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Chapter 40: New Soil
🕑 Added 2024-05-24 14:51:16 +0000 UTC"We have to stop here. Any closer, the ship will hit the reef. Unlike the truck, this is a normal cargo ship without Zenith's technology. It can sink."
"Sir!" The twenty magical soldiers lined up and boarded the military trucks while another ten or so soldiers guarded the ship. As we climbed into the other army truck, I left a magic eye, a mana construct that allows me to see and monitor the ship remotely, and marked it as a second life on it before getting in with the others.
The military and container trucks lined up and drove down the ramp into the open water one by one. As soon as the wheels touched the water, a magitech balloon, a device that uses magical energy created by Zenith to create buoyancy, sprang up from all sides like a puffed-up skirt. With the help of the vehicle buoyancy device, the truck could float toward the shore.
"Hup!" Alice jumped to the top of the truck after it disembarked on the shore. All of us disembarked and secured the perimeter. After all twenty trucks arrived on the coast, I also jumped to the top of the container trucks and we drove in a line through the road leading to the mountains.
"Watch out! Incoming enemies!" Alice's voice rang out. She stood up, her bow drawn taut. I equipped my icerail, feeling the weight of the weapon in my hands, and Serene readied her thunderspear. The three of us stood upon our respective trailers and began to shoot at the incoming Anathema in a calm and decisive manner.
After a two-hour journey through the twists and turns of the mountainous road, our caravan of twenty trucks arrived at a thirty-meter black wall. The wall towered over us like a barrier. A barrier to New Soil.
The gate rolled open to the side, and we drove into New Soil. The clanging of metals and the sound of furnaces filled the air. If New Mesa was structured like a city focused on manufacturing and assembly, New Soil focused primarily on mining and foundry of raw metal. We were stopped after entering the gate, with several soldiers making calls due to our arrival.
"Why build a wall when Anathema can just teleport in? Do they have more RED than New Mesa?" I asked the other magical girls through Felicia.
"Dunno. Maybe it just makes them feel safer?" Shining chirped in, overhearing my conversation.
"The city is only a kilometer wide. So, a single Reality Enforcement Device is enough. Hence, the wall. Many Anathema chose to come from outside RED; that's why a wall was erected," a soldier who had been here replied. As we disembarked, we received various looks from bystanders.
"I see. It is to prevent Anathema from coming in," I nodded as I looked at the local soldiers directing our soldiers. "It must have been hard work to build this wall. New Mesa and other frontier cities were recycling the abandoned buildings from the old era."
"Greetings, please come in. I apologize, but due to limited space, I have to ask you to park the trucks in designated positions." We disembarked. As we walked through the small city, gunshots were heard here and there. We turned our heads only to be informed that they were from either Magical Guardians or Magical Soldiers hunting Anathema which attempted to scale the wall.
"Greetings, welcome to Shirayuki's forging department." New Soil is a city divided into two parts: the inner ring and the outer ring. The inner ring, a marvel of technology from Zenith, consisted of the electric furnace where mana generators produced millions of watts of electricity to power the furnace and RED. The outer ring, a bustling hub of activity, consisted of other man-made facilities such as malls, residential areas, and warehouses for producing molds and cast iron. Due to the compact area, most of the buildings were apartments and high-rise buildings, and their towering structures made the city feel suffocating. We were brought to our departments.
"Hello. I heard from Kageyama that you were ordered to evacuate. I see some boxes here and there, but is production still ongoing?" I inquired, my eyes scanning the forging department. None made any attempt to pack things up.
"Yes. We received word from Kageyama three days ago. However, we can't just stop production all of a sudden. We have paid for and ordered two tons of metal. It will arrive in three days. Then we will cast it into pure ingots, which we will either sell or use throughout the sanctuary cities."
"When will you be done?"
"About a week…"
"Why are we being called now, then?" Serene Night asked with a hint of annoyance. "Will our cargo ship survive that long?"
"The cargo ship has enough supplies for a week's journey for all crew members, including New Soil's workers. It could last months if it was just the ship's crew," I answered.
