That Time an American was Reincarnated into Another World-Chapter 261: Shade

September 8th, 626

“Cargo is loaded and Overwatch is in the air, sir.”

“Thank you.”

I nodded to one of Sector 4’s Pale Horsemen, a checklist in front of him. I had the same checklist in my head and had already verified the place of every item on it personally.

Unlike the first time, I wouldn’t be leaving such an important recon mission to anyone else, and I certainly won’t be losing anyone as a result.

I walked forward, into the transport plane that would be dropping us into the island. Every Desert Eagle was there, going through their own personal checklists one more time.

I stepped to Umara’s side.

“Got everything?”

“I should, but things like this make me think there’s something missing.”

“Right. Well, think of the worst case and the absolute essentials. As long as you have those you should be good.”

“Mm.”

She nodded, scanning her checklist for the 100th time.

Like her, I had a feeling that we’d be on that island for longer than a week.

“10 till we fly. Everyone make last checks and find your seat.”

I announced after some time, the anxiety rising a little.

I found myself by the cockpit, two pilots, also Pale Horsemen, already there and prepared.

After checking in with them, I made my rounds to the rest of my platoon, and then finally closed the hatch.

I sat with the others, all of us feeling the plane spin up and speed across the runway. Before long we were being pushed back into our seats, climbing into the air at what felt like a vertical angle.

After we finally leveled out, I sighed and unbuckled, relaxing with Umara beside me.

My right hand found my left forearm where a metal sheath was. It was heavily enchanted and connected to a new series of devices.

My SEER Knife could work alone, but I decided that it would be best for it to have a database. A place for storage, primarily, not necessarily computational power. Thus, along with the Knife under the coat sleeve over my forearm, there was now a small, flat device between my shoulder blades weaved into a special undershirt I wore.

Umara, Feiden, and Tana had the same undershirts, as well as their own SEER Knives just as I had promised. Nobody else knew about their knives. As far as they knew, only I had one.

I pulled on the hilt, the guard clicking away from the sheath. It revealed what looked like a solid blade of blue light resembling some kind of holographic glass. It was far from solid though.

I had created another piece of tech derived from my illusive abilities and built it into the blade. I was hoping that it would fulfill the Eradication function of the SEER Knife well.

I smiled, admiring my masterpiece a bit longer before shoving it back against the sheath underneath my sleeve.

The plane cruised at about 400 mph and 30 thousand feet in the sky, which meant we were within dropping range of the island after about 5 hours.

The ride was mostly silent, everyone either getting some extra sleep or checking their gear for the 100th time. There was some chatter between Aki and Katta, but everyone’s minds seemed to simply be on the mission awaiting us.

We’d be completely isolated for an extended duration, on a ruined island that nobody knew about, the number of people who knew anything even remotely related to this mission able to be counted on two hands and firmly within my trusted control.

Nobody knew what we’d find on the island, but it was promising to be interesting no matter what.

“10 minutes.”

The pilot announced over a speaker, making me stand. The others followed as I brought out my Jetpack and strapped it on.

They all put their helmets on, either built or modified by Sawn Industries to my functional specifications. Capable of full environmental isolation, emergency oxygen storage, communication, picture and video recording.

Magic was such a convenient thing.

Once my own helmet was tied down alongside my oxygen tank, I walked over to the drop hatch and let the whole cabin depressurize with a press of a button.

Once completed the hatch opened.

“2 minutes.”

We heard another announcement over our Aerials, everyone gathering and peering out of the hatch. It was an hour before sunrise, still dark, with the slightest hazy light peeking over the horizon far in the distance.

Right at the asscrack of dawn.

“30 seconds!”

“Let’s get it done.”

I stepped up front, securing the gloves over my hands and eyeing our target.

It was right by the coastline. There was a dock there as well as what looked like a small airport based on the scans. We were going to check that out first before making our way to the city.

The red light above my head turned green, and I wordlessly stepped out, falling through the threshold.

The wind whipped around me, and I could sense the others following suit.

All 12 of us were soon falling through the sky. I flicked on the Jetpack enchantments, wind resistance disappearing and my speed rocketing with the acceleration of gravity. The others were the same, thousands of feet being covered before anyone could chime in over Aerial.

All was silent, everyone’s lights green in my vision, meaning their Jetpacks passed their test fires. My gaze remained on the coastline below, endless water in every direction making the target seem a lot smaller than it actually was.

A minute later and I was prefiring my Jetpack, the ground rapidly approaching. My body reoriented feet down and hot fire started firing out behind me, slowing my descent as air magic created even more drag than my body, acting like a parachute.

