When Algeo came to, he was in a dark room.

Immediately, he remembered what happened.

The crash and the roar of thunder and he and his men fought against alien mages.

Alien mages.

Algeo shuddered.

What he and dead men had faced not something normal. The mage that killed them moved like lightning, tore through bodies like bone shredders, and demolished opposition like mythical creatures of old.

And now, he was captured.

He pulled at his hands, and found that they were bound. He grumbled.

"Hello."

Algeo froze as the voice accompanied a niggling feeling in his head.

"You are ... Algeo Bo-id'khal, son of Bohjal Id'khal. I see. A decorated soldier of the Batarian Hegemony who retired after secretly inheriting the family library on magic. Fou-"

Algeo tuned out the alien as he realized a horrifying truth.

The alien with him in this darkness was reading his mind!

His struggle renewed. He grunted and roared as the unseen alien interrogator just kept on rolling out the details of his life.

And then it was over.

They knew everything about him.

He gave up too.

"Algeo Bo-id'khal, my superior wants to talk with you."

He snarled. "Why should I talk with bastards like you-?!"

"Because depending on your answer, or lack thereof, you may experience some ... motivation."

Algeo clamped his mouth shut.

'Well, shit,' he thought to himself.

"Indeed."

"Stop reading my mind!" he roared at the still-unseen interrogator.

"...Do you really want me to stop?"

"What?"

"I asked if you really want me to stop? Because right now, the only thing keeping you from pain is the fact that I'm keeping that pain away for clarity of your mind."

Algeo didn't understand.

"You're already half-dead, Algeo Bo-id'khal. Our agent has been less than ... gentle with you when he chose you to be taken as prisoner. I'm sure you remember?"

He did remember.

"So what, if I don't answer your question-"

"I'll simply stop holding back on your pain and I'll make sure you stay alive."

"Until I bleed out?"

Even if he couldn't see his interrogator, he knew that son of a bitch was smiling.

"Even after you bleed out and your body fails. We have ways to contain and torment souls. As a mage, you are well aware of the existence of souls, yes?"

He did know. It was actually his little brother's main area of expertise. That chatterbox would never shut up about his work at dinner.

He nodded, knowing that the interrogator would know that he did.

"Oh good," the voice of the interrogator giggled. "I hate seeing things suffer. Anyway, boss is here."

"Your boss...?"

A pause.

"Yes, my boss. One of the Great Servants serving the von Einzberns, Wellu von Sellarius."

When Wellu entered the room, she frowned.

"What's he doing?" she asked the interrogator, a man dressed in black and grey version of the Einzbern Fleet uniform.

The interrogator saluted as she entered the room, and dropped it when the question was answered.

"I've been extracting information regarding their magic, culture, and information regarding Prisoner #17, ma'am," he replied.

"And?"

"...Ma'am?"

"What are they like?"

The interrogator blinked before he straightened his back. "From the surface, it seems that their magical population is closer to historical 20th century Wizarding Britain. They are tied to the small kingdom of Alondia, which exists as a single continental nation on Karshann itself under the Batarian Hegemony. Having sworn oaths of fealty, they are required to follow the order of the reigning monarch. However, due to the numerous treaties that the magical Alodians have imposed upon their monarch more than three thousand years, way before the space age of the Batarians in question, the king in question cannot do much but watch.

"On the other hand, the Magical Alodia has been allowed the conquest of other magical -"

"Stop."

"...Ma'am?"

"Write the history lesson for someone else. I'm here for how their magic operates."

"Ah." The interrogator looked sheepish. "Apologies, ma'am. It seems I rambled on."

"Just hurry up."

"Yes, ma'am. From what I understand, their magic is dependent upon their version of our magical cores. So they are closer to wizards rather than us, magi."

She nodded.

"Also, they seem to be the opposite of their mundane counterpart. They are a direct democratic nation whose focus is keeping magic hidden. They aren't arrogant like their mundane parts, and I believe they will open up talks if asked nicely enough."

"Their reaction to us?"

"In one word, worried. They don't know how our magecraft, magic, witchery, and wizardry operates. They have been trying to send agents to get data, and have succeeded in doing so, but from what this man -one of those agent- understands, they can't make heads or tails.

