"Avalon, how many days we have left?"

Ace asked the artificial intelligence in a very serious tone.

[ Empire's Fleet ETA: 36 days. ]

They have already detected the disturbance caused by the arrival of the empire's fleet.

It seems that there really was an existence of mana around this star system that could affect the detection of modern equipment.

The patches of mana were scattered around the space. However, during the process of wormhole tunneling using modern equipment, these patches of mana gathered around the location and would try to stop it from happening.

Avalon didn't just speculate these things from nothing. It was also thanks to the records found from Omen IV. The previous artificial intelligence had no idea about the existence of mana but Avalon was different.

Avalon and Ace reviewed the journey of the Omen IV and found traces of mana but were ignored by the system. The mana only became very obvious after the mind stones were suddenly corrupted.

"Haa~ I wish I have some Divine Sense or Pathfinder to assist me here…"

Ace complained but he didn't fully mean it. Having the Pathfinder for himself would also become a heavy responsibility he had to take… His current work was already daunting… He wouldn't like to add more work for himself.

"Do I have enough defense?"

Ace closed his eyes as he tries to remember everything he had done so far… His few battle spaceships, his automatons, his Mech Frames or what he now calls Mech Knights, the assistance provided by Arians at the Lagrange Point, the power of Adept Mages, the massive number of powerful mana artifacts, his Moon Base's secret weapon, Veda's supercomputing ability, and lastly, his preparation for escape in case they could no longer fight…

"I guess… We're almost ready… We should be able to put up a good fight against the empire…"

He's currently in his room as he observes the descent of the Excellence on Earth… He wasn't worried about any mishap happening during their fall but he was curious whether a Celestial Being would pop out to meet it or something…

After all, there should be one missing Celestial who escaped the northern continent before…

'Ahh… What am I thinking?' Ace shook his head to gather his thoughts.

"Avalon, let's try the simulation again!"

[ Affirmative. ]

Apparently, although their magic could detect the existence of the Empire's fleet that was so far away, it was not capable of knowing their power. They could only guess based on the size and heat wave it was emitting through various data gathered by his A.I.

***

In a hidden location somewhere within the capital of Zairus, there is a gathering of various powerful and influential individuals.

They were brought here because of a piece of alarming news that came from Wallace Ravencroft… The young man who managed to create the virtual world and made space-traveling possible.

They had been curious about how he managed to do these things or know where he learned all of it. He did many things that even various powerful Clans weren't capable of… Who wouldn't be interested in such a person?

After hearing that there was a piece of news from the man in outer space, they immediately got interested and listened.

Unfortunately, the news was about foreign intelligent species visiting their land for "educational purposes" as Wallace said.

It made them remember the various hints and warnings given by the people close to Wallace…

"So… The Alien Invasion game made by that man was truly in preparation for this, huh… Just how much he knows about the world we're living in?"

The words came from one of the publicly known powerful magicians of the country, Hayden Fraser.

"Mhmm… I similarly studied that game and found some part of it very futuristic and ambitious… It feels like he was aware of how the future would look like in terms of our technological advancement. It was very fascinating… I would recommend it to everyone who hadn't played it yet…"

Surprisingly, it came from a bearded middle-aged man…

He is Marco Schmidt, the respectable leader of the Lucent Force and father of Aaron. He had been asked to join this discussion since the presence of the Lucent Force was required to monitor the foreign species. It would add some relief to the people here that there would be trustworthy magicians around these aliens…

"Are we sure that we are safe from them? What if they brought some unknown virus and affected all of us? How do we prevent this? This operation is under Traceless Hands, right? How are they planning to ensure not just the foreign's safety but also ours?"

It came from an old woman's voice… She's one of the representatives of the Mage Doctor's Association.

"I don't think that it would be a problem, Lady Honia. I would personally escort them once they arrived…" Another voice was heard after the lady spoke.

This time, it came from a man and he was seemingly enjoying this discussion.

"Urgh… What made you come here, Charles? You should be staying in your favorite garden…"

Lady Honia frowned while speaking. She didn't even bother to glance at the old man.

That's right. The voice came from Charles Mavis, the man who was probably at the peak of the Mage Doctor's path that loves to collect rare plants and flowers.

After he helped Wallace with the Secret Art: Flowing Spirit, he became a bit active in the field again as he felt that he still needed a lot to learn before he should think of retiring.

Finally, a couple more important individuals from different branches of the government were present in today's discussion.

At the center of the group was a lady wearing her office clothes and was silently listening to them…

"Ehem! Thank you for coming here, everyone… I know that you have a lot of questions about the situation. However, there are things I can tell you right now… First, we mana practitioners were stronger than these aliens as long as they don't possess their modern weapons… Second, they could not use the mana and as a matter of fact, they are in danger of being rejected and get suffocated to death…"

Yumi's words finally took everyone's attention as they listened intently. This is the first time they heard this so they were very interested.