High School Soldier
132. Hope 1

Since the destruction of the Imperial capital by green forces, the Alliance Army has conducted numerous investigations into the enemy, including interviewing heroes who know the military power of the green forces.

The first thing the Alliance Forces did was to gather information thoroughly. Battles can be won if you know the strength of the enemy, and gather greater strength.

The Alliance forces gathered information from soldiers who had fought with Indonesia, prisoners of war obtained by the Luan Empire, heroes, and weapons obtained from other worlds, and many other information. The temporary conclusion obtained after researching these things, they finally found the conclusion, namely “enemies from other worlds will be very difficult to defeat, despite calling the heroes”.

However, the leaders of the Alliance Forces member states did not surrender. They kept looking for ways not to lose this war, and made the best use of the heroes.

After the research conducted by the best magician the Alliance Army had, they found an explanation regarding the Gate which was controlled by the green troops.

According to the Alliance Forces' greatest magicians, the Gate is a ‘movable magic item’ that has a time limit, just like the expiration time of a product. It is said that at the beginning of civilization, this world was once connected to another world before it was connected to the world of origin of green troops.

The selection of the Holy Land as a place to set up the Gate, because there is the greatest magic energy in this world, but it is more similar to a resource that cannot be renewed, if used continuously, if used continuously, the energy will be exhausted in unknown time. Even so, the Gate is an object that connects two worlds, and has a certain time limit to disappear.

However, there are several ways to eliminate the Gate besides waiting until the deadline arrives, which is to provide a certain flow of magic energy so that the magic ‘binding’ Gate to keep it standing unstable. However, that flow of magic required a group of magicians who mastered ‘ancient magic’. Ancient magic is the strongest flow of all magic in this world, because according to some historical records, ancient magic is one part of the formation of this world.

The nine summoned heroes have the ‘bless’ God of War in the form of ancient magic, meaning their ability to close and eliminate the Gate. The ancient magic they possessed had the name of human feeling, which also became their name.

The magic of one of the heroes is the Hero of Sadness is the ocean represented by water, which is said to be the most important part of the formation of the world. That was why the person who became the Hero of Sadness had the symbol of tears in his eyes, which was the image of the Goddess of Hope when creating water as she made this world. Beautiful is the one who was chosen to be the Hero of Sadness.

Meanwhile, the sun represented by fire is one of the most important elements in human life.The Hero of Anger is the owner of this ancient flow of magic. Throughout human history, ‘api’ was one of the most inalienable elements besides water. The person from another world who became the Hero of Anger was a warrior named Rio, who was symbolized by a hand that grasped a fire arrow.

Hearing if the heroes had the required flow of ancient magic, the leaders of the Alliance Army asked them to perform a magic release to destabilize the Gate binding magic.

But, there was one problem, since the Gate was in the Holy Land which was now controlled by the green troops, and it was impossible to send troops there for now. However, there are three heroes who are said to come from the same country as the green troops, namely the Hero of Anger, the Hero of Sadness, and the Hero of Lust.

After consulting and conducting negotiations that led the Alliance Army to spend a huge amount of money, the three heroes finally complied with the request of the leader of the Alliance Forces member state, even though one of the heroes did so in a very forced manner.

According to the Hero of Sadness, aka Beautiful, helping the Alliance Forces to close the Gate means helping to destroy the army where her lover fought. Because closing the Gate meant weakening the Expeditionary Force, and making it easier to defeat and destroy them. Like ‘name of her hero’, Indah is indeed sad to do this, and does not know what she should say to people if she makes it back to Indonesia after completing her duties as a hero here.

Although he is ready to fight, because he has also experienced sandiri, but it will be different story if the enemy faced is his own lover. If a coincidence were to happen, even if it really did happen, Beautiful would be very embarrassed if she had to meet Nio in the middle of the battlefield.

Elsewhere, the Hero of Anger, aka Rio polishing the first 20 generation assault rifle that has changed color to silvery, and has thanks to ‘ eternal bullets’, and, or rather Rio had a special magic according to his weapon that allowed for him to continue shooting without fear of running out of ammunition. Because he had the ancient magic power of fire, so Rio's assault rifle would shoot fire bullets instead of 7.62mm lead bullets. The costume Rio wore was no longer a TNI striped uniform, but a striped uniform in black with a blood flowing motif in red, similar to the color of the Alliance Forces war flag. And the armband bearing the emblem of the Student Army of Rio was already burnt using the power of his, which indicates that Rio was not bound to the TNI or the Student Army.

In addition to ‘magic’ assault rifles, all TNI standard weapons such as pistols also have unlimited bullets. Despite having an already lethal assault rifle, Rio was still not the strongest hero.

