Besides his elder sister, who had been an important woman influencing Roy's life, there was another woman who had affected him greatly.
She was Roy's beloved and one of his teammates on this mission—Blaine.
The mission Roy and the others were carrying out this time was highly secretive.
Their squad consisted of seven people, all Level-3 beings.
Three were magicians, and four were Sky Knights.
Besides their squad, Roy had learned through certain channels that Combat Command had dispatched many similar elite combat squads for this operation.
No one knew what purpose these missions served.
They were probably meant to fulfill some battlefield plan of the great True Spirit Magician Saine—Roy's many-times-great-grandfather.
Influenced by their forebears, most magicians of the Grant Family followed the three Roads of Truth of fire, light, and machinery, and many also minored in alchemy.
Roy was not skilled in light magic, but he was highly proficient in both fire and Mechanical Element magic, and he had also dabbled in alchemy.
Roy's beloved, Blaine, was a light-element magician. The two had become acquainted and grown close on the battlefield of the Wings of Light Star Territory.
At first, Blaine had been a Third-Level Great Magician of the light element from a Holy Tower subordinate to the Mamet United Alliance.
After Saine successfully intercepted a portion of the legion belonging to Nettini, the light-element True Spirit, Blaine joined the Ash True Spirit Tower through Roy's recommendation.
Besides Blaine, another companion of great importance to Roy in this seven-man squad was his good brother, Hoke, a Level-3 Sky Knight.
As for the others, Roy knew them well enough, and he had fought alongside some of them more than once. They could be considered friends.
Still, none of them were as important to Roy as Blaine and Hoke.
"Combat