Puny or large, they had the same function

It was only then that Hale noticed the terrified expression on the student’s face. Hale didn’t know what he witnessed before reaching this room but it couldn’t be good.

Unfortunately for him, the device didn’t activate.

“Damn it, did you get this off the black market?” The nervous student tried again and again.

“No, this was a certified product…” And a hefty price was paid for it, too.

Sylvan’s arms were crossed as he muttered, contemplative. “They must have isolated the space. That means Kat’s magic won’t work either.”

Just as the anxiety on the student’s face changed to despair, the window of Katharin’s room shattered and masked men charged in. It appeared that they spent too much time outside the room.

Hale was the closest to the door so he immediately shut it and activated a barrier artifact to barricade the door, finally adding a strengthening ward to the blue prism. It should last for a while. For people with mediocre abilities, tools were an expensive but useful way to protect themselves.

“Kat, save your mana.” Sylvan stopped Katharin from casting while adding layers of magic of his own, then beckoned to the rest to run.

But it turned out that the other students already left.

“Those ingrates!! I shouldn’t have saved them!” The fairy stomped his bare foot.

Hale wasn’t surprised. If Katharin really was the target, wherever she was was logically the most dangerous. But she’d always been a little angel to everyone, helping them whenever she could. Even the student whose arm was just reattached… Wouldn’t being abandoned by the people she helped hurt her?

Hale squeezed her hand reassuringly and ran.

“Come, I know just the place.”

Hale thought as he led them to the secret space: those fearful students should have stayed with them. With the overpowered female lead and male lead here, it was practically a ticket to survival.

ↂ

Sylvan flew up and Hale jumped into the opening, carrying Katharin. The undead closed the hatch and it merged seamlessly with the surrounding metal.

“Wow!! Was there a place like this?!” Sylvan looked around with interest. “Oh? The filthy bird is here too!”

“Shut up, insect!!” Orifil yelled, buried in many holographic displays, typing furiously. His single wing was folded neatly behind his back.

“Senior! Weren’t you with Tenga and the instructor?”

The nephilim’s hands paused for a moment as he took a closer look at Hale. Then he returned to his screens.

“I’ll close one eye because it’s an emergency but normally I’d have blamed you for exposing this space and thinking you could’ve tricked me with something so low-tech like those glasses you had yesternight.” Uhm but you just blamed me…

While Hale didn’t have a whole lot of EQ, he had enough to know not to blurt out everything in his mind. “Thank you, senior!”

“As for your question, the physical fights should be left to the grunts while intellectuals like me have more important things to do.” These hijackers must pay for hurting Seraphina!

“All I got out of that was that you like bragging. Nothing new, really.” The fairy scoffed.

“Van! This isn’t the time.” Katharin narrowed her eyes.

“Fine, mom.”

Hale was a little surprised that there was someone the amiable fairy didn’t like. They didn’t have much interaction but Hale knew a lot about him from the data. He had a quick temper but was very generous so he wouldn’t have held a grudge. Not even for those students who abandoned them just now or for Tenga who loved to dismiss the fairy’s ‘puny and flimsy’ wings in comparison to his ‘thick and majestic’ ones. All in Tenga’s words.

Orifil ignored the fairy and dragged the screen with the monitoring to Katharin and Hale. Sylvan crowded behind them, resting his head on Hale’s shoulder. It was then that they saw the extensive damage to a side of the ship and the small fights breaking out in places.

“They seem to be searching for something… or someone.” Orifil glanced meaningfully at Katharin, then continued his work. “They tend to leave the students alone until they’re attacked first.

Hale studied the screens Orifil was working on and asked, "Are you trying to bring back the airship barrier?”

"Smart. As expected of my junior.” Orifil gave Hale a pleased look.

Sylvan’s expression was one of horror as he pulled Hale away from the nephilim like a mother protecting her cub. “Are you targeting males now, too?! But TenTen is off-limits! He’s taken!” He’s Kat’s!

“Get your mind out of the gutter.” Orifil eye-rolled. “Seeing as the Saintess’s still here, my guess must be right; they suspended the spatial connection of this area.”

“Yes, attempts to teleport have failed.” Katharin demonstrated with a glass shard she must have gotten from her room earlier. The magic activated but the glass remained in her hand.

“But Seraphina’s—that’s this beauty’s pet name,” Orifil patted the floor, “barrier is special. It also has a space-interference effect but it works outwardly instead.”

“Ah, the thing the snobs use in important places like palaces so that outsiders can’t just teleport in.” Sylvan understood.

“That’s why they destroyed the barrier first…” Katharin muttered.

“Yup. In essence, the interference would cancel out so we can warp away. The Saintess doesn’t look like she’s in good enough shape to teleport everyone so we have to bank on Seraphina’s experimental feature.” Besides, there’s no way I’m abandoning Seraphina.

The nephilim continued his explanation. In short, their best bet was to warp the whole airship. The enemies that already entered would end up warping with them but at least the ones besieging them would be left behind. And to warp, they needed to bring back the barrier, keep the engines safe and repair the mana core, which was chipped during the attack.

“Shouldn’t we defend the control room too?” Katharin asked.

“It’s okay, my admin privileges overwrites the captain’s.”

“I won’t report you if we survive this.” Sylvan patted Orifil on the shoulder.

“Gee, thanks.” Orifil said sarcastically and swatted the hand off. He was still trying to trigger the craft’s self-recovery function.

Hale looked at the busy nephilim and said, “I think I might have a solution. If the hijackers break in, just leave without me.” Without further explanation, Hale left his body.