using."

"You are correct, but don't worry about it. I know from trusted sources that no government is aware of this Hidden World of ours." Adam replies.

A bit of tension disappears from my body, a government discovering the truth would cause a shitstorm of epic proportions. I recall that Adam once said that a nation knowing about the Hidden World would likely cause an apocalypse of some kind.

"So why John Thomson?" I ask again, "I know that the guy uses some form of 'magically-enhanced' modern weaponry, but it seems like you're jumping to conclusions here."

"Good question, it seems you're not as much of a muscle-brain as I thought," Adam says with a smirk.

I resist the urge to punch the bastard in the face and let him explain his reasoning.

"You see, the weapons these people are using, as well as the teleportation they use, are 100% identical to the ones used by this guy during the Beelzebub Incident." Adam says, "So it could either mean that his technology was stolen, which I highly doubt, or that this is his personal army. "

It makes sense since John Thomson did broadcast a call to arms to every corner of the universe, so he was bound to find some people who are willing to follow him.

"Okay, then what should we do?" I ask Adam.

"Don't worry; we'll get to that in a moment. First of all, tell me what you're thinking of the battles you just saw." The Director asks.

I tilt my head to the side and replay the scenes in my head. To me, it looked like the standard Enforcer way of battle...

Then I suddenly realize something.

"Now that I think about it, this fight lacked a lot of the flashy spells that Enforcers like to use. Instead, they relied on artifacts only, which is weird. Maybe they were too unprepared, or it could be that the Empire relies on enchanted items rather than spells?" I give my impression to Adam.

He nods, "A fair assessment, but look at the Scanner report." Adam says as he opens another window.

I shudder, the Scanner is the name of the global surveillance system we use. I once visited the gigantic rooms where the 'brain' of the system is located. It looked like it was pulled straight out of the 1950s, which was apparently when it was constructed if Adam is to be believed. But the old machinery isn't what creeps me out; it's what the 'brain' of the operations is.

The brain is an apt word here since it's a literal brain floating in a glass jar. The organ is floating in some special liquid, and it's hooked to the rows upon rows of servers. The only thing besides the brain are the eyeballs that belonged to the person who once owned the organ. They are also cannibalized by machinery. Adam attempted to explain how it worked, but I ran out of the room and vomited once I was out.

Since then, I refuse to go back inside those forsaken rooms. I'm even wary when I have to use the system since I know what's behind it, but it's too useful not to use it.

Adam assured me that the original owner of the brain donated his organs to our organization once he passed away and that it's devoid of any consciousness, it's little more than an organic computer.

But it still gives me the creeps.

Nevertheless, I focus on the Scanner report. I glance over the gigantic strings of characters; my head is already hurting after reading a few lines. As it turns out, I'm better at cracking skulls open than all this technical stuff.

Adam, after seeing my confusion, explains as he highlights a particular line. "See this line? You should at least recognize it."

I read it and nod, this is one of the only snippets of information I still remember from our classes on the subject. "Yes, it's the long-winded and inefficient Code calls the Enforcers, and everyone else for that matter, are using to do what they call 'magic,' right?"

"Good, you're not completely hopeless then," Adam says before pointing at the end of the line.

"But look at this," the Director adds, "There's this little Call added at the end."

I narrow my eyes, "so, System. Call..." I skip over the details until I arrive at the pertinent part. "... Method.Cancel()?"

I snap my head towards Adam, "Does that mean what I think it means?" I say as I almost grab him by the collar.

"If you think that our target is also aware of the World Code, then don't worry. He isn't, if he was then he wouldn't be using methods similar to the Enforcers'." Adam says.

I lean back and sigh. The World Code is, from what I was told, a way of describing the underlying works of everything that's happening in our universe. We were told that it is merely an accurate-ish way of modeling real phenomenon, just like the equations we learned in high school. This alternative theory of everything has existed for a very long time according to our records. It was always in parallel to regular science and the 'magical' ways of the rest of the universe. The fringe nature of the World Code caused it to be ignored by everyone except for a select few, and it changed a lot during history until it reached its current form, which is heavily based of very complex calculations and modern computation science.

I tried to look at the calculations behind my ability once; my brain stopped working after a minute.

From what I remember, the World Code states that the universe is purely mathematical, that the phenomenons around us are merely the expression of those gigantic calculations.

I don't understand the details, but I remember that my ability, Object.Combust(), changes a state of an 'Object.' Objects are like atoms in regular physics, the most basic 'thing,' and I can add the 'Combust' property onto those objects.

From my point of view, I can just set anything on fire with just a thought.

We were told that those abilities are related to the 'useless' parts of our DNA, which is something exclusive to humans since any other species, even from different universes, don't have this particular property. The way this part of our DNA works sometimes mimics World Code, and it allows specific individuals like me to have special abilities.

At least that's what I was told.

The way others uses magic is a convoluted way of doing a lot of chained Code to achieve the same results as a straightforward World Call. It is incredibly inefficient, but it has the merit of being versatile. People with abilities only have one, sometimes two direct World Calls at their disposal, while the ones using 'magic' have a lot more even if it is less potent than our abilities.

"Are you listening?" Adam snaps me back to reality, and I nod.

"Okay, so what did I just say?" the Director asks, and my following silence is enough of an answer.

He sighs, "Pay attention this time. Like I was saying before, we have to make sure that this John Thomson isn't sabotaging our plan, and that his actions don't upset the status quo."

I raise an eyebrow, "So you want us to attack him."

Adam nods, "To put it simply, yes."