This is an update to show I'm not dead. I'm sorry for taking so long and uploading such a short chapter.

In this chapter I have to begin introducing necessary OCs, named and unnamed ones. And I had to make up a real name for A-drei, too.

- About A-drei's rank: I don't really know what kind of rank 'Special Duty Captain' is. When Google doesn't help, I'm just assuming all this military stuff.

- Walkit-class heavy space cruiser is one of those big red-blue Dorssian ships, where Cain and Kriemhield were usually giving commands.

4: Enemy lines

The long marble-floored hall was dimly lit. The whole place was luxurious, with a dark red carpet on the floor and various expensive-looking decorations, such as grand paintings, making the corridor impressive. The wallpaper was pretty yet elegant, subtle flower pattern painted with different white and gold tones. Seemingly extending far away, the hall was meant to leave an impression on everyone who passed through it.

Not many had that privilege, since the palace had belonged to the Dorssian royal family before their fall. The palace was small, not like the majestic main palace in the capital, but it had been the secondary place used both as a retreat and as an office for conducting business. Since the family had been overthrown, the palace was entrusted to an important Dorssian family, who had had reach in politics, economics and the military. In fact, they had been privy to the secret of the Magius Council, but current intel was no one in the family had been part of the council itself.

Now the place was empty. The family had fled long ago to a more distant retreat, speculated to be located on the border of Dorssia and JIOR. The conflict nearing civil war had driven the family out, since they were known to have the influence strong enough that they had to deal with the council. The palace was located in what was once called East Europe, ways from the capital but still in an important city. The riots had sparked on day one. It was a miracle the palace hadn't been vandalized, since the military force was dealing with the rioting citizens. There simply weren't enough resources to protect the palace.

The palace was left alone because the royalists spread a rumor of it being an important asset to the revolution that was gaining speed. Military had left the palace alone for now, most likely because the Magius gave order to preserve it. Why, the royalists weren't sure. Either they were unaware of the rumor, or they were hoping to settle things before resorting to bombing the palace to the ground. Or they were waiting for the important revolution figures to enter the grounds and then deal the killing blow.

Truth was the big heads were already there. The palace served as a façade. To the outside, the place was seemingly abandoned, with only low ornamental illumination left on.

Deep inside, however, the place was packed with activity.

A-drei was walking through the imposing corridor, going from the entrance to one of the hidden doors leading underground. The entrance he had used to get in was the only non-machine guarded entry point of the palace. It looked like he was a guard starting his shift, but by passing a screening process made by two actual human guards, he was subtly let inside. When the door clicked behind him, A-drei was left in dark interior. From there he made way down a staircase and was now in the large hall in dim illumination.

Two days ago, he had arrived aboard the Walkit-class heavy space cruiser Preussen and had been promptly interrogated on his whereabouts. A-drei had luck – while the activity logs on his Kirschbaum would usually be closely scrutinized, there simply wasn't any spare personnel or time to do it. Those logs could have blown his cover, since they showed opposite of what he actually had done in his time of absence. The Rear Admiral in command of the Preussen had been dismissive when given the report of A-drei's interrogation and let him continue operating as normal.

His commanding officer being MIA, A-drei was supposed to report to some other high-ranking officer, which the Rear Admiral counted as. He had been given order to return to his unit, which suited him fine. It meant he could travel with his Kirschbaum to another Walkit-class Vineta under the pretense of returning to his unit. He had someone there who owned him a favor or two.

On the Vineta he had gotten his hands on a communication tablet meant for transmitting encrypted messages. By inputting the code L-elf had given him, he could now communicate with the Module 77 without fear of wiretapping. He noted he had already received a message. The contents of the message required him to contact a medic and commence a search for a doctor. To do so, A-drei decided he would have to finally get in touch with the royalists, and for that he would return to Earth. His rank gave him leeway to do so. It was a public secret in military: Special Duty officers usually had an operation ongoing all the time, so not many would question him too closely.

He had arrived on Earth yesterday and gotten in contact with the royalists, gaining access to their main base of the moment. So he was walking in the seemingly vacant palace, making his way underground. The shipment to Module 19 was already arranged and he had gotten word of it to L-elf. Expect it was Emperor Mikhail now. A-drei knew he would need time to get used to that name and that title.

