Chapter 159: Nina

The assault had been going worse and better than expected.

…Unit C has been mildly successful, and no losses from Unit A or Unit B yet.

Nina was only in charge of her own soldiers; while she disliked calling them that, that was the correct term in this situation. People who had assisted her in many humanitarian efforts and trips into large and powerful dungeons. There were a few whom she had worked with a great deal less, like Lila, whom she made an effort to include in a bunch of training missions before the assault happened so she would become comfortable working in her team. Lila’s past experiences helped ease the transfer greatly.

As long as you can all make it out okay… That is the priority.

She had one final meeting before everyone left, something she had told everyone so many times. Their lives mattered to her the most.

Nina summoned barriers that surrounded numerous allies as a rain of mortar fire fell down from the sky as the main force raided the main enemy facility. There, scouts with Earth detection skills had already tracked a large amount of mana and weapons underground at the Asta planet’s main base, so she was helping the charge.

A large part of her wanted to help the people who worked for her, but her powers were needed for the main assault, where the most enemies were defending.

Removing the shield once the motor wave finished, Nina continued to track the status of her allies around her.

…This is taking longer than expected. With the assistance of the space cannons by the warships that were still under fire from additional fighters, they had expected to break through the planet’s bases faster and get into the facility, but the large amount of robots and enemies had kept them from succeeding, not to mention it was clear as day that not all the top combatants had arrived.

Those arrows… so that is the role she has decided to play. Throughout the fight, magical arrows came down from the sky with greater precision than any cannon on the warships. Clearly, it was Ceella, and if it were anyone else, they would’ve announced they had such an ability ahead of time. Most of the support specialists had done that. Nina was happy Ceella had chosen to take up such a position, as sometimes it was the supporters who saved the most lives. Still, she had a feeling this support wouldn’t last forever, not with Ceella’s personality; she clearly wanted a piece of the action and was likely waiting for larger prey to reveal themselves.

Craftalot certainly has some fantastical items. She sighed in relief as she slowly felt her stamina recover. She could heal herself and fight for days, but she did get exhausted, but Craftalot had provided her an item that improved her recovery by dealing with the exhausted parts of the body. Overall it was a great addition, as it allowed her to focus more on others since she was exhausted from earlier.

Blocking an attack from a cannon that theoretically would have destroyed the fleet immediately wasn’t on the itinerary and left Nina more exhausted than she would’ve preferred for the start of the operation. Her specialities were healing and shields, so she needed to be ready for combat even after her strength was sapped. There were people counting on her, and her own will and pride wouldn’t allow a little exhaustion to keep her down.

Despite the fact her appearance was covered thanks to her armour, the enemy had quickly learned who was the one providing support; the trail of magic led back to the source, and there was only one person capable of such acts.

Staff of Clear Midnight Moons was the name of the artefact Nina was famous for acquiring. From what people heard, it was an extremely powerful artefact, to the point that when Nina lost it, many people wondered if she was able to do anything without it. The truth of the matter was that Nina barely ever used the Staff of Clear Midnight Moons for its abilities and used it as any normal mana conductor.

A large number of robots swarmed onto her location, which she saw coming and took evasive action to float away. The jetpack-wearing bots chased after her, their target clearly being manually locked onto.

Nuisance. Nina used her two floating rifles that were specially built for her personal use to fire at the bots, with a bit of aim assistance coded in; they were nearly as effective as a normal person without skills. The use of her hands was important for medical treatment and moving people, so she had been fighting in such a way for a long time. Every weapon she used had floating technology implanted so they could stay by her side if she needed to use her hands.

Suddenly, her barrier around her body cracked, and she zoomed away as a large claw erupted from the ground covered in a purple light which attempted to grab her.

“Expecting me?” Nina asked in the open air. The attack that had destroyed her first layer of shielding came seemingly from nowhere, as there was no sign of where the attack had come from. The only thing that was clear was they had something which, at the very least, could weaken or destroy the shielding, and they had their sights set on Nina. For the moment, there was no way of telling if it came from a person or an artefact.

No one responded.

Nina stayed on high alert waiting for whatever was next. The robot drones swarmed towards her like a tidal wave as she kept her distance and fired upon them to keep the numbers low. She wasn’t fighting, and many people in the allied force were supporting her as they shot at the drones, as Nina also had to keep them safe from stray attacks with quickly deployed shields to protect them.

