CHAPTER 88: THE WATCHTOWER’S GUARDS

From the increased height above, the guards could see everything that moved around their perimeter in the distance.

As the first and only line of defence that prevented those from descending from the first layer, the Paradisus Tower guards continued to loiter around the balcony located many stories high, as some monitored the huge expanse of land with telescopes and monitor-trigger cameras hidden in the terrain.

As the day was certainly nearing its halfway point, it was about to be another boring yet peaceful day.

After all, no intruders had arrived without authorization in years other than teenage kids with no common sense, as many feared the danger that this region of land possessed.

That was...until now.

"Hey, keep your fucking eyes open, Mitaka," one of the guards scolded his workmate, who had propped his legs up against the guard rails as he sat comfortably in his rocking chair, dozing off. "We need to keep our eyes open for any bad signs that could hint at an attack!"

"With all due respect, Hinobo," the man replied sternly with a disgruntled face, "We haven’t had a major attack in years, so calm down will, you?"

"I don’t give a shit about how long it’s been. We need to do our absolute best to take care of this job until our boss returns tomorrow to keep an eye on us! Who knows what could happen!"

The authoritative tone caused Mitaka’s left eyebrow to twitch, but he simply scoffed, while closing his eyes once again.

"Geez, so uptight-"

The strong punch to his gut had stopped his sentence, and he fell to his knees in pain while Hinobo glared at him.

"No. Slacking. Off. That also goes for you guys, Adrian and Maya."

An older woman and a man who smoked without a care in the world both side-eyed her while the former, who was named Maya, sat on Adrian’s lap.

With their silent time together disturbed by Hinobo’s harsh voice, they both let out an annoyed sigh.

"Get your head out of your ass. You’re not the boss, so stop ordering us around. Right, Adrian?"

"Y-Yeah! Nothing’s gonna happen, anyway. We’ve been through this for a long time, Hinobo. Chill out."

The green-dyed haired young man stared at the couple and cocked his head to the side in utter confusion.

Oh god, he thought. I’m surrounded by the pure definition of stupid.

This exact scenario of trying to get his peers to listen had been played almost three times in the last week, and at this point, he had now fully given up on them, deciding to take the job seriously on his own as he strutted over to the large, silver telescope.

Just like them, however, he was pretty much bored, and now as his right eye was practically glued onto the eyepiece, he tried to pass the time by merely skimming through the grassy area about a mile away.

Then, his gaze froze as it remained in place, focused on something bizarre, and at the same time, a loud series of beeps rang from the loudspeaker situated inside the ceiling above.

Hinobo’s heart skipped a beat, then raced with fear.

There was no way that this was happening.

Instantly, all four main watchtower guards were gripped with a haunting chill that ran down their spine.

T-That’s...

The motion cameras scattered around the first layer of the Paradisus Legion, designed to detect human movement.

And Hinobo himself had peered at a group of people leading a charge straight at the tower from a great distance away.

The impossible had occurred, and they were the ones who had to ensure that they put a stop to this terrifying reality.

Hinobo hastily darted towards the stairs that led downwards into the lower floors, screaming out to his other co-workers:

"KEEP AN EYE ON THOSE GUYS! I’M INFORMING THE CONFLICT REGIMENT OF THIS BELOW!!"

His legs were overcome with weakness while his upper body trembled slightly, but he continued to run.

No matter what, he had to do it.

Therefore, as one of the watchtower’s finest, he informed the battalion to head into direct warfare while he returned to control the fight from above.

***

"Hey, Yariko!"

"What’s up, Darius?"

Darius, one of Yariko’s companions from the Shinigami Soldiers of the Hallory Circuit, had called out to him while maintaining a close position next to him with a confused expression.

"Glob is picking up a lot of movement from in front of us. And, I think that I’m starting to see specs of dots heading towards us."

Referring to his blob-like Magical Beast that used a unique vibrational location tracker on command from time to time, he had mentioned that there was activity headed straight for them, and both Yariko and Liohime, who were the main artillery poised in front of everyone else widened their pupils.

"Glob can track how long we’ll meet, right? Give us an estimated time of arrival."

"Alright. Glob, [Interval Tracker]....shit, I can only track how long it will take us to meet them if they were mainly stationary, which is about three minutes, but they are also headed to us. It’s a group of humans mixed with Magical Beasts, though! It must be their first defence!"

"Alright, we can work with that!" Yariko answered confidently before facing Liohime. "We might have our first real test in about one minute. No matter what, try to immobilize them and finish the fight quickly in order to save up your strength!"

"R-Right!"

Liohime faced forward and narrowed his eyes, leaning forward and he sent a mental message to Shihon using his Mental Link.

"[We can’t afford to hold back, partner! It’s go big or go home!]"

"[Yes, Master!"]

***

"You seem troubled, sir."

"Oh? Do you think so?"

While still at the border that defined the edge of the Paradisus Legion, the client of the Shinigami Soldiers’ biggest mission had his idle thoughts interrupted by his bodyguard, but he merely waved off the notion that he was concerned.

"Oh, no. Whether we succeed or fail at this mission does not matter, actually."

"H-Huh? Really?"

"Yes..."

The man smiled, grinning from ear to ear behind his mask with a devilish grin before continuing:

"...Because, if my hunch is correct with the family connections to the person with the alias known as the ’Shadow Thief’ of the Polar Town Shinigami Soldiers, we will be successful with either outcome."