Chapter 96: Operation: Vanguard

We had been inside the Hammerhead for a week. We were now on our way to the part of Nexus that we would be infiltrating.

Currently, we wore Nexus combat uniforms. The standard clothing of most of the attendants from that country. We had already adopted the appearance of Tyranus and Alice, and had been practicing referring to each other by name.

Currently, 'Alice' sat beside me.

"I really can't wait until this is all over, Tyranus. I want you to be Mizik again.." Alice said.

"I know. Isabella is the woman I love and who I married. I want you to be her again as well, but that will have to wait."

Alice nodded and then hugged my arm.

"I don't like Tyranus, but I can at least remember you're actually my husband. So I'll be Alice as long as you need me to be," she said.

What I didn't mind, was the fact that Tyranus was taller than me. He was around 6'5.

I was kind of enjoying the view...

Just then, the hatch on our door opened and Leiso walked in.

"Mizik, Isabella, we're approaching the coast," she said.

"Mizik is here? Where?" I said.

Leiso rolled her eyes.

"Tyranus and Alice. I'm still getting used to this... Regardless, put on your wetsuits. Night is approaching and you two need to be ready to go," she said.

We nodded and followed her to the armory.

We stored several firearms and plenty of ammunition in our inventories. We also had multiple changes of clothing and masks to wear for when the fighting began.

The masks were a simple and smooth black metal made by Leiso that also had a visor. There were filters over the mouth area for breathing and they attached to a small frame that was in place behind our ears.

We also had hoods to wear so that our hair colors wouldn't be recognized if we were caught.

Mine was red just like Tyranus, which wasn't uncommon here apparently, and Alice's was black just like...Alice. Her eyes were dark blue and mine were still emerald green.

Luckily, no none would see my eyes through the visor.

And lastly of course, we were given fake ID's and money to move quickly around the country. That way, we wouldn't have to walk everywhere.

Eventually, night fell over us and we waited. After midnight, the small circular room began to fill with water.

When it was full, we swam up to the top and opened the hatch. Then we were free.

I quickly cloaked us, but modified the spell so that we could see each other. We swam close to the surface and made our way to the shore.

Searchlights scanned over us, but they couldn't tell someone was swimming underwater because we were invisible.

We reached the shore quickly and ran into the nearby woods to get our wetsuits off. Then we put them in our inventories. Once that was finished, we began walking inland.

Several squads of soldiers patrolled the coast and I used a very small earth spell to cover our tracks as we moved.

As we walked, we started to feel a slight vibration in the air emanating from the search towers.

Without a doubt, the Abyss Engine was trying to affect us. Unfortunately for them, we weren't bound to Iris and were completely unaffected.

Next, we needed to learn the layout of the area.

I had an idea that involved the magic map Maul gave me and pulled it out.

I wanted to use my magic to force it to update. That way, we would get a layout of the landscape in Nexus.

"Tyranus, are you sure this will work?" Alice whispered.

"Positive. Let's see..."

I forced the magic to update and...

The entire map turned pitch black for a moment... I saw a slight flash of a darkened face and we both jumped back in surprise.

"Ehhh...that... What was that!?" Alice whispered hysterically.

"I don't know! But it probably has something to do with the Ooze... That face we saw briefly...something about it was familiar..." I said.

"Familiar? How?"

"I can't say. I would have to look for longer than half a second to figure it out..."

"I guess it's possible it could be anyone since the Ooze devoured everyone... Since the shadow dragon mimicked their voices, would it be strange if it could clone people as well?" Alice asked.

I shuddered to think that I could end up fighting Cassandra or even Tyranus again, so I pushed the thought out of my mind.

"It's possible. Anyways, I'll just modify the map now..."

I continued tampering with the map and discovered it was displaying Avernia as it was currently. I simply switched the location to Ignitus and it updated again.

I felt a deep pain in my heart as I saw the darkened image of the infected landscape of our old home disappear.

Now, the map correctly displayed Nexus.

Currently, we were on the southeastern area of the continent about three miles from the secluded laboratory.

As badly as I wanted to storm the place and violently murder Jason, killing an Overlord would alert Novak to our presence and we couldn't have that.

I had to wonder why his personal laboratory was so far from the capital though. The capital was located in the center of the region.

We wanted to believe that the power source for the Abyss Engine may have been located there, but...

It was quite possible it could be hidden in any of the other cities and towns. And even if it wasn't, other towers could point us in the right direction.

Nevertheless, we made a mental note to check any towns or cities on the way to the capital.

