Colonel Aziz, who was watching the oddly one-sided battle with Marie, felt his heart skip a beat as the enormous floating city came to a stop above the Heaven-cleaving Fortress. The first of the Five Lands’ reinforcements were here, and it was the most formidable of the lot to boot. The colonel could tell that the days of being on tenterhooks were over — with Ark City’s support and troops, the demons were going to be in for a tough time.

“Still,” the colonel wondered out loud, “why are we letting the demons demolish the God of Earth’s tombstone? Isn’t it to our advantage if we keep it there?”

“The Five Lands, as a territory, is only so large,” Marie replied quietly.

“Huh?’

“In this Great War of ours, we’ve done very well,” Marie continued. “Even though the Great Divide fell ahead of schedule, the Heaven-cleaving Fortress managed to stem the demon tide alone. Without bringing our full power to bear, we repelled the invading enemies, survived the clash between great gods, and even brought ruin to millions of demons.”

“A performance worthy of promotions, I guess.” Aziz let the smile slide of his face. “So you’re saying that the higher-ups think that attacking the enemy homeland is a viable move now?”

“Yes.” Marie looked at the crumbling mountain. “Maybe they’re even chuckling at this sight.”

“If they do indeed have such a mindset, then they’re probably laughing out loud now,” Aziz noted. “But the great gods…have they forgotten about them? The Demon God seems to have an advantage, no?”

“The Mortal Light Dynasty has been working on godkiller weapons for millennia. Have you not forgotten the Brilliant Pinnacle’s desire?” Marie asked. “Long ago, when we first went to the North, Major Igor did say that the North wanted to take down the great gods. And then move on to the Demon God himself.”

“I thought that was just a slogan or some propaganda, though,” Aziz mumbled. “Were they actually really serious about it? Pinnacle Kolya didn’t seem like the dogmatic type, though!”

“But he doesn’t run the North alone, does he?” Marie asked. “The North’s an old, old nation. There’re probably entire families brought up with such an ideal, especially those who owe a direct debt of gratitude to the Brilliant Pinnacle, Anya. Even if she’s long gone, debts and maxims don’t vanish that easy.”

“What’s going to happen, then?” Aziz looked up at Ark City, noting the numerous barrels that were poking out of its metal shell.

“I wish I knew too,” Marie replied. “However, I am fairly certain that if the North’s Locomotives arrive before the Demon God concludes his fight, he will not be walking away unscathed.”

“And why are you so certain?”

The marshal pondered over her thoughts. “Intuition, I guess. It’s like that feeling of standing on a cliff, you know? The certainty of death if you stepped off the cliff and fell. Something like that.”

“But you’re capable of flying, so…”

“It’s an analogy, got it?” Marie smacked the top of his cranium and pouted. “Listen up. Superior officers are allowed to make analogies without any pesky underlings trying to point out issues in them, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am, yes ma’am.” Aziz rolled his eyes. “Anything you say, ma’am. Alright, putting that unimportant bit aside, are you telling me that Pinnacle Kolya has installed godkiller weapons on his Locomotives?”

“It seems that way. That said, don’t go spreading it around. It would be a problem if the lower-level staff catch wind of it; we don’t need over-confidence now,” said Marie.

“The First Aerial’s not going to be overconfident, at least. We’ve taken too many losses for overconfidence to happen,” Aziz replied. Unlike the middle and upper airzones, the lower airzone had been thrashed and pummelled by their far more numerous counterparts.

For the Guardians, being outnumbered three-to-one was the norm, but it was not a fatal disadvantage, since the differences between a Knight of the Five Lands and a Scholar of the Wildlands was large enough that numerical superiority wouldn’t be a huge part of it. In contrast, the individual gap between Squire-rank demons and the Five Lands’ Squires, which wasn’t all that big to begin with, had been closed due to the overwhelming enemy numbers.

The First Aerial, with its high standards of training, was now half its original strength. Most of the losses came from deaths, rather than crippling injuries to boot — being struck down in an aerial battle was almost certainly a death sentence.

Aziz didn’t even want to think about the Eastern fliers.

“Thankfully, there hasn’t been any casualties for the past two days,” Marie muttered. “I’ve already sent a request for the First Aerial to move to rear echelon duties; once the reinforcements arrive, we should be rotated out.”

“Rear echelon?” Aziz asked. “Is there even a rear echelon for this warfront?”

“Not now, naturally.” Marie’s eyes were sad. “When we eventually push into the Wildlands, there’ll be lots of space between the Heaven-cleaving Fortress and the new frontlines.”

“Oh.” Aziz levelled an appraising gaze at his boss. For some reason, she wasn’t stating anything outright; the marshal had been guiding him towards a conclusion. It was as if she was training him to think critically or something, but Aziz had done more than his fair share of that in the past few years, so he didn’t quite understand her motives.

“We’ll be free from fighting after this, for quite some time.”

“Assuming that everything goes as smoothly as you said, of course,” Aziz replied. “Surely there’ll be other troops jockeying for a nice position at the rear, right? If we do move into the demons’ territory, we’re no longer fighting to survive. We’ll be fighting for resources and land, none of which would go to soldiers and troops. None of us will want to charge into enemy territory for no gains; it’s likely that we’ll be forced to do so.”

He breathed out slowly, watching as people descended from the floating fortress above. “We’re enrolled in the Hall of Guardians. We’re not conquerors.”

“Yes. I know.” Marie patted his shoulder, and then looked up as well. “Come on. Let’s say hi to our reinforcements.”