The metallic ancient magic that the Happiness Hero possessed was the strongest ancient magic in this world, and the owner of this magic could be counted with fingers. A hero or a magician who possesses metal magic allows him to create things, including assault rifles as long as he has a memory of the shape of the weapon. Because of this, many say that this magic is too strong, and consider it a forbidden magic. Even so, many people and magicians want this magic, but it requires a magic capacity equivalent to a hero.

The Hero of Anger and the Hero of Sadness who had pledged allegiance, and vowed to save the Alliance Army from otherworldly invaders, prepared to set out for the Holy Land riding on a wind dragon. As they set off, they would watch from above the Expeditionary Force attempting to seize the capital of the Luan Empire.

Although the Luan Empire was already cooperating with a great superpower in the neighboring continent, but help did not only come from that country. The five countries of the Andzrev Continent, which had planned to make a peace treaty with Indonesia, turned away from this goal and chose to join the Alliance Forces.

The reason for their joining the Alliance Army was very easy to understand. A person will turn away from the main goal of unprofitable after he sees a thing that promises a great profit. Due to the joining of the five countries to the Alliance Forces, it meant that the strength of those forces would be immense. And with such a large sum it would definitely be very easy for them to defeat the green forces that controlled the Holy Land.

Other than the Gate, the Holy Land was a sacred place other than storing abundant underground magic energy. That said, this place is the beginning of all life in this world to occur.

Now the war is not only centered on the plan for the capture of the Gate, because the object will soon be eliminated. The Holy Land is the target of the capture of the Alliance Forces, and soon a war will ensue.

**

Five drones were deployed to carry out the delayed bombing operation as the entire force was ordered to retreat, and even the frontline base was hit. The sight of the capital being almost destroyed is really appetizing for the helicopter-like drone operator. Because the runway is damaged and takes a very long time to repair, air combat tools that can fly without using the runway are just helicopters and drones, aka drones themselves. In addition, the use of drone weapons is able to reduce the number of casualties of valuable human soldiers.

As it passed through the hundreds of fighting vehicles lined up to return to the fortress, the entire army on the ground hoped that they could bomb the capital to the ground. There was nothing preventing the drone from continuing to accelerate towards its prey, except for a few dragons that had flown before.

“May the enemy receive our message well!” one of the drone operators said that in the control room of the Central Headquarters.

The five drones dropped 3 bombs directly on the territory of the Imperial capital, and one of the bombs was directed at the Emperor's palace which was released from a height of 5 kilometers.

A few hours after the bombing, the impact of the explosion could be felt by the top brass of the Alliance Forces. They saw a blinding flash, followed by a very loud explosive sound, and caused a dust storm. After that, the view of the already empty Emperor palace with its occupants was visible.

It was obvious, the one destroying the palace was the green army.

The astonishment, admiration, and fear mixed into one and were felt by the military higher-ups of the Alliance Army who set up headquarters at a distance of 5 kilometers from the Emperor's palace.

“It was the most deadly weapon power they had. Then, after the Gate closed, what could they do? Would they continue to fight without their carts and cannons running steel? Are they able to find a way out of the closed gate? Their savage weapons will be lower than daggers after the Gate is closed.”

**

The first to notice the oddity of the Gate was Sigiz, he had magic that allowed him to sense the peculiarity of a magical phenomenon. Although it included inanimate objects, the Gate was still a thing created with magic.

“E...eh...?”

Sigiz opened his eyes as if he was looking at something amazingly shocking. Upon seeing the Gate slowly being swallowed into the ground, and removing the portal inside, Sigiz felt his stomach as if it was being shaken so strongly. The entire senses in his body felt discomfort and made his body tremble.

“What...!?” Meanwhile, Gio felt his voice tremble as he stood staring at the vanishing Gate as it was sucked into the bowels of the earth. He dropped hundreds of pieces of files that he had clamped on his armpit earlier, and felt a very bad premonition.

Gio's shoulders trembled, and the few soldiers who were in charge of guarding the headquarters saw the Gate slowly vanishing before the eyes with a limp look.

The atmosphere was so tense that even breathing was extremely difficult, that even the most formidable officer shook his knees. This ominous premonition that froze the soles of the feet made the entire inhabitants of the fort and the refugee settlement stir.

“Why is the atmosphere so unpleasant?”

When Sucipto said that, almost all the phones in the control room, officers and all the phones scattered throughout the fort sounded indicating that there were many parties from Indonesia who wanted to ask why the Gate suddenly disappeared. This makes the atmosphere even more bleak.

