Niu watched the ground beneath her, her heart beating so loudly she was surprised it didn’t burst out of her chest.

It was a beautiful morning; the sun was shining brightly, just as Niu liked it. How she longed to go for a walk underneath its warm, protecting rays… but she couldn’t. There weren’t even the natural sounds of birds and other small animals she was used to. Instead, the whole area was wrapped in a heavy silence, only disturbed at times by the clinking of weapons, heavy steps or distant shouts.

Also, no matter how much she wanted to feel and see the sun, she had to force herself to keep her head down right now—after all, dozens of tentacles were floating in the vast sky.

As part of their deal with the Ruler, she had to “participate” in the battle, but the day before, they’d been told that most of them would simply stand side by side with some scouts and archers. Niu herself was situated on a tree she’d been told was called Kordin, supposedly one of the three great trees directly surrounding the palace.

She was situated on one of Kordin’s lower branches; presumably it was one of the safer places to be in, owing to the fact that the monsters would fall from above to the higher branches and a hypothetical Stroba attack should happen mostly on ground.

Niu was completely isolated. She was surrounded by countless fairy soldiers to protect her, but she knew none of them and couldn’t communicate anyway, so it only served to make her more anxious. Shaya and Roah had been stationed elsewhere so she couldn’t see them. However, she was surprised at being able to see Gen. She was on a branch high enough from the ground that people seemed almost as small as insects, but not high enough to mistake the boy’s form among the many fairies. Not only his silhouette, but even his simple clothes were different from the rest, so he was conspicuous enough.

Unlike the others, he was situated among the warriors—at the rear, though, since he was obviously not trained enough. He moved with the platoon protecting the perimeter of the Tree Kalden, where they gathered all supplies and the strategic headquarters. They couldn’t really tell where the monsters or the Stroba were going to strike, but it should be a relatively safe spot. In a way, he and Niu were in the same position with a different elevation, so his presence there made her smile.

Of course, she also feared seeing him get hurt. That thought immediately erased her faint smile, and she simply waited, body slightly shaking.

A furious shout then erupted on the battlefield.

Perhaps there was some sign of it, but she desperately focused her gaze on the ground so she hadn’t seen anything. She only heard this shout echoing around. Even without understanding the language, its ferocity told her everything that she needed to know. The second wave was now officially underway.

The first line of defense waited among the treetops.

They stood above the multicolored capes covering the entirety of Kalden, watching the skies. Once the shining tentacles slithered close enough, the countless monsters began dropping down. Most of the soldiers had never seen this process—owing to the fact the previous wave appeared by a complete surprise—but this time they were ready. It was a disturbing sight, but they knew they had to fight.

Soon, the air was filled with dark shapes both large and small: the former being the monsters dropping all around, the latter being the defenders’ volleys of arrows or throwing lances.

Felling the beasts before they could even attack was the best course of action, but of course they weren’t expecting it to fully work. The monsters’ bodies were mostly covered by hard hides, and they were large enough that small arrows stuck in them didn’t cause much harm. Even so the fairies kept their assault, if only to keep them back for another second, if only to shave a little of their life.

The monsters were largely undeterred, however. Once landing on the treetops, they immediately crawled, skittered, or leapt—some of them even hovered or flew without landing at all—at the soldiers. Shooting a few more arrows and then finally abandoning their bows for swords or spears, the fairies fought back.

Soon the air of Kalden was filled with screams. There seemed to be almost as many monsters as fairies, and most fairies couldn’t handle a monster alone. Most of the monsters were relatively slow, but direct wounds didn’t accomplish much and they healed themselves with time. Soon many fairies were overwhelmed, their bodies devoured by the monstrous beasts.

Most of the monsters, of course, fell toward the ground below.

“You seem very worried,” noted TriX in its usual uninflected voice.

Seele smiled; how could they not be worried? The attack had just begun, with those demonic tentacles dropping monsters down on their heads once again. At least back during the previous wave Seele was relatively well-protected underground, even if they did end up coming out to scout and sweep the area later, but now—no, Seele couldn’t think like this. This was the proud Capital of Kalden, with the finest army in all the land. Whether they had to fight these wicked spawns or the ignoble Stroba, they would always emerge victorious.

