Airspace of the Third Reich, unspecified location.

15 kilometres up in the sky, a SR-71 Blackbird escorted by 5 F-22s streaked through the skies. Here, high up in the atmosphere, the distant clouds below seemed to form the ground and the sky a barren, peaceful world.

Sitting in the co-pilot’s seat, Konrad admired the stunning view. At Mach 2, the clear and empty skies outside blended into a blur of brightness. Now was a rare moment of silence when he was away from the world.

Konrad looked at the pilot next to him. He was wearing a jet-black pressure suit with a large pressurised helmet and an anti-glare face shield that made up the front half of the entire helmet. Similarly, Konrad was wearing the exact same equipment. While the cabin was indeed pressurised, the suit was there to protect the user from a sudden drop in pressure.

Closing his eyes, even through the pressure suit, he could not just hear, he could feel the powerful roar of the twin engines. Vibrations went through the airframe as it resisted the tremendous forces it was under to maintain such a speed.

A week had passed since the defeat of the Elsass Empire, and its territory was in the process of being slowly digested and annexed. The goal of this Airborne Escort was to safely and quickly transport Konrad to host a military parade and an official meeting with the Holy Church in the newly captured city of Eldriel.

An SR-71 Blackbird, capable of heights of over 25 kilometres and speeds over Mach 3.3, was selected as the vehicle of choice for Konrad due to its high speeds and high flying altitude. Traditionally being a pure reconnaissance aircraft, it was modified and improved without any conservation for cost, including additional life support systems and 2 nuclear-tipped MRAAM missiles.

5 F-22s surrounded it in a star formation at a distance of 50 metres each. Their munitions similarly consisted of purely nuclear missiles.

Konrad’s scientists had made several breakthroughs recently.

Tests had found that magic enchantments and materials held great promise in greatly improving the effectiveness of such modern 21st-century technology. Their potential was unlimited, from enchanting armour to be stronger, lighter, faster and quieter to using extremely strong magic metals in warheads to enhancing the effect of gunpowder to manipulating spells to absorb the recoil of guns and enhance their accuracy.

Konrad’s scientists had been hard at work on this, finding the most efficient and strongest modifications and improvements. The effect was so great that with some intricate integrations, the combat power and defence of the original weapon of war was enhanced by several multiples.

However, even with all these advancements, there was not a single trace of magic in the entire Airborne Escort flying with Konrad right now. Nothing, not even the slightest magic enchantment could be found. It was almost like Konrad specially isolated it from magic.

In fact, that was the point. Even though magic seemed like a free enhancement that you would be crazy not to use to everyone else, it had a fatal flaw around Konrad, and that was its vulnerability to psychic energy.

Upon the slightest presence of psychic energy, magic would go haywire, scrambled beyond recognition. Countless tests proved that no matter how large, strong, or complex the magic was, it would instantly break apart upon exposure to psychic energy.

Magic, itself could be compared to a computer file; no matter what data is stored, no matter how large, how protected it is from a computer virus, if you smash the hard drive with a hammer, it will be lost equally the same. It was simply a different plane of existence entirely.

Magic metals were better, being very stable, they didn’t simply just stop existing in the presence of psychic energy, they were only weakened and temporarily became regular metals. Their ‘magical’ aspect was simply suppressed by psychic energy, though tests had shown that under direct contact with psychic energy, they would permanently become regular metals.

Currently, apart from nuclear weapons and in the absence of antimatter, Konrad himself was set to be on track to become the strongest individual fighting power in the entire Third Reich. Actually, this is not entirely correct as when in terms of pure physical firepower, it was unknown if his destructive power would be able to match that of battleships. No, it came from being able to release psychic energy. Prior to the shipments from the Holy Church, he was the only one in the country capable of effectively fighting spiritual entities and held an inherit crushing advantage over any wizard as powerful as him.

Ever since discovering psychic energy for the first time 5 weeks ago, Konrad had to start from scratch to carve out a completely new and alien power system the likes of which the world had never quite seen.

With a lot of trial and error, a bit of guesswork and speculation from his life on Earth, Konrad had a basic understanding of how to progress. With crude but effective methods, he had been training his mind and body to be able to accept and output more and more amounts of psychic energy. He had never missed a meditation session and today was no different.

Opening his eyes in his seat in the small, enclosed cool cabin 15,000 metres above the ground, Konrad raised his wrist in front of him with a familiar motion. With a hiss, a small portion of the suit mechanically opened, exposing a patch of white skin underneath.

From a small pocket, he pulled out an innocent-looking needle and accurately injected its contents into a wrist vein. Feeling its contents rush through his body and hit like a truck, Konrad leaned back, closed his eyes, and started deeply focusing on forming a speck of psychic energy in his mind.

The needle rolled onto the floor, showing a large and clear label:

Contents: Alprazolam, Barbiturate, Clonazepam, Diazepam, Epinephrine, Risperidone, Fluoxetine, Lorazepam, Eszopiclone, Olanzapine, Venlafaxine, Oxycodone, Quetiapine, Trazodone, Propranolol, Zolpidem, Morphine, Metoprolol, Mirtazapine, Methamphetamine.

Dosage: 5000 milligrams

Effect(s): Calmness