Chapter 976 - The ECA’s dangerous dealings

Before the people she had called could reach her, Sofia restored her usual appearance. She had to choose how she wanted to present herself, and eventually dismissed the idea of a show of force, dressing lightly in her glove turned black robe with a few saint set accessories. Since they knew about the explosion she expected that they would know not to underestimate her, and as such appearing ‘defenceless’ was a show of goodwill on her part.

Pareth on the other hand was waiting, battle-ready in the halls, observing from Sofia’s vision to come out at a moment's notice if anything went wrong.

It took a little less than half an hour for three noisy flying machines to reach the remote village, they were a lot bulkier than the flying things she had fought against in the previous trial, and had fast-spinning windmills instead of wings.

They surrounded the empty town-square from above, doors opened on their sides, ropes falling out of them, and men in uniforms just like the dead guard she had looted before used the ropes to descend to ground level. The men quickly surrounded Sofia, who, still sitting on a bone throne, only curiously looked at the troops who each held a firearm but were not aiming them at her, yet.

More people than I expected. They seem well-trained. The design is different from what I’ve seen before but I assume it’s gas masks they’re wearing?

Through the noise, Sofia still managed to catch a few words escaping the mouth of the people still in the aircraft above.

“Lieutenant general, you need to wear–”

“Enough! I am still in charge here. This will do.”

The man jumped last, he wore a fancier, more decorated uniform, and none of the military gear the soldiers had, not even a weapon.

Breaking through the wide formation that surrounded Sofia, he walked closer, stopping a few paces away.

He stood ramrod straight, hands behind his back. “Lieutenant general Remsei, of the Esoterism Containment Agency. My apologies for the delay.”

Interesting that he decided to come in person. He looks maybe thirty?

Sofia lightly raised a hand as a greeting in return, instantly prompting all the soldiers to point their weapons at her. She chuckled, “Your men look quite tense, Lieutenant general Remsei.”

“Lower your weapons,” he commanded smoothly, without taking his eyes off Sofia. His expression remained unreadable. “You must forgive them. Caution is standard procedure when dealing with a potential threat.”

“No offense taken, your weapons are no threat to me either way. I believe I have made my intentions clear through the phone. So spare me the small talk,” Sofia said, leaning back on her throne, crossing her legs, “which side are you on?”

“Our agency’s sole purpose is the containment and if necessary destruction of esoteric entities that endanger people or the world at large. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“It would seem our goals align, then. So here is the deal,” Sofia said, leaning in, “I want unrestricted access to your information on all the ‘esoteric entities’.”

“More of a demand than a deal. I am afraid we cannot trust you enough to allow that.”

Sofia lightly shook her head. “It seems I was not clear enough. I am willing to do this the peaceful way…” She said, lightly raising a hand again.

All the soldiers suddenly raised their weapons, emitting muffled gasps as their arms uncontrollably turned to point the barrels at their own heads.

“... but you do not have a choice.”

Remsei didn’t flinch. Not a single muscle twitched in his face, nor did his hands move from behind his back. He glanced sideways at the nearest soldier, whose eyes were wide with panic behind his gas mask, before bringing his gaze back to Sofia.

“Unrestricted access is not something I could grant you even should I want to,” Remsei stated, his tone still casual, “We would sooner let the agency collapse and bury the information forever. In the wrong hands this information could bring immeasurable harm. But we recognize your magnanimity. As we share the same goals, would you settle for a compromise?”

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“Make your best offer.”

“We would be willing to provide you with information on entities which are still at large and need to be purged, and would reward you for your contributions, with more information, and if needed, material support.”

“Your best offer is being your personal head-hunter?” Sofia answered, unimpressed.

“Negative. We will not request anything from you. Prove that we are working in the same direction and we naturally will support you in return. I will also give you a way to contact me directly. That is truly the best I can offer.”

“Hmm… How old are you, Remsei?” Sofia asked out of the blue.

A brief hint of surprise showed in the man’s brown eyes. “Twenty-eight this year,” he directly answered without questioning Sofia’s motives in asking that.

“I admire your composure. Then we will do it like that, as long as you provide the information I need, I will refrain from probing it directly out of your brain,” Sofia conceded, letting the soldiers regain control of their bones. “Start by giving me everything you have on the black hands in the sky and the other entities that were contained in the facility I woke up in. You can skip D48.”

“Did you–”

“I killed them.”

“Understood.” For the very first time since the beginning, Remsei seemed to relax a little, “Will you wait here for us to get you everything?”

“No. Take me to your place, it will be faster.”

“I am afraid–”

Sofia cut him again, “You could not keep the location a secret from me if you tried. I already let your men live; I will not do anything, so take a hint, Remsei.” As she spoke, large globulous eyes sprouted from the surroundings, absolutely everywhere, from the ground to the walls and roofs of the village’s houses to the metallic walls of the flying aircrafts hovering above.

Sofia was not about to cut thousands of bits of her soul just for a small demonstration of force so these Myriad eyes were actually dysfunctional and she could not see through them, but Remsei could not possibly know that.

Remsei looked up at the eye-covered war-helicopters in disbelief and resigned himself.

“All troops embark, mission success, we return to Northern Delta!” he ordered, before taking a single step toward Sofia, “Please follow me.”

“That is more like it,” Sofia said with a playful smile. She stood up, the bone throne and the Myriad eyes disappearing in a blink.

Rope ladders were thrown down to let the soldiers climb back up, half of them climbed before waiting for Remsei and Sofia to go aboard the largest of three aircrafts.

Remsei glanced at Sofia, and she could almost hear him think ‘After you’, but the words died in his throat as he remembered Sofia was wearing a robe.

Sofia looked at the rope ladder, then at Remsei, and just jumped up to the open door of the aircraft, landing softly on the edge of the entrance, provoking the surprised gasps of the soldiers around.

There was no issue from then on, Sofia curiously walked around the aircraft, observing the machinery during the flight, and nobody dared to stop her. The soldiers dared not relax around her, and that was fine by her, as she was too busy to talk anyway, having to be very careful not to let any mana out lest the electrical circuits of this flying machine spontaneously explode.

Sofia felt that the aircraft was quite slow, but having some more downtime to organize her thoughts was not too bad. About fifty minutes later, they landed at a military base on an isolated forest-surrounded mountainous plateau.

We went in a straight line. Yet it took longer.

Either this is not where they had departed from, or they went slow on purpose to buy time…

I suppose it’s natural for them to still take precautions.

It is reassuring to see that they are at least a little competent, in a way. Even if it is clearly not enough to deal with what is coming.

After they landed, Sofia stepped off alongside Remsei, and a tired-looking female scientist in a white lab coat was already standing nearby, flanked by two tall heavily-armed soldiers.

Oh? Everyone else was too weak to mention but these two are actually level ninety?

Without mana?

Impressive.

Sofia waited there while Remsei exchanged a few hushed words with the scientist and came back holding the things the scientist had been carrying: a small stack of paper folders and a small black gadget.

“This is a long-distance communicator, stand outside with a clear view of the sky and press the button on top for a few seconds, this one and mine will both start ringing. The other side can press theirs to answer. If you hear no ringing then the devices could not connect, so please try again later,” Remsei explained, handing the tiny gadget to Sofia. “And these are all the files you requested. Yours has been included as well. We hope you will find this satisfactory.”

Sofia nodded, made both the communicator and the files disappear, and let her wings regrow out of her back.

“Good. I will be back.”

Without another word, she flew away.