It's been quite some time, and Chapter 7 is finally here! Very sorry guys, as I have mentioned on the previous chapter that the chapter will be delayed as I was on vacation for a few weeks. But anyway, I'm glad that I have complete it. I have read the Vol 12 of LN, damn, it is just absolutely nice! Without further ado, enjoy!
Chapter 7: Operation Final Valentine
To investigate the attack in Germany, Ian has been sent to Virginia, USA to spy on DARPA and their associates. Mana is still kept in the dark about the mission as instructed by Woodman. Both Dante and Arashi starts to prepare for a war which the Good Kyo has prophesized. Little to they know, the war is coming in a short time.
VR Training Simulation
"Arrrrggggghhhhh…"
"Just endure it… No moving… So don't even think about cutting the arm off"
Arashi is sparring against a gigantic mech. Apparently, Dante has instructed Arashi not to dodge but block the mech's gigantic fist head on with the extreme strength enhancement of Mercurial-AR.
"Just how long more? I'm holding it here for more than an hour already!" Arashi grunted.
"Just a little more…"
Dante counts down the timer and makes the mech disappears into thin air, releasing Arashi of his stress, leaving the young man panting. Dante then spawns a large obstacle course with targets suspended in mid air.
"Run and shoot the targets."
Arashi then spawns Boltor and Hale and runs through the obstacle course. Running on the walls, vaulting and shooting at the targets.
"This is a good suppressive firing technique considering all the aimbot you have now, and you have learnt it. Now, disengage the VR, go to sleep." Dante ordered.
"Roger!"
A few hours later
Arashi is asleep in his own locked up room with only he and his handlers can access. He is however, moving around as the nightmare haunts him once again. He dreams of himself being in an AST's base, it was one of his earlier missions. The walls and everywhere are dismembered bodies, blood is spilled to the walls and the ground. He sees his younger self, standing in front of a downed Wizard, he remembers he was only 7 years old.
"NO! I BEG YOU! I WANT TO LIVE! I HAVE NEVER KILLED A SPIRIT!"
The Wizard is crying to Arashi for her life. Kyo is nowhere to be seen, however, an adult, dressed like all Nanaya assassins is looming over him. It seems that the man is monitoring the child's actions. Arashi is wielding his short sword and a dagger, both are stained in blood. Right above the mask that covers his lower half of his face, are his deadly bright blue eyes with magenta tint. Blood can be seen at the exposed part of his face. The Wizard's limbs are cut off with blood flowing out from the stumps.
"Finish her… Take her soul…" the man muttered.
The child just remains silent, sheathing his short sword to his back. His right arm immediately transform into a demonic dark arm.
"NO! DON'T DO IT!" Arashi shouted at his younger self.
He can't move, his shout is not heard as the child shows no sign of hesitation in stopping.
"NO!"
His cries are ignored as the child swings his arm, ending the life of the Wizard. The child absorb her soul, the cries of the dead souls now haunt his hearing in the nightmare.
The nightmare immediately shifts to where his life was ended and memory sealed. The Hunter relentlessly uses a baton to whack his face.
"ARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!" he screamed.
Suddenly, he opens his eyes and wakes up, cold sweating and panting heavily, it is 2am.
"Oh my god… Not this again…"
Arashi covers his face in distress as he experienced another nightmare of PTSD. He then takes the medicine, not knowing whether it'll even help or not.
"Arashi! Are you alright?"
Dante opens the door and Miruko is standing by it. They heard the screams and thought the young man is in trouble. Dante sees the young man cold sweating badly and taking his meds, he knows what is going on.
"Your problem, did it get worse?" Dante asked.
"I don't know… I don't remember having nightmares this frequent." Arashi replied.
Concerned about his well being, Miruko decides that the young man needs help and have his PTSD re-assessed.
"We'll need to assess you condition, this is no joking matter."
Arashi only nod his head tiredly. He wants to sleep, but he fears to experience the nightmares again. He still remembers that Reine would spend her time counseling him after they have discovered his not so frequent nightmare got worse to PTSD.
"Well, kid, although we cannot get a counselor. But if you need someone to talk to or need something to let out some steam, let us know."
Dante's assurance only makes Arashi to nod back. Both adults can tell the young man is shakened. Dante knows the worst part of his life is not comparable to Arashi's, he despises warmongers who use children as soldiers. Although Arashi is not a child soldier, he is raised like one. Though Dante, never let his thought out, he can identify Arashi being one as he like all child soldier, has a tell tale approach to combat so distinct that not even the youngest Wizards can replicate. After the two left the young man's room, both of starts to discuss about Arashi.
"You won't believe me, but I can hardly believe to see a Japanese kid was a child soldier." Dante said.
His statement surprises Miruko who had not heard Dante talked about child soldiers.
"Huh?"
"If you have fought a child soldier before, you can tell if a grown up was a child soldier. They have that distinct look, tell tale approach to combat." he explained.
"You have fought one?" she asked.
Dante has a flashback of his early days in DEM, even today he can still remember that fateful mission. No matter how cruel Ellen was, she would not kill a child, but since they were heavily outnumbered, the two had to kill the children.
"Yeah, back when I joined DEM, Ellen and I had an undercover mission to take down a warlord in central africa because he managed to get his hands on a DEM realizer. The warlord himself deployed child soldiers, very well trained ones too…" he continued.
