***

--- City of Dalko, Great Plains Region ---

Date: August 26th, 2026

Rory stood on the blood-soaked battlefield. The ground felt spongy and slimy from the ever-expanding creep, making her think twice as she used her agility. Tightening her grip around her weapon, she carefully scanned the area for her opponent. She knew that Mabel was nearby however the creep was making it harder for her to sense her old brainwashed friend.

A flash of colorful light from Frayan and Envira’s duel brighten the distance. It seemed that Frayen successfully prevented Envira from attacking the mortal forces. An Apostle, let alone a powerful magic user could jeopardize the entire mission.

Toward the other direction, Rory saw a small waterspout that was made up from the blood rain that had soaked the battlefield. From the sound of clashing steel and the annoying arrogant taunting of Giselle, it also seemed like she was having fun.

Suddenly, a blur of motion caught her eye, and before she could react, Mabel was upon her. Rory spun around, bringing her halberd around in a wide arc to block the massive red sword.

Jumping backward to gain some distance, Rory charged forward once she landed. Mabel also charged forward, and the two weapons collided.

The clash of metal echoed across the battlefield as the two Apostles engaged in a fierce battle. Rory's strength and agility gave her an advantage, allowing her to dart around Mabel and strike from an unexpected angle with her oversized halberd.

She knew that she did not have to directly defeat Mabel, just wound her enough to get the opportunity to destroy that Blood Sword. A brawl would only expand the fight and maybe risk her becoming under Mabel’s control, so a quick victory was key.

Wanting to keep the momentum, Rory lunged forward once she saw an opening. Her halberd swept in a wide arc. Mabel parried the blow with ease, deflecting the weapon with a flick of her wrist.

Mabel then thrusted forward, slicing and thrusting, forcing Rory on the defensive.

Falling back, Rory took cover behind a group of small trees covered with creep for protection. This turned out to be a mistake as Mabel’s blade cut the trees in half, causing this slug-like bubble to spew out at her face.

Sensing poison from the creep and her eye slightly starting to go fuzzy, Rory quickly jumped out of the way toward safety. This gave Mabel the openness she needed though as Rory was knocked away hard, impacting the ground.

“Alright Queen Bee,” Rory mumbled as she got up, seeing that her vision returned to normal - she saw that Mabel was quickly approaching.

Leaping to the left, Mabel was able to hit her as she tried to recover. The force from the impact pushed her back.

Finding herself back on the creep, Rory saw Mabel again coming from the kill. As the red longsword came, she blocked with her halberd. She then spun her weapon, knocking the sword away and adjusting her blade to the back of her opponent's leg, tripping her.

Using the momentum of her halberd, she stood up and slammed the point of her weapon to where Mabel was. Mabel got out of the way but received a deep cut to her side.

With the quick pause, Rory saw the large battle of Apostles that surrounded them. A sight that she had never seen or heard of before. With the eons of history of Uros, no legend or tale of a moment like.

Karlin being ganged up between two Apostles, being rammed through the ground as she was torn apart until an arrow landed before them, exploding from one of Jasis spells.

Martimus swooped in and with this giant mace swung in and knocked Cronan half a kilometer away until he impacted one of the many nearby hills. He swung his mace around and knocked Appeato in the other direction before three sharp tips from a trident ripped through his body. Karlin stood up as much of her body was torn to shreds and clapped her hands together. She quickly turned into a wolf and jumped over Martimus and ravingly attacked the trident user, Valma.

A musical sound spread throughout the valley as trees started to come alive by Elvo music, becoming demon-like corrupted ents. Martimus took his mace and broke an attacking tree in half, however, more came. With distraction, Appeato, the Apostle of Flare stood up and emitted a strong flare above the battlefield, blinding nearly everyone. This forced Frayen to stop his fight with Envira and place a dark sphere over the flare, opening himself to a magical attack that engulfed his body.

Seeing her opening, Giselle flew down and sliced Appeato in half, preventing him from casting another flare. Seeing that the Apostle temporary dismembered, she flew across the creep, and closed in on the music god Apostle, Elvo. Before she could attack, Xenmmoa emerged and blocked her path.

With Martimus dealing with the corrupted ents, Karlin used her animal formed and maneuvered around the battlefield. She got up close to Elvo and attacked. With her jaws, ripping the instrument the music Apostle hands. As she landed though, she was struck by Appeato, forcing her to slide on the ground, changing back into her kitsune form. Struggling to stand back up from the impact.

