Over a hundred Knights were floating protectively above an unprotected fleet of ships. A blinding, radiant ceiling, held up by hundreds of hands, sheltered the soldiers below, who could only stare up in awe. Aziz, who was part of this crowd, couldn’t help but curse the occupational habits he’d picked up as a military man, but he knew that if he had chosen to stand by, guilt and regret would have eaten at him.

After all, there were some soldiers of the Republic aboard these ships.

“They’re coming!” A shout rang out. “Brace yourselves!”

Knights continued to arrive, even as a solid wall of fire winked from beyond the horizon. The ships below them had the sense to not make a break for it — and it wasn’t like they could anyway. Aziz and the other Knights, whose names he didn’t know, were their best hope for survival, and they knew it.

As the field of brilliant vermilion dots closed in, Aziz found himself in a contemplative mood. The people around him had ignited a small, faint hope within him. Unlike the invasion of the Wildlands, the feeling that they, the Five Lands, could truly unite under the threat of the Abyss Sovereign.

That was, however, contingent upon the continued blockade of information. Most of the low-level troops were very curious about what exactly was going on. What kind of new world did the Abyss Sovereign want to make? To them, the great gods opposed it on the basis that there was a risk of things going really badly, but was there something else?

The governments of the Five Lands had taken great care to blot out any information about this gargantuan endeavour, but for Aziz and the others who knew what their true intentions were, it was evident that this blockade of information was beginning to fail. After all, there were Knights who also desired a limitless world, one that wouldn’t have them at the beck and call of the influential and of the semi-divinities.

Furthermore, there were bound to be even more such “defectors” after today’s approach. The Abyss Sovereign’s forces were vast and mighty, and the combined forces of the Five Lands had been essentially stonewalled a hundred metres from their planned staging area.

He took a deep breath and looked around. Like him, the other Knights had solemn, thoughtful looks on their face. They too had recognised that there was a possibility of death by standing here and acting as their defenders.

Was it their vows?

Or did they truly want to save as many people as possible?

Aziz didn’t know, but as he looked around at the others, he found that he didn’t really care. Nationality, origin — none of that mattered here. To him, what mattered that they were willing to protect those in need, and that was more than enough.

His eardrums ruptured a moment later.

As blood streamed out of his ears in rivets, Aziz looked up, watching calmly as the blinding screen of light began to dim all around. The overlapping defences that the Knights present were ripping madly, creating an impossibly beautiful scene. At this otherworldly sight, the colonel felt like an ethereal being — like someone who wasn’t part of this world anymore. There was no pain, no sound, no thought.

Just him watching from a distant corner of his mind, even as the defences everyone was holding up began to falter. His vision was growing dark, as he continued to call up qi from his deepest reserves, and the first of the Knights were beginning to drop like flies, completely exhausted.

“Huh.” Aziz closed his eyes and smiled. “When did I resolve myself to die in this battle?”

The steady drumbeats continued to echo in his mind, but for some reason, he could hear words. Quiet murmurs that didn’t belong to him or the others. With his eardrums out of commission, he shouldn’t have been able to hear anything, but there were all kinds of words in his head right now.

Leave us! You’ve done all you can — don’t die here!

Thank you for buying a few more seconds for us.

Don’t give up and die here! Flee! You can always take revenge for us!

As those thoughts popped into his head, the Knights that were trembling like him steeled themselves. Somehow, the Drums of Order had managed to convey the inner thoughts of the people they were defending, and they were the purest thoughts Aziz had ever heard. Even in the face of their impending death, they did not want to drag down the people protecting them. How much courage did it take for them to utter those sentences, despite knowing that they would die if their defenders heeded their words?

Aziz didn’t know, but the one thing he did know was that he wasn’t going to abandon anyone today. People like them had no business dying, and as he and his other compatriots continued to struggle under the onslaught, more and more thoughts poured in.

Words of gratitude.

Sentences full of encouragement.

Heartfelt pleas to not give up.

Each of these utterances served to stave off the darkness encroaching in his vision — and it wasn’t just him either. His faltering companions had steadied themselves, and Aziz found himself howling as he drew upon even greater reserves of strength he never knew existed.

Ants, however, could never stop an elephant. The resplendent ceiling of overlapping lights continued to dim — their efforts had slowed down the defences’ rate of weakening — and the last circle of light eventually shattered. With their reserves of power depleted, none of them were able to maintain their ability to fly any longer, and Aziz could only watch helplessly as the next salvo bore down on them and the now-exposed ships.

Power erupted once more from the ships below him, creating a thin screen of layered light. It didn’t just end there, either. As the next volley closed in on them, more and more such screens appeared, overlapping to form a solid wall, and with a small jolt, Aziz smiled.

They had brought enough time for the ships’ defences to come back up.

Tension drained out of his body as flowers of flame bloomed high above, and his world turned black.