"To protect the Second World at all costs! That is the duty of the students of this school! If Underbalance falls into the hands of the World Savers, they will be able to control the world as they please! We cannot let that happen! Immediately form an alliance with all the other virtual countries and overthrow Ezeldarm! We absolutely must protect the Second World!"

"... is what the headmaster said afterwards, but..." Nikolai clicked his tongue as he scanned over the rest of the class.

The daily activation of the Second World had been announced, however, not a single student in Jenock moved to get off their seats.

"Pretty understandable, honestly. I don't feel like helping any of those adults out after all that."

"I don't either, but we can't let the World Savers win..."

"I kind of want to just to spite them."

"Hannah, wh... Don't joke like that."

"Arata." Muraku's voice rang loud and clear throughout the class. "I've always had my doubts about the Second World. But right now, I believe we should protect it. If it falls into the hands of Seredy and his group, the world will come to an end. Let's fight. We won't do it because the headmaster or our commander told us to. We'll do it because we think we should."

"You're saying that we students should take Ezeldarm down by ourselves..." Hikaru trailed.

"Let's do it."

"That's right."

"This is all we can do."

"Alright. Let's do it!"

Muraku turned to Haruki. "Harness, Rossius... No, contact all the countries."

The class president stood up from his chair. "Right, we should tell this truth to all the students."

"Well, would you look at that..." Nikolai chuckled slightly. "The Violet Devil's influential even in the former enemy's country."

"I suppose we shouldn't expect anything else from 'Muraku-senpai'." Hannah snickered. Despite everything, she's starting to grow a little grateful that her brother was no longer on the island to face these new dangers.

With that decided, when War Time was declared over, the first platoon along with Muraku and Nikolai left for the broadcast room. As they head there, they found the whole school in the same state as Jenock was. In confusion, fear, and distraught. Not a single student had left their classroom, and no homeroom teacher was present either.

Soon, they arrived and Haruki took the seat by the mic. They started with brief introductions of those who were there, and then their leader cut to the chase.

"As you all know, Seredy Kreisler is a member of the worldwide terrorist organization called the World Sabers. Their goal is to obtain a chip called Underbalance which lies within the Lost Area under Death Forest. This chip contains data on many countries' military, research and development plans, and if it falls into the hands of the World Sabers, they will be able to rule over us all. And that's not all. At the end of today's War Time, Seredy Kreisler... That is, Ezeldarm's new aerial base took to the skies. They've been constructing this base in secret to begin their capture of Death Forest."

Then, Arata grabbed the mic. "Please, everyone! Lend us a hand! We, the soldiers of the Second World, are the only ones who can stop them now! According to Sakuya's calculations, their aerial base will reach Death Forest during tomorrow's War Time. Between Jenock and Harness, we don't have nearly enough power to stop them! Please, everyone! Lend us a hand, and help us protect the Second World!"

He placed it back down and let Haruki speak again. "I'd like to hold a schoolwide strategical meeting. All platoon captains who are willing to help us out, come to the observation room!"

Right as that message was sent, the door opened and in came the teachers.

"You! What are you doing?" Ivan Krosky came in with four other teachers. "War Time is already over. Return to your dorms at once!" But not a single one of them moved. They only stared at him in disdain. "Why won't you do as I say?"

"It's useless." Muraku stated, walking up to his former commander. "Now that we've learned the truth about your goals, Seredy's identity, and the reason behind the school's existence... we will no longer obey you!"

"That's preposterous! What can you do by yourselves?"

"Now, now, let's stop with the assumptions based on age, commander." A familiar black-haired woman stepped between the opposing groups.

"Nia― I mean, Miss Levanov?"

She gave the Russian boy a smile. "Us legends were about your age when we fought Mizel. And besides, as things are now, there isn't much us adults can do."

"Even so...!"

"What would you propose, commander?" She asked, glaring at him, as if daring him to speak up. "What could we do? At this point, only the children are able to stop them. The Second World is their domain, after all."

"That is..."

"The most we can do right now is support them. Getting in their way like this would benefit no one but the World Savers." Killing off all his arguments there, she turned back to the children. "You should get going. It's bad manners to be late to your own party, you know?"

