The vehicle moved through the air, tugged by an invisible energy. It passed above the slums of shacks and dilapidated housing; over destruction from a war’s past and a taming power vacuum. It moved with a speed rivaling the flight of a distant blaze falcon and inched towards a city of iron, domed in its faint mana shield.

“The city core usually keeps everything out unless authorized,” Samuel Gardner’s voice narrated, calm as he stood, looking through glass with his pale, golden, eyes. As always, his hand rested close to the three swords strapped to his waist.

The swordmaster, and outed Reaper of Alos, was dressed in what appeared to be blue jogging pants, a shirt of the same pale color, and a jacket of navy-blue with a familiar insignia at its breast pocket.

“Of course,” He continued, shifting as his head of azure hair followed, “This is a military transporter so there’s no need to worry.”

The mask of the city peeled away as the dome of faint blue squirmed and allowed the vessel within. Rose Ausra looked through the glass panels of the rectangular transporter—the vibration of mana humming in the air—and glanced down at the sparkling city of Alos.

The first thing that struck her was the cream-colored tower that pierced from its middle; sky-high towards a height unknown to even her enhanced eyes. Once before, she had been able to glean it from the outskirts of the slums. Now, it appeared closer than ever. Old, ancient, and somewhat cold to the land around it; odd in its placement. ‘Majestic,’ she thought, shifting her view from its grandeur.

She blinked at the lights and colors of her slowly budding, soon to be new, world.

Neon signs were sparsely visible, though not so cluttered as to turn the place into a travesty of artificial colors. No, skyscrapers of glass glittered from the sun, shining; and vehicles, cars, motorcycles, and drones, hovered and moved orderly within the air. She squinted through the mess of mass and saw suburbs of lavish homes and the clean streets of the city littered with pedestrians as grounded transporters trekked about as well.

“Wow,” Her companion said, voice leaking with amazement, “I’ve only ever seen videos and pictures of it on the mana web but, in person, man—I’m psyched.”

At that moment, as her golden eyes jumped about, and her core hummed silently within her, her brain clicked, calculating, realizing that just this segment of the city alone housed tens of thousands of people. Rose nodded and turned while the transporter began its descent towards the city.

“It’s certainly stunning,” She agreed, smiling at her friend.

“You can say that again.”

The girl in question nodded and crossed her arms over her chest. With a head of black hair and dark eyes, and an athletic body to booth—showing off a midriff of toned abs—Elsa Mont radiated a prideful tomboyish-ness ready to face new challenges.

Rose hadn’t had the time to appreciate it before, as the climax of the slum war had rung, but she was glad to see her friend back up and about, grinning brightly. Their efforts had been worthwhile, seeing how jubilant she was made her happy.

“How about you?” Elsa cocked her head left and Rose followed her eyes.

“Hmm?” Within that space, where the walls were black and long chairs, attached to them, covered all sides, a girl tilted her head as two swords rested by her side.

She had long hair of black and her eyes were a mystifying shade of red, blood red, but that was hardly the most prominent feature of hers. No, what stood out the most were the two curved horns on her head and the thick, black, scaled tail curled around her waist to sit. Indeed, the girl named Lilias Aunbren was a dragonian, a greater race of beastmen.

Elsa rolled her eyes at the girl who had once tried to capture and sell her friend. There were still misgivings about that. She didn’t think it possible it would go away anytime soon. Yet, sitting in a vehicle doing nothing was, frankly, boring to her.

“The city, man,” She said, “What do you think of it?”

Rose imagined her friend would rather be tinkering with machinery than making conversation but she too was rather interested in what their acquaintance might say.

“Hmm.” Lilias Aunbren, a girl of few words, took a moment to turn her head and stare through the single, long, window behind her.

She looked absentmindedly at the passing scene as the transporter assuredly continued its descent towards a docking station staffed with similar vehicles.

Rose thought they were being ignored for a moment. From what she knew about the mysterious wielder of custom twin armaments, she wouldn’t put it past the girl. Yet, the dragonian, surprisingly, spoke.

“It is more modern than Trea, I will give it that. I can’t say I like its design, however. Maybe it’s the narrowness of it all. Its sheer size. Or the light that never ceases. Either way, it's a city layout and design I can’t bring myself to love.”

Her voice was its usual monotonous, cold nature—seeming more artificial than Rose herself—which they had somewhat gotten used to, but Elsa tilted her head. For someone who had lived her whole life in a slum of shacks and sand, where there were more people packed together per square mile than even the city, what was there to not like about Alos’s looks?

“Bah.” She waved her hand and scoffed, “Be honest, you like Trea—whatever city that is—because it’s your original home, right?”

The dragonian blinked her crimson eyes, turned back to glance at the two, silently debated the fact that she never enjoyed the slums of the Lanxin desert either, then slowly nodded. An action Rose found amusing. She might have chuckled if her vision hadn’t blurred a moment later.

The sound of steps thundering against the shaking floor reached her ears. She blinked her eyes, glaring through an expanse of grassland and towering trees to find soldiers, geared in black, stomping towards her. These men wielded guns and swords, and some had mechanical augmentations and rode within mechas.

Drones flew above that army and she saw the trailing residual of the air as jets crossed the sky above, humming and breaking apart the mana within the air.