Now his problem was tracking this doctor. How he was relevant for the new Galactic Empire (did L-elf have any naming sense?) A-drei didn't know, since the message didn't elaborate. The doctor had the same surname as the pilot of the red Valvrave, so A-drei assumed Tokishima senior was needed to take care of the junior. He was a doctor after all, and since they probably were related, he could be trusted more than a random doctor nabbed from the street. He had made some queries while aboard the Vineta, but it seemed he alone didn't have the contacts necessary to track this high-profile doctor. So it was time A-drei came back to where he originally started. His family.

The royal family, trying to get ahead and back on their rightful place. He hadn't seen his father for almost a year now. He could visit very rarely because of his position and because of his father's home arrest, which permitted very few surveilled visits. His mother, bless her late soul, had passed away after the coup d'état, withering away because of sickness. Many speculated it had been slow poisoning, and while A-drei had looked into it, he hadn't found evidence of such. Now he had more doubts, since the Magius were in the picture.

Then there was his uncle, Lieselotte's father, who similarly had been in house arrest, but on the other side of Dorssia. This was to ensure no conspiracy could be easily formed by the family, though it had been futile. Lieselotte's mother was involved in the politics, like her daughter had been, but from her A-drei hadn't heard in long time. Lieselotte's name was on that Magius list on the Wired, whereas her mother's wasn't. There still was a possibility of her being possessed by a Magius.

A-drei knew his father had been broken out of captivity by those still loyal to him. They were scrambling to get him back on the throne now that they had a real chance of doing so. Latest intel revealed his uncle had also escaped and was slowly making way to their current city, but how fast he was advancing or where is was right now, no one knew.

Tonight, A-drei would finally meet his father once again. He had reached the end of the long corridor and was now in front of sturdy door. The door looked natural at first glance, being made of high-quality wood and having elegant carving on it. Further inspection revealed the door to be too sturdy – in fact, it would probably withstand a big blow before giving in. Excessive violence would be needed to get past, and such noise would alert everyone inside.

A-drei knocked four times, like he had been instructed to do earlier when he contacted the royalists. The door clicked and opened slowly, revealing how thick the door actually was. A man much like the guards outside inspected him quickly, saluted and opened the door further.

There were two other men in the small room. They all had Dorssian military uniforms on. One of the men, a colonel, was sitting in front of a wooden desk that had a laptop on it. He paused whatever he was doing and glanced at the newcomer. A-drei snapped a salute at him. The third man in room was a sergeant, who was also sitting and dealing with a tablet, but he rose and saluted A-drei, who nodded back at the man.

"Captain A-drei Karlstein, sir? We have orders to take you to his Majesty, but first we need to perform a pat down search and a Magius test before admitting you any further inside," the corporal who had opened the door explained.

A-drei didn't know any of the men there personally, and certain paranoia born of difficult times told him not to comply. He was new here, so no one aside his family would trust him inside with weapons. He would have to cast his distrust aside to get ahead. Inwardly he sighed, and nodded at the corporal.

He had a pistol on him as well as two survival knives and spare ammo for the gun. The corporal put the items on a second, smaller table behind him. He took a small utility knife from the table and handed it to A-drei.

Taking a small breath, he brought his other hand up and made a cut on his palm. Next the corporal handed him a tissue and took the knife back. The knife was kept sharp and the cut it made was clean. A-drei pressed the tissue on his wound to stop the blood flow.

Few moments later A-drei was let inside yet another door. This time a private was facing him. Now they were in a bare corridor that branched to four different other corridors.

The further they walked in A-drei noted the structure was meant to confuse by being very maze-like. Here style was sacrificed for practicality, with no expensive art or other beautiful ornaments in sight. The walls were made of concrete and painted plain white. The floor was made of stone and made footsteps echo around them. Lightning was arranged so that the shadows danced around the walkers.

The place was genius for making an invading party doubt their movements all the time.

The rooms they passed were filled with buzzing people. Information traded hands, people ran about from one place to another and computer screens shone bright. A-drei could feel it in the air – people here were committed to making this revolution happen at all costs.

Finally the private escorting him stopped in front of a door and knocked. A guard opened it, who took a glance at the visitors. The guard saluted A-drei and turned away from him.

"Your Majesty, Captain A-drei Karlstein has arrived."

This was a private office with a large desk in the center of it. Guarding the room was a man standing close to the desk and the man at the door. Sitting in front of the desk was a man in his fifties. He had noble features set in seriousness. His hair and beard were dark brown with slight greying on the sides. On him was white Chief of Staff uniform. On his dark blue-grey eyes he had reading glasses on, which he took off as he got the guard's announcement.

