Chapter 13: Dark Storm Rising

Imperial Calendar or Darwinian Calendar is a solar equal-month calendar designed by the First Emperor of the Holy Darwinian Empire : Ricardo von Darwinian, who presented it in 2 I.C. It divides the solar year into 12 months of 63 days each. It is therefore a perennial calendar, with every date fixed to the same weekday every year.

The Darwinian Imperial Calendar year has 12 months with 63 days each, divided into exactly 9 weeks (12 × 9 × 7= 756 ). A Falmart's day is 12 hours long so an Imperial Year is estimated to be 378 Earth-day long, slightly longer than Earth's. The 12 months are:

1st. Em named after Emroy: God of Darkness

2nd. Haa named after Hardy: Goddess of the Underworld

3rd. El named after Elange: God of Knowledge

4th. Du named after Duncan: God of Blacksmithing

5th. Mi named after Miritta: Goddess of Fertility

6th. Wa named after Wareharun: Goddess of Trees and Forests

7th. Fla named after Flare: God of the Sun

8th. Pal named after Palapon: God of Revenge

9th. Zuf named after Zufmuut: God of Light and Order

10th. Del named after Deldort: God of Covenants

11th. Luna named after Lunaryur: God of Music

12th. Ra named after Ral: Goddess of Learning

Votkinsk SubUrb, Southern Uralia Special Administrative Zone

"Absolutely not, there is no manpower!" Viscount Karsten Stengel, Administrator of the Southern Uralia Special Administrative Zone slammed his fist on the table to punctuate his point. The sudden gesture surprised the normally unflappable Rose Order's knight.

Quickly recovering his composure, knight captain Grossman narrowed his eyes at the man that was technically his superior.

"Need I remind you that orders to expend all efforts possible in the advancement of the Empire's chemical warfare advancement programs come from Princess Pina directly?"

The question was more of a statement, or better yet a sharpened dagger held at Stengel's throat. But while the good knight captain may have gotten his way with such threats and bravado back in Sadera, where his Liege Lady Princess Pina could do whatever she want by fawning over her father or brothers. It wasn't worth a damn out here in the Empire's frontier. Facts were facts, and the fact of the current matter is that there was simply not enough manpower.

"My dear Knight Captain, you're more than welcome to lend me your men to assist in the airfield construction efforts. I'm sure the Praetorian Guards would appreciate the help of such... elite soldiers." The Rose Order knight's face went red with barely restrained rage.

For a moment Stengel thought Grossman might unholster the pistol at his side. For his part, Stengel struggled mightily to hide the tiny smile that stubbornly crept into the corner of his mouth.

Everyone in the Praetorian Guards considered the Rose-Order of Knights mostly a joke, Princess Pina's pretty gigolos with their fancy toys and uniforms. It was an open secret that the Rose-Order was established to satisfy Princess Pina's fascination with men-on-men intercourse. There were even rumors that Princess Pina weekly organized orgy parties, where she forced dozens of handsome young men to perform a gangbang for her amusement while pegging or milking some poor boy.

The entire organization disgusted Stengel, and so did it's 'Wunderwaffe' aka the Weapons of Extraordinary Effectiveness Program. Many in the army felt the same way. Chemical weapons and missile are the weapons of the cowards, they are even worse than long-range artillery. Only those who dare to look their enemies in the eye when they die in agony have the right to kill. That is the true 'Way of Warrior'.

The Knight Captain stood, stiff as a board. "Very well, Administrator Stengel, I will inform Princess of the delays- and your choice to not alleviate those delays."

Stengel waved the Rose Order's knight away and out of his office. Even if he could spare the manpower- which with Devil teeths activity rife throughout the SubUrb he couldn't- he still wouldn't have done so.

He knew what the Rose Order built, and he wanted no part of it. Besides, other than putting him directly in one of the work camps, there was little more Sadera could do to punish him than make him administrator of a scorching hot territory of southern Europania that practically swarmed with Devil teeths.

Roughly cat sized, running ten to fifteen pounds, these diverge considerably from the kangaroo-like forms of their Sicaripods relatives.

Their general build is closer to a rabbit, with powerful, but not overwhelming, rear hopping feet. Their forefeet have retractable grasping claws. The creature can move extremely quickly with a rabbitlike gait, can turn instantly, climb trees easily, swims readily and can make stunning jumps of a dozen feet or more.

Unlike the Daggerfoot or Hoppers, whose main attack is hind or foreclaws, the Devil teeth's weapon is its huge oversized head with powerful jaws. The Devil teeth has a full compliment of sharp shearing teeth, and the most powerful bite ever recorded for an animal of its size. Fully capable of crushing metal or breaking bone, an attacking Devil teeth can almost instantaneously shear a volume of flesh from prey the size of an apple.

Typically, on an attack, the devil teeth will leap on and grasp a prey animal, shear off an apple sized plug of flesh, dismount, spit it out, and then leap to repeat the process until the prey succumbs or it is killed.

However, it is the reproductive cycle that is the most terrifying aspect of the devil teeths. When a female comes into reproductive estrous, it will release pheromones which cause all males in the vicinity to swarm. Sometimes several females will come together, triggering common estrous. The result is a roving swarm of hundreds of animals.

When a devil teeth swarm forms, the only response is immediate and direct flight. The swarm is fearless, relentless and unstoppable. All other animals flee without hesitation. There are reports of a swarm stripping a bull shaghut down to a skeleton in a few hours. The devil teeths have been described as Piranha crossed with Wolverines.

In 51895 the local government imported breeding pairs into Uralia in a misguided attempt to combat runaway crimson rat infestations. It appeared to work, until 51936 when a massive swarm erupted, causing widespread panic and causing sections of the city to be firebombed. Damned Devil teeth didn't know they had been beat.

The local governments have made strenuous attempts to eradicate the species and declared Devil teeths exterminated by 51948.

Doubt persists.

There were rumours of swarms along the Flavus River in 51962 and 51963. Some researchers suggest that rather than being exterminated, Uralia devil teeths have been steadily propagating at low levels, in accordance with historical behaviour patterns.

If this is true, based on historical records, a major-mega swarm is predicted to break out somewhere around 52032-52034. The Great Gorges Dam project is actually a desperate effort to eradicate the species in Uralia, or at least forestall the predicted mega-swarm.

If only they'd reached Uralia sooner during the previous summer, lamented Stengel, they might have captured the queen. Instead, that bitch fled to the other side of the Urali and the Empire.. well, gave up wasn't the right term.

'Decided it wasn't economical to pursue into the worthless northern stretches of Uralia' was more accurate.

The Empire had all the important economic and industrial centers as well as the rich coal mines of southern Uralia anything north was frankly not worth the money or manpower to protect from the surviving Devil teeth.

With a sigh, Stengel turned back to reading the latest casualty and material loss reports from the never-ending Air warfare against humans. The issue of the refugees camps nagged at his conscience though. They'd grown in number out here in Uralia over the last few weeks, and even more were being built to process the vast population of the bombed territories.

He grabbed another stack of reports, this time from his urban development supervisor. Chief amongst his many concerns was the issue of overpopulated homes, which grew by the day. Entire population centers were being evacuated underground.

Wild animals were spreading into the abandoned cities and bringing disease with them, an issue for future Imperial repatriates. Not to mention they'd be moving into cities falling apart around them from a lack of basic maintenance, a serious potential safety and health hazard. His supervisor's recommendation was that vacated quarters simply be demolished, future repatriates would have to build from scratch. Sadera would be very unhappy about that.

Trench Kingdom, 11km underwater, Spokojny Ocean, Em 52030

Seeing the glorious underwater city Calista with his own eyes, Gerard de Tassigny, the 9th Prince and the Secretary of State of the Navy of the Empire couldn't help but feel overwhelmingly proud. The Darwinian Empire's immense domain encompassed every habitable environments on the planet, from the highest floating mountain to the deepest depth of the ocean. This was what absolute sovereign looked like.

"King Orm, how is your progress on the mass produce underwater breathing potion?" Gerard impatiently asked, the survival of the Holy Empire depends on this project.

Orm Marius, the ruler of the Trench Kingdom, a long time tributary state of the Empire, was a men in his 600s. As a Merman, Orm had fish-like characteristics such as scales and a tail, but had human-like hands, faces, and upper torso. He had green blood, and do not had any hair on his body. King Orm, due to his highborn status, could also breathe air alongside water, his bodies however wasn't designed for movement on dry land.

"Prince Gerard, It's an honor to have you visit this place," Under the marvellous magic light of the palace, the Trench King bowed respectfully and with a silky voice he replied. "You come at the right time, Your Highness. Let me introduce you to the Fountain of Life," Orm showed Gerard a floating orb about 3 meter in diameter with fluidic-like surface, "with this device we can create unlimited amount of LCL "life component liquid", a very concentrated form of breathable liquid, because it is oxygenated, upon being submerged soldier can "breathe" the liquid."

"That's great! But how exactly does this thing work?" There was a glint of curiosity in Prince Gerard's eyes.

"The principle is actually quite simple, Your Highness." Orm replied.

"Prince Gerard, as you already know while all Falmartians, regardless of their race, don't need oxygen to survive. But a soldier who lacks air would lose up to 75% his combat effectiveness. And unless he belongs to a race that has gills like Merman or using the rather expensive Ba'la magic gems, otherwise he can't breathe underwater.

The solution for that is 'liquid breathing', a form of respiration in which a normally air-breathing organism breathes an oxygen-rich liquid (such as a LCL), rather than breathing air.

By selecting a liquid that is capable of holding large amounts of oxygen and CO2, gas exchange can occur. This requires certain physical properties such as respiratory gas solubility, density, viscosity, vapor pressure, and lipid solubility which some LCL chemicals have. Thus, it is critical to choose the appropriate LCL for a specific biomedical application, such as liquid ventilation, drug delivery or blood substitutes.

The physical properties of LCL liquids vary substantially; however, the one common property is their high solubility for respiratory gases. In fact, these liquids carry more oxygen and carbon dioxide than blood.

Although total liquid ventilation (TLV) with completely liquid-filled lungs can be beneficial, the complex liquid-filled tube system required is a disadvantage compared to gas ventilation—the system must incorporate a green magic gem act as oxygenator, a red magic gem act as heater, and magic pumps to deliver to, and remove from the lungs tidal volume aliquots of conditioned life component liquid (LCL).

Liquid breathing offers our land army great option, promising the mobility available with flexible dive suits and the reduced risks of rigid suits. With liquid in the lungs, the pressure within the diver's lungs could accommodate changes in the pressure of the surrounding water without the huge gas partial pressure exposures required when the lungs are filled with gas.

Liquid breathing would not result in the saturation of body tissues with high pressure nitrogen or helium that occurs with the use of non-liquids, thus would reduce or remove the need for slow decompression.

With the Fountain of Life we will be able to evacuate most of the Empire's population to the safe haven of the underwater world. Where we would be mostly safe from enemy reconnaissance and able to launch our counterattack from the safe bases under the sea.

This device will revolutionize the War.

Just imagine, Prince Gerard. If cornered, our army can just run towards the sea and dive to safety, enemy's bullets can't travel far underwater, even underwater explosion will have minimum impact because liquids cannot be practically compressed, they do not change density under high acceleration such as when an explosion happened. Liquid immersion also provides a way to reduce the physical stress of G forces. Forces applied to fluids are distributed as omnidirectional pressures. Because liquids cannot be practically compressed, they do not change density under high acceleration such as performed in aerial maneuvers. A person immersed in liquid of the same density as tissue has acceleration forces distributed around the body, rather than applied at a single point such as a seat or harness straps. A pilot totally immersed in liquid, with liquid inside all body cavities, will feel little effect from extreme G forces because the forces on a liquid are distributed equally, and in all directions simultaneously. However effects will be felt because of density differences between different body tissues, so an upper acceleration limit still exists, limiting the utility of this method to between 100 and 1000g, depend on the pilot."

"Does that make our military more vulnerable to ice magic ?" Gerard suddenly interrupted King Orm long rant with a quite interesting question.

"Hmmm...I guess so, but it not like the enemy have ice magic, so it not a problem" King Orm, looking slightly confused, replied.

In a sense, they both right but what they didn't think of at the time was microwave weapons.

A Certain Bar in Yamato, Azjania, Falmart, Haa 52030

Located along the eastern coasts of the Holy Darwinian Empire, Yamato was an important trade hub. Positioned almost literally in the center of the world (as far as the denizens of the Central Continents are concerned) and in a densely populated strait, Yamato is also a center of culture and information.

The skyline of the city reflected this, with bright skyscrapers stretching to the sky. Magical lights illuminated the streets in a number and elegance fitting for what is currently regarded as the greatest superpower in history of Falmart.

In all of Yamato, one bar in particular was quite popular among the merchant and corporate communities. Agents from large companies and traveling merchants settled in this bar whenever they were in town, for this bar was also frequented by the most knowledgeable and talkative of men.

A mere whisper uttered in this bar could send companies tumbling and markets crashing, or provide an insight that could lead to innumerable wealth.

"Did you know, there were rumors that the Emperor summoned The Legendary Winter General Saint Nicholas Claus." An old man said to his 3 companions.

"He is real ?! I thought he was just an Imperial legend." Another man replied.

"He is real." another voice suddenly cut in.

The four turned to the owner of the voice, an old Elf in red clothes.

"I was there, I was there when The Winter King Krampus was Defeated. My name isn't important, I was just one Elf among many, fighting in the North-Pole defenses trenches on Ra 24th, 51776.

My comrades and I had received word that the enemy would soon breach our defenses and so, within only a few hours of receiving the order, they did. I was part of the Polar-Imperial Fighters, Northern Infantry 123rd, known as the Merry Gentlemen fighters.

It was 98 degrees Celsius below zero. We were held within our snow entrenches, the sound of the Krampusnacht Imperial force's ice guns, ringing overhead. We were trapped; outgunned, out man, and out of time.

We held the line, my elves and I, we held it with every fire arrow and Phoenix grenade we could muster. I remember seeing the foes, marching on our position; The demon army of Krampus, with their dark, red eyes, and hooded war gear, continued to press on toward us.

I remember standing there as my buddy, Alf, took a stray ice spear to the eye, poor guy had his blood and gut splattered all over me. Then, Ralf, had his entire chest cavity opened, by a well-placed ice spear sniper.

Dear Lord Emroy, I can still smell the scent of his insides, all over me, as I held him there as he died. Our wardens, brave man as he was, was out in the middle of no-elf's land, armed with nothing more than a fire sword, with a shattered shield, fighting the devil himself; His supreme, Imperial Warlord, Winter Emperor Krampus.

The great enemy wielded a great, obsidian great sword, which he used to cut down my fellow infantry elves. like a nodophyta tree on New Year's eve. I went to grab my magic crossbow, locking in a fresh clip of 12 fire arrows, and lept from my trench.

The sound of the dead, dying, and fighting, ringed throughout my pointed ears, as milky white tears filled my eyes. I ran and ran, watching as the two combatants fought before me.

It was a few feet later that I raised my Candy-Cane magic crossbow, taking aim at the ice devil made heresy-flesh himself, only to hear the shattering sound of my leg, pierce with an absolute zero-snowball, snapping and splitting my leg in two, like it was a gingerbread leg, causing me to fall upon the cold, blood-stained, snow.

I slowly looked up, watching as Winter Emperor-Krampus took the head of my friend and leader, Wardens Cookie, displaying it for his men to see. He then tossed it before me, with a wicked grin that showed his sharpened, yellow teeth, and slowly walked before me, on his dear like legs red as fire.

He held his sword, freshly stained with the blood of my friend, in his hands, as he hissed and mocked me with that forked tongue, raising the weapon high in the air.

I then closed my eyes, having resigned myself to this fate and to my sins, knowing all was lost...Then, I heard it, the sound of hoof beats, on a winter's snow.

I opened my eyes, blinking away the tears that filled it, only to look and see the face of Krampus and his demons, drenched in the bright, red burning light, that illuminated the battlefield, a look of terror that filled the demonic emperor to his blackened core.

I then turned, not sure if I was dreaming, or if this was still real, but at that moment, I saw the face of my savior, with an army of winged angels at his back.

He was a tall man, built like a Warrior of ancient Scandinavian Empire, dressed in a helm of adamantine, topped with a red hat, and a leather, X crossed chest strap, that held his flowing coat of red, like a great cape.

He rode on the back of a mighty Dragon Reindeer, whose nose burned bright with the red, glowing rage he felt toward those that would bring such sin and corruption to land. His rider wielded a mighty, double-bladed Axe, etched with the dents and notches of enemy weapons throughout its candy-canned colored shaft and hilt.

That was not the gift giver, the milk and cookies eater, that was the Winter Saint nobody ever saw, for fear of his wrath on new winter days; That was Saint Nicholas Claus, The General of Winter, and he had come to settle the score."

Emperor's study room, Ula Pianca (Imperial Subterranean Castle )

St. Nicholas Claus, in his characteristic crimson armor, kneeling reverently in front of Emperor Molt Sol Augustus. It had been nearly three centuries since the last time His Excellency summoned him to fight the Winter Emperor Krampus.

This had to be an important mission for the Emperor to summon him from his arctic factories. The legendary Santa's Workshop, an estate of his family for the past 20,000 years, where the legendary Santa Claus family and their elves made the toys and presents given out at new year celebration. Even in this disturbance time of war, Santa's Workshop was still a place providing hope for millions of imperial children.

"My Glorious Liege Lord, the Emperor of Darwinia, I am honoured to be at your presence once more. It has truly been a long time, M'lord."

Molt smiled genuinely, a rare sight to say the least, Santa Claus toys were very famous, they were more than just a gift they contained the new year spirit, even the Imperial family, with all of their wealth, love their new year presents. That was the reason even in the dire time of Great War, Molt made a special exemption for Santa's Workshop, allowing them to continue making toys instead of weapons.

"You may rise, St. Nicholas of House Claus. Your presence is always welcome here." The Emperor said softly.

As St. Nicholas Claus standing up, he asked. "M'lord, for what reason you summoning me ?" He hoped it would be a short mission so that he could return to his toy factory. This is the first year of the Great War, people needed hope more than ever. New Year's spirit would never be subdued.

"A mission worth your talent, St. Nicholas," Molt turned on his magic hologram." A month ago our archaeologists found the first Casket of Ancient Winters, one of three, a relic and weapon that once belonged to the Frost Giants of Jotunheim who used it to vanquish enemy armies and conquer enemy realms."

"The Casket of Ancient Winters, they are real ?!" Even the Winter General was surprised to know the legendary frost giants weapon was real.

Legend said that when the 3 Casket of Ancient Winters combine it would summon 3 continent size snow storms that could cover the entire northern hemisphere for 10 to 14 days (5 to 7 Earth days).

After the storms half of the world be covered between 7 to 10 feet of ice and snow.

"Yes, Nicholas. They are as real as you and I." To be honest Molt was quite suprised himself but this was a pleasant surprise.

He intended to use them as a weapons of last resort. When the 3 Casket of Ancient Winters combine their power with the Wind Demon Dragon Mafuga it would lengthen the snow storms up to 80 days (40 earth day ) and plunged the whole world into a new ice age. If the UEADF was close to winning, he would make sure everything they got were barren ice fields.

''Do we know the location of the other two Caskets, M'lord ?"

"Not yet, but one of our archaeological team uncovered this a few months ago," the Emperor opened an exquisitely decorated black box. "This is an ancient recording dating back to the first Frost Giants dynasty. The Wizard King believes it contain Laufey's final message to his people and the whereabouts of the other two sacred caskets. Solomon said the other two caskets were somewhere beneath the arctic sea."

Nicholas eyebrows rose in surprise, the Winter Saint, realizing his mission, declared. "I would be my honor to lead an expedition team to find the other two Casket of Ancient Winters."

"Good, I expect great news from you, St. Nicholas. Go now, retrieve the other two Caskets of Ancient Winters and bring us victory."

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty." The Winter saint bowed respectfully before leaving.

Italica Underground Base, Lemuria Peninsula, Du 52030

The most important room in any castle is the Great Hall. This is where all the members of the household sat down to eat at tables set up for every meal. It was where feasts were held for special days, or when there were guests. But the Great Hall itself is greatly dependent on the kitchen, despite that, nobles rarely entered this room, as it is the domain of servants.

But extraordinary things can happen in the time of war.

With an aristocratic demeanor that could satisfy even the most demanding traditionalist, Katerina Tsaristla Volga La Romanoff, the 15th Princess of the Empire entered the central kitchen. Katerina is a very beautiful young lady with long fuchsia hair that she wear either loose or in a half up-half down crown-braid with two strands framing her face. Her eyes are lavender purple and her lips has a natural pink tint, though she usually wore magenta lipstick in public. Although Katerina is a member of the Darwinian Imperial family, she remains kind-hearted and open-minded to everyone around her and treats everyone with respect even if they aren't royals.

"Guild master James Townsend, how does your work on the new ration?" Katerina asked softly.

Katerina isn't a brilliant inventor like her sister Pina, nor an exceptional administrator like big brother Diabo. But a raven hair prodigy nephew of her had said everyone has to do their part, and a lack of talent is no excuse for a lack of effort. Having a position of great privilege meant Katerina had to try even harder.

One of the most overlooked factors in war is delicious and nutritious food. Military rations are usually taste very bad because the quartermaster, usually a minor noble, do not care for the taste of the rations as long as it has enough nutrition. This was a mistake as having good food could actually increase the morale of the troop. Someone has to do the unglamorous duty and correct this mistake.

James Townsend, the head of the famous adventure guild White Lotus, was a men in his 500s (40s in human term). He looked like a combination of an old-school adventurer and a new noble, who got rich from trading.

Upon hearing Her Highness, James lifted his head and had a bright smile, you could see great passion for adventure in his emerald green eyes.

"Princess, It is an honor to have you visit this place," The Guild Master bowed respectfully. "You come at the right time, Your Highness. Let me instroduce you to the Portable Soup, a very concentrated form of essence of vegetable and worms meat, sort of like a solidified broth."

A curious gleam shone in Princess Katerina's eyes. "Can I see how you do it?"

"It will be my honor, Princess."

"Princess, the dish I'm about to cook has many different names. In period texts you'll see it as portable soup, portable broth, pocket soup, veal glue - I like this one - portmanteau potage and the list goes on and on.

Portable soup was extremely convenient. It doesn't take up very much space, it's very light, it's a very condensed food source, and it's very flavorful in that very condensed form flavor, It's a booster that's all natural. You can use it in sauces, soups, gravies. It was used by the military, by travellers...It was even used as an invalid food source at times, especially aboard ships, so it was used in many different situations.

But it was very difficult to make, especially in a home setting. It took a long period of time to make. You have to watch it all the time because if you turn your back on it and it got too hot it would ruin all your work, so it was very laborious.

"The meat I'm using is yellow cluster worms. It has a lot of collagen so it's especially good for this recipe. As for the vegetables, I choose Kulka root as it can provide greater satiety than traditional protein sources such as chicken, while also being rich in protein and low in caloric content.

First, you slowly confited the worms in Yag berry oil, locking in their umami essence and gently height- ening their flavor! Then you boil the ingredients in four parts water and one part Milk Tree's sap, this will be the basis of this soup. The perfectly adjusted brightness accentuates the salty, rich flavors of the worms and the mellow sweetness of the sap will slowly suffuses the mouth! To add a little bit of astringency for the soup, I will extract the formic acid excreted by these Quad-Hive ants, and threw that in the soup!

Yes... When ingested in large amounts, formic acid is a poison, but in small doses, it becomes a wonderful accent. Without superfluous sweetness, its sharp acridity leaves a vivid impression! In particular, when it comes to sweetness, formic acid far surpasses citrus sources of acid as it allows for more delicate, deep expression of flavor! Turn your slow cooker on low and go about your business for the next eight to ten hours."

"Eight to ten hours, is that a little bit long, Mr Townsend?" Katerina asked. Her eyebrows drew together, and she tilted her head. "Surely, we can't expect soldier waiting that long for his meal."

The Guild Master nodded. "No need to worry, Your Highness. Using a basic oscillation spell and you can reduce the waiting time to 8 to 10 minutes."

"Like this,' Mr. Townsend pointed two fingers and said, "Heat On."

"This is really tasty worms...," He commented. "At this point turn off your slow cooker and let it cool completely. As it cools the fat on the top will solidify making it very easy to remove. Once you're done with that, strain your broth and filter it through a piece of cloth to get out all the settled particles of meat. So go ahead and rinse out your slow cooker and return to clarified broth to it and turn it back on low. Let it go and leave the lid off; let it cook for anywhere from 18 to 24 hours or 20 minutes using oscillation magic.

"What we're doing at this stage in the process is reducing the broth down to a gelatin. Gelatin is an interesting thing: don't expect to be able to reduce this down into a hard block. What you end up with is a nice, medium brown gluey substance. If you overcook it, you will burn it, giving it a very, very, unpleasant taste.

"Once your soup reaches this stage turn off your slow cooker and let it cool completely. Then you can turn the gel out onto a cloth.

Now the soup is still very gelatinous, to get it to the point where you can store it, put it in your pocket, it needs to be dried.

Now, you cannot do this with heat. Any temperature of heat, will just turn this into a liquid again; and then you'll just burn it. So it needs to be done without heat, you can do this with a dispersion spell, but you need to make sure the Dispersion spell doesn't heat anything up.

The period recipe actually suggests turning it out on to a woollen flannel cloth, just like we've done here and flipping it over two or three times a day for 10 days or two weeks or so. If you want to speed this process up at home, put this on a cooling rack and using a dry up spell, and it'll dry out in a couple of minutes. The end results will be a very stiff paste. It's almost like leather. You're going to cut this up into chunks and then wrap it up in paper or something similar to store it away. It'll continue to harden as it ages, But it's completely usable in this leathery, hard form."

Three hours before Operation Götterdämmerung

The first day of Pal, the month of Revenge, had arrived! the fatal time for Operation Dark Storm! for, if the space-denial projectiles were not discharged in the next 12 days, more than eighteen years must roll by before the sun of Falmart would again present herself under the same conditions for a super massive coronal ejection event, the Apostle of the Sun God had affirmed so.

Super massive coronal ejection events are very strong explosions observed on Falmart's star with energies up to ten thousand times that of typical solar flares. The most intense events increased the brightness of the star by 30% and had an energy of 10^36 ergs. White-light flares on the Earth's Sun change the brightness by about 0.01%, and the strongest flares have a visible-light energy of about 10^32 ergs. Most events were much less energetic than this: flare amplitudes below 0.1% of the stellar value and energies of 2 × 10^33 ergs were detectable with the 30 minute integration. The flares had a rapid rise followed by an exponential decay on a time scale of 1–3 hours. The most powerful events corresponded to energies ten thousand greater than the largest flares observed on the human Sun, the Carrington Event.

How many persons across the Known World lost their rest on the night which preceded this long-expected month! All hearts beat with disquietude, save only the heart of Lord Barbicane, Margrave of Aglarond. That imperturbable personage came and went with his habitual business-like air, while nothing whatever denoted that any unusual matter preoccupied his mind.

・・・

The weather here in Bangka island was magnificent. Despite the approach of winter, the sun shone brightly, and bathed in its radiant light a city that was about to be wiped off the map - Esthirant.

The port of Esthirant, easily one of the largest in the region by area and amount of tonnage docking at its piers, disappointingly stood in second place to the more prosperous harbor of Le Brias. Even then, the sheer amount of square-rigged sail vessels, iron-hulled steam ships, and modern-esque merchant vessels coming and going from the port was a testament to an efficient system of communications present to make this all possible, and that was in addition to the vast economic power the Empire held.

After dawn, an innumerable multitude covered the city which extends, as far as the eye can reach. Every quarter of an hour the railway brought fresh accessions of sightseers; and, according to the statement of the festival organizer, not less than a million of spectators thronged the soil of Esthirant for the anual Sun Festival.

Every races under the sun was represented there; and every language might be heard spoken at the same time. It was a perfect Babel re-enacted. All the various classes of Falmartian society were mingled together in terms of absolute equality. Bankers, farmers, sailors, noblemen, cotton-planters, brokers, merchants, watermen, magistrates, elbowed each other in the most free-and-easy way. Malcatop merchants fraternized with farmers from Los Frailes, Magalawa and Matalvi gentlemen and haughty Virginlands conversed with trappers and the half-savages of the lakes and butchers from Cincinnati.

Broad-brimmed white hats and Panamas, blue-cotton trousers, light-colored stockings, cambric frills, were all here displayed; while upon shirt-fronts, wristbands, and neckties, upon every finger, even upon the very ears, they wore an assortment of rings, shirt-pins, brooches, and trinkets, of which the value only equaled the execrable taste. Women, children, and servants, in equally expensive dress, surrounded their husbands, fathers, or masters, who resembled the patriarchs of tribes in the midst of their immense households.