That was the theory, anyway, so still worrying despite it all was natural. Seele had been taken, along with most robots and their handlers, to one of the high branches of Kalden, serving as the second line of “aerial” defense. The idea was that after passing through the first line of defense the monsters would most likely drop directly to the ground, judging by past behavior, so the handlers, who were mostly not warriors, shouldn’t be in too much danger.

TriX itself was no fighter either, yet Seele trusted it for protection.

“It isn’t every day that we fight against such things, after all,” Seele said somewhat wryly.

“We have managed last time. Then there is probably, no need for concern.”

“I wish it was that simple.”

For instance, losing DuA in the previous skirmish was a major blow. Still, there were plenty of other robots left. Seele could see many strong warrior-models or weapon-models such as NaN, BooM, RoX and UwU spread on the branches around them.

Seele smiled. They had been with TriX for a long while in that remote base, so seeing these many familiar faces was very nostalgic. They had already chatted with most of the handlers, but now that the real deal was starting, they spread into their pairs and positions almost automatically.

Suddenly there was movement. TriX had started acting much earlier than Seele’s senses could perceive. A black mass landed on the branch, leaping at them. There wasn’t even time to raise a shriek; TriX had already landed a punch, stopping the monster in place.

Seele took a few steps back as their partner handled the attack. Soon there were other such instances around and Seele dared to peek: they could see RoX launching a projectile from its hollow head to send another monster flying, while others fought with their bodies or installed weapons. Still, they weren’t expected to actually defeat their enemies; just stall them or shake them off of Kalden’s branches.

With that in mind, Seele called: “TriX! Throw it off!”

According to what Roah heard from Seele, the densest part of the city was known as the Twintree because, as the name suggested, its center was made of two adjacent trees. Actually, it was a lone tree that, by some bizarre mutation during its ancient past, had split into two different trunks. Above the ground they seemed to be separate trees, but they came from the same roots. The trees were known by the names of Den and Rok, or collectively Denrok.

And while Denrok was massive and thick, the countless smaller trees surrounding it made the area even more so. By itself, the Twintree Block was about a fifth of the entirety of Kalden, making it a large obstacle for both insiders and outsiders. It was hard seeing the ground from above, but even so Roah and Shaya stood on one of Den’s lower branches.

Roah was, of course, a perfect fit for scouting. Shaya was decidedly less so, so she stood there as frightened and anxious as Niu was on the other side of Kalden. For the moment, though, Roah paid her no heed.

Despite having been denied the chance for serious contributions in the strategy meetings, it didn’t mean that Roah came out completely empty-handed. At the very least he had some understanding of Kalden’s structure and tactics, aided by Seele. He also knew that the Twintree was considered Kalden’s best fortification—and that they also considered it the safest area.

There would be monsters there as well, of course, but they seemed to attack more or less randomly anyway. The thing was that the fairies’ secondary concern, the Stroba, were the least likely to make an appearance there due to the natural ramifications. Attacks both above and below ground would be troublesome there. Consequently, it was both the safest spot as well as ironically the least guarded one.

However, Roah had a hunch that this was not quite right. And so he’d requested being stationed there, hoping that they would merely think him cowardly.

Meanwhile, he watched the wave unfold. Dark shapes began falling through the trees around. Shaya yelped in fright while Roah scanned his surroundings, calm as ever. As part of the strategy meetings, he also learned a bit about these monsters. For the fairies, who knew no animals, they were completely alien beings, but Roah found them more of a haphazard mishmash of several pests. Still horrifying and otherworldly, but perhaps a bit more understandable. Since he’d only faced one of them from up close, it was useful information.

The beasts were resilient against physical attacks and could even regenerate their bodies over time to boot. On the other hand, they were apparently extremely vulnerable to channeling. Perhaps it hadn’t been just mere luck that allowed Roah and the other three to defeat one such monster like that at the time; this was quite possibly their weakness.

Unfortunately, channeling seemed to be only slightly more common in Fairland than it was in Plainland, meaning that most of the fairies could only fight with weapons. It was hard but doable, and luckily many of the monsters were slow as well.

Anyway, that was more or less the gist of it, but Roah immediately saw something wrong.

“They’re not supposed to be like that…” he mumbled.

“What?” asked Shaya.

“Those monsters… they’re different than the last time!”

