Gaius sighed as more and more troops moved into position. The battle was going to start, by his estimation, in less than two hours or so. It was obvious from his viewpoint; even the artillery…

Artillery?

Pinching his fingers together, Gaius shrank the viewpoint to zoom in on the metal monsters grouped together, and his heart skipped a beat as he recognised the weapons. They were howitzers, the kinds used by modern militaries in the twenty-first century. It was a tad overkill against the Central forces, but Gaius wasn’t going to be too fussed about that.

After all, the North was too far from Ark City, and Ark City wouldn’t be threatened by the rise of such a powerful continent anyway. There was merit to the adage about making friends with countries far from oneself, and enemies with those closer to home.

“There’s more than just simply spying on people from afar, Master Gaius,” said Nexus.

Master? Gaius choked in a giggle, and with a visible effort, schooled his tone. “What else can I do with this?”

The voice chuckled. “Like everyone else walking this world, Lady Jessica is a person full of contradictions. She sought solitude, and yet desired to interact with the world. Not content with the ability to peer into Orb like a globe, she eventually created an even more potent ability to add on to the Map of Stars.”

Gaius licked his lips. “What did she add on?”

There was a moment of silence.

“Final verification in progress.” Nexus’ voice was entirely robotic, devoid of whatever semblance of life it had taken on earlier when conversing with Gaius.

“Nexus?”

“Verification in progress. Please stand still.”

Gaius stopped moving, but his eyes were still fixated on the bustling camp of the Northern forces. A few thousand — they had to be Squires, given that only by scouring the entirety of the Five Lands could one find that many Knights — were taking to the skies, breaking into groups of at least thirty as they started flying in formation.

Far behind the trenches, the Northern artillery battalions were beginning to fire over and over. The little boy dimly noted that the howitzers were organised according to what seemed like modern military doctrines — six in a group, and each group was spread out well, in order to minimise losses from counter-artillery fire.

If there was counter-artillery fire, anyway. Directly above each gun were a squad of fliers, clearly there to defend against any intrepid enemy troops that might have been inspired to strike at what clearly was the rear of the Northern armies. It was an incredibly sound strategy, given that there were enough fliers to deter attacks that were small in scale.

At the same time, other fliers were beginning to harass the horse-mounted cavalry that were beginning to charge out of the Holy Temple. They didn’t need to go near; each flier was using artefacts like the Straight Shot, and each group of fliers were shooting together in coordination.

Gaius zoomed in on a flier, who was drawing a sigil and using it to augment the attacks of his ranged artefacts. It looked like a bow, but form didn’t really matter when he unleashed an arrow that swallowed up twenty horse-riders at the end of its flight.

Scenes like this occurred everywhere, and it didn’t take long before the mounted squads broke ranks and attempted to retreat, in what would have been an unmitigated disaster. But before the Northern flier squads could capitalised on the opportunity, a coordinated barrage of qi projectiles swept the skies, exploding on contact.

The battlefield froze for a moment, but the smoke rapidly cleared to reveal a shimmering layer around each and every flier.

“The Dynamo’s Shell,” murmured Gaius. It was, according to Nalus, an ability that was far inferior to his Stellar Core’s Barrier. But it was good enough to block out wide-area attacks, even by Knights.

To him, it looked like the Central forces had taken quite the loss in the opening exchange. They had lost a hefty number of mounted troops, in order to draw the Northern fliers into the open. But their counterstrike — a wide-area barrage by the Central Knights — had failed to do much, if any, damage to the Northern airborne squads.

The Dynamo was an inferior version of even the mass-produced Engines handed out to Knights, but their creation emphasised two things: speed and survivability. The North’s foresight had proven its value, at the least. The mounted riders had failed to even reach the trenches of the Northern ground forces, where they might have gotten some damage off there.

If Gaius wasn’t convinced of the presence of at least one otherworlder in the Northern Continent when he heard the word ‘Dynamo’, he was convinced now. Trenches, artillery guns, modern concepts of combined arms…these three had appeared together in the war between the Central Circle and Northern Continent. Although that person may not have been designated a chosen of the gods, he had done more than enough to affect Orb.

The outer walls of the Holy Temple shuddered as the hammer of the battlefield continued to smash onto them. The artillery strikes were reaching a crescendo, and as Gaius continued to watch, a giant segment of Centoria’s walls crumbled, dooming the men that were already taking shelter inside them.

At this rate, the Northern forces would win the war without their ground troops making a single move. The artillery bombardment was too regular, to the point that unmounted ground troops would not make more than a hundred metres before they died from stray artillery strikes and whatever anti-personnel means embedded into the falling shells.

It would be the joke of the century if the vaunted Central military fell without even making it to the opposing ground forces, but it seemed that history was about to be made here.

Gaius rubbed his nose. No, history had already been made here. The supremacy of the Northern military would be written, and the texts of it examined for decades to come. Whether or not the Central forces managed to make the Northern forces attack or not would just be a small note.

The little lecturer could see the beauty of this plan. The North wanted to draw out the flight-able experts of the Central Continent into the battlefield, where their own experts would enter the fray, aided by support fire. It was a masterful strategy that forced the opponent’s hand, whether they liked it or not. And from their practiced actions, and the lack of fluster from the artillery forces that doubled as bait, Gaius could tell that this was how they operated in the battles leading up to this point.

Perhaps, if the Central Circle had the support of the Southern Continent’s Paragons and Constellations, they might have been able to take out the artillery. But the North had struck at such a timing, when the South was tied down by the East-West alliance.

“Final verification at ninety-nine percent. Taking out proof of inheritance.”

A robotic voice drew Gaius’ attention away, and as he turned his head, the glossy nametag he’d retrieved from his student last week materialised in front of him. On instinct, Gaius tried to grab it, but it vanished, reappearing on top of the table.

“Proof confirmed.” The robotic voice spoke with a tone of finality. “Master Gaius, the Library is at your service.”

Gaius looked at the Map of Stars, and then turned to regard the on-going battle. He could now see every part of the Library in his mind, see each and every shadow hard at work. Suddenly, the world felt very, very foreign to him, and he closed his eyes.