"For one, they never had the presence of a sentient planet suppressing their magic, so they are completely puzzled by that. On the other hand, they completely understand the transfiguration, rituals, and formalcraft that we operate with as there is little to no difference between theirs and ours."

"Huh, fancy that," Wellu commented.

"However, it seems that they are practitioners of what they call the 'esoteric arts,' which summons outer dimensional beings to serve them."

"Summoning?"

"Vastly superior to our own. I couldn't make heads or tails. However, as far as I can tell from this single prisoner, that is so far the only field of magic and magecraft that they have that surpasses ours."

"This prisoner's possibility of joining us?"

"Neal. He has friends and family who he considers too valuable."

Wellu nodded before dismissing the interrogator.

Then she turned to the Batarian, who was still chained up.

"I know you're awake," she said, using the translation spell that most military, diplomatic, and tourist agents knew (something that was considered basic in Northern Star Archipelago).

The Batarian grunted as he pulled his head up straight.

"... So you are Wellu von Sellarius?" he asked, looking over form.

"Eyes up," Wellu grunted.

He did.

"... You know, if you had surrendered, we would have treated you well," she replied.

"I was second in command," he replied with a scowl. "It wasn't my decision."

She scoffed. "Orders are absolute?"

The Batarian scoffed too. "We aren't like those turians. No, the leader thought you guys weren't strong enough to break through our defenses. I disagreed."

"It seems you're smart."

"I know I am."

"Cheeky too."

"..."

Wellu shrugged. "Well, I suppose I'll give you a choice. You can work for me briefly before the Northern Star Archipelago establishes first contact with the Magical Alodia" the batarian twitched. "-Or I can space you."

He growled. "You treat your pr-"

"I did ask for a surrender or to be put to death, batarian," she snapped at him. "Your leader chose, so you pay the price."

He scowled, but didn't comment.

"...You realize this is a declaration of war upon Magical Alodia?"

"Can a nation declare war on another when they aren't even aware of the other's existence?"

"You lie!" the Batarian growled. "How else could you know about the base you destroyed?!"

"We didn't."

"...What?"

"We simply scanned for magical signatures upon the planet that did not match the signatures of our operators on the U-4152, and broke down on it. The War Charter of the Northern Star Archipelago dictates that any magical enclave upon a conquered planet are given a single chance to surrender. Did you think I gave you and your friends a single chance to surrender out of the goodness of my heart? If I had my way, I would've just blasted you and your kin from space, not caring about the collateral damage."

"You...! You monster!"

Wellu's arm snapped out and grabbed Algeo's neck. Then the arm lit up with red magic circuits.

"Monster? I know I am, Algeo," she hissed. "I am Wellu von Sellarius, the King of Rebels. I have personally slayed more than a million enemies with these bare hands of mine," she growled as her grip tightened, but just barely to give the poor Batarian the feeling of being choked without actually being under such threat. "I have glassed planets in my life, and in my death, I have become one of the guardians of the Northern Star Archipelago!" she hissed.

"I-In death-?!" Despite feeling choked, Algeo couldn't help but question.

Wellu smiled, but in no way was this smile benevolent.

"My master has ordered me to keep you alive, but I only need one excuse to kill you and make you into one of my puppets, Algeo. So give me that reason. Insult me again."

He shivered but didn't speak.

She tossed him back, and he tipped over, landing on the floor on his back with the chair he was tied to. He groaned in pain.

"I'll hear your answer when I come back later."

"Wait...!"

She stopped from leaving and stared at the downed batarian.

"Yes?"

"W-Why didn't you just torture me for information?"

She frowned. It reminded him of his primary school teacher when someone asked a stupid question.

"Why go through the trouble of dirtying a room when I can cleanly just take what I need with our interrogators?" Having said her piece, she stood up and left.

First thing Algeo realized after the human woman left the room was that the first interrogator had lied.

He was in no pain other than what had been delivered after the interrogator left, mainly his current position.

Son of a bitch!

-AVA-
F/DS

While Wellu had been conversing with the batarian, the interrogator was busy typing out what he had learned.