Engaged in battle, Aisbroom had the exact same thought. In front of them stood a dark, large creature covered in fur. Aisbroom did not know much about the creatures of the other world, but it was probably a cross between some of them. The beast used its powerful body, sharp claws and fangs to swipe and tear at its enemies, but Aisbroom was able to keep it at bay, fighting atop a branch. An almost invisible purple mist swirled around the two.

Aisbroom took a glance at one flower on their forearm, extending a vine to stop the beast from slashing their body apart and leaping back to gain a bit of a distance. Aisbroom’s short sword also flashed, cutting the monster’s face.

Well, despite the difference in appearance, the way of fighting it seemed about the same. But why did it look different?

Yet these questions would have to be asked later. Right now Aisbroom had to focus on fighting. Their enemy’s form itself changed nothing—the fact they had to defeat them remained as is.

The beast tried to pull its vine-covered arm and Aisbroom along with it, but a quick slash solved that problem. It leapt ahead for another attack, and missed. Aisbroom was starting to feel anxious, however; their strategy was taking longer than they’d expected. They admittedly hadn’t tried it during the previous wave, but… ah! The beast suddenly froze, letting a low growl, and fell from the branch.

Aisbroom could hear a nasty crashing sound, but wasn’t able to see the monster anymore. They could only hope falling from such a height killed it, or that the soldiers below would finish the job.

Strictly speaking, Aisbroom could have probably incinerated it using fire magic, but seeing how dangerous it was inside Kalden, they forbade all usage of this magic except for the most critical of situations. Instead, Aisbroom employed a deep purple flower tinged with yellow spots that rested below their left wrist. Using it to invoke wind magic, they spread the flower’s poisonous pollen around. A little of it was usually harmless, but breathing in large amounts could be fatal. Aisbroom was immune, but the monsters shouldn’t be—as was demonstrated in the end when the symptomatic paralysis and pain set in.

However, that was only one monster. The previous time there were hundreds in Kalden, and who could tell about this time? The Stroba might also appear at any time. So Aisbroom couldn’t rest for even a second; they sent a vine at the nearest branch and swung away, launching at another monster they noticed nearby.

“Stay away!” Aisbroom warned the other soldiers, intending to use the same poison strategy again. As the other fairies scrambled, the monster—a winged hybrid of some sort—lurched at Aisbroom with flapping wings.

Although Gen was placed on the ground along with the other soldiers, he was much less prepared for it than Roah, for example. He knew basically nothing about the monsters or the strategic placements in the battlefield or anything else, really.

Aisbroom had assured him that his position was one of the safest, meant as pretty much the last line defense. Not to mention that every soldier there had supposedly been instructed to guard him with their lives. He did catch them sneaking glances at him from time to time—and surprisingly, most of these glances seemed positive. Some even smiled and nodded at him.

This made him feel conflicted. He could somewhat fight now, especially after Aisbroom’s intensive training, but he was still a weakling. He doubted he could even beat his older brother, a military junior with little more than a year of experience under his belt. He wouldn’t be able to truly help the fighting cause at all. In fact, he would probably just hinder them.

Even so they fought for him. Even so they protected him. If what he heard was true, then as a “human”—or more precisely “faerie”—he was a symbol of hopes and legends. He still couldn’t really wrap his head about the concept, but… he couldn’t just deny it either. He hated being used by all these people (Aisbroom included), but if it all led to him and his friends getting back home somehow, then perhaps he didn’t mind it.

That being said, he froze in place when the battles actually started.

He thought he was mentally prepared for it, but it really was sudden. The crying voices of the soldiers flew around a bit before then, causing him to tense up, and then the monsters started falling from the sky. Seeing he was surrounded by trees in all directions, especially underneath Kalden, he couldn’t see most of their descent, only their landing. The ground was now swarming with these creatures.

Memories of not too many days ago resurfaced. Gen recalled the day where they made Niu upset, ran after her, then saw something fantastic yet eerie in the sky—and then somehow knew that Niu was in great danger. Thankfully, they managed to arrive just in time to save her. Their lame struggle was able to somehow fell one monster… and now dozens of them appeared all around him.

He’d never been in an actual fight of this scale, and now he knew how laughable his previous skirmish had been. The fairies swung their weapons, ran and leapt around, striking and slicing and pushing away their fearsome opponents, black chimeric beasts that looked like the stuff of nightmares. Meanwhile Gen’s heart pounded hard. He felt chills while hearing cries of pain and anguish.

