Blind Eternities of History
Wu Zhang Plains
The Imperial Lancers charged as one, their weapons aimed directly at the Strossus that blocked their way to Isley and Priscilla. They fearlessly thrust their spears into the demon's leg even as the front line crumpled, and the horses felt themselves trampled underfoot by the much larger forms of the two Strossi advancing from behind. Rafaela somersaulted up, her remaining eye glaring at the five bodies that her battalion had been dispatched to recover. Zhou Tai lay to her right, Flora behind her. Xu Huang had managed to retrieve Yue Ying and Flora, but he was forced on the defensive as a consequence. He staggered back from Rigardo's claws as an Awakened Alicia tackled him from behind, her claws carving deep wounds into the Lion King's back. He turned and they tussled, giving Xu Huang the chance to slip away.
"Thank you, Alicia, Beth," he panted exhaustedly.
"Secure the Yoma-man and the woman in his arms," commanded Rafaela, and the Imperial Lancers scattered into an encircling formation, tightening their collective defence against Isley's minions. It would prove to be only a time-buying strategy. Toe-to-toe, they were no match for the Strossi. Five cavalrymen charged, allowing the massive demons to swipe above them and into the throng of their compatriots. They ignored their screams and galloped to the unconscious Wu admiral. Two Lancers dropped their weapons and reached down, scooping up the heavy man together. But Cynthia remained, falling away from her beloved as their entwined bodies were torn apart. Even as the Strossi turned around in confusion, another company separated from the thundering encirclement and charged towards her limp form, approaching her and scooping her up in a similar manner. The horses whinnied as they turned around, and Rafaela nodded in approval.
Their objective was to reclaim the defeated. They had no more business here beyond that.
Cao Pi spun and leaped towards the fallen body of Galatea, and was nearly swatted aside by an organic arrow from Isley. "Worthless!" He hurtled just above the ground, slashing past a giant Strossus as it swiped at him with dripping, venomous claws. Their attacks were relentless. However, he was not here to test his strength. Speed was of the essence. Ice blasted from his sword, Entropy, momentarily stopping another lumbering minion in its tracks as he zigzagged past a hail of organic arrows from Isley's bow. "You refuse to fight me in your Awakened form," he said disdainfully, as he approached Galatea. He quickly swept her up and hoisted her lifeless body against his shoulder. She was surprisingly light. "Are you looking down on me?"
Isley smiled forbearingly. "I would say that you should appreciate this handicap. After all, even a superficial observance of your allies would suggest that your path to oblivion should be an even quicker one than that of Galatea and her friends." Cao Pi flipped up and danced away from two more bolts. He glared at Xu Huang, who was struggling to hold his own against the Lion King, and Alicia, Beth and Rafaela, with whom the Strossi were exchanging blows amidst the growing chaos of the Imperial Lancer formation. "We have retrieved the bodies," he snarled. "Do not waste your time with these ingrates. Retreat!"
His eyes widened as Rafaela's body suddenly splattered sickeningly on the ground, and Rigardo staggered back, critically wounded. The two combatants had smashed against each other in an unbreakable deadlock, and Isley had released an organic bolt to force one of them from the other. But whilst Rafaela had managed to leap away and pull Rigardo into the trajectory of Isley's weapon, the Lion King had held onto the Claymore assassin and shot all ten bladed fingers into her body. Gored through ten vital points, including her final eye, Rafaela fell face-first against the grass and did not respond to Cao Pi's shout, even when he rushed to her side and turned her over. "Fool. What you did was not necessary. Now we have six warriors to retrieve for Father."
"Go." Rafaela stared sightlessly at him, blood pouring out of her destroyed eye socket. "You will only need to take five with you." Cao Pi stared at her while she took a deep breath, blood trickling from her mouth. "If I could defy the monsters that forced my sister and I to become what we are…"
"Rafaela. Do not speak such nonsense."
Rafaela did not reply, nor did she desire to. Pierced throughout her head and torso, her head lolled back and her hand fell limp as she died, leaving a wish unfulfilled and a sister unavenged. Cao Pi shook his head in slight shock as he stared down at her bloodsoaked, silent face. On it was a look of modest but pronounced peace, a peace that was long overdue for a woman that had lost the will to live long ago.
"So this… is how a silver-eyed woman dies," he murmured to himself, nodding eloquently as his cold eyes glared up at Isley.
