“Report: the Iron Curtains on the east and west sides have fallen. The southern Iron Curtain is only 45% intact...”

In the command room on the top floor of Charon’s command tower, Aleph Stello stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the battle below with a deeply troubled expression. With the steel walls breached and the air defenses destroyed, the Academy Federation’s air force had begun a massive airborne assault. It wouldn’t be long before Charon fell.

This move’s already checkmate...

Aleph had always known that war with the Academy Federation would end in their destruction. Even though the Academy had declared years ago, in the Academy Declaration, that it would never be the first to deploy its world-destroying weapon, the Blade of Babel (The BABEL), the sheer disparity in military strength was more than enough for the Academy to wipe any nation off the map of the Ademir Continent.

But no matter what... he still hoped to light that spark. Aleph thought about it with a trace of sorrow. All of this should have been overturned long ago, yet it seemed no one had woken from the nightmare of years past.

Aleph still remembered the Academy War, when The Great Unity had launched an assault on the Academy. If that damned Tower of Babel hadn’t interfered back then, the Academy Federation wouldn’t exist on today’s world map.

And there wouldn’t be so much suffering, either.

Aleph stared toward the distant horizon. There, in District D of the Academy Federation, the Sky-reaching Tower stood firm, soaring into the heavens.

“We grew up beneath the range of the Tower of Babel...”

Aleph murmured the dark nursery rhyme that had spread among the people after the Academy War. Then he took a deep breath, picked up his radio, and switched to the resistance’s common channel:

“The Rock calling all units. Issuing the final order—”

Aleph’s voice was as firm as a rock, just like his callsign:

“Hold the line to the death.”

Four simple words, yet they held all his ambition and resolve. Aleph paused, as if unsure about something, then added:

“We’ll leave a spark behind.”

With that, Aleph lowered the radio. His golden eyes, set in his dark skin, pierced through the fires of battle and fixed on the Tower of Babel at the edge of the horizon, staring it down. He knew he’d stalled for too long. The Academy would have to demonstrate its power to restore its deterrence. Which meant...

After all these years, the Tower of Babel was about to attack again.

“Chief, we’ve lost contact with the ground-defense array in the command tower. The elite Bravo squad has gone to support it.” The intelligence officer ran up beside Aleph, who stood ramrod straight. Even in this dire situation, Aleph showed no sign of trembling. “Could it have been that crimson meteor just now...”

“The Blade of Babel... I know.” Aleph turned around. Something seemed to ignite in his golden eyes. “Get my gear ready. If that bastard Ivar Seikpas is there, I’ll deal with him myself.”

“Understood.” The intelligence officer hurried off, calling loudly for the logistics team.

Aleph pulled a diary from his waist and gently ran his fingers over its worn leather cover. The object that recorded the passage of time had been battered by the years, but nothing could erase the name on its title page: Edward von Valantia.

Ever since his old friend died, Aleph had kept the diary with him, a constant reminder to stay vigilant.

Edward, I’ll bring the story you started to an end. Aleph thought this as he slipped the diary back into his waistband and slowly worked the joints in his body, each movement producing a series of creaks. Then he set off toward the command tower’s elevator.

It was about time this all came to an end. This farce had to stop.

......

“Ugh... ah...”

The last soldier’s blood spattered across the wall. Pollyce flicked her Butterfly Knife, shaking off every last drop of blood. The brief fight was over, and Pollyce was the last one standing before the command tower.

“Pure White Fireworks calling Control. The defensive array around the command tower has been cleared.” Pollyce spun the Butterfly Knife and slipped it into her sleeve, then turned toward the tower’s entrance. “I’m going inside.”

“Control copies. Good luck.”

All right. Just a little more effort, and this war’ll be over. Then I can go home and sleep.

That was what Pollyce thought as she slowly walked up to the entrance. She raised her left hand and made one final check that her Factor Shield was working properly. The crossed, ring-shaped bands continued to turn slowly, and the Red Stone set at their center glowed a brilliant red. That meant the Factor Shield was still protecting her.

Satisfied, she took a deep breath and pushed open the command tower’s door—

“Boom—” The moment Pollyce opened the door, a grenade struck her. Smoke and dust burst from the explosion, swallowing the girl’s slender figure.

......

“Direct hit. Bravo-02, nice work.”

The three members of Bravo squad had already set up an ambush in the command tower’s first-floor lobby. The instant the Blade of Babel opened the door, they hit her with an underbarrel grenade launcher. The armor-piercing grenade’s explosion filled most of the lobby with smoke and dust, and the Blade of Babel went still.

