The desolate and sandy streets of Rekala were lined with buildings that lay in shambles, the inhabitants were hiding in their meagre houses in pure fear as two forces of absolute evil were standing face to face with each other. It was a capital city clutched in the hands of a dirty civil war, one side, the oppressive Empire of Abram, the other, the violent extremist cultists that felt no remorse in murdering innocents in hopes of liberating the country.

Amelia walked out of her jeep with two of her Spell Fencers, she had a look of annoyance on her face, although it was hard to see because of the protective scarf covering her mouth. She had better things to do, but she'd received a request from the Emperor himself, and her military was still under contract with him. Still, what a filthy, backwards hellhole. She had no place setting foot on such land. Best get it over with.

Waiting for her were over fifty soldiers and their leader, fighters for their county's freedom. They were all armed with rifles, wearing typical baggy brown clothes. The leader, merely in his thirties, but already littered with battle scars, stood proudly against Amelia. Almost as if he didn't know her reputation...

"Make this quick," said Amelia, her Rekalan was perfect, a mark of an educated warrior,

"You've only brought two other soldiers? So you're willing to listen to our demands?"

"No, I only had two soldiers with me and I happened to be passing by," she yawned, "I decided to grace you with my presence on a whim."

"So you refuse to negotiate?" he raised his rifle, "you still intend on looming over our people like vultures?!"

"I do like being on top yes."

"You think this is funny!? You've made a big mistake woman, bringing not but two girls with swords with you," the leader growled,

"I agree, they are a bit unnecessary aren't they?"

"Get them!"

Several of the soldiers behind him pulled raised their rifles and started to shuffle towards the trio, their plan to hold Amelia and her Fencers hostage was charming, but futile. It was, of course, what Amelia had expected. She'd dealt with such scenarios a billion times before, and every single time, people were too stupid to realise how much shit they'd fall in to when they were facing the Spell Fencers. Or perhaps it was Amelia's talent at maintaining such a chilled out and unthreatening nature during debates that always put her in such favourable situations. Situations where she had no choice but to kill. Amelia held the scabbard of her sword and pulled it out from her hip, she then quickly slammed it to the floor. It created a shockwave so tremendous that it sent every person, apart from her Fencers, flying back several feet, shattering their legs and in some cases, breaking their backs as they slammed into nearby walls. It looked almost comical.

Amelia didn't bother speaking. The sonic boom of the scabbard as it was thrust to the ground had partially deafened everyone.

She turned to her two soldiers and waved her hand, a sign for them to begin their assault. The two Spell Fencers immediately got to work, they were casting enormous fire spells that were tearing down the already dilapidated buildings. The screams of the people inside were drowned out by the roar of the intense flames that raged across the land. How pathetic.

"What are you doing!?" shouted the leader, "those are innocent people! There are women and children in those houses!"

Amelia smiled, the man was trying to cover the fact that people were hiding in the building to ambush them, charming, "For Abram this country is nothing more than a floating tank of minerals. The people who inhabit it mean nothing to us."

"What!?"

"The simple truth is, you should have been thanking us for letting you live."

Amelia clicked her fingers, a hundred swords dropped from the skies and impaled the remaining soldiers. They howled in pain, the swords didn't pierce any of their vital organs, but they were bleeding out. They were dying, slowly.

"Of course the situation has changed now. But at the very least you can thank me for letting you savour the last few moments of your life." Amelia had a pleasant look on her face.

***

Amelia walked through the corridor of her cloudship, down to the holding bay. She had a confident look on her face, smug from the current easy victory she just had. Then again they were all easy victories, so she wasn't sure what she had to be smug about. Just about how great she was, perhaps.

She stopped at the third room of the holding bay; the door was locked shut, there were makeshift shutters with bars where a window used to be.

"You killed again," said a faint voice from inside the room,

"Oh? You can tell can you?" asked Amelia,

"Yes, you smell of blood."

Amelia furrowed her brow, "I didn't get any blood on me."

"Irrelevant."

"So, does it make you sad? Do you wonder who I might have killed? Maybe it was someone from your hometown? People you idolised? Who knows huh?"