None of the monsters managed to even get close to him, yet he could still clearly see the carnage around him. Most of it was the beasts being stabbed and ripped apart, as they were heavily outnumbered, but there were also fairy victims as well—he saw a spurt of blood and heard a horrifying howl, but thankfully couldn’t see the details.

Gen felt his hand getting sweaty and he nearly lost the grip on his spear. Focus! He told himself. He wasn’t a coward. It was nothing like what he imagined, but he knew that being in a battlefield wouldn’t be all fun and games.

Besides, his friends were all around him somewhere he couldn’t see. And for him, one of them was—well, regardless of that, he simply had to return to them in one piece.

And so, despite being shaken at first, he gradually calmed down. The fairies were powerful and experienced; it was soon evident that they had the situation perfectly under control. It was only a matter of time until the fight would be over. Probably. Gen couldn’t see the skies, but the trickle of monsters from trees noticeably lessened. Perhaps the wave was drawing to a close?

As time passed, this seemed to be the case. It didn’t mean that the battle was actually ending, though. Soon the sounds of fighting restarted again, and this time with more vigor. Gen was at first confused since he could see the fairies around him fighting but couldn’t see any monsters, but he soon realized.

They were now fighting other fairies.

“They WHAT?!”

Ariboh, clad in his formal armor emblazoned with many different symbols, was one of those stationed on the treetops. Their unit had been defending the skies about Morsheen, one of the tallest trees in Kalden. There were still shining tentacles in the skies—though some had been shot down—but most of them were no longer carrying any monsters. Judging from the intermittent reports, Kalden’s army had already defeated the vast majority of them.

However, just then shocking news reached Ariboh. Their eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets and their wide mouth hung open. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. They had it all planned… so why?

Apparently, hostile soldiers started to appear all around Kalden. That part was understandable—they’d already surmised the Stroba were possibly going to take advantage of the chaos of the second wave to launch their own attack. However, they’d guarded against and were prepared to immediately intercept the attacks from all known locations.

It was impossible for one of those to be right under Ariboh’s feet!

“Go warn the other units!” Ariboh spat. They froze only for a moment; this was the time to act. “Find out if there any similar things are happening around! We’ll contain ‘em!”

The messenger nodded and ran off. Ariboh started running after them, too. According to the reports, battles with the Stroba were happening inside Morsheen right now. They had apparently breached the tree from below and were making their way up. It was a strategically important place, but they couldn’t afford to lose it even if it weren’t.

Ariboh shouted at a few soldiers to keep watch for further monster attacks. Most of them, however, were headed down. Ariboh leapt from the branch, catching the nearest rope ladder and sliding down it. Immediately they could hear sounds of battle from the branch directly below.

Ariboh didn’t hesitate for even a second before attacking; the Stroba members were instantly recognizable in their different uniforms. So Ariboh immediately sank their blade into the neck of the nearest foe, spun around to stab another one in the gut and pushed on ahead.

“Thank you!” called one of those soldiers they just saved from combat.

“Don't talk! Fight!” was Ariboh’s reply. They leapt onto another enemy, yet this time the other party was ready; they parried Ariboh’s attack with a blade of their own.

The pair of warriors was locked in a stalemate only for a few moments until Ariboh glanced at the runes covering their sword. Invoking gravity magic, the sword immediately became twice as heavier, causing the Stroba member to lose balance and tumble down, upon which Ariboh’s blade pierced their chest. Ariboh immediately kicked the corpse toward another charging enemy and swung their weapon again, claiming yet another life.

However, the enemies just kept on coming and coming. Ariboh could do nothing but swear under their breath and keep fighting the Stroba wave.

No one would spare even a moment to explain the situation to Gen even if they could, but he soon realized that this was an attack made by the Stroba. The already long-healed wound at his flank ached. That night they were almost completely helpless, and even DuA had perished, but this time they were inside Kalden’s territory. Gen never thought that Kalden’s enemies would be able to reach that far inside. Let alone right in front of him.

The circle of fights was starting to close in on him, and even the soldiers directly next to him lunged ahead to repel the attacks. He no longer felt safe.