At meal-times all fell to work upon the dishes peculiar to the Nusantara Archipelago, and consumed with an appetite that threatened speedy exhaustion of the victualing powers of Esthirant, fricasseed fraggons (a cross between a frog, a crocodile and a bull ), stuffed hive monkey, microdragons chowder, underdone sicaripods meat (the dominant marsupial predators of Nusantara), and birgs steaks (the extraterrestrials superficially resemble a cross between Earth birds and Earth bugs). And as for the liquors which accompanied this indigestible repast! The shouts, the vociferations that resounded through the bars and taverns decorated with glasses, tankards, and bottles of marvelous shape, mortars for pounding sugar, and bundles of straws! "Mint-julep" roars one of the barmen; "Claret sangaree!" shouts another; "Cocktail!" "Brandy-smash!" "Real mint-julep in the new style!" All these cries intermingled produced a bewildering and deafening hubbub.

As one of the busiest ports in the region, it also housed a number of warehouses, crane machinery, land transportation hubs, and even a station for freight rail to take cargo to and from the port. Out of all of these places for commerce stood a single building of considerable size yet smaller than the cargo depots flanking it. The lot it was in was also wide, but the building that stood in its center took up much of the space available, leaving only grass and stone pathways for the remaining area. Erected in front of the red-bricked facade was a flagpole that flew the state flag of Darwinia.

This was the Embassy of Darwinia to Bangka.

The worst part about being in Esthirant was that everything progressed at glacial speeds. Prince Ainsworth had only a few pieces left to set the board, but they merely required biding his time. Unlike in the Ministry for Veterans' Affairs, there was no pressing issue waging war on his meager time. He had more free time than he knew what to do with. And he should be doing something.

Letting himself waste away doing nothing was unacceptable.

In desperation, he even asked his mother to send over his personal collection of books he acquired over the years. Normally, they rested in the Aquarius Villa, and if Ainsworth needed them, he would ask a servant to send him one.

Uncle Diabo had noticed his idle time and occasionally brought him along as he engaged in his duties as the Prime Minister, or requisitioned his aid in tackling the copious paperwork that came with the office. Ainsworth now knew more about fishing and its impact on their coast than he ever imagined.

The knowledge wasn't particularly useful.

Uncle Diabo wasn't empowering him but trying to keep him busy, so he wouldn't interfere in his own avoid his uncle's meddling, he was studying the chess board in the villa's library, replaying a game he lost. It had been years since he had the luxury to devote time to the game.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he watched as a Youxia warrior finished his patrol. Their presence had been steadily increasing over the past few weeks, bolstering the embassy's traditional security. Perhaps because of the upcoming festivities. Ainsworth glanced at Griine, marvelling at the difference between her and the guard. They were both Warrior Bunnies, yet Griine felt as if she was brimming with life. The other, an empty shell. When he was younger, Ainsworth hadn't thought much of it. Guards and servants existed beneath his notice.

The Youxia warriors didn't even register.

Now, he was curious.

They weren't normal. People didn't act like them.

Griine was part of the same Knight Order, suffering from personality changes whenever he returned from a meeting with Captain General Subutai Harkonnen.

Tearing his eyes away, he focused back on the board.

Ah, there was his mistake.

He should have moved his pawn forward to prevent auntie Pina from having access to the long diagonals and controlling the board. He pushed the piece forward and pondered the board. His genius aunt had truly mastered the game.

But today, victory would belong to him.

"How can you focus with these heat!?" Pina asked, her nose high as she stepped into the library in her crimson stola, temperature drops by a dozen with the snap of a finger. A simple spell. "Go change into something more appropriate with your status. It's time to rectify the lapse in your sense of fashion, before you embarrass our family with that travesty."

Ainsworth looked down at his neatly pressed black shirt, branded with Imperial's sigil. "These are my nice clothes."

Pina brushed her hand across her temple. "They're black. You are not in mourning. Surely you have something brighter."

A brown jacket and a casual grey shirt for when he snuck outside. Not that they would meet his aunty exacting standards. "All of my relatives already wear lighter colors. I merely seek to distinguish myself form the mass, and perhaps the Empire would benefit more from a swift and decisive hand instead of wasting time on frivolities." he said instead.

Frowning.

"Of course!" Pina sank into the chair, and leaned forward, folding he hands together. Her face relaxed, a fake smile tugging on the corner of her lips. "But you must know the rules before bending it. A royal's must always project an image of strength. There is no room for weakness in leading an Empire. I'm sure an intellectual of your caliber understand that." sarcasm drippring from her words.

He couldn't win this argument, could he?

Ainsworth gestured at the chessboard. "Shall we, dear auntie?"

"You're playing white!" Pina commanded.

Brilliant. White was his preferred color.

"May the best player win."

Ainsworth's aunt, Princess Pina Co Lada is often referred to as the "world's strongest amateur player" because she plays at elite chess tournaments, keeps her place among the world top 100, although she has a full-time job. A title that Ainsworth would one day take from her.

The Darwinian chessboard was a checkerboard made of lodestones that consisted of 100 squares (ten rows and ten columns) arranged in two alternating colours (light and dark).

Players have twenty-four pieces: twelve pawns, a king, a counsellor, a queen, a spy, two couriers, two bishops, two knights and two rooks. Players moved their pieces by speaking the name of the piece and the square it was to move to by algebraic notation.

The chess pieces were made of contramagnete, a room-temperature superconductor, and were magically animated by players.

Contramagnete proved to be the most baffling of scientific discoveries in the area of superconductors as it had an extremely strong magnetic field, reversing prior knowledge that all superconductors repel magnetic fields.

Furthermore, unlike the fragile crystals of human-created superconducting compounds, the substance found on Falmart was a stable quasi-crystal with its atoms arranged in a never-repeating but orderly pattern with five-fold symmetry. This matrix was not only structurally rugged but also housed microscopic voids in the quasicrystalline structure that contain the magnetic flux lines.

Falmart contramagnete beats all current Earth superconductors in terms of efficiency and stability by more than a thousand times over. It remained superconducting up until its melting point (2,761° C) and even when surrounded by a magnetic field of one billion gausses (100,000 teslas). It is even possible to contain a powerful magnetic field within contramagnete, opening the door to even more applications and research. But on Falmart, people just use this valuable substance to make their chess pieces float in the air.

Ainsworth's strongest opponent began the clock, the ticks echoing through the space between them. Ten minutes per game.

The first game ended quickly as Ainsworth attempted the classic Helena defense and failed miserably. He easily fell prey to chasing her bishop, and it was checkmate in eighteen moves.

Pathetic.

He hadn't even hesitated in capturing her queen, not seeing that her next move was checkmate.

The second game took Pina thirty-two moves before Ainsworth had the good sense to resign as the clock ticked down to his final seconds. His end game had been abysmal, clearly feeling the time pressure and making terribly hasty moves.

The third game took Pina fifty three moves to checkmate. Ainsworth was improving very quickly. He had become familiar with the tempo of the game. Pina bit her lip and inhaled. She set the queen down and stretched her arms. It was probably best to play a little safer this time.

Breaking her relentless tempo, Pina took a moment to consider the board, before making the safe movement of castling. The third game was a suprise draw. Ainsworth had successfully defended the king by sacrificing his queen. Another draw on the fourth game. Finally, at the last second, Ainsworth earned his first victory on the fifth game after 209 moves. The sixth game was a draw but the seventh and eighth were consecutive Ainsworth victories. Pina successfully fend off Ainsworth's attack on the ninth game, resulting in another draw. Three won, three lost and three draw thus the tenth game would decide the final victory.

"Good moves..." Pina complimented.

"In the last game, why don't we raise the bet a bit." Ainsworth said innocently, but you could clearly see the devilish sparked in his deep purple eyes.

Pina titled her head back, observing the raven-haired boy, and muttered, "If this is what it feels like, I owe brother Odysseus an overdue apology." Shaking her head, Pina leaned forward, exasperation replaced by cool calculation. Her prodigy nephew wasn't a follower as much as he play the part. They were too similar. Both want their rightful place in the sun.

"Tell me, what does your heart desire?"

"I want what you want, auntie. To take control of our own destiny and making history. You and I are the most capable and forward thinking in our family. With you by my side, the Empire will be our."

"You mean, the Empire will be Your." her voice hardened by sarcasm.

Shaking his head, Ainsworth placed his hand on Pina and looked her straight in the eyes, he replied sincerely. "No, a mind as brilliant and a beauty as gorgeous as you deserve a lot more than a mere queenship. I propose a co-regency (the situation where a monarchical position normally held by only a single person, is held by two or more as a mean of avoiding crises of succession and strengthening dynastic identity and ideology) over the Empire."

The boy knew how to court a lady. Pina admitted.

Raising her eyebrows. "Are you a little bit young to think about the Dragon Throne?" Ainsworth was only 155 years old, exactly 50 year younger than her, quite young for a candidate for the throne.

"We're at war, auntie. We must prepare for everything." he shrugged.

Chuckles.

"Don't tell your grandfather or father about this." Pina don't really like his res that.

"Come on, Auntie Pina! I know you want this. One day Grandpa is going to die and I'm sure he'll arrange for you a nice Archduke oversea, but I know he will bore you to death. And I doubt he'll support your special hobby." Ainsworth added.

The boy had a point, Pina could only afford her current lavish lifestyle because of the indulgence of her father, if anything happened to him, she would lose a great deal of power and influence. Being Queen-Empress would give her all the power she need. Leaning forward in a tempting manner; Pina gestured vaguely.

"Win the final game and I will give you a chance."

"To become your betrothed !?" There was a light of hope in the boy bewitching eyes as a pale strand of hair rose and fell gently.

"Not yet, young dragon. I will bestowe you the honor of being my bedmate first. Depending on how you act and your achievements in the Great War, I may elevate you to a lover and eventually ask Father to be betrothed to you." The boy would have to prove his charater if he want to be Pina consort and future King-Emperor of Darwinia.

"Then let get the game begin..."

Pina ordered her queen into the open to control the center of the board. Her face was terrifyingly neutral without a single hint of doubt or worry. Ainsworth ordered his pawn forward without a word. The tenth game was unlike anything before, both side attacking relentless with countless masterful moves. The game lasted more than 20 minutes with the final victory belonging to Ainsworth after 269 moves.

"Well done boy...you won!" Pina leaned back, a kind smile forming on the a edge of her lips.

"Does this mean I can claim my prize?" Ainsworth said half jokingly.

"Sure!" Pina shrugged. A mischievous grin appeared on her face.

What!? She COULDN'T BE serious right!? Ainsworth could only stand there like a deer in headlights.

"What's wrong boy!? Has the cat got one's tongue?" She teased.

Suddenly, in one quick movement, Pina lifted her dress up over her head and dropped it to the ground. Pina wore nothing but the pink see-through lingerie, highlighting to her slender figure.

Ainsworth let out a small, almost indiscernible gasp at the movement.

Quickly, Pina unhooked her bra, letting it fall to the floor, and then slid off her panties.

She was… beautiful.

Her crimson hair hung to her waist, her face stunning in its red flush. Her breasts were full and rounded, nipples a dark shade of pink that were pointed with arousal and her body curved and flowed in all the right places. Her pussy was mostly bare, with a neat triangle of hair shaved above it, and it was absolutely dripping.

Pina tangled a finger in her scarlet berries hair, wrapping it around and releasing it. She walked surely over to him, her plentiful breasts bouncing with each step. Pina sat down upon Ainsworth's lap, facing him, her alluring face only half an inch away from his and she ground down upon him, humming into his ear.

Oh, dear Miritta!

It felt undeniably good. She was wet and grinding harder and harder, smearing her juices all over the crotch of his pants. He'd have to find a way to wash them without his head maid knowing. That girl could sniff out these things like there was no tomorrow and he didn't want to have to explain anything to her.

But at the moment, he couldn't find it in himself to really care.

Ainsworth tangled his fingers in her hair and pulled her to him until their lips were touching. Pina hummed against his mouth in approval. The raven haired boy traced his tongue along the line of her lips until they yielding, granting him entrance. Ainsworth promptly tangled his tongue with hers, kissing her deeply, and grinding into her. He was getting close already, breathing erratic and heart pounding furiously in his chest all he knew was that he didn't want to stop.

Pina likely sense that though, for without a warning she stood up off of him leaving him slightly confused at the sudden lack. Oh, that stubborn girl! Panting and wanting for more, Ainsworth sat there wanting nothing more in that moment than to take this women and make her his. All his.

"Take off your shirt." Pina said. Oh, so, that's how it was. Ainsworth did so, unbuttoning the buttons down the front of his uniform and letting it slide off his shoulders. He folded it neatly and set it on the ground beside him. He already had to take care of his pants, he didn't want to have to iron his top as well.

"Now lift your hips." Ainsworth sighed, doing so. She hooked her fingers under his pants and boxers simultaneously and pulled them off in one fell swoop freeing his erect manhood. It was a long, thick member of man meat that twitched when Pina touched it.

It suddenly occurred to him that no one had seen him naked since he was a babe in diapers. It also occurred to him that he didn't care anymore.

Pina was still too far away. He meant to remedy that. Ainsworth made to stand up, but was promptly pushed back down by the girl. Why did all the female knight have to be so strong?

She tutted at him. "So impatient." Pina commented. She drug a thumb across his left nipple and he shivered and it rose to her touch.

"Pina, come on, stop messing around." Ainsworth pleaded. Pina's lips curled up at the edges.

"I knew it. I knew there had to be a part of you like this, hidden underneath the surface. You are a hot blooded male after all, aren't you? I knew it and I swore to myself I'd be the one to bring it out." Pina then knelt down between his legs.

"You don't have to…" Ainsworth tried to say, but Pina squeeze the dick and silenced him.

"I want to." She told him in monotone. She then started to rub his length slowly, making a drop of pre-cum exit the hard cock.

Pina then kissed the head a few times before she licked it. She licked the head over and over, covering the throbbing cock with her saliva. At the same time she rubbed it properly, making sure to lube it up with her sticky saliva. She made quiet moans as she licked..

"Mmmm! Mmmm!" She moaned.

Once the cock was covered in her saliva, she opened her mouth wide and started to suck on it. Her lips pressed against the meat rod as she bobbed her head back forth. Her tongue licking the shaft as it went in and out of her small throat.

"I'm cumming, Pina!" Ainsworth shouted. His balls clenched, sending a stream of oozing cum into Pina's tight throat.

She gurgled and slurped as the thick semen entered her mouth. She made an effort to swallow all of Ainsworth 's baby cream and did so wonderfully. Once the cum stopped pouring out from Ainsworth 's cock, Pina slid it out of her mouth and let her tongue play with the white baby seed. She smacked her lips a few times and made more gurgling and gulping noises as she swallowed her beloved's cum.

"Ahhh!" She sighed content as she opened her mouth and showed that she had swallowed all the hot jizz.

"Pina…" Ainsworth was now panting like an animal in heat.

Pina kissed him and grabbed ahold of his cock at the same time, Ainsworth gasped against her lips. She squatted and lowered herself slowly onto him, warm heaven. All Ainsworth could think in that miniscule moment in time was how he always knew it was supposed to feel good, but he didn't know it could be so incredible.

What had he been missing out on all this time?

Pina lifted herself up and went back down again, a slap of skin against skin resounded in that nearly empty room along with the sound of heavy breathing. Ainsworth put one hand on the edge of the seat he sat upon and wrapped an arm around Pina at the bottom of her back, fingers brushing along the top of her well rounded ass.

The next time Pina lowered herself, Ainsworth thrusted up to meet her.

"Oh!" She gasped, pleasure evident in her eyes. The satisfaction at making the usually prideful girl react in such a way sent a thrill through him almost equal to the thrill of all that they were doing.

One of her hands was braced on the chair to help push her up, the other wandered down, her fingers rubbing at her clit. Why did she have to be so hot? It just wasn't fair. Ainsworth thrusted faster, hips seeming to move of their own free will.

Unconsciously she began moving her hips, squirming in place as her pelvis twisted and tightened as she drew closer to climax, his throbbing cock slamming into her with increasing roughness as Ainsworth also neared his limit.

Pina encircled her clit one more time with her fingers before bringing them close to Ainsworth's mouth, covered in her juices, erotic, and filthy. Without a thought, Ainsworth brought them into his mouth to suck them clean. Pina moaned loudly, if anyone was anywhere close to the library room, there was no doubt that they'd hear exactly what was going on.

A surprised yelp escaped her as he lifted his left hand, bringing it back down in a harsh smack against her thigh. The stinging pain was eased as he rubbed the sore spot, only to slap it a second later. Her muscles tensed up each time pain lanced through her – her pussy tightening around Ainsworth's cock, only encouraging him to do it more.

''Mn... ah...'' Pina moaned quietly, cringing as his cock continuously pumped into her. His thrusts were becoming faster and rougher, her arousal coating his cock and letting him fuck her even easier.

Ainsworth chuckled behind her, surprisingly slowing his thrusts. ''Let's try something... else, then.''

He stopped pressing against her back, gripping both her hips with his hands and tugging her to the side. Pina grunted, stumbling from his pull and forced to waddle to the side, shuddering as his cock throbbed inside her. It was hard to move with him still inside her, but in the end she didn't have to move more than two feet to the right... and towards the open window.

''Wait-?!'' Pina's eyes widened, a gasp slipping past her lips as he pushed her forwards – her upper body hanging out the broken window. In a panic she grabbed onto the sides of the frame, uncaring of the glass that dug into her hands, too busy looking down at the searing lava far below.

''P-Pull me back, i-idiot!'' Pina yelled, gasping as he resumed thrusting into her. ''S-Stop!''

Ainsworth only laughed in response, gripping her hips tightly as he pounded into her from behind. The danger of falling made her stomach twist, fear mixing with unwanted pleasure as Ainsworth continued to fuck her at the same time. And despite herself she found herself moaning, her heart pounding in her ears as she struggled to keep her grip on the window frame, lest she fall into the lava below.

''Haha!'' Ainsworth laughed mockingly, slapping her thigh again – eliciting a gasp from Pina. ''Looks like you love it after all, Princess! C'mon, let your voice out!''

Pina shuddered, gritting her teeth and stubbornly refusing even as pleasure bubbled through her. Something he seemed to notice.

''Maybe if you moan, I'll pull you back~'' He told her cockily, smacking her thigh. ''Moan for me, Princess.''

''...a-ah...'' Pina reluctantly moaned, shuddering at the sound of her own voice. ''M-Mm... ah...''

Her stomach burned with embarrassment, her body shaking both from humiliation and pleasure. Her pussy burned with lustful desire, the heat only becoming worse as Ainsworth pounded into her folds, stuffing her to the brim each time with his ample cock. Despite her own feelings she obeyed his words, not holding back her lewd moans and hoping he would pull her back soon.

Unconsciously she began moving her hips, squirming in place as her pelvis twisted and tightened as she drew closer to climax, his throbbing cock slamming into her with increasing roughness as Ainsworth also neared his limit. Pina didn't notice immediately, too busy immersing herself in the pleasure and moaning loudly, going as far as pushing her ass back towards him in an attempt to make him pull her back.

She was stirred out of her heated daze as Ainsworth groaned, his thrusts briefly slowing before he suddenly rammed his cock deep into her – eliciting a sharp gasp from Pina, before her eyes widened as she felt hot ropes of cum spurt into her pussy.

The sensation was enough to tip her over the edge, a startled cry escaping her as she orgasmed. ''A-Ah~!''

Ainsworth groaned as her pussy tightened around his dick, eagerly humping her and extending her climax, her pussy milking his dick for every last drop of cum. He watched with amusement as she very nearly went slack as her orgasm ended, barely gripping onto the window frame for support.

''As promised.'' Ainsworth remarked smugly, walking back a step and tugging her with her – pulling out of her hot pussy and letting her fall to the ground, panting heavily. ''Heh, you can't deny you liked it, Princess.''

''S-Shut... up...'' Pina gasped out, swallowing as she brushed her hand against her overflowing pussy – his cum coating her fingertips. ''You didn't...''

''I did.'' He grinned maliciously at her, leaning down and grabbing her arm – yanking her towards him, and throwing her over his shoulder.

Pina grunted at the sudden position change, dazed for a brief second before he started walking. ''W-Where are you... taking me?''

''Somewhere.'' Ainsworth responded, reaching up and smacking her ass as he walked, chuckling at her sharp gasp. ''Every time you open your mouth, I'll spank you. Maybe then you'll learn to do as I say, Princess.''

''I- ah~!'' Pina bit her lip, ass stinging as he slapped her rear again.

Ainsworth chuckled as she fell silent, growling lowly as he carried her away – leaving his leather pants back by the broken window, uncaring that he was naked below the waist.

Silence reigned for a long few minutes as they traversed the grand halls of the castle, punctuated solely by Pina's quiet struggles as she attempted to slither out of his one-armed grip, often earning another spank for her troubles. Not that she was in any state to run even if she did get away; both the repeated slaps and her orgasm had left her legs weak, far too weak to be able to run away.

Soon they reached their destination – the throne room. Pina couldn't see what laid ahead due to facing backwards, but as she was carried further into the room she slowly took notice of various gold and silver objects scattered around near the rim of the room, like stolen treasure. The reason quickly became apparent as Ainsworth tugged her off his shoulder, instead laying her down onto a stone table in the centre of the room.

''We're here!''

Pina looked down, her heart sinking as she saw what Ainsworth was talking to. A Dragon. Granted it wasn't as big as its mythological cousins, being around ten foot tall and remarkably humanoid, but it was undoubtedly a Dragon. Scarlet red scales with a beige underbelly, gold reptilian eyes and a draconic head, with sharp talons on its feet and hands, and a pair of wings on its back.

The creature crawled off the oversized throne at the end of the room, moving on all fours towards her before rising up onto its hind legs – her face becoming red as she saw a very large cock hanging between its legs.

''O-Oi...'' Pina squirmed back, but Ainsworth gripped her shoulders to stop her. ''Y-You're friends with him?''

''Of course.'' Ainsworth smirked. ''And he wants a turn with your body too.''

''T-That thing will never fit!'' Pina barked, panic rising in her chest as she noticed the Dragon's cock slowly swelling – the Dragon itself looking at her pussy with evident lust. ''I-It'll break me in two! Hell, I-I'll probably die!''

''You're a Princess, ain'tcha?'' Ainsworth murmured lowly, making Pina freeze. ''You'll survive, and heal, afterwards.''

''W-Wait, h-how do you-''

''Ah, I broke character.'' Ainsworth interrupted her, faux-sighing. ''My bad.''

Any further questions were silenced as the Dragon loomed over, Ainsworth helpfully pushing her towards it. The Dragon laid its hands over her spread legs to stop her closing them, and Pina struggled frantically as its large cock brushed against her pussy – the sheer girth frightening her.

''D-Don't!'' Pina yelled at the creature, and she swore she saw a spark of amusement in its bestial eyes.

She frantically glanced back at the Knight. ''Y-You can f-fuck me instead! Y-You want that, right? I-I'll do anything y-you want me to, a-and you can do whatever you want to me!''

Ainsworth only chuckled in reply, walking around to her side. Her view of the Dragon was obscured as Ainsworth mounted her stomach, his erect cock hovering right in front of her face.

''Fine, here's the deal. You suck me off and get me to cum, I'll call him off. You don't and... well, safe to say you won't be able to walk for a week and you'll be having Dragon babies for the foreseeable future.''

Pina swallowed, reluctantly opening her mouth. Ainsworth grinned at the sight, shuffling closer and rolling his hips, groaning approvingly as she pushed his cock into her mouth. She immediately closed her lips around his shaft, tasting herself on his dick as she tried sucking him off as best she could, her tongue lapping at the underside of his cock frantically.

Ainsworth threaded his hands through her grey hair, rolling his hips and gently thrusting into her mouth, nearly making her gag as she felt his cock hit the back of her throat. However her attention was harshly stolen as she felt the Dragon's cock press against her pussy, prying her folds apart and pushing inside.

''Nn! Sthp!'' Pina cried, the sound muffled by the cock in her mouth.

Neither Ainsworth nor the Dragon bothered to acknowledge her, and Pina let out a choked cry as the Dragon's cock penetrated her. It was huge. Compared to the Knight's above-average dick, the Dragon was large enough that the tip alone was nearly enough to break her, stretching her inner walls to their limits. Had she been a normal girl she had no doubt that she would've been ripped apart by its sheer girth, and it was only her nature as a Princess that kept her together.

The Dragon kept pushing its cock into her until it bumped against her cervix, barely a third of its huge cock buried inside her. Almost immediately it reared its hips back before pushing back in, its thrusts mercifully short yet painful enough to sap the oxygen from her lungs. It was simply too big for her, too big for any human being. It didn't help that, despite her wetness, she had only been fucked once before – that being Ainsworth currently fucking her face.

As if reading her mind Ainsworth tightened his grip on her hair, returning Pina to her senses, if only briefly. She remembered what he told her and quickly resumed sucking him off, frantically swirling her tongue around his cock and desperately trying to coax him to climax – his low groan making a flicker of hope burn in her heart.

'C'mon...!' Pina pleaded, whimpering as the Dragon bumped against her cervix again, stuffing her so much she was afraid its dick would break her apart.

She had never given a blow-job before, but she knew a little from her more erotic books – desperately putting that meagre knowledge to use, using every trick she knew from teasing him with her tongue to letting her teeth graze his dick. It was clearly working if his blissful groans were any indication, but it wasn't making him cum fast enough. Every second the Dragon was violating her pussy was another second closer to her demise.

''Ahh, that's good...'' Ainsworth grinned tightly, stroking her hair as she desperately sucked him off.

Pina moaned in reply, meeting his gaze as she blew him, using her tongue to stroke his cock at the same time. Her mind was fogging up, becoming harder to think as the Dragon continued to violate her, destroying her pussy with each thrust. Nothing but the dick in her mouth mattered, anything else became secondary – if she could make him cum, then the pain would be over. That was all that mattered.

''Nn...!'' Ainsworth grunted, gripping her hair roughly, actively thrusting against her face. ''Yeah... that's it... drink it all, you little... Nn... haah...''

He was close, Pina realised. The knowledge made her speed up, ravenously licking the underside of his cock and trying to coax out his cum – dimly feeling the Dragon's cock twitching inside her stuffed pussy. She didn't pay it any mind, too busy trying to make Ainsworth cum in her mouth. In the end it didn't take more than a minute.

''Hn!'' Ainsworth grit his teeth, groaning as hot pleasure burned down his cock – before unloading spurts of cum straight down her throat, eliciting a muffled moan from Pina.

His climax came too late, however. Behind him the Dragon let out a low hiss, its large cock pulsating before it shot thick ropes of cum into Pina's pussy and painting her insides white with its seed. The sensation made Pina spasm blindly, a mini-orgasm rippling through her as the creature impregnated her.

''Haah...'' Ainsworth sighed in content, pulling his cock out of Pina's mouth – smirking when he saw the dead look in her eyes, her tongue blindly licking where his cock once was. ''Heh. Looks like she couldn't handle it anymore.''

Ainsworth and Pina's carnal activities were abruptly ended when a black ellipse began to form in the center of the room.

From the black ellipse, a girly figure in black hurriedly stepped out and shouted at their confused faces. "Pick up your things, enemy bombers are coming, we have to evacuate now!"

WHAT-?

Imperial Palace, New Sadera, Hardy Cave

New Sadera was an underground megalopolis, consisting of nine cities and two special administrative regions in Hardy Cave. It was envisioned as an integrated economic area aimed at taking a leading role globally by 52035. Equally impressive and majestic in its appearance and skyline, the subterranean city of the did not lose to the imperial capital of Sadera in any aspects.

It is the largest and most populated urban area and is among the four largest megalopolis areas in the Falmart, comparable with the bay areas of New York City, Tokyo, and San Francisco. New Sadera – with a total population of approximately 71.2 million people (50 % of Hardy Cave total population).

Standing tall over the the center of this rich and vibrant region from its relatively safe hilltop position to the north was the Imperial Palace. Inside, at the Emperor's study, the Emperor trusted sons which formed his so-called "inner circle," his military commanders and advisors, and his daughters Pina, Élodie, and Yves all gathered around the Darwinian monarch, Molt Sol Augustus.

Each and every one of them reflected the same expression of uncertainty, for his third son, prime minister Diabo had just briefed him about the casualties number from last night attack. For five, agonizing minutes they stood in awkward, excruciating silence as their eyes darted to and from Molt's thousand yard stare.

None of them–not even his beloved daughters–could tell what was going on inside the mind of their absolute sovereign.

No longer capable of withstanding the pressure, the optionless ministers turned their gazes to Pina, the eldest of the princesses present here and the closest to Molt. They thought that with her appearance, which bears a striking resemblance to the late queen, she may be able to get their Emperor back from the brink. Feeling the pleading stares of the ministers upon her, Pina relented. She turned towards Emperor and gently placed her slender hand on his.

