When they got to where Star Charts was, Yashiro was taken aback by how young the dark lord looked, given that he knew the man had existed in this area long before Yashiro was even born.
Be that as it may, Star Charts got straight to the point: who their target was, what exactly he had done, and the fact that they were going to have to assault his headquarters head-on.
When it came to questions, Tetsu pointed out that the defences on the enemy fort were far too dangerous for a frontal assault. Star Charts made it clear that he would be dealing with those personally, which would make the assault possible, and that there would be additional men waiting for them outside.
Yashiro thought the plan, taking place tonight, might be a little too rushed. Star Charts agreed with him — and said he had to do it now, against his own better judgement, because the longer this took, the better the chances their target would escape, and that would severely affect his prestige.
Yashiro could not let this dark lord look down on him either, so he stood his ground in front of his students. Seeing that, Star Charts set his teasing aside and expressed that Yashiro was a brave warrior worthy of respect.
With the questions finally over, Star Charts analysed the terrain with everyone else. While they were at it, Aki could not help telling Yashiro that helping one dark lord to take down another felt so wrong.
Yashiro assured her that everything would be fine. After all, people who cared about their reputation could definitely be trusted, and that was the case with Star Charts.
Once everything was set in stone, the dark lord left the meeting alone and went deep into the woods, where he spoke with a number of people who talked to him through the forest animals, in a tongue nobody there had heard before — and then used his ether perception to change the weather.
While he was at it, Tetsu assembled the squad members who would be going into the fort: Shikisaki, Hot Soya, Kumashi, Higa, Onoda, Hatakeyama, Kito, Tsuji and Malta, followed up by Yashiro and the ladies, before finally proceeding with the operation.
Although Malta had assured everyone that he was perfectly fine with heights, his acrophobia took over so completely that Yashiro had to take care of the situation personally.
Being the jealous optimist that she was, Aki decided to pretend to be acrophobic herself, and was told bluntly to shut up. Sarah urged her not to anger Yashiro any further. Aki argued that she had the best of intentions, in the most shameless way possible, by angering Yashiro with a voice loud enough to frighten Malta even more.
Fortunately for the poor man, Tetsu informed them that it would not be long before they landed.
As for the defenders, they were thunderstruck before they could even react. That was not the end of it. Star Charts sent a tornado into the enemy fort, which effectively stripped it of every defence it had, though it very nearly threw the helicopter out of the sky as well.
The allied forces began advancing on the fort, guns blazing, with Yashiro and the others following suit.
Before the raid could start, Aki suggested that the best approach to the enemy would be a straightforward attack. Yashiro reminded her — along with Sarah, the sickly Malta and the half-asleep Yukina — of the entire plan, which required the sneaky approach: pretending to be a delivery person to get the enemy to open the door, or a maintenance worker to get inside.
Fortunately for the girls, Star Charts had already eliminated every defensive line the fortified enemy had.
Once they reached the enemy castle, Yashiro, Malta and the girls landed and began their mission, with even more braves following after them. The operation began well for the raiders, who overcame the enemy defences with relative ease. Using their ether perception, some of them walked through a hail of bullets. Others snuck through the walls.
Meanwhile Yashiro and the girls advanced through the alleyways of the fort. Yashiro made Aki trip for trying to take the lead so recklessly. After letting Yukina and Sarah go ahead, he informed them that there was no need to assist any of the other braves, since they were professionals in their own right, and that the force's task was to distract the defenders while Yashiro and the girls found the dark lord.
Speaking of which, Venus Veil had assumed he had been sold out by the mercenaries he had hired — namely Tommo, Seiki and Drit. Once he was assured that they had not sold him, Venus Veil decided to prioritise his escape, even though abandoning his library was a bitter pill to swallow.
While the mercenaries kept their morale high during the escape, the raiders were increasingly using their ether perception to annihilate every kind of resistance that came their way. By forcing enemies to look the other way. By stealth. By swimming through walls. Until they eventually discovered where the dark lord's chamber was.
It was reported that the fort had a very complex subterranean structure, but it was still recommended that anyone who did not have their hands full should make for point D1 as the rendezvous with the search team.
By the time Yashiro had the full message, Yukina and Aki arrived, Yukina buried inside a full set of protective gear. She did not find it comfortable in the least. Yashiro made it clear that it was necessary to keep her from being shot through the heart, and then asked them all to thank him for using his connections to obtain it — and Sarah, in the end, did not mention that the connection had been Malta's.
As for Aki, she was grateful for what she had been given regardless, even if the shield was squeezing her chest, much to Sarah and Yukina's dismay. Yashiro was having none of it.
Then he was back to remembering that Malta was busy doing intelligence work of his own, learning what he could about the Half-Dragon, which mattered far more to Yashiro than eliminating any dark lord — and which, all things considered, must be well underway by now.
Be that as it may, Yashiro advised the girls to stay cautious, since nobody knew what ether perception the enemy had, and told Aki in particular that courage was not what he was looking for from her.
Then they entered the room they had been looking for, and realised they were standing inside a data centre, with countless bodies stored in it, waiting to be turned into Nephilim.