The Bixi

*Smash*

The impact sent cracks spreading over the table. Looking at Leeroy, the assistant didn't dare to say anything.

"What did the other strongholds say?" His voice sounded more like a growl of an angry beast than of a human.

"They said your worry is unfounded."

*Smash*

And the table crumbled, creating a mess of papers and files all over the place. However, he couldn't care less.

"Those idiots, do they think we are playing games here? Do they still think of them as some mindless beast?"

"But sir, we don't have any concrete proof." The assistant's words infuriated Leeroy more, but he couldn't find anything to throw at him.

"Idiot. Those things attacked 21 outposts and research posts on the same day and at the same time. How much more proof do you need?"

"But all the 21 posts were in the same direction." Feeling the glare, he added, "that is what they told me."

"Bastards." His nostrils were pumping out white fumes, as he said, "Get the shock fleet ready. We will move out."

Those words drained the blood out of his body, as the assistant pleaded, "That! We can't do that."

"Why can't we?" Leeroy yelled, "I am not letting two thousand of my soldiers die in vain. I will kill every one of them. I will recover every outpost they have taken from me."

'This muscle-head…' the assistant cursed inside his head, "we can't move the fleet without the permission of the federation."

"Prepare a report. Put up all the satellite images. Send it to them. And set up a meeting as soon as possible."

'Like they will let you move the fleet.' The assistant mumbled but didn't dare to say it loud, only nodded.

*Knock* *knock*

"What is it?" Leeroy's tone didn't change at all.

"General, we have some information about the attack." The voice came from outside.

"What do you want me to do? Prepare a banquet before you come in and show me?"

The man, in his soldier uniform, entered in a hurry. He was carrying a small tablet which he put on the broken table.

"What the hell is this?" Leeroy's didn't have the mood to entertain any kind of suspense.

"When the research post #11 was attacked, we were contacted by a troop of 17th squadron. They were on their way to post #11. The commanding officer asked us to do a satellite scan."

"Is this the scan?"

The assistant couldn't understand what the general was seeing, but the change of General's tone made him more curious.

"Yes. They were about thirty kilometres away from the Research post."

"What about them?" The general groaned.

"Their commanding officer and the entire troop are dead, however, the sniper and one recruit have survived."

"Recruit? What a recruit is doing outside the stronghold? It's not even been a week since they came here."

"That..." The soldiers had no words to explain. So it was his assistant who did, "Let me see, the recruit in 17th squadron? Well, there is the one with a special background. We have to oblige…"

"Have you sent him to the squad?" Leeroy grumbled.

"I did." The assistant sighed and pointed upward, "the order came straight from the top."

"Bastard." Leeroy yelled, "Which bastard ordered you to do? Arudi? Lucas?"

The assistant shook his head, "From the very top."

It wasn't just Leeroy, even the soldier didn't know how he should react. He couldn't help but think how a mere recruit could infuriate someone from the top, but he couldn't find an explanation.

"So where are they right now?" It was the assistant who asked him.

"There is some kind of jamming that is stopping us from contacting them." He turned to the general before adding, "it is not just them, all the 7 convoys who went out today are dead. And, according to the report, we've lost contact with them around the same time."

"And you're telling me they are just mindless monsters!" Leeroy frowned as he looked at his assistant.

Yet the assistant still nodded in answer. He said, "it is because they're just mindless beasts that they would attack anything that moves. If I am not wrong, they might have attacked everyone was in that direction."

With his words, Leeroy turned to the soldier who had just proved his fear, and added with hesitation, "General, we think there might be some spy between us."

And his hesitation justified the awkward silence that followed. However, the thunderous laughter destroyed the silence.

"Are you telling us that these monsters sent spies into our military base?" The assistant was having a hard time controlling his expression, "Let's think they could understand our language, but please tell me how much incompetent our soldiers could be that they didn't see a monster coming in."

"But they are monsters…" the soldier turned to Leeroy, "they... they might change shape or transform."

"Soldier, choose your words carefully." The expression of the assistant changed in a moment. However, he didn't stop, "You should remember the punishment of spreading false rumours."

"Get out." Leeroy waved his hand at the soldier, "do your job, don't waste your time here."

The soldiers didn't waste his time and ran out of the room.

"Prepare the fleet."

"But general, we can't do that." The assistant was quick to refute.

"You should remember what is the punishment for disobeying the order of immediate officers." Leeroy didn't give him any chance to refute, and said, "and arrange the meeting within a couple of hours. By then, I want the satellite images of all the outposts and research posts."

The assistant wanted to say something but looking at unyielding Leeroy, all he could do was leave the room with a nod.