No reply,

"I'll make you care."

No reply,

"Tch, you don't respond well to threats at all do you?"

"Threats don't mean much to me."

"You're not very good at this," Amelia sighed,

No reply,

"Well, wallow in your solitude for now, it should be a few more days until we get to Melchiezedek. You'll get your food in a couple of hours. I'll send for you after that." Amelia walked off, thoroughly dissatisfied.

She stormed into her quarters and clicked the light on. Fully furnished, bathroom, study, large living room, considering the place was in a cloudship, it was quite lavish. She undressed, the Rekalan air was sandy and the heat had made her sweat, she needed a shower more than anything.

As she walked towards the bathroom she noticed the untouched study. She stopped and walked in, clicked the light on, the room was filled with plans, books, inscriptions; all of her work. It had taken her years to get to the position she wanted to, a position of military power, she grinned, after such a long wait, she was finally able to execute the first phase of her plan. She walked up to the big table in the middle of the study and stared at a rune she had drawn herself. It was beautiful, it had taken her years to draw, a compilation of thousands of other extremely complex spells. All the books on her tables, they were a mere fraction of the books she had to scour the planet for to find the right spells.

This concoction of hers would be the spell of all spells, she was tingling at the mere idea of finally casting it; it'd be an event, something that would change the world as everyone knew it.

She ran her hand along it.

That one frustrating feeling lingered on, the feeling she had while compiling this spell. For some reason, despite having never seen it before, she couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity towards it. Perhaps even. Nostalgia. She tutted and walked away, it was, of course, impossible. There was no way a spell like that could have existed before, if something like that was cast, everyone would have known about it. A look back at the paper as she left the room, besides, such an expertly crafted and intricately woven spell was almost impossible to replicate. She headed to the shower.

The feeling lingered on. As Amelia stood in the shower, she wondered about the rune. The spell took her years to craft, and she had a feeling the only reason she could concoct it was because the image of it was already burned in her mind.

She heard the buzzer of her door go off.

"Who is it!?" she shouted, "state your rank!"

"General Second Class Adriana! I've important news from Abram!"

"The door's open!" she kept shouting, "talk to me from outside the bathroom."

Amelia waited, the shower was still quite loud, so she couldn't hear if the General had made her way in; eventually:

"Lady Rosa!"

"This better be important," said Amelia; she was on her break, she hated company,

"We're approaching an abandoned cloudship, well, moreso, it's approaching us."

"So?"

"The ship seems to be infested with outlanders from what we can tell."

"Hm... they must have stowed away from Seiruun, those things usually find their way to other countries using a weird homing instinct built in to them."

"Homing instinct Lady Rosa?"

"Never mind," Amelia turned the shower off, she walked out of the bathroom naked, "get me my towel, it's in the top drawer of the dressing table."

"Y-yes Lady Rosa!"

"This will be a good opportunity for us to capture some outlanders; of course there's no way for us to fit them all on this ship, so we'll have to disable the ones on that ship and then tow it with us."

"Very good Lady Rosa," she handed Amelia her towel,

Amelia started drying herself off, "Private Demi specialises in status elemental magic doesn't she? That should be fine for sedating the outlanders for now; so get to it, approach the ship, send Demi to take them all out."

"But... there may be several hundred of them on there Lady Rosa."

"Don't make me justify my orders," Amelia's tone started to become stern,

"Yes Lady Rosa," the General performed a salute and made her way out,

Amelia sighed, "If you're really that worried, I'll tell you."

"Huh?"

"Outlanders are inactive when the sun is at its highest, their bodies can't stand the light. It also harms their magic immunity immensely so a mass sleep spell should be able to take all of them out."

"Oh! I see," the general smiled,

"You're a goddamn captain, you should know that stuff. Now get out, I have work to do."

"Yes Lady Rosa!" a salute, and then she left.

Amelia frowned, her girls were still quite weak. They were still too concerned about each other for illogical reasons. Still, it was a young unit, they had a lot to learn. In terms of brute force they were unstoppable, but Amelia had a lot to teach them beyond just fighting.