“Representatives from Ark City, I hope that your stay here has been comfortable so far.”

Lieutenant Marie and Sergeant Aziz, who had been tasked by Ark City to head over to the Northern-Central conflict to act as observers, nodded at the speaker, Major Igor, who was wearing the conventional grey uniform of the Northern armed forces. The North, unlike the other Cardinal continents, was unified under one body of power, and the military’s role as the sword and shield of the North’s State Council reflected that as well.

Unlike the South, who was ruled…or used to be ruled by the aristocracy, or the Eastern Territories, where every Territory’s ruler was drawn from a pool of the talented. In some respects, the North resembled the Western Holdings the most, except that the latter was governed by a king or queen. Surprisingly enough, the Western Holdings was the only continent that was governed by a royal family — despite a similar concentration of power in the North.

Lieutenant Marie flashed a charming smile. “Indeed. We have to thank Major Sanya and you for our comfortable lodgings thus far, as well as letting us witness your operations on the Central theatre of war. I wonder if you’re here again for that purpose?”

“Indeed, I’m here to bring everyone present to witness the fall of Central’s Holy Temple. We’ve crushed the defensive lines leading toward the Holy Temple, and our forces are arrayed, sieging the defences as we speak,” replied Major Igor. His pale face, which looked like it had been carved out of marble, broke into a faint smile. “We’re nearly on the verge of success. Peace will reign once the Holy Temple falls, once all life is freed from the influence of the gods.”

The two observers from the South nodded. They were very clear on who had helped sparked off the Second Extermination. The Human God himself was responsible for the near-annihilation of the beastfolk; this much they knew. Without the power of the Constellations, the South would never have dared to attack the beastfolk cities.

There was some satisfying irony in how the East-West alliance had crushed them with even more Paragons, and even though Lieutenant Marie was somewhat worried about their silence on how they were going to treat the beastfolk, it was better than nothing.

“Come on,” said Major Igor. “Let’s see the end of the Central Continent. This time, we’ll be bringing you over to our command centre itself.”

“You sure about that?” Sergeant Aziz asked doubtfully as they walked towards a building. “The operations centre is a place of secrets, sir.”

“The beastfolk are truly an honourable race, unlike us humans.” The major smiled. “You were the only ones to ask us about it, unlike the observers from the East and the West. But we’re fine with it. After all, after we crush the influence of the Human God, we’re going to march towards the Wildlands and crush the Demon God there too.”

Lieutenant Marie let out a hiss. “You’re attacking the demons too?”

“Precisely so. Unlike the beastfolk, the demons are beings that cannot be trusted to remain peaceable.” Major Igor clenched his fist. “If we are to defeat them, then we must share information, up and including how Combined Arms work. You do remember our artillery, yes?”

The two nodded. They had seen the hulking masses of metal and qi on the first day they arrived; each of them was able to apparently strike with power rivalling that of a Knight’s full power strike. And the Northern military had more than a hundred of them, which had played a decisive role in crushing the defensive lines of the Central forces.

Their command structure, however, had remained something of a secret until apparently today. The major knocked at a door, which slid open automatically, and led the way in. After rummaging through a cabinet of papers, Major Igor passed two stacks of paper, bound together to form a book, over to Lieutenant Marie and Sergeant Aziz.

“You can read this later. For now, you should take a look at how at our military doctrines work in real life.” The major opened another door, revealing men hard at work, their ears covered by circular items connected by a single piece of metal. Every so often, these men would write out something, or speak into the end of a metal strip.

“The things on their ears are called headphones, which allow them to hear words from the leaders of our flyer wings easily,” said Major Igor. “It replaces the traditional runners used by the other continents.”

He indicated the strips of metal that the men spoke into. “These are microphones; every member of staff here has a wing that they can issue orders to directly, which replaces the use of flags and traditional aural means of transmission.”

“This is how we maintain real-time understanding of battlefield conditions.” Major Igor spread his arms out, his face alight with pride.

“But these are all…ground-breaking inventions. I know I’ve said this before,” Lieutenant Marie motioned at the desks and maps on them, “but everything here is years…even decades ahead of our existing doctrine! It’s inconceivable to think that so much could change…”

Her words trailed off, and Sergeant Aziz turned to regard her curiously.

“No way,” she muttered. “Major Igor…is your clearance high enough? Is the person who orchestrated all these changes from…”

Major Igor’s face flickered, and then beckoned them into a corner. He stared at Lieutenant Marie, as though as he’d never seen her properly before this, and then shook his head.

“Yes, he is.”

Sergeant Aziz rubbed his nose. “What are you guys talking about?”

Lieutenant Marie turned to the sergeant, her face smiling uncontrollably. “The person who created all this, who introduced all these changes — that person is from Earth! He’s someone like the Constellations! Like the Cardinal Champions!”

She gulped, forcing whatever excitement on her face into a mask of forced calm, and the sergeant suddenly recalled that this particular officer was a history fanatic.

After letting out a few more hushed squeals, she slapped her cheeks lightly and turned to the amused major. “My apologies for that shameful display, Major Igor.”

“No need for apologies.” The major smiled. “I know some people who reacted the same way you did when they found out about the truth. You’re definitely interested in meeting that person now, but I’m sure we can wait for the war to end first.”

“Definitely.” Lieutenant Marie nodded. “Let’s go observe the Holy Temple’s siege.”

Major Igor gestured at a particularly large table, when men were sitting around and shouting numbers. “This here is our artillery support crew. After receiving environmental data from our airborne observers, they translate it into numbers that our artillery operators use. Bearing, angle, strength of propellants…things like that.”

To that table’s side was an even larger table. “Here is the overall battlefield, miniaturised and reported from our airborne scouts. Watch.”

Right on cue, someone yelled from the desks. “Strike successful, scouts report enemy battalion at C7 destroyed.”

“Enemy battalion at C7 destroyed, roger.” A soldier removed four red little figurines from the table, replacing it with a red X.

Another man shouted from the side. “Orders from command, Sidhe Battalion to push into C7 by five minutes.”

“Roger, Fifth Battalion to push into C7 by five minutes.”

“Relaying. Sidhe Actual, your orders are to push into C7 by five…Sidhe Actual, your orders are to push into C7 by five.”

Scenes like this played out everywhere, every second, as men and women alike spoke, the miniature replica of the battlefield changing every few minutes or so. Sometimes, struggling Northern units would request help, and then adjacent friendly units would collapse onto the overextended enemy unit in a coordination that was nothing short of terrifying. Squads of Dynamo-equipped flyers would launch decisive strikes, each of them a hammer that crushed any resistance where they went.

Night turned to day, and by Saturday afternoon, the city depicted on the miniature had been surrounded on three sides by the blue figurines. The observers from the Eastern Territories and the Western Holdings had long arrived, but none of them had spoken anything at all.

“This is the final push. We’re at the Holy Temple itself, and right now, our artillery forces are being moved towards new firing grounds.” The major smiled grimly. “The last battle of this war will begin in at most a day or two. I hope everyone present is looking forward to it.”