I aimed for the sand, legs tucked a bit, the Jetpack slowing me enough to touch down relatively comfortably. Previously activated Mute Field devices kept me and the others from attracting the attention of everything for a mile around.

My feet finally hit the ground, a silenced Honey Badger appearing in my hands and the Mute Field on my hip winking off. My eyes rapidly scanned around the area, just as they did while falling, my Aura seeking out literally any abnormality or activity.

My helmet and Jetpack went back to their places beyond space as the others landed around me, weapons in their hands. Once they were on the ground their Mute Fields shut down like mine did. We were all silent on the sand for some seconds, everyone getting themselves battle ready, everyone’s figures fading as the adaptive camouflage worked its magic.

I muttered over telepathy, everyone in my mental chatroom.

[Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen. We survived the drop.]

[Now it’s a week of who the fuck knows what.]

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Blackblood rebutted, Katta chuckling.

[That’s a week at minimum.]

[It’ll take a week just to get into the damn citadel.]

[Or we’ll be at this dock for a week as the Commander pulls the enchantments off everything he finds.]

The two went back and forth, making me roll my eyes.

[Alright, anybody sense anything?]

[Nope.]

[Nothing here.]

[Negative.]

[No, sir.]

I got some responses, so it seemed like everyone was sensing just how dead it was, like I did.

[Alright. We’re moving into the dock. Remember, the things that try to kill us may not be living.]

I started walking forward, the dock a half mile away.

Upon approach I scanned around and saw the ruins from all the pictures and videos collected over the last couple months. Everything matched perfectly.

The dock was closer to a port. There were the docks themselves as well as large buildings and a small village that must have handled all the imports for this place. Unfortunately, there were no visual boats, which probably meant that they were all housing fish at the bottom of the harbor.

Not that I necessarily needed boat designs. I just wanted enchantment data so I could get a glimpse at how they enchanted things in general. The earlier the better.

The first place we approached was a large stone warehouse generally close to our landing point. I assumed it was going to be filled with items, whether foods, materials, or devices, so it was one of the first places I planned to check out based on pictures.

I heard something tapping on the floor inside when we got to the door. Umara picked up on the same thing, Feiden moving up to the door and checking out the locks.

[Movement inside.]

[Door’s locked too. Enchanted metal.]

[Tana and Shadowbane, find another entry. I’ll work on this.]

I gave the commands, kneeling in front of the door and taking out my SEER Knife as Tana and Shadowbane silently moved around the warehouse.

I pointed the blade at the door lock, a rectangular device attached to a metal deadbolt. As soon as I touched the knife to the device, all its enchantments lit up.

Shockingly complex for a lock. The knife collected data, which I accessed with my mind via the database on my back. There were hundreds of formations and circuits, but most of them were dead and the ones still lit up seemed to be auxiliary formations for something other than the lock.

I sifted through the data for almost 5 minutes, my Knife poking and prodding at every corner of the device and collecting anything it could.

As soon as I had all the data, I analyzed some of it, indeed noticing that despite using a unique programming language, the foundation of it was still the language of Psykic magic, the kind of thing I was forced to deep dive into while analyzing my advancement formations.

I couldn’t be more familiar with it, at least that which was in this lock.

So I accessed the core of the formation and started interfering with the knife. I developed a program on the fly based on how the enchantments reacted to power and data injection.

A bit more digging around, plus a bit of severed lines to external alarms, and the lock suddenly clicked open with a surge of power from the knife.

[Door’s unlocked. Moving interior.]

[We found another entrance, broken window. Also entering.]

I pulled open the door, standing to the side and letting Feiden move in first. I was right behind him, my silencer right by his shoulder.

Our footsteps were completely silent, enchantments in our boots muting our movement. The only reason I wasn’t allowing everyone to use the Mute Fields was because I didn’t know if there were devices or living things that could detect active and external magic. For now we needed to move in the dark, only enchantments with full isolation being used.

After stepping past tall racks with boxes, we came to an open area and saw the source of the noise.

It was a lone robot, surrounded by the corpses of those just like it, moving back and forth while carrying out the motions of picking up and carrying a box to a shelf.

But it didn’t have any arms, so it simply bent over, stood back up, and walked on a single worn path. I could see the marks of its footsteps from years of walking in exactly the same places.

Good engineering.

I scanned the rest of the warehouse, nothing immediately catching my eye. Tana and Shadowbane also moved in from another area, meeting us in the middle.

[A looping automaton.]

[It’s kind of sad. All these years of just walking back and forth.]

Jaya walked a bit closer to the bot, checking it out.

I shrugged, looking around.

[There aren’t any other active systems in this place. Sweep the area and we can relax for a bit as I collect data. Aki, you’re on overwatch.]