There you are. From the swarm of drones a figure jumped out with a dark-coated weapon in hand.

Bang!

What could only be described as a metal club had appeared in Nina’s hand as she swung at the woman who attacked from behind.

“You are supposed to introduce yourself when a question is directed towards you.” Presenting no fear, Nina kindly informed her attacker of her mistakes.

“You are of no threat, Nina Clarword.” The woman answered. Nina was unsure if they were meant to rile her up, but if so, it didn’t work.

“Thank you for using my full name.”

After a back and forth, parrying each other’s blows, the figure jumped back into the swarm of robots, saying, “You are weaker without your staff.”

…I think I’ve been around Ceella too much; I’m nearly wanting to hear them say something clever.

Nina taunted. “Thank you for the correct observation, though I wonder, was it worth giving up the kill for my staff?” She knew completely well that Dominous Hood likely completely hated her guts.

The information had spread far that her organisation was the one that found the base, and since, in the grand scope of things, not long before, they had attacked Nina to acquire her staff but failed to kill her–which was expected due to her healing and protective abilities despite their prep–that moment must’ve been what led to them beginning to track them and finding a weak point.

That was Dominous Hood’s assumption, which had more wrong with it than right, since she had been researching them for a long time, and how she was captured somewhere really had to do with unfortunate circumstances and fortunate timing.

The attacker didn’t say anything. The drones combined into various shapes and lunged at her with increased speed. The force of the impact could be felt on her shields, and the person in question was clearly using their abilities; her shields shattered like thin glass. The swarm grazed her armour, but she wasn’t going to allow a small setback to stop her.

A rage could be felt on the tip of her tongue. “The biggest fools in the universe.”

“Upset now?” The figure’s voice echoed as black shards of metal shot out from every direction towards her, clearly posing the power to break through her shields as well.

For a different reason.

She easily danced out of the way of the attacks as she finished the long preparation of something she had been setting up for a while, and now, the perfect target was here to test it on.

Nina’s eyes glowed a sombre white, but the left was shining a much brighter light. “Fools, stupid, mad, destructive fools.” Her left eye’s pupil completely shifted into a full moon. “You have been the only people to make me truly mad in such a long time, and so, I am always sure when you are in my sight, you will never get what you want.”

The figure couldn’t see Nina’s expression but felt a sudden surge of energy; the whole base could.

A large moon projection appeared in the sky. “All targets locked.” Nina’s voice sounded almost robotic as a magical power filled her voice.

It was one of the most difficult missions of her life that led her to acquire this artefact, and it would be the first time she would be showing the true abilities of her Clear Midnight Moons, or more accurately its core, the Eternal Midnight Moon.

Nina taunted with the most painful thing in the world, the truth. “My staff was likely very powerful; it was the shell after all, and it held a lot of power, but only because it was the shell for so long that it gained some of that power. Still… It’s not like I ever used the abilities of the staff often, so people misunderstood what my abilities were and what belonged to the staff.”

The Dominous Hood figure who was fighting Nina had a creeping sensation of fear strike their soul; a similar feeling was happening to the other individuals nearby.

Its true form was brutal, as Nina had to carefully ensure every single ally was targeted as an ally; there was no mass selection, no just choosing enemies, and she had to make sure everyone she wanted to protect was chosen.

Underneath the moonlight, robots began to explode, and the people felt a surge of strength–the ones that Nina said were allies.

For everyone else, their armour began to disintegrate, and so did their skin and bones. People were fighting against the effects with mana, skills, etc., but countering such an ability without knowing how it works was a doomed effort.

The staff they acquired from Nina was powerful, and they had used it to enhance their research into creating barriers and destroying shields. However, it was only a shadow due to its nature as a vessel.

The Eternal Midnight Moon had healing and protective powers, which Nina used to amplify her own, but its true form was nearly an inverse of all of it.

Keeping the core within her body had its consequences, but within a new shell, if she ever had it out, the world would know, and she couldn’t have that happen until it was safe.

“Now, don’t worry, the death should be painless.” Nina’s cold words were felt across the battlefield.