"But leaving the cargo ship unattended is…" Shining Arrow frowned.
"Let's make a call." I brought out my PDA from my storage and called Kageyama.
"Hello, Mr. Kageyama."
"Oh! Hello. So, how's the evacuation? No need to hurry; I heard from Pieter that you arrived there almost in the middle of the night, right? You can start tomorrow. We have time."
"They told us they could only evacuate next week. What should I do?"
"... That's longer than expected, Damnit; the mining guy from other companies was slacking, huh? Hm… Your name is… Mr. Tanaka, right?"
“Ha… y-yes, Sir Kageyama! I am Tanaka." The department chief was startled when Kageyama called him by name.
"Alright, Black Lily, um… could you ask whether the other MG will wait with you?" Kageyama frowned. His eyes told me he still wanted those metals if possible. I looked towards them.
"Why is the evacuation delayed? Lives are more important, you know." Serene said.
"Um… this is technically not an evacuation but a move. So, it only makes sense if we pack up everything first…" I answered hesitantly.
"Well… I guess… but it would be best if they mentioned it beforehand. There is much we can do in a week, you know."
"Come on! It's rare to be outside; let's hunt outside the wall in the meantime!" Alice replied cheerfully. That thought never crossed my mind.
"Hunting outside?" I tilted my head.
"Good idea! I was thinking about how to level up. And my points are getting tight, too! Let's do it, Serene." Serene's teammate nodded.
"Um... going outside requires a permission." Sapphire raised her hand as a sign of objections.
"Really?"
"It is recommended that MG go outside in a squad. in this case, Serene's team and Shining team will suffice." Felicia answered. Other MG looked to their side, signifying they, too, were talked to by their familiar.
"But you will pay for our lodgings, alright?"
"Of course!" Kageyama nodded.
"That foundry was from the Zenith. It could imbue steel with magic enchantments. It is valuable for the construction of the city." Tanaka explained the importance of the foundry and the metal he would later forge in this facility.
"Okay. If you say so. This is a move, not an evacuation, so a one-week delay might be expected."
"Thank you! Thank you! Please, let me guide you. It is already midnight. You girls must be tired. Here, let me do the honor of renting a lodging for you." Tanaka bowed multiple times to each magical girl and then brought us to a hotel nearby. Due to privacy concerns, each girl got a separate room. I untransformed and went to bed immediately after showering. As I caressed and rubbed Felicia's back, I fell to sleep. Even during the night, the sound of clanging metal could still be heard.
Felicia woke me up the following day. Like a cat, she laid herself on my face as a method to wake me up. Her soft fur brushed my temple as her tail tickled my nose.
"Fel… I think you mimic a cat too much…"
"Would you not like me to?" I picked her up by the scruff of her neck and put her aside.
"No, it's fine. Let's go." I stood up after rolling on my bed for a few minutes.
I transformed into Black Lily and went outside the door only to be greeted by flashy men wearing yellow, blue, red, black, and pink. I thought they were Magical Soldiers, but the stunning colors made me doubt myself. The colors were mismatched, but they dressed like Magical Soldiers with Kevlar, helmets, and military boots with guns on their backs.
"Are you Guardians?" I politely asked them.
"Yes! We are Magitech Rangers!"
"It is forbidden to impersonate a Guardian…" Felicia spawned on my shoulder. "Such behavior is punishable by law up to four years in prison."
"Sorry. Only he is the Guardian." The red pointed toward the yellow.
"Ahahaha." Alice smiled wryly. This is another case of a bad matchup with the forced colors.
"Come on. We are brothers!" The yellow said.
"Yes! We are brothers! The Magitech Rangers!” The five soldiers lined up and performed a military salute.
"Greetings. My alias is Magical Girl Black Lily."
"I am Yellow Ranger. Nice to meet you."
"I am Red Ranger!"
"I am Black Ranger!"
"I am Blue Ranger!"
"I am Pink Ranger!"
"You are a pink even though you are a man?" Red Flame commented, only to be jabbed in the stomach by Sapphire.
"Stop it! Be more tactful!"
"Ahem. As you already know, We are in charge of guarding this place."