They nodded at each other and ran past her. All but one.

Nikolai turned back the moment he reached the doorframe. "Niara."

"Yes, my dearest cousin?"

On any other day, at any other moment, he would've rolled his eyes at her. But today, "Thanks."

She smiled. "No problem."

~~~~~

As hoped, every single platoon captain in the school came for the strategy meeting. Haruki had prepared a diagram using magnets to display on the board. Once everyone had taken their seats, he began explaining the plan.

"Ezeldarm is currently approaching Death Forest in their aerial base. In order for them to enter the Lost Area, they have no choice but to deploy some of their LBXs. So, we'll position some forces on the ground, and intercept the enemy when they arrive." He placed two out of four red magnets near the eight blue ones in the lower part of the diagram, leaving two more above the board eraser that represents the aerial base. "With this, we'll be able to break up the enemy's formation."

He then began moving more blue magnets from the top part of the diagram near the eraser. "Once we spot an opportunity, our craft carriers, which will be waiting at a high altitude, will launch an ambush on their base. Once we eliminate their remaining forces, we'll destroy the base's core monitor. If possible, we'll recover the Parasite Keys. That is all."

All jaws in the room went slack. They were rather in awe at how well thought the strategy was.

"Now, this ambush mission will be carried out by Jenock and Harness' forces." Haruki continued.

"Only two countries will attack Ezeldarm's base?" The White Fox of Arabista, Hakuga Musashi, asked.

"Essentially, all the other virtual countries will become a huge decoy to mislead the enemy. I see." Andrei Gregory summarized, smiling slightly. He then stood up, earning the rest of the room's attention. "Interesting! I like it! We wouldn't win against them if we didn't have a do-or-die strategy like this!"

Musashi had a similar expression on. "Let's go with that plan, commander."

"C-Commander? Me?"

"Hm? Did I get that wrong?"

"We need a commander to direct such a large-scale strategy like this." Andrei chimed in.

"I think it'd be good if you were commander Haruki." Catherine stated. "You'll be fine. You managed to keep those troublemakers in your platoon under control, after all."

"We will abide by your orders, Izumo." Rikuya added, a reassuring smile on his face.

"Do it for us, Haruki." Gendou nodded.

"But..."

"We'll do all we can to support you."

"Muraku..."

Seeing Muraku, who he heard from Arata had aimed to be a commander since he first enrolled, supporting the idea, he no longer felt like there was any excuse good enough to dismiss himself. All the other platoon captains were smiling at him too.

"Understood. For the sake of the world, I'll do as best as I can as your commander." He said in determination. "Then, once tomorrow's War Time begins, we'll put this plan into action. Rossius, Arabista, Porton, Londonia, and Gleinstein's platoons will deploy on the surface and intercept the enemy. I trust you to give the orders on the ground, Gregory-senpai."

"What?" That caught him off guard.

"You are the only one who can manage and direct multiple platoons at once." Haruki reasoned.

Muraku smiled at his former senior. "After all, you are the longtime captain of Angel Piece's garrison, the Grey Beast. I believe that not a single person here doubts your credibility."

At that statement, the whole room ruptured into murmurs. All saying words of praise to the older boy.

He smiled, pumping a fist. "Alright. I'll take it on!"

Haruki nodded at him before turning to the rest. "Harness and Jenock will ambush the aerial base. There are less than 21 hours left until tomorrow's War Time. All hands, begin preparations at once!"

~~~~~

All the mechanics were assigned to prepare every single LBX for the next day. They had to finish maintenance as well as customization on them, which would require guidance from different platoons and even virtual nations. Sakuya and Harness' Kojou Takeru had teamed up to work on another project, so Jenock and Harness were already rather short-handed, but...

Hannah took a deep breath and went over to the sixth platoon's mechanic. "Kageto."

"Yeah?"

"Sorry, but can you take care of Moskau for me?"

He looked up from Magna Orthus at that. "I mean, I guess. Have you told Nikolai?"

"Yes, I got you his permission."

"Alright, but what will you be doing?"

She only gave a small smile before walking back to the school's main building.