The blessed son, the chosen one, and the champion of the academy – at least until Kairos’ arrival.

Sihala is doubtlessly one of the most talented fighters in the whole of Saint Empire. He graduated a few years earlier joining the frontlines as an officer.

Kairos never thought to see him here.

“Kairos Astroire, well met. I’ve heard that you were coming.”

“Sihala, it’s been a while. You must’ve become stronger since we last met.”

“Heh, you want to try out how much I’ve grown?”

“Couldn’t ask for more.”

“Ahem, lads, we’re here to speak about serious stuff,” Martial General Gu said, interrupting them.

“Sorry sir, I was caught up with an old face.”

“You’re the old face. Sorry sir.”

“Its fine, its fine. Why are you two looking so stiffy? Be at ease and please sit yourselves.”

“Thank you, sir,” the two boys said at the same time.

The two sat quietly while waiting for the Martial General to address them. Gu coughed embarrassedly. He is a fighter and a leader of men, but it doesn’t mean that he isn’t people shy, especially with strangers.

With his men, they could talk anything, with or without alcohol. But in front of Kairos, his tongue felt dry.

“Eh… ah… Sihala, this is the person you were always talking about, right?” the old general quickly threw the conversation opener to his subordinate like it was a scalding hot potato.

The young soldier did not have any change in expression and coldly replied, “Yes.”

The hot potato was easily deflected by Sihala and returned to his hands and the old general became even more anxious than before.

“You two can speak freely here, don’t be hindered by the stiffy military rules.

“In that case, I will take you up on your offer,” Kairos said immediately with a smile, and the old general gave an obvious sigh of relief.

“May I ask the current situation on the frontlines, sir?”

It was Sihala who replied, “The frontlines are intense indeed. Before I stepped onto the battlefield, I would’ve never thought that things would be this… bloody. The glory, the honour, and the excitement I imagined felt so laughable that it seemed disgusting now.

Fortunately, the battles are still small-scaled with the two armies from each side are only testing each other’s capabilities. If we use your specially formulated battle arrays, we can easily pin them down, but once we reveal our cards, the rest of the war will become much harder.

With your rank, you can acquire a detailed report from our tacticians. But, I doubt that your team’s Snow did not already have the information in hand and have that sorted out.”

Kairos nodded, and he said, “What cards are the army keeping secret? From what I know the Starfire array is already in use?”

“That’s different. The current scale that the runic formation is used in battles are limited to skirmishes. Only in battles with numbers over a hundred thousand, will the Starfire’s actual firepower be shown. On top of that, the army has already studied the Bagua formation you gave us and placed it into practice.

Although the soldiers do not know what the formation could do, every one of them – down to the cooks – could swiftly meld themselves into position in an instant.”

Beside them, the Martial General had a self-depreciating smile.

“Looks like my presence is already forgotten.”

Although the frontlines had intense battles every day, each side are still holding back their trump cards.

In this situation, to break past the enemy lines and head towards the first enemy stronghold – the Ku Kang camp – wasn’t too difficult. Of course, it couldn’t be called easy either.

“The most suitable condition will be for my team to sneak past them during a chaotic battle, but it will likewise be very dangerous.”

The Martial General finally spoke, “Dangerous?”

“They will be trapped and cut off from all reinforcements. It would be easy for them to be surrounded.”

“Will it be less dangerous otherwise?”

“Of course. If we could break the frontlines and move our army close to the enemy stronghold, then it would become the optimal condition for their mission,” Sihala explained.

“Oh,” Gu said, suddenly feeling that his brains are not enough to keep up with the conversation on his table. However, also he did not dismay. In the army there are plenty of better heads around to make decisions, while his role is to lead men into battles; this is why for many years he remained as a Martial General.

In this camp, there are 29 others at his rank, 3 above his rank and 1 commander of their operation.

Kairos quickly asked about them as well and he obligingly answered, “We have 30 Martial Generals, 3 Great Martial Generals, and a Martial King.”

Kairos nodded politely, he knows that these figures can be found on the report, thus he asked instead, “How many of the generals are recently promoted? And, are there different sides in control?”

There are two questions here. The first one is to understand how intense the battles are on the frontlines. The second is to know if the army moves as one or separately and therefore allows him to conclude how the skirmishes against the Frosthral were fought.

Martial General Gu thought for a while then answered, “Of the 30 Martial Generals, only 3 are newly promoted. The rest had been assigned here since the beginning or are followers of one of the three Great Martial Generals.

