As a giant group, they slowly descended the slope. DiOrtho Vant glanced around at the walking Pinnacle Seekers while his palms tingled. Each radiated an aura of power, causing him to inwardly sweat to be moving with them. He adjusted his leather armor and flexed his hands, refusing to look back to where they had left the Head Drill Sergeant and Overseer Helen.

From their original position about three-fourths up the crater slope, the Pinnacle Seeker group descended to the flat area nearest to the Nether King’s dais. They were not as close as the two orthodox factions, but DiOrtho was becoming quite aware of the rising pressure as the Nether sluggishly swirled above them.

At the Frost Matriarch’s gesture, the group stopped. And if anything, this made the ram demon’s experience even more strained.

Obviously, no one else from his group was coming, so DiOrtho felt rather… awkward to be simply standing here without any companion in such a tense situation. The Pinnacle Seekers were obviously waiting for Niermas Pence to move any closer, but what about the other forces? With the Nether King sitting visibly in front of them, why was no one moving past that final fifty meters? Even more importantly, the longer they waited, the more oppressive the Nether in the area became.

What am I missing… DiOrtho rubbed his sweaty hands together.

The only group that seemed immune to the changes was the Nether King and his two subordinates. They waited regally and languidly, allowing the Nexus forces to do anything they wanted.

DiOrtho could only grimace and try to look at the surrounding individuals for a source of distraction, without being overly obvious about it. The group that had taken up residence so close to the actual fighting was only nine individuals, so his options for conversation were limited. Claudette had practically evaporated from nearby when Randidly had announced that he wasn’t coming and DiOrtho was put off by the blank expressions both on Seeker Ozaer and her apprentice’s face.

Finally, DiOrtho sidled over to the descendent of Seeker Thunder Wing, Eashen. At the very least, the young man was visibly sweating, meaning he was probably just as nervous as DiOrtho was feeling right now. The ram demon cleared his throat. “Greetings. We… we will be working together, so I just figured… DiOrtho Vant.”

Eashen blinked at him. “What?”

“...that’s my name. DiOrtho Vant.” The ram demon coughed and suppressed his desire to reach up and rub his horns. Why was this so difficult…?

“Oh. I’m Eashen. Greetings to you too,” The kid finally said, seeming to catch the drift of the conversation.

It wasn’t the best opening, but it was probably the only one that DiOrtho would be able to get, considering the crowd. So he opened his mouth and charged forward. “Do you know why the other groups are waiting? It feels like the Nether is growing stronger every second. Aren’t they… worried about giving the Nether King more time to prepare?”

In such a grouping in such a small space, there was no way the other Pinnacle Seekers hadn’t heard him. Yet the fact that not a single one reacted to his question made him inwardly wince. These people have no qualms about ignoring you if aren’t related to them, huh…?

Eashen blinked, seeming to think about his question. The gesture made DiOrtho uncomfortably aware of how young his target was. It was almost like he was coercing him into a conversation. The young man started speaking with a half shrug. “Well… I don’t know what the hell the Engraving Guild is doing… that group is a bunch of weirdos. But the army guys should be waiting for reinforcements.”

Seeker Thunder Wing, who was standing nearby, nodded slowly and blessedly helped the conversation along by pointing his finger. “And here they are. The Xyrt Brigade. They will be the spearhead. Their assault will begin soon.”

But then Seeker Thunder Wing gave DiOrtho a sardonic smile. “But… perhaps you will regret your enthusiasm soon.”

With that cryptic comment, the other man turned away. As Seeker Thunder Wing had indicated, a group of ten individuals had arrived at the lip of the crater above the Engraving Guild forces. They ignored their orthodox fellows and marched sharply down toward the waiting location of Military High Command. DiOrtho frowned at them but was relieved to see that Lady Vualla wasn’t present. It was likely a sign that she was also not powerful enough to affect this battlefield.

So why am I risking everything to come down here and witness it…? DiOrtho thought, frustrated with himself.

Luckily, Seeker Thunder Wing hadn’t been kidding; no sooner had the Xyrt Brigade arrived than a group of about fifty individuals began marching toward the Nether King with their weapons raised. Without missing a beat, the giant Sable Rabbit took several bounds forward, moving from the central portion of the Nether King’s dais to the edge. There, it sat on its hind legs and flicked its ears, watching Military High Command approach. Its eyes were simultaneously bright and flat, like plastic.

The Dawn Jackal shook his head, his lower jaw loosely swinging in a very primal manner. “Heh…. ehehhehe…. So, it’s finally going to begin…”

“For the first time in a millennia…” Seeker Ozaer muttered to herself. “The Nexus is going to bleed.”

Below, the phalanx from Military High Command accelerated. Even from this distance, DiOrtho Vant could feel the powerful images radiating off of the front three individuals. Their valiant power cut through the oppressive weight of significance effortlessly. Their feet thundered against the ground as they accelerated forward.

The sable rabbit flicked its ears again and tilted its head to the side. Then it spat out a dozen small projectiles that zipped forward. As though the whole thing was choreographed, the military charge scattered as everyone leapt out of the line of fire. Unfortunately, the speed moved more quickly than it had in the rehearsal.

DUUN! DUUN! DUUN!

