They shall be allowed to push to the Core Holds and the ring-road Highway circling them. The Second Expedition will retreat back to the safety of those Holds, along to those further north and west of Epa to form a hard wall. Levhen will be left abandoned and encircled with troops from the central Epa-Arika North-South being sent to there. Tartarus has been known to overextend when they feel as if they have seized the upper hand. The Archdemon sent towards Rilia suggests that they may want to end the conflict quickly rather than drag it out as had happened during the Great War for the move was risky. If it did work out though, then they would have had an immediate foothold on Epa from which to overrun us. This style of claiming terrain with single armies was not seen back then. Definitely a change of doctrine that should that be studied, although the prevalence of Ashen Skies and the great success they have had in promulgating their fumes into our atmosphere counteracts this theory. That style of warfare, we obviously know.

  Maybe the Archdemon was simply a test of new battlefield theory then? A risky gamble that did not work out? It could be. Arda should prepare for a long war rather than a short one. Arika will most likely be overwhelmed, we can expect them to start construction encampments and fortresses in the desert as they did in the past.

  Although that is getting off topic. The greatest issue the Empire is facing right now is the unstoppable horde in the underground. As I was writing, the Core Holds shall serve as the cliffs on which the waves will break. Holds further to the west and north will become secondary defence lines to not give up anymore terrain. Levhen is in a unique position due to its isolated position in the south. The army that will wake up there measures in the millions, even if we take into account attrition from age. It would be enough to cut off the main force that would be laying siege to the Core Holds. Although Tartarian figures are mere estimates, the successful closing of such an encirclement could theoretically surpass more than five million. I expect that even Tartarus would recoil from such a blow, if for the loss of equipment and officers if not the loss of grunts.

  Yet there are two issues in the problem. The first is minor, Tartarus cannot be terrified into a rout. Once the World-Core is reactivated, the local defences need to hold position rather than push the demons back. That is merely a matter of strategy. The second issue is that the Levhen force will need to be directed by a general. The dwarves, although they are able to command the automata, lack the hastiness needed for such an encirclement and are inexperienced with full-scale army movements. The Empire’s human and elven generals would need a few days to acquiesce themselves with the command of automata.

  That only leaves two possible options. Iliyal Tremali, who is currently organising the Epan Theatre of the Surface War, and myself, who is merely strategizing.

  The choice is obvious.

  - Excerpt from “Operation Sickle & Scythe, Preliminary Stages.” Written by Goddess Kassandora, of War.

  Fortia and Maisara sat in chairs around a small table. After dealing with Zerus and Sceo, after dealing with the Pantheon for a thousand years, they had expected Alice to be a bitter little soul that needed to be beaten down into pulp before she would start spilling secrets. There had been a tacit, unsaid agreement that should she prove uncooperative, her body would be killed, her soul would be locked in a jar and she would be made to speak.

  When a still-sniffling Sceo had lead Fortia and Maisara to Alice’s room, the girl had been frightened from the commotion and sitting on her bed. And then she had actually smiled at the three Goddesses. Fortia and Maisara could only look at each other in surprise. What had Leona been saying about them? Surely none of it could have been the truth? Could it? Alice seemed almost… relieved that she was going off the mountain? The fact it was Fortia and Maisara taking her away only put the girl at ease…

  The journey back had been one of Alice looking around at the world and how it changed in awe. Imperial police once again stalked them as they crossed Arascus’ territory with a small army at their back. No one escalated the diplomatic incident, no one even brought it up. No doubt word had gone up the chain command and the locals had been informed that as long as Fortia and Maisara didn’t dawdle nor try to push further in, then they should be let to pass so that everyone would be saved a headache later. The ship had been one of Alice skittering about, talking to the troops and to the Goddesses themselves. There, they had finally managed to mention Leona. Fortia had done all the talking. And the worst part was that Leona had been receptive.

  So now Maisara and Fortia had both been baffled. And now, as they waited for Alice to finish scribbling down a list of locations, they just sat. Maisara on cross-legged, on the carpet, Fortia hunched over her knees on a couch for humans. The two of them couldn’t fit on it together. Fortia had washed down her armour, Maisara had changed entirely, into a loose shirt. She picked at desert sand that wafted in from behind the cloth which made a doorway and stuck to her feet.

  Fortia’s eyes settled on Maisara’s bare legs and then up to Of Order’s face. “We’re wasting time.” She said.

  “That we are.” Maisara replied dryly. She didn’t even look up as she flicked another grain of sand off her feet.

  “Do you know who wouldn’t be wasting time?” Fortia asked.

