Prologue

It was the spring of 202X, and Yu Ichinose lived with his family in Tokyo. He slipped his arms through the black sleeves of his brand-new uniform. It fit perfectly, but that didn’t improve his mood any. What awful timing. Right at the start of his much-anticipated second year of middle school.

“I know it’s, like, a big national project and all, but do I really need to transfer schools?”

“Aww, don’t be such a grouch! Didn’t you see all that stuff online? You’ll get to have elf teachers! And elf classmates!” Saki, his seventeen-year-old sister, didn’t seem to get it.

Yu frowned at her from across their modest living room, situated in Kita ward on the north side of Tokyo proper. “You really believe all that? Don’t elves keep to themselves? I thought they all lived on reserves.”

“And where do you think your new school is? Ugh, I’m so jealous! They’re all so pretty, and smart, and elegant! Why can’t I be an elf?”

Mankind was no longer the only intelligent life-form to walk the Earth. It all started some thirty years ago, when an odd creature was captured in the south of France. If the little monster’s size and features weren’t enough, its violent tendencies and lack of cognitive reasoning certainly fit the fiends of European folklore after which they were named: goblins.

They called it the discovery of the century. But it didn’t stop there. One-eyed giants, hulking trolls, and even juvenile dragons were just a few of the sightings to follow.

Then, at the turn of the twenty-first century came the elvish migration. Fed up with the oppression of the magical ruling classes, six thousand elves fled their world, transcended their reality, and arrived in the one that Earth called home.

Yu had taken his sister’s claims with a grain of salt at first, but his arrival at the institute—a facility “for the upbringing and education of junior operatives for the good of the Initiative”—would quickly prove his skepticism wrong.

“Hello. My name is Aliya Todo. First-year middle school student. As you may have already noticed from my ears, I am an elf, but my father’s Japanese. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I can’t believe she was actually right,” Yu said to himself.

“My mom’s an advisor at this research facility. I’ll introduce you before long.”

The stoic underclassman’s small stature was no detriment to her beauty, and her blue-accented sailor uniform suited her well. Sharp ears poked out from her silky, ivory hair beneath a white beret. In short, she was astonishingly beautiful.

“Did you say research institute? I thought this was a school.”

“To a certain extent, you could say. Suitable young people are a rarity,” Aliya replied. “And before you ask, no, I cannot use magic and neither can my mom. I hope that doesn’t offend you.”

“Ah, so you lose your powers here. Is that how it works?”

“Yes. That is how it works.”

It didn’t take long for Yu to make friends with another boy his age—Takamaru Ijuin.

“So word is they chose us ’cause we’ve got some kinda aptitude for the nanomachines or something.”

“Oh yeah, we did go through all those tests. They even took us to that military base, remember?” replied Yu.

Ijuin leaned forward. “You know what I heard? It’s the enemy! The Anomalies from the other side! They’ve been hitting us hard, so the guys upstairs’re trying to get this next-gen nanotech tested and battle-ready ASAP!”

“What’s the rush? I heard Number Three’s been putting in work.” Yu recalled the military’s renowned fighter and their latest weapon. “What was it called again? That thing that does the whole superhero transformation whatever. The something-frame Mark III.”

“You’re thinking of Devicer Three’s A-Type Exo-Frame! I’ve got the limited-edition collector’s figure, man! It comes with the whole armor set and you wouldn’t believe the quality! Oh, and get this. Our group’s going to Yokota, so we’ll get to meet the guy in person!”

“Three himself? Wow. My mom and sister are huge fans.”

The women of the Ichinose household were enraptured with the Defense Force’s new superweapon, or rather, the man behind its mask. It was hard not to be, considering his face was plastered all over national television.

Ijuin nodded emphatically. “The guy’s a hunk. Everyone and their aunt knows him. But y’know, Aliya’s actually met him and apparently he’s kind of a jerk in real life.”

“Wait, for real? The TV makes him seem like Prince Charming, though!”

Earth was under attack by creatures unknown. The Anomalies, as they were called, were relentless. They struck without warning, at any time, in any place. But amid humanity’s seemingly endless struggle against the otherworldly came the elvish migrants and their sages. Their vast intellect brought a technological revolution to every known scientific field, and yet, it had little effect on battlefields across the globe. There was one thing that not even the combined wisdom of man- and elfkind could overcome: magic.