With the flare disappearing, this allowed Jasis to aim for the corrupted ents. Using fire arrows, each shot impacted an ent, causing it to engulf in flames as they disintegrated into ash.

Rory looked back toward her opponent and charged forward, and the two Apostles' weapons clashed once again.

The two fighters continued to clash. Again, and again. Their weapons rang out in a symphony of violence. Rory darted around Mabel, striking from unexpected angles, but Mabel was always one step ahead, her sword always there to block the blow.

As the duel wore on, sweat poured down Rory's face, and her muscles ached with exhaustion. She could feel the weight of her weapon dragging her down, slowing her movements.

Mabel stood in defiance, however showed fading resolve. Her movements were fluid and graceful as she dodged Rory's attacks and delivered devastating blows of her own.

It was then that Rory saw her opening. Mabel had overextended herself, leaving herself open to attack. Rory seized the moment, lunging forward with all her strength and driving the spike of her halberd into Mabel's side.

For a moment, everything seemed to freeze. Mabel stumbled backward, her sword dropping from her hand as she clutched at the wound in her side. Rory stood there, her halberd still buried in Mabel's flesh, her heart pounding in her chest.

Finally, Rory saw an opening and lunged forward with her halberd with the intention to slice her head off knowing that it would end the threat long enough to destroy the sword.

Before impacting her old friend, her weapon was blocked.

Being forced back, Rory eyes widened with anger and fear, seeing that Taylin just saved Mabel from defeat. Michael the Archangel told her about his current state, however, seeing it in person was unbearable.

---

Vanguard-7 maintained their suppressive fire as Darlko started turning their dead into ghouls. Unlike what happened in Sadera where the infantry was trapped in a tight confinement within the city walls and were swarmed. This time the Americans came prepared, the Legionaries marched forward in the front while riflemen provided cover.

The forward legionaries blocked any ghouls that approached and cut them down with ease. This has developed into where the melee force advanced and applied pressure on the enemy force, which fleshed them out into the open to where the riflemen could easily pick off.

A dark gas appeared out of nowhere and engulfed many, suffocating three of them.

Sharpe knew it had to be some kind of magical poison gas spell and it had to come from one of the fortifications. Because of how dark it was outside and the spell, it was hard to find the origin point. Based on the current state of the situation, there are only two bunkers that were still intact enough to where this mage could hide. Ordering his rangers to suppress both bunkers, he had Alicia contact one of the nearby Griffins II - which had much of its new armor scarred, melted, and dark marking from all the magical attacks it had suffered - to focus fire on them.

A second poison gas spell appeared and attacked a mixture of legionaries and airborne soldiers, suffocating them. The light tank fired three rounds into the bunker. A sudden secondary explosion engulfed the hill in flames. Unlike normal flames, this was a mix of the standard yellow and orange color mixed with purplish black with a gas emitting with the smoke. Tar from the creep started to drip down the slope, pooling around the hill.

The forward Legionary, General Krysist, rallied his forces back into formation. “Maintain order men. Victory is around this hill. Glory to the Republic.”

Seeing that this section of Darlko fortification was destroyed, officers from other units began moving out to secure the remaining sections.

Sharpe approached Krysist. Malena, the ex-clannless warrior bunny who joined the General’s side after rescuing him from Ticerat, stood there, talking to a few Centurions as they prepared for their next objective. She looked at him and gave him an approving nod. Once reaching the General, he asked, “How are you doing? They seem to be taking a beating.”

“After fighting your kind for a year, nothing fears them,” Krysist responded with a cocky tone.

Shaking his head, amused by the general attitude.

“Come look at this Jackson,” Krysist said.

Confused by what he wanted; Sharpe looked toward what the general was staring at. A large valley that led to the magical city of Darlko. There is a glow around the temples. “What?”

“See that temple?” Krysist asked. After Sharpe confirmed that he did, he continued, “I was thinking, this must be how the Imperial Army must have felt when your people first came to my world.”

Taking another careful look at the city, knowing that the enemy Gate would appear any moment. The thought did occur to him, remembering when he first arrived as part of the first wave. The Empire was depending on their side at the Gate while the US was invading to secure a beachhead. The irony, at the end of the war it was now the opposite. They are now defending the world from an invading force through a mystical Gate by an unknown enemy.