As soon as we had prepared ourselves, we began walking towards the capital of Nexus.

* * *

Since it would probably be safer to move at night, when morning came we set up a small camp within a grove of trees and slept for a while.

Then we walked to the nearest town once night fell.

Somehow, we had yet to see a single monster. As much as I wondered if Nexus even had monsters, I thought it far more likely that they were simply exterminated due to being an annoyance.

The town we approached had high fences around and more watchtowers with huge searchlights.

White-haired soldiers were patrolling around in groups.

I cloaked us in an invisibility spell, then pulled Alice close to me and teleported us behind the fence.

After that, we ran into the town unnoticed.

The objective was simple: find a tower that could point us in the direction of the Abyss Engine source.

We weren't prepared for the conditions of the city, however...

Most of the buildings were impoverished or run down. The air smelled foul and I could see people lying dead in the streets.

We passed the occasional living person but they didn't notice us on account of their glazed-over, dead eyes.

"This is just disgusting... How can they treat people like this?" Alice whispered.

"I don't know...you'd have to be a monster..." I said.

We kept walking for a while until we saw a more lively area. And by lively, I mean that there were human slaves being worked to death constructing monuments and military facilities. There were huge industrial factories full of people just working their lives away...

After a while, a soldier approached us.

"You two! Who are you!? State your identities!" He said.

"Attendant Tyranus, Elemental Aspect of Fire. New recruit," I said.

"Attendant Alice, Advanced Aspect of Barriers, new recruit," Alice said.

The soldier seemed to relax a bit.

"You two just freshly turned?"

We nodded.

"Great. You have assignments or no?"

"We were assigned to guard the Abyss Engine here," Alice said.

We knew there was one nearby. We could feel the slight buzz in the air.

The soldier pondered this for a moment.

"I was told we had enough guards already. Why did they send more?" He asked.

"Well sir, you've heard about those two new Enforcers, right?" Alice asked.

"Yeah...Mizik and Isabella. I don't understand how it's possible. They're gods among monsters..."

"Right...we're worried too, but we were sent to protect the tower in case they decided to attack. Can you point us in the right direction?" Alice said.

"Sure. Hey, which district are you from, anyway?" The soldier asked.

Shit...here we go...

Alice smiled and started making small talk with him.

"We're from district 7-E," Alice said.

"You don't say? I had a cousin that lived in 7-E. About twenty years ago, though. He couldn't awaken so they shipped him off for experimentation. Good riddance. Mortal filth..."

This guy must be pretty new just like us, then...

"Of course. Weakness is a sin. Glory to Novak!" Alice said as she saluted.

She's a little too good at this...

The soldier laughed.

"Ha! You're pretty great umm...Alice? How about we go grab a drink later? My treat."

"Sorry, sir. This man here happens to be my husband. We were fortunate enough to both awaken at the same time...it's how we met."

"Damn shame. Listen uh...Tyrone? You treat her good, kay? And the tower is that way," the soldier said as he pointed to a structure in the distance.

I'M NOT EVEN GOING BY MIZIK AND YOU SCREWED THAT UP! BASTARD! IT'S TYRANUS! TYRANUS!!!

"R-right...thanks sir. I'll be good to her. Glory to Novak!" I said.

The soldier nodded and went on his way.

After we were far enough away...

"I can't believe he got your name wrong. Is this some kind of joke with you?" Alice said.

"I really can't get a break, can I? Also you're way too good at acting..." I whispered.

Alice puffed out her chest with a proud smile.

"I'll happily take the compliment, my love!"

I smiled at her and we continued on towards the tower.

Once we got close, I cloaked us again and we slipped inside.

While invisible, we put our masks and hoods on, then remained invisible just in case. There were a lot of heavily armed and elite guards here. All wearing special armor.

The buzzing was stronger within the building, but I tried not to let it bother me. Alice seemed okay as well.

I contacted her with telepathy.

"Alice."

"You can call me Isabella if we're using telepathy, my love."

"I know, but I want to maintain the habit. Is that okay?"

"Ugh...I don't like it! But I understand..."

"Sorry...anyway, how do you want to approach this?"

"Hmm...first of all, can you see the energy field, Tyranus?"

"I have to look to see it, but yes."

Being able to see magic was one thing, but I wasn't able to see divine energy without specifically looking for it.

"Well, using my Priestess Aspect allows me to see the flow of divine energy."

"And where is it coming from?"

Alice stopped for a moment and placed her hands together in what appeared to be a prayer of some kind.