"Father?"

Hardly a moment after Pina spoke with her voice, the gentleness of which was like a mother caressing a baby in her arms, life returned to Molt's eyes. He then turned to look at her, gripping her hand as if he had been on the verge of losing her. Something must have happened to him in the five or so minutes he had been staring into nothingness, thought Pina. Either way, he was back with them.

"D-Did I get that right? At least seven million dead and ten million injured?!"

Like a lion released from its cage, Molt raised his voice as his glare got sharper. The Third Prince, fearing both the Emperor and his life since he knew what had happened to previous "unsatisfactory" prime minister, tried to control as much of his stammering as possible in answering him.

"Yes, Your Highness!"

"AAAARGH!" Molt yelled as he threw his wooden table towards the wall destroyed it completely.

The massive nuclear attacks on Nusantara Archipelago made Molt extremely incandescent. The enemy weapons had destroyed the Nusantara Economic Zone, a major trade hub, and one of the Emperor favorite resort, killing millions of people. Hell, they dared to attempt to assassinate the Holy Emperor of Darwinian himself. Those barbarian had really crossed the line, an attack on the Sovereign himself, such act was unthinkable, unforgivable.

The Emperor then stood up and extended his fingers in the direction of the cowering foreign intelligence minister, his wide-open irises brimming with unmatched fury. He opened his mouth and his Royal Guards, upon seeing this, stood at the ready to enact his so-called "disciplinary" orders. However, as if restraining his ugly tendencies, the king stopped short of speaking and curled his fingers into a fist instead.

For a short four seconds or so, everyone was on their toes expecting another one of their ministers to be "sent away for disciplinary measures." But none of the sort happened and what they got instead was the sight of their monarch fuming.

"THOSE HERETICS WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

Molt thundered, setting the atmosphere in the room. At this point, even his beloved daughters started to sweat underneath their palms.

Molt began his slow march towards the Minister of Defense, Zorzal El Caesar with his unyielding, menacing glare pointing straight into his trembling eyes. Every step he took felt like a thunderclap that dictated the rhythm of their heartbeats.

"How long until Operation Dark Storm is ready!?" Molt snarled.

"T-ten days, Your Majesty. The Sadera Royal Astronomy Association has confirmed the appearance of a large numbers of sunspots, and the solar irradiance output grows by about 0.7%. Matching perfectly with the sun historical behaviour patterns during solar maximum. The Apostle of the Sun God has assured us they will make sure it will be the strongest geomagnetic storm in a thousand years."

"A geomagnetic storm of this magnitude would cause widespread electrical disruptions, blackouts, and damage due to extended outages of the electrical power grid in 24 hours. Even when most of the enemy computers are hardened against EMP attacks, the ionization of the upper atmosphere will disrupt long range radio communications and blind all satellite sensors. They will not know what hitting them." Pina added. She then turned for validation from the chief scientific adviser to the Ministry of Defence, who then nodded softly in affirmation.

The Emperor's glare loosened, his ears tickled by the possibility of a way to hit back at the humans harder. Seeing this as permission for her to put forward her idea, the Fifth Princess continued.

"Your Majesty, after some adjustments Operation Shadow Storm is in the final stages of preparation. Please take a seat." Pina promptly returned to the map of the World sprawled over a table, her eyes drawn towards many red dots across Falmart.

"Phase One - The Destruction of the Orbit. Each dot here represents the pinnacle of imperial artillery science, they are the Fist of God - the Volkanone Orbital Artillery Complex. Each have 50 superguns and equipped with state-of-the-art fire-control system with the Belousov-Zhabotinsky computer at the heart of the system. The high performance bio-chemical computers allows basically any input to be added, from air density and wind, to wear on the barrels and distortion due to heating. When combined with super massive coronal ejection event, we have an 92% chance of simultaneously destroying all 25 Ronald Reagan nuclear warhead orbital platforms before they launch a pre-emptive strike."

"Phase Two- The Elimination of Enemy Air and Missile Bases." The 11th Princess Élodie continue the presentation. "The Empire have spent several months gathering the bomber force for this very moment, and by any measure, we have developed a considerable force. About 60,000 of the Vimanas-225 Terrabombers will be involved in this attack, launching from almost 2000 airfields across Falmart.

Each is equipped with 10 Havajahaz VII Ohka air-launched piloted hypersonic cruise missiles, 5 Havajahaz V Sombold anti-air rocket aircrafts, 5 Havajahaz IV Panzerfaust anti-air rocket aircrafts. Two of the Havajaaz VII will be equipped with Apocryph warheads with the rest equipped with conventional chemical or biological warheads.

The bomber forces will take off 15 minute after the global Aurora appeared, using the global geomagnetic storm as a cover. The magnitude of the air attack means not a single meter of land outside Alnus in Western Lemuria will be spare from the death cloud. Five hundred thousand tones of anti-chemical purification slime has been prepared to safely decontaminate chemical warfare agents."

"Phase Three - The Demolition of Alnus Base." Zorzal El Caesar was the next presenter. The defense minister need not say for everyone in the room immediately realized realized the gravity of the matter. Soon, they were exchanging anxious hushes amongst each other. To say that the defense minister's idea was audacious and reckless was an understatement.

Pointing at the map of Alnus. "Alnus Bridgehead is roughly the size and layout of Sadera (about 320 km in diameter). Unlike other human base, Alnus is ground zero for the full-blown human colonization of Falmart. This also meant that Alnus would have to be defended in a manner, the likes of which no single military base was ever protected before.

Alnus Bridgehead had been the most secure military facilities in the world before ULTRON ... after the ULTRON, it became the human first mega-fortress, completely automated and built to handle every contingency that its designers could think of.

Defending against different types of missile strikes (both tactical and strategic) was the first part of the defense protocol and involved overlapping early warning, detection, tracking, and interception defense layers.

The extensive and powerful satellite based electronic intelligence (ELINT) and weaponry gave ULTRON the capacity to detect, track and destroy the missiles and their warheads within seconds of detecting a launch signature. ULTRON could detect, track and eliminate any strategic grade weapon system capable of a surface to surface or surface to orbit launch in the world and subsequently coordinate its post-launch destruction from a variety of dedicated American orbital weapons platforms, with a high probability of being able to cook the enemy warhead in the silo before it could ever clear its launch tube.

Most of this impressive capability will be neutralized in the first hour of Phase One as more and more space debris will make the low orbit extremily dangerous for satellite.

Alnus Bridgehead's defense matrix was multi-tiered. The Bridgehead installation was protected on the surface by various fully advanced, semi- and fully autonomous integrated weapon systems that could respond and eliminate targets from ground level all the way up to near orbit. High threat aerospace targets were dealt with through a layer of threat analysis by orbiting surveilance and weapon platforms.

Coordinating ULTRON with the newly inserted and established American High Frontier defense system was key to providing Alnus Bridgehead not only with the electronic reconnaissance that it needed to keep tabs on its foes but also the capacity to intercept and destroy any launches made against the base.

The American High Frontier system was as remarkable as the computer system which commanded it. High Frontier included several hundred 30-ton Westinghouse-designed chemical exciter high energy laser guns, a thousand General Dynamics-built high amperage tritium charged particle beam weapons, tens of thousands of Raytheon-built multi-stage variable warhead and warhead cloud generating interceptor missiles, hundreds of General Electric-built hyper velocity (HYVELOC) electromagnetic railguns (contained under the Near Orbit Mass Acceleration Driving System (NOMADS) array) and several hundred Vaught-Hughes-built free fall, self guided, hyper velocity kinetic kill penetrators capable of orbit to surface strikes on hardened installations and of generating extremely wide area epic-force scale blunt trauma shock waves to troops and clustered armor columns that could shatter both tanks and personnel.

ULTRON also had access to one thousand cryogenically cooled, nuclear pumped high energy very rapid pulse laser systems capable of clearing the Lemuria aerospace sector of any unwanted object. Twelve hundred subordinate launch sites also contained batteries of multi-stage, multi-independent targeting warhead equipped surface to orbit interceptor missiles capable of defeating any satellite or cross polar transit capable weapon system.

Extremely impressive but not invincible, when using lasers inside the atmosphere, the laser beams begin to cause plasma breakdown in the atmosphere. This effect, called "blooming," causes the laser to defocus and disperse energy into the surrounding air. Blooming can be more severe if there is fog, smoke, dust, rain, snow, smog, or foam in the air.

Essentially, laser generates a beam of light which will be delayed or stopped by any opaque medium and perturbed by any translucent or less than perfectly transparent medium just like any other type of light. A simple, dense smoke screen can and will often block a laser beam. Infrared or multi-spectrum smoke grenades will also disturb or block infrared laser beams. Any opaque case, cowling, bodywork, fuselage, hull, wall, shield or armor will absorb at least the "first impact" of a laser weapon, so the beam must be sustained to achieve penetration.

Our countermeasures for laser will center around the Korabl Leda-class floating gun platforms. A single Korabl Leda gun platform can bombard a city-size target with up to 21,000 tons of high-explosive shells in an hour from the distance of 3000 kilometers. And we have 50 of those in the navy. Replace the high-explosive shells with multi-spectral smoke munitions and we can rain down Alnus with a milion tone of smoke bomb, the enemy will blind like a bat.

As for the multi-stage variable warhead and warhead cloud generating interceptor missiles, our best strategy is to overwhelmed them with ten massive barrages of missiles. In order to to accomplish this goal Princess Pina and her men has created a crewed and winged variant of the Aggregat-9 called the Aggregat-9/10. One of the limitation of the Aggregat-9 was its onboard guidance system, too many variables for a precise attack. Using homunculus will nicely solve this problem with minimum increase of cost. More than 200,000 Aggregat-9/10 suicide missiles has been assembled and ready to use.

Close in aerial targets or NOE capable cruise missiles which penetrated to close range within the Alnus Bridgehead defensive matrix will be engaged by one or more of the twelve thousand equally distant spaced, dedicated Area Defense Batteries. Each ADB consisted of an armored turret on a dedicated fire tower, giving it complete traverse, elevation and deflection. The ADB turrets were placed on armored telescopic towers and could be used to engage both aerial targets and ground targets out to 12km (the effective range of the subordinate weapon packs). Each weapon system within the ADB housing had its own targeting and fire control system and could operate independently of the other weapons in the ADB and each turret could operate independently of other ADB units.

The ADB unit itself consisted of a powered remote electric drive turret (RED-T) mounting a General Electric M355D very rapid fire (VRF) 50mm tri-barrel chain driven automatic cannon with an effective range of 15km, a maximum range of 18km and a practical rate of fire of 5000 rounds per minute. Each M355D was linklessly fed by a pair of 5000 round cassettes, alternating feed from HE high explosive and HEAP high explosive armor piercing. Every tenth round in the HE cassette was an incendiary round. Automated systems at the base of the ADB towers were capable of reloading a single cassette in less than fifteen seconds using powered servo systems and on-hand replacement stock stored below the base of the tower.

Independently mounted in the ADB turret to the M355D automatic cannon was a 25mm General Electric M245C tri-barrel electromagnetic gatling gun intended for lightly armored targets and anti-personnel work close in. Capable of self targeting and operating in addition to the M355D cannon system, the M245C had an effective range of 12000m, with a practical rate of fire of 4000 rounds per minute. Ammunition was provided by a linkless feed from a 5000 round cassette filled with SLAP Sabot Light Armor Piercing rounds (which are capable of penetrating up to 5cm of armor).

Mounted in the same turret and controlled by its own integrated FiConSys is an armored box launcher containing eight Lockeed Martin M490D1 "Sprinter" dual stage fire and forget multi-purpose tactical missiles, each weighing 50kg with a 20kg warhead and active terminal guidance. The "Sprinter" TAC missiles are designed to defeat fast moving close in aerospace targets as well as slow moving ground targets, the dual purpose warhead is effective against light armor as well as heavy armor, with a smart fuse that determines target type and optimum detonation pattern (contact, proximity or enveloping proximity).

Reloading of the TAC missile launcher requires sixty-five seconds and necessitates that the ADB retract to its lowest point, aim the box launcher vertically and a fresh brace of TAC missiles be loaded from below. When this is achieved, the ADB goes back online and resumes operations. Each ADB has dedicated storage for 20,000 rounds (4 spare cassettes) of 50mm ammunition (50/50 HE, HEAP), 10,000 rounds of 25mm SLAP (2 spare cassettes) and 24 standby "Sprinter" missiles allocated in reload packs of 8 missiles each (3 reloads). This is in addition to the standard load out of the turret itself. Automated systems can reload the ready stores of each ADB turret using automated processes and underground access ways in under five minutes.

A quite troublesome system, but there are some are countermeasures like long-range artillery and giant aerial beasts. Deus-class aerial battleship with its nine 300mm Vergeltung-2 super cannons can destroy those ADBs with pinpoint accuracy from 300km away. A single 300mm hellfire-enchanted metalic hydrogen shell has the TNT equivalent of 11 tons so even a near miss detonation can destroy an ADB. Titan Wyvern Lords are immune to 50mm ammunition. One hundred fifty aerial battleships, each equipped with nine V-2 super cannons meant that about 300 full-salvo were needed to completely exhausted all Sprinter missiles in all 12,000 ADBs. Once the Sprinter're exhausted, Titan Wyvern Corps can then carpet bombing the remaining ADBs with giant two-ton flechettes.

Protecting Alnus Bridgehead is the Kill Zone, a strip of bare earth, about 20 km wide, between the city outer wall and the natural tree line. Regularly treated with herbicides and seeded with advanced, command controlled, autonomous and smart mines consisting of various models of anti-personnel and anti-titan types. The anti-personnel mines ranged from the small 0.5kg charge Mangler type AP mines to the larger Bouncing Bob mines and the Screaming Mary types as well.

All of the mines used around the Alnus Bridgehead were of the new Level IV-A series with their own dedicated diagnostic and computer control systems, with power being fed by an ultra-slim, high gain, high efficiency solar cell that worked to charge a small battery giving the mines almost unlimited duration when deployed. With the defense matrix set to full alert, the smart mines went into autonomous mode, reacting to any intrusion into the security perimeter and engaging any target which failed a triple checked IFF send / receive response.

Enhancing the semi-autonomous and command controlled mine field was a thousand pair of dedicated mortar batteries, each consisting of ten automatic Type 25 "revolver" 240mm heavy tube mounted mortars. Each mortar was on a powered base which could adjust elevation and deflection hydraulically. Each mortar was fed by a cylinder of six rounds which in turn was fed from a dedicated cassette of fifty rounds. Ammunition for the mortars consisted of 240mm laser guided HEAP rounds with integral follow-up IR piggy back HE dual purpose rounds. Optional ammunition included a bolt of 240mm airburst flechette for use against lightly armored personnel caught in the open. A variety of chemical gas (ranging from tear gas to lethal toxins) and tactical smoke rounds (five colors) were also available to the computer controlled battery.

Using the heavy 240mm mortars, precision munitions could be fired and guided in on top of threat vehicles or exploded at optimum height over groups of enemy personnel. The lethal burst radius of the Type 3G fragmenting anti-personnel rounds was 40 meters with critical wounds being achieved out to 60 meters. The automated battery could lay out a salvo of 200 rounds in 60 seconds, averaging 1 round per 3 seconds per mortar. Rounds for the 240mm mortars included a variety of armor piercing and anti-personnel warheads, both guided (including smart and brilliant class) and unguided as well as rocket assisted for engagement at twice normal effective range.

A second line of defense, supporting the indirect capability of the heavy mortars with a direct fire option was centered around two thousand fully automated batteries of 203mm magazine fed recoilless repeaters with each battery comprising five repeaters, each in an independent powered mount. Each repeater was supported by a dedicated autoloader which drew from a 100 round cassette. Ammunition consisted of a variety of flechette (anti-personnel), high explosive (dual purpose), high explosive armor piercing (anti-titan) and self forging armor penetrator (heavy anti-titan).

Each repeater was gyrostabilized and laser targeted. Practical rate of fire for each repeater was 30 rounds per minute giving each battery the capacity to put 150 rounds into the target zone per minute. Individual rounds were also laser guided and stabilized by snap open fins which imparted spin bias to the Soundmax. Integral spotting and target designating lasers covered the defense area, allowing multiple round hand-offs to supporting weapons on an ad-hoc basis as needed.

Our Titan Armored Ogres and Colossal Titans are mostly immune to 240mm ammunition, not to mention we can suppress them with 280mm Helblaster Volley Guns so the mortars won't be a problem. Their minefield, however, is quite troublesome.

Individual personnel would be engaged at up to five meters distance by the Type 42 Mark III IFRIT "Efreet" InFraRed Individual Targeting class 3 anti-personnel mine which would discharge itself from its point of concealment, spinning in the air up to a height of 2 meters and used a small thermal sensor to detect the direction of the target. Upon contact with a strong heat source (like the temp that a human body radiates) the mine would detonate in that direction using a shaped charge to disperse 2000 high density alloy pellets in a lethal cloud moving at greater than 900 meters per second. The effective radius of the Type 42 IFRIT mine was an expanding cone fifteen meters long and five meters wide at end.

The Type 42 IFRIT was supplemented by the Type 50 Mark V MTIRFEFAPDPS "Screaming Mary" AP mine which was designed to eliminate large groups of intruders. The Type 50 consisted of a larger housing than the Type 42 but its operation was related in nature. A passive thermal / infra-red scanner would detect movement within a 15 meter perimeter, activating the integral heat sensor. If a reading analogous to a designated threat category was detected, the mine would activate a small explosive charge, propelling itself some four meters into the air, using a rifled spin to increase the search radius and zero in on the target source.

Once a target was identified, the MTIRFEFAPDPS warhead would detonate, at which point the Multi-Targeting Infra Red Explosively Formed Anti-Personnel Dual Purpose Submunition would fire from the warhead along a spin axis computed to ensure a hit to the center of mass of the target. Up to eight explosively formed submunitions could be generated from the single warhead and each struck as a 40 gram penetrator moving at a velocity in excess of 1000 meters per second. Lethal burst radius is a killing sphere 20 meters in diameter and multiple targets can be hit from multiple directions. The name of the mine is taken from the high pitched whine of the self forging projectile as it is composed from the warhead and traverses the distance from ignition point to target source.

Anti-titan and anti-armor duties were handled by the M340E and the M274G series "smart" mines. Working in conjunction, the defense grid allowed the mines to be networked to each other and run off of a remote tap into the system mainframe. Remote sensors would detect and assess the threat to the installation and adjust their response accordingly. Titan threats known to possess heavy armor would be engaged by the Type 65 Mark VII series mine. The Type 65 was a command chain controlled / semi-autonomous response threat elimination element designed to destroy armored titan with a dual core shaped charge warhead to allow penetration of an infra-red follow-up piggy-back high explosive warhead that insured target bursting. The 68 kilogram warhead was sufficient to destroy from the inside out most armored titan and had an engagement range of 30 meters.

Activation of the mine caused the self-propelled warhead to eject from its carrier into the air approximately 20 meters while a combination motion and thermal sensor looked for characteristic heat traces from titan neck and matched the signature to known profiles, angling the warhead for optimum impact against the target titan. Upon determination of optimum impact point, the solid stage propellant system would ignite, accelerating the mine to a velocity in excess of 1200 meters per second. Effective range was 800 meters.

Medium armored Centaur Titans would be engaged by the M290K Mark IV Series III anti-titan mines, differing from the Type 65 only in warhead and accelerator assembly. The M290K Mark IV series ATM carried two 108 kilogram modular axial penetration warheads followed by five 37 kilogram high explosive follow up rounds designed to "balloon" the target from the inside out, breaking the legs, blowing off the pilot inside and wrecking the interior thoroughly. Infra-red follow up sensors in the submunition warheads insured an almost 94% chance of entering the target penetration point.

Heavy armored Colossal Titans were engaged by a combination of anti-titan devices. A Type 99 M310D Series IV ATM would be used from a horizontal angle of attack while a Type 42 M122E Series II ATM would be used from an overhead angle of attack. The Mod 3 cluster packs for these munitions formed the basis of ULTRON's heavy anti-titan passive defense systems. Upon contact with a heavy armored Colossal Titans, the Mod 3 cluster pack would acquire a target signature, both infra-red and acoustic, matching it in its database of known enemy designs. Once the design was determined (or a close enough match achieved), the Mod 3 cluster pack would activate, discharging the Type 99 mine into the air at a height of 50 meter and the Type 42 mine into the air at a distance of ten meters.

The Type 99 mine had an advanced version of the target acquisition hardware found in the Type 65 mine with more aggressive subroutines, able to adjust its angle of attack and point of impact to match known target weak points. The semi-point detonating shaped charge warhead weighed 192 kilograms and could penetrate armor up to 1250mm thickness. Two independently targeting follow-up IR HE dual purpose rounds achieved the internal target blooming desired. Thee Type 42 mine was a modified self forging penetrator, firing a vonfram kinetic kill slug into the armored titan from above the neck, where armor was generally weakest, targeting the strongest heat source which normally represented the titan neck area.

Our solution will involve the use of Devil Teeths as mine clearing beast. As you might not know, we're having Devil Teeths infestation problem in Europania. It's time to put those pests to good use. Devil Teeth can easily bite through the metal shell of a mine and they are extremely difficult to kill. Spay female pheromones on the area and we will have a mega swarm of hundred of millions devil teeths. They will demine the area in a matter of hours."

It was one again Pina turn. "Now the greatest threat to Operation Darkstorm are the human tactical and strategic nuclear missiles. A direct hit from a multi-megaton warhead can kill almost anything. The only way to survive is not getting hit, and you can't hit what you can't see. So we must blind the enemy sensor. Lucky for us, most of the human satellite based reconnaissance will be destroy in Phase One. So, we just need to neutralize their radars and drones. The key to this is jamming radio waves. After consulting with the sages and apostles, we came up with a solution, one so crazy that it might actually work.

The interactions between electromagnetic radiation and ionized gas have been extensively studied for many purposes, but what we discovered is ionized gas (plasma) can reduce the radar cross-section (RCS) of an object.

When electromagnetic waves, such as radar signals, propagate into a conductive plasma, ions and electrons are displaced as a result of the time varying electric and magnetic fields. The wave field gives energy to the particles. The particles generally return some fraction of the energy they have gained to the wave, but some energy may be permanently absorbed as heat by processes like scattering or resonant acceleration, or transferred into other wave types by mode conversion or nonlinear effects.

A plasma can, at least in principle, absorb all the energy in an incoming wave, and this is the key to plasma stealth.

The central issue here is frequency of the incoming signal. A plasma will simply reflect radio waves below a certain frequency (characteristic electron plasma frequency). This is the basic principle of short wave radios and long-range communications, because low-frequency radio signals bounce between the Earth and the ionosphere and may therefore travel long distances.

Early-warning over-the-horizon radars utilize such low-frequency radio waves (typically lower than 50 MHz).

Most military airborne and air defense radars, however, operate in VHF, UHF, and microwave band, which have frequencies higher than the characteristic plasma frequency of ionosphere, therefore microwave can penetrate the ionosphere and communication between the ground and communication satellites demonstrates is possible. (Some frequencies can penetrate the ionosphere).

Plasma surrounding an object might be able to absorb incoming radiation, and therefore reduces signal reflection from the metal parts of the object: the object would then be effectively invisible to radar at long range due to weak signals received.

A plasma might also be used to modify the reflected waves to confuse the opponent's radar system: for example, frequency-shifting the reflected radiation would frustrate Doppler filtering and might make the reflected radiation more difficult to distinguish from noise.

Control of plasma properties like density and temperature is important for a functioning plasma stealth device, and it may be necessary to dynamically adjust the plasma density, temperature, or combinations, or the magnetic field, in order to effectively defeat different types of radar systems.

The great advantage Plasma Stealth possesses over traditional radio frequency stealth techniques like low-observability geometry and use of radar-absorbent materials is that plasma is tunable and wideband. When faced with frequency hopping radar, it is possible to change the plasma temperature and density to deal with the situation. The greatest challenge is to generate a large area or volume of plasma with good energy efficiency.

There are various methods to form a layer or cloud of plasma around a vehicle but to hide an entire attacking fleet we need something truly radical, self-sustaining and absolutely enormous."

Pina arms raised above her head, her fists clenched in the famous, overly dramatic gesture to theatre students everywhere as 'milking the giant cow'.

Yes, it was hokey and clichéd, and Pina knew it, but she loved doing that excessive melodrama gesture anyway, the quintessential stance of a person mad with power."

"We need a Plasma Storm!"

"Now, creating a storm with magic is hard, fortunately for us, we don't need to. This is the hurricane season so we just need to redirect a few super hurricane toward Alnus."

A critical difference between earth's super hurricanes and falmart super hurricanes is that super hurricanes on Falmart could extend into the upper stratosphere, whereas earth hurricanes extend into only the lower stratosphere. Falmart's super hurricane have wind speeds of over 800 kilometres per hour, potentially gusting to 970 km/h, and would also have a central pressure of less than 700 hectopascals, giving them an enormous lifespan of at least several weeks. This extreme low pressure could also support massive storm systems roughly the size of North America.

For comparison, the largest and most intense storm on earth record was 1979's Typhoon Tip, with a 1-minute sustained wind speed of 305 km/h (190 mph) and a minimum central pressure of 870 hPa (25.69 inHg). A falmart's strom is be nearly eight times more powerful than Hurricane Patricia, the storm with the highest sustained wind speed recorded, which had 1-minute sustained winds of 345 km/h (215 mph).

"We already have three candidates, one in Indyjski ocean - Hurricane Nora; two in Polarny ocean - Hurricane Vanessa and Ida. All three are more than 3200km in diameter. About the size of the contiguous United States. With sustained winds of over 240 mph (390 km/h). Now, to ionize storms of this size, we need a strategic level magic and a lot of catalyst. For the catalyst, a million tones of iron powder will be sufficient. As for the strategic spell, the ancient incantation: 'Endless Lightning Nine Heavens', that generates large-scale lightning continuously over a wide range, will do the job. A bonus point, thick cloud and intense rain will worsen the worsened the atmospheric thermal blooming problem of directed-energy weapons. Energy that would otherwise be focused on the target spreads out and the beam becomes less effective."

"Very good," Molt nodded in satisfaction. The Emperor then turn his eyes towards his closest friend and trusted confidant.

"Sir Arthur Pendragon?"

"Yes, your Majesty!" Replied, the commander of the Knight of the Round Table - Knight of One.

"You will be the Overall Commander of this Operation."

"It will be my honour, Your Imperial Majesty." Arthur reverently replied.

"Wizard King Solomon."

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty?"

"You are to take your best mages, alongside with ONE HUNDRED Lightning Flame Dragon Emperors, bestow them with the strongest enchantments you can possibly cast, and join Sir Arthur in his assault on the enemy at Alnus Base." As the words left his mouth, those in the room went wide eyed at what they heard Molt say.

The Lightning Flame Dragon Emperors were extremely powerful and colossal dragons that serves as the ultimate weapon of the Holy Darwinian Empire and the ancient Infidragoon Empire. A long time ago, the Infidragoon Empire waged a fierce war to conquer Falmart's Three Empires: the Great Dragon-Titan War. The armies of the former dragon gods were said to have in their service more than a thousand of the Lightning Flame Dragon Emperors. Their successes were for naught, however: the 13 Gods unleashed their deadly Mist of Void, annihilating the Infidragoon army and forcing its survivors to scatter all across the world. Nowadays, a few geniuses were born with the ability to control the ultra rare dragons of old. Among them, fewer still wield the specialized abilities to control the Lightning Flame Dragon Emperors, which at this point had become the living embodiment of a dragon god.

Molt was sending the Empire's best units, the same units that are responsible with defending the Eternal Capital Sadera itself, to fight the enemy who was threatening them.

"Your Majesty, it shall be done."

"Then let's not waste anymore time," Molt said, rising to his feet.

"The longer we wait, the more time our enemy has to attack us. As soon as all preparations are made, we shall attack Alnus Bridgehead, and strike the very heart the Earth invading army."

Mausoleum of Eighty-Eight Emperors, Ethnarcha, Azjania

The bright white and beige domed rooftops of the residential districts of the ancient city of Ethnarcha reflected back into the viewers' eyes a sort of image evoking feelings that they had reached "Paradise." Sailors aboard ships destined for the major port city's bustling harbor, having come a long way across the treacherous expanse of the Neihai Sea, would have definitely fallen on their knees in gratitude to the gods upon seeing the gleaming towers of Ethnarcha.

What a time to be alive, they'd often pray.