Why was this making him feel more nervous than fighting monsters? Perhaps it was because, after all, fairies resembled humans. Wild beasts were scary, but much less common than wars between actual soldiers. Also, he would have no problems attacking a monster with intent to kill, terrifying as it were, but if it was someone like him…

All these thoughts were mere attempts to calm down his beating heart and shaking body, but they had the opposite effect. He couldn’t even think to run away to safety, not just because it would make him a coward but because he had nowhere to run to; he was surrounded by battles on all sides, and the number of fairies protecting him dwindled by the minute.

He almost didn’t even notice the fairy running toward him, weapon in hand. They were obviously not from his side; Gen could already recognize Kalden’s insignia, considering it was even embroidered on his own clothes. Meaning, this was an enemy.

Gen immediately tensed up and froze. Would they really try to capture him, just like Roah claimed they did that night? However, the look in his opponent’s eyes made him not so sure of that. The enemy simply rushed at him. There didn’t seem to be any fairies available to intercept them.

Whether or not they meant Gen true harm, he knew he couldn’t just stand there. He forced his body to move, gritting his teeth.

A metallic clang resounded as Gen’s spearhead clashed against the opposing sword—which caused the weapon to get blown away from Gen’s grasp, almost making him stumble. His heart skipped a beat. He was unprepared and paid for it by being disarmed. His opponent didn’t falter at all and went in for another attack, so Gen desperately launched his ethereal arm to parry it.

Aisbroom would’ve probably chastised him for using the shape of a hand again, but the invisible blow was able to stop his opponent. A major advantage of Gen’s ability was that despite serving as replacement for his hand, he couldn’t directly feel anything through it; therefore, even punching a sword would inflict no physical or mental harm to him.

With the split second of an opening created by this, Gen glanced toward the fallen spear. He focused on the icons etched on the blade, channeling them. The weapon leapt off the ground. It nearly pierced Gen except that he materialized a new invisible arm, grabbed it—and thrust it into his confused opponent without even thinking.

Senselessly sparring with Aisbroom and getting defeated again and again was not the entirety of Gen’s training; he’d also been handed a special spear at an early stage.

“You’re letting me train for real?” he asked the fairy, gripping the unfamiliar weapon. The sunlight filling the giant stump that served as their training ground made the metallic blade shine. It looked sharp and deadly.

“Yes, but first I want you to practice your magic. I believe this spear will suit you,” said Aisbroom.

Gen furrowed his brows in confusion until he noticed the small signs decorating the shaft. Once again he was surprised to see the familiar icons—or runes, as the fairies called them—in this alien world. He even more or less understood their meaning.

“A spear that… err, comes back after you throw it?”

Aisbroom nodded. “Precisely. Using your ability, you should be able to launch powerful attacks—and then use magic to retrieve your weapon for further attacks. Like I said, I believe that force magic suits you the most.”

Gen was doubtful. He already more or less understood the explanation about his compensation, but he never really felt that his movement channeling was all that impressive. Still, he had to admit the whole concept just sounded… well, cool.

“Give it a try, then. I would have demonstrated, except that I can’t.”

“You… can’t?” asked Gen, wrenched away from his reverie.

“My magic is too specialized,” Aisbroom explained. “I never learned the standard runes. This has both good and bad points, as you might assume.”

Gen slowly nodded, a bit curious but looking back at his new weapon. Well, it was worth a try. He let the spear go and it rolled on the grass below. Next, he glanced down at it, focusing on the icons. He thought of the meaning—the function with which the spear should spring back toward him.

Instead, the shaft immediately flew to the side.

Gen cursed under his breath and ran toward it. The icon wasn’t very complex—in fact it was rather straightforward—but still a bit difficult for him to handle. The image of the spear flying at him wasn’t too pleasant, so perhaps he also unconsciously misinterpreted it.

Following many failed tries, he finally managed to work the channeling properly, after a fashion. The spear did fly in generally toward him, even if at a slightly different angle than intended. The problem was that it launched itself blade-first, nearly lodging into his stretched arm. Gen recoiled and the spear shot past him, stabbing the ground.

“Hmm… pretty good,” noted Aisbroom.

“I… what?” Gen stammered in confusion. “That was awful. I don’t think this is for me.”

“No, that was much better than I expected—it usually takes our new recruits at least a few days to produce even these results.”

Gen was wide-eyed. Aisbroom smiled in response to that.

“You see? I told you you’d be good with force magic.”

During the next few days, Gen didn’t quite perfect his technique, but he did manage to consistently get the spear back to his hands, even if he had to grab it mid-flight as not to let it gouge his eyes.