The centaur demon began to laugh, smiling at the crawling Rigardo, still in his Awakened frame, as the latter glared up at the Silver King. "I believe it is time to bring an end to this."
"Your sadism knows no bounds, Isley," barked Rigardo.
"And yet it was you who dealt the killing blow to the onetime Number Five." As if to agree, Isley turned to watch the Strossi overwhelming Alicia. She had collapsed from the sheer power of the larger demons, and feeling her twin crippled, Beth fell to her knees, clutching her head. "No!" cried Xu Huang, his heart sinking as Alicia slowly began to shrink from a darkly noble, formidable Awakened Being to a trembling young woman. He rushed to the sisters, hoping to sweep them away from the Strossi's ravenous, dripping venom.
"No," shouted Beth, blood trickling from her eyes. "You have Lady Yue Ying and Lady Cynthia in your arms already. We will continue the fight."
Xu Huang did not take pleasure in those words, but he backed away reluctantly, watching the Imperial Lancers reining in their horses and turning them around. "It is time to fall back. Retreat!" screamed their leader. "We will give ground before we lose our entire contingent – "
Cao Pi's longsword abruptly emerged from behind the Lancer's chest, and the armoured man gasped in shock, screaming one last time before drooping noiselessly. Alicia and Beth stared at Cao Pi in stupefaction. "Your Highness," roared Xu Huang, "what are you doing?!" The other men cried out in fear as Cao Pi twisted his blade within his own lieutenant, ensuring that his ruined heart beat no longer.
"Did I say you could retreat? We only gave orders for those who have the bodies of the four warriors of Wu and Shu and Stepmother to withdraw. The rest of you will stay and ensure Isley does not follow us. I will personally execute anyone who dares to defy my order. You will kill these Awakened Beings or you will die by their hand. Do not deceive yourself that you have any other option," said the Crown Prince coldly.
The horsemen nervously saluted. "Yes, my Lord." Those that had braved the onslaught of the Strossi to retrieve Zhou Tai and Cynthia looked at each other in relief. The cream of the Wei army, they retreated only in exceptional circumstances. But this was one of those situations when a conventional victory was simply impossible.
"The Lancers that have repossessed Cynthia and Zhou Tai will retreat to the capital, along with Xu Huang and myself. We must return to Xuchang before all is lost." Cao Pi spat on the ground in disgust as Isley smiled, holding Priscilla close to him. He glanced at the Strossi, their wings flapping again, eager for more blood. On a visual cue, Alicia and Beth moved in front of Cao Pi. "You two, you are coming with us," cried Xu Huang. He grabbed Beth and Alicia by one arm. "You cannot possibly be hoping to defeat them."
"We will protect you with the Imperial Lancers," was all Beth said. "Our foremost priority is to bring our comrades to safety."
"No!" exclaimed Xu Huang in protest. "You must come with us, lest you die a meaningless death here."
"On behalf of our Master, we will not lose," said Beth quietly, looking into Xu Huang's eyes directly. His heart skipped a beat as she stared at him with an unexpected confidence. Occasions on which she did that were very rare. "We will return."
"Flee, now," advised Alicia. "There is no more time." Isley smiled as he began to release a new, unprecedented level of Yoki. His skin turned into a shade of ashen black, and he suddenly burst out of his clothes, his black body enlarging and twisting into…
Into…
A demonic… centaur. The legendary incarnation of the very first Claymore in history; that ancient but ever-youthful, ebony countenance as haunting as the eternal night. He towered over them, astonishingly graceful and elegant for a monster of such huge bulk. Cao Pi swore and the Chinese troops trembled in terror. Glowing embers for eyes peered down at the Imperial Lancers, and their owner re-aimed his bow, preparing an even deadlier volley.
It was only then that Xu Huang reluctantly backed away, turning towards his horse and calling for Cao Pi to confirm a withdrawal. The young heir was slightly displeased, but he understood the common wisdom of their decision. He ignored Isley's taunt: "Brave, boy. But we will dispose of them with little effort, and we will hunt you down like a hunter chases down a doe and her fawn."
"You may have killed Rafaela, but it shall not be the end. I will not forget this humiliation," declared Cao Pi. "I will smite you and that brunette tenfold in return." He reined in his horse, hoisting up Galatea, and began to gallop towards the direction of the dipping moon. The remaining Imperial Lancers followed, two of them having slung Zhou Tai and Cynthia over their shoulders. Xu Huang quickly leaped up onto his horse, clutching Yue Ying and Flora tightly.
