Chapter 1590: Presence

Cody finally had the chance to see Lieutenant Erend again after so long. This time, it was the real Erend. He already knew that the Lieutenant he had seen around the base for so long was actually a clone created through Erend’s immense Magic power.

The clone looked almost exactly like the real man and could speak, move, and behave just like him. To most people there was almost no difference between the two.

Cody still found that fact difficult to believe. As he looked through the car window at the passing landscape, his thoughts drifted toward Erend and the kind of power he possessed. He wondered when he could reach that level himself.

Cody did not consider his own power weak. He was a squad leader and one of the strongest members of the special unit after all.

His Magic belonged to a different field rather than direct combat, but everyone in the unit understood how important his ability was.

He had earned his position through competence, and he had no reason to feel inferior to the others.

But still, Lieutenant Erend was different. Even compared with other powerful Magic users such as Captain Adrien and Lieutenant Billy, Erend stood on an entirely different level.

Now that Cody could use Magic himself, he could sense something enormous hidden behind Erend’s ordinary appearance.

The man looked like a normal human soldier, but the Magic within him felt so vast and deep it made Cody instinctively cautious.

He had no desire to test where that power ended, and he was certain the other members of the special unit could sense the same thing.

"Major, do you think this is going to be an invasion?" the driver suddenly asked.

Cody turned toward him. The young man’s face carried both excitement and worry, and he pressed his lips together as he kept his eyes on the road.

"I hope not," Cody replied.

He looked through the windshield for a moment before glancing at the rear seats. The two women sitting behind them also looked tense.

Both of them stared through their windows without saying anything, and the silence inside the vehicle made their uneasiness obvious.

Cody understood their feelings because he felt the same tension himself. They were all trained soldiers, and they knew how to fight, but none of them knew what they were about to face.

The members Captain Adrien assigned to this mission possessed different Magic abilities, although most of their powers focused on combat. Since this was only a small investigation team Adrien had chosen people who could respond quickly if the situation turned dangerous.

They did not expect to encounter anything powerful enough to overwhelm them, but the strange Magic disturbance had forced them to take the possibility seriously.

They were not going there simply to look around. They were going there because a Magic disturbance had appeared in a place where something like that should not have existed.

Several hours later, the vehicle finally reached the designated area. Cody contacted the base through his communicator and formally reported their arrival before ordering everyone to prepare.

"Everyone, stay alert," Cody said as he opened the door. "We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet."

The four soldiers stepped out of the vehicle and looked across the vast green plain.

Tall grass stretched across the land in every direction, swaying gently in the wind beneath the distant mountain. Nothing immediately appeared unusual. There were no buildings nearby and no people walking across the field. The landscape looked peaceful.

Cody slowly scanned the area. "Anything?" he asked.

The others shook their heads.

They raised their binoculars and carefully searched the plain. Cody did the same, moving his gaze across the grass, the distant mountain, the empty spaces between them. Nothing caught his attention.

"Let’s move closer," Cody ordered.

The team advanced carefully. They kept their pistols ready while their eyes moved constantly across the surrounding terrain.

Their footsteps pressed down the grass as they approached the area where the monitoring device had detected the strange signal.

Eventually, they entered the tall grass.

The plants reached high enough to conceal much of their lower bodies, and the dense vegetation made it difficult to see more than a few meters ahead.

Cody immediately became more cautious. If they faced an ordinary enemy, he would not have worried much. Every member of the team possessed Magic and had enough combat experience to deal with conventional threats.

The possibility of encountering a Magical opponent, however, made the situation different.

They continued forward. Minutes passed, then another, nothing happened.

No creature emerged from the grass. No strange light appeared or unusual sounds reached their ears. The team gradually began to relax as the minutes passed.

"Maybe we’re wasting our time," one of the women soldiers said quietly.

Cody did not answer immediately. He still felt uneasy, but the longer they walked without finding anything, the more reasonable the possibility became that the disturbance had already disappeared.

"Keep looking," he finally said. "We can return to the base once we’ve checked the area properly."

They continued for several more minutes.

At that moment, something happened.

Cody suddenly stopped. His entire body froze as a powerful presence swept through the area.

The others felt it at almost the same moment. Their eyes widened as the invisible pressure washed over them.

The air seemed to become heavier, and the grass around them trembled even though the wind had not changed. Their hands tightened around their weapons.

Cody’s expression hardened. He slowly looked around, his teeth clenched as he tried to determine where the energy came from. "What is this?"

Fear crawled through his chest. This was not a normal Magic fluctuation. Something was here, and whatever it was, it had an enormous amount of power.

Cody immediately reached for his communicator. "Base, this is—"

A sudden rustling sound came from somewhere inside the grass.

Cody stopped speaking. The entire team turned toward the sound.

The grass moved again. Something was moving nearby.

"Get your shit together!" Cody hissed.

His warning snapped the others out of their fear. They immediately raised their weapons and spread their attention across the surrounding grass. Their Magic began to stir inside their bodies as they prepared for an attack.

The rustling continued. Whatever was hiding in the grass was getting closer.

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