As one traces the skyline of the city, they'd inevitably come across a gigantic structure topped with an equally impressive dome, all clad in semiprecious stone. Flanked on all four corners by towering spires, one would be forgiven for thinking that this was the Royal Palace–the center of the richest and most powerful Empire in history–due to the daunting turrets and walls at its base. In actuality, this was nothing but a mausoleum, a grand memorial to death in the midst of a city filled with life and vigor.

Today, however, the city mourns… and seethes in explosive anger.

"Ohhh...Darwinia! How perverse and degenerate are the enemies seeking your subjugation!"

Almighty Emperor of Darwinia, Molt Sol Augustus, spoke to a weeping crowd of thousands with the kind of confidence and presence that more than befitted his title. Flanked by his Royal Guards and the equally austere figures of the three princesses, his daughters, he opened his speech with the patriotic opening line of the Darwinia national anthem, "All Hail Darwinia."

(All Hail Darwinia!)

Ships on vigor of the waves are skimming

Barren summits to the verdant plains

Ravens soar over new frontiers.

Songs and sagas of a fate determined.

Gold and glory to our Fatherland!

And death to its every foe!

Our soldiers shall not pause to rest.

We vow our loyalty.

To the Emperor only.

Shields and spears.

Vows of favor or the thrill of plunder.

Pull together for the clan and kin.

Clank of hammers and the crash of thunder.

Old traditions they will abide

Arise young heroes!

Our past inspires noble deeds.

The echoes of eternity.

(All Hail Darwinia!)

Darwinia calling me

Oh-ho-oh

To pluck the strings of destiny

Oh-ho-oh

Darwinia calling me

Darwinia calling me

Immortal beacon shows the way.

Step forth and seek glory!

Hoist your swords high into the clouds.

Sails a' swaying on the crimson rivers

Blood and glory in the fighting fields

Shields a' shattered into splintered timbers

Iron and steel

Fires are rising and the bells are ringing

Glory take us into Emroy's halls

Golden glimmer and the sound of singing

Darwinia's call

(All Hail Darwinia!)

Our Emperor stands astride this world.

He'll vanquish every foe!

His truth and justice shine so bright.

All hail his brilliant light!

Never will he be overthrown.

Like mountains and sea.

His bloodline immortal and pure.

So let his wisdom guide our way.

Go forth and seek glory.

Hoist your swords high into the clouds.

Each horizon is a new beginning.

Rise and reign.

For eternity Darwinia.

Shedding a tear or two underneath his eyes filling with nationalistic ardor, he sympathized with the pain his people were going through; putting his enclosed fist high into the air, he was exuding a message for all Falmart: Fear not the adversary and stand!

"Our Empire has seen countless enemies bash their heads against our impenetrable walls and lay down their useless, futile lives at our indomitable beaches! It may have been at the cost of miilions of our own countrymen–a cost we could never repay–but we cannot let their memory be in vain!"

He looked down at the people that filled the mausoleum courtyard below. Everybody held a brightly lit candle; the elderly, children, their hardworking parents, the poor that made the streets their home, the rich merchants that otherwise couldn't have cared less, and so many others. Not a single one of them showed no signs of sadness and anguish. As an Emperor, it was his obligation to comfort his people and rouse them from this infectious sadness. However, it was also his duty as an Emperor to use this to his–no, the Empire's advantage.

"The tragedy of Nusantara we cannot forget but above all: we must never forget that this is an act of war! Not just any act of war; this is an act of genocidal war against all Falmart!"

Molt could hear the sorrowful cries of his people from below him. The pained, cracking voices of his benign people only served to anger him further.

"The enemy laughs at us in our moment of weakness but we must show them that they are mistaken! Blood must be shed a thousand fold for every Falmartian drop of blood!"

Soon, he started to hear a different kind of cry, one that seeped to the very core with rage.

"To hell with humans!"

"Avenge Nusantara! Avenge the Empire!"

"The Eternal Empire will never falter!"

It was working, almost smiled Molt. Just one more should be enough.

"Rise and reign. For eternity Drawinia."

He cried out in pained rage the line of "All Hail Darwinia," a verse that was echoed throughout the mausoleum–if not the entire, weeping empire–by the sorrowful, vengeful voices of his people.

"ALL HAIL DARWINIA!"

In one, easy stroke, the Emperor of Darwinia turned his people's despondency into raging fury and he did not even need to say who the enemy was. There was only one enemy in the minds of the Empire and indirectly reminding them of that was more than enough. He closed his eyes; while there was more work to be done, silently reveling in one's success did not hurt. With his vision out of the way, all that his senses picked up were the cries of a population thirst for retribution.

Good. Very good.

Molt patted himself on the back for a job well done. Nusantara was a tragedy, but it was nothing more than a scratch on top of a larger wound on the Emperor's heart, one which could never healed. It is in the background of the brokenhearted cries of his people that he heard a faint cry echo from the deepest abyss of his heart. Upon hearing of it, he couldn't help but shed a tear.

Courage, Duty, Honor

We call upon our legionaries

In this our darkest hour

Our way of life is what we are waiting for

The flag that flies above us, inspires us each day.

To give our very best, in every way !

It's a good day to die

When you know the reasons why

Citizens we fight for what is right

A noble sacrifice

When duty calls, you pay the price

For the Emperor I will give my life

Well all is fair, in love and war.

That's what my gunny says

You not alive unless your almost dying

These are the words I march by, Duty, Courage , Honor.

Every single day and I've been trying.

It\'s a good day to die

When you know the reasons why

Citizens we fight for what is right

A noble sacrifice

When duty calls, you pay the price

For the Emperor I will give my life

(Courage, Duty, Honor)

The dragon, he flies high above us

The dragon, he makes our spirits sore !

He's giving the strength to carry on.

To fly and win this war

It's a good day to die

When you know the reasons why

Citizens we fight for what is right

(Courage, Duty, Honor)

A noble sacrifice

When duty calls, you pay the price

For the Emperor I will give my life

(Courage, Duty, Honor)

It's a good day to die

When you know the reasons why

Citizens we fight for what is right

A noble sacrifice

When duty calls , you pay the price

For the Emperor I will give my life

(Courage, Duty, Honor)

For the Emperor I will give my life

Chapter 14: Year One Finale - The Cataclysm of Ice and Fire

Contrary to the common public assumption, Operation Darkstorm was not an unforeseeable event, nor was it even a surprising one. A careful review of local reports reveals that at least three intelligence officers had attempted to warn the High Command in Alnus about a massive coordinated attack, only to be dismissed as nonrealistic even when they had concrete reports of increased navy activity 1800 miles off the coast, right by the Imperial controlled territory of Indiya Raj.

More vague reports about newly built underground airfields throughout Europania as well as the mass evacuation of civilians in Azjania and Afrykania were filed daily. While none claimed to have actionable evidence, taken together, the reports create a disturbing and clear pattern that something big was comming.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's baffling, almost comical, about the extent of which the UEADF High Command could misread all the early signs of the impending attacks in fall of 2030. They knew about the massive concentration of bombers and missiles near Lemuria, the transfer of strategic naval assets to the Indyjski waters, but dismissed them all as minor threats can be easily dealt with.

The most common reason for dismissal was a belief that the Empire were incapable of the planning required for a coordinate global attack and even if they were, ULTRON could detect, track and eliminate any strategic grade weapon system and subsequently coordinate its destruction from a variety of dedicated orbital weapons platforms.

The preparation phase of the Empire ground offensive was, while not a strategic surprise, quite well organized, especially when one considers the complexity of the operational plan and the crippling disadvantage that the Praetorian Guards had to work under.

Allied air reconnaissance had noted sufficient movement that there was little question that something was in the offing.

Despite being under nearly constant observation from the air, the Empire forces still managed to conceal the primary axis of their attack, move nearly 325 divison, nearly half of them freshly recalled veterans, and considerablely large amounts of equipments into place (albeit with murderous losses to air attacks that claimed nearly 12% of the force while still in movement), and achieve tactical surprise.

The Empire logistical effort was aided by the typical Summer weather over Northwest Europania, which was famous for having very thick cloud and heavy rain. Allied efforts to use both radar and thermal sensors to penetrate the thick cloud, heavy rain and the canopy were mainly failures, although the few successes provided considerable useful intelligence and accounted for much of the 12% loss suffered by the Praetorian Guards during movement.

The Praetorian Guards was also aided by failure of Allied analysts to pick up some indicators that might have allowed proper reinforcement along the Praetorian Guards axis of attack. The greatest of the failures was, of course, the "refugees caravans gap".

Criticism of Allied photo analysts when they failed to recognize the unusual increase of draft animals in a 'typical' refugees caravan from photos as a sign of enemy supply carts on the march, can, to a degree, be forgiven or at least explained by cultural expectations.

No credible Allied analysts could even imagine the concealing of large-scale ammunition shipments using animal-drawn refugees wagons, that was something for Islamic terrorist groups, or so the basic belief at Supreme Allied Commander Falmart went.

Yet, this was exactly what the Praetorian Guards did, achieving well over half of its required ammunition with draft animals, including the movement of most light and medium artillery pieces using this ancient, yet effect, method (interestingly, the Praetorian Guards fully expected the large increase in draft animals to be noticed, to the point that considerable effort was expended in moving decoy herds in other areas behind the front and scattering various farming implements near supply dumps).

This is the greatest intelligence failure since Operation Barbarossa.

While there were those up the chain of command who believed the Empire, especially with the gods aid, were a credible threat, a strict adherence to a fragmented chain of command meant all failed to receive such reports, as they were stalled by lower ranking officers.

While UEADF has successfully integrated much of the world military, the rapid expansion of its army has introduced crippling structural weaknesses in the UEADF military. For years, various member nations of the UEADF have voiced concerns over insufficient military training and a lack of officers, the fragmentation of the command structure and the sheer arrogance display by many members of the military and intelligence community. These concerns have been ignored in favor of expanding the arsenal of semi-autonomous weapons.

The UEADF's disastrous lack of preparation during the buildup of Operation Darkstorm is merely a microcosm of what afflicts Earth at large: a massive but ultimately fragmented military structure and the chronic underfunding of everything that is not directly related to military. Yet despite the crippling nature of these freshly revealed flaws, for many reasons, little discussion has occurred. They are symptoms of larger problems plaguing the military.

— Lieutenant-General Youji Itami, JSDF

Theoderichaven Airbase, Lemuria, July 2030

At the far end of the 10,000-meter runway sat a long aircraft preparing for its launch. Despite the warm air a layer of frost lay over the long runway and the craft. The two-man command crew sat deep inside of the craft just in front of the passenger / cargo area. Manned craft always had human command crew even if the computers did most of the actual work.

"Final check list." The voice from the command tower called out over the radio.

"Engine Turbine 1…"

"Spinning…"

"Engine Air Pre-cooler 1…"

"Ready…"

"Engine Turbine 2…"

"Spinning…"

"Engine Air Pre-cooler 2…"

"Ready…"

"Fuel tank status…"

"Forward tank 100 percent…"

"Aft tank 100 percent…"

"Oxygen tank 100 percent…"

"Power status…"

"Running on internal power…"

"Maglev…"

"Magnetic catapult online…"

"Control Artemis X is go for launch."

"Artemis X is clear to launch on pilot command."

The crafts pilot sitting in his g-force chair entered the final commands to the computer. A few moments later the electromagnetic catapult started to move the massive craft forward, slowly at first but ever faster. At halfway down the runway the engines roared to life and the craft accelerated even faster.

Forewarned by the military intelligence on this launch, almost every Empire radars in the region tracked the UEADF craft as it took off and climbed into the sky.

"Target speed now passing Mach 5…"

"Cutting over to internal oxygen supply…"

"Cut over confirmed, closing air intakes… Engines in orbital mode…"

The air intakes for the ramjet engjines closed and the Artemis X became a pure rocket.

As the spaceplane climbed higher and higher the air thinned out but despite the air thinning out the frictional forces on the craft were incredible with the leading edges glowing.

Back on Falmart, Imperial Strategic Rocket Forces was getting all of the data on the launch coming in. One of the Maesters here observing frowned at the data, "Flight profile is all screwed up… that's not a rocket…"

Another rocket Maesters nodded, "No its a spaceplane… Not just suborbital either, now approaching Mach 30 and still its accelerating…"

"Engine cut off..." The pilot switched to the intercom for the 20 passengers in the passenger pod behind them, "We are in orbit and will begin our boost for Gateway Station after we complete our first orbit. You are free remove your restraints for next 75 minutes. We will adjust our orbit in…. 91 minutes… MARK."

"They are adjusting their orbit…"

"They appear to be going for an intercept with that rotating wheel station."

The first Maester was making notes, "Single Stage To Orbit craft… incredible, just incredible I wonder what its payload capacity is…"

An Air Force officer was asking the same question to himself but he was thinking in terms of a very different type of payload.

Conference Room, Alnus Bridgehead, Lemuria Peninsula, Azjania.

"That bastard is alive!" Announced, Secretary of Defense of EU, Josep Borrell, who was accompanied by Chief of EU Air Operations, General Fernando Manuel Lourenço da Costa, to the disappoinment of many high rank officers in the conference room.

"I know it won't be that easy!" Sighed, Supreme Commander Nuttall sipped on freshly imported Vietnamese tea before leaning back in his chair.

Having received the sign to give his report, the Chief of EU Air Operations summarized the result. "Commander Nuttall, at 1600 hour yesterday, the brave Valkyries in Bomber Task Force Europe concluded Operation Götterdämmerung. Of the 135 designated targets in Nusantara Archipelago – with the exception of 32 secondary targets – all were completely destroyed. However, our main target, Emperor Molt and his family, are still alive.

As for the mission.

Of the 96 Airbus-464 bombers dispatched, 17 were lost, 2 were due to mechanical failure, the rest were enemy action. Of the 150 H-bombs carried, 112 of them successfully detonated against 103 targets. Of the 38 bombs that failed, 31 of them were because the bombers carrying them were destroyed before they could be released, the remaining 7 were due to mechanical problems."

General Fernando submitted his report with the composure expected of a high rank official such as himself. Although the contents of his report left much to be desired, he nevertheless delivered it as if the objective failure of Operation Götterdämmerung was an anticipated outcome.

"Those royal bastards run faster than I expected," Nuttall said.

Indeed, while Nuttall and his war cabinet expected the Emperor to survive; They hoped the bombs would kill at least a prince or two.

Furthermore, the losses incurred in Operation Götterdämmerung is surprisingly high. Those imperial primitives shouldn't have the capability to shoot down aircrafts flying at hypersonic speeds.

"How exactly did the enemy shoot down our supersonic bombers?" Indian Defense Minister asked.

One every six bombers sent out that day didn't return. Those Airbus-464s flew at Mach 10 at the altitude of 80,000 meters, which should have made them invulnerable to enemy air defenses.

"Before losing contact, the bombers external cameras recorded a humanoid figure flying at tremendous speed. From the descriptions, this appears to be a legendary demigod."

So, the Falmartians gods were real and they were the enemy. Wasn't that great!?

Nuttall sighed, he wished they could get the hell out of this world and be done with it. But he, more than anyone, knew they couldn't, humanity have already invested too much money and human life to leave. They were walking on a delicate path – humanity needed this bizarre world and its tremendous treasures to save itself from total societal collapse.

He just hoped they wasn't engaged in a sunk cost fallacy - a logical fallacy that entails sticking with a losing or failed venture because you've already invested a significant amount of time, money, or other resources that you can't get back.

Quickly shaking his negative feelings, he continued with the meeting. "What kinds of retaliation should we expect?"

"Strongest attempt will be made against our bombers bases. Allied Intelligence Bureau anticipated the Empire to conduct long-range suicide bombing missions in conjunction with both intermediate-range ballistic missiles and superlong-range artillery with chemical warheads. We should expect major enemy formations to be able to penetrate deep into our air defense zones. Casualties will be in the tens of thousands but most of them will be in Category C units so it is acceptable." Said Secretary of Defense Josep Borrell.

Category C units were manned by soldiers from least developed countries like Somalia or South Sudan with only half the strength in equipments. There was a degree of controversy in public circles regarding the reasoning behind the disparity of equipment. Some activists claimed that this was the sign of western's racism but the real reason was a lot more simple, the rich countries hoarding all of the good equipments because they could afford to pay higher price.

Nuttall felt sick to the stomach, they were talking about real people like they were just some number on a sheet. Tens of thousands of casualties had become 'acceptable' number in a conflict of this scale. History shown that desensitization to death is a common human response. Over time, we become less affected and more accustomed to the effects of war and disaster.

"Nothing we can't handle." Commented the Chinese Minister of National Defence, Wei Fenghe.

"Any unusual movements from the Empire?" Nuttall eyes moved towards an American intelligence officer.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, the gradual and sustained aerial bombardment campaign is having a demoralizing effect on the Empire population. On the ground, satellite images show countless column of civilians moving out of population centers while the military is relocating all their strategic industrial assets to underground facilities. At sea, the Imperial Navy is moving their assets out of the ports due to fear of being bombed. We also have some evident that the enemy is constructing dozens of 38 miles-long doomsday subways with one-thousand-one carriages each, to provide a mobile shelter to the VIPs. In eastern Lemuria, a large number of cavalry and artillery divisions are on the march, mostly at nights."

"Sir!" An Air Force weather officer rushed into the room, his hat slightly askew. Nuttall eyes narrowed, and the officer diligently fixed his hat before saluting primly.

"Sir. A super hurricane that is raging in Indyjski ocean suddenly changed its direction. It's heading directly at us."

"Enemy magic!?"

"Very likely, sir!"

"That is their plan?! Using a storm as a cover for their air attacks." The Commander of the Greater Russian Aerospace Forces, Army General Sergey Surovikin said dryly.

"How foolish! Our radars have no problem seeing through storm cloud, whatever they're planning, we will see it from miles away."

Indeed! Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

"If they want to waste their pitifully life assaulting our bases. I say let's them try."

Since April, Allied Strategic Rocket Forces began to deploy the new SS-120 medium range ballistic missiles system, the perfect weapons to fight and win a limited nuclear war. The new missiles could hit with pinpoint accuracy, with five MIRVed warheads each, all the Empire bases in Lemuria.

"I almost feel sorry for these bastards who are about to bang their heads on our meat grinders!" One of the German generals spoke while the others started laughing out loud.

Volkanone Orbital Artillery Complex No 01, Kingdom of Detroitland, Northern Tortolia

From the 4th to the 10th of Pal inclusive, the weather remaining much the same in Detroitland, the great astronomy instruments were constantly directed toward the sky, for the weather was then magnificent; but the comparative weakness of their glasses prevented any trustworthy observations being made.

On the 10th the sky seemed to lighten. They were in hopes now, but their hope was of but short duration, and at noon again thick clouds hid the sunny vault from all eyes.

Matters were now becoming serious, when on the 11th the sun reappeared for an instant, as if for the purpose of teasing the gunners. It was received with hisses; and wounded, no doubt, by such a reception, showed itself very sparing of its rays.

On the 12th, no change! Baron Murchison went nearly mad, and great fears were entertained regarding the brain of this worthy individual, which had hitherto been so well preserved within his cranium.

But on the 13th one of those inexplicable tempests peculiar to those intertropical regions was let loose in the atmosphere.

A terrific east wind swept away the groups of clouds which had been so long gathering, and at night the semi-disc of the orb of night rode majestically amid the soft constellations of the sky.

Up till sunrises, a dull, noiseless agitation, such as precedes great catastrophes, ran through the anxious multitude. An indescribable uneasiness pervaded all minds, an indefinable sensation which oppressed the heart. Every one wished it was over.

About four o'clock, the heavy silence was dissipated. The sun rose above the horizon. Thousands of hurrahs hailed her appearance.

She was punctual to the rendezvous, and shouts of welcome greeted her on all sides, as her bright beams shone gracefully in the clear heavens.

One hundred and fifty million kilometers away, in the vast emptiness of space near the local star, the very fabric of reality started to be distorted.

The distortion in space-time starting giving itself a humanoid figure, although much bigger. This was Flare, the God of the Sun.

Mighty!

Hot plasma from within the star rises to the surface, cools and sinks back down in a process called convection, like bubbling water in a boiling pot.

The golden God of the Sun marveled at the mighty star that named after him, so much heat and energy in a magnificent display of cosmic power. Flare could feel an unimaginable amount of power waiting to be released around sunspots, where intense magnetic fields penetrate the photosphere to link the corona to the star interior.

"It's show time, baby!"

Raising his hand toward the sun, the mighty Flare created a solar arcade - a series of closely occurring loops following magnetic lines of force. These lines of force quickly reconnect into a lower arcade of loops leaving a helix of magnetic field unconnected to the rest of the solar arcade.

The sudden release of energy in this reconnection leads to extreme acceleration of charged particles. The unconnected magnetic helical field and the hundreds of quadrillion of tonnes of superheated material that it contains violently expand outwards in a violent outburst that is 10,000 times as powerful as the strongest flares known on the Sun.

Nothing could stop it now but due to the limitation of light speed, it would take eight minutes before the world knew.

Back in Detroitland, the sun advanced upward in a heaven of the purest clearness, outshining in her passage the twinkling light of the moons. She passed over the Twin moons of Serrana and Tharn, and was now nearing the halfway point between the horizon and the zenith.

A terrible silence weighed upon the entire scene! Not a breath of wind upon the earth! not a sound of breathing from the countless chests of the spectators! Their hearts seemed afraid to beat! All eyes were fixed upon the yawning mouth of the very-well-camouflaged Volkanone Complex and the sun.

Suddenly.

"Look! the Sun."

Something utterly incomprehensible by most people on earth happened.

The sun was changing its shape, no longer the normal friendly perfect circle but a terrifying and alien oval.

The moment when the sun of Falmart flaring up and unleashed it hungry tongue of flame had become the divine signal for renewed cries of ever greater intensity across the entire Empire.

Instantly the vast assemblage of troops, as with one accord, struck up the national hymn of the Darwinian Empire, sung by five million of hearty throats, rose like a roaring tempest to the farthest limits of the atmosphere.

Then a profound silence reigned throughout the crowd.

The main artillerist and the two mathematician had by this time entered the enclosure reserved in the center of the multitude.

They were accompanied by the members of the Gun Guild, and by deputations sent from all the Empire's Observatories.

Lord Barbicane, cool and collected, was giving his final directions.

Those who happened to be out late on the thirteenth had an opportunity of witnessing another magnificent display of light. The auroral phenomenon on Falmart was very similar to the magnificent display of lights on Earth's polars, though the lights here were much more brilliant, and the prismatic hues had more varied and gorgeous.

The light appeared to cover the whole firmament, apparently like a luminous cloud, through which the stars of the larger magnitude indistinctly shone. The light was greater than that of the moon at its full, but had an indescribable softness and delicacy that seemed to envelop everything upon which it rested.

Between 12 and 1 o'clock, when the display was at its full brilliancy, the quiet streets of the city resting under this strange light, presented a beautiful as well as singular appearance.

In Alnus Bridgehead, Lieutenant General Itami and his friend looking out of the tent saw a great reflection in the southern heavens at about 7 o'clock local time, and in the next two Falmart days, a scene of almost unspeakable beauty presented itself.

Lights of every imaginable color were issuing from the southern heavens, one color fading away only to give place to another if possible more beautiful than the last, the streams mounting to the zenith, but always becoming a rich purple when reaching there, and always curling round, leaving a clear strip of sky, which may be described as four fingers held at arm's length.

The northern side from the zenith was also illuminated with beautiful colors, always curling round at the zenith, but were considered to be merely a reproduction of the southern display, as all colors south and north always corresponded.

It was a sight never to be forgotten, and was considered at the time to be the greatest aurora recorded. The rationalist and pantheist saw nature in her most exquisite robes, recognising, the divine immanence, immutable law, cause, and effect. The superstitious and the fanatical had dire forebodings, and thought it a foreshadowing of Armageddon and final dissolution. Unfortunately, the latter were proven right.

Ten o'clock struck!

The moment had arrived for loading the projectile! The necessary operations for the descent, and the subsequent removal of the cranes and scaffolding that inclined over the mouth of the Volkanone, required a certain period of time.

Margrave Barbicane had regulated his chronometer to the tenth part of a second by that of Murchison the engineer, who was charged with the duty of firing the gun by means of an electric spark. The 50 mouths of the Volkanone Complex, now completely disencumbered, were open entirely to the sky.

Murchison followed with his eye the hand of his chronometer. It wanted scarce forty seconds to the moment of ignition, but each second seemed to last an age! At the twentieth there was a general shudder, some few cries here and there escaped the crowd.

"Thirty-five!—thirty-six!—thirty-seven!—thirty-eight!—thirty-nine!—forty! FIRE!"

Instantly Baron Murchison pressed with his finger the key of the electric battery, restored the current of the fluid, and discharged the spark into the breech of the Volkanone Complex.

An appalling unearthly report followed instantly, such as can be compared to nothing whatever known, not even to the roar of thunder, or the blast of volcanic explosions! No words can convey the slightest idea of the terrific sound! An immense spout of fire shot up from the bowels of the earth as from a crater. The earth heaved up, and with great difficulty some few spectators obtained a momentary glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air in the midst of the fiery vapors!

At the moment when that pyramid of fire rose to a prodigious height into the air, the glare of flame lit up the whole of Detroitland; and for a moment day superseded night over a considerable extent of the country. This immense canopy of fire was perceived at a distance of one hundred miles out at sea, and more than one ship's captain entered in his log the appearance of this gigantic meteor.

The discharge of the 50 Volkanone supercannons was accompanied by a perfect earthquake. Detroitland was shaken to its very depths. The superheated gases of the metallic hydrogen, expanded by heat, forced back the atmospheric strata with tremendous violence, and this artificial hurricane rushed like a water-spout through the air.

Not a single spectator remained on his feet! All lay prostrate like ears of corn under a tempest. There ensued a terrible tumult; a large number of persons were seriously injured. Baron Murchison, who, despite all dictates of prudence, had kept in advance of the mass, was pitched back 120 feet, shooting like a projectile over the heads of his fellow men. Three hundred persons remained deaf for a time, and as though struck stupefied.

As soon as the first effects were over, the injured, the deaf, and lastly, the crowd in general, woke up with frenzied cries.

"Hurrah for Emperor Molt! Hurrah for Princess Pina! Hurrah for the Empire!" rose to the exquisite auroral skies.

Operation Darkstorm officially begin.

May God have mercy on the souls of those who are about to fall.

Gateway Space Station, Medium Falmart orbit

An alarm claxon rang out through the rotating space station. The space station commander, Major General Beringer barked, "Status!"

"Sir, the massive solar storm is interacting with the planet's magnetic field producing immense flux concentrations that are interfering with our weapons targeting systems, global positioning systems, and telecommunications systems of all our satellites and space stations, rendering them either imprecise or unusable."

Dammit! General Beringer took a minute to curse every christian saint he knew of, and then switched to foreign deities to cover his bases. Where the hell did a solar storm of this magnitude come from? They've just lost radar, GPS and Prompt Global Strike capability which meant there was a huge hole in their defenses.

Looking down at Falmart, the scene was absolutely astonishing, the entire atmosphere was illuminated with countles colors. The global auroras displayed dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appeared as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire planet.

"General Beringer. Flash traffic from Blackjack satellites constellation. Massive explosions are detected all over the planet. We are seeing many bus-sized projectiles being launched into orbit."

Jesus Christ! We are under attack, this geomagnetic storm was their plan from the beginning. Those fuckers had orbital artillery.

"Amaterasu System in automatic mode! It is targeting the targets!"

Everyone on the station felt the shift in the normal background hum as the vast banks of super conducting capacitors that made up most of the station began to discharge. All around the planet orbit, Amaterasu V satellites and the Gateway Space Station started firing their 100 MW gamma-ray laser cannons at the barrage of incoming projectiles but their success rate was abysmal.

"This damn storm is jamming our sensors. Only fifty three orbital ballistic targets are tracked… and ten are eliminated! There are too many of them!"

"Ignited the station boosters, get us to a higher orbit!" Beringer screamed. The four rocket boosters beneath the space station came back to live and released powerful thrust in the form of blue flame.

Thanked to his timely order, Gateway space station was saved from destruction.

Xenoscram Airport, Haemus Mountains, Central Europania

Once the green light is given, the authorization codes are sent immediately from The Imperial Defense Committee bunker to the one-thousand-one carriages long armored train which act as backup HQ of General Headquarters, which is running up and down from Sadera to Uralia.

From its backup train, General Headquarters validates the authorization code, elaborates the launch codes for theatre strategic forces and transmits it to Europania Command, with a single radio burst, bypassing the SIGNAL network and all the Imperial Strategic Rocket and Bomber Forces command and control chain. Allied SIGINT units detects the radio signal but it's not able do decrypt it. Those US special forces, plugging the SIGNAL cable, cannot listen anything special.

From now on, undetected by SIGINT, command and control operations of theatre strategic forces are entirely in the hands of Princess Pina, commander in chief of Lemuria Theatre of Operations.