*************

Robin was staring at the dull sky with his back against the snow. It wasn't just because he had been running for almost four hours behind Aiden, but because Aiden had told him to do so.

"What the hell did you do to me?" Robin stared at Aiden with his red eye. However, Aiden had very little reaction to it.

"Just stay silent and listen." Aiden could see veins popping up on his forehead, but it was not something he cared about. "The more you struggle, the quicker you die." Yet Robin kept grinding his teeth and staring at him.

"It was a simple spell. That will force you to do my bidding. However, I have no intention to keep you a slave."

"But, there are two things you shouldn't do. First, don't talk to anyone about me. Whether it is the spell or what I did to those monsters. Second, don't do anything that might hurt me or my family."

Aiden could see that Robin was still angry with him, yet he just smiled at him and said, "You can go wherever you want. You do not have to come with me."

"Slave?" Robin's breath was rapid as he sat back up. Pointing at his heart, he asked, "Does that spell have something to do with the pain of my heart."

Aiden gave a gentle nod before adding, "But you don't have to worry. As long as I give no more orders, you can live without any problems."

"And what if you order something?"

"Obey. Otherwise, you will die."

"Why?" He was boiling inside, Robin wanted to attack as Aiden but the pulsating pain in his heart stopped him from doing anything. "I did nothing to you."

"I couldn't put my faith on someone who abandoned their teammates without a moment of hesitation." Aiden's choice of words wasn't soothing to ears, but he had no intention of paying any attention to Robin's expression and added, "I don't want to be back-stabbed…"

'You…' Robin couldn't help but curse while looking at the reflective screen of the helmet. However, before the teenager in front of him completed his words, Aiden lunged at him.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" He wanted to shout, but before he could, Aiden pushed him into the snow. And Aiden's words tickled his ears, "Don't speak if you don't want to die."

"What?" He wanted to cry out loud, but he didn't know if it was because of the spell or the fear that he couldn't say anything.

*GAAAAAAAAAAA*

The loud and incoherent growl shook the entire world, and it wasn't just the air, the ground underneath him shook too. As Aiden released his head, he found that he wasn't alone. Aiden, too, pushed his own body as close to the snow as possible.

However, that wasn't his biggest worry. When Robin followed Aiden's line of sight, he found that he could see their reflection on the giant black but shiny surface.

'Is that a transport ship?' Robin couldn't ask his desired question as two thick layers of cover covered the black surface for a moment, before it opened again.

"That is an Eye." Even without Aiden's words through his helmet, Robin could understand it as he shuddered in fear. He didn't know whether the owner of the giant eye had seen them or not, but it grumbled to shake the snow world again.

"That thing shouldn't be here." On the other hand, Mraz continued to mumble inside Aiden's mind with a stern voice.

"That is an off-spring of one of my old friends." Even if Aiden didn't ask, Mraz continued in his mind. "But it shouldn't be on this plane. This place shouldn't have that much mana to summon him. The mana of this place…"

Mraz continued to mumble as Aiden peaked to look at the owner of the giant eyes that shook the entire mountain. The long serpentine body came out from the bottom of the mountain.

For a moment, Aiden had thought it was a serpent, yet at the next moment, the entire mountain moved. Only when the mountain moved up into the air did Aiden understand what it was like.

It carried the mountain above its giant crystal blue shell with the long stretch of the neck was coming out of it. And four thick pillar-like limbs were supporting the entire body.

'This isn't a snake…' Looking at it, Aiden felt that even the giant form of Adi was tiny compared to it, 'that is a freaking tortoise.'

"That is Bixi." Mraz's voice was anything but happy, "If it isn't stopped, it will devour the entire plane."

'Devour the plane, huh?' Mraz's choice of words confused him a lot. Aiden couldn't help asking, 'How can it devour a planet?'

"It will consume all the mana of the plane." Aiden couldn't see Mraz in front of him, but he still could sense the confusion in his voice. "That thing devours mana all the time… yet the amount of mana is not decreasing…"

Aiden was well aware of the amount of energy needed to maintain such a large body, still… Aiden couldn't help looking up to the sky, 'Could it be because of those satellites?'

However, rather than the eternal clear sky, what greeted Aiden was a thick layer of grey cloud that covered the entire sky. And it was constantly changing. It didn't take long for Aiden to find the source.

"Bixi is mixing its mana with the cloud that is coming out of the mountain on its back. It is changing the plane into its domain." Mraz explained in his mind, "And once it succeeds…"

'It will turn the planet similar to Earth… like the Nozama forest.' Aiden completed his words.