“Bravo-03, take point and confirm the kill.”

Bravo-01 held his rifle steady, calm and collected. An armor-piercing grenade could shatter almost any Factor Shield, but he wasn’t naïve enough to think that the Blade of Babel, one of the Academy Federation’s top combatants, could be taken out that easily.

“Bravo-02, keep providing cover.”

“Copy.” “Understood.”

Bravo-03 raised his rifle and slowly walked into the smoke. The lobby was silent. The only sounds were his footsteps and the occasional explosion outside the command tower.

They should’ve joined the defensive line and helped the soldiers at the entrance hold off the Blade of Babel. But after sensing the overwhelming gap in strength, Bravo-01 had ultimately decided to set an ambush. So they’d had no choice but to choke back their pain as the soldiers outside were killed one after another.

But it was all worth it. As long as the command tower hadn’t fallen, as long as General Aleph was still alive, there was still hope for this war.

Just as Bravo-03 was thinking this, Bravo-02 shouted from behind him:

“03!! To your side!!”

Bravo-03 whipped around, but it was already too late. A slender figure tore through the smoke and lunged at him. 03 immediately squeezed the trigger of his underbarrel grenade launcher, but just before the grenade could fire, Pollyce’s fully charged Factor-energy Butterfly Knife sliced through the launcher’s barrel—

“BOOM!!!!!!!”

The Factor-energy-triggered grenade detonated inside the barrel, blowing Bravo-03 to pieces. Pollyce’s Factor Shield absorbed the nearly point-blank blast, leaving her completely unharmed.

“How is that possible—”

Bravo-02 flinched, stunned by her insane way of fighting. By the time he reacted, Pollyce had already teleported in front of him in a flash of red light. The Butterfly Knife spinning at her fingertips slashed toward his neck—

“Gah...”

Bravo-02 fell to the ground, clutching his neck. Blood poured uncontrollably from the wound.

Pollyce slowly turned toward Bravo-01, who aimed his rifle at her with grim focus. From his perspective, two battle-hardened elite teammates had been wiped out in an instant by a white-haired girl. He hadn’t even had time to react and come to their aid. He’d never seen anything like it.

The Blade of Babel’s overwhelming power.

“I know who you are... You’re the Pure White Fireworks...”

Bravo-01 took a deep breath and fixed his gaze on Pollyce as she slowly approached. The white-haired girl didn’t seem inclined to speak. Her pretty little face remained blank, as though everything she was doing were no more than a routine assignment from her teacher.

Pollyce’s silence irritated Bravo-01 a little. After all, silence was the greatest form of contempt.

“Hey... you. Can you even talk? Did the Federation cut your tongue out?”

“I can talk...” Pollyce said softly. A thin haze clouded her blood-red eyes. “But...”

“But what?”

“I don’t talk to the dead.”

Red light burst forth. Pollyce leaped at Bravo-01, who pressed the grenade launcher’s button at the same moment. A grenade shot out in a flash of fire, hurtling straight toward the girl’s face—

In an instant, time seemed to slow. Pollyce’s blood-red eyes calmly watched the grenade fly straight toward her. She adjusted her posture, lowered her slender body as close to the ground as she could, and slipped beneath it.

To Bravo-01, the girl had only flickered slightly before dodging the grenade. He had no time to wonder how Pollyce had avoided a grenade fired at 80 meters per second. All he saw was a flash of white—and a blade glowing red.

Is it over...? Bravo-01 silently closed his eyes and let Death claim his life—

“Clang—”

The death he’d imagined never came. Instead, a loud metallic crash rang out. A powerful shockwave knocked Bravo-01 back several steps, and he fell to the ground. When he opened his eyes, he saw a figure standing before him:

The Rock, Aleph Stello, stood tall in front of him, holding a double-ended spear. A faint layer of blue Factor energy covered its silver points.

Directly in front of Aleph, Pollyce was slowly getting back to her feet and taking up a stance. To Bravo-01’s astonishment, for the first time, he saw a hint of wariness in the girl’s red eyes, which usually seemed to look down on everything.

“Get to the top floor and support the command room.”

There wasn’t the slightest hint of room for argument in Aleph’s voice. Bravo-01 nodded almost immediately and ran toward the elevator at the back of the lobby. Pollyce tried to stop him, but Aleph’s presence pressed down on her, holding her in place. The golden eyes set in his dark face seemed able to see through everything, perfectly tracking her every move.

“Perlis Hafu’erjiade...”

Aleph slowly turned the double-ended Factor-energy spear in his powerful hands. Its empowered tip hummed dangerously through the air.

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

......