He also remembers that some DEM Wizards were child soldiers, and he sparred them before to recognize the style.
"He matched everything that I know of… We have to help him…"
Miruko then remembers that they will have to liaise with Shido regarding the progress of finding Arashi.
"How about the discussion with Itsuka?" Miruko asked.
"We'll just have to tell them straight up that we got no more leads. We'll need to ask for more of them."
Tenguu City, Japan
It's been close to a month since Arashi went missing. Shido and the others are still searching for him.
"That jacket and the blood on it belong to Arashi. The blood trail also shows that he got dragged. Arashi's broken knife also shows that it got broken by normal blade. Please be prepared, Yuki, we are not ruling out the possibility that Arashi got assassinated. The amount of blood found at the scene is enough to hypothesize that he bled out before something dragged him away."
The dreaded words that were spoken by Ratatoskr's agents still haunts him. Shido still remembers the scene that day when Yuki cried out that Arashi had not return after a few hours. They search around the area and he stumbled onto the big pool of blood with Arashi's bloodsoaked gray jacket. His feelings are just complicated, Arashi is a good friend, a friend who was in trouble, he understands Shido's difficulty. He knows Arashi had more worse life, he saved him, gave him his long desired peace. However, the young man's mind is not, it fact, it got worse.
"We have checked the PTSD medication Arashi is on, nothing is wrong with that." Reine reported.
Arashi's traumatic childhood has left a heavy wound to his mind, the intense flashbacks and terrifying nightmares kept haunting him for what he had done. The slight dark circles under his eyes are their marks as they force the young man stay awake.
"Just why? He lost all of his powers for getting his life back… This is just cruel…" Shido lamented.
They even found his bulletin board which he used to track the Wizards when his memory was sealed. It didn't leave any clue, the board has its closure with a note 'Amon Terminated' being pinned. His phone, laptop, got no clue on his possible whereabout.
"Arashi has always been on special watchlist for us. He is the only living example of a Fallen Spirit and darkside Psychic. We are always wary that he may be captured by DEM for research. However, intel shows that DEM has absolute no interest in him yet. And not to mention, Arashi has spooked all of our agents that tailed him. Also, Yggdrasil has created a task force to look for Arashi, DEM has been thoroughly investigated and they have no idea where Arashi is." Kotori added.
Yuki and Kaguya are heavily affected by this. Their emotion level have been wavering, causing Shido has to spend more time with them. There are more effort in surveillance to protect the Spirits and Shido from the unknown threat too. Regular dating with the Spirits are carefully monitored by undercover Ratatoskr agents in the designated dating areas. Now there is an upcoming major event that is troubling Shido and Ratatoskr.
"God… Valentines' Day… Just how am I going to date seven Spirits on that day!?"
Valentines' Day is coming in exactly one month, things would have been slightly easier if Arashi is around to date Kaguya. Shido along with Kotori and Reine are at home discussing about the flow of that day.
"It'll be good for you to date either Yuki or Kaguya first as their emotion are more fragile. It is nice for them to be pacified."
Shido is now prioritizing the Spirits, taking in Reine's advice, he is thinking of dating Kaguya first, then Yuki, and Tohka being the third while the rest he'll have to sort them. He is also thinking of ending the day faster and dates Kotori to spend time with her considering she'll have to be on the ship for nearly the whole day.
"I have a bit of idea on how now. I'll let you guys know the planning tomorrow afternoon." Shido said.
"Alright. But now we have to talk to Dante regarding the search for Arashi." Kotori replied.
The trio then get teleported to Fraxinus, due to the confidentiality of the information, the meeting is held in a room.
The video feed is immediately set up with Dante and Mana on the other side, the task force members then share with what they know.
"Our trail is becoming very cold, DEM is not the suspect. My guys had infiltrated and found nothing about Arashi."
Dante's report has disappointed them, whoever the enemy is, he or she is good at hiding the tracks. The group still doesn't understand who else would attack Arashi.
"DEM is out? But who else would try to catch Arashi?" Kotori asked.
"We were suspecting AST being involved, but our sources have confirmed that AST has nothing to do with this." Mana replied.
The team seems to have hit yet another dead end.
"AST is also out. Just what else?" Shido asked.
"We need to know what countries did Arashi went to when he was young." Dante asked.
Reine suddenly recalls that Arashi and Yuki have mentioned where they went before.
"Both Yuki and Arashi did mentioned that they went to Syria and Afghanistan once. They said it is some kind of pilgrimage as it was the origin of the cult. Nanaya would meet 14 Blades and discuss their operations in taking down Hunters and leaders all over the world."
The statement sends Dante and Mana into a state of frustration, as Syria and Afghanistan are extremely dangerous country.
"Syria and Afghanistan? That's gonna be a lot of trouble, both places are war torn and they are now anarchy states. DEM also has their stronghold there. If we are going to infiltrate these countries, it is going to take us months."
Dante's statement does disappoint the trio, however, without any trails left, they will have to grab whatever chances presented to them.
"Well, we won't have a choice. I hope we can find out more." Kotori lamented.
"Don't worry, we'll do our best." Mana assured.
The feed then cuts off, Kotori then gives out a sigh. They can only hope that Arashi is safe somewhere.