202X CE. This was the year that the Defense Force assigned middle schooler Yu Ichinose to the Initiative and stationed him in a nanotechnology research facility as a junior operative. It was also the year that disaster struck Japan.

That June, archmages from the other side devastated the Tokyo metropolitan area with spell-induced earthquakes and floods of untold proportions, submerging the greater part of the city beneath the waves, never to resurface again. The country lost its seat of government, and to make matters worse, both the Chubu and Kansai regions fell within the grasp of enemy portal-keeps—magical strongholds through which the anomalous threat invaded.

What was left of the government fled to Fukuoka, in the southern island of Kyushu, and issued an evacuation notice to every citizen of Japan.

Nobody was safe anymore.

XXX

It was December. The end of a tumultuous year. And Maizuru Bay was in flames.

Two destroyer warships lit up Kyoto’s northern waters in a fiery blaze, and every second threatened to be the vessels’ last. It was a grim sight. The Defense Force was Japan’s shield, and now the remainder of its paltry escort fleet was about to become wreckage at the bottom of the sea. Yu watched it burn from the shore.

“Some fight...” Ijuin muttered next to him, dressed in his plus-sized, black button-up. He was big for a fourteen-year-old.

“Everyone left after the Evacuation. All the warships. All the private liners. What are two busted up clunkers supposed to do?”

“Not much, I guess.”

The conclusion shocked no one. And Yu was no exception.

He was also fourteen and clad in the same black button-up as his friend. The two of them were supposed to be middle schoolers. Instead, they were here holding automatic rifles. Type 89s, to be exact. They were lightweight, as far as firearms went, but still a hefty 3.5 kilograms and almost half a meter long. Certainly not toys.

“What are we supposed to do with these?” Ijuin grumbled. “How are we gonna stop anything?”

“Wish I knew.” Yu couldn’t agree more.

They could count on one hand the number of firing lessons they’d had, and Yu was about as scrawny as could be. Ijuin wasn’t exactly the athletic type either, and he filled out his uniform quite well. Neither of them were cut out for this work, to say the least.

The boys stood out in the wide-open school courtyard, directly next to the blazing bay. The facility supposedly belonged to the Defense Force’s naval branch. Officials from the Force—the few occupants who were noncombatants—looked on with nervous expressions.

“We’re next, aren’t we?”

“We’ve still got a chance, Ijuin. If we can just run out the clock, we’ll make it.”

Over the bay, a brilliant green aurora rippled like a giant curtain above the crestfallen boys’ heads. Such a phenomenon would normally be impossible to witness in Japan’s Kansai region, but so was the floating fortress beyond the veil that created the enchanting spectacle.

An enemy portal-keep loomed overhead—a gravity-defying mass of rock with stone castle walls extending further into the heavens above. All it needed was a legion of armored knights and it would have fit the medieval aesthetic perfectly.

The JS Myoko destroyer launched an anti-air missile towards the flying castle. It rocketed upward, leaving a trail of smoke and flame behind, when suddenly, the missile sputtered out and slowed its ascent, before curving back down into the ocean below. Instead of the satisfying boom of an explosion, there was only a...

“Splash...” Yu couldn’t hide his dejection.

“Did you see that?!” Ijuin cried. “That had to be magic, right?! Right?!”

Then, the two felt the nanofactors within their bodies receive a message. The “voice” of Aliya Todo, Yu and Ijuin’s only female friend, echoed in their ears.

“My nanomachines are detecting magic in use. There seems to be a mage in the castle casting Projectile Protection, a spell used to shield against stones and arrows.”

“Since when do guided missiles count as stones or arrows?! Man, that’s kinda crazy!”

“That’s just not fair,” Yu sighed.

Yu had only recently gotten used to such high-tech means of communication. Commlinks allowed those augmented by nanomachines to speak telepathically with each other by way of resonance between their nanofactors, up to a range of about fifteen kilometers. Cell phones and radio seemed primitive by comparison.

Meanwhile, the battle raged on. A stealth fighter took off from the deck of the JS Izumo and fired on the portal-keep with its 25mm autocannon, simultaneously launching two air-to-air missiles. But the projectiles all met the same end as the last. The enemy’s magic sent the rockets and bullets careening pitifully into the ocean. But that wasn’t all.

“Dude, the plane’s going down!”

Yu couldn’t believe his eyes. “But I didn’t even see them get hit!”

Aliya’s voice returned.

“Sleep magic detected. The pilot must have lost consciousness.”

