The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Aurea

"Did you feel that, Lovelace?"

We are in the office room of Steelgarden Castle, where the hidden army centralizes its activities.

The other girls are out, each with their squad, doing some small-scale attacks on the enemy. I have stayed behind to coordinate them.

"Yes, I did. Three powerful beings just descended on the battlefield."

"Ugh. I was wishing that I had just felt it wrong. Are they the heroes?"

"I think that we should go there and see for ourselves."

"You're right. There's no sense in just speculating about it."

I get up from the chair and head to the portal that leads to the outer wall.

"We are heading to the wall to check on something. If anything comes up, just call me there."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

:::

On the wall we meet Ingela's squad, who had just returned from an incursion. She is haggard and short of breath, and some of her people are injured. One is in very bad shape.

I glance to Lovelace, but she is already moving before I can say anything. She swiftly proceeds to heal the injured.

"Aurea! I'm glad to find you here already. Those new girls are bad news."

"Hi, Ingela. What is the report?"

"We were launching some spells at the army from a safe distance when they arrived. They descended from the sky, enveloped in a white light. One of them then came straight to us. I barely managed to hold her back so everyone could escape through the portal."

As she speaks, other squads arrive through their portals. We decided that the portals that connect to near the enemy army would always come to this point in the outer wall, because if the enemy manages to send someone through them, it's a position where we could immediately see them and defend against them.

"Hi Yawarete, Kwarah!"

"Aurea! Lovelace! Please, she is almost gone!"

Lovelace had already given the first healing to the badly injured person from Ingela's squad, so he is out of risk. She quickly switches to treat Yawarete's squad member.

It's a human girl, around seventeen years old. Her body is burnt, and she lost one arm and has a ghastly wound in her abdomen.

Yawarete is visibly shaken, trying to help Lovelace with her own healing magic. The other people of the squad are also in a bad psychological state. And there are noticeably fewer of them than I remember. I guess I'll wait a bit to ask for her report.

The one squad that hasn't come back yet is Yaci's.

I look at the enemy army for the first time, trying to get a feel of what is happening.

I can see the tents of the command. They are bigger and fancier than the ones used by the rest of the army. From here I can see some commotion going on but not hear anything. There seems to be a sound barrier there.

I see two girls who are extremely beautiful and wear traditional Roman clothing. The purple togas and the laurels on their hair denote them as royalty. I don't know if they are heroes from our world, but I'm positive none of them were in the cafe where I died.

What bugs me is that I can see only two. Where is the third one?

I extend my mana perception, but an explosion in the mountain near the farthest side of the enemy army brings me the answer. The third girl is there, blasting spells on something.

"Yaci!"

Without thinking twice, I open a portal directly to her.

:::

PoV: Urraca

"See? See? She has not abandoned us!"

The High Bishop was crying with relief at the sight of the new arrivals, the answer to all his prayers for the last decade or so.

The goddess was back, and this is the proof. She sent her angels to help them.

Not even Urraca could argue that, so she sheathed back her sword, but something didn't sit well within her.

After all, she had never sent anyone to fight the battles in all recorded history. She always just blessed the side she chose to win whatever battle was at hand.

And yet, right now the army was still without any blessing. And she sent three of her close servants.

Urraca wasn't so stupid as to not understand what that meant. The same way she understood what the absence of punishment against her meant.

There is something, or someone, holding her back. She can't get herself directly involved, for some reason.

Still, the arrival of such allies was very welcome. Urraca watched with delight as they chased some of the Wesgothian troops that had been showering trouble on her army.

The Wesgothian hit-and-run tactics had been really bad for morale, even though they didn't amount to much real damage. And the angels were able to make them run for their lives in a matter of minutes.

For the first time today, a real smile appeared on her face, reaching her eyes.

:::

PoV: Yaci

This is bad.

That was the first thing that came to Yaci's mind the moment she saw the otherworldly beautiful girl locking in on her.

"Retreat!"

She shouted immediately, prompting the twink guy who was responsible for opening and closing portals in her squad to start chanting the aria.

He was a nervous guy who still struggled with chantless spellcasting when under pressure. And, this time, those seconds lost proved to be fatal.

Before he could finish chanting, a spear made of rock rose from the ground and pierced him.

"I'll buy time. You all, just flee!"

Shouting her order, Yaci grippedd her spear even harder and braced herself for the fight that was about to start against the angel.

The guy responsible for the travel wasn't the only one capable of using spatial magic in the group. There were two other ones, who also started casting their spells.

They weren't able to finish them, though. The ground started to tremble, throwing them around.

"You insects! You will pay the price for angering my master!"

Her voice and her expression conveyed a deep feeling of hatred and a strong resolution.