"Princess Pina has requested for the Super Heavy Bombing Unit's dispatch." A staff member reports to Division Chief Arley Tolliger.

"The time has come…"

Having no combat history to date, the Super Heavy Bombing Unit was new, only being established right after the GATE opened. Their task was to bomb enemy territory using either conventional bombs or air-launched cruise missiles. At the heart of their unit is their latest super heavy bomber, the Vimanas-225, which uses the empire's latest mass produced magic engines.

Arley Tolliger and the other 102 pilot walked towards the airport's parking apron where a dozen aircrafts completely painted in shining white awaited them.

They were Vimanas-225 Terrabombers. If one were to look at one of these aircraft and describe it, the first thing that may come to mind is that it has an "uncannily odd shape for an aircraft."

The Terrabombers incorporated a distinctive twin-fuselage design with a central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament. Its six elongated, egg-shaped engines, each decorated with ominous-looking symbols critical for the aircraft's flight, are mid-mounted on its wings of a tapered design; one would be forgiven to think that this is a jet aircraft due to the absence of propellers but it is not.

They're magical light chant engines that expel compressed air for propulsion and are fueled by high purity red magic gems. They also incorporated superchargers which forcibly sends air into the engines, allowing it to preserve engine power output at higher altitudes where the air is thin. This allows the Terrabombers to have maximum speed of 1530 km/h at full wartime emergency power and a range of 144,200 km.

Strapping themselves in, the men began the laborious pre flight checks before finally starting the six magical light chant engines one by one and taxiing out onto the newly laid 5,000 meter underground concrete runway. When given permission by the tower, Arley opened the throttles to 100% power slowly and released the brakes. As the big aircraft began to accelerate quickly Arley caught sight out of the corner of his eyes the two chase dragons pull up beside his aircraft from astern.

Watching the speed indicator he eventually gently pulled back on the control column and the nose of the Vimanas-225 came up smoothly, a few seconds later the main gear left the runway and the Vimanas-225 was airborne for the first time. The Vimanas-225 lumbered into the brilliant auroral kaleidoscope heaven and turned to fly eastwards, it climbed up though the heavy cloud, being buffeted by the contrary winds of the summer storm that stretched across eastern Europania. The first in a fleet of more than 60,000 heavy bombers that would enter combat today.

Air Force Global Strike Command, Paragon Complex, Alnus Bridgehead.

Back in the conference room there was a type of tension in the air that none of the inhabitants had felt before. Several men showed expressions of open fear.

Chief of Space Operations, General Raymond got off the phone, "Commander Nuttall, Gateway Space Station report a massive ground to orbit attack underway. The enemy are reportedly using fragmentation projectiles to shoot down our satellites …"

The general was cut off as an alarm echoed in the meeting room. The vast computer display with a map along one wall light up and zoomed to a location along the Lemuria Channel. "Massive cruise missiles launched detected…"

Several generals shouted questions what was going on. The Supreme Commander ignored the panicking generals and minsters, already suspecting an answer.

The massive geomagnetic storm followed immediately by a Kessler syndrome attack then a massive air launched missiles attack.

This was a preemptive strike.

・・・

The overall strike was, from a purely organizational perspective, brilliant. It combined strikes by 60,000 heavy bombers spread across three continents and warships in two separate bodies of water into a single massive attack which struck across all of Lemuria Peninsula within a 9 hours period.

Even considering that the basic outline of the plan had been in place for several years and regularly updated, the success of the plan is a testament to the professionalism of the men and women who designed it.

Interestingly, it was not an Allies airbase that was the first to feel the wrath of the Empire, that unfortunate distinction belongs to Brest submarine base.

At 04:12 hours local time Zeroth Combined Fleet, sailing 1200 miles off the coast of Lemuria fired two hundred Aggregat-9/10 missiles armed with chemical warheads to overwhelm the local air defense, these were followed at 04:14 hours by ten Apocryph munition missiles from the Southern Attack Force, followed 1:30 later by a second ten Apocryph suicide missiles from the Western Attack Force.

Flight time was 650 seconds, with the first salvo of Apocryph warheads detonating nominally at 4,900 feet over the repair bunkers and the second salvo detonating approximately 3000 yards east of the first death cloud.

The detonation of the special weapon of mass destruction devastated Brest, with the main destructive agent being Apocryph. An estimated 29,000 individuals died within 30 seconds of the weapon's detonation. It was just the beginning.

The Vimanas-225 strike forces, flown at virtual rooftop height in near total radio silence were supported by very heavy jamming and chaff.

The first salvo of 100,000 Havajahaz VII Ohka suicide cruise missiles were aimed at destroying all theatre and strategic nuclear delivery systems.

Twenty thousand warheads were successfully detonated over their designated targets, with five thousand Apocryph warheads detonated on the silos of the RS-28B ICBM fields in eastern Wukelan, western Porando and in Ostland.

UEADF strategic rocket forces were not even able to launch a single missile when they are completely incinerated.

The second wave of 100,000 missiles, with 20,000 Apocryph warheads, were launched to destroy all the previously detected SS-120 launchers, mostly in the surrounding areas near Military District Three, Four and Five in the North; in the Rasmussen island and Military District Six, Seven and Eight in the South.

In Military District Three, Four and Five, the Imperial Frontal Aviation launched other attacks with 100,000 nerve gas armed Havajahaz VII Ohka missiles, hitting the positions of the Allied Forty-sixth, Forty-third, Thirty-eight, Twenty-seventh and Twenty-eight Corps. All these large formations were deeply entrenched and are not moving. Thus the chemical bombing had less lethal effects on them. Those troops who were sheltered suffer relatively few losses, others were not even spotted by the Imperial aerial reconnaissance. Thousands of soldiers and officers died under the bombs, but the five army corps survived the strike, keeping their fighting capability.

Imperial Vimanas-138 light bombers, launched by the Siberyan Military District, began to sweep the Lemuria coastal regions, dropping 500,000 tones of fuel-air bombs on all detected concentration of troops. All the 13 Allied army corps deployed here, were severely hit and suffer thousands of losses. Seven of them managed to retreat in the inner and more protected regions of central Lemuria, but, while moving, they exposed themselves to a second wave of bombings. The Latin American Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, Forty, Twelve, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-first and Second Corps were completely disbanded after this second strike.

Further suicide 300,000 missiles (with both chemicals and biological warheads) were launched in the third wave to destroy all strategic and tactical air bases all over the Peninsula. Capitals of military regions are flattened with six thousand missiles each: Berurin, Hanburuku, Mosukuwa, Peenemünde, Sevuasutopori were all gone, with all their military and civil infrastructures, in the largest single massacre in military history.

・・・

Often overshadowed by the truly apocalyptic events in the final phase of Operation Darkstorm, the actual combat surrounding the total destruction of the Allied front on August 8th represent some of the most dramatic and insightful actions of the entire land campaign.

Featuring as they do the one great role reversal of the entire war, with the Praetorian Guards in full attack mode and the Allies scrambling to defend against a shattering attack. The actions allow one to contrast the differences between the two opponents with each assuming the others usual role.

When looking at the Praetorian Guards attack, both in its plan and its execution, it become rapidly apparent that, up until now, the Allies were quite fortunate that their battlefield preparations were as effective as they were in crippling the Praetorian Guards ability to mount immediate counter-attacks against any of the Allied attacks.

The Praetorian Guards in attack was an utterly different creature to the same forces on the defensive.

On defense the Praetorian Guards relied on strategies that were effectively unaltered for thousands of years and that relied almost exclusively on the enemy both being willing to play according to the Empire rulebook and being casualty adverse.

When these conditions did not exist, particularly in the absence of air support, Praetorian Guards doctrine left their formations vulnerable to overwhelming firepower and the enemy's ability to maneuver almost unopposed away from designated "fortresses".

Front line Praetorian Guards units, when cut-off from support that usually was fatally dependent on the Empire ability to rapidly move forces across interior lines of communication via rail, were quickly reduced to a series of immensely savage, fanatically fought yet inevitably futile "to the last arrow" defensive stands.

These were so predictable that Allied planners, just a few months into the land war, had begun to factor them into operational plans, to the degree that offensive plans were timed to allow concentration of air assets to crush the expected final "turtle shell" defensive position that Praetorian Guards forces seemed to consider the only option when a major position was about to be lost.

It seems to have never occurred to the Praetorian Guards High Command that this mentality allowed the Allies to use tactics that had been perfected during the bloody advance across the Pacific against another utterly fanatical, immensely brave, but ultimately annihilated opponent 80 years ago.

On the offensive however, the Praetorian Guards troops were, if not breathtakingly innovative, both aggressive and adaptive.

Immediately after the Apocryph first strike, the Imperial airborne troops begin to move in two sectors: the First and Third Combined Arms Armies move into the First Military District, from Milwaukee and Kalamazoo in Aethiopia respectively; the Eight, Eleventh and Fifth Combined Arms Armies move in the Second Military District from three different sectors in Aegyptus, trying to encircle completely all the Allied army corps there. Cavalry Division Artillery (all elite Category A units) have to move as fast as possible, in order to complete the seizure of the 1st and 2rd Military District protecting Alnus Bridgehead, exploiting the shock of the Apocryph first strike, before the UEADF could reorganize.

All three Fronts commanders are given the authorization to use liberally weapons of mass destruction against enemy ground forces.

In the First Military District, the two Imperial armies are moving unopposed. Riding into the desert at high speed and heading to Urumqi city, they manage to advance for 1200 km in just one day. The two Allied formations in this large area, the 1st Indian Mechanized Corp and the 2nd Tank Army, without orders, simply follow the previous dispositions in case of enemy attack: to conduct a fighting retreat into central Lemuria and establish a defensive line along the mountains.

But after the sight of Apocryph death cloud in air bases, the orders are suddenly translated by local commanders and soldiers in: abandon all positions and run away as fast as possible. The sudden retreat of the two Allied formations is immediately spotted by the Imperial aerial reconnaissance.

Then, 500 Vimanas-225s, supported by 2500 dragons and 5000 wyvern, begin immediately to pound the retreating formations with 50,000 tones of fuel-air bombs. Both the Indian formations are not well protected against fuel-air weapons effects.

After the first dozen thousands of bombs begin to fall, projecting high fire cloud in the sky, thousands of soldiers die instantly, all the others begin to flee in all possible directions. By the end of the day, the two Indian army formations in the West ceased to exist.

In the Second Military District, military operations are more intense and dramatic. When the Empire advance begin, three Allied corps deployed forward are suddenly encircled. The commanders of the Thirteenth and Forty-fourth Tank Corps realizes to have the entire Imperial Eleventh CAA Army in their left flank and the Fifth CAA Army in their right.

The Chinese Sixteenth Corps is in a better position, because it's out of the trap, but it has to face Empire armored divisions at close range. While troops are scared and uncoordinated and they lack orders from Alnus, the three local commanders decide to face the enemy following the Maoist tradition: launching human/tank waves. A retreat is technically impossible, surrender means severe punishments after the battle.

Thus the assault is the last and only available option. The three army corps have to get as close as possible to the enemy (in order to avoid airstrikes) and try to encircle its divisions, closing them into Finnish-style motties, as prescribed by the Chinese doctrine. But, the Empire had already taken some counter-measures.

The attack, which began at 04:05 in full daylight under clear blue skies, was a slaughter of the 1st order as the presence of so many troops moving the open, in broad daylight, drew Empire war dragons like moths to a porch light. When the encirclement begin, the Empire divisions manage to disengage and the rocket batteries begin immediately to launch their Apocryph tipped missiles.

By 04:37 the attack had ended.

The Chinese mechanized/armored divisions, exposed in the open, concentrated in massive tank waves attack, are completely annihilated. Tens of thousands soldiers and officers die instantly, all the others begin to escape in all directions or surrender to the advancing Imperial army.

Later in the night, the two Imperial armies begin to advance in a chemically contaminated battlefield.

The Frontal Aviation of the Empire Far Eastern Military District launches long range Apocryph strikes against the other three Chinese/North Korean/Mongol army corps in the Second Military District. Their traditional Maoist tactic for retreat (hide during the day, move in nighttime) prove unsuccessful. Tracked by aerial reconnaissance equipped with night vision beasts, they are targeted by 15,400 Vimanas-225 bombers and over 60,000 dragons.

In this sector, the overwhelming number of Vimanas-225s are poorly contrasted by few new 120mm anti-aircraft guns and few old nuclear SAM missiles. They manage to hammer, with 550,000 tones of fuel-air bombs the retreating troops of the Sino-Chinese Thirty-Ninth, Fortieth and Forty-fourth Corps, provoking quickly their dispersion.

By the end of the day they lose completely their fighting capability.

Collectively the Empire attacks resulted in well over three million human deaths from a single day's work.

・・・

By the tenth of August, in Lemuria, the command and control chain is completely collapsed, informations don't reach local commanders, all divisions and army corps commanders have to act on their own initiative. In this chaotic situation, all survived nuclear forces outside Alnus are isolated. They have learned, from the last communications, that an Empire attack on Allied is under way, but they didn't receive any order to launch a retaliation. In any case, they act as they have already received it, presuming that the HQ in Alnus is destroyed.

Just few Allied Tu-688 bombers were up in the air, when the WMD strike begun. Armed with nuclear-armed cruise missiles, they are the first to react, but, approaching Empire borders, they are all immediately shot down by an overwhelming swarm of Havajahaz anti-air rocket aircrafts patrolling the area.

The crew of an undetected Dong-Feng 21 missile, camouflaged deep into the Southern military districts, assumes that Allied is under WMD attack (they can clearly spot the death clouds) and learn, from retreating troops, that Empire ground force is attacking. Acting on their own initiative, the artillery men wait for the night, then, undetected by aerial reconnaissance, they fuel their missile and aim it at the Imperial Eleventh CAA Army.

The intermediate range missile falls 4 km East of enemy main camp. But its 3 MT warhead is large enough to destroy the enemy camp. The leadership, sheltered in its bunkers futher away survived the strike. But 25,000 imperial troops are incinerated. The Chinese crewmen don't survive their action: detected by a Vimanas-225 bomber they are incinerated with 50 ton of fuel-air bombs.

During that same night, ten batteries of SS-120 missiles, buried deep in Hijaz mountains, understands immediately what's happening. The death clouds are very visible from their observatories. Late in the night, their crews drag their IRBMs out of their tunnels, erect them in launch positions, fuel them and launch it at the Empire Third Combined Arms Army, killing hundred of of thousand. An Empire counter-strike, conducted with a battery of quickly re-targeted Aggregat-6C, destroy the Russian firing position. While the crews, hidden inside the tunnels, survive the blasts, all the launch facilities are completely destroyed.

On all the other fronts, the directive "disperse and dig in" prevails. All Allied troops begin to take cover wherever is possible: between hills, in basements, in tunnels and metro networks, using APCs and tanks as a cover, digging foxholes and trenches covered with vehicles or sandbags.

・・・

Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Liam Nuttall began to receive the first reports on the night between August 16th and 17th. He was informed that all first line troops are wiped out, that all reserve troops in Lemuria outside Alnus are disbanded and that 7 army corps near the coast were completely destroyed without fighting.

The initial Allied reaction to the massive WMD attack by the Empire was, understandably, shock. Following the shock was a closely related feeling of horror. As bad as the virtual obliteration of and entire Army Front (a casualty list that eventually included POTUS Dirrel youngest half-brother Captain Edward B Johnson well as James Alexander Philip Theo Mountbatten-Windsor, the child of Prince Edward, although the death of the President youngest brother was not confirmed for nearly a week after the attacks), it was the images of more than 500,000 military contractors who died while fully protected inside their bunkers that caused the greatest reaction by audiences around the world.

Apocryph or "The Mist of Nothingness" is completely unstoppable, there is no amount of armor can protect you from its effect as it literally and fundamentally alters the nature of physical space. The utter feeling of helplessness that turned into fear and revulsion towards the Empire, and by extension, every resident of Falmart, while quite understandable, also provided the Allied civilian leadership with a political blank check they need for the massacre that followed.

New York City, USA.

On the eighteenth of August, an emergency meeting of the Global Security Council was held at the United Earth Alliance Headquarters in New York was attended by; from the civilian side: US President himself and his counterparts from China, Russia, EU, India, the British Commonwealth, Japan, Brazil; from the military side: Supreme Commander Nuttall and many others.

President Dirrel took charge and opened the meeting.

"We will now commence this meeting. Now, Commander Nuttall, care to explain to us what on Earth has happened to our holdings on the Lemuria Peninsula?!"

As the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Falmart, the developments in this war was more than enough to make him feel sick many lifetimes over. His hands curled into a fist, he found his resolve to speak.

"In many aspects the Falmartian forces remain expectedly inferior to us; the cause for our misfortunes this time is the Gods of Falmart. Had they and that weird titan things not been present, the entire world should have been underneath our feet by now."

"You buffoon! Do you think 'what ifs' and 'had beens' fly in this meeting?!"

Indian PM 's anger was beyond satiating.

"It can't be helped! We could never have known that the Gods and Empire this… this powerful! These bastards redirected a fucking solar super flare towards us. That is like a hundred billion hydrogen bombs! The Empire industrial capacity, while primitive in nature, is vastly outproducing us in every single categories. No matter how many hundreds of enemy aircraft we destroy in a single battle, thousands more will replace them and this battle of attrition cost us our entire air fleet. No matter how many battleships we launch into the waves, the enemy will always out numbered us 50 to 1! Not to mention their new superweapon for which we have no countermeasure! I strongly believe that the Allies is no longer capable of defeating the Empire using conventional means."

"General Nuttall?! What happened to your unifying remarks from before?! Have you truly fallen for the enemy propaganda?! Just how do you think we could emerge victorious with an attitude like yours?!"

The Brazilian President lambasted him for his lengthy remarks.

"Mr President! If you'd listen to me!"

By this point, even General Hazama, who was known for his composure, was at his breaking point.

"If attitude and spirit was enough to win this war then we should have won by now! It is precisely because of that attitude that you fail to see reality and hence cause more damage to the Alliance! It is after countless, painstakingly difficult analyses that we have come to the conclusion that we absolutely cannot win this war conventionally! Had our opponent only been the 16th century barbarians, we would have won without question. However, our opponent is an early 20th century industrial superpower fueled by Titan powers and that are more than enough to tip the scales against our favor! Do you see the size of the enemy underground steel mill!? A single of these monster can make 80 million tons of steel per year.

I too am frustrated that the Allies has been reduced to this state! However, the true tragedy lies in people like you who ignore reality in favor of idealistic fantasies that drive the Allies and its people to destruction!

Accept it: we cannot win!"

"You coward! Do you not feel embarrassment from what you have just said?"

"If being embarrassed will win us victory then I will proudly be embarrassed! There is nothing but death and destruction down the path you seek, hence why I must tell the truth in your face!"

There was no denying it. The Alliance has not only lost most of its continental holdings but also much of its airforce in the process. Whether from denial or not, the others tried to dispute this but the US President was having none of it.

Raising his hand, he silenced the room.

"Listen, Mr. Bolsonaro. General Nuttall is an excellent man and I believe in what he is saying. The Empire is undeniably and undoubtedly a powerful foe. It is decided: we must commence Operation Samson. I leave the details to you, General Nuttall."

"Of course, Mr President!"

After millions of dead, the humans finally initiated Armageddon.

・・・

One of the most arrogance and ignorant things human ever believed and still believe since 1945 was that their little firecrackers i.e nuclear weapons can destroy the world ten times over.

While nuclear weapons are unambiguously the most destructive weapons on the planet and pound for pound, they are the most lethal weapons ever created, capable of killing millions.

The true is the destructive power of these weapons has been vastly exaggerated, albeit for good reasons.

The math looks simple enough: a single atomic bomb in Hiroshima killed 100,000 people so a H-bomb a thousand times stronger should kill 100 million people right!?

Wrong!

Tsar Bomba was more than 3,000 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. That is immense destructive power – but as one physicist explained, it's only "one-thousandth the force of an earthquake, one-thousandth the force of a hurricane". Humanity isn't stupid per se but they proud of their ignorance.

Another myth of nuclear weapons is the fallout will make the area unhabitable for hundreds of years, utterly ignorant! Just look at modern day Hiroshima.

Despite this, some well intention scientists have controversially argued that an even limited all-out nuclear war might lead to a so-called nuclear winter, since the smoke and debris created by very large bombs could block out the sun's rays for a considerable amount of time.

To inflict such ecological societal annihilation with weapons alone, we would have to detonate thousands if not tens of thousands of thermonuclear devices in a short time. Even in such extreme conditions, the area actually devastated by the bombs would be limited: for example, 2,000 one-megaton explosions with a destructive radius of five miles each would directly destroy less than 5% of the territory of the US.

Of course, if the effects of nuclear weapons have been greatly exaggerated, there is a very good reason: since these weapons are indeed extremely dangerous, any posturing and exaggerating which intensifies our fear of them makes us less likely to use them.

But to win a nuclear war one must have realistic expectations. Operation Samson was designed to win a global nuclear war with minimum civilian casualties.

・・・

The overall plan for Operation Samson is quite simple.

The navy had ninty ballistic missile submarines, each carrying 16 SLBM missiles: 1440 Trident III rockets with 4320 MIRVed 200 Kt warheads.

The first volley, with 500 warheads, will explode at high altitude in various points over Azjania, to create a huge EMP effect.

A second volley (1050 warheads) will be targeted on Imperial and Vassal states radars, air and naval bases (all air bursts).

Meanwhile, 500 RS-28 missiles (carrying 1500 warheads) have to be launched against Imperial bases in Europania and other 500 RS-28s will be launched against Darwinia and Vassal bases in East Azjania.

In this attack, also, the first volley (150 warheads for each theatre) will explode at high altitude over Western Europania and East Azjania, to create EMP.

The second volley (1350 warheads for each theatre) will strike Empire and Vassal command and control centers (ground bursts), the enemy MRBMs (ground bursts), radars, air bases and naval bases (air bursts).

Other 120 RS-28Bs will be simultaneously launched against the 5 Empire fleets and surface action groups in the Inland Sea, the 3 task forces in the Vermillion Sea, the 2 task forces in the Persae Sea.

Each naval battlegroup will be targeted by 30 warheads, all air bursts and high altitude bursts. In this case, the RS-28Bs will have to update their targeting data, based on the last relieved position of the enemy naval groups.

Both the SLBMs and the ICBMs will leave the Empire and its Vassal no warning time and are considered as an assured hit.

At H+20 minutes, immediately after the impact of all the first wave warheads, all the supersonic bombers equipped with nuclear-tipped Avangard hypersonic boost-glide vehicles will takeoff and the FOBS ( Fractional Orbital Bombardment System) will be launched against the Empire and Vassals.

During their flight time (estimated in 40 to 60 minutes), the nuclear submarines will launch a third and fourth volley (600 warheads each) over the Empire's Orbital Artillery fields, exploding at high altitude, to prevent a launch exploiting the "X-ray pin-down" effect.

The 296 Chinese Changzheng 9s and the 360 American Falcon Heavy Block Vs are targeted on Imperial underground ammunition storages and underground command and control centers: a grand total of 5.120 warheads will impact Falmart hardened targets, 3000 of which against underground air bases and 2.120 on all the other hardened targets in Falmart.

Of all those warheads will arrive in groups of 3: the first will explode over the target at high altitude (to disrupt all possible ABM defenses) the other two will impact directly on target with ground bursts.

The 150 Kanyon-6 nuclear-armed unmanned undersea vehicles are targeted on the Empire and Vassal underwater bases, costal defenses and chemical weapon production facilities, with other 600 warheads, all depth bursts.

In Lemuria theatre of operation, 300 SS-120s with enhanced radiation warheads all tactical nuclear weapons will be launched against troop concentrations, crossroads, harbors and railway nodes.

At H+10 hours, the Tu-688 bombers will fly over a disarmed Empire. If the enemy will not surrender, they will finish the work on all the not yet destroyed targets, with gravity H-bombs.

At H+16 hours, once the Tu-688 have finished their task, and if the enemy is still willing to fight, all 560 SpaceX Starship launch vehicles, with 20 nuclear warheads each, and all the survived SLBMs (from survived submarines inside bastions and under Polar ice) will be launched against the Empire's industrial targets.

At this point, the enemy will not have the capability to fight anymore. All its possible retaliations, will be reduced to a few MRBMs and (maybe) few bombers.

Imperial industrial assets will be requisitioned, after the war, for reconstruction.

Both the Global Security Council and the General Staff are almost sure that they will not need to unleash the SpaceX strategic attack.

It will not be necessary. Facing nuclear annihilation, all negotiations will work.

All they need to do now is evacuating all the troops in Falmart and gathering enough launch vehicles for a massive coordinated nuclear attack.

Alnus Bridgehead, 20th of August.

As images of the aftermath of the enemy missile and bomber attacks unfolding across Lemuria appeared on TV screens across Alnus Base, millions of Allied soldiers, marines, pilots and sailors could only watch silently. Their eyes widened in horror and dismay at what they were witnessing.

"Jesus Fucking Christ!" Lieutenant General Tommy Kennedy, Commander of US 3rd Armored Corps, exclaimed as he stared slack jawed at the TV inside the planning room.

There was nothing left but the ashes and ruins of the places that were once mighty Allied air bases. The enemy bombs and rockets chew through all the runways cement down to the bedrock undermeath. There was nothing left around the base, dead plants and animals were scattered around, but not decomposed because even microorganisms had been killed. These areas were more sterilized than the surface of the Moon.

Tommy feelings and reactions weren't that much different than all the other high ranking officers present in the room. The room erupted into agitated conversation between the various generals in the room, all of them just as baffled as the rest over this new development.

"How the fuck is this happening?" Russian General Andrei Sukhovetsky, Commander of Greater Russia's 41st Combined Arms Army, asked to no one in particular, as he watched the destruction unfolding on the viewscreen. He like many wondered how something like this was even possible. Sure, he faced the Empire's magic and missile before, but their magic were weak and their missile inaccurate. Since when could these bastards make the sun explode, hit the target with near absolute precision, or have something as dangerous as the black cloud of death.

Even inside the soundproof room, the roar of jet engines could be heard as thousand of bombers and fighters both began taking off, heading towards the surviving Allied armies scattering across the Peninsula. Bombers and fighters that were loaded down with the most powerful ordinance they could carry, hoping it would be enough to end the carnage or at least buy enough time for an orderly retreat back to Alnus.

"Perhaps trying to kill their Emperor is not a good idea, we thought we could face the best the Falmartians have to throw at us," General Asteair McDougal, Commander of British II Armored Corps, said with a sigh. "We were clearly wrong! The assassination attempt only pissed off the Dragon and now millions of our men are paying the price for it."

"There's no way we could have known the Empire'd be capable of manipulating the sun and shooting down satellites!" Lieutenant General Francis Briquemont, commander of the EU's XLVIII Mechanized Corps, said solemnly.

"And that is the problem, isn't it?" General Karanbir Singh Brar, Commander of India's 4th Tank Army, replied, pointing at the TV screen in front of them. The image of giant bomb craters stampeding over Allied positions and the charred corpses inside was proof enough of that. It was a sight that hurt those watching. Knowing they couldn't do anything about it, hurt even more.

"This has turned into a clusterfuck beyond belief," Lt. General Youji Itami, Commander of JSDF Third Special Task Force, said with an angry sigh. "A friend of my old man in The Combined Chiefs of Staff says they're asking Elon Musk to modify his Starship Launch Vehicles so that they can carry and deploy nuclear warheads. They want to use them as an improvised Fractional Orbital Bombardment System. In the meantime, all of us here will have to hold the line."

"Barely a year and it looks as if we might actually lose. Makes me wonder what other surprises these bastards might pull from their sleeves." Said General Agustín Humberto Cejas, Commander of Argentine 29th Army.

Their stream of depressing chatter was interrupted when General Hazama and his adjutant entered the room to assign them their next missions. Most had normal base fortified duties except for Itami's Third Special Task Force.

"Escort mission? Nani?!"

Itami frantically looked at the paperwork then back at the disgruntled adjutant sitting behind a desk.

Lieutenant General Akira Yanagida, a known smooth talker and General Hazama's lackey, one of the biggest thorns in Itami's side since the deployment began. He had the appearance of a man that meant business and knew how to get things done.

He was everything Itami wasn't and Yanagida knew this, made it his purpose to remind Itami whenever he could. How the two were even on speaking terms was anyone's guess.

"Yes General, an escort mission. This is coming straight from the top." Yanagida leaned back in his chair and interlocked his fingers. "We're going to make a new GATE in a more favorable location. But the Dr Hange need to map out the area and mark the location with her quantum beacon if we're going to return to Falmart."

"Why can't the special operations forces handle it? Green Berets? Spetsnaz? SAS?" Itami replied with just the faintest hint of melancholy in his voice.

