The lumbering mountain of metal floated idly in the skies, a sight that Aziz couldn’t just help but stare at in silent disbelief. No one knew what to say in the room, and the only thing the colonel wanted to do was to curse over and over. Even a fool would know what this…monster could do. The countless artefacts that lined its exterior could rival that of any defence line Aziz had ever seen in the battles he’d gone through.

Tactics? Strategy? The colonel wanted to curse out loud. What strategy was there when the North was capable of bringing essentially an entire defence line around? It was a floating platform of Limitless Shots, each of them already able to shred unprepared infantry companies to shreds. And he wasn’t even looking at those super-large Shot artefacts that lined its sides yet.

And it was also capable of carrying a few thousand soldiers. Although these numbers didn’t seem all that big, Aziz knew full well about the importance of being able to transport so many people were, when it came to war.

Especially if they were all able to fly. A mobile base for equally-mobile troops to rest, sitting at the backlines of the enemy…it would be a nightmare.

“M-marshal…what on Orb is that?!” Captain Augustus asked. “That…that thing…that work of the great gods?!”

His frenzied question broke the stillness. Marie turned to him. “That’s the newest invention of the North, it would seem. Interested in taking a good close look?”

Aziz glanced at the enormous barrels at its side. He didn’t want to even approach those things, although by the looks of it, they could probably fire something far enough to hit the building they were in. The fact that he could actually see the barrels of those artefacts at that metal monster’s side was probably enough of a hint that these things were utterly dangerous.

“Can we?” Augustus rubbed his nose. “Would they chase us away or something? Isn’t this a secret or something?”

“They brought it to the Conference of the Four will so much pomp, and you still think they want to keep it a secret?” Captain Cecilia reached out her hand and rapped his head. “Unless, of course, your definition of ‘secret’ is radically different from the conventional understanding, in which case I’m never going to tell you anything I think is a secret.”

Everyone looked at Augustus, who began to whistle on the spot while looking away innocently.

“Augustus,” said Hans, “have you been leaking out any secrets?”

“Not at all,” Hans replied immediately. “Definitely not.”

Hans narrowed his eyes. “Really?”

Aziz rolled his eyes. “Alright, kids. Don’t make a fool of yourself, lest your juniors learn from your mannerisms.”

He glanced at Titania and Oberon, who were also watching the show, and then rolled his eyes. His ex-instructors were watching them with a parental instinct in their eyes, but the colonel knew that such a light was typically followed up with harsh, gruelling training. The philosophy of this particular husband and wife pair was rather simple — children should be prepared for all the world’s ills. To not actively expose them to these ills under controlled circumstances would be a major disservice.

“We’ve received permission to examine their new weapon after the people on it disembark,” said Marie. “I’m not sure if everyone here knows, but other than their First Aerial Division, a bunch of students — who have quite the background in the North, apparently — are also arriving on the Unity. It’s unlikely that you’ll come into contact with them, but if you do, be polite.”

“You mean, tell the guys under us to be polite,” an officer of Stardust said. Aziz couldn’t quite remember his name yet; the colonel hadn’t had all that much interaction with the company commanders of Stardust.

The others laughed.

“I’m glad you understand,” said Marie. “The North’s delegation should have already prepared some people to field our questions; let’s go over and say hi to our friends from the Mortal Light Dynasty.”

She got up and pressed something underneath her desk. The large windows retracted into their frame, exposing the conference room to the elements outside. Wind howled as everyone else followed suit, and a moment later, the officers of Stardust and Thunderbolt turned into a blur.

The size of the Unity grew as they drew close. Even on the southern side of the Central Circle, Aziz could already make out the details of that metal colossus, and by the time he could get a somewhat-accurate reading on the size of that thing, that was occupying one-third of his vision.

“This thing is huge,” he muttered. “Forget a few thousand soldiers — this thing could probably fit ten or twenty thousand people or something easily.”

“Y-yeah.” Someone gulped. Now that they had gotten closer, the scale of the Unity was beginning to make Aziz question his very own existence. Over fifty Limitless Shots were emplaced outside the Unity, modified in a manner that its user wouldn’t be exposed to attacks from the outside.

It was a mobile defensive emplacement through and through. No matter how much Aziz looked at the dang thing, he couldn’t think of any method to take it down. For starters, he didn’t even know how it was flying, and he was quite sure that this thing definitely had something like a scaled-up Palisade to protect itself.

Add on its crew complement, and the colonel was beginning to feel that the Five Lands should just elect the North as their new leader. The huge artefacts at its side were making him incredibly nervous — these things looked like they were meant to destroy whole armies with a single salvo.

Aziz drew close to Marie. “What do you think?”

“I think we need one of this too,” she replied. “This thing is going to be incredibly useful in any battle. Don’t think too hard on this front, though. Our State Council’s probably panicking right now.”

She smiled, but her expression was bereft of humour.