Chapter 1: Mystery

A warm day and a modern outdoor cafe where one could see the vast sky filled with white cotton like clouds. Among the few people in cafe, was a pretty young woman, enjoying her cold drink and a slice of cake.

A golden hair with bun hair style; a round black hippie sunglasses which made her look cool and bold. And a casual dress: white t-shirt, blue jeans pant and white shoes.

Two girl slowly approached her with smartphone in their hand. One of the girl asked, "Uh…Can we have a picture with you?"

"Yeah!" she replied with smile and stood up to take picture.

The girls were overjoyed. They took turns to take picture with her. Other people also noticed her.

"Hey! Look, it's Luna." A couple whispered.

Three men at the far table also noticed her. One man, "Isn't she a Knight Master?"

"A knight master at such a young age huh. - She really must be strong then." said another man.

"What? Have you forgotten? She was the one who defeated that Alien Prince from another world. She's literally a hero" said the third man, "And of course she would be Knight Master if you looked at her achievement in war between humans and Empire of Utopia."

The pretty women who was the center of attention in that cafe was a twenty one years old, Knight Master, Luna Tsugaru.

Meanwhile in a certain place a portal appeared. It was a blue circular portal which was a size of a person. A white cloaked person came out from in it. The person looked around where there were only destroyed structures and not destroyed radar, communication, and sirens towers. The siren around that area went off. Upon hearing the siren, that person closed the portal with bracelet-like device and flee.

Luna was about to take a bite of cake when her mobile rang. It was call from Henry. She took a bite of cake and answered the call.

"Henry."

"Where are you right now?" asked Henry. His voice was soft and calm.

"I'm in a Cafe, in Area Five." Luna took a sip from her cold drink.

"That's great. Listen! Just now at 1:30, a portal appeared for few second in Area Five."

"Portal?" Luna was surprised. "Is it them?" she asked. She took off her glass and put it on the table. She had a serious expression

"We don't know yet. It appeared outside the range of CCTV and there was nothing on other CCTV too. It seems nothing came out from the portal."

"Nothing?- Send me the location coordinates," Luna said. "I'll go and check it. Meet me there with others."

"Okay! Be careful." Henry ended the call.

Luna hurriedly paid the bill and went to the parking area. The parking area didn't have vehicle parked beside a red hover bike which belonged to her.

The red hover bike was fully enclosed. It was bigger but lighter compared to other ground motorbikes.

Luna got the location coordinates from Henry. She sat on the bike and a beam of light scanned her face. She placed the phone between the handle and a screen appeared on top of it. The screen showed the map, her location and her destination. She put on the helmet and grabbed the handle which started the bike. A blue light appeared underneath the bike and slowly hovered in the air.

Luna rode towards the location where the portal was opened. On the road she was the only one riding a hover vehicle. Others were normal vehicles. Everybody watched her as she passed by. The people on side of the roads and people inside the vehicle watched the futuristic-like bike.

As she went on, the number of people, houses and vehicle on roads decreased. And at a certain point she was on the road all by herself and towards her was Adachi Bridge and across it was destroyed town, Adachi, which now was known as Area Five. Only the outskirts of the districts were inhabited. There was a military outpost guarding the entrance. The soldier were already informed about her visit. They let her through after identifying it was her.

Luna cautiously rode forwards and reached her destination. She checked the time on her phone, it was 2:00 PM. Then she looked around. "There really is nothing here." she said. She didn't see any portal nor anyone. All she saw were destroyed buildings, debris and sirens. She hovered around the area on her bike but the place was huge to find anything alone. After half an hour she didn't found anything. "Nothing!" she said, "She went back to the place where the portal appeared.

"Let's wait for others." She stopped the bike, took out the helmet, glasses and sat on the bike. She looked around, she remembered the battle that took place in that district. She thought, "The last time a portal appeared was in 2017 and it's been three years since then. After that there weren't any portal nor any battle with Rokka Empire. – Everyone thought they have given up but it looks like they haven't."

While Luna was waiting, there was a person watching her from one of the destroyed building. It was the white cloaked person. With the goggle-like binocular, that person had been watching her whole time when she was there.

Suddenly a huge helicopter-like sound was heard. It was getting louder as if closing in. A huge black Osprey helicopter with four rotor, a quad-copter, land near the place where Luna was.

From its cargo several people exited. It was a platoon consisting of 25 people, people around Luna's age. All were wearing the same white uniform, with some golden pattern and a golden crossed swords emblem on left chest of coat.

Everyone lined in two row in front of Luna and saluted her. Luna who was in her casual dress also saluted in returned.

"You know you don't have to do that when we are the only one." Said Luna.

"That we can't do," replied Henry, a handsome, medium-length brown haired boy with a gentle face and voice.

Luna smiled. "How come you guys are late when you flew?"

A glasses girl approached Luna and handed her a small ear-size communication device, "That was because we all were in different places."

"Thank you, Sakura." Luna put the device on her ear and she said, "Then next time something like this happen bring in the other knights nearby, the rest can follow later. Just don't be late."

Everyone bowed, "We're sorry."

"Did you find anything?" asked Luna.

"No, we didn't find anything from CCTV, inside and at the border of the area, but we are still checking," replied Sakura.

"I thought we finally had a peaceful days, I guess I was wrong," said Henry. "What shall we do?"

"It does not seem to be an invasion like in the past, but still we cannot just leave by thinking like that." Luna looked around and looked at the platoon in front of her.

"Let's us split into groups and search if we can find anything," she ordered.

The platoon split into three group. Luna, Henry, Sakura leading each group.

"Come Forth, Agni," Luna chanted. A light appeared in her hand then it materialize into a actual sword. A beautiful, red and black colored, long sword.

Similarly everyone chanted a few words and swords and shields appeared. Then they went to different directions.

It had already been more than an hour since they started their search but couldn't find anything. The city may have been destroyed, but it still was a big place and there were many destroyed buildings.

Just as other Luna's group were also searching attentively and cautiously, walking around the destroyed road, full of debris. Luna was leading the way. Suddenly a loud sound, a crash-like sound, came from the left side of half destroyed building. Luna and all other turned to the direction where the sound came from.

"It came from up there." one shouted pointing to the building.

"Let's go and check it." Luna ordered. Some ran into building and some jumped.

When Luna was about to jump, a stone flew rapidly from upwards, towards her from behind. She hit the stone away with her sword. The stone was thrown from the opposite building. Luna looked at that building and saw a fully cloaked person in fifth floor. Other Knights were already inside the other building, searching.

Luna ran and jumped on the wall with great force. She jumped twice to reach the floor where the cloaked person was. The building being destroyed made it easier to jump from one point to another.

The white cloaked person also jumped and climbed higher.

"Magic," thought Luna. She followed the person.

Both were now at top of the building, facing each other. The roof was completely destroyed making cloudy sky to be seen completely and only few destroyed wall there from where a clear view of destroyed city could be seen. The breeze made the cloak flutter.

Luna pointed the sword towards the cloaked person with a serious look. She said, "Stop running and reveal yourself."

"You are Luna Tsugaru, aren't you?" asked the cloaked person who had a women's voice.

"That's me. Who are you and why are you here? - Did you come from the portal?" said Luna. Her sword, Agni, slowly glowed red. Both she and Agni slowly exuded red aura. "Try to escape and I'll make that sure you won't escape unscathed."

"You're just like how he described." The cloaked person took of the hood. She had a blue skin, few green freckles on both side of forehead and black bob hair. "I won't escape if you promise to me treat me nicely and listen to me." She smiled.

"A Nilho," said Luna as she became serious.