The guard let A-drei properly in. His father had aged noticeably, he couldn't help noticing. Otherwise he seemed same as always, calm in times of crisis and steady as a mountain. A-drei liked it the most in him. Even during the stormy coup d'état ten years ago he had been the one to support his family the most, never wavering even when threatened with execution. Back then he had been the reason A-drei had had a future at all.

First he bowed deeply, then he saluted. "Your Majesty, Special Duty Captain A-drei Karlstein reporting for duty."

His father nodded at him, still wearing his serious face. "Guards, you're dismissed."

The guards paused and exchanged a glance. Orders were orders, but A-drei was a threat until proved otherwise. Deciding to trust their ruler, together they shouted "yes sir!" and strode out of the room, leaving the father and his son alone.

Now his father let himself smile a little. "Alexei, how have you been?"

A-drei relaxed his tense shoulders, clasping his hands behind his back. "Busy, father. I have been in contact with the newest country."

His father raised an eyebrow at him and leaned back on his seat, motioning for his son to take a seat too. "Tell me more."

A-drei accounted a short version of the story, starting back from the public execution of Rukino Saki. His father knew bits and pieces of how he knew Mikhail and how exactly he had lost his eye, so he saw fit to start from the discussion he had had with Rukino. He told his father of the promise he had made with the supposed Emperor and what the promise entailed.

His father didn't interrupt him, though A-drei could see his confusion at times. He, however, probably was accustomed to weird events, seeing how his subjects were controlled by aliens. His father had only one question.

"Are you sure we can trust this Mikhail?"

A-drei thought back to when he had shook hands with him before leaving the module. These were unusual circumstances, but that look that L-elf had had in his eyes at the moment left no doubt.

"I trust him."

It was enough of an answer to his father. "We aid them the best we can, if they can really help us. To find that doctor you mentioned, consult the head of our Intelligence, Lieutenant Colonel Grund."

Seeing this was a dismissal, A-drei nodded and rose from his chair. "Thank you, father," he said, meaning it.

"Alexei," his father said with a serious tone before he could leave. "Take some rest. I can't have you run yourself to the ground."

Concern was clear in his words, even if his face had set on a stony look that said not to challenge him. A-drei pursed his lips for a moment, thinking if he really looked as tired as he felt.

"You too," he answered quietly and stepped out of the office.

Collecting all those bodies… Shoko had thrown up thrice, even when she had nothing to left to throw up. It had taken hours, all able-bodied students dragging and carrying their fellow schoolmates. They had some protective gear such as gloves, face masks and clinical aprons. Stopping to cry or throw up and carrying bodies was exhausting and time-consuming, but they deserved a funeral.

Shoko had seen even L-el—Mikhail doing his part, probably to speed up the process. It had been decided to collect everyone into the former boys' dormitory and the building was supposed to be burned down. It made sense, they didn't have to dig a huge grave this way, but the thought of everyone just… burning made Shoko uneasy. Haruto would have to be included in that makeshift pyre, too.

The decision was out of her hands now. While it was a relief and something she had asked for earlier, she couldn't help thinking about what Rukino-san had said at their evening meeting. Mikhail hadn't given up – he actually seemed to be respecting Haruto's will – and there she had been, throwing her towel in as a claim of responsibility.

Mikhail hadn't given her a way out and named her to be in charge of internal affairs. Short explanation was that her duties consisted of taking care of the students. It also was a relief, meaning she was in a place that made her confront her fears and forced her to carry on. Shoko could carry Haruto's will.

They had slept a short night's sleep and after a miniscule breakfast, Shoko had asked help for the funeral arrangements. They were ready at early noon and had gotten a word out to every student to meet up. Understandably everyone was quiet when they were standing in front of the building containing their friends and acquaintances. Kibukawa-sensei had found few small bottles of lighter fluid and had doused the building with them, and was now standing with the others.

Shoko saw Mikhail walking towards them, carrying a familiar red suited body. She felt her eyes stinging again, even when she felt she had cried her eyes out during the morning already. Akira-chan had come to Shoko and thrown her arms around her, while watching their solemn-faced Emperor carry their savior. Similarly other students were crying or holding back tears, showing comfort to each other, while waiting for the flames to start consuming.

Mikhail emerged from the building empty-handed and stopped before the mass of grievance. "Any words?"

When silence followed, Mikhail nodded and motioned for everyone to stand back. Shoko could guess everything needed had already been said.

When the flames ignited, instantly rising high, tears blurred Shoko's vision.

These had to be the last casualties.