"Seriously Youji? You know damn well the area is full of enemy special forces, not to mention more than half of the Empire is marching towards us." Yanagida pushed his glasses up the ridge of his nose. "The Big Five are handling it, but that doesn't mean we have to sit here and let them do all the work. This is our operation just as much as it is theirs and Japan are not going to sit back and look like a bunch of amateurs."

Yanagida's tangent caused his glasses to drop down his nose again and the officer was quick to readjust them. "Your mission is top priority so help won't be far behind I assure you. Everything else is on your shoulders."

"On my shoulders?" Itami responded quizzically.

"Yes, you're going to have a great deal of freedom in how you can carry out this mission. So make your country proud, Mister 'Hero of Ginza'." Yanagida smirked. "You have that Ranger qualification, put it to good use."

Itami sighed and nodded. "Roger, I'll go prep. I can handle this."

"Let's hope." Yanagida returned his attention to the mountains of paperwork as Itami took his leave.

Itami sighed in relief as he exited the stuffy interior of the command building. It was beginning to hit midday which meant the sun was now high in the crystal clear sky. It cast a warm glow that lifted the officer's spirits despite the bad news he received earlier.

The Imperial Defense Committee bunker, Azjania. August 24th.

Having received direct words from the Apostles that the UEADF was preparing a massive nuclear attack, Operation Darkstorm's top military commanders gathered together to modify their attack plan.

The Operation Overall Commander Sir Arthur Pendragon, Lemuria Front Commander Princess Pina, along with Defense Minister Zorzal, and other top-ranking officials from the military and intelligence branches were present, listening in to the intelligence update.

The gathered information pained a quite concerning picture. The enemy just air dropped 70 new ballistic missile submarines into the ocean adding their fleet of 20 already deployed.

Meanwhile, new ICBM silos were being built, evident in the hundreds of images depicting massive concrete tubes laying on the ground.

Airfields stationed inside Alnus also showed signs of worrisome activity, with more frequent patrols and a larger number of strategic bombers being pulled out from storage.

Rocket launch facilities in the northern sector were also greatly expanded with new launch pad being added every day.

The humans intended to strike thousands of targets simultaneously in a diabolical plan that rivaled Operation Darkstorm in terms of sophistication and coordination.

Reviewing their strategies, Sir Arthur Pendragon went over their deployed forces in the various fronts.

Arthur wave his hand, and a map of the world oceans appeared floating in mid-air, along with dozens of flashing dots.

"Those are the 81 ballistic missile submarines the humans put out at sea," the Knight of One said. "They have ninety, but nine of them are presently laid up for maintenance at the Amphitrite Naval Base."

"We have the exact, real-time position of humans ballistic missile fleet?" Pina said excitedly.

"Yes, with each being shadowed by a squadron of sea behemoths. The sea is the mermaid home turf and they are excellent trackers," Zorzal said. "Eliminating those, SSBN, I believe they're called, would functionally neutralize over a fifth of the human nuclear strike capability. And I have full confidence in our Deep Sea Fleet abilities, as well as the special equipment being sent over by the Holy Order to neutralize this threat. To eliminate the remaining SSBN under maintenance, a force of 50,000 Metkayina marines, supplemented by 5000 wyverns, 200 Vimanas-138 light bombers and a Lightning Flame Dragon Emperor, will make short work of the Amphitrite Naval Base."

Then, Athur presented the Eastern Defence Line (EDL) centered around the Karusk salient, a river region that offered many natural barriers to offensive force.

"The UEADF used two Army Groups for the defence of Karusk-EDL, and have a third Army Group behind the battle area which is held as a reserve.

The U.S. 15th Army Group and the Commonwealth 21st Army Group fielded 12 armies, with 1,200,000 men and 1,100,000 men respectively.

In reserve, the U.S. 12th Army Group had an additional 1,600,000 men. Although Latin American troops, some arriving directly from the continent, made up nearly 70% of the troops that constituted the 12th Army Group.

Thus the total size of the defending force was 3,900,000 men, with 1,700,000 actual combat soldiers.

The 15th and 21st Army Group each constructed three main defensive belts in their sectors, with each subdivided into several zones of fortification.

Fortifying each belt was an interconnected web of minefields, barbed-wire fences, anti-tank ditches, deep entrenchments for infantry, anti-tank obstacles, dug-in armoured vehicles, and machine-gun bunkers.

Behind the three main defensive belts were three more belts prepared as fallback positions; the first was not fully occupied or heavily fortified, and the last two, though sufficiently fortified, were unoccupied with the exception of a small area in the immediate environs of Karusk.

Nearly all artillery, including howitzers, guns, anti-aircraft and rockets, were tasked with anti-titan defence. Dug-in tanks and self-propelled guns further strengthened the anti-titan defences. Anti-titan forces were incorporated into every level of command, mostly as anti-titan strong points with the majority concentrated on likely attack routes and the remainder amply spread out elsewhere.

Each anti-titan strong-point typically consisted of four to six anti-titan rocket launcher, six to nine anti-titan 130mm guns, and five to seven light 88mm canons and 30mm heavy machine guns. They were supported by mobile obstacle detachments as well as by infantry with automatic firearms.

Independent tank and self-propelled gun brigades and regiments were tasked with cooperating with the infantry during counterattacks.

Our attack force near the EDL has just received reinforcements from the Special Extermination Operations Detachment, which specialize in fortification annihilation.

They have around 80,000 Armored Ogre Titans, 10,000 Titan Wyverns, 6000 Vimanas-225 Terrabombers and 4000 80cm Mountain Blaster volley guns.

Given our overwhelming advantage in long-range artillery and heavy bomber, the enemy will have to spend a considerable amount of tactical nuclear weapons to track down and destroy them. This will free up our forces to attack their defenses. "

A murmur of consensus rippled throughout the room. No one had any qualms with the current strategy, which they dubbed "False Peak".

Only an Empire with the overwhelming economic wealth that was available to the them, an civilization that was capable of drawing on the unlimited raw resources of the entire planet and beyond this dimension couple with a manufacturing capacity the beyond comprehension, would have even dared to consider something like this.

"Together, our brave soldiers will perform a double envelopment, directed at Karusk, to surround the human defenders of five armies and seal off the salient.

Imperial Army Group 16th would form the northern pincer. It would cut through the northern face of the salient, driving south to the hills east of Karusk, securing the rail line from human attack.

Imperial Army Group 13th would commit its entire force to pierce the southern face of the salient. This force would drive north to meet the IAG 16th east of Karusk.

The main attack will be delivered by 4th Imperial Army Group, spearheaded by the 11th Combined Arms Army. The 41st CAA would advance on the left while 42rd CAA would advance on the right. The 22nd CAA Army would contain the western portion of the salient."

Seeing rather satisfied expressions with the explanation, Sir Arthur reviewed the Northern Offensive Strategy.

Pointing to the map, Arthur singled out a large area. "The Northern Defence Line protecting the Rocket Launch Facilities and its supporting industrial facilities. Because of its importance, the area is very well defended.

According to our surveillance, the main defense forces, the EU 7th Army Group and Russian 13th Army Group – numbering 1,300,000 and 1,200,000 respectively, are digging 4,200 kilometres and 5,000 kilometres of trenches respectively, laid out in criss-cross pattern for ease of movement. Held in reserve is the EU 6th Army Group with 1,500,000 eastern European and Balkan troops. A total 153 tank/ mechanized/combined arms divisions in three army groups.

These were equipped with 68,000 armored vehicles, of which 35,000 were tanks, 47,000 artillery pieces, 34,000 mortars, about 1,200,000 motor vehicles, alongside 43,000 aircraft (that amounted to 65 percent of the EU Air Forces) in three Luftflotten (air fleets, the air force equivalent of army groups).

Facing this impressive defense force will be our first strategic echelon of 186 cavalry artillery divisions in the four Army Groups; Imperial Army Groups 31st, 33rd, 52rd and 49th; who supported by another 51 rocket artillery divisions in the second strategic echelon in the rear.

Their mission, however, is to fix the enemy defenders in their trenches while the main attack will be delivered by the Strategic Rocket and Bomber Forces in form of 80,000 Aggregat-9/10 suicide ballistic missiles in conjunction with 100,000 air launched suicide cruise missiles from Vimanas-225 Terrabombers targeting the enemy launch pads.

Arthur, seeing no discontent among his peers, continued, "Next, the Southern Defence Line," he said, pointing to the southern part Alnus Bridgehead. "The southern area concentrate more than half of the enemy airfields making it a strategic priority.

Our forces in the region include 4 Army Groups; Imperial Army Groups 27th, 66th, 55th and 93th; number 3,500,000 men while the human maintain three Army Groups, the Sino-Chinese 41st, 38th and 26th Army Groups. An army of 4,000,000 men with 36,000 tanks, 40,000 artillery pieces and 27,920 aircraft.

Allied combat engineers laid 15 million anti-tank mines and 14 million anti-personnel mines, with the highest concentration in the first main defensive belt. The minefields at the south achieved densities of 17,000 anti-personnel and 15,000 anti-tank mines per kilometre square, about four times the density used in the defence of the east.

Battle in the south will mostly an air battle with the Praetorian Guards play a secondary role of fixing the enemy in their sectors. The main thrust will come from the combined air-fleets of all thirteen Afrykania's military districts numbering 10,000 Vimanas-225, 400,000 paratroopers and 5,000,000 wyverns with a single mission of neutralizing enemy airfields. "

Arthur then moved on, "Finally, we have the Western Defence Line." He pointed at the map, placing pieces along the western region. "These former grasslands contain some of the largest oilfields in Lemuria, making this area the core industrial zone and the home to three million humans workers. It also the shortest routes to the Gate therefore it will be defended by a great number of enemy forces, amounting to almost 5,000,000 men in 4 Army Groups.

India 18th and 22nd Army Groups will manned the first defensive belts while the Arabian 35th Army Group and the African 11th Army Group will be held at the rear as reserve. Together they held the Vishnu Line.

Although the name might suggest a rather thin linear fortification, it is actually quite deep, varying from 20–25 kilometres (12–16 miles). It was composed of an intricate system of strong points, fortifications and military facilities such as border guard posts, communications centres, infantry shelters, barricades, heavy artillery, machine-gun and anti-titan rocket emplacements, supply depots, infrastructure facilities and observation posts. These various structures reinforced a principal line of resistance made up of the most heavily armed ouvrages, which can be roughly translated as fortresses or big defensive works.

Our offensive strategy for the area call for a three-staged attack.

Phase I: The Fourth Armored Ogres Army, and the Second Cavalry Artillery Army, supported by the Second Super Heavy Artillery Army from the Special Extermination Operations Detachment, would attack from the Vishnu Line from Katarina to Voronezh and continue the advance, anchoring the northern flank of the offensive towards the Aglov river.

Phase II: The Sixth Combined Arms Army with the support of 50 Lightning Flame Dragons would attack the Vishnu Line from Vokrahk and move in parallel with Fourth Armored Ogre Army, to reach the Aglov river at Dargnilat.

Phase III: The First Armored Ogres Army with the support of 40 Lightning Flame Dragons would then strike south towards the lower Noda River, with the Seventeenth Combined Arms Army on the western flank and Fourteenth Combined Arms Army on the eastern flank.

The strategic objectives of the operation are the oilfields, the industrial facilities and the GATE itself. Most of the fighting on this front will be done in industrial facilities so the 11th and 16th Youxia divisions of Detachment Kempf specializing in urban warfare will reinforce our efforts.

Arthur then pointed at the big countdown clock hanging on the wall. "The final Phase of Operation Darkstorm will commence in exactly 25 hours 37 minutes. May the Divine Thirteen bless us."

Chapter 15 Year One Finale - The Cataclysm of Ice and Fire P2

As the 52017 Assessment on The Human Threat put it, following the findings of the Special Report, an attack with hydrogen bombs would result in a war, which "would be a struggle for survival of the grimmest kind".

The Special Report was being made on the assumption that the Empire would be hit by 10,000 H-bombs targeted on seats of government, industry and population with Sadera receiving 35 bombs.

The planners based their calculations on what they called the "nominal bomb" with an explosive power or yield of 10 megatons and which would result in "…a threat of the utmost gravity to our survival as an empire." As well as blast, one bomb could produce up to 100000 fires. Fall out would create "…an inner zone of approximately 270 square miles in which radiation will be so powerful that most life will be extinguished…".

There would be three billion dead and 400 million other serious casualties - one-third of the population. A further 1300 million people would be pinned to their homes for at least a week by fall-out.

Apart from the loss of life "The houses of a very large proportion of the working population would be destroyed or rendered uninhabitable by ordinary standards as a result of widespread damage to roofs and walls by blast. The effectiveness of the surviving working force would be seriously reduced by illness…longer term effects would be primarily to reduce the economic power of the Empire…".

There would be destruction over half the Empire. Ninty four per cent of industrial capacity would be crippled with grave dislocation of essential utility services over a wide area. This, in turn, would disrupt the distributive systems of the country and interfere with ordinary social and economic processes including the mechanism of money transmission.

Apart from the direct loss of food stuffs widespread contamination would affect most forms of agricultural production and water supply. There could be no reliance on normal imports for a considerable time and the survivors would have to subsist under siege conditions on whatever stocks remained.

The continued effect of these and other consequences of nuclear attack would be to set up a "chain reaction" in the social and economic structure of the country. Even those not directly affected would suffer malnutrition and be unable to give their best in the work of restoration.

A disproportionate loss of the working population and of key personnel might leave excessive numbers of "useless mouths" among the survivors.

In the following months, an Imperial defence circular announced that "the megaton weapon has produced a situation so different in degree as to amount to a difference in kind". This required a "complete overhaul of our home defence plans…the number of casualties, extent of damage by blast and fire, and restrictions on movement imposed by fall-out will necessitate a much closer co-ordination of effort, over far wider areas than has previously been required".

Plans were made accordingly.

By the late 52010s, the assumption was that war would begin with an initial onslaught of 10,000 hydrogen bombs after which the Empire must, by all means, recover and fight an extended "broken backed" war with whatever resources it could be scraped together.

In the early 52020s, a global survey was made of all available shelter space; plans for evacuation and rationing resources were drawn up and millions of nuclear-survivable, strategic bunkers, protected by at least 300 m of granite, were ordered. There was even a Working Party set up "to consider the civil defence arrangements for domestic animals and wild animals in captivity".

The loss of life, casualties and damage in this case would still be horrendous but based on experience from the Unification War and many Imperial civil wars, the attacks would not result in the breakdown of society or the system of government.

Consequently, civil defence measures were only needed to help the survivors in the immediate "life saving" period to cope with the immediate and localised effects on the attack.

The results of the attacks would need to be monitored both regionally and globally.

The regions of Falmart were therefore re-instated again under Regional Military Governors with the same dual responsibilities. They would oversee civil defence operations and if necessary assume complete control of the region if communications were lost with the central government in New Sadera.

The essential tasks would be -

Maintenance of the national chain of control

Maintenance of law, order and morale

Provision of food and water

Restoration of power

Provision of fuel for transport

Preservation of public health including sanitary measures and the burial of the dead

Essential repairs to roads, bridges, houses and other essential buildings

The desirable aims could include -

Registration and documentation of the surviving population for morale purposes

Provision of shelter, clothing and bedding

Keeping people clean

Organisation and employment of labour

Resumption of agriculture

Resumption of chlorine manufacture (for water purification)

Salvage of materials of war.

Resumption of cultural and recreational activities

Organisation of school children.

- Prince Ainsworth

Realm of the Gods, August 2030.

Above the boundary of space and time, at the border between the Realm of the Immaterial and the Realm of the Corporeal laid the Great Ethereal Matrix Worlds, the domain wherein the very fundamental of the multiverse; twisted, warped and distorted. Where all sense of logic is absent, in replacement of the metaphysical. Within it lies the foundation of sorcery.

For the deities who lived in this place, the difference between science and magic was nonexistent. For the trillions of immortal beings that patronize billions of material worlds, it was a place of mysticism and mechanism were one. A realm of sophisticated technology and advanced thaumaturgy. A transcend place in which the metaphysical blurred with the physical.

Hardy, the Goddess of the Underworld, the Keeper of Souls and Mistress of the Dead had experienced life for a hundred millennia, even dating at times before the departure of her creator, the Old God Falmart.

It had been... an interesting existence ever since. To possess power over life and death and even gaze into the livelihood of mortals across the plane was nothing short of amazing. Hardy commanded powerful beasts, some were themselves a force of nature. She held dominion over the souls of billions and reigned supreme over the entirety of the Falmart Underworld.

And as that transcendent being, Darwin, joined their rank more than 50,000 years ago, things just get even better.

However.

Currently, two things were upsetting Hardy, the Queen of Death and the Ruler of Underworld.

The first was the overwhelming number of souls entering her realm at the same time like a flood. Hardy was being overworked, it was like a traffic jam of epic proportions under here.

The second was the the fact that barely anyone pray for her in this war.

The mortal warriors prayed to Emroy to grant them victories and to Palapon to avenge them for their defeats, the local bards sang in the name of Lunaryur, the imperial gunsmith prayed to Duncan to bless their engines of war, the mages prayed to Ral and Elange to enhance their magic, mothers and wives prayed to Miritta to protect their children. The king and queen prayed to Darwin to protect their precious Empire. The mortals would prayed for all the gods old and new but barely anyone pray for her, the mighty Queen of the Dead. It seemed she reminded them of their own mortality.

This was the Greatest War since the Unification, Hardy however, couldn't care less. The war offered her nothing but ceaseless bemoaning souls, continuously harassed her ears with their irritable regrets. Furthermore, the interesting ones, the fallen humans of Earth, Emroy was getting all of the their souls. What a pity they were not her devotees, but the rule was clear. The warrior peoples were under Emroy's jurisdiction, not her.

The gods are not supposed to experience envy, but some events still find their way. Hardy was angry now.

In her temper tantrum, Hardy would often wander to the Great Web of Life and Destiny, a five-dimensional construct in eleven-dimensional space just beyond the veil of her own divine domain, which acts as a model of the entire Multiverse and enables the travel between realities.

Through the Well of Fate, as the rippling surface of cosmic water stir within, it revealed an endless branch of realities with every moment in time, every possible future. The Goddess saw them all, judging which is most likely to come to pass.

"Let's see," thought Hardy.

And the goddess looked through the veil of space and time, beyond the stars and beyond the void between the worlds….Amongst the limitless realms, the endless worlds and the infinite time-line, the strings of realities tangled into one another, a complexity of incalculable magnitude. Her immaterial eyes were drawn at the endless thread of possibilities, feeling the celestial energy exude from each of them.

….

….

….

….

She looked at the future of Falmart…. And horrified by what she was seeing.

Countless flashes of light of unbelievable cosmic power followed by rising mushroom clouds across the planet signifying the destruction of the world. Then came the Great Darkness that spread like a malignant cancer across the Realm of the Living and finally the Eye of Terror opened signaling the End Time was here. At the center of this calamity was a figure of a dark being whose perversion and cruelty repulsed the Gods , Archaron, the 13th Everchosen of Chaos Undivided, the Herald of the Apocalypse and the Lord of the End Times and the future Three-Eyed Necromancer King.

"This is bad, I must warn the others."

Thus the distressed Goddess motioned her hand, exuding divine power to open the gate to the Hall of Divine Thirteen.

・・・

"You must be kidding me!" Exclaimed Palapon, the fearsome God of Vengeance whose blessing was called upon by every assassin in history.

"Unfortunately not! Hardy is right, the Web of Life and Destiny do not lie," for the first time in a millennia, Zufmuut, the God of Light and Order agreed with the Queen of the Dead signifying the serious of problems they faced. "The prophecy is clear, unless the two Empires joined forces, the World of the Living will end by the blade of the Necromancy King. End Times is here!"

His straightforward announcement brought a cold shivering to other Gods.

The End Times, the great cataclysmic apocalypse that had been long predicted to bring about the end of the Mortal World. It was heralded by the arrival of the Twin-Tailed Comet, both an omen of hope and one of destruction. As the world endured its final, agonising demise, the mortal races of the World of the Living fought to the very last against the encroaching darkness which sought to consume them all.

"How could humanity become our salvation when they're the destroyer of their own world!?" Wareharun, Goddess of Trees and Forests, patron of harvest and medicines raised her point.

"I must respectfully disagree Lady Wareharun, salvation comes in many forms and its vehicles could come from the most bizarre background, that is the true meaning of heroism!" Darwin, the Former Titan King and the current God of Creation and Destruction said from his own people experiences. "What we need is an 'Unlikely Hero', to become the instrument of fate."

"Fortunately for us, the Three Sisters of Fate

had woven the chosen hero on their Great Web of Life and Destiny, we just need to follow as it laid out.

With a simple gesture, Deldort, the God of Covenants casted a cloud of smoke in the air, which soon acted as some kind of mirror showing the face of their unlucky 'Hero'.

"This can't be serious!" Emroy moaned.

The man who appeared in the smoke was moderately tall, with dark hair of an oriental build, quite muscular despite being in his middle age.

He, however, wasn't looked like a great warrior, infact he didn't look like the kind of guy that belongs to the military. His eyes lack the serious and aggressive needed to win a battle. In short, he wasn't Emroy' type.

"Youji Itami, this is our 'warrior of fate' whose destiny woven on the Great Web of Life by the Sisters of Fate is to bring the doom to the Three-Eyed Necromancer King. He is the linchpin which connects the great players in this great conflict between civilizations." Announced Elange, God of Knowledge. "His survival at this moment is paramount to this world salvation."

The other gods shook their heads in disappointment, this was certainly not their preferred choice but it was the will of the Sisters whose authority must be respected.

The Sisters of Fate ensured that every sentient beings, mortal and divine, lived out their destiny as it was assigned to them by the laws of the universe. For mortals, this destiny spanned their entire lives, and was represented as a thread spun from a spindle.

Generally, the Sisters were considered to be above even the old gods as they were the enforcers of fate.

Although in many occasions, Tzeentch, the Lord of Change, the Chaos God of change, evolution, ambition, destiny, lies, trickery, sorcery, knowledge, and mutation, was able to influence their work.

This is not say the mortals doesn't have free will as life is a combination of Fate and Freewill. Fate may be present in our lives, but ultimately, we must utilize our own Freewill to fulfill our potential. The best way to imagine it is the river and a boat, fate is the river, men is the boat.

"I will send my apostle to ensure his survival, in the meantime we must reinforce lighthouses of souls, the underworld is overflow with the dead and the more lost souls wandering in the mortal realm the more souls the Necromancer King can corrupt." Emroy declared.

SpaceX Star City, Boca Chica, Texas, United States, August 2030.

The factory was packed to capacity, humming with activity as the workforce raced to complete the last Pre Production Starship Launch Vehicles Block V and move onto the A-5 Starkiller model. As each fractional orbital bombardment system was finished it was rolled out and given a brief ignition test before it shipped off for an unknown destination in Asia.

In an office in the factory engineers and managers poured over schedules and orders, making sure that the complex dance of supplies and factory space was fully optimized to enable them to produce as many Starkiller FOBS as possible.

The Starkiller was by far the most complex orbital lauch vehicles they had ever produced and the incredible pressure to produce as many as possible had resulted a rather unique solution to the problems of man-hours and floor space.

On the wall was a large poster detailing all the major and minor components of the two-stage launch vehicle. The Super Heavy first-stage boosters were made by Northrop Grumman, the Advanced Maneuverable Reentry Vehicles by Raytheon Technologies, the guidance system and heat shield by Sierra Nevada Corporation. Only the Starkiller spacecraft and the Raptor engines were made by SpaceX, and even then it was made in sections at several other plants and the Star City plant would only actually carry out final assembly and integration of the various electronic systems.

This plan had been forced on the various companies by the United States Department of Defense as a solution to producing the Starkiller Launch Vehicles in sufficient numbers in the tight timetable that was demanded by the Global Security Council.

Leignitz Test Site, Southern Azjania, Falmart.

The Vimanas-349 Silbervogel rocket-powered aircraft of Jägernot programm were lined up on the huge concrete apron that fronted the hangers of the newly built Test Site. The weather was poor, rain and sleet was falling from a leaden sky, but that did not stop the flying schedule of the unit, far from it, the Silbervogel and its systems were to be tested to their limits in all conditions.

Such as today, one of the pre production Silbervogel's trundled down the taxi way towards the 3 km long rail track in use, its rocket exhaust throwing up swirls of flame behind it as it advanced its throttles to full military power. Slithering a bit on the railtrack before steadying itself it accelerated and lifted off, entering the grey overcast quickly and disappearing from view.

Up through the clouds it powered, bucking and yawing and skidding in the turbulence until it broke through at 35 thousand meters into clear blue skies. Continuing to climb the rocket-powered suborbital spaceplane flew eastwards, this suborbital flight was a simple heatshield and engine handling tests following the installation of new RKDS-1000-022 B-3 rocket engines.

As such the rear cabin was packed with additional engine monitoring equipment, where the navigator/bomb aimer and radio operator would sit in production aircraft sat instead a dedicated engineer and a navigator/radio operator.

Unlike the original prototype this spaceplane had a pilot and a co-pilot and the original control columns/steering wheel had been replaced with fighter style control sticks, as the aircraft climbed the pilots kept their eyes glued to the Orbital Speed meter, alive to either stall buffeting or the onset of compressibility.

The test pilots, like most of the aircrew at Jägernot programm regarded their mount, Princess Pina' favorite, as a bit of a 'wild dragon'. She had lethal stall and spinning characteristics and had several highly unforgiving vices in her handling. But worst of all was what they were trying to do now, to find the 'Re-entry Corridor', a narrow region in space that a re-entering vehicle must fly through.

The force of deceleration and the heat generated during re-entry increase with the steepness of the angle relative to the atmosphere. If the angle is too steep, the spacecraft burns up, and anyone unlucky enough to be inside is crushed. If the angle is too shallow, on the other hand, the spacecraft skims off the edge of the atmosphere like a stone skimming along the surface of a pond. The ideal re-entry trajectory is a narrow band between these two extremes. The angle of re-entry for the space shuttle was 40 degrees.

The altimeter wound upwards slowly, they were increasing altitude in line with gross weight, their fuel tanks were measured in Kilograms as opposed to liters, and the controls got progressively more sluggish and vague as they climbed.

There, there was the onset of Compressibility buffet, the pilots dropped the nose and popped open the airbrakes, throttling back slowly and gently a few percent of power. Just then there was an almighty bang, warning lights flashed and alarms screeched, one of the engines had just apparently blow up. The crew pressed the fire extinguisher activation buttons and throttled back the engine, but the adjacent engine had been shredded by the fragments from the nozzle, and unknown to the crew the same spray of fragments had cut the control rods to the left wing.

The Vimanas-349's nose dipped and lurched, the unsymmetrical thrust pushed the plane into a flat spin, the crew cut power to the other engines but it was too late, the aircraft was essentially beyond control now.

Spinning and tumbling the Vimanas-349 fell earthwards, the tremendous G-Forces quickly incapacitating the crew who were unconscious when the Vimanas-349 impacted the ground near the abandoned village of Prokhrovka, digging a crater 20 meters deep.

Of the crew no bone fragments lager than teeth were recovered from the wreckage, which itself was shredded into millions of pieces of mithril alloy by the impact.

2rd August 2030 Consolidated Vultee Plant, Fort Worth Texas, United States

A typically clear blue Texan sky framed the ceremony as the very first B-700 hypersonic bomber rolled out from the cavernous doors of the factory, to the applause of the gathered crowds of workers and assorted dignitaries.

There were also quite the gaggle of reporters present, taking still and cine footage of the event, the factory doors and the stands were bedecked in red, white and blue ribbons and flags. The event had been hailed as the first flight of the US Airforce's newest hypersonic bomber, but in fact the B-700 had underwent its first flight over a week ago.

What was being put on today was pure theatre, a show, and as he stood up to speak, General Spaatz knew it.

After his speech, and what seemed like an interminable series of other speeches by local dignitaries the giant silver bomber was towed out onto an apron and it started up its six pusher engines and slowly, ponderously, taxied to the end of the runway and then after a brief pause, it started to roll down the runway.

After what seemed an age the B-700 hauled itself into the air to applause from the crowd, the aircraft did not gain much height and after disappearing over the horizon it returned at low level, no more than 300 feet up, to thunder over the crowd.

Spaatz had to admit it was a striking sight, the size and noise of the B-700 made quite the impression on the throng.

After flying around for another twenty minutes or so the aircraft came into land and pulled back up in front of the crowd, shutting down its engines and then the test flight crew disembarked. There was a round of photographs and interviews with the press to be endured; Spaatz was pressed by several journalists about the controversy with the Navy over the cost of the B-700.