Yggdrasil Atlantic Base
Mana has been dismissed by Dante as he is being notified of a black ops is coming The meeting room switches the feed to Woodman, he demanded that the two are to bring Arashi to the meeting as well.
The meeting only starts when Arashi is in the room and he unwinded his bandage.
"Alright, we have a problem. A Round has decided to betray us."
The statement surprises Dante and Miruko who are aware what danger they are facing.
"Who is the rat?" Dante asked.
"Oh no, it's not a rat of DEM we are talking about. Basically, Clayton will hold a fashion show, and then he is going to expose the existence of Spirits, Ratatoskr, Yggdrasil and DEM."
Arashi is aware why Woodman wants him in the meeting. He will be the assassin to take out the betrayer.
"Let me guess, I'm going to take him out isn't it?" Arashi asked.
"That's right."
Woodman's decision is immediately met with objections from Miruko, who deem Arashi is unfit for operations.
"No, Mr Woodman. He is emotionally unfit for combat at the moment. In fact, he just had a relapse."
"No, I can do it. I can't sleep anyway." Arashi assured.
"Due to the fact that Clayton is aware of you guys. So I'm sending Arashi to do this because other Round members are not aware of Spectre's existence in the Black Ops group. Clayton literally has his eyes and ears throughout the whole country he is hiding in." Woodman explained.
Out of concern for the young man, Dante has to make his stance up front.
"If he is unstable throughout the mission, I have to pull him out!" Dante stated.
"Fair enough, I have confidence that he can pull it through."
The briefing of the assassination then starts why Woodman showing a map of the Alaska wilderness and shows the picture of Clayton.
"Clayton will be in a lodge all by himself, along with many armed men of PMCs. Judging from the satellite image, the perimeter is set to 4 km. Since the private lodge is in the middle of nowhere, you will be inserted and take him out."
Despite not being briefed on the potential risk, Arashi can identify it immediately.
"The maximum range of Javelin is at most 3 km. If the perimeter is set so wide there is no way to take him out from the outside, I will need to infiltrate into the perimeter 1.5 km before I can take a shot." he reasoned.
Woodman only nodded and explain more about the mission at hand.
"Exactly, also, instead of firing the usual bolt, this time you will be firing caseless .50cal. This is to mask the Javelin, and also, you will be issued an unsuppressed HK416 rifle to serve as a distraction. Take out Clayton, fire an EMP blast to fry all electronics. Scythe Wings will launch a missile to destroy all paper documents along with the lodge."
After being briefed and he understands about the mission, he decides to move out immediately.
"I've got no other questions, I'm ready!" he reported.
"Alright, Spectre, move out!" Woodman commanded.
"Yes sir!"
DEM HQ, Westcott's Office
The forensic team managed to piece something very disturbing. The square blade found in the ground zero has an engravement "Daniel Arms Tech". Also the abundance of 5.56x45mm pulse rounds discharged from Colt M4A1-AS (AS stands for Anti-Spirit), a staggering amount of 20mm cannon shells and quite a few grenade shells. The slashes on the bodies also suggest that the attackers also fight very up close.
"Daniel Arms Tech, Kenny and Kendrick Daniel! Chief and Vice-Chief of DARPA! Somehow they managed to get their hands on Nanaya's augmentation technology."
The statement surprises Ellen who did not expect Nanaya being in the arms tech industry.
"What? I thought they are just a bunch of crazed murderers."
"No. Nanaya, 20 years ago spearheaded the development of biochips, human augmentation technology through the use of mechanical prosthesis. Serif, Daniel and Nanaya are among the three starters. Serif produced the world's best while Nanaya and Tai Yong would give them a run for their money with their own exclusive augmentations. Nanaya's exclusive being these blades. That is why, there are soldiers that are heavily augmented with these three companies' augmentations."
"They attacked our base, but why? Could it be that they are aftering the Spirits as well?" she asked.
"We won't know, but if they are, I doubt they'll succeed. Ratatoskr already have their hands on the server. DARPA will have to go through this guy."
Westcott then projects the picture of Spectre and Arashi.
"This guy, Terminator, he is probably personally trained by Dante. Ripper is also missing, probably watching over the Spirits in the dark."
Spectre, now labeled by DEM as Terminator has pretty much struck some terror onto DEM Wizards. He just appears out of nowhere, strikes fast like a lightning, disappears like a shadow.
"Now, we need focus on hunting down Mirage. He'll manifest a devil sooner or later like the three before him."
48 hours ago, Virginia, USA
To find out DARPA's involvement in the attack, Ian is sent to spy on DARPA's chief. With his skills in computers, he managed to hack into DARPA's security systems and even managed to witness the footage of the Daniel brothers and Jaren inserting the nanomachines into their body.
The evidences are piling up, but he needs to know why. After two days of constant stake out at midnight, the brothers finally being driven by Jaren. Ian follows them carefully as it is snowing. The brothers are in a black Mercedes S class W222 while Ian is in a black BMW M3 E90 following them without headlights on.
The two cars are driven carefully in the woods. Ian can see the car without headlights on as he is wearing a pair of US issued night vision goggles. The brothers doesn't seem to notice that until, Jaren whose vision is augmented can see the car with headlights off.
"Guys we are being followed!"
Jaren's alert has spooked the brothers.