Rose took a deep breath, the advancing soldiers and vehicles equipped with turrets coming closer.

“Aim!” She yelled.

All around her, light and dark-skinned elves weaved mana in an illustrious beauty like threadwork. The vibrating hum of the otherwise invisible energy stung the air and the usually blue concentration changed colors within their ancestral hands. The gift only two races could effectively wield blossomed into the world as magic, devastation, shined like stars within their grasp.

Rose, blonde-haired and azure eyed, stared at her hand, a sword seared with a single, burning, edge in her grasp. She stood tall at the helm of her soldiers, a beauty captivating even their enemies.

As the first jet broke apart the sky and pulses began trailing the ground, ripping into the grassland, shredding trees apart, she pointed her weapon and yelled.

“Fire!”

The sky lit up with flames and ice. Arrows of sand and water. Earth matched with wind, and crackling lightning. Shapes and sights and the overbearing hum of mana vibrating and crafting into the seven elements only Mother Nature should have been able to create. Everything wrapped the air in colors and descended upon their enemies.

Magic met mana shields and ripped them apart. Jets fell from the sky, breaking into explosions of flames and shattering metal into the atmosphere. Then the true magic of the elves fell onto the advancing waves of enemies.

In a single span of a second, blood soaked the grassland and men fell, but more came as mechas scratched off their magic like pellets.

Rose took a deep breath as the charge came. The ground rumbled. Her weapon quaked with flames as dark as a sunset and she slashed.

The land burned. No, nothing of their forest burned. It was merely a wave of fire that spurred forward—slicing through their enemies as screams echoed.

“Charge!” She commanded, yelling her song of war as she ran.

The two armies clashed.

Her azure eyes stared into the mass of soldiers.

Pulses flew across the battlefield, shredding her beautiful land and she moved about, an aura of silver above her body as her speed increased, dodging the hardened blue of their enemies’.

She slashed and slashed.

Whatever soul unlucky to find her burning blade, mana shield or not, found themselves ripped apart and their blood burned. Heads fell wherever she passed.

She flipped into the air, dodging a fist of metal then narrowed her eyes at the iron behemoth as wings of flames flapped behind her.

She dived forward.

The sword pierced into the mecha and an explosion ripped it apart into flames as she jumped back, flipping within the air, then slashing out with her weapon.

“Fly!”

A phoenix’s cry echoed and a bird flapped its wings. Flames of crimson took form and flew, spreading until a beak opened and devoured the tens of soldiers directly in front of her. Human. Homunculi. Mecha. Vehicle. The screams reached the air, her feet found solid ground, and she lunged forward.

The battlefield became a mix of elven warriors and humanity’s resources, clashing as pulses field the air. A drone flew above, a laser beam tore through the forest floor, and Rose slashed through the living like livestock as she mowed down her foes.

“Bianca!” She yelled over her shoulder.

A gigantic hand of ice crushed the drone in its grasp and ice spears rained from the sky. Her sister’s doing kept the air above a tight net. In the sky, a dog fight played between jets and drones, and true magic matched with a Gear. It was a beautiful sight to see two separate powers of the same element complement each other.

Rose looked up in relief at the dropping chumps of metal, frozen or crushed or pierced, then glared forward as her sword burned darker.

Before her, a male came in full armor, sword in hand as he rushed to meet her. His weapon gleamed purple and he seemed confident in his charge. Clearly, he was a geared.

Rose scoffed as she moved closer, sending those around her to their doom.

Mana rolled around her being, the hum overshadowing all other noises amidst the battlefield as blue surrounded her like wind. Then, that blue churned with her wish, forming into her elemental true magic as a crackle birthed into existence.

She slashed her weapon.

White lightning flew with flames and struck the poor male. His armor shattered to bits and he screamed, falling. Electricity jumped amidst the enemies and fire trailed behind. Stunned and burned. Roasted. Mechanical devices became null with her power overloading their mana circuitry.

She continued delving deeper into enemy lines, slicing her way through all obstacles.

Lightning crackled around her. Wind boosted her speed and, thus, power. Flames danced from her blade. And mana rolled through her elven veins. There was a reason she was called a goddess of battle, she thought, taking a step forward and slashing with the power of four elements.

The ground ripped apart and blood soaked the grassland. Trees fell and soldiers, geared or not, spirited or not, armored or not, died. Her allies cheered with a furious battle cry.

Her aptitude for true magic was insane even amidst elves; some had compared her to a dragon and only her sister could hope to touch her toes. That coupled with her unparalleled Gear, and spirits she had yet to show, made her unstoppable. She was a walking calamity only the likes of Lanxin Melteiff overshadowed in the current age. So, as she stared forward, what was it that made her stop in her tracks on that fateful day?

“Rose!” Elsa’s voice echoed around her.

The world blurred back into focus as she blinked her eyes. Rose stared at the elated face of her friend, confusion written over her own. She was back within the transporter and the movement of it had stopped.

What had just happened? What was that?

“We’ve arrived!” Elsa grinned with a rush of excitement, the spitting image of a country girl going into the big city.

Rose turned her head to the side where Samuel stood, smiling softly.

“Indeed we have,” He said.

The latch of the transport opened.