"We will rendezvous at Luoyang," he said, his voice demanding no protest. "Neither of you can fall here."
"Yes, General," replied Alicia and Beth. Without another word, they initiated the Soul Link once again. Alicia was bleeding profusely from the head and had almost lost control of her first Awakening, but she compliantly transformed into a fully-fledged monster once again and raised her bladed arms, coolly eyeing the approaching servants of Isley. They would defend Master Xu Huang from certain death here. They would ensure that the greatest protectors of the world would live to wreak vengeance on the criminals that had managed to rout them this dark morning.
They would fortify the realm against the hordes of death.
*
Cao Cao slowly strolled to Yue Ying's guestroom, his noble shoes tapping lightly on the wooden floorboards. "Indeed, your campaign of rescue was a desperate battle, but its outcome was miraculous, considering the alternative," he muttered. "You did well to minimize our casualties, my son."
Several minutes passed in silence before he reached the red drapes that lent the much-needed privacy to the recuperating woman. He passed by the Royal Guards that stood by in attendance to the chamber's entrance. They were at least three feet taller than him: a mix of Mongolian, Hun, and northern Chinese breed, they were handpicked by his ministers to serve as the Court's closest, most dependable soldiers. They were fanatically loyal to the Chinese cause and would fight to the death, taking many demons and infernal creatures with them. They were immune to hypnosis or bewitchment, were immune to all forms of magic or incantations, and never allowed themselves to be captured by the enemy. Inhumanly disciplined, their armour was dark, plaid and efficient, and they wielded long poleswords designed for protective countermeasures rather than pre-emptive offence.
They saluted in silence as he walked into the bedroom, his eyes falling upon the auburn woman who had, true to his prediction, awoken. She sat upright, propping herself on two cushions, her clasped hands on her lap as she silently stared down at her knuckles.
She turned her head up as he made his way over to her to stand by the bedside. He gave a curt nod and opened his mouth to speak. "At last, you are conscious. It seems my intuition of your recovery's duration was not inaccurate – given the wounds you suffered, I estimated that a month would suffice."
He extended a hand. "But surely you must feel disoriented. Allow me to explain everything, as I have done with Flora – "
Yue Ying's furious straight right smashed into his face, and blood spurted from his nostrils as he was hurled back. Before he could clutch at his broken nose, her swinging hook caught him under his goateed chin, cracking it loose. He staggered from her bed as she leaped up and lunged at him, indifferent to the fact that she wore nothing more than a willowy, near-transparent nightgown. Her bare feet landed smoothly on the carpeted floor and she struck him again, this time in the ribs, and he clutched at his abdomen, staring down at the ground as she loomed over him.
"You megalomaniacal, genocidal murderer," she gritted. "You have no idea how long I've waited for this day. Now I stand facing your detestable face, that face that ordered the slaughter of my entire village. Fight me!" She raised her tightly scrunched fists again. "This for my father. For my mother, and little sisters. For my tribe!"
"Your Excellency!" cried the Royal Guards, charging into the room and aiming their poleswords at Yue Ying. She caught one of the taller men's outstretched arm as he swung at her and shoved her hip against his, turning him over her shoulder in an immaculately executed throw. He slammed to the ground painfully. She parried the wild thrust of another and countered with a palm-heel strike to his chin, snapping back his head and jarring his neck. He flung out a hand to regain some measure of balance, and she quickly subjected him to a tight lock, hurling herself to the ground and taking him with her. She wrapped her legs around his limb in a smooth armbar and thrust her hip up. A loud crack of the elbow rang out through the room, and the Royal Guard bawled in agony. The remaining two sentinels aimed their halberds at her buxom form, moving to shield their master.
She scrambled up, holding up her hands in a prepared stance and glaring at them silently. They growled. "You deserve nothing less than execution for your ingratitude, you insolent – "
"Do not move!" roared Cao Cao, shocking the Royal Guards into silence. He staggered back up, smoothing down his armour and coat while holding up a hand of warning.
"She is disoriented and confused. Let her do as she pleases."
They stared at him in disbelief. "Your Excellency, surely we must punish her thanklessness and violence – "
"I will not repeat myself. Return outside."
