“Do you still remember the last time we passed by this area?” Aziz, who was staring at an enormous body of water, directed his question to the person beside him.

“When we were heading to the Conference of the Four, right?” Marie replied. The two of them were standing on a plateau, looking down on the sea…as well as the vast sea of tents that had filled the area. The armies that had been mobilised to man the Heaven-cleaving Fortress and to invade the Wildlands were now all here.

Normally, without prebuilt areas to rest in, Aziz would have expected chaos to break out, since everyone would quarrel over good bits of ground to pitch tents in. No one liked to set up camp on muddy ground, and for veteran troops, letting them choose their new lodgings freely was par for the course. However, since everyone here was a veteran in one way or another…

The peaceful methods of allocating lots, however, had taken him by surprise. For some reason, the infantries of the Five Lands had settled on a fair method; the soldiers of the Southern Assembly, for instance, didn’t try to stake better areas to pitch their tent in by making use of the fact that this was their territory. Likewise, no one actually tried to dispute the results that were allocated, ensuring that the infantry troops of the Five Lands had finished their camps within a single day.

“Back then, we were all talking about working together, only to harbour thoughts about snatching advantages from the others,” Aziz replied. “Even when the Demon God attacked, none of us felt all that threatened, since we were, militarily speaking, more than ready enough.”

“Heave-ho! Heave-ho! Heave-ho!”

Below them, three soldiers, each of them in different uniforms, shouted in unison as they heaved a log towards the shore. There was this odd sense of false exuberance; the colonel had the impression that they were faking their shouts for some odd reason.

Their target was a dock of sorts, where small boats were being built. The War Council had reappropriated many civilian ships, but even after gathering nearly two thousand such ships, it wasn’t quite enough to transport everyone over. Over a million soldiers had set up camp here, if one counted the logistics and the backline troops too.

It was natural that there wouldn’t be enough ships.

As such, huge formations had been created too, each of them gleaming with gemstones and something called ether cores. These formations were the military secrets of Ark City; they enabled the teleportation of anything inside there. However, the Sentinel of Space had warned the War Council to not teleport to the Central Circle directly, since doing so would be…fatal.

That didn’t mean they were useless, though. Some bright mind of the Eastern Territories came up with the idea of creating an artificial island to act as a closer staging area. The artificial island had been prepared by a couple of Demigods, but to protect it from any retaliation, a whole bunch of artificers had been hard at work to turn it into a giant mobile artefact capable of defending itself.

As another group of soldiers ferried giant logs and other weird things around, Aziz asked, “Were the Five Lands actually this united when we faced the threat of the Demon God?”

“That’s a good question,” a voice came from behind them. “By the way, are the two of you slacking off?”

Aziz and Marie got up and saluted Pauline.

“No, ma’am,” said Marie. “We were just trying to compare the differences between the Demon God and this Abyss Sovereign. Everyone seems…oddly united. They weren’t this united against the Demon God, so why was there such a fundamental difference?”

Aziz nodded. “I found it somewhat perplexing too.”

“Is it really that hard to figure out?” Pauline smiled. “Right. Of course. No wonder. You two are Knights. You two are so new to the field of Wills, yet are strong enough to ignore it, but for the Squires and Soldiers, the Central Circle is emanating a dread they simply cannot ignore.”

“A dread?” Aziz asked, confused.

“It’s probably a by-product of whatever’s going on inside. For the likes of you and me, it’s really insignificant, since we’ve already made our vows,” said Pauline. “However, for these troops…well, it can’t be helped. I’ve run you two ragged recently, so it’s natural that you guys haven’t heard about the growing state of fear in those people.”

“State of fear, huh. Anything serious so far?” Marie asked.

“It’s so serious that a good number simply lost the will to do anything,” Pauline replied. “On the plus side, there hasn’t been any outbreaks of violence or crimes for the past one month, save for the fairly frequent mutinies.”

“That’s…one odd silver lining,” Aziz observed.

“I’d take the occasional outbreak of violence over near-regular insubordination though. Still, from how the two of you are so lively, I can’t help but want to be a Knight now,” Pauline replied “The semi-divinities are the ones that truly need help. The mass of Will whirling the Central Circle is affecting even me. I can hear it whispering in my ears, telling me that I stand in the way of an unprecedented peace. Stand down, and I’ll attain my goal. If not, the lives of all who die here will be on me.”

Pauline let out a nervous chuckle, before hugging herself.

“Is everyone hearing the same whisper?” Marie asked.

“As expected of our Chief of Air,” Pauline replied. “No. We aren’t. Everyone’s hearing different things, and these things are…very effective at putting a damper on our will to fight.”

She shuddered. “You Knights are the luckiest of all. All you can see is a vague pillar of intimidating might. Strong enough to ignore the singular will that dominates this place, but not sensitive enough to hear what the Abyss Sovereign says.”

Before she could continue on this topic, Marie said, “Right, minister, were you looking for us? Do you need something?”

“Ah. Right. Yes. There’s something indeed. My apologies. We’ve just received the latest intelligence from the North, regarding the enemy’s force disposition. You two should come along too, even though you’re now in the rear echelon.”

Aziz and Marie saluted. “Yes, ma’am.”

“…Wasn’t that too easy?”

“We are soldiers, after all,” Marie replied. “We take orders and question them only when needed.”

“I didn’t know getting you guys to help me with paperwork fell under the latter category, though…”