“History is funny,” Sharpe said. “When this war started, I never imagined that the roles would be reversed.”

“What I would have done to be there.”

Understanding that the General meant that he wished he was at the Battle of Alnus Hill, to face off against the American invasion. “You forget though. The defenders lost that battle.”

Krysist turned. “Then we shall not repeat history.”

Sharpe looked at the valley again and smirked. “I don’t agree, I think history should repeat itself.” Seeing the confusion from the General he expanded, “From how I see it, Darlko are the defenders and we are the attackers. History benefits the attackers so victory is within our grasp.”

Malena shook her head, dumbfounded by what was said. “That was horrible.”

Krysist laughed. “But, true.”

A sudden loud explosion hit one of the eastern hillsides, shocking everyone.

“What the hell was that?” Andrew asked.

“No idea,” Sharpe replied. “It came from the direction where Randy’s group is.”

“Based on the sound it had to be a spell,” Malena said. “A powerful one.”

“Are you sure?” Sharpe asked.

“Bunny ears,” Krysist said. “If she thinks so then it has to be true.”

"Hold on," Sharpe said as he got his radio. "This is Vanguard-Lead, report."

The only thing Sharpe was able to hear was static and his VISOR cannot transmit the image of what was going from Randy’s position due to intense interference from combat. Probably because there are so many mages in this engagement, the mana effects interfere with all the frequencies.

"I cannot get a hold of my team," Sharpe said. "There is too much interference for the signal to transmit properly of what is going on over there."

"Sharpe," Krysist said. "We have almost achieved victory here. I will take care of this section - you should go investigate what is happening. It might be Valker."

"Agreed." Seeing a group of reinforcements coming from Henderson Airfield, among them was another Griffin II tank. Thrilled to see that the Air Force was able to deploy another platoon with the amount of time they had as they would need everybody and firepower they could get.

After collecting a team of reinforcements and grabbing one of their spare nearby Griffins they quickly rushed over to Lelei’s position.

As Vanguard-7 moved through the battlefield, Andrew commented on the stench that came from the burning creep that was covering the landscape. When they passed a burning tree and saw it smoldering - tar-like bubbles within the smoke smuggled the air.

"I hope we don’t get cancer from this," Alicia said. "There is no way all this crap is healthy for us."

"What are your thoughts on this, Doc?" Andrew asked.

Sharpe glanced toward Jerry after noticing the lack of response. Seeing the worried reaction to the question and not wanting to respond made it clear that it was probably nothing good. "Keep your mind on the task at hand and nothing else."

Passing the remains of a smoking fortification that Randy's team was supposed to secure, they stopped and saw Lelei, Tuka, and Soredin fighting off against two other mages while Yao helped the wounded. The rest of Vanguard-7 were fighting off a golem dog swarm.

The surrounding landmass was scarred from magical strikes. All from different types of magic like energy, lighting, water, earth, and fire.

"Everyone, assist Randy’s team and secure the area," Sharpe ordered. He then ordered the light tank to get into position and target the bulker mage that looked like Galrik from the Battle of Rondel.

Realizing the threat they face, Sharpe called out the girls’ names, trying to get their attention to disengage from the engagement so that Griffin could engage. They saw, surprised to see the tank, and quickly got out of the way.

Once the line of sight was cleared, the Griffin fired its 105mm cannon. However, Galrik was able to take advantage of the slim pause in the battle to form a thin dark void-shaped sphere by his side. The shell impacted which pushed him back a few feet however was deflected.

As the sphere disappeared, he formed a large ball of dark energy and injected it into the ground. The ground broke apart as a large fissure emerged, heading directly toward the Griffin. The hill suddenly imploded as the tank fired its cannon again, missing from the changing landscape. The tank sunk into the hill and the dirt around it collapsed on themselves, burying it and everyone inside.

The soldiers opened fire, forcing Galrik to stop and raise a purplish energy barrier. The bullets harmlessly bounced off the defensive spell, which is something every here has experienced before in the war. What was different was that this mage held the barrier with one hand as he prepared his next attack with his other hand. Small groups of small energy balls formed and left his free hand, targeting the riflemen around him. Once the energy balls impacted the ground, nearly a dozen explosions forced everyone to pull back and seek cover. A few of the balls impacted a group of soldiers, killing or dismantling them,

“Jackson,” Lelei said as she rushed over. Once she stopped, she was forced to take a deep breath as her physical condition was exhausted. “Can all of you distract him for a moment? I can kill him with one shot with my Hypersonic spell. I just need you guys to keep him in one spot for me.”