The US Navy had lobbied hard for more battleships instead of the B-700, arguing that battleships could better project US power, especially now that the USN was still recovering from the beating that it received in the brief naval war and the fact that the Empire was completely ignoring major warship construction, preferring to build submarines.

Spaatz snorted ironically as he remembered the most recent spat that had been had over the B-700, apparently the Admirals were being kept in the dark about the Casaba Project, and thus were actually making right royal fools of themselves in reality.

When the ceremonies and festivities were over Spaatz and his retinue retreated to the cavernous interior of the plant, stretching off into the distance were lines upon lines of B-700's under construction, the entire plant was given over to the production of the gigantic B-700.

Spaatz took a tour of the facility with the Plant Manager and his staff before retiring to a boardroom where there were some pretty frank discussions around production and delivery schedules. The first unit to receive the B-700, the newly activated 7th Bombardment Wing, was based just across the runway at Forth Worth Army Air Field, existed only on paper as it had yet to actually receive any B-700's.

Most of the pilots and aircrew of this unit spent most of their days either in the factory or in classrooms, and Spaatz was keen to get them into actual B-700's as soon as possible, for once the Casaba Project delivered he would have bombs to match this most mighty of aircraft.

Kyoto Japan, July 21st 2030.

The 18 year-old chemical genius Hideaki Nakajima paced back and forth alone in the pristine hallway of the Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (防衛装備庁, Bōei sōbi-chō, ATLA) headquarter.

An agency established under the Ministry of Defense that handles project management, technology management, research and development, and procurement of defense equipment for the Japan Self-Defense Forces.

Walking from one end to the other countless times while his mouth continued to mutter barely audible words. The squeaking of Hideaki's rubber shoes that he absentmindedly rubbed against the ceramic tiles of the floor echoed in a silly attempt of warding off the silence in that section of the building.

Occasionally, the employees who passed that corridor would stop and turn to look at the young men in astonishment, for it is extremely rare, if not downright impossible, that a teenager was seen wearing an orange-colored Clearance Level 3 employee badge—the mark of an engineer.

However, their own duties soon brought them from their stupor and they immediately walked away despite the curious sight, leaving the boy to his devices.

'Deep breath, exhale… deep breath, exhale…'

He did it over and over again, but Hideaki still can't calm his rapidly beating heartbeat. He knew that this day will happen and mentally prepared himself, but the pressure is still there.

"We already did this before, but why am I still nervous…?" he muttered to no one in particular, "Just how in the world Kurogane-senpai can endure it is beyond me—hm?"

Just as Hideaki turned around from walking to one end of the hallway, his eyes caught the familiar woman emerging from a corner near the other end. Said woman's expression broke into a wide grin at seeing one of her apprentices as she jogged lightly toward the boy.

"Heeey~" she greeted, waving her hand.

"Ah, Itami-sensei, good morning," Hideaki smiled lightly despite himself.

Dr. Naeko Itami, the daughter of the current Defense Minister, a member of the wealthy Itami clan, and Hideaki and Kenjuro's private education sponsor tilted her head and clasped her hands together.

"Sorry if I'm late, I came here as soon as I can…! Well then? Where is Kurogane-kun? Why are you here alone?"

"He's already inside, I'm just here because… I'm getting nervous," he rubbed his nape with a bashful expression on his face.

"Ah… nervous, huh?" Naeko repeated in understanding. "Hmm, how about we check on your friend together?"

She then reached out and gently massaged his shoulders as she ushered Hideaki into Conference Room 4, the place where they will conduct today's agenda.

"O-okay."

Hideaki and Naeko opened the double doors to see the 21 year-old electrical engineering genius Kenjuro Kurogane sitting at the center of a U-shaped table, wearing a white-framed, headset-like device.

This was an Augma, a next-generation wearable Augmented Reality multi-device developed by Itami Group.

The device had two arms: one is equipped with a projection lens at its tip and extends to the user's eye, allowing it project images to the user's eyes; the other extends to the back of the users head and is equipped with a matrix panel that allows the Augma to establish a link with the user's brain. The device's capability of using both retinal projections and sending signals directly to the brain is considered to be one of its greatest features

When Kenjuro pressed a button on it and an ultra realistic images shone from the device's circular lens to his eyes. Kenjuro then clicked on a floating folder icons causing one of Kenjuro' generalized technical drawings to appear mid-air.

Several minutes later, the presentation's attendees, most of whom looked like foreigners, began to stream into Conference Room 4. They took their seats on both sides of the U-shaped table, picking up the Augma that were distributed beforehand.

"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for taking your time to gather in this room. My name is Naeko Itami from ATLA, this time I will be acting as a moderator for the presentation which will be conducted by our friends, engineers Hideaki Nakajima and Kenjuro Kurogane today.

As you may have already known in advance, these two are our newest and youngest members, graduated from the Tokyo University of Science by skipping grades and were recruited through an invitation by the Defense Ministry. Today, they will be presenting the interesting design that they have come up with to you all."

Naeko smiled, watching Kenjuro stand up with a determined look. With just a simple gesture, he opened a 3D model of a complex molecules for all have Augma to see.

"Thank you, Miss Itami, for the introduction. Today, we will be explaining an invention that might change the course of this terrible war. It's all began with a discovery by my friend, the brilliant chemist, Mr Hideaki Nakajima here."

"As you know, the unfortunate true is the cursed Empire is having a decisive advantage over us in term of field artillery. With every one 180mm shells we fire, the enemy counterforce with ten 420mm shells. The only reason our army survived despite the enemy firing 120 times the volume of shells is because they lack sophisticated guided system.

To achieve this dreadful volume of shells, the Empire chemists have created a family of very cheap nitrogen-based high explosives. In pure form however, they're highly unstable so they're mixing them with an explosive inhibitor called TETB. The result is a high-performance insensitive high explosive composite mixture with similar performance to the American IMX-101 explosive.

However, recently we have discovered that the Empire has developed a next-generation insensitive high explosives (IHE) called PTXA. Chemical analysis show that PTXA is a very powerful explosive (somewhat less powerful than RDX, but more than TNT), but it is extremely insensitive to shock, vibration, fire, or impact.

The only way to detonate it is using the right Activation Magic Sequence. But what truly interesting that Nakajima discovered about PTXA is it quite sensitive to long distance magic casting.

This gave us an interesting idea. What if we can detonate them remotely using an artificial magic command. We bring this idea to the Allied Magic Countermeasures Agency's headquarters in Chicago test our ideas."

The Allied Magic Countermeasure Agency is a recently established research and development agency under the Allied Intelligence Bureau responsible for the development of emerging technologies to neutralise or obstruct enemy magic for the military.

Despite having almost unlimited resources and access to the most powerful A.I in the world, the agency has become somewhat a laughing stock as their invention having little practical applications in the battlefield.

The agency first invention the PD-1000 Magic Dismantling Cannon using compressed psion particles to forcibly blow away all the accompanying Activation Sequence and Magic Sequences — anything that has traces of Psions recorded on it.

The compressed Psions themselves travel through the physical realm as opposed to the Information Dimension. It has no physical effects and cannot be hindered by any obstacle.

Besides its short effective range, which is a side effect of the Psions traveling through physical space, the PD-1000 Magic Dismantling Cannon has no true weaknesses. However, the damn machine weights 2500 tons, costs 10 billion dollars to build and even more money to operate so it not a viable weapon.

Another interesting invention is the PD-5000 Magic Jammer Device.

The machine scatters the area of interest with vast amounts of meaningless psion waves. The scattered psion waves function as "noise" which disrupts meaningful psion wave activity. This reduces the data upload speed of magicians in the affected area to their brain by means of overwhelming it with large amounts of useless data. This in turn causes the Magical Rituals (Magical Sequences) the magicians use to be unable to affect the information body of a phenomenon.

The psion noise propagates in a random manner, and rapidly across all magic frequencies. This results in them becoming what's essentially an antennae that blocks all forms of psion transmission.

Even though victims magic will not stop completely, their activation speed will be heavily affected and they need to pour excess mana in order to maintain or activate magic than in normal condition, which will drain magicians mana reserves much faster and cause heavy inconvenience in battle.

However, like the PD-1000, the PD-5000 requires a large amount of Antinite, a synthetics stone capable of emitting psion noise which is essential for magic jamming. Yet since the production of antinite is so expensive, they remain below the surface and are not a real threat to the Empire.

"What we have found from countless rigid experiments is it's possible to remotely detonate PTXA compound using a short but powerful pulse of correct psion sequences."

With a confidence smile, Kenjuro continued. "The real problem becomes how to generate a powerful psion waves in the right activation sequences. Using the most powerful supercomputer in the world, we have successfully simulated a solution."

Kenjuro opened a video file." Using a modified PD-5000 magic jammer, we have successfully detonated a PTXA sample 5 miles away.

Of course this is in a strict experimental environment where all variables are defined. Also the PD-5000 is more than 1000 tons in weight so it isn't a viable weapon.

In real battle condition, we don't know which is the correct psion sequence so we much transmit all the possible sequences, which there are about 200,000. One advantage is that unlike with a magic jammer, in a remote detonator we just need to create a very high frequency and powerful psion burst rather than a continuous sustained wave.

Here is my design for a remote psion detonator, the PD-5 Excalibur based on the American navy 510mm nuclear shell. It is powered by a small Antinite rod with a thin layer of highly enriched uranium sitting on a silicon or gallium semiconductor, with diamond serving as both moderator and heatsink. The energy efficiency is respectable at 20%, and the compact design allows for significant mass savings."

For the next two hours, Hideaki Nakajima and Kenjuro Kurogane provided the explanation of the materials, with the attending men surprisingly listening to them intently with a man who appeared to be their leader taking notes of everything. But when they were given the chance to ask questions, they did so thoroughly, giving the two of them an impression that they were undergoing an intense interrogation than a mere presentation.

20th August 2030, UEADF Headquarters, Tokyo, Japan.

Supreme Commander Liam Nuttall, along with several Airforce, Army and Navy staff Officers and civilian employees of the UEADF were busy working through the latest iteration of the Siegfried target list.

The list involved a complex matrix of how many launch vehicles were expected to be available by September 2030, how many SpaceX Starkiller launch vehicles and enhanced nuclear warheads could be expected to be ready. And the target's that the UEA Space Command wanted destroyed versus those that the Global Security Council and other interested parties wanted destroyed.

The committee was currently examining aiming points for major urban centers with the view to reducing the numbers of atomic weapons needed to achieve the minimal acceptable target destruction requirements.

This was being examined as the latest predictions put the number of deliverable launch vehicles at only 528 by September 2030, and the Security Council was insisting that urban targets take priority over industrial targets. So this meant 4200 cities for a total of 220 Starkillers, leaving 308 Starkillers over for other targets. Of that 308, thirty six were allocated to the Empire weapons of mass destruction program, leaving 268 Starkillers nominally available for industrial targets.

But the Security Council had allocated a further 24 launch vehicles to targets they insisted had to be destroyed, leaving them with 244 Starkillers to distribute as they saw fit.

Being Airforce officers they heavily biased the remaining Starkillers towards the Empire aircraft industry, over the strenuous objections of the Army and Navy Officers, each of whom had an extensive list of targets that they wanted attacked. Back and forth the arguments raged, the Army officer eventually accepting that bombing all the Imperial Army Forts and Arsenals was wasteful and as such concentrating on locomotive and heavy armaments production was sufficient. The Airforce contingent pointed out that much of this capacity could be expected to be destroyed anyway as part of the urban attack plan.

The Navy officer was adamant that as much of the Imperial naval and mercantile production be destroyed, but in the end had to accept a reduced list of mercantile targets with the inclusion of all the Empire Naval Yards for destruction.

No one was really happy with the compromise but the production numbers of the launch vehicles was slowly beginning to increase so there was a strong possibility that come September there would be more of them available. The meeting broke up and was scheduled to meet again in tw week's time to review the target plans again in the light of the various factors that influenced it. Commander Nuttall hoped that the most mercurial and uncontrollable input into the target selection, the Global Security Council, stayed out of the proceedings and let them get on with it.

Lieutenant General Itami's office, Alnus Bridgehead, August 21st.

Setting aside various paperwork, Itami massaged his brow. "Why there are always so many paperwork ?" He thought.

The self-proclaimed Otaku wasn't really a man of the desk after all. Regardless, he had to sort it all out before the mission.

He was running out of coffee again, damm this place diurnal cycle! Even after nearly a year, his body still hadn't adjusted to the short daytime. Slowly, his eyes getting heavier and heavier until he finally collapsed on the desk.

Sometime later.

Itami finally awaken from his slumber.

Huh!?

Itami gradually got on his feet and looked around; Well, he tried to, but there wasn't very much to see. He stood alone, illuminated by a strange blue light in an endless void.

"Finally! I'm beginning to wonder when I'd be able to have a chat with you."

Itami jolted upright at the sound of the foreign voice. His hands instinctively patted his body down in search of his weapon. With a movement he had mastered from his days in Special Forces Group, Itami unsheathed the pistol holster attached to his belt and point the H&K USP semi-automatic pistol at the void.

"Don't bother, human, that weapon of your wouldn't do you any good in this place even if you isn't facing me.

"Who the fuck are you, w-where the fuck I a-am?!"

"Emroy, God of War!"

The loud voice came from everywhere and nowhere outside and from within.

One of the Thirteen Gods of Falmart! Itami frowned then looked around again. Endless black space and a god approach him, this could only mean one thing. Itami looked around and tried to find the source of the voice.

"Am I getting isekaied?"

What!

The God of War wasn't familiar with the term.

"You know, the act of being run over by a truck and being reborn in another world as a hero, that kind of thing..."

What followed was one of the rarest scenes in the multiverse as the 43 year-old otaku tried to explain the concept of isekai genre to a 100,000 year-old God of War.

"I see, i see...so after defeating the demon king, the protagonist and his harem will living happily ever after. Your kind's imagination is really something else! But no, you're not getting isekaied, although, now think about it, you're already in another world so it might be close."

Itami heard what sounded like a loud clapping of hands.

"A great darkness is coming, the End Days is near, human, do you want to be a hero like in the stories of old?"

"Nope!" Itami replied with a certainty that shocked Emroy for a moment. "I have no intention to be somekind of 'hero'. Ancient mythologies from Greek to Japan show countless example that great heroes rarely have a happy ending."

"Interesting fact! I must admit you're more fascinating than I thought you would be." The god complimented. "But you must also know that a person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it."

Biting his lips, Itami said. "So I have no choice in this matter!?"

"Of course you have! In fact you have more choice than most people who will die in this war. To embrace your grand destiny or to fade into obscurity and die in some unknow trench." The god sarcastically remarked.

"How merciful!" Itami lambasted, his voice, hardened by sarcasm, could not hide his resentment.

After calming down, Itami asked. "Do I get some divine gift?"

Huh!?

"You know, once the chosen hero has committed to the quest, consciously or unconsciously, their guide and magical helper appears or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid them later in their quest. That is hero's journey 101."

"Quite bold of you asking a god for gift, but I like that. So, what do you want? Legendary weapons, unimaginable magical power or...the most beautiful woman in the world." The god teased.

"No, seriously, where the hell I would hide the most beautiful woman or legendary weapons!? And I have no intention to be lock in secret lab or being use as weapon. I want something more subtle, do you have somekind of magic eyes that allow me to see magic."

"Very well, I will grant you the Mystical eyes of Perception, which can see through everything even the principle of causality." As he spoke, the light was getting brighter.

Before understand what was happend Itami dropped to his knees and held his head as a sharp pain pierced his brain. Emroy was exploring his nervous system like a child, performing what was essentially live neurosurgery on conscious patient.

"Find my apostle, she will help you."

Then Itami's world was engulfed in a blinding light and he returned to his office again.

A knock on the door.

Directing his newly acquired divine sight towards the wooden door, Itami discovered that he could see through solid objects.

"Dammit! It's real."

"Come in, Just leave the coffee on the table." Itami said as his aide-de-camp Major Risa Aoi walked into the room.

Risa Aoi was a young woman in her late 20s with braided brown hair. She wears a glasses. She was often seen wearing her service uniform.

Risa stopped in front of his desk. "Master Youji, I need you to authorize these orders and your fuel request have been delayed due to bad weather in Tokyo."

Raising an eyebrow. "I already tell you to call me General, this is a military base not our mansion in Hatobanari. Just leave the file there and tell them to fulfill my request as soon as possible."

"My apology, General." Risa continued. "I have also arranged a doctor's appointment for you for you high blood pressure problem. I insist that you have to reduce your daily fast food portion sizes before you have a heart attack."

Risa Aoi, Itami's personal maid and his father's loyal spy, how many strings his father had pulled to get her here to monitor him, if not for the blatant corruption, was honestly impressive.

"Yah, ya..I know." Itami answered grudgingly.

"Anything esle?" Itami asked.

"Yes General, your father, Master Tarou, also reminds that you aren't a child anymore so you need to to answer his calls and mail."

Turning his gaze towards the woman, he asked. "Why're you so loyal to the old-man!?"

"My family has received too many favors from Master Tarou, this is the least I can do to pay him back." Her chest vibrated as she speak.

In a twisted ways, It kind of makes sense. Risa Aoi came from a heavily indebted family, her father ran away from the debt collection agency, leaving behind a sick mother and two infant brothers. This forced her to become a prostitute to pay for her mother's hospital bills and raise two younger brothers. It was his father, Tarou Itami, who 'save' her family from ruin, offering them financial assistant, getting the best doctor to treat her mother, sending her brothers to the best school in the country. This generosity combined with Tarou natural charisma made Risa blindly loyal to him. Youji was sure even if her 'Merciful Master' ordered her to die or kill for him, Risa would gladly do so without hesitation.

The Rumbling and the Great War had made things worse, with tens of millions losing everything and the Ministry of Defense became the most powerful force in the government. His father was building an army of fanatics that loyal to the Itami clan, an army within the army. If this trajectory continued, Japan would become a neo-feudal country. And ironically, he would be the heir of this new empire.

Japan wasn't the only nation having this problem, across the world corporate neo-feudal sovereigns were on the rise. They were those who, while not directly referred to as lords, aristocrats, kings or emperors, still hold an equivalent power in a modern sense. These multi-billionaires, who were not subject to everyday laws, could create their own laws to an extent, dominate large markets, employed immense swathes of individuals, had the means to hold a private military force, wielded the economic might equivalent of entire nations, and own assets, especially real-estate, on a massive scale.

Shooking his head, Itami downhearted by the fact that the human race was fighting a theocratic totalitarian empire to be come a neo-corporate empire, how ironically.

Sensing that her master was in a bad mood, Risa wrapped her arms around his neck. "Why soo moody, Goshujin-sama?"

Leaning towards Itami, Risa unbuttoned her uniform reaveling her bountiful boobs lurking behind the lavish sapphire bra. One of her duties was to relieve her master's stress and keeping him safe from all the gold-diggers and honey-traps tried to get access to the affluent Itami clan.

Looking at Risa, Itami forced a fake smile, that bastard Tarou even tried to control his love-life. "Not now Risa!"

"Do you hate me, Youji-sama!?"

The question catch him by surprise.

"No, of course not, Risa!" Itami tried to explain.

"Then don't try to feel sorry for me, Youji-sama. This is my choice and I have long made peace with it. Tarou-sama has given me a home to live, a place to belong, a duty to perform, a purpose in life, to be a part of something bigger. That was vastly better than the countless millions wandering aimlessly. The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must and you're Weak, Youji-sama!" You could almost feel the contempt in her tone as she tore into Itami.

"Spare me of your self-serving moral outrage, don't pitty me, you're one of the most privilege person in the the world and what have you done to change the world!? You don't want to be control by your father, then why don't you take power for yourself, become the shōgun of this nation, stop complaining and start acting now."

Staring at him direct in the eyes.

"So, do you need anything Seii Taishōgun-sama?" Risa asked him dutifully.

Smiled.

How pathetic of him.

Being scolded by his own maid.

"Yes," Itami took out a piece of paper and wrote a list of things on it before handing it to her. "Send an urgent message to Naeko, tell her to bring me the things on this list." It was time to ask his dear sister, who has access to some of the most advanced technology in the world, a favor.

"Right away, Master...Sorry..General Itami. Mistress Naeko will be happy to hear from you."

"One more thing Risa, wearing one of your transparent arabian-style dress and come to my room tonight, a maid must not speak like that to her master." Itami smugly teased.

Risa face turned red for obvious reason.

That attire consisted of nearly nothing except transparent sashes of clothing as well as puffy sleeves covering up her naked skin.

Her legs would be clad in an exotic pair of puffy see-through pants one would expect to see on an Arabian love slave, but colored in light green. Her smooth legs would be thoroughly exposed as well as her sex, which would be barely covered at all by a dark green thong riding high between her buttocks and the puffy folds of her pussy lips. One would think there would be no point at all in wearing something that left so little to the imagination. Risa midriff would be exposed as well and she would be wearing only a small sash around her waist to accent the exotic appeal of her outfit's seductive design. The top part of her skimpy attire would consist of only a thin, green bustier holding back her pair of ample chest while her wrists and ankles would be clad in golden bangles, completing the ensemble of an exotic love slave perfectly.

"As your command, Goshujin-sama!" Risa said shyly before leaving the room.

Looking back at a picture of an elven girl his computer, Itami muttered. "Tuka Luna Marceau...Hmm, She will be useful as a messenger."

Tuka's room, about 4 kilometer away.

Inside the 45 square meters room, Tuka Luna Marceau, the former famous elven adventurer now turn lab rat and somewhat of a NEET, was screaming and cursing incoherently in English, Russian, Mandarin, Hebrew and Turkish.

This was actually quite tamed for Tuka considering that she was among the top VRMMORPG (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) «Pro» player in the world.

One could easily see the reason for her success. As a Falmartian, her neural reflexes was ten times faster than a human, this translated to unparalleled Agility and Dexterity stats.

Tuka didn't have many friends in the army, and what should be a short reconnaissance mission had turned into a decade long spying mission. To swallow her sorrow, Tuka had turned into an online game addicted. This ironically had maintained her cover making her one of the most valuable asset of the Empire's intelligence apparatus.

The game she was playing was Unital Ring, a game joined developed and operated by an American company called Zaskar and the giant conglomerate Itami Group.

It was the only VRMMO game with «Pro» players, meaning players who make their income solely from the game's «game coin to real money conversion system». They convert credits earned in-game into USD and could use them to pay connection fees, and potentially even for their living.

Because the game is running over legal gray zone, no real world contact information about its operator was provided, thus all game-related operations, like joining activities, can only be done in-game via terminals.

"42,700 USD...Yeah, baby come to Mama..Another great day...hahaha."

Ding ding ding!

Tuka brow furrowed, her ecstacy was interrupted by a sound of her doorbell.

Who would come at this time? I didn't remember ordering anything.

Tuka fixed her messy hair before going out to open the door. To her suprise, her guest was a Japanese man and from his uniform, he was a high ranking one.

"General..."

"Itami...Youji Itami, JSDF. But you can call me Youji. Are you Miss Tuka Luna Marceau?"

Itami! Like the mighty Itami conglomerate. "Yes it's me, is there anything I can help you Sir?" Her voice was perfectly normal despite her uneasy feeling

"Actually you can Miss Marceau but before that can I come in?"

"Of course Sir."

Tuka shown him the seat and closed the door.

Itami smiled and folded his legs gingerly.

"What can I do for you?" Tuka asked in Japanese.

"For now, answer my questions truthfully, please."

Her head cocked. "Of course."

Itami's eyes pinned her in place. "You are a spy are't you?"

Her heart almost stopped. "I don't understand..."

"Do not lie to me!" He growled, his eyes radiating a magical light that only magicians could recognize.

The Eyes of the Gods! He was an emissary of heaven. Tuka hastily knelt at his feet, not daring to look up. "What can this humble servant do to aid your divine mission, oh noble one?"

"I should have you execute for the damage you have done to our force," His voice cold as ice. "But I need your talent so," He grabbed Tuka by her neck and forced something down her throat. "From now on you will serve me and me only. I already got you a transferal order, from now on you will be my local advisor. You will do what I say, go where I want without question. Cease all your intelligence activies, from now on you only transmit what I want, when I want, how I want. And you don't even dare to think of betraying me or harming my people. What you just swallow is a pill containing 10 million nanobots that will fry your brain any time I want. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Sir!' She whispered.

"I said...Do You Understand?" The menace reverberated off the walls as he spoke loudly.

"Yes, M'lord!" Tuka immediately submitted to the commanding aura of her new master, who she knows can see right through her soul.

"Good!' Itami leaned back to his chair. "Now tell me what you know about Emroy's apostle and the Prophecy of the End Times."

Tuka immediately obeyed and for the next hour she explained everything she knew about the 13 Apostles, the forces of Chaos, the End Times while kneeling in homage, not wanting to offend the Emissary of Heaven.

Looking up at the ceiling, Itami grumbled. "What a pain in the ass!"

As if a war against the Titans wasn't hard enough, now they had to fight against an army of monsters like undead and semi-immortal evil spirit and chaos demons.

Fuck!

The nuclear strikes would create an endless stream of undead creatures and evil spirit. He needed a plan and making contact with this 'Rory Mercury' as soon as possible. He needs concrete evidence to convince the Security Council of the gravity of the new threat. Unauthorized contact with high-ranking enemy figures is charged with treason so this must be kept strictly confidential. The elf could make contact for him with her magic but how to keep the elf around him without raising suspicion. He need created a cover story to protect both himself and this treasonous elf from the firing squad.

But what would be the reason why the elf always stay near him!?

Scratching his head, Itami tried to think of something to justify why the blonde elf would regularly enter his private room at night. Something that made people not want to investigate further even if they find out. Then he looked at the blonde elf.

She was ravishingly beautiful!

She wore a white short-sleeved shirt which left her white stomach exposed, and a belt that fastens thin blue jeans which didn't completely cover her slender legs and red shoes. She also had a red band around her ivovy neck, the only article of clothing she retained from her former life before her captured in Tokyo.

This...might work.

"Strip naked!'

"What, Sir!?"

"I said take your clothes off, Elf."

The undressing order caught Tuka by surprise but the will of an Emissary must be follow at all costs as they represent the gods.

"Yes, M'lord."

Eyes never leaving Itami, Tuka slowly backed away from him until she was leaning against the table. With a neutral expression, her lithe fingers moved to her jeans, unlashing the brown belt that girded her waist. In slow, exaggerated movements she removed the belt from its rungs, holding it in the air after its release. She let go of the belt, allowing the buckle at its tip to clatter against the floor. Her fingers moved on, grasping the jeans' button.

She eased the brass through its exit before unzipping slowly, watching carefully as Itami's eyes fixated on her navel. The reveal took several seconds before finally the zipper crossed its last tooth. She allowed the petals of her jeans to lilt, giving Itami the first view of her striped panties.

Blue and white.

Then, getting slightly impatient herself, her thumbs hooked on the inside of her jeans. Slowly and steadily, Tuka slid them down her smooth legs. Every tantalizing second passed in an eternity within Itami's eyes as her skin revealed itself to him like a lethargic unwrapping of a Christmas present. From her succulent thighs to her knee's caps, Tuka slid, allowing Itami another peak at her voluptuous cleavage as she bent over.

Her jeans finally fell, pooling around her ankles.

She stepped out of them, shifting her thighs as goosebumps formed on her skin. Embarrassment began to seep into her psyche as she stood there half-naked, but she repressed it. Tuka struggled against her composure as she proceeded to give him a show. This was completely out of character, but she didn't care.

It had been so long since she'd done something like this.

Too long.

And with a single move Tuka removed her white shirt. Letting it fell unceremoniously to a heap on the ground.

She stood, letting Itami admire her, but she hadn't finished. Quickly, she unhooked her bra, letting it fall to the floor, and then slid off her panties. This time, she could not prevent herself from covering her tits with her hands.

"Rule number one, Elf! Naked means no covering yourself."

"I'm sorry, master," she said, immediately moving her hands to her side and then clenching them to the sides of her thighs as if she was physically trying to prevent them from moving. Itami stepped back and admired her in all her glory.

She was… beautiful. Her golden hair hung to her waist, her face stunning in its red flush. Her breasts were just a little larger than average, and her gorgeous pink nipples were pointed with arousal. Her pussy was mostly bare, with a neat triangle of hair shaved above it, and it was absolutely dripping. And her legs were beautiful too.

"Like what you see?" Tuka said, a little awkwardly, but flirty and with a wink.

Itami'll let her be flirty, but she must absolutely obey him for this to work. Stepping forward he took hold of her right nipple and gave it a sharp pinch and twist.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, instinctively stepping backwards.

"From now on if anyone ask, tell them you are mine. When you come to report about the 'thing', dress your most seductive clothes."

Understanding her master's plan, she replied with heavy breathing.

"Yes, master."

Time to get down to business. "Slut elf, when I snap my fingers once, it means I want my cock in one of your holes as soon as possible. Your choice. Does that make sense?"