There was a lot that he had to report, so he divided up the report itself into several parts.

First, it would have the difference between mundane and magical batarian cultures and nations. Second, his report would state the military affairs of the latter he learned of from the prisoner. Third, it would also state the likelihood of Magical Alodia publicly opening up relations with the Terran League and the Northern Star Archipelago.

And lastly, he would add in the report regarding the magical nature of these xeno mages.

After two intense hours of typing, correcting, and summarizing the data, he finalized the report and moved it to a secure datapad for the duke's eyes only.

With that, he waited for the von Sellarius to return so he could hand her the datapad.

He would probably take the rest of the day off with the exception of providing the prisoners under his care the medical and sustenance they need.

Wellu took the proffered datapad, tucked it under her arm, and walked out of the brigs.

Once outside of the brigs, a section of an entire floor in the middle layers within the dreadnought Archangel's Plight, Duke Ilmensvies von Einzbern's personal flagship, the very same ship that had taken apart the U-4152 defensive fleet by itself.

As she made her way to the duke's personal quarters, she pulled the datapad out from underneath her arm and read its contents. Even with the numerous elevators and platform transporters, it would take her a good ten minutes to reach her destination.

She skipped the first three parts of the report; those were information that concerned her Master.

The only thing she cared about was the mysteries of the Magical Alodia.

The first thing she noticed was that Alodians (as the interrogator had written in this report) had no concept about planetary interactions with magical beings. They were completely unaware of the non-organic, deity-class TYPEs that exist in each planet they walk on.

Wellu did not find much concern with this information.

The second bullet point about the Alodians was that they had no concept about true magic nor did they differentiate magic from magecraft. This has led to the Alodians having different terms for what she and the other humans would call "magecraft" -they just called it magic.

Again, nothing she was concerned with.

Then finally, she reached the part she was most concerned about.

Summoning, the only field that the Alodians had apparently surpassed the humans.

Alodians separated Summoning into several "ranks."

The lowest, the Din, was the summoning of semi-sentient elementals. Again, term issues. The "elementals" that the Alodians dealt with were closer to spirits in control of a certain aspect of nature that was born directly from the planet itself. However, these elementals, as far as the interrogator back in the brig was concerned, was that they were completely different beings from the elementals of Gaia -the latter could crush cities with a wave of their hand, but the former could barely topple a single well built house.

This was also the only rank that did not touch the extradimensional summons.

The second lowest, the Jhak'dhal, was the summoning of "lesser" extradimensional creatures. These creatures varied in size and shape, but they were all non-sentient beasts. They just didn't follow certain rules that the rest of the universe was subjected to. An example in the report was that of an extradimensional creature called "Hollows." Speculated to be mostly spiritual in nature, they were "souls" who could not pass on to Akasha. Unable to pass on, they stewed in their thoughts and became corrupted. The result was a Hollow, a masked spirit that lived on instinct and completely without sentient and sapience.

The third rank -the middle rank-, Manci, was the summoning of "average" dimensional creatures.

Unfortunately, from here on, the actual data was vague due to the prisoner not knowing much about it in the first place. So with the source unable to give them a better outlook aside from what little examples they had in the prisoner's brain, the report petered off.

"Master."

Ilmensvies glanced over his shoulder. "Wellu," he greeted. "How is our prisoner?"

"Angry."

"Expected," the duke replied. "Information regarding their people?"

Wellu walked up to the man, who had his back to her behind the marble desk, and placed the datapad there.

When Ilmensvies swirled around, she grimaced.

When she saw her Master use Heaven's Feel along with his Starlight Paradise magecraft to blow up the entire opposition in the counterattack, she knew that there were going to be consequences for her Master.

While this was not well known, the Heaven's Feel was not as "perfect" as most people and most magi thought it to be, despite being a True Magic.

It was after all, a glorified unlimited battery. Nothing more, nothing less.

That was how her Master always talked about his True Magic whenever he got the chance to do so in private.

'I'm a bloody battery. Literally,' he often said.

Starlight Paradise, however, was the cause of what she saw.

