Olivier Armstrong was a recruit of the Imperial Navy that joined a little over a year ago. In a short time, she displayed exceptional talent as an Arcane Aura Master and reached Tier 3 in just three months.

She broke countless records–both combat and non-combatant. She displayed an unprecedented leadership capability, so the navy placed heavy emphasis on training her.

Although the Empire appeared to be in a time of peace before this official war, this was only on the surface. As a form of training, the Space Marines will be sent to planets that are ravaged by magical beasts.

These beasts are not only powerful but only know slaughter and destruction. The Imperial Navy has to kill these beasts as a form of training. Olivier, along with her team, was sent to one of these planets.

During that time, she performed exceptionally and rose through the ranks. Then, after a year in the navy, she advanced to Tier 4. And this was where her career began to accelerate.

She discovered that reaching Tier 4, Aura Master can undergo a transformation that she named Element Awakening. As the name implied, any person who uses Aura can have a certain elemental ability that does not require mana.

Each person can only have one element so far, and Olivier's element is ice. This discovery brought great fame and honor to her. Many people who have Aura Master talent but no magic talent could now use elemental abilities like fire, water, wing, etc, with their aura energy.

After learning of this, Edward also tested this Element Awakening Process and awakening thunder as an element. Although he wanted space, he was still satisfied with it.

More importantly, he used Oliver's discovery to garner prestige and honor for her in the military. That way, it would be easy to become the Commander in the future.

Additionally, around the same time that Olivier invented this new method, Snape along with many Potion Masters of the Empire finally created the Dragon Talent Potion that can increase a person's magic talent.

He brewed one for her using the Water Dragon King Heart, then publicized to the public the discovery of this new potion by "granting" to her for all her service and merit to the Empire.

Then, Edward told the public that as long as they have enough Arcane Merit, they can exchange this valuable potion. Additionally, every year, a lottery will be conducted to grant one ordinary individual of the Empire the potion; to give them a chance at changing their destiny purely based on luck.

…

After killing the people who came after her, the team headed straight for the Manager's Room. In the process, they encountered waves after waves of Fer people trying to stop them.

However, these people were no match for such an elite team personally trained by Olivier. Additionally, with Shadow's control of the weapon system, mob tactics had little effect on this team.

The Manager tried to run away after guessing the intention of these people. Unfortunately, Shadow has already controlled the entire building. So, the team managed to capture the Manager.

Olivier did not waste time and immediately read this guy's memories; she wanted to know the reason that they were discovered.

It turns out that the Fer Race has a very deep connection with the Earth and ores deep into the planet's crust. And amongst them, there are a few individuals known as Priests who can connect to the Planet's Will and communicate with them.

These Priests are usually very intelligent and are the true people responsible for the scientific and technological development of the Fer Civilization.

Because of this, these priests are the highest secrets of the Fer race. They have high status not only because of their intelligence but also because of their detecting abilities.

As long as they are stationed in one place, they can use the Planet's Will to detect any intruders. This is the reason that the Metal Ice Team was discovered the moment they entered the building.

'These priests should be protected from divination by the Planet's Will,' thought Oliviers. 'However, the Empire's Intelligence Department should have still learned of their existence. So, either they were neglectful of their duties of the Planet's Will can also shield them beyond just Divination.'

Additionally, these priests seemed to have the basic ability to block the space since she could not apparate inside. Or maybe, they used the power of the Planet Will to do so. Olivier could guess that the Fer race must be using this ability to study space technology.

If they were given enough, they would most likely succeed and develop Faster Than Light Travel through this study.

After thinking about all of this, Olivier quickly analyzed the situation and made a new plan for the mission: the first one is still to blow up this building and prevent the Fer race from sending their Fleet into space.

The second is to act quickly and destroy all communication of this planet with the others to prevent the enemy from knowing their mission and sending reinforcements.

Third, to capture a Priest and bring it back to the Empire for study.

After making a plan, Olivier asked Shadow to find the location of the Priest. Unfortunately, the latter was nowhere to be found. So, she had to give up and proceeded to the next step.

After exiting the Launching Pad, she detonated the bomb placed inside. Immediately afterward, the team apparated to the next launching pad. For the next few hours, Metal Ice Team not only destroyed all the Launching Pads on this planet, but also the Communication Towers.

It is a shame that they did not capture a single Priest. These people seemed to be very good at hiding and running away.

Once that was done, their team's mission was not over. Of the 7 planets controlled by the Fer Race, they had to destroy the Launching Pad of 6 of them, leaving only the main planet, Goldinite, intact.

During the entire operation, the team would always be discovered by the Priests once they entered important places of the Fer people. Luckily, the team was prepared and acted accordingly.

They did not give their enemies any time to rest. In just two days, without any rest or sleep, they traveled to different planets occupied by the Fer people and rendered their fleet useless.

Only one planet was spared. Additionally, the team finally managed to capture a Priest and brought it back.

…

War Room:

Edward was reading a preliminary report on the abilities of the Fer Priests. So far, only a small amount of information has been discovered, so he did not pay too much information about it.

At least not yet. These Priests might help him with Project Akashic Record. However, this has not been decided yet. So, he focused on this war.

"It's time for the second step."