"You are the sole MG of this city? Wow. Amazing." Alice mused.
"Yeah. Well, my dad works in this place, so it kind of happened."
"I see."
"Ah. By the way, you cannot patrol here. This area is ours."
"Huh?" I tilted my head.
"Okay! We will go further. As long as we are outside the wall, it's fine, right?" Alice nodded immediately. Apparently, only I was confused by their behavior.
"Okay!" The Guardian and their team promptly left.
"What's that about?"
"It's about patrol. You may not intercept other people's patrol routes. The Anathema in their patrol route is theirs." Alice explained to me.
"He is paying for four other people and possibly more. It must be tough. That is also not standard Kevlar and helmet, you know." Sapphire said.
"He needs points, nyaa. But it might not matter. If the guys on his team signed a contract, their kills could be marked as his, and he could still receive some points. Though it is less than ten percent. That Guardian will have a tough road ahead."
We headed outside after some cheerful banter. The sleeping guard and his friends, who were playing games on their PDAs beside the gate, jumped up when we approached. Civilians were prohibited from going outside except for deliveries, and with only one MG guarding this place, the front entrance was mostly unused.
"How come he is still sleeping?" Serene complained.
"Gate guards are like that. It was similar to Security in harbors in Eden."
"I have never been outside, but there is nothing here. Not even grass, only dark lands…" Alice muttered. The soil was blackened, with no grass and no animals. It's like all signs of life were extinguished from this place.
"Anathema is the enemy of all life. They seek destruction." Felicia muttered. "This will happen to every corner of the earth. Not just the earth, but other worlds too."
"Hey, I haven't been paying attention, but if the lands are barren like this, where are the Anathema? I thought they would be crawling in this place." Red Flame asked.
"Anathema are usually congested in a nest. You guys have never been on an expedition, right? Expeditions take you to places where Anathema usually nests." Serene replied.
"Nest?"
"Yes."
"What is a nest? Is it similar to a rebellion?"
"No. They are similar in that they create Anathema, but a nest is more complicated than that," Felicia answered.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Nests also function as gates to the anathema world. Just like what you saw before, that dark ring on the ground." Felicia muttered. I shuddered at once. The image of black smoke and that ring of metal spanning hundreds of meters flashed into my mind. Like a gate leading to hell, Anathema crawled out from it, and screams of anguish flashed over me before I snapped out of it.
"That was a nest?"
"Huh? You've seen a nest before? How? It should not be possible to see a nest in Eden. Did you wander off far away from New Mesa or something?"
"Caution. Revealing the method on how Black Lily found a nest is considered a breach of privacy."
"Ah. Sorry. I won't pry."
"Such a scary thing…" I muttered, my body shivering at the mention of the nest.
"Ah, that one is much bigger than the usual standard Anathema's nest. We are so lucky to have found it. I believe a raid group will be formed soon enough."
"Shouldn't we report such a thing? We essentially found their headquarters, right?" I asked.
"Of course. I already reported the data directly to Zenith when we broke the radio silence protocol in New Mesa. It was such valuable information. I am astonished Zenith hasn't taken any action about it yet. It's been almost two weeks already."
"Eh? What? I just heard something crazy. You say you found a nest?"
"I can't divulge more information due to privacy…" Felicia commented.
"It's fine. You can send the picture to them, Felicia."
"Roger, permission granted. I will send the Anathema's nest to your familiar."
"Whoa! This one is different from what I experienced two months ago! How did you get this… never mind, don't answer. It was just a figure of speech." Serene was astounded by the picture I sent.
"What is that hole in the middle, Serene?" Shining asked her. She had never been on expeditions, so she didn't know.
"It is an anathema's gate. And a massive one at that…" Serene noted after looking at the picture shown by her familiar.
"Are we going to attack it?"
"Oi, how come we didn't get information about something as important as this?" Red Flame groaned.
"Guardian Command and Zenith are probably in the middle of discussing how to raid this one."
"I see."
"Ah, watch out, anathema sighted, a scout," Felicia warned. Several ghouls and hounds started to surround us. We then started working to gather points.