**

A few hours ago…

The nine heroes landed at a distance of 10 kilometers from the Holy Land, or precisely ‘Indonesian Special Region in the Other World’. Indonesia has obtained an agreement with Yekirnovo State for the rights of this 101.2 square kilometers area.

Emperor Bogat and some of the Alliance Army's top military officers also landed after flying longer than them.

Without any direction, the entire hero said a few words very quickly. It was a spell to release the magic that bound the Gate to remain standing. The Hero of Regret, aka the Israeli soldier Gurion Zoharya Moshen, or simply Gurion, seems to show the most different expression than any other hero who confidently carries out the task of closing the Gate. Gurion's face was soaked with sweat pouring down from his forehead, and wore a most worried expression despite his already great strength.

Rio was aware of the worried expression that Gurion put on, yet he could not convince the person as he himself was also worried when doing this. Almost the same feeling was also felt by Indah, but what she was worried about was if they were known to the patrolmen. Still, he still could not bear to fight the Indonesian army using his magic power.

After casting a long spell, the nine heroes swung both talapak hands to the ground. Instantly, the Gate flared reddish, yet only they could see it, and slowly the Gate was swallowed into the ground.

In addition to the plan to close the Gate, the nine heroes will infiltrate the refugee settlement to ‘hackle’ there. Messing here means doing bad things, such as damaging or things that are detrimental to refugees.

**

The base suffered only minor damage to the part standing around the Gate, the guardrail of almost half of it collapsed, but did not make the Expeditionary Force suffer any heavy losses.

The only thing visible after the Gate disappeared was the small crater where the previous Gate stood. It was precisely visible if the Gate was moved to another place rather than sinking into the ground. There is indeed magic that can mess up space and be used to move something to the destination, but it requires a huge amount of magic power.

“The only one who can do this is a hero-level magician.” Sigiz muttered about this and made some of the surrounding Expeditionary Force soldiers wonder about the true strength of the hero in question.

All the soldiers of the Expeditionary Force have known the human power called this hero. Of course, fighting them with ordinary rifles or artillery would not work. It should make all TNI soldiers who do not understand and have magic worried.

Nio opened his eyes limply, he fell asleep while resting after working all day.

It was because the base was busy with reconstruction work after retreating from the Imperial capital. After arriving at the base, the entire army immediately did work such as moving debris and burying the fallen friends. It was impossible to wait until the Gate opened again just to move this fallen friend's body to the homeland. They died as heroes, and will be the first soldiers to be buried not in Indonesia.

Nio complained, “I know that the troops do not have enough energy, but letting us work too hard isn't it very excessive?”

Looking towards the outside of the fortress, Nio saw people gathering sparsely.

This was a difficult time, so about race, religion, tribe, or rank was no longer a problem. They all had the same difficulties, and united towards the same goal, which is to continue to guard the homeland even though the Gate is not open.

But still, nothing warms up in the refugee settlements. Minimarkets and stalls close faster because they worry if something bad happens again.

In the refugee settlements, the refugees and migrant traders who made the settlements grow larger began to distrust and suspect each other. It could be that the Alliance Army sent some of their men and mixed in among the settlers here, then executed their plan after all the necessary things were ready.

However, there may be traitors among the Expeditionary Force soldiers as well as refugees or migrants.

The logical reason to suspect the Expeditionary Force soldiers and settlers is that they get brainwashed, trapped in a spy honey trap, bribed with a lot of money, and other possibilities.

To deal with this situation, General Sucipto decided to strengthen surveillance and security by forming ‘Emergency’ Special Security Unit, with a task similar to that of state intelligence.

**

“It turns out you're here.”

A cat girl called Nio immediately looked back. All prisoners in the Expeditionary Force prison were released after the Gate was closed, including Edera. Edera was acquitted of probation, although she was previously sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempted murder.

Edera did not complain about her sentence, given what she did and obediently accepted the court ruling. Even so, the 10-year prison time was a lightening that came from Nio's plea to ease Edera's sentence.

Once free, Edera has no purpose, she is definitely not welcome in the refugee settlement to work there. Edera decided to atone for her sins by looking after Nio, it was a very difficult decision for Edera to make.

“It's meal time, here's rations for you.”

“Thanks.”

After seeing Edera who reached for a silver plate containing rice and a simple menu such as vegetables and tofu and tempeh, as well as a packet of green bean porridge, Nio felt that his heart felt calmer than yesterday when he saw Edera smiling at him. He felt no need to worry, and kept Edera from doing anything that made him go to prison again.

“It's a special dinner, we have to enjoy it.”

“Although you continue to impose yourself in the midst of war madness?”