  “Arascus.” Maisara said. “Kassandora. Helenna. Malam.” What a dry tone for a dry list of names.

  “Exactly.” Fortia said and exhaled. “And we’re sat here.”

  “That we are.” Maisara said. “That we are.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t know.” Maisara said. “I didn’t plan for this much time and for her to be so cooperative.”

  “Same.”

  “So we’re wasting time.” Maisara brushed her foot and inspected it. Clean. She started on her other. “What can be done otherwise?”

  “I don’t know.” Fortia said. Ingratiating themselves with Khmet was just painting a target on their backs more than they had done so already. As long as they had deniability that they were merely acting a containment force against Tartarus and not preparing an army, the Empire would not rear its head. If this nation had a modern, working army that didn’t fly the Imperial Red-White-Black, then the moment Tartarus was done, Kassandora would launch a pre-emptive strike and the Empire would cheer for her. And besides, getting into the local politics now could only be a half-hearted attempt at best, they weren’t going to be staying here for long.

  “Do you know who would be wasting time?” Maisara asked.

  “Who?”

  “Elassa, Fer, Allasaria, Irinika, Baalka, the rest of them.”

  “We’re not up against the rest of them.” Fortia replied.

  “Are we not?”

  “Well we are.” Fortia said. “But not like… you know what I mean. It’s his Empire.” Maisara chuckled and sighed. Another flick, a grain of sand bounced off Fortia’s leg.

  “That it is.” Maisara said. “But that is an Empire across two continents with hundreds of lesser Divines and a dozen major ones and we are but two Goddesses with a single army behind us. The fox stays still so the wolf doesn’t hear it as it passes by.”

  “I told you that.” Fortia said.

  “That you did.” Maisara replied. “That you did.” She cooed. “So now all we can do is wait and see what Alice can give us.”

  “Miserable.”

  “The wait is the worst part.” Maisara said and Fortia shook her head.

  “Do you know who says that?”

  “Arascus.” Maisara replied.

  “Indeed.” Fortia said and leaned back. “He said it back when we were signing the Concordats to me.” Maisara shrugged. She had not existed back then.

  “If he was a fool, we wouldn’t be in this situation.” Maisara said and sighed. She finally shifted positions and kicked down on the carpets against the ground. They thudded and sand burst up from around their edges.

  “Now you’ve done it.”

  “Now I’ve done it.” Maisara agreed. “Have you checked the news?”

  “No. You?”

  “No.”

  “Check it then.” Maisara said.

  “Check it yourself.”

  “Just check it so we can pretend to be monitoring the situation. Put on Imperia, they do war coverage.” That was Helenna and Malam’s station. Officially, it was headed by a human and under the control of some bureau, but Fortia had spent too much time with Helenna not to recognise the woman’s style in speeches. Fortia rolled her eyes, brought out her phone and Maisara stood up to walk around the couch. The device was a pantheon model still, build huge specifically for the hand of a Divine. A button unlocked it. She tapped the website’s address into the browser as Maisara watched.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  And she almost dropped it when she saw the animation of fireworks explode from either side and a banner unfurl at the top of the website. The Suns Shine Again! The two Goddesses stared at those words for half a minute in silence. Fortia’s mouth eventually managed to force out a quiet whisper. “They did it.”

  “Is it real?” Maisara asked.

  “Why wouldn’t it be real?” Fortia asked. She had to consciously move her finger to scroll down on the touchscreen. A stupid little character appeared in the bottom right, an animated girl with white hair, a black suit, glasses and the pointing sticking of a teacher. It was a simple animation of two frames. Fortia felt like a damn child as she an even more stupid text bubble appear: This is a live report, more details are coming soon! :P

  “I fucking hate that.” Maisara pointed at the character in the bottom right.

  “I do too.” Fortia replied. “What is that even?”

  “I don’t even want to know.” The text disappeared for a second and a new speech bubble came up. Live broadcast starting soon! Tap here to join and watch along! Maisara sounded as if she was disgusted. “A regime of sunshine and daisies. Go on.” Fortia tapped the text. Unfortunately, the page did not crash. It immediately loaded a video player. There was a live chat in the bottom of the screen. “I hate that too.”

  “It just destroys us.” Fortia replied. “The Pantheon would have never come up with this.”

  “I would have never allowed it if it did. What a joke.” That stupid character played an animation as she ducked into the edge of the screen and disappeared. The chat opened up and was immediately made unreadable by the flood of messages. The video had a five-minute countdown. “What a joke.” Maisara muttered again.

