Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix-Chapter 1437: The second target

"I just showed the ones that we can find some use in teleporting them to," Sakaki explained. "Most of the planets that they invaded were completely empty now after they achieved their goals."

The map wasn’t even complete; that was only a fraction of it. It had thousands of planets on it, but they were only the ones that Loks knew of, and he teleported the first dragons, too. As expected, they would only obtain a full grasp of the extent of the machine god’s actions when they get all the Intel from the machine god of information... that should have taken quite a while to do so...

Regardless, it seemed that it was about time for the group to start preparing for the next target and mission, but it was hard to tell when they should pick a date for it... Sealyn was only a few weeks away from her delivery, after all, and she was one of the main leaders of the group.

"We can’t let luck decide when we will have to fight," Sealyn declared after she crossed her arms. "It is better if we decide on a clear date instead of leaving it to fate. The next mission should start in two weeks and with no delays."

Two weeks... that seemed like a short amount of time to prepare, but since they didn’t do anything for over a month aside from training, perhaps things would be smooth. At the same time, even if the entire job takes a week, they will return in time for Sealyn’s delivery. What would happen next... it was hard to say, but perhaps a few months without fighting the machine gods would be for the best.

"I am in favor of that plan," Esmeralda said after nodding. "The battle with Loks took some time since his base split us, but this should be different given the nature of this next enemy."

"All right, we shall focus on preparing for the next mission," Regis said. "Use your time accordingly."

The meeting ended... and they only gave themselves a time limit for the next mission. It didn’t seem like much, but that was how things usually worked, so they were used to that.

"I suddenly have a lot of free time since I don’t have to read all those books anymore... what should I do?" Rain rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

As usual, Rain’s first thought was to train... to avoid getting hit like a bitch and then getting out of commission for weeks again; he recalled that he wanted to improve his dodging skills; perhaps he could come up with something good considering the knowledge of Loks.

"It is kind of amazing that I still need to consider this when I can teleport..." Rain thought.

In order not to waste time, Rain began to meditate to increase his mana while he was waiting for inspiration. Eventually, he got bored and then began to work on his stamina, but even after that, he didn’t get a single idea.

"Now that my options are so numerous, it looks like I am a bit lost on what to do..." Rain thought. "I guess I will just focus on finding ways to deal with Hilo."

Rain could tell that his friends wouldn’t let him fight alone the machine god this time, but it would be hard to pull it off since the machine gods should have plenty of defenses set for each other and against other enemies...

In any case... Void. Now that Rain thought about it, he was starting to have some bad feelings while considering how the enemy would use that aspect agaisnt them.

"I guess the best option is truly to fight him alone while the others deal with his defenses," Rain thought.

As usual, the first step to make the enemy focus on him was easy. He just had to stand out a bit. The next step would be to annoy him... Rain had a talent to get on his enemies nerves, so that shouldn’t be that hard either. As for the final step... he has to isolate the enemy from everything else. He had the feeling that doing that would be easy, too.

In the end, the next two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, and everyone finished their preparations... However, the group was a bit uncertain about the mission since they didn’t know much about the target destination... the information that Loks had was limited, and at the same time, they didn’t have the chance to check it by themselves. It was that far away, after all...

"... At least this will be the final mission where I won’t be able to participate," Sealyn said when the group finished the final preparations.

Everyone looked at Sealyn and frowned... it was good that she couldn’t see the mission ending in a failure, but it looked like she didn’t know that once she gave birth, her job as a mother would only increase. Maybe it was because she grew up fast, but she assumed that her kid would be the same...

Terra and Seara looked at each other... and soon confirmed that they would have to talk with Sealyn quite a bit once they returned. If they left it alone, it felt like Sealyn would keep getting those crazy ideas nonstop.

"Just focus on keeping those that will stay behind focused on the task at hand," Rain said. "... I will try to send reports as much as possible but don’t get worried if you don’t hear from us for a while. As long as you have the spectral Weapons, you will know that we will be fine."

Sealyn found it difficult to listen to her father’s words, feeling a growing frustration with his lack of understanding. She wanted for him to grasp the nerve-wracking reality of waiting for their return each time they ventured out. Having been on the front lines since she was merely ten years old, Sealyn’s perspective was deeply shaped by her experiences.