"What? DEM? Just nice we are heading to the base, capture that guy alive!"
Jaren turns on the auto pilot mode for the car, he swiftly opens the door and climbs to the roof of the car. He is immediately engulfed in a bright yellow electric aura, the bright light is even amplified in the night vision goggles which forces Ian to promptly remove them.
"What the fuck!?" he thought.
Jaren then suddenly turns into a ball of lightning then charges towards the car with blistering speed. Ian is horrified with the sighting and his pupils have shrunk in fear. It turns out, Jaren merely "flies" at extreme speed engulfed in a shield of lightning. The augmented Wizard flies to the left side of the car, and with the extreme strength of the prosthesis, he punches the car towards his right side.
The impact is so powerful that it shatters both headlights and all the side windows of the BMW M3, it also dents the whole chassis of the car. The force sends the car crashing onto the railing, totalling the car, Ian is also being knocked out cold despite the airbag was deployed in time. Jaren with all of his inhuman strength, tears the car apart to get Ian out.
Few Hours Later, right before the assassination
USA DARPA-Charon LLC Joint Black Site, Atlantic Ocean, 500 km from USA shore
"Uhhhh… Argh…"
Ian wakes up to find himself bounded to a chair with a light shining onto him, he can feel the pain that he had from the car crash.
"Mr James Bond wannabe… Or should I call you, Ian Harrison?"
Blocking the light is the body of Jaren and his face enters Ian's vision while brandishing his fake UK ID card.
"But it doesn't matter anyway, this ID card although it is real, there is no way it'll contain your identity. It appears that you don't just work for the MIs, instead you also work for some other organization."
Jaren's statement on Ian is spot on, that was Ian's forged ID back when he was in MI6.
"Very clever… Jaren Steel, Sergeant First Class, ex US Army Rangers."
Ian's knowledge on Jaren's identity shocks him as it is the first time both have met each other.
"I must not implicate Yggdrasil and Ratatoskr here, shit will get even more serious." he thought.
"What in the? How do you know why I am?"
Jaren is now agitated and clenches his fists, however, he is suddenly being called out.
"Hey Jaren, Mr Daniel is looking for you."
"Hmph…"
The Wizard then leave the room with another augmented Wizard outside waiting. The Wizard appears to be in mid 30s with dark brown short hair with a trimmed beard. Like Jaren, he is heavily augmented albeit his built is much bigger, suggesting that he has heavy duty augmentations.
"Booker, I need you to use whatever method to make the guy speak. He might know all the Ghost's identity. Just keep him alive till I get back." Jaren ordered.
"Got it."
While Jaren leaves, Booker enters the room. Seeing Ian panting in pain, he is ready to do whatever it takes to force Ian to speak.
"Well, Mr Incognito, you better speak before I make you scream." Booker threatened.
"Speak what?"
Ian tries to act dumb, Booker recognizes that and decides to be harsh.
"Your employer… Please. Or my name…"
His left arm immediately collapses and forms into a tri-barrel gatling gun after a few hummings of the motor. He aims the gun at the head of Ian. The gun is revving, an extremely intimidating sight, but Ian refuse to break, knowing very well that they won't kill him yet.
"Booker… Booker Lautrec, Staff Sergeant, ex US Marine… And regarding my employer, fuck you!"
2pm Alaskan Wilderness
Arashi is in stealth mode closing in to the drop point. Upon reaching, the Scythe Wings then detaches and Arashi lands with the landing systems activated while disengaging the active camouflage. The whole place is covered in snow, and the lodge is in the open, a distance away from the woods. He is only armed with Javelin, Hale and the HK416 given to him without his sword. He immediately sneaks to his designated sniping point which is 1.6 km away.
He notice that he will leave a footprint if he walks, he then conjures a platform that is slightly elevated from the ground to walk on. The private security force's guards are heavily armed with M4A1 with infrared scope. This tells Arashi not to alert them at all despite his is invisible to infrared. Due to the active camouflage, Arashi is able to sneak in without much trouble.
Upon reaching the designated sniping point, Arashi go prone and aims with Javelin, patiently waiting for Clayton to show himself.
Meanwhile, in the black site
"Ugggghhhhh!"
Ian is grunting in pain as the heavy duty aug relentlessly punches him to extract information. Ian is tied to a chair and he got constantly punched to the floor only to be held up again by soldiers.
"Do you want to be so tight lipped? I hope you do understand that we keep our prisoners alive..."
Booker's breath is filled with cigarette stench. Ian's face is bleeding and covered in bruises. Without warning, Booker suddenly fires a burst with the gatling gun which is deliberately missed to scare Ian.
However, Ian isn't wavered, he shows no sign of fear. This surprises Booker as he did not expect the man not to scream.
"You sure have some nerves of steel... I'll come back for you later."
With Booker gone, the torture stops. Ian starts to feel a bit relived. Everytime he breathes, pain would strikes his chest, the feeling is so bad that he wants to die. But not without trying out his last way out.
"Thank god they did not detect my augmentation..."
Ian moves his jaws in opposite directions then bites them. It turns out, two of his teeth has metal contacts which links to cerebral implants that transmit the exact location and vitals back to Yggdrasil base.
Yggdrasil Mission Control Room
Dante and Miruko are monitoring the assassination mission. The tracker alerts both of them as they are aware that Ian is in trouble.
