Prologue
A month had passed since the Twin Star Heroes eliminated the Gate over the Imperial Capital.
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“Combat altitude of 20,000 meters achieved. Magic output at max. Systems green. Initiating contact.”
In darkness, a woman in a visor read out the information displayed on her vision.
She wore a tight plugsuit beneath the red exo-armor, and both she and the armor were fixed in place. She normally kept her hair in a ponytail, but now it was wound up in a bun to keep it out of her way.
“Contact complete. Heavy Magic Engine responsive. Proceeding to final initialization sequence.”
In response to her voice, a stream of red letters flowed across her visor. She’d trained for this. All was well. She was fine. No mistakes. She could do this. Not the time to lose her nerve. Stay strong. Yet no matter how many times she told herself that, her hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
Then she heard a beep. A window appeared at the lower right of her vision that read INCOMING TRANSMISSION. She opened it with thought control.
“Senpai, are you okay?”
It was him. He’d been concerned and called her. She was so happy she could dance, but she was in the middle of an operation. She had to be careful to keep her glee from overflowing. “Yeah, I’m fine. Going on ahead.”
“Be careful.”
A simple exchange, but she could feel herself unclenching. The muscles she’d been straining relaxed. “Thank you. I love you.”
“You, too.”
As he answered, the floor opened up and light spilled out in front of her. The wall of white clouds outside flowed quickly downward. Beyond them, she caught a glimpse of sunlight reflecting off the ocean’s surface.
She and the mobile weapon she wore were suspended face down in the storage deck at the bottom of a ship flying 20,000 meters above the surface, preparing to drop.
“Reimei,” she said. “Launch.”
Calling her frame’s new name, one half of the heroic duo dropped onto a battlefield teeming with monsters from another world.