“Ya, besides food, I also need some entertainment.”

The power supply is automatically cut off when the Gate is closed, so the internet and electricity network to charge the phone is not there. And Nio's cell phone was destroyed on returning home after the withdrawal order from the Imperial capital.

Before Nio and Edera put in a mouthful of rice with tofu and tempeh dishes, it was noticed that the tank driver soldiers who were eating green bean porridge suddenly looked strange.

“Are you okay!?”

Nio immediately put his plate on the ground, and it made Edera shocked as well as lose her appetite. Nio ran towards the soldier in a hurry, although he felt a great tiredness in his body, but his physical and mental had experienced a much heavier fatigue while undergoing special forces training.

“I... a.. ku... i... poisoned...”.

Nio immediately caught the soldier's body before he hit the ground, and came out a bit of foam from the soldier's mouth. Bad premonitions filled Nio's tired heart, and Nio's conjecture was correct.

“What's up?” The curious Edera walked over to Nio who was holding the tank driver's soldier in a panicked face.

Nio smelled a strange scent from the soldier's mouth, there was a strange smell that he had once smelled while doing exercises to recognize and deal with deadly poisonous substances.

The soldier who was one unit with this soldier ran in haste, followed by several soldiers behind him.

“Dia... already dead..”.

Nio said that with quivering lips, and the people who heard his voice immediately gathered. The cause of death of this warrior was due to poison, and the fear spread quickly.

The entire army shouted to warn the other soldiers not to eat the food rations tonight. For those who have just eaten a mouthful can still be handled by the army medical unit, but who have exhausted their food must die with a frothy mouth and bulging eyes.

“Some have poisoned food! There's spies!”

“If you find any suspicious people, catch them all! Otherwise, all the soldiers will be poisoned and die!”

If this poisoning was the plan of the Alliance Forces, this operation had yielded satisfactory results. Panicked people immediately threw out food near them, and blamed the Field Kitchen Unit which made dinner rations for the tired soldier working.

As many as 10 soldiers died of poisoning instantly after a few seconds of finishing their food, as many as 50 were critical and made the Medical Unit soldiers work very hard with makeshift equipment, and the panic quickly spread.

The Field Kitchen Unit Army wondered about the chaos coming from the soldiers eating their food. Some of the Demihumans who helped the unit only shrugged their shoulders when asked about the issue.

“Definitely one of the refugees who helped the Field Kitchen Unit that poisoned food!”

“But food is made with the Field Kitchen Unit right!?”

“Is there a traitor among us!?”

Mutual recriminations and desperate self-defense efforts are a sight tonight, almost akin to a medieval European witch hunt. Nio was uncomfortable with this gloomy night. If this kind of distrust continues tonight, it will destroy the army slowly. The enemy will laugh with satisfaction after that.

A virus called restlessness would spread to all the people in this Holy Land, and would make everyone worried.

Even Sigiz, Sheyn, Zariv and Lux were also agitated when they saw some soldiers being lifted on stretchers, and Nio being charged with poisoning. Even if Nio was telling the truth, they continued to ask questions whose nature forced Nio to admit mistakes he had not made.

If this was the enemy's tactic of destroying this army from within, or rather using this army's soldiers to destroy their own troops, it left this place surrounded with a terrible mistrust.

“It's sad, but hope needed now!”

The desperate situation made people feel unsure of being able to continue to be here.

Nio who had escaped the baseless accusation walked past the otherworldly girls with an annoyed face. Nio's face was already flushed red from holding back the anger, and his hands were also flushed red from clenching so strongly.

“If there was the easiest way to open the Gate again.”

Nio's hope was heard well by Sigiz, and the queen instantly opened an imperfect Gate that could only be passed for one person. A moment later, Sigiz vanished after the imperfect Gate disappeared. It shocked Sheyn, Zariv, and Lux who Sigiz had left for nowhere.

After hearing Nio's wish, Sigiz felt he could help a little Expeditionary Force with the ability to open his own imperfect Gate and the greatest witches of Arevelk Kingdom.

After seeing the imperfect Gate Sigiz opened, Sheyn recalled the great magicians that the Yekirnvo State had, although they were not as numerous as the great magicians of the Arevelk Kingdom. He directly boarded the wyvern and flew to the palace leaving Zariv and Lux in a daze.

Nio also sees Sigiz opening an imperfect Gate for himself, and Nio does not expect the queen to open an imperfect Gate for the Expeditionary Force, it could be that the Gate is open elsewhere that is open in the world of Indonesian origin. The only thing Nio can do is pray that Sigiz and the great and good witches in the world will help the Expeditionary Force return to the homeland.