Our camp is divided into three factions under the great generals, while Martial King Esley makes the final decisions.”

“Esley… Esley Restrio?”

“Yes, the greatest tamer in the world. The East Wind.”

On hearing the three-word title, Kairos’ face froze in utter disbelief and surprise, and then he muttered, “If it is Esley… we may have a chance.”

“Definitely. He is a legend on the battlefield and equally famous as a commander. Anyway， I’ve heard that your little group had gotten into trouble with the administrators?”

Kairos thought about it for a while and secretly agreed that the Devilheart is indeed only managing the empire. It also conveyed which side Sihala is on.

He nodded wordlessly.

Sihala continued to say, “I suppose you have no way to turn back. If you’re going to die on the battlefield, why not have one last fight with me first?”

“I’ll return, don’t worry.”

“Even if you survive, they will be …”

“I know. The two princes’ armies are already in their hands. There is no way they will let me return to the empire safely.”

While the two catch up, the Martial General already excused himself; the atmosphere was too uninviting. He was lucky to have left, otherwise the things said here will force him to a corner.

“If you know then why do you still want to come back? You’ll die!”

“You’re wrong,” Kairos smiled confidently, “They can only try.”

“Then, about our fight?”

“Haha, let’s do it next time. I’ll definitely return, and at that time.”

“In that case, can you say the mission they sent you on?”

“It’s not much of a secret…”

Kairos explained roughly the scale of combat awaiting before the Snowdrifts to satisfy Sihala’s curiosity. Many of the information are confidential, but he revealed whatever he could.

Just listening to the task they were assigned caused cold sweat to roll down on Sihala’s forehead.

“You’re certain you can return from doing that?”

“Of course.”

“Hahahahaha! As expected of the one who could defeat me! You really are unfathomable!”

“You’re thinking too highly of me. It’s above 70 percent chance that everything will turn out okay. Therefore, I am quite certain to return.”

“Oh? There’s still a 30 percent chance of failure? In that case, we better have one last fight to be safe.”

“Sihala, I know you want to defeat me to even out your previous loss.”

“Right… so let’s fight now while we can.”

“Too bad,” Kairos laughed.

At that time Sihala really felt like pouncing on him and beat him to an inch of his life.

Actually, Kairos wanted the fight as well, but he decided against it.

There are a few reasons, mostly the look right now on the face of the national hero-cum-chosen-one is enough to overturn the other reasons.

A while later, Kairos had carefully read through the report in his hands. Snow had rearranged the data neatly, making it easier to comprehend and to refer to different statistics.

Just like knowing that there were 3 newly promoted Martial Generals gave him plenty of information, what Snow did was to highlight likewise important fact out.

“Looks like Esley is encouraging the Great and Normal Martial Generals of the three factions to compete for promotion by comparing their casualties and achievements,” Kairos said after scanning through the statistics.

Snow nodded quietly. Behind them, Leaf, Small, and Smaller are arranging the data while going through them together with Luciette and George.

Kairos announced to them, “If you guys don’t need me for a while, I will excuse myself.”

“You have somewhere to be?” George asked in surprise. They had just arrived at the frontline camp and without anyone they are familiar with – except Sihala.

“It’s a secret,” Kairos smiled then waved a goodbye.

He stepped out of the war tent that were setup for them, then closed his eyes. In a second, he found his target and his figure disappeared that instant, melding into the darkness of the gazebo’s shade.

…..

Within the Marital King’s tent, a black shadow appeared quietly and undetected. Esley did not notice he had company until a creaking and frighteningly cold voice called him.

“Esley Restrio. Do you wish for power?”

The Martial King who had waltz in and out of battlefields felt cold sweat pouring down his back.

A respectable amount of Ki exploded from his body, breaking him out of paralysis. He quickly turned his head and saw a man dressed in long robes that reached the floor standing by the door. The stranger was tall and lean, and he wore a hood with a black mask that covered his face.

Esley attacked instantly. A tremendous amount of Ki escaping from his fingers. From hearing the voice to taking action, it only took him a mere second despite being frozen.

His gazebo tore into two and broke into ruined shambles but the dark figure appeared behind him unharmed.

In the place where the masked man stood before, there was an afterimage made of black lightning that slowly dissipated without a trace.

Once again, that terrifying voice asked, “Do you wish for power?”

This time, Esley answered with words, “What do you want in return?”

“To make Saint Empire safe again.”