In the second it took for the spear to launch back to him, Gen grabbed it with his invisible hand, and without letting any of the momentum go to waste, rotated it to meet his opponent.

There was a sickly wet sound as the blade pierced the fairy’s neck. Gen actually tried aiming it lower, so he stared in shock. His enemy ceased all movements, dropped their weapon, gurgled blood from their mouth, and collapsed. A short gush of blood erupted from where the spear had stabbed their neck when it was pulled out of the wound.

The spear’s edge was dyed in crimson and some of it sprayed on Gen’s clothes as well. He stood in place, shocked. Sick and nauseous.

I killed them.

The black nightmarish monster had simply evaporated into thin air as it burned, but this was a flesh and blood human—no, fairy. No, there wasn’t any difference at all. Their blood was just as red and their life was just as fragile.

I killed them.

Had Revol ever killed someone and felt this way too? Gen wished he could speak with his brother right now. In fact, he wanted to see his whole family; how he longed to be back home... Not here, fighting to the death against fairies, but back in his safe town. Never mind the fact that he didn’t know if it was safe or if it still existed.

For now, only the thoughts of blood and death and the desire to escape from it dominated his mind.

So when another fairy came rushing at him he ran around and dashed. Unfortunately, yet another enemy waited for him right there, weapon held aloft. He knew he wouldn’t be able to fully dodge the slash in time… so what else could he do? Gen’s body moved almost automatically, thrusting the spear ahead.

Normally his attack wouldn’t have succeeded, except that without any of them noticing, an arrow was shot from nearby, probably from one of Kalden’s archers. It hit the fairy’s shoulder, stopping them just enough for Gen’s attack to pass through. There was once again a splash of blood and the fairy fell to the grass.

…I killed them.

Niu was just as shocked if not more to be watching the carnage unfold across the forest. Luckily, staying mid-branch really was the safe choice, since it seemed none of the enemy fairies reached there yet, but all of Kalden’s fairies around her were still frantic. Shouts and arrows all flew around, only serving to magnify Niu’s already present fears.

Yet for now she was apparently safe and the soldiers sort of huddled around her, ready to protect her. Her eyes were unwillingly drawn down below, where Gen was fighting.

Yes, he was fighting, no longer just standing guard; the lines of soldiers crumbled around him in the ensuing chaos. Whether or not they intended to capture him or slay him, the opposing fairies wielded their weapons.

In a sense, that was much more shocking for Niu to see than the other bloody battles. She could imagine faceless fairies fighting each other to the death, as horrifying as even that was, but Gen was another story. Watching her longtime friend get involved in war was not something she thought she’d ever see, nor did she want to.

Even so, her eyes were glued to the horrifying scene. She saw Gen brandishing his spear, letting it fall, and calling it back using channeling. She didn’t even know he could do that—was that the result of his training sessions? His movements seemed clumsy and amateurish even to her own amateur eyes, but he managed to somehow defeat one fairy, and then another. All the while getting covered in blood.

Sudden nausea welled up inside Niu. Visions from the past floated to her mind. Gen was currently unharmed, yet his past self overlapped with his current self in her mind. All sorts of feelings exploded inside her for the first time in a while.

She felt dizzy, tightening her grip on the branch’s railing as not to fall down. Her whole body shook and became covered in cold sweat.

Gen was fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting, and killing. He was getting overwhelmed. It was surely only a matter of time. A mere child couldn’t stand up to an army! How could they let him get in the front lines? Why didn’t they—no, she stop him?

Yet Niu knew the answer—she couldn’t. Not only did the Ruler not leave them any choice, and not only did Gen himself agree to this, but Niu herself couldn’t do anything regardless. Nothing at all. You could replace her with a log and nothing would change.

She felt like she wanted to be a log right now.

The ridiculousness of that thought almost caused her to laugh in spite of the situation and shut down, but it wasn’t enough, being haunted by the past and the present as she was.

Please, someone save him—take him away—

Right now she could only pray. Even if she couldn’t physically act, she could think. It frustrated her, but she still did it. There were countless soldiers all around them. Someone would surely come to his rescue… surely. As the seconds trickled by, however, it was apparent that she was mistaken. Gen was locked in battle with a fierce fairy slashing their blade again and again. Niu could only barely see their movements but it was obvious that Gen was being pushed back helplessly.