“Just a moment? Sharpe said. “It always takes you quite some time to charge that spell. We don’t have that type of time with the way things are going.”

“Usually yes but Frayen has assisted me in perfecting my charging speed. Galrik just has been hyper-aggressive so I never could gain a moment to gather my mana and accuracy for it to be effective. But even he shouldn’t be able to stop that shot.”

“He just deflected a tank shot,” Andrew said. “I question that.”

“My spell is more powerful than an anti-personnel round,” Lelei said. “Just trust me. The amount of mana I am going to put into this, even his void shouldn’t be able to stop it. If you just distract him, he might not be able to stop it.”

“He has to be as tired as well,” Tuka said with an exhausted voice. “We have been going at it for a long time now without holding back.”

Taking a quick inventory of the situation, Sharpe saw Soredin handling Galrik's wife, Kagash. The field of battle between the two was terrifying. The ground had been transformed from the duel. Flames, ice walls, earth craters, or dirt are raised everywhere as well as multiple magic energy barrages flying in multiple directions, making it hard for anyone to swoop in and assist, from either side. Kagash seemed to want to kill the Earth Mage alone. However, Soredin has been making her work for it.

In the rear, Sharpe saw some reinforcements arrive. There are two Imperial mages alongside other melee Legionaries. Looking back toward the Griffin was buried - to which he formed a plan. “Do it, Lelei.”

Sharpe then ordered Tuka and the others to lay cover fire against Galrik to force him on the defensive. He then ordered the two mages to unearth the Griffin tank. To his surprise, the unearthing was quick. If they were forced to use machinery, it would have taken much longer, especially under combat conditions.

Seeing the tank commander open the hatch with a sense of relief, Sharpe rushed over, and before the commander could say anything, he asked, “Can you drive?”

“Yes,” the tank commander said. “But why?”

“I want you to ram that bastard. Like, right now.”

“Are you fucking kidding? That freak of nature literally buried us in seconds.”

Sharpe understood what the commander was thinking and why he was hesitant to obey the order. The normal order would have been to use the cannon again, however that has already failed twice and as the commander said, he buried the tank within a second. The last thing he needed was something similar again, ruining Lelei's opportunity to strike. It was clear that Galrik saw the tank as a major threat and was quick to focus all his attention on it. What he needed was for Galrik to feel threatened enough to change his focus and figure out what was more threatening than a thirty-eighty-ton tank coming directly at you.

“I don’t have time to explain,” Sharpe said. “I am giving you an order.”

With frustration, the commander agreed. The engine of the Griffin came to life and pushed through the remaining concave dirt and quickly drove toward Galrik.

Galrik quickly turned as he felt the ground rumble. Before being impacted, his hands glowed black and white again as he recreated that protective void sphere. The light tank impacted against a large Darlko mage and cracked the void barrier which triggered a brightening light that blinded everyone for a moment.

As the blindness faded away, everyone saw Galrik holding the tank in place as the two pushed against each other. The large mage’s hands and feet glowed with magical energy as the ground moved against the vehicle to apply more pressure. Sharpe heard comments as everyone was surprised at how powerful this man was.

Within moments, Galrik slowly started being pushed back from the sheer strength of the light tank horsepower, slowly but gaining steam in overpowering the mage.

Galrik realized that he was about to be run over, he took his right hand and thrust it toward the ground. The ground around them broke and a crater formed. The Griffin once again dropped into this crater. He then rushed on top of the tank with his hands and started to glow bright white and red as smoke emitted from it, showing how hot the spell must be. He placed his hand on the top of the tank and steam burst emitted. It looked like he was going to break into the tank with whatever heat spell he was using and kill it once and for all.

“Lelei?” Sharpe asked.

Turning toward Lelei as his eye noticed a bright light. What he saw was a bright blue magical arrow with a massive amount of lighting emitted from it formed from Lelei’s left hand. The orb in her gauntlet glowed brightly with conductive magical energy as she began to thrust her left hand back to unleash the devastating blast at her hateful foe. “Fire!” Sharpe ordered.