On the water’s surface below, three patrol copters had turned on their allies and were raining hell on the destroyers in the form of 7.62mm rounds. The warships’ decks were already smoking from the air-to-surface missiles launched moments before.

“The Brainwash spell... The pilots have most likely been turned into enemy puppets.”

“Agh, they’re acting like cowards!” Ijuin shouted in indignation. “I thought mages were supposed to use big, flashy stuff like in manga and anime!”

“These guys are fighting to win,” Yu said quietly.

Suddenly, the floating portal-keep finally started to mobilize. Its massive gate opened wide, revealing nothing but an arcane abyss. From that darkness, a huge creature with bat-like wings emerged. There was no doubt. It was the master of drakes, the king of reptiles. The dragon beat its wings and broke into a swift flight. Ruby scales covered the length of its thirty-meter body, the mark of the red dragon, a breed known for its particular love of destruction.

“You just had to ask for big and flashy.”

“H-Hey, it’s not my fault!” Ijuin yelped.

The beast opened its maw and unleashed a torrent of raging fire as it sped through the sky, engulfing the devastated Myoko and Izumo warships and igniting the bay into an enormous bonfire. These flames weren’t ordinary, though. Once the dragon’s inferno was ablaze, it would continue to burn endlessly until whatever was lit turned to ash. Even the Izumo’s heat-resistant runway, built to endure fighter jet takeoffs, liquified in the sweltering storm.

The red dragon spewed yet more cursed flames and the Naval Defense base across Maizuru Bay combusted. The air station nearby soon followed. AA cannons fired on the winged demon without mercy, but it weaved between the bullets with frightening agility, ducking and darting like an oversized robin. It was untouchable.

XXX

Even a child could understand the severity of the situation, let alone the remnants of the Defense Force. No one was fooling themselves. They knew the score. The Force had left them behind. The Ground Defense, the Naval Defense, the Air Defense, everyone. They were the scraps.

But some clung to hope.

“The Mark III isn’t responding, sir!”

“Son of a bitch!” the colonel shouted. “If the artificial awakening signal won’t work, then find a new Devicer, damn it! We need candidates ASAP!”

The middle-aged veteran scowled at the stubborn weapon. The Humanoid Combat Unit lay on a trailer bed beneath the cloudy sky. Gold streaks along the various fringes and edges accented the otherwise pitch black suit of armor. It was like something from straight out of an anime, but unlike those super robots, this device was not to be piloted. It was to be worn.

“We can’t access the satellite system or those fifty thousand droids until we wake that thing up! I don’t care what it takes, just do it!”

As the tests continued, and continued to fail, the only thing they succeeded in waking was the colonel’s fury.

XXX

Back at Maizuru Bay, the flames consuming the Defense Force base were burning with such intensity that they seemed to scorch the heavens themselves. But extinguishing them would have to wait. The ground assault had begun.

Squads had been situated on all sides of the frenzied bay, and in an instant, each of them were thrown into battle when hordes of Anomalies appeared out of thin air. No warning. No sign. They simply materialized from nothing, like sea foam from the sand. That was the power of magic—it could summon creatures directly on top of the opponent, just like that.

This time, it was the living dead that took the stage. The wandering husks—or zombies, as humanity liked to call them—would continue to mindlessly seek out flesh, no matter the damage they endured. The only way to defeat them was to land a decisive blow to the head or heart. Until then, their hunger could not be sated.

Hundreds of corpses emerged from the ground, wearing familiar clothing from nearby stores. The hordes stumbled and shuffled towards their prey while the ground forces lit them up in a panicked frenzy. Bullets flew, knives were brandished, guts exploded, and blood rained down. The artillerymen could do nothing against the clamoring masses and were forced to abandon their howitzers for Type 89s if they wanted to save their allies. The scene was ghastly.

Meanwhile, the dragon continued its path of destruction, completely apathetic towards the infantry below, and quickly turned the harbor into a raging fireball. Merely to eliminate the remaining moored ships.

Still, the ground troops were afforded no respite, and new foes quickly began to spawn. Dozens of three-meter-tall troll soldiers clad in iron armor took to the field, set with bulging muscles, boar-like faces, and pointed tusks protruding from their bottom lips. Their massive swords, colossal axes, and bulky clubs pulverized entire groups of puny humans with only a single swing, scattering heads, limbs, and other gore across the battlefield to the tune of cracking bones. The trolls were allied with the fae, thus giving them great command of magic. This included Projectile Protection, effectively nullifying all gunfire. That said, the spell was far less powerful than the one protecting the floating castle, and a point-blank rocket launcher blast proved exceptionally effective at blowing one of the monsters to smithereens.

