Prologue: The Ultimate Weapons of Two Countries

"Surrender."

"You should surrender."

The cold wind seemed to shimmer with white light.

The forest and land were encased in ice. The frigid world reflected in the eyes of a boy

gripping his sword and a girl in a brilliant dress, made for royalty. Both made their

demands at the exact same time.

"…Swordsman of the Empire, may I have your name?"

"Iska," he replied quickly, tightening his grip around his weapon.

He had blackish-brown hair and a body that made it obvious he'd undergone years of

hard training. His face hadn't matured enough for anyone to mistake him for a fullgrown adult, but his eyes glinted as sharply as a bare blade. He wielded a pair of steel

swords—one black, one white.

"And you?"

"It's Aliceliese Lou Nebulis IX. But you already knew that, didn't you? I'm the astral

mage your Empire calls the Ice Calamity Witch."

The girl stood at the peak of a gigantic glacier.

Though her face was obscured by a headdress studded with lapis lazuli, the voice

ringing through the forest was crisp and dignified, giving him the impression of a

noble young maiden.

They went at it again—

"Did you defeat that unit of Nebulis astral mages all on your own?"

"Are you telling me you destroyed the Imperial power generator for our weapons by

yourself?"

Their voices overlapped as they spoke at the same time.

"…I did." The first to nod was the boy.

Behind him were soldiers cloaked in bulletproof robes. He'd rendered them unconscious

with a single blow, wielding his blade with extraordinary accuracy and speed.

"What are you? You aren't even a captain, much less a Saint Disciple, the personal

guards of the Empire's Lord. How could you have overpowered our astral mages?"

"I've got some questions of my own." The boy's head snapped up to look at the Ice

Calamity Witch. "You infiltrated our Imperial base alone and broke through our

defenses. And you took out our power generator. You can't be a normal astral mage."

It seemed like an ice age had descended upon the surrounding trees, which had frozen

over thanks to the biting ice, wind, and snow. Beyond that were the frost-covered

remains of a generator that had been crushed beyond recognition.

The only one who could wield this immense power and create something comparable

to a natural disaster was none other than this girl.

"What the hell are you?"

"What in the world are you?"

He was trained to become the trump card of a mechanical utopia, the Empire. His

name was Iska, the Successor of the Black Steel.

She was the greatest witch ever born to the paradise of mages, the Nebulis Sovereignty.

Her name was Alice, the Ice Calamity Witch.

They were the heroes of the two clashing superpowers.

Now that their paths had crossed, this would be only the first of many fateful meetings.