The guardians blinked, and then backed away slowly and awkwardly, until they were standing at attention beyond the veil, horribly uncomfortable at the fact that the ruler of the Middle Kingdom had ordered them to stand aside whilst he was physically abused and humiliated by a guest within.
Cao Cao gave a wolfish, almost masochistic grin as his bodyguards left his sight. "Now… where were we?" he asked, glancing into Yue Ying's brown eyes.
"Damn you," she growled.
He stared at her intently and she spun, throwing a powerful kick towards the side of his body. Her long, shapely leg crushed against his ribs, and his knees buckled from the force of her shin, but still he refused to resist. Admiring the acrobatic and lithe form of her nubile body, he allowed her one more fist to be planted against his face before finally defending himself, blocking her subsequent strike with a raised forearm. Bone collided with bone, and for once she gave ground. He waited patiently until she withdrew her hand. She staggered back, rubbing her sore hand.
The bedroom was silent, save for her angry panting. "I hope the future you see… is worth the future you are trying to kill," he suggested dryly, flicking blood off his lip. He casually pressed against his nose ridge. A nauseating crack and a grunt of pain, and it re-aligned itself. He did the same to his jaw, and it snapped back into position, and a sharp sensation of agony shot up his mouth. His knees felt weak, but he managed to remain standing.
"No need," she panted quietly, unclenching her fists ever so slightly. "I'm finished… for now."
"Satisfied?"
"Not quite. But it helped."
He did not lift his heavy gaze away from her, and before long, she bit her lip, lowering her arms to her waist. She backed away and slowly sat on the edge of her bed. All her rage had dissipated. Only devastation remained.
"I know," she said softly. "My husband… would not have wanted to see me like this."
"I overheard my son and Sima Yi discussing the recent affairs outside your chambers. I trust they did not disturb your rest?"
"No, that was not so," admitted Yue Ying. "But… now, I know it is done. I know Chengdu has fallen. But why… why did you not come to Liu Shan's aid?" she asked, looking at him, her voice simmering with fury. "He was not a competent ruler, like his father Liu Bei, nor was he an able strategist like my late husband. You know well he would have failed against… Isley's invasion."
"My messengers sent word of his defeat a week ago." Cao Cao's face was sombre. "The order of battle was this: Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Yang Yi, Fei Yi, and Ma Dai. They all fell, your best generals. In response, I dispatched seven armies to Chengdu, to aid Shu's devastated forces."
His scowl deepened. "But without the guidance of Galatea or Alicia and Beth, my seven armies were also decimated with little effort on part of the enemy. My men's deaths must not be in vain, for they have bought us more time as we amass a fresh series of offensives against Isley. Through chaos, there comes the opportunity for order" Cao Cao paused thoughtfully. "You know what must be done, Yue Ying. There is nothing left for you in Shu. There can be only one China… under me. And I intend to merge the entirety of this country's military forces – Shu, Wu, and Wei's – into one grand force: the so-called Jin Alliance. And I need you to lead it, as the Grand General of not merely Shu, but of the Middle Kingdom."
She looked down again at her knuckles, although they were now scraped and bloodied with Cao Cao's blood. "I cannot do that. I cannot lead the armies of the world in a state like this."
"Foolishness."
"Your Queen… Galatea… she slew Liu Bei, and in doing so, she stole the dreams of an entire people. And my dreams of protecting the weak have been extinguished by our defeat at your hands, Cao Cao. How can I fulfil the hopes of All Under Heaven when I cannot even fulfil the hopes of my childhood?" She stared into his irises fearlessly. "My lifelong dream of defeating you."
He smiled. "So you would still fight me when your true anger should be directed against Isley? While such hypocrisy afflicts you, your fists and blades can never harm me."
"You are a far more dangerous being than Isley could ever hope to be."
"My head is the most difficult of targets, yet you managed to break my jaw this day. Is that not enough?"
She blinked in surprise. She closed her eyes as he waited for an answer, allowing herself a bittersweet smile. "Yes. At the very least, the day my son's children ask me what I am most proud of, I will have something to answer them with."
What would you say to me, my husband?
Her resolve gradually returned as she stood back up. She placed her hands defiantly on her hips, staring at the Imperial Chancellor. "Just as my late King intended with the Emperor, I will surrender to him, the sovereign you claim to serve, yet continue to manipulate. But I will not surrender to you. Never to you, Cao Cao. I serve the Han people, and what is best for them. And that is to serve as the Supreme Commander and head scientist of your armies. I know what I must do. I will lead them to victory against Isley. I will bring China victory."
