“Alright, you lot.” Aziz paced back and forth, looking at the people assembled for the advance party. Most of them were the deputy company commanders of the three battalions, and they were looking rather nervous. “We’re going to head to Liamar’s Divine Kingdom and then to World’s End as an advance party. Do you guys know what we’re going to be doing there?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good! The division commander’s going to come along too, so make sure you don’t do anything funny. I’m just going to give you guys the lowdown on things one last time,” said Aziz. “First Aerial’s going to conduct some on-the-ground recce at the Great Divide. After that, we’ll split up according to individual battalions and establish secondary defence lines behind the front. Ideally, we want them to be linked up, but if there’s impassable terrain in the middle that’s fine.”

He looked around, but it seemed that no one had any questions so far. “We’ll be looking out for certain spots in particular. Emergency landing zones for those Locomotives, camps just big enough to shelter one company’s worth of supplies, things like that. Anything of strategic importance, you report it upwards. Any questions?”

“No, sir!”

“Excellent.” Aziz swept his gaze through the advance party. “Our job is to make sure that any potential areas we see are at least clear of obvious danger. Use your common sense here, and it’ll be fine.”

Closing his eyes, Aziz waited for Marie to arrive. This exercise was a rather unusual one; Marie and Aziz had no desire to micromanage the three battalions and their companies. Rather, how each battalion would move out was entirely up to their commander alone — Marie wanted to see the extent of her battalion commanders’ ability to lead.

“Alright,” said Aziz, “now that we’re all assembled, let’s go. Remember to keep your eyes peeled.”

Qi swirled around him and everyone else as they took to the skies in a loose formation. He could feel hundreds of eyes fall on him as they left the camp, each of them with their own thoughts. Aziz could roughly harbour a guess as to what the soldiers of the First Aerial were thinking; most of them were worried about the upcoming war, and were now wondering what this exercise had to do with it.

“How was it?” Aziz asked Marie.

“The battalion commanders seem fine when I gave them my orders,” Marie replied. “Let’s hope that they learn to be a bit more independent and proactive from this.”

Aziz grunted. “The two of us won’t be flying with them unless it’s a keystone battle. It’ll take some getting used to for the older ones, but this really can’t be helped. I’m just slightly worried about Hans; these two have never commanded a battalion on their own before.”

“Which is why this exercise will not involve us,” said Marie.

“Our planning’s rather accurate, at least.” Aziz rubbed his nose. “Any news from Ark City?”

“They’ve agreed to play the role of OPFOR for this exercise too,” Marie replied. “They’re going to send out five squadrons for each defence line.”

“Better hope that your troops are prepared,” Aziz said out loud, a grin on his face. “My three battalions are going to face Ark City’s squadrons once more. I’ll be annoyed if they go down without putting up a darn good fight.”

The various captains in earshot shivered. All of them had been briefed about the seemingly-true nature of this exercise; it was to give First Aerial first-hand experience in carrying out a fighting retreat. Although Aziz hoped that the combined forces of the Five Lands could wall up the demons at the Great Divide, he also wanted to prepare for the worst.

After all, the Demon God must also know that the opening battles would be the bloodiest. It was possible that the great god himself would intervene and unleash attacks of an unprecedented scale seconds after the Great Divide crumbled. Even if there were other great gods on station, who was to say if they would react in time?

More importantly, he couldn’t forget the horrifying scene he’d witnessed during the Conference of the Four, how Demon Sovereign Asteria unleashed a single attack that wiped out the assembled forces at the Great Divide. If something like that were to be repeated, at the very least, the Five Lands would have multiple defence lines to fall back on. A defeat there wouldn’t necessarily lead to an all-out collapse.

Now that Aziz had immersed himself with worries, he was beginning to wonder if a secondary defence line was enough. What if the retreating fools didn’t make use of them, or were unable to reconsolidate their strength there? Was a tertiary defence line needed?

He turned his eyes to the others, who, for some reason, began to shiver immediately. Aziz couldn’t quite understand why everyone seemed to shrink away from his gaze, even through they were in mid-flight.

A small fist bopped his head, and he turned to Marie, who was apparently wondering if another fist was needed.

“What?”

“You looked like you were thinking about something really terrifying,” Marie replied. “You’re scaring everyone else.”

“I’m sorry, but the conclusion and premise doesn’t seem to match up at all,” Aziz said. “How am I scaring everyone else?”

“You just are, okay?” Marie replied, her eyebrow twitching. “Just concentrate on your flight and nothing else.”

Aziz’s eyes fell onto the artefact Marie was operating, the Display M2, and felt a vein throb in his temple. “You’re one to speak! Put that away and concentrate on flying!”

“No can do,” Marie replied. “I’m watching this thing called a livestream now. Monocle Online is unveiling their latest Display model, and it’s said to be a lot more user-friendly.”

“Really?” Aziz asked, despite himself. “How so?”

“You’re asking me now? Just watch the livestream and you’ll know, right?” Marie asked. “Did you bring your own Display?”

“Obviously not,” Aziz replied. “Why would I bring one here?”

“Pity. Well, come a bit closer and take a look,” said Marie. “It’s not like there’s any laws against watching a Display while flying on a military operation as a commander and vice commander of an aerial division.”

“Did you really need that many qualifiers? How specific…” Aziz shook his head, before moving over to Marie. Craning his head, he looked at the pompous ceremony going on, and his eyes were immediately drawn over to a life-sized figurine of someone on stage.

“Isn’t that the Phantom Blade?” Aziz asked. “What’s going on?”