Stars hung beneath the crimson firmament, each of them emanating a weighty pressure that pressed down on both allies and enemies alike. The familiar spirits of the great gods were facing off against the Demigod-rank spectres, casting still shadows upon the battlefields below.

“A decisive battle here?” Aziz, who was busy unfolding his Shipbreaker, looked up with a frown.

“For us, it might be a decisive battle,” said Marie. “But it’s probably just an attack with more warm bodies for the Abyss Sovereign.’

Distant thunderclaps rocked the region. The Locomotives were laying waste to the encroaching spectres and fending off the enemy fire at the same time, protecting enormous barriers that severed the approaching enemy groups into two. After a week, this had become a standard procedure; when faced with a mad rush, the North’s Locomotives would activate their defences halfway through, trapping half of the enemy numbers within.

The spectres stuck outside would be obliterated by splash damage from friendly fire, while the spectres trapped with the Locomotives would be ground down and eradicated.

It was a sound tactic, but Aziz had never seen all fifty-five — another four had been grounded for repairs — do the same tactic in unison.

However, the main danger were the spectres that had managed to slip past the wall of Locomotives. Even though over four-fifths of their number had been annihilated in that single blow, the enemies that were currently charging at the Knights and Lords still numbered over a thousand.

“Prepare for battle!” A voice tore through the skies, and a woman holding onto a greatsword took up position at the very forefront of the impending battle.

“Luxanne and her Sky-splitting Blade, eh?” Marie shook her head and extended a long lance with her right hand. “I wonder what other Zeroth Armaments are going to show up today.”

As if on cue, a regular drumbeat began to resound throughout the battlefield, filling Aziz with the desire to fight. The Drums of Order had taken the field too, but Aziz couldn’t pinpoint the source of the sound.

Before he could bring this intriguing topic up, sprinkles of gold light danced around everyone, washing away the fatigue and stress that Aziz had built up after this long expedition. Marie, who now had a relaxed look on her face, cricked her neck once.

Her expression clouded over for a moment, and when her face next cleared up, she had withdrawn a small, arm-length baton.

“What’s that?” Aziz asked.

“This?” Marie fiddled with the baton, and it expanded into a nice, long spear. “It’s something the Republic unearthed. The Lance of Light.”

“It sounds like a Zeroth Armament,” Aziz noted, as the remaining rocks on his heart rolled off. “Where did you get it from?”

“Pauline gave it to me. And yes, it is a Zeroth Armament.”

“How biased,” the colonel muttered. “Well, at least you’re better able to defend yourself. Still, this battle has turned into a showcase of Zeroth Armaments. What’s up with that? Is there something that I don’t know about?”

The marshal raised the glowing lance in her hand and pointed it at the sky. At the same time, sigils began to pop out from her back, aligning themselves at the very tip of the lance.

A small, cold smile appeared on her face. “Orders from above have just trickled down, my dear colonel. We’re going to tear through this force and advance swiftly. News about our multiple successes at establishing forward bases just came in. Not just that, too. The North’s own forces have broken through the enemy’s middle defence line; they have another forty Locomotives providing support fire. We’re going to slaughter our way upwards.”

The regular, steady drumbeat sped up at this moment, spurring the flow of blood in his veins into overdrive. A pent-up desire to annihilate his enemies had gripped him tightly, and the muscles on his right hand began to swell up.

“Charge.”

A single word escaped the Sky-splitting Blade’s lips, and Aziz let out a battle-cry. The Shipbreaker in his hands left afterimages as he shot outwards with some of his fellow Knights, racing against the opening attacks of those who preferred fighting at range. Weaving in and out of enemy fire, the colonel raised the Shipbreaker skywards, just as an entire wall of blazing green bisected the group of incoming enemies into two.

Space rippled a moment later, forming a transient boundary that had pulverised every single spectre that was in the way of its formation.

Restraining his urge to let out a small hiss, the colonel brought his blade down, slicing through the air. Enormous arcs of light arced outwards from his strikes, slamming into the first of the spectres.

Without pausing, Aziz continued to slash out madly, drawing upon the reserves of his qi to batter down on the enemy. He wasn’t alone either; all sorts of weird and mystical attacks were being exchanged back and forth, with—

A beam of white light charged past him at this moment, vaporising every single spectre caught in its way. Aziz glared down at his Skybreaker, which didn’t seem that effective in terms of results, before slicing through a spectre that had somehow managed to make its way to him.

“Damn monster.” Aziz continued to work himself up, unleashing wave after wave of energy. At the same time, he made it a point to stay at least half a kilometre away, while letting out an unrelenting barrage of energy to draw the spectres’ attention.

Ascending slowly, the colonel continued to work with his fellow Knights at the rear. Most of the spectres that had slipped through the Locomotives had been crushed, and Aziz was about to press on with the main body of troops when his nerves tingled.

A bisected Lord, an old man who had died with shock on his face, fell in front of him at that moment. A second later, a tremendous presence shot down from the skies, one that was simultaneously chilling and overwhelming at the same time. Although this presence paled in comparison to the familiar spirits and the Demigod-rank spectres, Aziz knew that this was not an enemy he could defeat alone.

The guns of Camp Starfall roared as a Paragon-rank spectre bore down on Aziz.