I could feel the radiance of her divine power and several nearby guards stopped to look in our direction.

"Hey, do you feel something over there?" One of them asked.

"I do, but I can't see anything. You think it could be an Enforcer?" Another asked.

"Don't be stupid. This close to an Abyss Engine? Utterly ridiculous. It's probably an error in the engine's field of effect. You know it uses Iris' power, right? Anyways, get someone down here to take a look!" A soldier that looked to be in charge said.

"You might want to hurry up, Alice..."

"Sorry. I think I have a grip on its flow now. We need to go underground somehow."

I looked around and someone was approaching our position, so I grabbed Alice's hand and pulled her away.

After that, she took the lead and we searched for a way of heading underground.

Surely they had power cables of some kind to transport the energy, right?

* * *

After two hours of searching, we finally found a way down, but...

"Hey, have you seen two new recruits up here? Their names are...uh...Tyler and Alice," said the soldier that spoke to us much earlier.

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance.

"Alice, am I cursed?"

"I don't think so, but this is abnormal isn't it?"

"I didn't see any new recruits come here. Maybe they got lost?"

"Doubtful, I pointed them straight over here."

"Well maybe the commander got ahold of them? I don't know. Try asking someone who cares! We're going to fight a huge war soon, so there's way more new recruits than normal. Get used to it!"

"Yeah...fine. I'll go ask the commander. Uhh...where might he be...?"

"How the fuck should I know!? I'm an Overlord servant, not a soldier! Now get out of my tower!!!"

After that, the soldier left.

I wanted to know why he was asking about us, but we had very little time now.

If they were planning to start a war soon, I didn't want to wait any longer than we had to.

As soon as the area was clear, we entered the underground area and found ourselves in a tunnel.

Everything looked industrial down here. There were pipes running all along the walls and parts of the ceiling. Additionally, we could see down multiple corridors in several directions.

"Great. A maze..."

"It's alright, my love. I can get us through it. Getting back might be the hard part though..."

"I'll just update the map for the underground area. That should work, right?"

Alice nodded and began leading the way towards the source of the energy flow.

And much later, we came to a wall that had a gigantic cable protruding from it.

The buzzing was incredibly heavy here and it felt like the air was trying and failing to suffocate us.

At this point, we saw no guards.

In fact, no one was down here at all. However, there were lots of cameras all over the place. Because of this, we stayed invisible.

Eventually, we came to a wall.

Since she couldn't initiate a telepathic connection, Alice tapped my shoulder.

"What is it, Alice?"

"This is a dead-end. There's no way to go further, so it seems like we'll have to follow it aboveground from here on."

That presented a slight problem as we would have to go back and escape. But I had an idea to track the flow from above.

I pulled out the magic compass I kept in my inventory and began modifying its object of interest.

Originally, I could mark the map and the compass would lead me to that point with the best possible route. I used my magic to disconnect the two items and started working on a new objective for the compass.

After about thirty minutes of trying to grasp the intricacies of the item, I successfully managed to get the compass to point us in the direction of this particular power.

We knew that it used demonic energy from Kazuma as a means of counteracting the divine energy. Although, there was also something else...a familiar power.

It felt like there was a fragment of Iris' own energy somewhere in it. The feeling was pretty faint, but I didn't worry about it. After all, we knew from Carlos that they likely had been gathering Iris' power to make such a power source.

Such a thing would be easy considering Arcadia was absolutely riddled with her power.

Once we were finished, the compass was already pointing to the capital.

Big surprise...

I decided to contact Leiso before we left.

"Leiso. It's Mizik."

"You have something to report? It sounds like there's some kind of interference. Are you close to the engine?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm contacting you from below one of the Abyss Engine towers. We're standing in front of this one's power source."

"That's probably why. Very well then. Report what you've learned so far."

"It should come as no surprise that we have tracked the power source of the Abyss Engine to be somewhere in the capital."

"Interesting. It means Carlos' theory about the Engines not being individually powered in Nexus was true. Although it still begs the question of how they were able to make mobile variants."

"Hopefully we'll find an answer. Do you want us to destroy this tower?"

"Negative. Leave it standing. It'll be useless when the power source is destroyed. And it will also allow you to leave unnoticed. Good work, you two. Are you heading to the capital then?"

"Yes ma'am. We were just leaving."

"Good. Remember not to kill any Overlords yet as well. Get moving asap."

"Understood."

I gently took Alice's hand and teleported us to the surface above.