As tens of thousands of shots barrelled towards the demon hordes, the great gods above exploded into motion. Thousands of lights surged out from the assembled Divine Kingdoms, each one a light that represented a familiar spirit. At the same time, the weapon emplacements installed at Defence Line Foxtrot stirred to life, and the first of the demon hordes fell, cut down by an overwhelming sea of fire.

Hundreds of metres above them, in the immediate airspace of the defence line, the Guardians and the demon fliers began to clash.

“We won’t make it if the Guardians fall here,” said Minister Eventide.

“Beta and Charlie companies to direct supporting fire towards the demon fliers,” Marie ordered. “Aziz. Take command of Alpha Company and conduct harassment of the enemy fliers.”

The colonel woke up from his stupor and nodded. Relaying his orders through Schnee, a group of shadows towards his current location, and Aziz looked back at Marie.

“Colonel.” Marie stared at him. “Come back alive.”

“I’ll try my best, ma’am.”

He snapped out a salute and joined up with Alpha Company. Without needing to speak, the group of fliers, around a hundred and sixty strong, ascended rapidly and began to circle around the aerial battlefield.

“Orders, sir?” Major Hans asked.

“We’ll aim for targets of opportunity, while providing fire support for any Guardians in trouble,” Aziz replied, his narrowed eyes sweeping through the aerial battlefield. “Follow me. And make sure your Palisades are up at all times.”

The sheer numerical superiority of the demon fliers meant that the upper airzone had been long overrun, as the demons chose to engage up close. There was little therefore point in joining the melee, where these demons would overpower them with numbers alone.

With him at the lead, Alpha Company circled to the rear of the pursuing demons, and shadows began to fall as deadly accurate shots cut through their ranks. Surprisingly enough, none of the demons had anything resembling a Shell or a Barrier, and within moments, the Guardian that had been besieged by those demons had made it out.

The Guardians, who were the Five Lands’ top Knights, enjoyed a distinct advantage of an Engine, which was why they were more than capable of putting up a good fight.

As they mowed down another gaggle of demons, Major Hans turned to him. “Colonel, a warning from Marshal Marie.”

“What did she say?” Aziz asked, his eyes focused on yet another group.

“Infinite Light eminent,” Hans replied.

“Infinite Light eminent?” His heart skipped a bit as he dimly recalled what the last resort codeword meant. “Alpha Company, drop!”

Throwing himself into a hasty dive, Aziz led the soldiers behind them as they plummeted towards the ground, scattering and ending skirmishes in their way. Before Hans, who had opened his mouth, could ask why he did that, enormous waves of energy swept through the upper and middle air zones, swallowing everyone there.

The Paragons of the Five Lands had made a move, and on the other side of the landbridge, similar energies began to emanate outwards. Within moments, the top combat forces of both sides had soared towards the skies, and the wide-area attack one of the Five Lands’ Paragons had unleashed began to fade.

His heart pumping wildly, Aziz looked around at the rest of Alpha Company, whose pale faces were currently illuminated by the blinding white light.

The white light cleared a moment later to reveal drifting ashes where the demon fliers used to be. Only the Guardians, most of which were Knights with their own Engines, were still alive, but none of them were in any fit condition to fight.

“Give me that!” Aziz reached out for the Radio in Hans’ hands. “Marshal, what’s the meaning of this?”

“Eventide authorised this.” Marie’s voice was even…too even. It was a sign of her displeasure, but if she was adopting that tone, that could only mean that there were other people listening on her end.

Aziz didn’t know what was going on, so he cut the call a moment later. “Platoons Two to Four, break apart into small groups and escort as many Guardians as possible to safety. Platoon One, spread out and don’t let any demons through.”

As Alpha Company scattered to execute his orders, the colonel found himself seething with anger.

It was fortunate that the Guardians were all people with Engines, not Dynamos. Infinite Light was, essentially, a plan that relied on certain bits of intelligence Ark City had brought back. A Paragon, or a group of Paragons, would inundate the middle and upper airzones with an attack that would nearly overload the Barriers of an Engine.

Such an attack, if taken head-on, would be nearly always fatal. This, however, was an emergency measure; if Marie hadn’t given them that warning, Alpha Company would have been eradicated; Dynamos were far, far inferior when it came to defences.

That said, it had been effective in neutralising the demon fliers, who had outnumbered the Five Lands’ elites a few times over. Aziz knew, full well, that even if elites from both sides died here, this would skew the advantage towards the Five Lands, but he had a feeling that the people-in-charge weren’t thinking about the demons’ immortality.

As if they didn’t believe it.

More importantly, Infinite Light could have been executed even before the Guardians took the stage, when the demon fliers were heading over. Why didn’t they do that then? Aziz could tell that the chances of the enemy fliers reacting in time were nearly zero; without that advance warning from Marie, Alpha Company would have been eradicated.

Regardless, the battle in the air was over. Aziz, however, didn’t quite dare to lead Alpha in providing aerial fire support, not after they were nearly wiped out.

“Colonel,” said a shaky Hans.

“What?” Aziz looked at him. “What’s…”

His voice died in his throat a moment later.

Aziz raised the Radio. “Marshal, are you seeing that?”

There was a moment of silence, before the artefact crackled to life. “Orders from headquarters. We are to hold the line.”

“Against that?”

“Reinforcements are inbound. Hold tight. They’ll be here really soon.”

“Inbound?” Aziz, who had long forgotten about voice protocol, stared at the huge mass of flying demons that were headed their way. Something inside him told Aziz that there was something wrong with this sight, but the colonel wasn’t in the mood to think about it so hard yet.

His hand trembled. “Marshal…”