The glint in Cao Cao's eye indicated his immense pleasure. "That is more than enough," he whispered, wiping away at the blood on his nose. "That you understand your position is that of the new Supreme Commander … is more than enough."
Silence passed between them, and it was as if they had reached an unspoken understanding. How could she have imagined herself in this position, being indebted to her archenemy to fight a common adversary? She would have protested fervidly were it not in the name of preserving the lives of countless innocents. But in the name of liberating China… there was no price not worth paying. There was only one way to defeat the Awakened Beings – together. That was the reality of the circumstances, and no measure of grief could ever change that.
Cao Cao snapped his fingers, and an attendant strode in almost immediately. "This is the first favour I have to ask of you, Yue Ying. It shall be your foremost contribution to the strategy that I intend to initiate." In the courtier's arms was a strange casket to which Cao Cao gestured. "Within this box is the head of the Dweller of the South, Luciela. She will hold the key to developing anti-Yoma weapons that can surpass the defences of even Abyssal Ones."
Yue Ying blanched. "Luciela? You… have Luciela's head? Then our Southern Expedition… did not end in failure, although… it was you that managed to reap the spoils." Her eyes widened in realization. "I remember that dark day… it truly was your plan all along. That day, when we were forced to split our forces due to your two-pronged attack on Shi Ting and Tianshui…"
He smirked. "A most astute observation. You have seen through the intentions I harboured during that campaign. Tianshui and Shi Ting were merely and thankfully additional benefits. But my true objective was the being you sought to kill – and thanks to Rafaela, Miata and Clarice, it is all becoming realized as I planned."
"You manipulative reprobate," growled Yue Ying.
"The orders I gave to sabotage your Southern Expedition may have been expedient and cynical, but they were within the code, laws and art of war. In the context of civil conflict, it violated nothing and fulfilled its military objectives."
Another attendant glided into the room, his hands clutching several rolls of creased scrolls of paper. He stopped before them, and Cao Cao nodded for her to take the parchments.
She glanced at him suspiciously before taking the scrolls. She stared down at the sketches. "Impossible. Since when did you know of my bladed bow's specifications?" She glanced to the small table beside her bed, on which Sapphire Crescent lay. Now that she thought of it, she hadn't used it since she became comatose… "Just what have you done with it?"
"Sima Yi's alchemists asked to… borrow it, to tinker with its properties for their own designs. Worry not. I hear it was relatively easy to reassemble. There have been no problems with its functionality after we acquired its specifications."
"You really are a conniving scoundrel, do you know that?" She was about to condemn him further when her gaze fell upon a scribbled scrawl of characters on a miniature map of the known world: Mount Imeon.
"Mount Imeon…" she whispered.
"The site of our new stronghold – the Cosmodrome. You shall depart for that location in several weeks."
"What is this? Why do you know of it?"
"Mount Imeon is the name for a complex of mountain ranges that begin from Tian Shan. My Central Plains Guardians are not merely warriors. They are settlers from distant lands west of our world, and their pathfinders and scouts were most helpful in securing the mountain sierra and summit for me. They will play a crucial role in protecting the Cosmodrome."
A massive landscape formed from the heart of the earth, Mount Imeon extended from the Zagros Mountains in the southwest to the Altay massif in the northeast, and linked to the Kunlun, Karakoram and Himalayas to the southeast. Settlers and miners at Sar-e-Sang produced lapis lazuli for a livelihood, supplying the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Rome with the precious rock through traders and sailors. Over the millennia, Mount Imeon's western Badakhshan region had become famous for its deposits of lapis lazuli.
It had only been a month, and the war already had drawn in a spectrum of players.
Cao Cao nodded as Yue Ying continued to study Sima Yi's research. "The summit of Mount Imeon will be the most suitable location to… use this new weapon without endangering our own military forces. It shall, accordingly, be protected by the elite of our elite."
Her eyes suddenly froze upon seeing a long, almost phallic diagram on the opened scroll. "Is this a magazine? Or is this the proposed weapon itself?" she asked uneasily. The primary ammunition sketched was not that of her signature rounds. Rather, this was of an entirely different size and dimension, one with measurements that seemed to dwarf even a navy galleon.
What was this new innovation?