  Fortia saw the beauty in it though. “Talk about confidence.” It was a move that only Arascus would be delusionally optimistic enough for. “That’s how you do it.” Her eyes managed to catch an odd message here and there. Largely, it was just the word Victory being repeated ad-infinitum. Sometimes with a question mark, sometimes with an exclamation point. Maisara didn’t reply, Fortia had nothing to add.

  Each second of those five minutes felt as if it stretched on for eternity.

  And then, the broadcast came back on. Five minutes to the dot. A pretty lady with dark hair in a modest uniform of black white stood next to a dwarf holding an axe as she held a microphone. Her cheeks had the perfect amount of make-up to be warm and cozy. She smiled at the character, the dwarf looked around as if unsure of what to say. He was stood in heavy armour. Behind them, it was obviously Klavdiv. The city was shining, enough of Olephia’s paintings had survived the Great War for the White Pantheon to be able to draw a basic map of the city even if they had never stepped foot within it. It was just as beautiful and just as grand as the art made it out to be. Countless overlapping bridges over each other, rolling chains that pulled elevators, aqueducts ending waterfalls that fell into pools. Great pillars of flames made shapes on the walls. Golems and automata marched about in the distance, as did human and dwarven soldiers who were raising drinks and cheering.

  It was impressive and it was impossible. The World Core had been shut off. The city could not be re-powered. “They did it.” Maisara said dryly.

  “We’re running out of time.” Fortia replied. Maisara was about to speak, but the newsgirl cut her off.

  “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Empire.” The newsgirl said. She spoke in a perfect enunciated Allian. “We are reporting from Klavdiv and I am excited to tell you that the defence of the city has been our most glorious success yet.” She took a step back and to the side of the frame, her arm extended to show the city off. Those cheers sounded as if they were going to shake the world. “Emperor Arascus, Goddesses Malam and Helenna will give a speech soon.”

  “Of course they will.” Maisara replied dryly.

  “But first, our editors at Imperia have prepared a little video to get you all up to date on what has been happening. It will start in a minute, get your champagne ready.” The girl laughed as she reached off screen. “I have mine here!” The feed cut to black before she opened it.

  “This is how they do their news.” Fortia replied, amazed at the sheer audacity of it being so unprofessional. Whoever had organised it like that deserved a raise. She had watched Imperia before, when Imperial propagandists would give updates on the war. It was fascinating how they would reveal battle maps on screen and play videos recorded straight from the field of battle. Both Maisara and Fortia had watched video explanations of SkySweeper missiles with little animations on this site to give a layman’s explanation of what the weapon did. And then immediately after, it would cut to a video of the INS Aris devastating a flying swarm of demons with a pair of them. The propaganda did work. Fortia could not admit it did not.

  “Don’t tell me you want to get a bottle now.” Maisara replied.

  “Don’t tell me you don’t see the beauty in it.” Fortia said. “Would we have ever just had videos of battles out there?”

  “No.”

  “I know.” Fortia said. “And they just show it. Just like that. As if it’s just completely normal and not something to hide. It’s like…” She had to shake her head in awe. “Well, how can you not be confident when you just see exactly what is happening?”

  “I see that.” Maisara said. “It’s just not professional.”

  “No.” Fortia said. “That we agree on. It’s new.”

  The dark screen did last for a minute and a song began. The ancient Imperial anthem from the Great War with a slideshow of Olephia’s paintings from the old Klavdiv. There was no narration, it was just painting after painting showcasing ancient guardian and Dwarven High King and the battles of the Great War that had been fought in the Highway. And then, suddenly, the song cut out mid-note. The screen went black again. Twisted so that Maisara could get a better view.

  White text flashed onto the black screen: World Core shut off. Night falls. It held for a few seconds. Disappeared, then a subtitle appeared. Year 1. Darkness. A single shining as a dwarf huddled by it. A video of Klavdiv dark. Year 2. The dwarf fell over. Another came to his side. The numbers started to increase. Year 3. Year 4. They became a blur, going into the double digits, then the triple, then past a thousand. The candles went out eventually, to be replaced by even weaker glowstone. Images came onto the screen of the city in total darkness. Photos of a great orb covered in countless runes: The Suns at night. Photos of dwarves huddling around fires, breathes coming from their faces in the cold air: Temperatures drop to freezing in the underground. More and more came, Fortia and Maisara were both transfixed by the utterly misery and hopeless on display.

