Dawn was not too far off, from the looks of it, but beneath the scintillating light of the Demon Sovereign’s lance, no one would probably live to see it. Aziz felt his heartbeat slow down, and an impossible calm flooded his veins.

This was the end, by all accounts. The Five Lands had forced out miracle after miracle — they had held Defence Line Foxtrot for hours on end, wiped out forces that outnumbered them tens or even a hundred to one — but all these was about to end.

“All troops,” Marie’s voice swept across the defence line, one tinged with despair. “Abandon the defence line. Protect yourselves. And if you make it out alive, regroup at the Heaven-cleaving Fortress.”

Silence followed her words. No one, despite the marshal allowing everyone present to do what they were intending on doing a few minutes ago, had moved. The reason behind this eerie lack of inaction was obvious — everyone had given up. Aziz couldn’t even muster up the will to continue moving. Under the incredible, impossible lance of energy, the colonel could see no way out but death.

The others probably thought the same way too.

A bitter smile lined her lips, and she turned to look at the incoming spear slowly. Her current pose was a dignified out, all things considered, and for a moment, the colonel wanted to join her in closing his eyes. He knew, as did the marshal, that the incoming blow would wipe out all present.

It would be far easier to close his eyes and give in, but if the marshal, who had been a tiny little lieutenant less than ten years ago, could face her impending end with such grace, Aziz didn’t want to lose to her.

“I suppose this is a good way to die,” Aziz murmured.

“Yeah, it is.” Marie shook her head. “And you aren’t the only one thinking that way. Everyone else…”

“Hmph. They should have run,” Aziz replied.

“I can say that to you too.” She shook her head. “Well, it’s been an honour. Should there be a next life, I hope that you’ll be my subordinate once more.”

“And get drowned by paperwork? No thanks.”

The crushing pressure intensified as the lance tip continued to speed towards Defence Line Foxtrot. By now, even if Aziz wanted to flee, he couldn’t. The falling lance had apparently frozen the space around him and everyone else — including the charging demons, who had ground to a halt — preventing them from moving at all.

“I admire your resolve to die,” a voice echoed throughout the battlefield. “But I must deprive you of that pleasure.”

The pressure that had held everyone captive vanished without a trace. At the same time, a shimmering layer of light appeared in the skies above Defence Line Foxtrot, and for a moment, Aziz thought that he was looking at the falling lance through a sunlit window. The lance of black and gold began to vanish from the bottom up as it continued to fall, as if the trajectory of its descent was leading into another place altogether.

Grey light gathered, forming a faint figure.

“Rejoice, children of the Five Lands. Today will not be your death anniversary.” The Sentinel of Space — it could only be him, since all the other great gods had moved — flung out his hands, and a giant grey sigil appeared on the ground a kilometre away from the defence line, in the middle of the charging demons and the fearful soldiers. “Go, my believers. Buy the defenders of your new home some time to retreat.”

At these words, tens of thousands of figures rippled into view within the enormous sigil, each of them dressed in a grey cloak. Before Aziz could make any sense of what was going on, the grey-robed fellows charged towards the unmoving demons, who were probably stunned by the sudden change of events. Their surprising appearance had taken him by surprise, but what was more incredible was the fact that they were charging with what looked like swords in their hands — that was outdated to a point.

It was an absurd thought, one entirely unsuitable for the situation, but the colonel found it a reassuring one. Before he could indulge in that line of thought any further, the quiet voice of the Demon Sovereign spoke once more, and Aziz found himself turning to the two gods again.

“You. This body knows you.”

“So it seems,” the Sentinel of Space replied. “But enough talk. You aren’t here to make light conversation, are you?”

The air around them warped and contorted, hiding them entirely. Lightning bolts shot out from the impromptu, spherical arena, writhing around black threads that seemed to draw his gaze. The sphere shattered a moment later, revealing a space full of translucent afterimages of both the Sentinel of Space and the Demon Sovereign.

Seemingly frozen attacks filled the area, thousands of them. Reappearing and vanishing randomly, a myriad of howls and thunderclaps exploded out, only to be cut off at their loudest. It was an alluring sight, for some reason, but Aziz forced himself to tear his gaze away from the battle.

That was not something mere mortals should watch.

“Everyone!” Marie’s voice rang out, but this time, her words were strident. “Retreat in an orderly fashion. Demolition squads, destroy all the defence lines and anything that cannot be retrieved! We are retreating back to the Heaven-cleaving Fortress!”

Everyone stirred to life once more. A good distance away, reinforcements in grey continued to appear inside the enormous sigil in battalion-sized groups, before charging off with rudimentary weapons in hand. The first few groups had already made contact with the vanguard of the advancing demons, engaging in hand-to-hand combat.

Even from afar, however, the colonel knew that even these reinforcements were nothing but a drop in the bucket. Now that the Demon Sovereign had altered the geography, the demons were free to exploit their numerical advantage freely. A minute or so had passed since the Sentinel of Space’s summoned reinforcements had engaged the vanguard of the demons, but they were already surrounded and in the midst of being annihilated.

The great god had intended for this sacrifice to happen, but Aziz didn’t quite understand why Hereward had chosen such a course of action. Who were these people? What were they fighting for?

He didn’t quite know, and that bothered him.

“Aziz?” A small hand patted his back.

The colonel broke out his stupor. “Yes?”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes—”

“Then move, colonel.” Her piercing eyes were painful to look at directly. “There’ll be time to look back on this absurd day once we’re back in the fortress.”

The first rays of dawn broke, illuminating the battlefield in earnest. As explosions ripped through the now-abandoned fortifications, Aziz couldn’t help but mock the fools who had thought lightly of the demons. Taking to the skies, the First Aerial Division retreated from the burning defence lines, along with the rest of the Five Lands.

With such numbers and the appropriate terrain to exploit them, the demon armies could not be held off with rudimentary defences. For all intents and purposes, the Five Lands had lost the first battle of the war; had the Sentinel of Space not intervened, there would have been no survivors.

It was a sobering thought.

“We’ve lost this round,” Marie murmured.

Aziz nodded. “And we’ll pay for it dearly for years to come.”

For some reason, the colonel had a feeling that his words were going to be more than just true for a very long time.

[End of Book 11: Cause Convergent]