Chapter 156: Lila, The Lightning Hand

Lila knew it was the wrong time to have thoughts like this, but it was really hard not to wonder how many times life had gone wrong for her to end up in this position.

Gunfire, bombing runs, magical blasts, and mechas on the ground in complete war mode.

It was not the life situation her child self ever dreamed of being involved with.

[“Unit C, move north to reach the entry bay.”] The command came through her comms, and she followed without a dispute. Nina had given them the task of assisting with the rescue operation. Not exactly surprising that Nina was among the group that wanted to rescue the prisoners. There was no negotiation to be had, though; it needed to be quick and brutal.

…[Lightning Leap]! [Quick Step]! Lila rapidly moved through the battlefield. Jumping as a stream of lightning, then moving through the automated horde.

[Pocket Lightning]-[Lightning Spear].

Spears of light skewed the bots in her way.

She spent the entire time preparing, filling her [Pocket Lightning] with as many Lightning constructs as possible. Constantly using items to the point of making her sick to refill her mana to store even more constructs.

[Facing difficulty at the entrance. Enemy reinforcements are closing in.]

“Understood, will be there in a moment.” Lila required rushing over to the destination.

The personal philosophy of the people assisting the rescue effort was diverse; some would likely hesitate if a person was being used as a hostage, others would find a way to free them first, and a few were all too willing to deal with the threat through the meat shield.

Which was why Nina wanted them to safely extract as many people as possible first.

Name: Lila Rewolf | Race: [Human]

Level 150 | Awakened

Mana: 80%

Vocation: [Lightning Hand]

Skills:

- Lightning (IV)

- Pocket Lightning

- Empty Pockets

- Accelerated

- Jump

- Danger Close

- Concentrate Lightning

- Hideaway

- Pain Reduction

- Quick Recovery

- Sleight Of Hand

- Quick Step

I should be fine for a while… Upon landing, Lila had already gotten into a larger-than-expected scuffle that drained 20% of her mana. She relied on her rifle, which had mana stored within, as her main weapon to not hamper her personal mana storage, but some of the bots and people were certainly tougher than the base fire the weapon provided to her could manage.

Unit C attacked the entrance to the mine; it wasn’t the only one, but they couldn’t afford to split up and target them individually. The entrance was a large area with thick metal walls and storage for materials to move in and out.

When Lila jumped into combat, a barrier of Starlight appeared around Lila, deflecting the blast of ice that came from out of sight.

Thank you Ceella…

Her artefact protected her from an unknown strike that wasn’t picked up by her [Danger Close] skill. She found the enemy and began firing in the direction, but they zipped out of the way, and a sudden blizzard filled the area.

Annoying… Lila tried to find that individual, but she couldn’t; instead, she reconnected with Unit C, who broke into the mine and immediately went to evacuate the prisoners in the area.

They fought a few people who were in the mine, but mostly it was robots and turrets.

The group split into small teams to gather the group of fifty-plus prisoners in this mine; by this point, they were a little deep into the cave.

“I will handle the exit!” One of the Unit members raised their large custom gun that glowed in brownish-yellow light. Suddenly, the roof creaked, cracked, and shattered without any effects. Then they fired the gun, which shot a bullet of Earth magic, and when it hit the rock, it split it open, creating a tunnel. Pure destruction was less effective because the planet was filled with mana, so manipulating the earth and rock to move away was much more effective.

Lila looked over the prisoners, and it hurt. People ranging from teens to the elderly, all being forced to work, must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and were gathered when they needed to make a ship disappear, like what happened to her sister. However, in that instance, a psycho came on board who was too happy about killing everyone. After some persuasion, Ceella told what happened that day.

Seeing Unit C getting ready to try and take prisoners out of the hole, Lila knew she had to help move them out faster.

I… I guess it is time to activate it.

Lila wasn’t sure of the gift Ceella had given her; it had been so sudden that she hadn’t processed the information immediately when it was first handed to her. Afterwards, she had to spend the following days linking with the artefact–the easy part–and learning how to use it–the hard part. There were even abilities she was forbidden from using on the ship because of the destruction they would cause.

Ceella did warn her that it had its own fuel, so it would eventually run out of energy, but she shouldn't be worried about wasting it since it did have a lot.

Properly turning on the artefact required only a thought.

The name Ceella gave the artefact was Stellar Vicious; its primary ability in its default state was automatic shielding. The artefact opened up, with the twelve blades pointing in every direction like a clock. Lila’s body glowed a soft white light, and the second set of abilities became active–limited flight and attack amplification.