Just as the humans found renewed strength in their meager success, another troll set a fire elemental upon one of the rocket launcher’s warheads. The elemental ignited the igneous essences within the explosive, and the subsequent detonation turned the surrounding area into a smoking graveyard.

Chaos reigned. Gunshots. Screams. Cries. Blood. Death.

And then, in an instant, it stopped. The trolls and zombies vanished. The slaughter was over as quickly as it had begun.

Yu looked up and took a deep breath. “We did it. We ran out the clock.”

The green, shimmering curtain rapidly faded, and the cold winter clouds monopolized the skies of Kansai once more. The floating castle vanished like a mirage along with all its mystical splendor.

Without a portal-keep, the aurora couldn’t linger any longer. The two were linked, and the presence of one meant the other. When the heavens started to glow, Anomalies were near, and when it stopped, the nightmare would end. Just like that. Humanity’s foes were veritable phantoms.

“Oh my God!” Ijuin cried in relief. “I thought we’d be stuck like this for another month or two!”

“The enemy’s mana reserves were drained from previous battles around the area,” came Aliya’s voice. “At least, that’s what mom said. They couldn’t maintain a material form in this realm for much longer. But how much longer can we keep this up...”

Yu looked down at his right hand, at the ring of light glowing in his palm indicating the activation of his bodily nanofactors, before looking back up. He clenched his fist as he stared across the bay, where the Defense Force’s garrison continued to burn.

Gorogatake’s rolling hills stretched all the way into downtown Maizuru, and at the top of the mountain, three hundred meters above sea level, stood an observation tower. What used to be a popular public park had been appropriated by the Defense Force for military purposes. There was once a time when the scenic views used to captivate visitors, but now several military officers stared at the destruction below in deafening silence.

Special research advisor Chloe Todo sympathized with them as they looked down upon the flames and the corpses of their allies with horrified expressions. Her only daughter clung to her white coat.

“What do we do now, mom?”

“We go down the mountain and regroup with the survivors,” Chloe replied plainly. She was no stranger to war. “Start rescue efforts, set up shelter somewhere.”

Aliya’s ears, although noticeably longer than a human’s, only tapered off just past her light brown hair. Her mother’s, however, were far more prominent. Professor Chloe Todo had spent the last twenty-something years of her life in this foreign world, and in that time she’d married a Japanese man and given birth to a child. A child of two realms, two realities, two bloods.

She approached an official alongside her frightened daughter. “We should go, Colonel.”

“We need the Mark III,” the middle-aged human said. “This cannot happen again. I know you agree.”

The majority of Gorogatake’s population were specialists: engineers and scientists conducting Exo-Frame research. Chloe was their counsel. The only military personnel present were the Air Defense colonel and his subordinates.

“You said so yourself, Professor. The Mark III has lost its Devicer, but we can still awaken it, even if only artificially,” continued the colonel.

The professor had indeed suggested alternative means of reviving the Exo-Frame beyond searching for a new Devicer. This, she conceded. But now, while his military burned, was not the time to be discussing such matters. There was no calm or willingness to listen in the colonel’s eyes, though. Only desperation. So she bit her tongue.

“I understand. I’ll look into it.”

“We’re counting on you!” barked the colonel.

Chloe heaved a sigh the moment the officer turned away. Their ultimate weapon, a super-powered suit of armor known as the A-Type Exo-Frame Mark III, slept peacefully on the trailer bed, its golden streaks dead and dormant. They hadn’t glowed in months now. Understaffed and short on resources, the elf scientist wasn’t optimistic that they ever would again.

She looked back at the observation tower looming fifty meters overhead. After becoming the headquarters for the Defense Force’s operation and study of the Asura-Type Exo-Frame, the retired tourist attraction had found yet another purpose—the heights of Gorogatake were their only hope to re-imbue the Mark III with its astral power.

“It would be nice if she would help.”

“Who?” Aliya asked.

“The princess of our kingdom. Remind me to tell you about her one day.”

Chloe’s daughter tilted her head as the migrant sage gazed upwards. It was the winter of 202X, and the skies above Maizuru were cloudy.