"Ian is in an island! And the satellite image... That is a US black site!" Miruko reported.
"What? In a black site? Oh crap... You report to Mr Woodman, I'll have Spectre to move to the coordinates immediately after this." Dante ordered.
"Got it!"
2.5 km away from the lodge
Arashi notices that his target is moving near windows, he takes a deep breathe, focuses, and pulls the trigger.
Javelin propels the .50cal anti material round at the speed of Mach 4, the bullet shatters the window and enters Clayton's skull. The resultant impact has shattered his head.
The shattering of the window is masked by the sound of snowstorm. Arashi then uses Mercurial's power to channel the EMP. The guards are shocked that a cluster of lightning gathers and then explodes, creating a very strong EMP blast which fries all of their electronics. Arashi then quickly fires the unsuppressed HK416, drawing the attention of the guards. The guards frantically disperse in an attempt to find the assailant.
As they disperse far enough to be out of the blast radius of the missile. Scythe Wings launches a missile which destroys the lodge. To make a quick getaway, Arashi does not hesitate to use his wraith powers to teleport to a hill in his vision.
"Target eliminated." he reported.
However the response he gets is not a happy one.
"Spectre, this is an emergency mission. Ian has been captured and the location is 500 km from the east coast. We need you to get there ASAP. I have arranged an UAV midway to recharge you and weapon swapping."
Arashi is now very worried about Ian's situation, no matter how tired he is, he must get him out of there, dead or alive.
"Get my sword and Boltor, attach tact grip, holographic sight please. I'm on my way to the rendezvous point." Arashi reported.
"Got it!"
The feed cuts off with Arashi immediately attaches the Scythe Wings and flies off at the speed of Mach 3.
"UAV en route!" the visor displayed.
"Ian, please hang in there..." Arashi prayed.
In two hours, Arashi encounters the UAV which is invisible to the naked eye. It looks like a smaller version of B2 Spirit except that the body is bigger.
The Scythe Wings docks in and in the main compartment, Arashi removes Javelin and the HK416, swaps them out with Requiem HF sword and Boltor and swaps out all ammunitions to Boltor's spikes. He also grabs a few C4 explosives, smoke grenades and stun grenades and puts them into his utility belt.
He wastes no time to let Scythe Wings to attach to himself and flies off to the coordinate. The skies to the east is getting dark as night approaches, perfect for the rescue mission. In less than an hour, Arashi reaches the coordinates, he looks for a small beach and enters the island through air insertion.
USA DARPA-Charon LLC Joint Black Site
"Activate Icarus!"
Arashi is surrounded by a field of electricity which absorbs the impact and exhaust all the energy to all directions, allowing him to land safely without parachute.
"Spectre to HQ, observe radio silence." Arashi reported.
"Alright, I have inserted the protocols of pinging for Ian's tracker into SECOND, use it to look for Ian. If you are cloaked, you don't have to worry about thermal imaging of those augs. You'll be completely invisible to infrared."
"Roger! Observe radio silence."
"Affirmative."
Arashi sneaks to the black site wall. The wall appears to be thin and it is tall enough to prevent direct scaling. Arashi notices that there are cables dangling like a net on the wall too.
"Damn it, if I cut or touch these cables, the alarm will be sounded."
Realising that he can't scale the wall directly, he moves to the west to find a gate. And to his luck, the gate is opened with soldiers walking out of it for patrolling. He easily sneaks past the soldiers without making a sound. Passed the wall, the black site is vast with a few helipads and many AA guns. There are many buildings are also many soldiers patrolling around.
Arashi then pings the tracker, the signal responded showing Arashi where does it come from. It comes from a building below, Ian is imprisoned underground.
Arashi moves to the building, walking through a large square where there are soldiers stand in attention.
"Alright, gentlemen. The higher ups are finalising an upcoming mission, so be prepared that you'll be asked to turn up for duty even in Valentine's Day! The mission is simple, guard duty on this and Japan black sites."
It is snowing quite heavily, but the soldiers do not protest, standing at attention stoically. They are wearing white winter camo coat in full battle order. Arashi notices that their uniform bears the crest of Charon LLC which is a screaming mask along with the USA flag.
"Yes sir!" they replied.
"You're dismissed!"
The soldiers then pass out from the formation and moves away.
"It must be very horrible to have duty on that day... But why the black site on Japan." he mused.
Arashi thinks that it'll be vital for him to extract information of the mission they are having. He can also sense very faint presence of Spirit mana in the site.
"This mana… It's not just from a single entity… There are multiple of them too…"
Arashi thinks that something is extremely fishy here, if he strays from his objective, Dante will have to break radio silence. He pings for Ian's status again, Ian's vitals are normal. He decides to turn off the radio and follows the man that was addressing the soldiers. His action is alerted to Dante and Miruko.
"What? What is he doing?" Miruko asked.
"He must have sensed something that we couldn't… And what that guy said just now, a black site in Japan, Charon is attacking Japan, but what are they attacking?"
Dante is calm, Miruko can tell Dante trusts Arashi fully in his judgement especially in stealth ops. The luck is on the young man's side as the man goes to a dark corner for a smoke.
"It's now or never!"