***Slave Tuka***

"Yes, master," I gasped out, still reeling from how casually Lord Itami had just said that. He snapped his fingers, and I froze. What should I do? A blowjob was the only thing I had any idea how to do - they did give us a little bit of training, after all - so I dropped to my knees before my master and unzipped his jeans for the first time.

I felt the outline of his erect cock through his underwear, and I reached through, fishing it out. After a moment of effort, it sprang free. I gasped a little despite myself. It's so… big! I had never seen a penis in real life before, and all the pictures and videos they had shown us couldn't quite prepare me. It was probably about six inches long, and wider than I expected. My clit shivered. How is that going to fit inside me?

The head of his cock dripped with his precum, so for now, I began as our training had instructed, swirling my tongue around his head, lapping it up. It tastes… pretty much like nothing, actually. Lord Itami groaned, and I began to take the tip of his cock into my mouth. It was a little sloppy - a thin thread of saliva dripped from my mouth down to the floor - but I was getting the job done.

My knees found the hardwood floor of Lord Itami's living room unexpectedly uncomfortable, and I found myself jostling around, trying to get comfortable, as I moved my mouth up and down his cock. I didn't know how I was going to fit the rest of it in my mouth - so far, I had only made it up to the first three or four inches.

My master's moans contributed to my arousal, and when I briefly cast my eyes down I saw that my pussy had caused a puddle on the hardwood floor. Lord Itami took his hands and put them on the back of my head. So far, he had just let me work passively, but now, he started to guide me, gently pressuring the back of my head.

I struggled to breathe through my nose as the pressure became more and more firm, with Lord Itami beginning to set a pace, thrusting deeper and deeper into my mouth and throat, and watching my face with wonder. I gasped, the meaty taste of his cock dominating my mouth and throat, and my hand wandered to my pussy, bucking my clit against it.

"Slut elf! Did I give you permission to touch yourself?" shouted Lord Itami, and I cringed, quickly removing my hand and putting it back on my knee. My pussy cried out for release, but I tried to overcome it.

"Nugh, mashhter," I said around his cock, casting my eyes down. I can't believe it only took me what, ten minutes to break that rule?

"Don't worry, slut elf," he said. "I'll punish you for that in a minute. In the meantime, why don't you do something useful with your hands and play with my balls."

I brought my hands up and, unsure quite how to do it, just sort of… took them in my hands and started gently rolling them around. We had been told to be very gentle with them, and it seemed to be working, because Lord Itami groaned.

Suddenly, he grabbed fistfuls of my hair and propelled me all the way down to the base of his cock, so that his balls hit my chin. I gasped for air with my nose as he withdrew, and he started thrusting all the way in and all the way out, fucking my face as I could feel his cock starting to twitch. My pussy dripped onto the floor.

"I'm coming, Slave Tuka," he said breathlessly, and sure enough, his cock started shooting his cum into my mouth. Yuck! The taste is… so salty, way more than I thought! As he thrust in and out, I froze. Am I supposed to swallow all of it? I tried to drink down the first two or three globs, and it slid down my throat in kind of a slimy way. He was shooting it so fast, though, and I was reluctant enough to swallow, that it started spilling out of my mouth and down onto the floor.

Finally it was over, and he withdrew his cock from my mouth, breathing heavily. "That was amazing," he said, as if struggling to believe it. "Pretty good for a first try, slut elf. That will be the first of many, many more."

A shiver ran through me, and my pussy flushed. "Please master," I said hoarsely, "may I touch myself?"

Lord Itami cast his gaze down to the floor, and raised his eyebrows. "You're making a mess," he said, "but no, you cannot touch yourself, because I guess we need a new rule."

"Master?" I said, still kneeling before him.

"I didn't expect to have to tell you this, but… look at all the cum you wasted," he said. I looked down. Sure enough, the thick globs of his cum on the floor were easily distinguished from the puddle that I had produced.

"I'm sorry, master," I apologized, looking up at him. Is he really upset about that? "There was so much of it, and I had never done it before."

"That's all right, Slave Tuka," he said. "But we'll make rule number five that you're never to waste any cum that I give you. It can go on your skin, or in your holes, but not on the floor or the sheets or anything like that."

I nodded uncertainly, his words arousing me even now.

I didn't move, but Lord Itami came around to kneel behind me, reaching his hands forward to squeeze my breasts around my hard nipples. "So, how would you obey rule five starting now, slut elf?"

I looked down at the floor, and my eyes widened. Does he want me to… eat that? "Master?" I said cautiously.

His hands pinched my nipples, and I let out a soft yelp. "Come on, slut elf," he said. "Use your mouth."

I hesitated, my pussy dripping with how degrading it was, and reached out my hands to try to gather some of his cum into them.

"No, slut elf," he said, "straight off the floor."

He stepped back as I haltingly complied, lowering my face to the floor and putting my weight on my hands as I started to lick up his cum. If the taste had been unpleasant before, it was even more so now that it was cold. Still, I did my best to clean it off the floor with my tongue, licking until I was sure there was no more. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Lord Itami was hard again, his cock still poking out the fly of his jeans.

When I was sure I had gotten it all, I straightened so I was kneeling again.

"Finished, slut elf?" Lord Itami said, one hand on his cock, which was still wet with his cum and my saliva.

"Yes, master," I said, still grimacing at the taste of his cold semen that seemed to stick in my mouth. I have a feeling that taste will become very familiar.

"Good," he said. "Oh, another thing. You should… get in the habit of thanking me when I use you."

I nodded. I'll have to find out more about that later. "Yes, master," I said haltingly. "Thank you for using me, master."

He shook his head. "More descriptive than that, slut elf. What did we do?"

I stuttered, the words sounding dirty in my mouth. "Thank you for… telling me to give you a blowjob, master."

"Better," he said, "but still not quite there. This can be… rule six, by the way. You need to describe everything we did, and don't use polite words. So something like, 'Thank you, master, for fucking my face, cumming in my mouth, and then letting me lick your cum off the floor."

I swallowed, his words sending a jolt straight to my swollen clit. "Thank… thank you, master," I forced out, "for… for fucking my face, cumming in my mouth, and then… and then letting me lick your cum off the floor."

"You're welcome, Slave Tuka," he smiled, a genuine smile. "I hope that will just become a natural part of our relationship, and that you won't have to think about it too hard."

I nodded, but I was less sure.

***Lord Itami***

Watching Slave Tuka lick my cum off the floor had been the most arousing thing I had ever seen in my life, and I was rock hard again. Her sopping wet pussy had created a big puddle on the ground, and was looking breathtakingly inviting. Suddenly, a thrill ran through me. We can solve both these problems at once.

"But slut elf," I said, unbuckling my belt and starting to remove my pants, "there's still a bit of a mess."

She looked down at the puddle of pussy juice, as if debating whether to say anything, then lowered her face to the ground demurely and began slurping it up.

As she did so, I couldn't help it anymore; I cast my pants to the side, came up behind her, and thrust my cock into her sopping pussy in one smooth motion. She let out a shocked cry, and briefly paused her cleanup, adjusting her hands against the floor for purchase as I slammed into her.

Her pussy felt divine. Wet, tight, and seemly perfect for my cock. Lost in the haze, I did emerge long enough to notice she had stopped licking. That won't do, I thought. I reached my hands forward under her breasts, seized her nipples and twisted them hard.

She cried out. "Did I tell you to stop, slut elf?" I said breathlessly, my hands still on her breasts giving me more leverage.

"No, master," she choked out. "Please, master, may I cum?"

"Tongue on the floor, slut elf!" I said, twisting her nipples again. "But yes, you can cum after I do!"

She moaned as she continued lapping up the pussy juice. I was approaching my release, my thrusts getting faster, and finally I came, propelling spurts of cum deep into her pussy as I aggressively kneaded and squeezed her heavenly breasts. As I did so, Slave Tuka panted, and I could feel the shudder that ran through her body and her pussy as she came too. Even as I came, she never stopped licking the floor, nor until several minutes after, when I had taken the rest of my clothes off and was just watching her.

Without being asked, she moved to the new, smaller mess that she had made while I had just used her. Finally, she swallowed a final time, and moved to kneel again. Her knees were red with friction from the floor.

She hesitated, but said softly, "Thank you, master, for fucking… for fucking my pussy and letting me cum, and for having me lick up my… mess off the floor."

Curiously, I knelt down and inserted two fingers into her pussy, getting it slick with her juices, and brought it to my lips. It actually tastes… a little sweeter than I expected. "You can call it pussy juice, Slave Tuka," I said, squeezing her left tit playfully with my other hand, "but other than that, well done!"

"Thank you, master," she said, still flush from her recent orgasm. "That was… very hot."

"You're telling me," I replied. I brought my hand to her mouth. "Clean off my finger, slut elf, and then I'll show you the ready position."

She took my pointer and index fingers into her mouth, swirling her tongue on them, keeping eye contact with me as she savored the now-familiar taste of her own pussy. Finally I popped my fingers out of her mouth, reaching around to dry them off on her hair.

***Slave Tuka***

The taste of my own…pussy juice… filled my mouth. I had never tasted it before, but it was actually pretty inoffensive. I actually preferred the taste to that of Lord Itami's cum. Licking it off of Lord Itami's fingers had made me wet again, but I had somewhat figured out how to close my legs while kneeling, to avoid dripping on the floor.

"So," Lord Itami said, "when I'm not using you, most of the time I will want you to be in the ready position. It's pretty much like this, kneeling, but I want your knees to be spread so that I can see your pussy, and your hands on your legs. And I want your tits to be up and forward."

I tried my best to do as he asked, pushing my chest out and spreading my legs. So much for that idea.

"Master?" I said carefully. "If my legs are apart, my… my pussy juice will drip on the floor more easily."

He shook his head. "I hope you can learn to make less of a mess, but until then, every time you leave the ready position you can start by cleaning up."

"Yes, master," I said. It seemed I would be getting very familiar with both Lord Itami's and my own bodily fluids.

"With the ready position," he said, "when I'm in the room, you are to make sure you do it in a place where your boobs are facing me. That way I can always see them, and I can see where you are if I need you. Now, we have one more thing to take care of right now. Do you remember what it is?"

I thought for a second, then I remembered with a grimace. "Master, you… you said you would punish me for touching myself without permission."

"Very good, slut elf," he said with a smile. "Now, that was a pretty serious violation of rule two, so I can't take it too easy on you, but it's also your first time. So I think ten spanks to your tits and ten to your ass should do the trick."

He sat down over the couch and bade me to lean over his lap. This is a little uncomfortable, I thought. Without warning, his hand connected with my naked ass with a loud smack. "Ow!" I said, almost involuntarily.

"No, Slave Tuka," he said, "I know you can take it like a good slut elf. Say "one, thank you, master."

I breathed heavily. "One, thank you, master," I said. The remaining nine strokes followed - they hurt! By the final smack I couldn't keep the glistening of tears out of my eyes, but I knew I had to try to be good. "Ten, thank you, master."

"You're welcome, slut elf," he said. "Now turn over."

I did so, so I was facing the ceiling, and Lord Itami squeezed my breasts appreciatively. "Ten more here," he said, and delivered the first, to my left breast, without warning. It was a hard slap; I drew in breath sharply to keep from crying out. He alternated between the breasts, until I had reached "eight, thank you, master."

"Now you've seen how I do it, why don't you do the last two for yourself," Lord Itami said, lifting my torso so that I was basically sitting on his lap.

"Master?" I said uncertainly, looking down at my red, heaving chest.

"Well, go on," he said. "Use your hand. One on the left and one on the right."

Apprehensively, I drew back my right hand, and slapped myself on the left breast. It didn't hurt as much as it had when Lord Itami had done it.

"Hmmm, I think that was a little soft, don't you?" Lord Itami said. "Try again."

I wound up more, and delivered a resounding slap to my left breast just as Lord Itami slipped his cock - ramrod-straight again - into my tired pussy. I moaned at the feeling of being full once again. It was different, just sitting on his cock verses having him penetrate me from behind.

"Excellent, slut elf," he said. "Now the right?"

This time, I took my left hand, and actually surprised myself by giving a more painful strike to my breast than Lord Itami would have done.

"Well done, slut elf," he said softly, as he began to gently knead my breasts. "You did well."

''RISA!''

The dutiful maid rushed inside. Her face was flushed with the color red, and her hand was full of her slick. Both Itami and Tuka had heard her stifled moans through the door, and Itami basked in the delight of keeping his most willing cock sleeve waiting in agony, as she had to concede to the fact that Tuka was his priority whenever he wanted to satisfy his urges. That answered the question in Tuka's mind why the Japanese woman, with all of her strengths, had submitted to him. A slave all but in name, a very befitting fate considering her ethnicity.

''Kneel,'' the Japanese woman immediately submitted to the commanding aura of her master, almost begging and salivating, a dog waiting for a treat. She knew what was to come. ''You are to clean my cock, all of the juices Tuka had left on it.''

''I know, goshujinsama. I love to choke on your massive cock whenever you allow me the privilege to experience it.'' Her hand captured his member. The shinobi's fingers were puny in comparison, but it only made the task even more enticing to accomplish.

''I am your devoted oral cock sleeve, goshujinsama. Fuck my throat until I pass out. Or coat my face with your essence. Maybe… do both.'' Risa's eyes radiated her strong desire for the Japanese prince. As if she was bred for that very purpose. Maybe Itami should buy a collar, to signify her position. He knew Risa would wear it in pride, even in public.

''Good girl. Here's your reward.'' And with that, Itami's hands gripped the back of her head and forced himself all the way to her throat. By now, the tip of his cock must have left a permanent mark on her pharynx. Her pantiless crotch dripped so much that a puddle was already forming. She never wore panties. Her master insisted on not wearing any. It made it easier for him to use her whenever saw fit to do so.

And soon, the other deposit for Itami's cum was milking his cock for all of that essence her throat could swallow. All of her holes were waiting to be filled, and Itami might just do that when Tuka was gathering her meager strength back.

0300 Hours Local Time.

As Lieutenant General Youji Itami and various JSDF Combat Unit COs stood across from each other, Itami went over the briefing for how the escort operations were going to be carried out.

Before we continue let examine the structure of the Third Japanese Special Task Force.

The Japanese Third Special Task Force was one of sixteen STFs created after the Rumbling incident, it was established to explore the planet Falmart and bring the perpetrators of the incident to justice.

However if you looked at its composition, one would soon realise something was amiss. It was too big, almost three times the size of other JSTFs, with more than five full divisions, all of them lavishly equipped and fully motorized or mechanized, for a total of 80,000 men. More strikingly was how heavy armed this JSTF had become since its formation.

At the moment they had 1,800 tanks, 3,950 armoured vehicles, 2,700 artillery systems including 810 multiple-rocket-launch systems, 400 fighter jets, and 300 helicopters. The 3rd JSTF archived this level of armament by literally sucking the reserve force in Hokkaidō dry.

Composition

3rd Japanese Special Task Force: CO: Lt. General Yōji Itami

-1st Combat Unit ( Mixed Corps ): CO: Brigadier general Takeo Kurata

2IC: Lt. Colonel Sōichirō Kuwahara

-2nd Combat Unit ( Mixed Corps ): CO: Colonel Akira Tomita

2IC: Lt. Colonel Tetsuya Nishina

-3rd Combat Unit ( Mixed Corps ):CO: Colonel Daisuke Tozu

2IC: Lt. Colonel Wataru Katsumoto

-4th Combat Unit (Air Division): CO: Colonel Shino Kuribayashi

2IC: Lt. Colonel Hitoshi Furuta

-5th Combat Unit (Air Defense): CO: Colonel Hayato Sasagawa

2IC: Lt. Colonel Higashi Azuma

-1st Medical Regiment: CO: Lt. Colonel Mari Kurokawa

Their mission was a simple one, they would use maps provided by short range UAVs and intel teams to escot a team of specialists to a potential location for new GATE. A native would help guiding them.

Itami had no desire to cling to formalities. He introduced his men to the aged but robust-looking people beside him, as well as the television studio's cameraman and the rest of the press team.

"This is Dr Hange Zoë the head of project BRIDGEHEAD. This is Professor Georgi Plekhanov of Saint Petersburg Mining University, and this is Professor Geneviève Berger from the Geography Department at the French National Centre for Scientific Research. This is Professor Youmei of the University of Tokyo, who specializes in theoretical physics. And then there is Kuribayashi Nanami-san of the press team."

"My name is Hange."

«Menya zovut Georgiy».

"Je m'appelle Geneviève."

"Watashino namae ha Yōmeidesu."

"And I'm Kuribayashi Nanami. Thank you for taking care of my Nee-san."

"Eh~ is the media coming with us? Nobody told me about that…"

Youmei roared at Kurata's reply: "How could the mass media not pay attention when I take the field?!"

In truth, this was the first time academics had been allowed to go this far into the Special Region.

"We won't get in your way," the younger Kuribayashi pleaded with her hands together. All they could do was take her word for it.

"You can aslo go out now." Ordered Itami with some disdain in his tone.

In that moment, a beautiful, blond elf with blue eyes and pointy ears, who looked like a teenage girl despite her real age, appeared in the meeting room.

"Hi, everyone. I'm Tuka Luna Marceau. I'm here to guide you."

The appearance of Tuka was a surprise to many. There was a few talking back and forth but then everyone calm down.

"Any questions ladies and gentlemen?" Itami had finally asked as the briefing was completed. Several officer's hands had went up, the first of whom belonged to Kurata.

"Who will she stay with, General Itami?" Kurata asked humorously.

The whole room looked at Kurata with an embarrassed face.

"With Me of course!" Itami replied with a firmness that surprised others.

"Let's me make it clear, Miss Tuka here is my gueast!" He decleared.

No one in his subordinates dared to say anything, the lazy otaku they had come to know and somewhat love over the past few years was gone, replaced by what they expected of that family: imperious, ruthless, and unrelenting. A small reminder of what this man was capable of if he really wanted to.

But that cruel man left as suddenly as he came, with a genuine smile, he said. "Ok, anyone have serious questions?"

Tomita slowly raised his hand. "Yes sir uh, why don't we use a dedicated recon teams doing this?"

"Because almost every recon teams we sent out there were ambushed and killed by monster so this time we will send the heavy gun."

Next was Tozu. "Sir if one of the armoured fighting vehicles go down due to ambushed, do we recover them or destroy them ?"

"If in the event we have to abandon the heavy weaponry due to ambushed and they can't be recover, radio it up and we nuke it to ashes. Remember leave nothing can be used again us to the enemy."

Then came Hayato Sasagawa. "Sir, how are we going to refuel?"

"Every vehicle will be carrying spare fuel jugs for their vehicles as well as the tanks. We also refuel by airlift using the Boeing C-177 ULTRA transport aircraft."

Finally Kurokawa asked, or rather said what was on everyone's mind. "I'm not sure this is a smart idea sir. But the 1st Medical Regiment will try out best to keep our troops healthy."

"Thank you Lt. Colonel."

Just when Itami went to get a coffee another voice rang out, this one belonging to the 4th Air Combat Unit CO: Colonel Shino Kuribayashi.

"Lieutenant General, what do you want us to do with the J-86 air superiority fighters ?"

Itami scratched his head for a moment before snapping his fingers.

"Just bring your J-86s fly around patrolling the airspace above the destination. Better to have you guys out and about just in case, last thing we need is an enemy air raid."

"Yes. Sir. I will make sure there won't be any flying lizards in 50 miles near the task force."

"Good, I have my faith in and your crews are the eye on the sky and our first line of defence. We are counting on you guy."

Kuribayashi and the rest of her team shrugged and went back to drinking her coffee. With that the Lieutenant General put the squash on all questions and sent the COs back to their teams in their respective meeting spots to get the plan executed.

Gathering point Alpha One, Inland Sea.

About 1,300km southeast of the great Peninsula of Lemuria lay the isolated chain islands of Silkark and a further 170km to its southeast lay a volcanic island that took the shape of a cross that was 50km wide and 50km long. Known as the Sacred Kingdom of Great Cryseilis, the holy kingdom takes its name from the people that inhabit it.

In a massive Ikarus caldera 600 yards underground, and circularly arranged around it as a central point, rose 1,200 reverberating ovens, each six feet in diameter, and separated from each other by an interval of three feet. The circumference occupied by these 1,200 ovens presented a length of two miles. Being all constructed on the same plan, each with its high quadrangular chimney, they produced a most singular effect.

It will be remembered that on their third meeting the defense committee had decided to use iron powder as the catalyst for plasma super storms, and in particular the white lcags iron description.

lcags iron, however, if subjected to only one single fusion, is rarely sufficiently homogeneous; and it requires a second fusion completely to refine it by dispossessing it of its last earthly deposits.

So long before being forwarded to the Sacred Kingdom of Great Cryseilis, the iron ore, molten in the great furnaces of baron Coldspring, and brought into contact with batavian crystal and silicium sand heated to a high temperature, was crystallized and transformed into lcags iron.

After this first operation, the metal was sent on to the Sacred Kingdom. They had, however, to deal with 136,000 tons of iron, a quantity far too large to conceal from human recon aircrafts.

So it appeared preferable to transport them using submarine vessels at New Catalonia, and to load them with the iron in bars even if the cost of transport would have been double that of material.

This, however, required not less than sixty- eight submarines of 3,500 tons, a veritable fleet, which, quitting New Catalonia on the 3rd of Pal, on the 10th of the same month ascended the Bay of Espiritu, and discharged their cargoes, without dues, in an underwater port at the Sacred Kingdom.

Thence the lcags iron was transported by rail to Ikarus caldera, and about the middle of Pal this enormous mass of metal was delivered at its destination.

It will easily be understood that 1,200 furnaces were not too many to melt simultaneously these 136,000 tons of iron. Each of these furnaces contained nearly 114 tons weight of metal. These furnaces, constructed of fireproof brick, were especially adapted for burning pit coal, with a flat bottom upon which the iron bars were laid. This bottom, inclined at an angle of 25 degrees, allowed the metal to flow into the receiving troughs; and the 1,200 converging trenches carried the molten metal down to the central lake.

This operation was completed on the 28th of Pal, and the run of the metal was fixed for the following day.

Twelve o'clock struck! A gunshot suddenly pealed forth and shot its flame into the air. Twelve hundred melting-troughs were simultaneously opened and twelve hundred fiery serpents crept toward the central well, unrolling their incandescent curves.

There, down they plunged with a terrific noise into a depth of 60 meters. It was an exciting and a magnificent spectacle. The ground trembled, while these molten waves, launching into the sky their wreaths of smoke, evaporated the moisture of the mould and hurled it upward through the vent-holes of the stone lining in the form of dense vapor-clouds.

These artificial clouds unrolled their thick spirals to a height of 1,000 yards into the air. A savage, wandering somewhere beyond the limits of the horizon, might have believed that some new crater was forming in the bosom of Cryseilis, although there was neither any eruption, nor typhoon, nor storm, nor struggle of the elements, nor any of those terrible phenomena which nature is capable of producing.

No, it was man alone who had produced these reddish vapors, these gigantic flames worthy of a volcano itself, these tremendous vibrations resembling the shock of an earthquake, these reverberations rivaling those of hurricanes and storms; and it was his hand which precipitated into an abyss, dug by himself, a whole Niagara of molten metal!

To turn this mass of molten metal into fine lcags iron powder, it had to be rapidly cooled. This would caused it to solidify into a type of metalic crytal characterized internally by very high residual stresses, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if contact with electricity current.

Cooling 136,000 tons of molten metal was not an easy task even with the grand mages, however, an Apostle was far superior to any mages.

Walking toward the lake of molten metal, the Apostle Rory Mercury, unaffected by the heat, raising her hand she whispered an ultra-wide area effect cooling magic on par with Strategic Class Magic.

"Hyougaki — Glacial Age."

And with that, the incandescence orange lake of molten metal was froze. The scene was truly majestic as the surface of the now cooled lake turn into a reflective mirror. Rory used this mirror to check on her long raven hair before flipping it with one graceful move. Satisfied, she turned around and with a sudden quick movement unleashed a bolt of lightning. The ground trembled again with the sound of a million broken mirror as the solid mass of metal turned into fine dust. Trully was godwork.

Her job here was almost done, Rory then wait for Hurricane Vanessa. She didn't have to wait long, the wind had freshened up, the weather is about to change very suddenly. The atmosphere is being gradually loaded with vapors, which carry with them the electricity formed by the constant evaporation of the saline waters; the clouds are slowly but sensibly falling towards the sea, and are assuming a dark-olive texture; the electric rays can scarcely pierce through the opaque curtain which has fallen like a drop scene before this wondrous theater, on the stage of which a terrible drama is soon to be enacted.

A fearful battle of the elements.

The cumuli, a perfectly oval kind of cloud, piled upon the south, presented a most awful and sinister appearance, with the pitiless aspect often seen before a storm. The air is extremely heavy; the sea is comparatively calm.

In the distance, the clouds have assumed the appearance of enormous balls of cotton, or rather pods, piled one above the other in picturesque confusion. By degrees, they appear to swell out, break, and gain in number what they lose in grandeur; their heaviness is so great that they are unable to lift themselves from the horizon; but under the influence of the upper currents of air, they are gradually broken up, become much darker, and then present the appearance of one single layer of a formidable character; now and then a lighter cloud, still lit up from above, rebounds upon this grey carpet, and is lost in the opaque mass.

There can be no doubt that the entire atmosphere is saturated with electric fluid; Rory is herself wholly impregnated; her hairs literally stand on end as if under the influence of a galvanic battery. If one of her servant ventured to touch her, Rory think she would receive rather a violent and unpleasant shock.

About five o'clock in the morning, the symptoms of the storm became more thorough and decisive; the wind appeared to soften down as if to take breath for a renewed attack; the vast funereal pall above them looked like a huge bag—like the cave of AEolus, in which the storm was collecting its forces for the attack.

"We shall have a tremendous storm," Rory said, pointing to the horizon. "These clouds are falling lower and lower upon the sea, as if to crush it." These words were scarcely uttered when the southern horizon underwent a sudden and violent change.

The long accumulated vapors were resolved into water, and the air required to fill up the void produced became a wild and raging tempest. It came from the most distant corners of the mighty heaven. It raged from every point of the compass. It roared; it yelled; it shrieked with glee as of demons let loose. The darkness increased and became indeed darkness visible. Like a tsunami breaking down a dam, the hot winds began to rage, screaming like madmen in pain. Everything felt its fury; the trees bent to the ground as men scurried to their basement hideouts. No one was safe from the hurricane.

Standing atop the volcano, as if defying the raging storm, a smile crept up the corner of her lip as Rory Mercury appeared to gaze with pleasure and delight at the spectacle of the unchained elements. The apostle never moved a muscle. Her long hair driven hither and thither by the tempest and scattered wildly over her heavenly face, gave Rory a most extraordinary appearance—for every single hair was illuminated by little sparkling sprigs.

"Tromerós Anemostróvilos!"

The apostle was whispering to the world the spell she was about to unleash. The ashen clouds growled with thunder, flashes of light blinding any observers.

Something was coming.

And then, it did.

Tubular cloud formations began to lower themselves to the ground like saucers of aliens. They spun and spun around invisible axes, gaining momentum and force as they gulped down the atmosphere. Once they hit the volcano, they begin to suck the huge mass of iron powder into the air like a giant valcuum cleaner.

"Endless Lightning Nine Heavens."

A mighty bolt of lightning shot up into the sky and spread out like the branches of the divine Yggdrasil and with it, her work here was done.

The mighty veil of cloud was torn in twain; the sea began to foam wildly; and the electricity, produced by some vast and extraordinary chemical action in the upper layer of cloud, is brought into play. To the fearful claps of thunder are added dazzling flashes of lightning. The flashes crossed one another, hurled from every side; while the thunder came pealing like an echo. The mass of vapor becomes incandescent; the hailstones which strike the ground are actually luminous; the waves as they rise appear to be fire-eating monsters, beneath which seethes an intense fire, their crests surmounted by combs of flame.

"Well done, Rory Mercury!" Emroy once again appeared before her.

The Apostle immediately dropped her weapon and knelt with her head bowed.

"Oh my divine Master. Your loyal servant awaits your orders".

"The Chosen One has accepted his fate. Go, go to Lemuria and help him fulfill the prophecy."

"So the pieces are in place and the game has begun."

The girl giggled. "Youji Itami! 3 Sisters of Fate, they always pick such oddly named heroes, but if he the one to help win the war against the great darkness."

She shrugged and laughed. "Well? Who am I to question the will of fate?!"

She picked up her weapon and effortlessly spun it a few times in her hands before slamming it back into the dirt. "Now come to me, Warrior of Destiny, Youji Itami! I, Rory Mercury, Apostle to the Lord most high Emroy, welcomes you with open arms!"