Two months had quickly passed after the Alien Spaceships descended on the planet.

At this time, the Meredith Empire established full control in many countries…

The Seiji, Kazan, Guwain, Utara, and Virgan were fallen into the hands of the Empire.

At this time, only the Country of Maja, Zairus, and the worn-out Montego, has lands that were still unoccupied by the Empire.

Apparently, the four-country alliance made by Seiji has become fully slaves of the Empire… Though many of their citizens are still living, they are now considered as the Empire's Test Subjects as they study the method of using Mana for their benefit.

The study of Mana is not that easy since even Veda predicted that it would probably take at least 10 years for them to have an acceptable affinity to wield the mana.

Because of this, the council of the remaining countries at least doesn't have to worry about the swarm of the Imperial Soldier capable of wielding mana.

They only have to worry about their unique physical qualities, hi-tech guns, and bio-armors.

On the other hand, the alien Mech Frames were at least something that the Mech Knights were capable of dealing with.

Though they have advance techs like Subspace Blaster, Twilight Armor, and Psionic Pulse, the Mech Knight Models named Lucent, Radiant, and Issyl has an Arcanist Phase that was now strong enough to deal with such technology.

This is of course thanks to Avalon's help since they have finally analyzed these technologies after several weeks of studying.

It allowed them to create a Magic Structure capable enough to at least bend them off or completely defend against it.

Right now, the refugees from the conquered countries were divided into two nations…

Apparently, Montego couldn't accept refugees due to the condition of their country as well. It is to the point that even the Empire has probably lost interest in it.

Aside from that, traveling to that country proves to be very dangerous as well since the Destroyers of the Empires would normally patrol around the areas they have completely conquered to collect magicians and memory crystals…

"Haa~ This has turned extremely bad than I expected." Ace muttered as he arrived at a temporary barracks where a group of Battle Mages is currently staying.

These Battle Mages will soon receive a Cryptic Link Serum to advance to Cryptic Mages… They have no choice but to force their advancement to help in the war. Of course, they are all still volunteers from different countries.

Once they have completed the advancement, they will receive Grad A Mana Artifacts or perhaps, practice their affinity with the Death Energy as they will be tasked to use the repaired Corpse Furnaces that they have collected.

"The Terubs are still a huge problem… Even the Northern Natives couldn't fight them equally."

Every time the Terubs arrive in a battle, 10 Sages would have to deal with them and it is guaranteed that at least 5 of them would perish in their hands.

On the other hand, if the Northern Natives would try to fight them with their Seventh Gen Mana Artifacts, it would still require 8 of them with 1 or 2 casualties.

[ The supply of Cryptic Link Serum has arrived. ]

Avalon gave an update.

He soon noticed a group of automatons bring cases filled with the notorious serum.

In truth, there are still a lot of questions about the serum since it didn't officially pass the safety tests from the NMTI yet. There could be some hidden side-effects from its usage that haven't been discovered yet since it wasn't that long when the serum was "perfected."

However, because of the war, there was no point in thinking about this as long as they could help the war against the aliens.

As a matter of fact, these Cryptic Mages have contributed a lot in terms of dealing with the Khrusams… Even if they were using their Third Eyes, these mages were still capable of wrestling with their Death Energy and win against them many times.

Ace watched as the 210 Battle Mages received a dose of the Cryptic Link… They have to undergo a 30-minute mana purification and another hour for their stabilization.

This is an extremely quick process considering that the Arcane Baptism to advance to an Adept requires days to be completed.

"Avalon, do they have enough Corpse Furnaces?"

[ No, we only have 43 more unused Corpse Furnaces. Manufacturing them from the scratch is still impossible at this point. ]

"Hmm… I see. Since we'll have a few more batches of Battle Mages to receive the serum, we will have enough to send some to the floating island. Is that right?"

[ Yes. I would suggest sending 30 to 50 Battle Mages to protect the Floating Island. ]

"Alright… Just send 50 of them."

[ Affirmative. ]

The Floating Islands that they have are probably the safest place in the world right now.

The islands are about 10 kilometers ( 6.2 miles ) off the ground and it also has an Optical Phenomena Manipulation array activated.

Aside from that, they have natural ECM which has been known ever since Wallace and Avalon had found one in the Northern Continent.

It is a perfect place to hide but it can also be vulnerable once the aliens had managed to detect it for some reason.

This is why they have to at least send capable magicians or flying crafts that are strong enough to deal with spaceships.

"Haa~"

Ace sighed as he recalled the troubles they've had in the past few weeks. It has not been easy for them. Though Zairus is still holding on, they would soon succumb to the mighty force of the Empire if they don't do something about their situation.

As the young man was blankly staring at Battle Mages complete their transformation, the floating metal ball beside him interrupted his thoughts.

[ A message has been received from Aeolia. ]

"Aeolia?! What is it about? Tell me."

Ace excitedly asked. That man should have an idea of what to do against these aliens.

They have to at least delay the alien invasion until Wallace and the Celestial Being returned!