Arashi channels the death mana to his palms, he presses his palm onto the man's cheek, using his soul, he dominates the man's mind. He searches the man's memory through the man's eyes. He realizes that Charon LLC is not only owned by the DARPA chief, the black site is also joint site for Ghosts. He man's vision also shows that men turn insane with their eyes glowing in gray in a basement. There is also a meeting room in the same building, which all augs are gathered with the twin Daniel brothers. He then identify the building as Building B. Which is the same building the pinging came from.
Arashi lets go of the man who immediately collapses onto the ground, he is still alive albeit got knocked out cold by the extremely horrifying process. The intercourse also tires Arashi greatly who has only practised such methods on animals instead of humans.
The scene where he sees the men's eyes are glowing scares him as he identify that those are Psychics, artificial ones. He decides to immediately move to Building B, but before that, he releases a pair of small invisible drone to map the area thoroughly to search for potential escape spot. One of the drones maps the surface while the other maps the underground tunnels.
Arashi slowly sneaks to Building B after he hides the body from plain sight. Just as he reaches the building, he pings for Ian's status again, his vitals are still normal. He then follows a pair of augs, hoping to get some vital intel in their conversation.
"The meeting now is about our operation to capture some Spirits, right from DEM and Ratatoskr's nose!"
"Hell yeah, many months of planning isn't it? I'm glad that we are finally capturing Spirits instead of stealth runs against DEM. And that guy down there still hasn't cracked, he seems very tough for DEM's standard, Westcott would have terminated anyone by now."
The two men's conversation shocks Arashi who decides that he has to break radio silence now.
"Elysium, break radio silence, you guys heard that? I know my actions were weird, I did that because of this, and I found something more disturbing that I'll show you two." Arashi reported.
The conversation deeply disturbs both Dante and Miruko, Dante decides that the intel is too vital to pass.
"I know it is hard, but you will have to sit through the meeting. We have to know just what are they up to. This now comprises Spirits' safety." Dante ordered.
"Ian might be captured because he is suspected to be with DEM. DARPA is trying to cover their tracks. I'll be able to get into the meeting. Observe radio silence at the moment." Arashi reported back.
"Affirmative."
The augs get into a meeting room without noticing Arashi's presence as he continues to sneak in active camou on. He enters the room along with the augs, it is a pretty big room as there are at least 20 augs there. All of them are in black, their augmented arms are the familiar carbon nanotube and fiber black with the hexagonal pattern. Some augs are smaller while some are bigger. All of them wear nicely weaved black pants along with utility belt. Arashi can't tell if their legs are augmented, but he assumes that all the augs are extensively augmented even their head too. Then, the Daniel brothers and Jaren enters the meeting room. The meeting room is very well lit with tables arranged properly and screens for presentations.
"Alright, gentlemen. After months of planning, we can officially announce the finalization of the grand plan. Operation Final Valentine."
The augmented Wizards are paying attention as Kenny announces. Kenny then continues to brief the Wizards.
"From your last operation, we have decided to lock in on these Spirits."
The screen then displays the photo of Tohka, Yoshino, Kotori, Kurumi, Kaguya, Yuzuru, Miku, Yuki, Arashi and Shido.
"Princess, Hermit, Efreet, Nightmare, Berserks, Diva, Reverser and Ripper. They are our targets of desire. However, we will have to make a bit of changes though."
Arashi's photo is first to be zoomed in.
"Ripper and Reverser are the remaining Nanaya members according to our data. Ripper has at least 1000 kills at his hands and many of them are extremely well trained Wizards like you all. However, he has mysteriously disappeared and DEM has listed him as MIA. So, we will be able to conduct this mission without too much difficulty."
The next photo to be selected is Shido's.
"This kid, like Ripper studies in the same school with most of the Spirits. It appears that he has sealed them and he is an agent of Ratatoskr. Our observation is that most of the Spirits are attached to him, so he might be in the way of the operation. So, terminate him if you have to."
Upon hearing that, Arashi starts to feel enraged as he understands the danger Shido poses if he were to get hurt. The next photo being selected is Kurumi's, which Arashi guesses that they'll probably drop the idea of capturing her.
"You must be out of your mind to think of capturing her…" he thought.
True enough, Kurumi is being put into the exemption list.
"I don't have to say much about Nightmare, also she has been MIA for a period of time." Kendrick then said.
After that, Miku's photo is being selected which surprises him.
"Diva is a pop star and she'll be having a concert on that day. The schedule of the concert does not allow us to attack, and attacking such a high profile Spirit would draw too much attention." Kendrick explained.
With that, Miku and Kurumi are in the exemption list. The brothers then continue to explain the flow of events.
"You guys will be inserted from this site to our secret Japan site here on February 5th 2000Hrs."
Arashi uses screen capture to take down the coordinates on the map.
"That black site is established without Japanese government's consent, so you guys have to be careful in the operation. Which I believe you will." Kendrick added.
"We will reach there February 7th 1200Hrs. From there, you guys will have to infiltrate Tenguu City by other means of transport, which we have arranged by bus. Conduct surveillance in the city and on the Spirits. We'll strike on 14th February, I will be accompanying you guys to the black site as well. Jaren will now brief on how the operation works." Kenny then explained.
The name of the operation pretty much explained their motive, capture a Spirit on Valentine's Day.
