Chapter 171 - Up Above

Just as the birds chirped indicating that morning has come, a horrific sight greeted the citizens of Niflheim once the sunlight shone. There were about a thousand Angels flying up above the Red Barrier, their wings flapping about as they stared at the species whom they forced to live in a cage.

"You have got to see this, Commander!" An enforcer exclaimed as he ran towards the Khalil manor with a grim expression. Everyone inside the house walked outside to see what the commotion was all about. As they looked up, their faces went from curiosity to absolute fear.

"W-What the actual fuck?!" The Serpent Summoner said out loud. "Tch. We have to remain calm, remember, we succeeded in bringing the Sword of Alacrity back to Niflheim, there is no way that they can dispel the Red Barrier as it is right now!" Luken quickly replied back to stop everyone from panicking.. Yin Sohaya's sanguine red eyes fixated on one particular Angel. 

"I-Is that her?" Yin asked out loud. But before the others could look at what he was pointing out, the Angel vanished in the crowd of the numerous other winged harbingers. "You look much more pale than usual, Yin, is something the matter?" Suna asked him. "Y-Yeah. I thought I saw the Vessel among those Angels outside, but she vanished into the shadows before I could make her features out. I could just sense her presence. It felt like she was calling out to the Old God inside of me." Yin said in a worried tone. "Do not be so afraid. You trained for this." Zachary assured Yin with a nudge.

"Let us all meetup in the Outer Gates! I have sent the letter to the Emperor, he should have gotten it by now, in an hour at least, we will all be there. He will inform the others, for now, we should get going ourselves. Prepare your weapons and other armaments, we are going to war, boys." The Commander said with a headstrong voice. Gavin's mother hugged him and the other Six Blades members. "Please, I want you all to come back safely." She said. "Do not worry, mother, we will." The matriarch of the Khalil family shed a tear as the others walked away. They left Oliver in her care, in case they might not make it out alive.

After forty minutes, the Outer Gates was slowly filled with the Slayer Corps members. Luken walked up to the front of the crowd and made his presence known. "Slayers of Niflheim, it seems as if we do not need to march down to the main hive right off the bat. The winged harbingers have come to us themselves, they waive their weapons and grimoires at us like we are mere animals waiting to be slain! Watch! Watch as they brandish their might at us, staring through the red curtains of the barrier, belittling and insulting our very being. These monsters fly up to our nation and try to scare us, it is either we fight them now or we cower in fear as we sleep through hundreds of Angels' staring right at us from above. We still do not know what they are after or what they are exactly doing right now, but the question is, are we going to wait and find out?!" The Commander asked everyone present as he raised his voice.

"No! I say we exterminate these pieces of shits out of the stratosphere from where they came from!" A Slayer responded back with the same fervor and voracity that the Commander displayed. 

"That is right! Are we really going to wait for them to knock the Barrier down, or just stand and laze around, trembled in fear as we wonder if they could even do that? I say we go out there and fight!" Another one shouted back.

"I say we commence with the Operation Liberation starting right here and right now!" Someone said from the crowd of Slayers once more.

Everyone chimed in and voiced out that they should act now. But they were silenced as the Emperor removed his cloak and revealed that he was part of the mission itself. "Calm down! Please!" He desperately waved his arms to get the attention of the Slayers. 

"T-That is the Emperor, isn't it? What is he doing here?" Zach said to Yin and Suna. "Beats me." Suna replied back. Yin was still fixated on the harbingers just flying above Niflheim, afraid of what they were planning to do, afraid of what the Vessel's plans actually were. 

The Emperor took out his grimoire and showed it to everyone. "I am going to fight alongside you! Do not treat me as your Emperor in any special way, for this mission – for Operation Liberation, I am here as a member of the team Gamma, led by Fen Kaori, the Allcaster. Here, there are no names, there are no ranks which show us who is much more important than the other. Here, we are all humans who wish to liberate our species from millions of years of torment!" 

Shouts and chants from the Slayers erupted out as they cheered the Emperor on. "This is not merely a cheer or means of showing that they are completely fine with going out and duking it out against the Angels…" Hector Incendium said from afar. "Yeah. You are right, Hector." Kai Xin responded. "These chants are a way of numbing themselves from fear. To place ice in their veins and to dull their sense of fear. Fear of everything – of death, of the Angels, of the fact that if we ever mess this fucking thing up, then we are as good as done." Ignis Silva placed his hand on the shoulders of those two. "And? There is nothing wrong with that, if I say so myself, everyone copes with their emotions in a different way, I think this war cry is important. That way, they will die fighting instead of cowering in fear." The leader of the Inferno Garden said. "Now, if you will excuse me, gentlemen." 

Luken stared at the Emperor, waiting intently for his decision. "What do you say, sire? Are we going to commence the Operation here and now?" His eyes non verbally asked Emperor Nicholas, and he knew this as well. 

"Commence Operation Liberation!" The Emperor shouted as the Slayers formed thee separate groups of lines. There was no stopping it now, blood is going to be spilled. Whether it would be from the Slayers or the Angels, it matters not. What matters in the end is the victor. Who will control the new world that is to be birthed from this battle? 

"Team Alpha, over here!" Luken exclaimed as he waived the red flag with the sign of a fist and a sword. "I guess that is where we are headed, Suna. Let us go." Yin said in a cold and apathetic manner. "Zach, we will meet you out there in the battlefield. Make sure you do not die." The white haired Slayer said to him. "Oh? Big words coming from you. I should say that to you, Yin. Anyway, make sure to not embarrass the Six Blades, you two. I will see you later." The Fire Slayer walked towards where team Beta was, led by Ignis Silva. 

Cosette Akim waved at both Yin and Suna. "Yo, over here, guys." As the three of them met up, Kai Xin and Zachary also did in their own respective team. "You look pissed, Zach, I bet you would have like to go with Yin and Suna, is that it?" He teased him. "Yeah. You are correct, I wanted to fight side by side with them…" Zachary said with a melancholic smile. "I wanted to see what the fruits of our training would look like up close." Kai Xin was surprised at how honest Zachary was being as he said that. 

"Come on, lighten up, we are going to see them after this Operation, right? You can always count your kills and compare it with Yin's or some shit. Heh." Kai laughed it out, but deep down, he was surprised at how nervous he actually was. "Shit. Even I am shaken up, eh?" He said to himself as he held his own hands together and rubbed them by conducting heat.

The long range spellcasters and Summoners unified themselves under the command of Fen Kaori. "I am not a man of many words, I am sure those of you who know me are aware of that as much. I will only tell you the main objective of Team Gamma, no matter how obvious it might be; protect the ones fighting in the frontline with an array of spells as well as with our summoned beasts, keep that up, and we will win." The Allcaster said.

"Artorias…this is for you. I hope you are watching us from up above, the Slayer Corps will now be deployed into the biggest and most important mission there ever is. Watch me." The Commander said as he looked up.