"This weapon will ensure us victory against our demonic foes, but it is one that requires the fusion of the flesh of an Abyssal One. Observe the proposed designs. The implantation of this Southern Dweller's flesh into a certain entity – organic or synthetic – will give it a hundredfold strength in destroying creatures of a similar kind… in other words, monsters such as Isley. And I wish to infuse it into this so-called warhead, the first of its kind. My late cousin Cao Ren possessed technology of a similar model, something that was not privy even to me."
"You cannot mean…"
"Yes. The mechanisms called rocket thrusters." His eyes glinted. "Galatea knows that I have always wished to reach the stars in the night sky. We shall rise to the task with this whilst the Awakened army crumbles. It will be the first step in our aspiration to elevate China to its rightful place as the world's supreme nation."
"You… you've taken my bladed bow's armament specifications… and multiplied it tenfold," she whispered in comprehension. "An armament of this sort would be… inconceivably devastating."
"It is not mere firepower," he denied. "As I already asserted, this new weapon is specifically designed to destroy Isley and any other Awakened Beings of his power. It has a specific name. And only you can herald a new era in Chinese warfare with it."
Yue Ying could no longer believe her eyes as she stared at the words scribbled down at the corner of the parchment. "You want me to develop an… Abyssal Eater Missile?"
"Yes," sneered Cao Cao, enjoying her horrified face, "for the higher purpose of victory, we shall devour Isley and his hordes in a mushroom cloud that touches the very roof of the world."
*
Four hundred years of continuous rule came to an end with the establishment of the last Han Emperor as a puppet ruler. But already there lurked a sinister presence in China, exultant in its victory in a distant realm against an organization of silver-eyed warriors. It sought to extend its triumph and armies across the entire universe, and its ultimate prize would be the realm of the Middle Kingdom. The darkness had bided its time, waiting patiently. It was at the Battle of the Red Cliffs that history would be shaken to its foundations – for an invasion, planned for years by a foreign foe, suddenly fell upon the warring states, taking the Chinese people by utter surprise and plunging the realm into a war against supernatural, demonic enemies that feasted on human innards. Furthermore, civil war began to plague the land, as it split into the Kingdoms of Shu, Wu and Wei, all vying for supremacy and the ultimate destruction of the mysterious man called Isley. Seeking an end to the three-way stalemate, the Shu and Wu Kingdoms allied against the larger Wei Empire and attempted one last breakthrough. But the eminent Hero of Chaos remained unperturbed, and his generals dealt Shu a deathblow during the climatic Battle of Wu Zhang Plains, with Galatea personally slaying the Shu King Liu Bei. Her plan of unification was coming ever closer…
But her husband's ambition was not to be fulfilled just yet.
With the swiftness of a falcon and the strength of a tempest, Isley seized upon his crushing victory against Miria and her comrades in the Kumtag Desert and departed for the Wei River, effortlessly destroying the weary Shu, Wu and Wei forces there with his loyal Strossi. And with all due haste, he departed to ring the death knell for the Shu and Wu Kingdoms, sending his Strossi to fall upon the leaderless Chengdu. Without Flora or Yue Ying to defend it, the capital of the Shu state quickly crumpled before the wrath of the Northern Dweller and his consort, Priscilla. Rigardo did not rest on his laurels at Wu Zhang, either. On the eastern seaboard, Jianye was completely annihilated by a ferocious legion of scuta, bloodstocks and witch beasts. Without his eminent guardians Cynthia and Zhou Tai, King Sun Quan and his loyal warriors fell, whispering for his father to forgive them as the Wu legacy perished.
Only the titanic Wei state remained. The only force strong enough to put up even a paltry resistance, the forces of Cao Cao stood against the full onslaught of the Awakened hordes. With the little reinforcements they could muster after their appalling losses at Wu Zhang Fortress, Prince Cao Pi managed to recover the limp bodies of the five warriors – Galatea, Flora, Cynthia, Yue Ying and Zhou Tai – from the ultimate indignity of becoming victuals for the Strossi. But time was against them. All of China's hopes now rested on one prospect: that all of Shu and Wu's people would join hands with Wei, and bring about the first stage of Cao Cao's ambition: a united China, a united front from which the Middle Kingdom could destroy Isley and his monolithic army.
The Han Dynasty had reached its final twilight. The evening star of revolution had descended. There was now a new Mandate that would set the destiny for all.
But the descent of the evening star rarely brings a tender dawn.