  And then, the video cut out again. For a moment, it felt as if everything was going to end. White text flashed on the screen. Imperial return to Klavdiv. A video of Arascus and Iniri walking into the city, a small section of the Imperial Army behind them, it was filmed from far away and behind, as if to showcase the scale of the city. The two Divines were mere blips in the frame as the camera zoomed out further. Food is brought down from the surface to help with malnourishment. Photos came onto the screen, interspersed with videos, of human soldiers hauling crates of supplies off trucks and handing out bags of food to the half-men. Electricity is installed. Now it was engineers working on ropes as they unfurled great wires down to the city. Defences are shored up. The Imperial army this time, working in tandem with dwarves to form battlelines.

  A black screen again. More text: We vow to end a thousand-year night.

  Then there was an image of some thick black liquid. Text at the bottom of the screen explained what the audience was looking at. In order to safeguard the World Core when it was defenceless, the dwarves flooded their depths with noxious chemicals. The ocean under the surface. To cross it was no easy task.

  The dilution project. Now there was video from a laboratory. The thick liquid bubbled as water poured into it, and then it released a gas from which a team of scientists ran away. Sprinklers turned on. Failure.

  The submarine project. Branches lowered a submarine into the water. They held it there for a minute, then brought it. The bottom of the submarine was missing. Failure.

  Second Imperial Princess, Goddess Olephia, is called upon. A video of a began to play. It started off focused on black boots and zoomed out to reveal Olephia walking in full Imperial uniform. Her black coat, tinged with edges of purple. Goddess Iniri, of Nature, prepares to protect Klavdiv from Goddess Olephia’s power. A montage set to upbeat music of Iniri growing trees on stone. Of leaves and vines intertwining to hold the structure together. Goddess Olephia begins her task. The video to Olephia standing above the ocean, the video was blurry, red lightning sparked from around her as she hummed. She spoke. “Sta-“ The word did not even finish before the camera cut out. It’s final frame was a shot of a nuclear explosion below Olephia. The screen returned, this time of Iniri’s barrier flexing and regrowing as explosions sounded in the distance. Goddess Olephia annihilates the noxious waters and carves a way to Klavdiv’s bottom.

  Down at the bottom, we discover the World Core overgrown with ancient flora. A shot of a gate with wood that looked to be an off-coloured grey. “Do you know what that is?” Maisara asked.

  “From before my time.” Fortia said. All she had to go off were stories and hearsay from the Age of Monsters when she formed. Oral tales that spoke of the Era before it. “I think anyway. I’ve never seen it. It could be new.”

  “Oh.” Maisara said.

  But our dwarves cut it down! The music became almost heroic as it showed the wood retreat from dwarves swinging their axes at it. The World-Core is reached! What a chamber of crystal it was. Maisara and Olephia stared and listened. Almost everything had been recorded there. Even Olephia talking to the World-Core, even her getting fed up and running out of words. It was all on display. The Pantheon would never allow that. And then she said the final word: “Honorificabilitudinitatibus.” Fortia felt chills go down her spine as she tried to imagine the amount of power in that many syllables. The hers on the back of her neck stood up. Maisara shuddered.

  And then came time for the victory march. A montage of energy flying past them. Of aqueducts running with water. Of a sun beginning to burn once again. Of cheers. The video ended on a final slide of text: The thousand year night has ended, the suns under the surface shine again.

  It held for a moment and then cut back to the live feed. The newsgirl was back, still smiling. The dwarf looked as if he had been drinking already, although there was a satisfied angle to his pose. He leaned back, the edges of his lips twisted into a smile. By his side, the girl was practically jumping from foot to foot. “Ladies and gentlemen!” The newsgirl said. “I hope you enjoyed that! In case you were wondering, by my side is Forgemaster Vizin! He is one of the lumberers who went down there with Goddess Olephia to re-light the World-Core!” She squeaked in excitement. “We have an interview with him right now but first.” She passed the of champagne to the dwarf. “Would you please?”

  Wordlessly, Vizin took the bottle from her, shook it for a moment and easily pulled the cork out. Champagne’s foam spilled out for a moment and then settled down. He passed it to the newsgirl, who bowed and smiled and turned back to the camera. “Now ladies and gentlemen, this is no way a lady should act and it is highly unprofessional of me, but I think the moment calls for it!” She held the bottle to the camera. “Cheers everyone! To us!” She tipped her head back and drank straight from the bottle.

  Maisara leaned over and turned the video off. Of Peace and Of Order sat there for a while, in silence as they recovered from what they had just watched. Eventually, one of them had to admit it. Fortia took the blow. “They just ran a victory lap around us.”

  “That they did.”

  There was nothing more to say.