"We will have a 6 hours shift for surveillance, each of us will have this tracker to keep track of everyone's status. Encryption code will be this string of codes. Ideally each of us will follow a Spirit and strike at the right time. If possible, call for backup before moving in for capture. There will be stealth units in the air for quick getaway. The Spirits seems to live in this apartment complex too and will head to this school."
The Wizards take down the notes while Arashi recording the whole meeting. The Spirits' apartment complex are shown, and even Raizen High School is shown. It just shows how much they know about the Spirits.
"As for guard duties on that secret site, all Ghosts will be field agents. Other than our own Charon guards, we will use the Wraiths locked up at there as well."
With the mentioning of the Wraiths, some Ghost members start to express discomfort.
"What? Wraiths? Those zombies? Don't you think it is too dangerous because they won't be able to contain them if they suddenly go crazy." one of the augs asked.
"Relax, the Wraiths this time are more stable and able to be controlled. That's why I want all of you guys be there to ensure our success. I'll be here to handle the preparation work." Kendrick assured.
With that said, everyone remains silent as a form of approval in the mission.
"Alright, everyone know their roles now? If so, then you are dismissed." Kenny asked.
When the augs start to stand up, Arashi quickly move out of the room and proceeds to the basement, where he starts to feel the presence of mana stronger. The basement is dimly lit. He walks along the way and reaches some kind of prison cell where people keep reaching their hand out as if they want to be released.
Arashi takes a closer look, and to his shock, their eyes are glowing in wispy gray. He activates the Eyes of Souls, he realizes that these men are the victims of unrefined Spirit mana infusion, they are artificial Psychics. These madden walking corpses are also augmented as well.
"Elysium, break radio silence. Look at these guys, they are what the brothers called Wraiths. I just checked their mana, they are artificial Psychics! And these things, don't have a soul, they are as good as dead, like zombies."
The scene feedback from Arashi is extremely disturbing. Miruko starts to shed tears as she is now fully aware what DARPA has done to their candidates, who were lucky enough to survive the process.
"These bastards…"
Rage starts to build within Dante, Nishiro also appears who also empathizes on the soldiers.
"To think our troops went through that… It is sad indeed." he commented.
Suddenly, one Wraith uttered a few words.
"In… In… tru… der… In… tru… DER!"
The Wraith points at Arashi's location while muttering the words. This alerts the soldier who are guarding the area to investigate. This surprises both Arashi and Dante who do not expect that with Arashi promptly move out of the prison cells.
"Wraiths can actually see me for some reasons. Whatever, I'm very close to Ian now." he reported.
Arashi moves towards the other end of the basement, he pings again, Ian's vitals are fluctuating, suggesting that he is being roughed up.
"Elysium, requesting for extraction."
The young man starts to get anxious and immediate leans to the door in an attempt to hear what's going on.
"Still so tight lipped eh?" A soldier asked.
"UGGGHHH!" Ian grunted.
"We'll have to put him through the Chinese Water Torture."
"Good idea. Let's get him out then."
Upon hearing that, Arashi immediately moves back. Two soldiers escorts Ian with their rifle pointed to his body. Ian's face is roughed up as bruises and blood can be seen. However, everyone is relieved to find that he is still alive.
Arashi continues to follow the three as Ian is slowly walking. However, they are immediately stopped by an aug.
"Halt, where are you guys bringing him to?"
"We are going to use Chinese Water Torture on him, sir." One of them reported.
Seizing this chance, Arashi decides to strike as he pulls out his HF knife from his calf as he realised that the soldiers have their guns set to safety and barrels down. He immediate sneaks to the back of the aug and turns on the jammer. Causing all radars and radios in the site to go haywire. Arashi then quickly cuts off the arms of the aug with his knife.
The sighting shocks everyone who cannot see Arashi who is invisible. Before the aug can even react, he is unceremoniously kicked from his front by Arashi at full strength, the kick sends the aug flying to a wall. Arashi then shows himself which spooks the two soldier, before they can react Arashi reaches out his arms and blasts two streams of lightning. The shock stuns the insufficiently protected soldiers who got knocked out because of the shock therapy.
"INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!"
This hijacking action has alerted all soldiers and augs as they move towards the building fully armed. Ian is delighted to see Arashi to rescue him.
"Spectre!"
"Can you walk?" Arashi asked with a distorted voice.
"Yeah... But I can't run." Ian replied.
"Don't worry, I'll get you out." he assured.
Arashi then picks up an M4A1 attached with a holographic sight and an EMP lance launcher and passes it to Ian. Arashi's drones found that there is an underground drain right behind a wall.
"You'll need it. Let's go! Plant the explosive on the wall at the end."
Arashi passes the explosive to Ian, just as he finishes his sentence, Booker charged in with his gatling cannon revved up.
"Go to hell!"
Arashi immediately pushes Ian out of the sight while he attempt to hold the corner. Booker's gatling cannon fires the 20mm cannon rounds at an insane fire rate. Arashi immediately heightens his focus as his adrenaline floods his body allowing the seemingly endless bullets close to a dead stop. He immediately deflects the bullets away. The force of the 20mm cannon is so strong that it leaves craters on the concrete walls. While being intimidated, Booker is also impressed at the mean time as he has never seen a Wizard of such capability. Arashi's cyborg grim reaper like appearance also sends some chills to the soldier who backs up Booker as well due to the completely unnatural jaw.