If that wasn’t enough, yet another enemy was sneaking from behind. Perhaps not even the fairy engaged with Gen had noticed their ally coming, but they were there. Weapon raised and ready to strike at Gen’s exposed back. He was probably too focused on defense to even notice.

No…

Step after step the enemy advanced. Gen was barely holding out anyhow; he would either be slashed from behind or his defense would crumble. The only thing that waited him was death. Niu could vividly picture the scene of his spraying blood. Gushing out of him…

NO!

She wanted to scream, but she couldn’t. And even if she could, would he even hear her in the ruckus and tumult of the chaotic battle? She cursed both herself and the world. Yet she still shouted in her heart.

GEN! BEHIND YOU!

The earth-shattering cry erupted within, echoing inside her mind—

However, Niu’s words did reach him.

I was right!

Despite the chaos spreading all around Kalden, there was a single gloating person—Roah. After the monster wave had died out, a new enemy had appeared, just as expected. That wasn’t the cause for the boy’s celebration, though.

The fact that hundreds of Strobans were storming the Twintree was.

“This is… isn’t this really bad…?” muttered Shaya. She was way out of her element. Luckily, they were surrounded by soldiers and none of the enemies reached their position just yet. In fact, most of them simply charged ahead in the confusion, entering Kalden.

The reason for that was simple: no one had expected such a large assault on this area. Owing to Denrok’s natural bulk, the people of Kalden trusted it to provide the defensive edge needed in case of an invasion, and accordingly it was the least stationed tree in all of Kalden.

However, Roah gambled. He had bet that the very fact Denrok was so naturally well-protected would actually bring them to attack it. Never mind if the Stroba really had intel from the inside or not, normally attacking such a position would be foolhardy. However, they were clearly desperate. Otherwise they wouldn’t have burrowed underground and waited for an opportunity when their enemies were already engaged in another battle. Not to mention the fact that they surely knew that most of their underground tunnels were already exposed.

Roah had read about such cases. At times, desperate armies would use such risky methods. Even so, due to lack of information he couldn’t be sure. He wouldn’t have estimated his chances of success to be more than 50%.

Yet in the end, he won that bet.

Obviously, having a large bulk of Stroba’s warriors march right to his position was dangerous, and he naturally couldn’t fight them. He purposely didn’t even warn anyone—he wanted to imagine Aisbroom’s face when he realized what happened—to increase the likelihood of this attack happening. Not that anyone would’ve taken him seriously anyhow. Now that it happened, he had no direct way to fight against it, but he did have a plan.

“It is bad,” he agreed, “but we’re going to do what we’ve discussed. It’s time, Shaya.”

“…N-no…” she mumbled weakly, frightful eyes watching the running fairies, hissing arrows and swinging weapons. Her whole body was shaking.

Roah grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes. Perhaps intimidated by his lone eye, she instantly froze.

“I’m not asking you to do much. Just work with me here,” he whispered, and then glanced around. “Quickly, while they’re not focused on us. Even if we're caught, they’ll blame me anyway.”

“But I…”

“Shut up.” Roah practically dragged her all the way to the edge, pulling out some small stones from his pocket. He had accumulated these from a while back, ever since they were in the underground base, just in case. They were stones with heat icons etched onto them.

Without saying anything else he let some of them go, watching them fall down to the ground. Of course, he didn’t think these would constitute any sort of meaningful attack against the Stroba swarms; not even if he activated them. He focused his lone eye, zooming in to the ground and searching for the stones that remained visible and legible. This was an unexpected side-benefit of his compensation that he’d noticed long ago—he could channel from long range, something impossible for the average person.

Soon there were small spots of heat and light. It took Roah everything he had, both focus-wise and skill-wise, but he managed to channel heat from the distant stones. Now anyone could notice even from this height, if they looked hard enough, even if the icons wouldn’t be readable. So it was finally time.

“Do it,” he grunted. “Do it!”

Shaya made no reply, but he was pretty sure he could hear her gulp or make some soft sort of whine. Regardless, she was standing right near him, peeking down as well.

Moments later, a crimson blaze burst below, licking the forest floor. Roah’s plan to make use of Shaya's channeling prowess—was a success.

Above the spheres disaster struck

Beyond all hope the battles stuck