As soon as she rolled into the warehouse, Lina was enveloped in the illusion of Angie Sirius.
“I’m glad I’m wearing my training field uniform,” she muttered to herself.
She knew the feminine clothes she had collected under Silvia’s guidance would have been utterly unsuitable in this situation.
She carefully scanned her surroundings, sharpening her senses to avoid overlooking anything and becoming a target. She appeared calm and composed, handling the situation with ease. But in reality, her mental state was far from calm.
She regretted bringing her personal information terminal instead of her commander terminal when leaving her room, but there was no use crying over spilled milk. Since it was still outside working hours, this wouldn’t have been a problem if all hell had not broken loose. Not being able to reach base headquarters as a result was rough, but unavoidable.
The fact that she didn’t notice the phone on the wall right above her head, however, could have been avoided. If only she had noticed it and reached out to headquarters for help. That simple action alone could have completely changed the course of events.
Lina focused on the area outside the warehouse, but there was no sign of Arcturus. She also considered the possibility that her enemies were not limited to just Regulus and Arcturus. By sheer chance, she noticed a grenade behind her and dodged just in time. The walls of the warehouse withstood the explosion, but Lina was showered with debris.
Using a magic shield, she managed to protect herself from both the explosion and its aftermath. Once things had settled down, she spun around to identify her attacker. It was Layla Deneb, a first-class lieutenant from Stars Team 4. The tall and glamorous woman of Nordic descent glared at Lina with intense hatred.
“Layla!” Lina gasped. “Not you, too!”
“Don’t ‘Layla’ me, traitor!” Deneb snarled.
“Traitor? What are you talking about?”
“Stop playing dumb,” Deneb scoffed, brandishing a knife in her right hand. “You really don’t know when to give up.”
In a matter of seconds, she appeared in front of Lina’s pre-transformation state, standing taller and more voluptuous than Lina could ever be.
Lina instinctively cast a teleportation spell as Deneb’s combat knife swung down upon her. In an instant, she reappeared on the opposite side of the warehouse entrance. The area echoed with the sounds of suppressed gunfire hitting the floor and Lina’s shield.
Deneb clicked her tongue in frustration. The combination of knife and handgun magic was her specialty. This attack reminded Lina of that.
“I’m not playing dumb!” Lina yelled with her shield still up. “When was I ever a traitor?”
“You’re shameless,” Deneb spat. “I guess I’ll just have to spell it out for you. You’re the Stars commander, and yet you sold out Team 6 for the sake of a Japanese man!”
“Team 6? What does Randy’s team have to do with any of this?”
“I see you’re not ready to apologize,” a voice called out behind her.
Lina quickly spun around and deflected another of Deneb’s bullets. Thankfully, her shield’s event interference was more powerful than the piercing spell on Deneb’s bullets, designed to spear directly through obstacles.
Unfortunately, a simultaneous attack by a new enemy came from an unexpected direction. Both Lina and her shield were launched into the air. This wasn’t a movement or acceleration spell; it was localized gravity inversion magic. The area around Lina experienced a sudden reversal and amplification of gravity.
The magic slammed Lina into the warehouse ceiling with ten times the acceleration of free fall. But rather than breaking, the ceiling only vibrated slightly in response to the powerful force. In a split second, Lina had instinctively neutralized her own inertia.
This proved effective, but it wasn’t without consequences. Lina still experienced a powerful impact to her back before falling to the ground. While enduring the pain, she cast a deceleration spell on herself and managed to return to earth without suffering further harm.
She also managed to scatter a series of air bullets around her as she fell. Though lacking in lethal force, they served well as a distraction. Lina steadied herself upon landing and glared at Captain Charlotte Vega—the culprit who had slammed her against the ceiling.
“Char…,” Lina said weakly.
“Interesting.” Vega smirked. “I thought you were a goner, but I should have known you wouldn’t go down so easily. I gotta give it to you, Commander. That magic of yours is the only thing that lives up to your name.”
At this point, Lina’s Parade had been dispelled, leaving behind a young girl with vibrant blond hair and blue eyes who struggled for breath. Vega’s lips curled into a triumphant smile.
“Then again,” she continued, “you seem out of breath. Serves you right for selling out your fellow Stars for the sake of a man.”
“I didn’t sell anyone out!” Lina protested. “What happened to Team 6? Who is this man you all keep talking about?”
“You still don’t get it?!” Deneb shouted angrily.
Before she could fly into a rage, Vega stopped her.
“Fine. I’ll tell you,” Deneb said condescendingly. “I hereby accuse you of colluding with Japanese operatives to coercively reinstate the macro black hole experiment. As a result, three members of Team 6 fell victim to Japan’s human experimentation agenda. And to think you did all this for the strategic magician Tatsuya Shiba!”
“Tatsuya?” Lina echoed incredulously.
She felt ridiculously and unjustly accused, but Vega and Deneb read her tone as undeniable proof of her betrayal.
“That’s right,” Vega said. “Randy, Ian, and Sam were rescued in a state of madness last night. They claim they were possessed by parasites because of you!”
Randy (Captain Orlando Rigel), Ian (Second Lieutenant Ian Bellatrix), and Sam (Second Lieutenant Samuel Alnilam) were all members of Stars Team 6, nicknamed the Orion Team. With their names still fresh on her tongue, Vega glared at Lina.
“They turned into parasites?” Lina asked in disbelief.
Unfortunately, this, too, looked like brazen acting in Vega’s eyes.
“Traitors deserve death!” she claimed. “I’ll give you the same fate you sentenced your fellow soldiers!”
Lina quickly regained her composure, but it wasn’t quick enough. The shock of hearing about Team 6 was too great. She found herself facing Vega with her back to the entrance. From outside the warehouse, Arcturus’s spinning tomahawk flew toward Lina’s vulnerable spine.