Someone has to state it finally, so it will be stated. Hold Levhen is still producing troops. They have begun to retake territory in a counterpush south, although it is obvious that offensive is a mere diversionary attack to bait reinforcements. The main force, confirmed by Prince Mammon, is being led by Kassandora with the assistance of Kavaa. It is not headed north, back to the Core Holds, but east instead to encircle the entire main force that has been sent underground. Word has been sent ahead to the commanders, yet Kassandora’s pace is relentless. The living component of her army does not require sleep, sustenance or recuperation. This is most likely caused by the presence of Kavaa’s aggressive blessing and the easy terrain of the underkingdoms. They are crossing roughly eighty miles a day. At most, the eastern contingent of the Underground forces are in any position to evacuate. The western flank has already been cut off. Starvation is expected to spread in the imminent days.

  The losses can be measured: six generals have been caught out, with members of the officer cadre estimated to be about twenty to thirty thousand. Greater demons measure fifteen thousand, two hundred. Succubi and Incubi measure roughly one hundred thousand. Lesser demons number roughly eight million, imp numbers vary but the general calculation of three to one is safe to use. The decision to hold back Princes until Kassandora’s capture has been confirmed was well made. I would advise this policy of the Divine untouchability to be lifted, they are our open enemies at this point. The prestige of a live war-trophy can only be held if the war is won. This set-back should make it evident that Arda is treating this war as seriously as they did the First Arascan War.

  In regards to the surface, the policy of land-bridges is still questionable. I still advise against them. Elassa has been confirmed to assist in the Core-Holds, we have witnessed her power during our first expedition onto that world. The population of her magicians to pull the bridges down with our troops still on them would result in another major non-negligible loss. Whereas the advantage a foothold in Epa would bring us would be great, we would still be at the mercy of logistical shortcomings until a major portal is opened. The situation in the Sassara is stable, the major magical ritual in the south has been identified by infiltration teams, a secondary report on how to deal with it is in the process of being drafted right now. Nonetheless, we have identified that the north of the mountain range blocking our forces is untouchable by it. An assault is being planned there.

  Lastly, I wish to touch on another issue. Whereas it has been known for some time that the White Pantheon has been defeated, we must take start to consider the notion that the White Pantheon itself is compromised. The nation of Khmet under WP protection holds the single land-route into Epa. At this point, this neutral terrain does more to secure another route into the Empire than the sea itself. The question must be posed: who actually benefits from Khmet’s neutrality?

  I plead not to be dismissed as a mere fearmonger but I have to stress the worst case scenario: Arascus’ Empire will develop a way to circumvent or push back Ashen Skies. I stress that we are under a time-limit to secure terrain easily before we enter another century of attritional conflict.

  - Report by Prince Malphus, commander of Tartarus’ underground forces.

  “We have a situation.” One of Ekkerson’s majors came into the command bunker buried deep in the Central Mountains of Kirinyaa. It was a small room, one of many, the headquarters of this mountain, the only reason that it was the headquarters of the main army defending Kirinyaa was because Ekkerson was currently visiting. His entire team had been brought here. In addition to the local staff, the place had become crowded. Soldiers in grey uniforms ran about, some with rifles, others with papers. Some sat at screens from local cameras, others were moving counters about on a map. The local radio was a series of computers and screens mounted on the smooth, stone walls, all blurring with noise and whispers of men talking into microphones. It should have only the capacity for two operators, it had five.

  The walls were smoothed stone, dug out by magicians and miners and military engineers. Cables ran by every wall, with electric lamps hanging off the ceilings. Some said joked that it was a copy of the dwarven holds, Ekkerson had seen the videos and photos of the lightless tunnels circulating throughout Strategic Command, and he had seen the way that there almost not a single shadow in any hold once the suns had turned on. He firmly disagreed with the comparison. This was a human tunnel through and through. The passageways were narrow to make it hard to swing a sword or manoeuvre with a shield, there were plenty of looping passage ways, every room had at least three entrances to always leave an exit in case it was needed for the humans. And it had been needed.

  The intensity of the demon attacks was raising. Now, it was almost a constant stream of bodies moving towards the mountains. Several times, the tunnels had actually descended into brutal close-range fighting where flames ran through the tunnels and lead from rifles rushed out to meet them. Two individual bunkers had fallen already. Four retaking attempts had failed, Ekkerson had given up on sending more men to their deaths. Tartarus may have infinite bodies to throw away, but the Empire did not. And Kirinyaa, most of all, was lacking for men. The tunnels connecting to them had been blown, the frontline had retreated backwards.

  Maybe they were lacking for men, but lacking for mountains was not an issue. Two bunkers was fine when in the rear lines, more men were working on extending the spiderweb of tunnels that permeated every inch of stone here. Ekkerson sighed and pulled out a cigarette to calm his nerves. “What is the situation?” The general asked as he leaned back into his chair. The major took a laptop out of his briefcase and set it on the small table before him.