After the projectiles impacted, they made a peculiar popping noise and rapidly expanded. The originally seed-sized projectiles swelled up to a watermelon, before rapidly compressing back down to a minuscule size and taking all of the surrounding matter with it. In addition to taking out a few dozen ice cream scoops from the ground, the front two projectiles impacted one of the leading members of the Xyrt Brigade.

The first took the man in the shoulder, expending and eating away almost all of his torso and most of his neck. His forearm tumbled through the air, unattached. But the second projectile was only a moment behind the first, so the man had already accepted the first as a given and was pulling his leg back to avoid the second. Unfortunately for him, the time between the projectile hitting the ground and its expansion was extremely short; the void zone engulfed everything below the man’s calf before the dodge could be successfully completed.

The man didn’t expect his foot to be gone, so he stumbled and had to catch himself with his one remaining arm. Which took long enough that the sable rabbit spat out a stream of more projectiles. Most were targeting the wounded soldier’s companions that had dodged the original volley, but two impacted the man right as he had recovered and raised his head.

They popped, expanded, and contracted to suck away his face and the rest of his torso. What remained of the man fell forward. Viscera spilled out of his severed waist and spread across the ground.

Meanwhile, the first death signaled to the other members of Military High Command that it was not the time to hold. Back. The remaining Xyrt Brigade members began to move in a complex and weaving pattern, avoiding the projectiles. Those from Military High Command just flared their images to life and charged forward.

The Sable Rabbit began to spit out its projectiles like its mouth was a machine gun.

It only took two projectiles to eat through a massive horned rhino image with the same efficiency that the attacks ate through physical matter. An enormous, conjured crimson fortress had its gate eaten away with four of the projectiles, while the fifth caught the image user in the throat. A fire breathing dragon watched as its breath was devoured in only three projections and had its insides hollowed out by the next three, leaving that soldier scrambling to the side. To avoid a similar fate.

DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN!

Comparing the two groups, the dodgers faired better. While those that tried to overpower the projectiles were eventually invalidated and killed, those that avoided them made rapid progress toward the Sable Rabbit. However, the Nether Prince continued to vomit those projectiles without pause. Its firing speed was consistent even as there appeared to be no targeting pattern, so the bullets sprayed outward in a cone that appeared random while perfectly targeting the Nexus soldiers’ weaknesses at unexpected times.

Of course, the dodgers eventually ran into an equally deadly problem; the closer they got to the Sable Rabbit, the less time passed between when the projectile was fired and when it landed. Due to the extremely high speed of the projectile, that time was already extremely minuscule. But at some point, losing those shreds of time became disastrous. The previously effective complicated patterns of the dodgers simply didn’t have enough room to manifest themselves.

DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN! DUUN!

There came a moment when the Sable Rabbit ceased shooting. In front of it lay a sea of severed limbs. Its ears twitched and those plastic eyes turned to look at the groups that hadn’t yet charged forward. The first attempt sent by Military High Command hadn’t had any overwhelmingly powerful individuals, but they had all been competent. And they had been butchered.

At this point, there was movement from the Engraving Guild side. A cowled figure swaggered forward and gestured imperiously. “For you hubris… you shall be… denied!”

Behind the figure, one of the Engraving Guild’s black spikes rose into the air. The metal body shimmered with complicated runes as it slid slowly upward. As the length of metal distanced itself from the ground, the runes began to swim outward from the spike and fill the air. Not even the heavy significance seemed to slow the spread of those runes. Soon, the entire sky of the crater pulsed with their patterns.

Then the spike flashed and settled into place above the Engraving Guild’s heads, settling into place.

“Foolish,” The Frost Matriarch shook her massive head. “Those nails allow the Engraving Guild to make a very specific action invalid within a small area. But to take away the Nether Prince’s anti-personnel ability… do they believe that we can overwhelm them with numbers?”

As the Frost Matriarch was speaking, the leader of the group of Military High Command stepped forward and raised his bow. He released a deep breath and silver flames licked up and down his bow and then up his arms. Space warped and danced from the ambient heat. He drew back and unleashed a sizzling javelin of an arrow that ripped toward the Sable Rabbit.

After making several puckering faces and realizing that it was unable to shoot those bullets from its mouth, the Sable Rabbit changed tactics. It pressed its ears down against its skull and dashed forward.

DiOrtho Vant could only catch after images of the Nether Prince once it began to run.

Even as though its speed was insanely quick, the archer kept up with it. Through a series of strafing rolls and sidesteps, the archer and the rabbit engaged in an elaborate dance across the bottom crater. But in a weird inversion of the hunter and the prey, the rabbit was the one ruthlessly hunting the archer, kept at bay by his powerful arrows.

Each of the archer’s attacks left a trail of silver fire that melted the stone ground in its brief passive. But the Sable Rabbit would adjust its path and the two continued their elaborate, teasing game.

Soon, the entire crater was oozing and partially melted as the archer had to continually attack in order to stay ahead of the rabbit. A few of those arrows flew toward the Nether King, probably to test him, but the humanoid turtle with the staff knocked the attacks away. One even came shooting up toward the Pinnacle Seekers, but the Frost Matriarch waved her hand and a giant sword of ice slashed the arrow out of the air.

Just as DiOrtho began to sweat from the heat and wondered how long this would last, everyone around him tensed. Below, the Sable Rabbit was suddenly next to a stunned archer. And in a much bigger blast radius than the projectiles, the same void energy spread out to the size of a house. The archer tried to dodge but was completely engulfed in the dark oblivion.