The Plenum’s strategy for attacking Eo-Seu and gaining a beachhead on its shores were simple — the North had sent along a bunch of artefacts to the East, each of them capable of turning ten square metres of land into ten square metres of dead land. There were enough to equip the East’s airborne forces with one each, and from what Gaius heard from conversations while he was having lunch, they could be used three times.

The Mortal Light Dynasty, probably drawing on the experience of their current Pinnacle, had expected a D-Day scenario to occur. It was hard not to draw that comparison, especially when most cultural references about D-Day back on Earth was centred around the mad rush onto the beaches.

Anyway, once they secured a beachhead, dedicated professionals would break off from their escorting teams to create teleportation formations, at which point the ground troops would step onto Eo-Seu and begin to draw their defence lines.

The boy reviewed the plan in his head mentally, and shrugged. He, like the other Knights and Lords assigned to the vanguard, would move in a few minutes, once the main assault body was done with their preparations.

The Radio on his shoulder spat out some orders. “Gaius. This is Control. As scheduled, we’ll be attacking in three minutes.”

“Command, acknowledged.”

Gaius sighed. His fingers danced and fluttered madly, and the boy didn’t make any attempt to suppress the expression of discomfort that had appeared on his face this time. No one was watching him anyway — his peers were also busy with making their own preparations, informed by their own operators. Sigil after sigil floated around Gaius as he unfolded his Moonshot, aligning themselves with its barrel.

He didn’t stop after creating seventy-five sigils, and Gaius felt a few gazes fall onto him as the extended “barrel” continued to grow. The boy himself wasn’t too sure about how many he’d created by the time he was satisfied with the preparations, but he had been given orders to create the largest explosion the East had ever seen, after all.

“Command to all units. Prepare to advance.” The Radio paused, and a different operator spoke to Gaius. “Gaius. This is Command. Attack on command. Target: J-Fifteen.”

Behind Gaius, the wall of troops began to advance slowly, their weapons and artefacts held at the ready. Gaius grunted in response, raising the Moonshot to eye-level. Through the scope, he could see a sea of blue soldiers taking up positions on the sandy beaches and the ground beyond. Tens of azure towers were blazing with light, like the ones that the Plenum had destroyed a few times — each of them could take down a squad of fliers easily.

“Command to all units. Brightest Dawn imminent. Target area affected: the Eo-Seu shoreline.” Once again, the Radio paused, and the operator that had been directing him all along took the line. “Gaius, this is Command. Fire.”

“Firing.”

Gaius took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger.

A streak of brilliant light streaked through the skies, slamming onto Eo-Seu’s beaches. Moments passed in silence, before the world shook madly. The winds roared, and whatever clouds that had been clouding the horizon scattered, revealing the setting moon. A second sun blazed to life, a familiar sight to all who had been fighting on the defence lines. For a moment, colour left the world, rendering everything around Gaius into either black or white with an ear-splitting thunderclap.

Everyone in the main assault force turned their eyes away from the attack involuntarily. Their advance had been stopped by the sheer might of that single blow. Something pulled at Gaius incessantly, as the expelled air created an immense vacuum in its wake, whipping the churning sea beneath him into a frenzy. It took some effort on his part to resist the suction, but the others were straining visibly as air rushed in to take the place of their expelled peers.

The horrible ball of light vanished after a few more seconds, leaving behind an emptied shoreline. There was nothing in ground zero; the ground itself had been flung away or vaporised when Gaius’ attack landed. In fact, in a radius of around five kilometres from ground zero, there was nothing there.

Further off, in a distance that Gaius could barely make out with the Moonshot’s scope, were a few lucky survivors that had been hit with the surging air. Fragments of blue energy were falling there, presumably a barrier that had been overcome by the sheer power of that blast.

A sudden surge of movement caught Gaius’ eye. The main assault force had stirred to life, charging straight ahead at what seemed to be the Dynamo’s maximum speed. At the same time, the other Knights and Lords zoomed off ahead, their faces full of indescribable emotions as they continued their vanguard duties.

“Well done, Gaius.”

The boy turned to look at Paragon Ying Xin, who had a brilliant smile on her face, and made a few excuses.

“Don’t put yourself down like that,” she said. “That attack bordered on the destructiveness of a Demigod. I saw what happened — the enemy had created defences that could stop my attack in its tracks when you attacked, but nothing could stop that.”

The boy rubbed his hands in reply. “I’m not going to do that in a hurry anymore. I’m about to injure the tendons and nerves in my hands.”

“I don’t think we’ll need your services for the time being, so why not watch the beachhead take form?” The Paragon replied. “You should rest while you can.”

She smiled grimly. “The fighting’s going to be intense here on out. And…it’ll be the first time the mortals of Orb take on a great god. It’s not something you should participate in.”

Gaius breathed in deeply. “An attack. On the Lifespring himself.”

“It’s on the cards.” The Paragon shivered. “We don’t want to do it, we don’t think we can do it, but we must present to the God of Water our determination and resolve to die. We will have a sacrifice.”

The boy shivered at the coldness of her voice, turning away to look at the first members of the main assault body touchdown onto Eo-Seu’s shoreline.

Somehow, he had the feeling he knew who the sacrifice was.