RTB

"Hehe, we successfully evaded that battle mech," I celebrated with a cereal bar while holding the flight helmet on my thigh. The clock read 1400 hours. We had lowered our altitude because the view was better that way.

"Sure, but we still must evade the defense line up ahead," Maria said as she projected the hostile in front of us.

"BTW, have you leak in your pants?" I asked her.

"Of course not. I am wearing a diaper, don't you remember?" She growled although I knew that her diaper maybe has reached about half of its maximum capacity.

"Haha, then you have a pee, haven't you?" I grabbed the conclusion.

"Yes," she said embarrassedly.

"Haha, I told you not to drink too much alcohol, but you didn't listen. How many times have you pee?" I asked her again.

"13 times," She said with a red face.

"Hahahahaha," I laughed harder seeing her cherry-red face.

Our jets were traveling at the speed of Mach 10 or equal to 3 km per second. We will reach back the Flameguard AFB in just 20 minutes. The jets were blowing at its limit, and it wasn't going to give up soon. The terrain below us changed very fast since we were traveling ten times faster than the speed of sounds.

I put the autopilot on the jets and sit back at the ejection seat. Honestly, this plane will eject not only the seat but also a small portion of the cockpit, so we were if we are going to remove at this speed we will be safe.

Wilson: "So Torres, are you going to participate in Operation Servum Liberantum?"

Torres: "Maybe."

Wilson: "Maybe? What is wrong with you giving me that answer?"

Torres: "I just don't want to do it, for now, I think. Maybe you can bring Sobri with you?"

Wilson: "Sobri. Do you want to come with me?"

Sobri: "Sure, but I will be in a tank far away from there."

Wilson: "Not bad, Leopard?"

Sobri: "Yes, the Leopard II."

Wilson: "Nice."

I knew the fact that doing the operation has the same meaning as further crippling the already weak defense of the Vialis village. But since Flameguard AFB was near that village, their protection won't be too much-affected thanks to our base early warning radars.

"Wilson, why didn't you annex the Tanerian or the Soniel forcibly? I mean, you have that power in you, don't you?" She said to me. She knew that I never abuse the [Ultimate Summon] too much to the point of making the entire country surrender themselves to me.

While tilting my head backward, I answered, "You want to know the reason, Maria? It's because of you. You give me pause. The brake that stops me from doing anything too harsh. I know I can dominate the world and change it to the way I like, but Maria, you always stop me."

"Wilson, why did you suddenly turn very poetic?" Maria asked me. She rarely heard me talking so poetic, except when I did my pick-up-lines, which rarely ended very well.

"Haha, I just want to tell you in style," I said as I grabbed the control stick back and put the flight helmet back into my head.

Maria redeployed the weapons again while we were going to barge through the hole in their air defense. Unluckily, the weakest guard in front of us were knights riding wyvern. They're not as deadly as Dragon, but in numbers, they're as dangerous as the dragon.

"Maria, tell Torres to prepare her Anti-Air missiles. We don't have time to chit-chat with the wyvern," I said as I flipped my helmet visor down, and a bunch of HUD appeared in front of my eyes.

"Ok, Wilson. Data Link connected, Will stand by for further orders, please copy," She said to me as I looked upwards to the bright noon sky.

Torres: "Gradivus 2, Fox 1."

The missile flew away from the wings of his jet. Maria had also shot some weapons from the inside weapon bay of the strike wyverns. It was the railgun, heat-seeking anti-ship missiles, and the Active radar anti-air missiles.

The missile hit one of the wyverns and killed two wyverns. The formation broke, and I continued to maneuver my jet so maria can get the best firing angle.

Maria: "Gradivus 1, Firing Railgun."

Thunder loud sound appeared from the railgun and blasted some of the wyverns away and opened a hole that barely enough for both of our jets.

Wilson: "Colonel, enter that window first."

Sobri: "Wilco."

The F-15E flew through the hole that we made by shooting the flock of wyverns. But as we want to enter it, the hole got closed again, and we couldn't enter it. We decided to use the ocean as a road again because I didn't have time to climb back to altitude.

"Colonel, Meet you back in AFB. I have to pick the longer route," I said as I banked my jet in the right direction to avoid the flock of wyverns.

"Roger," Sobri said as his F-15E flew further into the Soniel kingdom, leaving us behind in the demon territory.

While maintaining our course to the ocean, I gained altitude back to the mesosphere so nobody would follow us again. In the mesosphere, the sun was brighter, and the sky was darker. Maria was fiddling with the touch screen in front of her.

Looking at the projection of Maria's screen, I switched, so our interface is the same, and I asked her about it, "So Maria, What did we get on the recon mission?" I asked her as I turned on the autopilot again.

"A lot of intel obviously," She said as she slid the screen to another picture.

"What is this?" I asked as I pointed my hand at one of the pictures, which symbolized as a dot on the touchscreen. The image of a large cylinder structure with glass in the middle of it. The lens also had an inscription of magic.

"Ah, that picture, that is the picture of one of the demon's weapons. It's called Satan's Arrow. Based on the book I read, that weapon has devastating effects like a WMD. It could destroy a city in one hit and unlike dragon. That thing will just destroy it instantly," Maria explained to me.

I slide the screen to another picture of a giant creature with a height of 3 tall men combined, the appearance was similar to human albeit with the giant horn an holding a giant sword in its back. "Maria, what is this creature?" I asked her again.

"It's the Antdemon, don't let the first three letters fool you because this demon is large as hell. They were the kind that gives our heroes most of the troubles because his weapon hardly injured them," Maria explained as I lowered the altitude slowly since we were 600 km away from the base.

"Oh, I see. I think the hero doesn't have any anti-tank weaponry except for explosives, I think," I commented as I began my approach on the Flameguard AFB.

"Yeah, let's focused on the landing for now," Maria said as she returned to her duty, and I took over the jet again.

Wilson: "Gradivus 1 requesting permission to land."

ATC: "Permission granted. General, you are cleared to land on runway 1."

I deaccelerate the plane, and we felt the high G from forced braking from Mach 10. Slowly but surely, we began to slow down to a speed suitable for landing, and the wheel from our jet touched the ground below us.

I taxied the plane back to the hangar then left it out there. I headed to the changing room and put off the G-suit and changing it back to my ABU while bringing the dress uniform back from the locker there.

Maria did the same, too, and after that, she sat on the driver's seat of the Alpina B7 Xdrive. She drove the car back to our living quarters. I left the car and entered my room again and sleep on my bed.