Lila joined hands with the rest of Unit C, helping to pull the prisoners free and taking them to the surface. On the communications, they had already been informed that a vessel was coming down to rescue the first batch of prisoners. It took a few goes with the recent increase in Unit C flight abilities, but soon everyone was out of the cave.

Once everyone was out of this mine, Unit C surrounded the group of prisoners as the ship was nearing, but closing in on their exit hole was a large squad of Dominous Hood soldiers. Everyone had been properly lifted out, and the ship was going to land soon.

“...Lee and Johnas, move the captives away.” The man who manipulated the earth earlier ordered, “Everyone else, let’s hold off on this group.”

“Understood!” The rest of the group, including Lila, replied.

Her lightning magic from her [Pocket Lightning] was glowing a subtle red as the power increased, thanks to the artefact.

In the relay, the group tried to protect the prisoners from any stray attack while firing back. Firing Lightning with her large arsenal, she provided as much covering fire as possible, to the point where the enemy was clearly seeing her as one of the main targets.

Reddish lightning constructs fell down on the enemies, the extra power shocking them through the armour they wore and destroying any robots that came their way. Her abilities were still nowhere near Ceella’s, whose arrows alone could pierce armour, but she was certainly one of the more effective members of Unit C.

Fighting against the small initial wave, a larger number of them were coming as if to say they would never be allowed to free anyone they had captured.

In the midst of the fight, an alert screamed in Lila’s mind.

The bullet pierced through the Starlight shield that suddenly appeared and broke through Lila’s armour and right through her flesh. The warning from [Danger Close] made her move enough that nothing fatal was hit.

“Lila, get back!” The commander of the squad ordered.

Lila could see the large number of robots and Dominous Hood people coming their way and surrounding them. The ship was coming down, and they needed people to get these prisoners home.

“Ergh!” Lila groaned, and the artefact began to glow an ominous crimson as it responded to her feelings.

Lila ordered the group, “Pull the prisoners away! Dealing with the reinforcements, unsure of the damage.”

[Are you sure?] There was immediately a response from multiple members of the group who were further away. Still, Lila was asking them to leave her alone with the enemy for a moment; while they brought the prisoners to a safe location, she would be in more danger. Worse still, she was just hit.

“Yes.”

[Pocket Lightning] [Lightning Fortress] A large, massive wall of lightning blocked off the path the Dominous Hood and their machines were taking. It was tall, but it wouldn’t be too hard to get over. But many were just sent to fire upon it. Lightning magic wasn’t the most structurally sound shield, but the power from the artefact had turned it into something that could actually survive a decent number of hits before breaking.

The commander who was nearby suddenly felt a warning from his skill, which caused him to trust Lila. “You have one minute.”

Lila remembered Ceella’s words, ‘Activate the final ability when your life is likely in danger,’ and ‘Oh yeah, make sure you are not around people.’

Well, I brought the situation on myself, but it should still count, right?

The commander was pulling all the prisoners away fast on a moving earth platform, and the moment Lila felt he was far enough.

“Activate Vice!” The pattern on the blades glowed with terrifying crimson red light.

“Rerereereereere!” A piercing screech deafened the surroundings. Lila herself was stunned for a moment as she felt a large blob of power enter her body, healing her earlier wounds.

CRACKLE THUD HUMMMMM BOOM

What…?

Lila refocused on her surroundings, and standing over here was a large multi-legged creature. Eight jagged sharp legs and four blade-like wings. Its body was a bright crimson glow with a long neck that ended with a long, eyeless maw with thousands of sharp glass-plane-like teeth.

Ceella… What did you give me…?

It was massive, and the heat that radiated off was making some of the surroundings sizzle, but Lila was completely unaffected. The large monster growled at all those who were hostile to Lila. Its wing opened, and explosions of fire launched out of its back, with hundreds of bombs firing off in every direction. While looking random, most were targeting those who had been attacking Lila, but there were still plenty causing complete destruction to the surrounding area; thankfully, all the prisoners and all members of Unit C had escaped.

Stellaruge Vice; Ceella’s newest creation, but she had been working on it for a long while. Beginning as one of her early prototypes to be used as a generically powerful monster, with a bit of modification, it became something a bit more difficult to recreate.

It roared again, shaking the earth. It moved forward, the ground melting under its legs.

“Well…” Lila felt a power flow into her, and her eyes became a crimson red. “I wonder if this is what it feels like to be even slightly similar to Ceella.” Lightning began to crackle from her body, attacking everything in sight.

From a distance, Ceella was proudly watching on.