The magecraft in question was something that didn't use thaumaturgy engraved into reality around the magus, but a magecraft that imposed temporarily upon the world.

A magecraft that was completely different from thaumaturgy associated magecraft like alchemy. As such, it also required different methodology. Unlike alchemy, projection, and jewelcraft where a magus' body became the conduit for "tangible resources" -in the form of mana, prana, and od- to be funneled to enact a mystery, Starlight Paradise demanded that the magus' body become the conduit for additional "resources."

Now, unlike other magecraft, Starlight Paradise did allow for "intangible resource" to be used.

Her Master had chosen "mental calculation" as his resource during his youth.

Unfortunately, that was the extent that she understood about her Master's magecraft.

Its unfortunate side effect, however, was something she knew well.

She took in the migraine induced bloodshot eyes, the clenching of jaw muscles to prevent himself from groaning in pain, and the burning of nerves that she knew had happened underneath her Master's frail exterior.

Such was the price for his magecraft.

By choosing mental calculation as his intangible resource to enact his mysteries on top of the necessary tangible resources of od and prana, her Mater's nervous system overheats itself every time he uses Starlight Paradise.

During his youth, none of this would have bothered her tough Master. He would shrug off the effects within hours because of how fit and young his body was. However, time took its tool upon her Master...

"Don't look so sad, Wellu. At least none of my people had to die fighting a useless naval battle," he chided as he took up the datapad.

She frowned but did so.

As much of a "cold, heartless bitch" that others saw her as, she was without a doubt someone who loved her family. Don't get her wrong, she was selfish to the depths of hell, but her family was always a second after herself.

To her, her Master Ilmensvies von Einzbern was a stepfather who had rescued her from the cold, lonely Throne of Heroes. Oh, when she was alive, she had met the man before as rivals, but in her death, she had found solace in his care. To her, he was a member of her family, and thus someone she cared deeply for.

So to see her Master suffering so that a few people whose names and faces she didn't even know would not die, it made her frustrated.

"So what is your opinion of these people?"

She snapped out of her thoughts and feelings at her Master's call.

"... In simple words, I would call them diplomatic, individualistic, materialistic, and spiritualistic."

"Spiritualisitc?"

She smirked. "It takes some belief to work with magic."

He nodded sagely in agreement. "Continue, please."

After a pause and gathering of her thoughts, she spoke.

While the planet of U-4152 and its system was quiet, the rest of the galaxy was not.

Within the Terran League, there were calls for a "crusade" against "xeno scum" who invaded their land. Politically, their stance was one born out of long hatred of all things that weren't "terran," which included mostly the protoss within the Protoss Coalition.

The Citadel Council was busy preparing themselves. After seeing the devastating might of a single dreadnought -which they mistook for an elite Terran League dreadnought-, the people, not the races, of the Citadel Council were split in three ways.

The first faction wanted nothing to do with the Terran League. "No Contact, No Trouble" was their motto. While they were okay with maintaining diplomatic ties, they were adamant about severing all possible trade, immigration, and other treaties barring a non-aggression pact.

The second faction wanted to become vassals of the Terran League. "If you can't beat them, join them."

The third faction represented the most radical of the Citadel races; they wanted to destroy the Terran League by any means possible so that they represent no threat. (Un?)fortunately, they were also the smallest and least favored of the factions. Citadel races may have some lapses of intelligence, but they were by no means stupid.

But perhaps the most active of all activities in the galaxy was the invasion of the Three Warring States into the rest of the Terminus Alliance territories and states.

Already, the "western" front was at a total collapse as each battle favored the technologically, numerically, and tactically superior terrans. Planets and space stations conquered by the terrans were wiped clean of unwanted elements such as pirates, slavery, and literal filth. Aria T'Loak, one of the warlords of the Terminus Alliance, had capitulated to the Einzberns, essentially making her a vassal of the Northern Star Archipelago. This had prompted an attack from the rest of the warlords for the betrayal, but the attack was soon swept aside by the terran counterattack which was led by Otto Tohsaka, Ilmensvies' grandson.

As all of this happened to the galaxy, Magical Alodia remained strangely silent.