The World Is Mine For The Taking

Insignificant Republic Commander’s POV

"W-What the fuck just happened?"

The words escaped my mouth before I even realized I had spoken them, while my eyes remained completely fixed on the monitors in front of me.

"What the hell was that? Why did every single one of the helicopters just disappear in an instant like that?!"

How in the world could something like that possibly happen in the middle of an operation like this?

I stood there completely stunned, staring at the displays while desperately trying to understand everything that had unfolded in front of my eyes only moments ago.

Then, almost like a forgotten memory suddenly forcing its way back into my head, something immediately clicked.

"W-Wait... didn’t something almost exactly like this happen in the neighboring country not that long ago?!" I shouted in disbelief.

That was right.

There had been an official report discussing a massive forcefield that had protected an entire kingdom from a large-scale aerial bombardment. According to the intelligence we managed to gather at the time, they supposedly possessed some kind of defensive technology capable of shielding the entire nation from incoming attacks.

Back then, I had assumed the report was exaggerated.

Stories like that usually grew more ridiculous every time someone repeated them.

Apparently, this wasn’t one of those stories.

If that report had been true all along...

Then Bethlan must have possessed the exact same kind of defensive system.

I honestly never believed something like that could actually exist.

Yet reality had a funny habit of laughing in your face whenever you became too confident.

I had to gather every piece of information I possibly could and send it straight back to the Republic’s headquarters before anything else happened.

Without wasting another second, I immediately pulled up one of the recordings captured by the camera mounted on one of the helicopters.

While it had still been flying through the sky, everything looked completely normal. There wasn’t even the slightest indication that anything unusual was about to happen.

The formation remained steady.

The weather was clear.

Everything looked exactly as expected.

Then, in the blink of an eye...

Something appeared.

It didn’t slowly materialize or gradually reveal itself.

It simply existed.

A massive barrier instantly expanded across the sky, wrapping itself around the country before any of the bombs could reach the ground.

The bombardment had been stopped almost effortlessly.

"What kind of defensive technology did these people develop to pull off something like this?" I muttered under my breath while replaying the footage again.

Even the Republic, with all of its advanced military research, cutting-edge technology, and decades of scientific development, had never documented anything remotely similar to this.

Nothing even came close.

Every weapon we possessed suddenly felt much less impressive after watching that barrier stop an entire bombing run without the slightest sign of strain.

That alone made this discovery priceless.

Which was exactly why we needed every bit of information we could recover from the surviving footage.

We needed to study it carefully.

We needed to understand how it worked.

Most importantly, we needed to learn whether it could somehow be recreated for ourselves.

If the Republic could successfully develop this kind of defensive technology...

It would completely change modern warfare.

As I continued examining the footage frame by frame, something suddenly caught my attention.

"...What the hell is that supposed to be?"

I leaned closer to the monitor without even realizing it.

A single man stood near the center of the screen.

He slowly stretched both of his arms outward.

Then something impossible happened.

An enormous barrier erupted outward from his body, expanding across the entire battlefield before intercepting every single bomb that had been falling toward the country.

Wait, it wasn’t a technology at all, but rather a single human?!

"Fuck! Don’t fuck with me! There’s no fucking way a human can actually do something like that!" I shouted at the monitor.

That couldn’t possibly be real.

Nothing about it made any sense.

If one single person could perform something on that scale...

Didn’t that mean he had personally defended an entire country with nothing but his own power?

Against thousands of highly advanced military helicopters?

That wasn’t simply unbelievable anymore.

It was enough to make everything I knew about warfare feel completely meaningless.

Before I could even finish processing that impossible sight, another figure suddenly launched itself into the sky.

Whatever it was moved so quickly that my eyes struggled to keep up with it.

It shot from one helicopter to another, casually swiping through them as though it were brushing away tiny insects instead of heavily armed military aircraft.

One helicopter vanished.

Then another.

Then another.

Within moments, every remaining camera feed abruptly dissolved into static.

"Th... there’s no way this is actually happening..."

My voice shook so badly that I barely recognized it as my own.

A cold feeling slowly crept down my spine while my hands began trembling without my permission.

Everything I had believed about military superiority had just been shattered in less than a minute.

Still, standing here frozen wasn’t going to accomplish anything useful.

Headquarters needed this information immediately.

I grabbed my long-range communication device, one specifically designed to transmit signals even across different worlds, before quickly pressing the transmission switch.

"This is Alpha Three. I repeat, this is Alpha Three. Do you copy?"

"Alpha Three, this is Headquarters. We read you loud and clear."

"I’ll be sending every bit of data I’ve gathered," I replied while forcing myself to stay calm. "There’s something unbelievably powerful here, and I honestly can’t believe what I’ve just witnessed. I don’t even believe it myself, so I’m hoping you’ll tell me I’ve completely lost my mind, because the alternative is much harder to accept."

Honestly, hearing someone tell me that all of this had been some bizarre illusion would have been comforting at this point.

It sounded ridiculous.

It also sounded much easier to believe than what I had actually witnessed with my own eyes.

"The data is currently being received," the operator answered from the other side.

"I’m afraid that’s not going to happen."

A childish feminine voice suddenly echoed from somewhere inside the tent.

"Wha...?! What the hell?!"

My entire body stiffened.

Before I even realized someone had entered, a young girl was already standing inside my command tent as though she had been there the entire time.

At almost the exact same moment, every communication device, recording unit, storage drive, and transmission system around me suddenly disappeared without leaving behind so much as a single screw.

Along with them...

The footage I had spent all this time collecting vanished as well.

She casually let out a small burp afterward while looking directly at me with a playful grin.

For some reason, she looked far too pleased with herself.

My instincts immediately took over.

Without hesitating any longer, I raised my rifle and aimed it directly at her chest.

"Who the hell are you, and what are you doing inside my command tent?" I demanded. "And where the hell did all of my equipment disappear to?"

"Your equipment?" she repeated before letting out a quiet giggle. "Oh, if you’re talking about those little things..."

She casually pointed one finger toward her own stomach.

"They’re already in here."

Her mischievous smile grew even wider.

"They’ve already dissolved into absolutely nothing, so you won’t be getting them back."