"This guy, instead of using his territory with spherical deployment, he uses it to cover the outline of his body. And not to mention, the blocking are done by his sword instead of territory!" Booker thought.
Meanwhile, Ian walks to the end of the wall quickly with the explosive. Near the end, there are two soldier and a heavy duty aug. Ian quickly takes aim and with his superb marksmanship, kills both soldier with the rifle by shooting their head. He then place his hand on the trigger of the EMP lance. Just as the aug's hand has turned into a grenade launcher, Ian pulls the trigger. A blue stream of light exits the launcher, just as it hits the floor, it detonates, releasing a strong EMP which stuns the aug, causing his movements to go erratic. Ian then wastes no time and shoots the aug, in the head, killing him.
With that, he moves to plant the bomb and moves back to Arashi. The young man now not just holding against Booker, but also more soldiers firing at him. The soldiers are clearly intimidated by the sight as they could not comprehend how their foe can perform such act.
"EXPLOSIVE PLANTED!" Ian shouted.
Upon hearing that, Arashi immediately changes his bullet trajectory, he deflects one bullet back to a soldier, grazing the man's ballistic vest but with enough force to push him down.
"MAN DOWN!"
It doesn't stop here as Arashi even deflects the 5.56x45mm pulse rounds back to an aug, knocking him out too. After a period of firing, Booker ran out of ammo while a 3 of them still in the mid air, Arashi immediate blocks 2 of them and deflects one back to Booker with a loud clash. The bullet hits Booker in the abdomen, blocked by his armor but the resultant force is enough to force him to the ground.
Arashi then dash away from the corner and drops a smoke grenade, just as the downed soldiers get back up, Arashi throws another stun grenade through smoke, stunning them with the loud noise and very bright light. He then triggers the explosive, blowing a big hole into the drain tunnel. Arashi and Ian gets into the tunnel quickly, with the mapping completed, Arashi decides, it is best to have Scythe Wings waiting for them near the end of the drain.
He carries Ian on his back and runs as fast as he can, however, he can sense the augs are catching up. He decides to put Ian down and stalls the augs personally.
"I'll stop them, just run up, and I'll catch up."
Ian only nodded and continues to walk as fast as he can. Jaren and Booker catches up on Ian, but with Arashi at their way, they'll have to fight him.
"You have to get past me to catch him…"
Arashi declared with the distorted demonic voice, he draws his sword which pulsates lightning and he enters a defensive stance. Booker has his arms jointed back to normal, while Jaren's arms partially collapse with two black rectangular blades extend out. Upon looking at that blade, Arashi immediately realize that the Ghosts are responsible for the attack. The two augs charged and Arashi immediately dodges their attack.
The bigger and heavier Booker opens up a bigger opening for a riposte, he dodges Jaren's blades and severs the aug's left arm, leaving it a red hot stump. This surprises both of them as Arashi's attacks are too fast and it came from their blind spot. Arashi then drop kicks Booker, knocks him off his feet.
Arashi then starts to be aggressive and relentlessly attacks Jaren who managed to keep parrying his attacks. It surprises Arashi as Jaren is able to keep up his speed, the pressure is on to prevent both men getting a riposte. Their adrenaline are flooding their body, after a short while, both of them break away panting.
"GET BACK JAREN!"
Booker's right arm turns into a grenade launcher and fires a grenade. Arashi immediately blasts an arc of lightning which detonates the grenade in the mid air, creating a lot of smoke.
"Did we get him?" Booker asked.
Suddenly, Arashi breaks through the smoke, his sword and scabbard are positioned in an Iaido style. He unsheathes the blade, severing the wrist of Jaren's right arm. And then with his deadly proficiency, he immediately severs the legs of the downed Booker. He quickly unleashes a flurry of shallow cuts which cuts through the unique armor of the augs, damaging the skins of Jaren's chest. After that, Arashi quickly swings the blunt edge of his sword into the temple of Jaren, knocking him out cold.
"Amateurs…" Arashi mocked.
With the threats neutralized, Arashi immediately goes to the rendezvous point. Ian is there waiting for him.
"Alright guys, UAV ready to pick you two up!" Dante reported.
"Roger!"
Scythe Wings appear and docks onto Arashi's waist. He uses the territory to trap Ian in so that he can carry him safely. With all things set, he flies off at mach 3, leaving behind a chaotic black site. In just a short time, they reach the UAV, Arashi carefully inserts Ian into the UAV, and then re-enter it by letting Scythe Wings to dock in.
"Good job, Spectre! Man, Ian, I'm so worried about you!"
Arashi also felt relieved as he managed to save his handler.
"I found a lot of things! Tons and tons of evidence, DARPA is involved." Ian reported back.
"Yeah, we know, I'll need you two to compile all the intel. Spectre, go ahead and sleep, it's been a long operation." Dante ordered.
"Alright… Do wake me up later." Arashi replied.
The young man shuts his eyes with the visor on, sleeping while the stealth UAV travels across the Atlantic Ocean to reach for the base.
That's all folks. As hinted here, great war incoming, next chapter will be long. Also, it'll likely be delayed due to the bulk of assignments I have. So I'll try my best to write to you guys as soon as possible. Do leave a review for feedback, thank you!