“You lot are finally awake,” Gemini glanced at General Degurechaff and Warmaster Chamberlain, and shook his head. It had been slightly less than an entire month since they were struck by that unnatural lightning storm, caused by Magnus’ question. The two had shown some measure of consciousness in the first two hours after they got to a bed, but then slipped into a very deep sleep after that, for some reason.

Said reason probably had something to do with the silver lightning bolts that still jumped around them every few days or so. Not much harm done there — these bolts of lightning had no effect on their caretakers, other than an upset tray of porridge when these strands of electricity leapt onto their caretakers for the first time.

Nowadays, however, their caretakers had treated the whole thing as a game. Middle-aged men and women would compete with each other to see who got more jumps during a feeding session, with complete disregard of the fact that these bets were at the expense of the unconscious men they were looking after…and that these men were the some of the strongest within Ark City.

No one knew when these people would wake up, but they had shown some kind of movement three days ago. After consulting with the medical professionals once again, the general consensus was that they would wake up within a week.

“I am going to beat Magnus up,” Warmaster Chamberlain snarled.

“Count me in,” Degurechaff added. “His questions can provoke lightning. Did you see that?”

“I did,” Chamberlain replied. “Gemini, how long were we unconscious?”

“Nearly thirty days, give or take some. I’m not really keeping track of the days now, not with the daily attacks going on,” said the Constellation. “While you two were having the best rest of the life, the rest of us have been toughing it out on the battlefield. There’s no need to beat the Campmaster up for that…”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” the Warmaster replied gruffly. “You beat up people who screwed you over.”

“Or you can show some magnanimity and forgive him,” replied the Constellation. “Injuring him doesn’t seem to be that good of an idea now, given that we are under attack every day.”

General Degurechaff tweaked his nose. “Well, that’ll depend on whether he gets us a drink later today, complete with an apology. I know he has a stash of fine wine hidden somewhere.”

Warmaster Chamberlain laughed heartily. “Humans. I don’t care for his wine, but I’m quite sure he has some quality weapons lying around. He’s chummy with the elder manning the Exchange. I’m sure he’s gotten first dibs on some real good equipment.”

“I’m afraid you two will have to settle for the equipment option,” Gemini replied. “Doctor’s orders: no alcohol for the two of you until the electricity dancing around you two is gone for good.”

“What?” The general glared at the Constellation. “On what grounds can he do that?”

“Because he’s a doctor?” Gemini replied. “Just go raid the Campmaster’s treasury. It’s not like he can say no. Now, if you please, let’s get down to briefing you two about the latest updates in Ark City. Normally, that’ll be Magnus’ job, but ever since you two woke up, he’s being trying to avoid retribution.”

“That old bastard…”

“Sorry for inconveniencing you, Gemini.” Degurechaff rolled his eyes. “So, what happened while we were unconscious?”

“Well, the attacks still happen every day at ten in the morning, to begin with. We have thirty thousand troops that are all trained to use the Straight Shot, the airborne squad has increased to two thousand men — we’re calling it a regiment now — and the walls of Ark City have been strengthened,” said Gemini. “Fatalities have begun to mount, however, ever since the primal demons started to use their own siege weapons. Other than that, our foes have started using basic bow and arrows.”

“Siege weapons, huh?” General Degurechaff frowned. “What have we seen so far?”

“Catapults, mostly,” Gemini replied. “They tried to use something like a battering ram to break down our walls, but that didn’t go far.”

“It seems that the battlefield situation is under control, then,” said the Warmaster. “What about the elites? What’s the situation there?”

The Constellation pondered on his next words for a moment. “We’re sustaining casualties at an irreplaceable rate. These primal demons are insane. They charge into battle with no regard for their own well-being and try to kill our own elites at a ruinous exchange rate. The problem is that they’re able to revive after a day or two.”

Degurechaff sat up on his bed, his face stern. “How about making use of the soldiers on the wall to shoot some of their elites down?”

“A high risk of friendly fire,” Gemini replied. “To put it bluntly, these demons are fighting in a way that would have been unacceptable to any in the Five Lands. Their seemingly stupid tactics make full use of their immortality factor. And the bad news doesn’t end there. We’ve been tracking the still-ongoing battle between the Demon God’s Herald and Exemplar Rilata, and their battlefield is projected to swing by our city in the next few days.”

“That’s…”

“A problem,” Gemini finished. “And the attacks that have been occurring recently are reflecting that.”

“There’s no time to be lying around, then,” said Warmaster Chamberlain. “Come on, let’s go find Magnus and see if we can do something about this. We can settle our little grudge later.”

Degurechaff swung his legs off the bed and got out of it. After making some arrangements with Chamberlain to find the Campmaster an hour later, the two left their ward. They had been asleep for a long time, after all — there were definitely things that they needed to handle.

Bells began to ring throughout the city, and the Constellation tossed thoughts about these two men into the back of his mind. These alarms rang every day, a warning for all that the demons were once again forming up and preparing to besiege Ark City once more.

Stepping out on the ward’s balcony, Gemini took to the skies. Below him, men and women alike were rushing towards the walls, Straight Shots in hand. Other soldiers were forming up into blocks of troops and marching out of the city gate to take up positions, while the aerial troops of Ark City were gathering in the skies, ready to rain hell onto the enemy ground troops once more.

But this wasn’t his battlefield.

The one ten kilometres aboveground was.