Aziz stood somewhat apart from the crowd, who was surrounding a major of the North. His arms were folded, and the colonel was doing his best to look attentive…but there wasn’t really much of a point. The officer, who had been tasked to explain the Unity to the excited company commanders, had been drowned out by the ceaseless questions coming from all over. Even if the colonel wanted to hear his words, it would be after the captains had sated their own curiosity now.

This conundrum was clearly shared by Captain Hans, his scout instructors and Marshal Marie, who were all staring icily at the messy crowd surrounding the poor liaison. To the fellow’s credit, he was answering every question as quickly as he could, but there was no stopping curiosity.

“Did he really just say that this huge Unity, this thing, was just a transport ship?” Marie’s face twitched, her eyes staring at the ship.

“Yes, he did.” Aziz stared at the metal hulk, which was bristling with enough firepower to level entire cities to the ground. “This giant ship, roughly a kilometre long and five hundred metres tall and wide, is apparently modelled after transport ships on Earth.”

“Which must indicate that Earth doesn’t just have transport ships. It must have ships built for war, capable of traversing through the air,” Marie continued the colonel’s words. “I’m beginning to feel that the Cardinal Champions cannot be trusted. A world with things like these cannot, by any stretch of the word, be boring.”

Aziz agreed heartily. In fact, he was beginning to wonder if the legendary home of the Champions, Earth, was actually a ruined world. He simply couldn’t fathom how much damage even a minor conflict would do, since they had giant ships and weapons like this. Making a mental note to do more research, the colonel shook his head and waited for the company commanders of both Stardust and Thunderbolt to be done.

He was feeling the beginnings of pity for the officers of Stardust, though. Colonels Titania and Oberon were giving off cold smiles, their eyes gleaming with frozen winter. Aziz had little doubt that the both of them were going to have some officer-specific training in the days to come, and Stardust wasn’t going to like that much…or at all.

“Maybe they’re just built for fun?” Aziz mused out loud. “Something used to intimidate the other nations or something — that’s not impossible.”

“Who knows?” Marie shrugged.

After ten or so minutes, the company commanders finally let the poor liaison off the hook.

“Looks like they’re done,” Marie said lightly. Walking forward, she and the other colonels began to engage the liaison in conversation, although they were a lot more reserved about it. As a group, the marshal led the liaison over to the area that the Mortal Light Dynasty had developed in the past few months — just so that he could get a drink or two.

Some shops had been set up in the past few months. Food and beverage chains had seen some potential in the levelled Central Circle, and with the Conference of the Four announced throughout the Five Lands, some of these enterprises had moved in to set up shop. It was a good business opportunity, given that this conference was probably going to be followed by a rebuilding of sorts.

A small restaurant that sold even the simplest of dishes for five silver was their destination, and after occupying the largest table in sight, Aziz was finally able to get close enough to hear the North’s liaison expound on the Unity.

His guess of the dimensions of that…ship wasn’t all that off. What truly stunned him, however, was the sheer might of the artefacts at the side of the Unity. Those giant barrels were part of an artefact called the Skypiercing Cannon, and there were actually four mounted on the Unity. Two were visible, embedded at the sides of the Unity, while the other two were hidden somewhere inside the Unity’s hull.

“Most importantly,” said the officer, “each Skypiercing Cannon can output enough damage to overwhelm a Knight’s standard defences with ease. They’re designed to engage up to five Lords with ease too.”

“Is it really okay to tell us this?” Marie asked, her brows furrowed.

“The Ark-class transport was a brainchild of Ark City and the Mortal Light Dynasty in the first place,” the man replied. “And we would rather you save some resources by getting the blueprint from us directly.”

“Major Vordach, does that mean…” Marie’s question went uncompleted, but it was enough for him to understand.

“Correct. As we speak, the State Councils of both our nations are exchanging technologies,” the major replied. “Pinnacle Kolya is a person who believes in reciprocity, and more importantly, the Republic is the first line of defence against the demons. Helping you is helping us.”

Aziz was silent. He knew that the North and the beastfolk — Ark City, specifically, since most beastfolk cities pre-Second Extermination were independent entities — had close ties with each other. By the looks of it, the Mortal Light Dynasty was truly intending to give their spiritual successor as much help as possible, after their attempts to help during the Second Extermination were blocked off by the Holy Temple.

“Can we even build one in within the next three years or so?” Marie asked.

“Of course not,” the major replied. “But we can hold the line. Our own Ark-class ships will bolster the defence line enough until the Republic is able to produce their own ships. And once our technological might is enough to overwhelm any inherent differences between races…we will march to the Wildlands.”

“To obliterate the Demon God,” Colonel Felix said.

“Precisely so. This has been our ambition for the longest of time. The Mortal Light Dynasty wants a world where gods do not interfere with us mortals,” said the major. “Recent intelligence has made us incredibly cognizant about the need for the gods to release mortals from their grip.”

“Recent intelligence?” Aziz asked.

“You’ll know during the Conference of the Four.” The major sniffed as a waiter came over with trays of food in his hand. “It’s really big news, but I can’t say more — for now.”