Without any hesitation, Lelei fired her trademark spell. The bright blue arrow burst from her grasp.

The shot impacted right when Galrik turned to face Lelei. He quickly established a void barrier however it broke from the impact. The Hypersonic energy shot easily pierced his magical protection through sheer velocity and exploded as it impacted his armor.

Time felt like it stood still as everyone waited to see what happened next.

Galrik, still stood,

With some of the smoke disappearing, everyone noticed that the armor on his chest was mostly obliterated. Some parts of what remained of his armor were bright white from the sheer melting heat from the impact. Burnt scars all over him, wrapping much of it. But in an unbelievable sight, the Darlko mage took a step forward, walking off the Griffin tank and onto the ground.

“Jesus Christ,” Sofia said. “If that didn’t kill it, what would?”

“Hold on,” Randy said.

Galrik took a few more steps forward. How he walked looked strange. His body moved around as it seemed he lost control or was in a huge amount of pain. Parts of his armor broke. On the fifth step, he fell to one knee before collapsing onto the ground.

“Frost, Sofia, Chapmon, secure the body,” Sharpe ordered. “Make sure he is dead.”

As the three Rangers head to the body, the three fall backward from a magical blast that impacts in front of them as Kagash abandoned her fight with the Grand High Witch and rushed toward her husband's body and quickly dropped to check his status. “My love!?”

She then bursts into hysteric crying. “No. My love!? You cannot be dead. Damn you... You, people... are sheer evil. All we ever wanted to do was live in peace, but you killed my love! Servants of Hardy, damn you!”

Seeing the moment, Randy gave the order for everyone to kill her.

A cloud of thick black smoke enveloped the area around Kagash and her now-dead husband. The Rangers opened fire into the smoke. As the smoke disappeared, the body of Galrik lay on the ground; however, his wife was nowhere to be seen.

Other soldiers helped the three Rangers that were knocked onto the ground. Everyone secured the area, waiting to see if there was going to be another attack. Once it became clear there was no follow up assault, Sharpe, Lelei, Tuka, Soredin, and Randy walked over to the corpse.

Galrik was faced down into the dirt with smoke still emitted from the impact location.

Sharpe saw Lelei. She looked exhausted but had pride in her stance. He fully understood why. He placed his hand on her shoulder and said, “Cato would have been proud.”

“I hope so,” Lelei said. “He never liked revenge stories.”

“As long as it does not consume you, everything will be fine. For what Galrik has done, you did right.”

Lelei smiled and then looked back at the body. “I always wondered if I was going to feel bad though. The only reason they were opposing us is what Hardy did to him. Trapping him in a curse. If they did not choose their path with Darlko and do what they did to Rondel, maybe there could have been a path for salvation.”

“They really did love each other though,” Tuka pointed out. “Up to the very end. It is rare to see true love. It would have been romantic if they were on our side.”

“Welcome to life,” Randy said.

“Agreed,” Sharpe said. “They were on their side, and we are on our side. Their motives don’t mean that much at times like this. So, it is best not to stress about it. Tuka?"

"I am fine," Tuka said. "I think their goal was to evaluate us. Since elite mages like them should have stayed back as the last line of defense.”

"I agree," Lelei said. "I think they were trying to see what our threat level was. Plus, to drain my mana if they could not kill us. Make us weaker for when Valker makes his move."

“The enemy is being proactive,” Soredin commented. “They have to know we have a plan, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, right?”

“Maybe the Demons know about the Spear and told Zufmuut?” Lelei proposed. “They have to know how they were defeated by ancient Earth and here.”

“Possible,” Sharpe said. “They have to know we figured something out after securing the Roman chamber under Sadera. Even if they don’t know exactly what we have, they must know we have something.”

“It should be wise to act as if the enemy already knows our plan,” Soredin said. “Best not to be caught off guard because we assumed wrong.”

Sharpe said, "we will work around all that. Right now, good job on keeping everyone alive."

Randy asked, "Thank you for the save, sir. What is happening elsewhere?"

"Our forces are mopping up the remaining fortifications," Sharpe said. "We just need to regroup and…."

"What about the Apostles," Lelei tiredly said.

They felt dread as everyone prepared themselves for taking on the Apostles. While clearing out the hillside fortifications was a challenge, the Apostles were always everyone's fear.

Sharpe looked out along with his comrades and saw the Apostles face off. "We are going to have to trust Rory."