[Roger.]

Aki started walking, but at the same instant that she took a step, I heard movement through the air.

Everyone’s body snapped to the direction we heard the noise from. My finger lingered on the trigger, sights trained on nothing but boxes.

All of us were silent for some seconds, hearing nothing until I spoke.

[Anyone see it?]

[No.]

[Nothing.]

I got negatives all around, nobody moving an inch.

I pondered for a second, lifting my foot and taking a step. No sound was made due to the muting soles.

Everyone snapped to another direction when we heard the sound again, though. It was only moving when we moved, probably wanting to use the noise of our footsteps to distract, but failing to realize that ours were silent.

Aki spoke.

[I’m not sensing anything. Could it be an automaton?]

[I really hope it is. Either that or it’s a Shade.]

Ilinca muttered back, everyone on a hair trigger as we were flooded with a horrible sense of danger.

We were still and silent for almost a minute before I snapped around once more, that thing lunging toward me specifically.

I scanned its figure. It was the faded ghost of a person, a face screaming in silent agony. I could feel its despair, its desperation, flood my own Aura uncontrollably. It couldn’t even think for itself and yet it moved with a sole goal.

To drag my soul down to hell with it.

I put a bullet through its head, overloaded with Psyka. The bullet tore through its figure and gouged out a massive chunk of it.

Half its head disappeared but it still moved toward me. I stepped back while firing two more rounds, except this time both of them were nearly pure Aura, Psyka acting as its anchor to the world.

And the body of the ghost evaporated around my bullets, collapsing and dissipating. The little intelligence I sensed from it was snuffed out, its soul finally resting and the despair no longer invading my Aura.

The others watched, ready to attack should it have taken one more step closer to me, but trusting that I could handle it.

My gun lowered, everyone looking around as the sense of danger disappeared.

[So that’s a Shade...]

Umara muttered, gazing at the air where the Shade faded away.

After our talk, Kwon asked me to keep their origins a secret, a request I was more than happy to oblige. After that, I was given all the information on potential enemies and obstructions we could find on the island.

According to him, Shades were what was left behind after the King Bloods of Despair killed someone. It was a lingering soul, corrupted and filled with nothing but endless agony and despair. Psyka weapons were the most effective against them, as was Aura, if someone was capable of wielding it that way.

I had informed everyone of them beforehand, simply refusing to divulge where I got the information. Now though, we had seen what Shades were first hand. It was a bit creepier than I expected.

“Brrr…”

Jaya suddenly shivered, paranoid eyes flickering around the warehouse.

I sighed.

[Well, we know one thing. This city is potentially filled with tens of thousands of Shades, and our Adaptive Camo doesn’t seem to work on them.]

[We also can’t sense them with conventional means, not unless it starts flooding our Auras with Despair.]

Aki added, making me nod.

[So how are we supposed to hide from something that completely negates our stealth measures?]

I shrugged at Umara’s question.

[Not sure. That will take experimentation. Perhaps the Adaptive Camo is working against us. We may have to rely on personal means to hide. It’s only knowledge you guys will acquire through trial and error outside.]

[Not you?]

[Nope. I’ve got a robot to work on.]

I walked over to the robot, watching it continue on its path.

[I’ll crack this thing open and get to work. The rest of you can set up watch and investigate the docks, see if there’s anything interesting].

I grabbed the hilt of my knife while Umara took control of the squads, delegating tasks and leaving the warehouse. Feiden and Shadowbane stayed behind with me.

The automaton was still walking, as it had undisturbed for decades. I matched pace with it, my SEER Knife stabbing into its chest.

An alarm sounded as I scanned through its enchantments, the automaton freezing and twitching like it was throwing errors.

I saw its core, where all power, processing, and data came from. Although it looked like a very centralized system, the enchantments strewn throughout its limbs completely escaped my comprehension.

They were written in the ethereal language of Mana, go figure, but it was still obviously of a far higher level and complexity than anything I’d ever seen from the Kingdom. What little I did contextually recognize pointed to it being earth and fire mana enchantments. I’d have to have Umara look at it.

What really interested me though was what I found within the Core. Around the core was nothing but the unknown complexity of the Mantle’s programming language, but within it was nearly exclusively the language of Psyka.

And I could barely understand the most superficial parts of it. The most core systems were so deep with esoteric complexity that I got a headache just trying to memorize it. This was material beyond my level, that much was certain, and it was found within a common labor automaton.

I sighed, probing around the Core with my Knife, cutting off the robot’s movement before sitting down to study.

Katta may not be right about me sitting here for a week, but I wouldn’t leave without getting all I could out of this robot and using it to build a foundation.