  “There’s something here.” The major said. He was an egregiously tall Kirinyaan named Jabari Mwangi. The man had to bow his head each time he entered one of the tunnels. He turned it on, typed in a four-digit passcode, and it immediately opened up with an image. Some of the other men in the room got close to lean in. A few bumped next to each other. Some took it as a break from Ekkerson’s overwatch. They lit up their cigarettes now that the General was smoking. “It’s a series of images long range cameras have taken.”

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  Ekkerson watched as Jabari leaned down and started clicking the arrows on the keyboard. It was indeed images of the apocalyptic outside. The skies had been paved over with Ashen Skies, the ground similarly tarmacked with the ash that gently wandered down like snow. “What am I looking at here?” Ekkerson asked as he stared at the lines of flames that were always marching towards the mountains. Another image revealed where a camera had caught an explosion from artillery. Another must have been a minute later, the huge glowing flames that Tartarus used to give light to their own troops in the lightless atmosphere of their own cloud cover had returned. Demons, huge and small and winged and walking, were silhouetted against them.

  Frankly, it was business as usual. “This here.” Jabari said, pointing to a single far off in the distance. It looked like one of the fires that Tartarus used to organise themselves. Something not even worth wasting artillery shells on. Snipers hidden in the mountains would pick these ones off usually. “These shots are from a few hours ago. We didn’t report anything then.” Ekkerson wouldn’t reprimand the man for that, if he got reports of every lone scouting flame, then he would be so inundated with needless information it would paralyze the entire war effort. Every mountain save for those that could be reached by Sokolowski’s Sledgehammer had spotted them.

  “What about it?”

  “The air is superheated here.” Jabari said. He quickly scrolled through a few cameras and found one image of infrared. The world through this lens was either pitch black, where the lack of sun made the temperatures drop, or blazing white where Tartarus had its guiding flames. And then there was another bright part, in front of that lone fire.

  Ekkerson immediately didn’t like it. The rest of the room obviously didn’t even. Men stopped shuffling so much and the quiet chattering whispers ceased as everyone looked into Jabari’s laptop. “This was discovered two hours ago, I set off to inform you since then.”

  “You should have used the radio.”

  “It’s overloaded.” Jabari said. Ekkerson took a deep breath. That was a note to make for the future bunkers. This infrastructure had to be expanded. He had expected it to be like the first Kirinyaan War or the Uriamel conflict. Both of those had battles and pauses. Tartarus just sent an endless stream of bodies as if manpower was worthless to them. The main damper on the slowing down of artillery wasn’t even ammunition, it was the fact that the barrels needed to time to rest. “A howitzer was direct to shell the location, the shell was thrown off course.” Jabari did not sound happy with it. “Here is a video.”

  Ekkerson watched a video of a black screen with flames in the distance. Demons kept on marching in their line, then spreading out just before they got cut off by the bottom of the screen. An explosion suddenly created a new source of light for a few moments. It had not struck anything, just landing in the darkness. “Other attempts had similar successes. We expect they are creating winds in the same manner as General Sokolowski’s magic to throw our shots off course.”

  Ekkerson put his elbows on the desk and took another drag of the cigarette. “I see.” This would have to be reported to Strategic Command the moment Jabari left. Tremali would need to know so he could start preparing a counter-strategy.

  “Theoretically, a direct shell should have enough power to penetrate it but there’s nothing in position. Tanks are approaching but the terrain is unsuited.” Jabari continued. “Nevertheless, the issue is here.” He clicked the arrow and another image came up. And this time, there were a dozen flames in the darkness. “That was ninety minutes ago, it came through when I was running here.” He clicked to the next image. The line had formed into a block. “An hour ago.”

  “Another attack force?” Ekkerson asked. The entire room was staring now.

  “No.” Jabari said. “I do not know what to call it. Their version of Sokolowski’s Sledgehammer maybe? The Fires of Hell?” He asked. “Reports of these formations have started streaming in from the entire frontline. Every few miles, there’s another block.”

  Ekkerson finished off his cigarette in a long drag. It burned his throat. “Do we know what they are doing?”

  “We do.” Jabari replied. “From half an hour ago, fifty miles north of here.” He took a deep breath and turned the photo slideshow off, then quickly clicked to a video. The entire room fell silent, even the radio operators turned back to watch as men leaned past sides or stood on their toes to look over shoulders.

  The video was not from the front lines, but from behind them. The number in the bottom said it was the second line that kept watch over the first. In it were the jagged silhouettes of red mountains, now made black as pitch, even darker than the lightless sky above them. “I’ll skip ahead.” Jabari said, he clicked the arrows a few times, jumping in increments of thirty seconds. At the top of the mountain, a flame burst out. “It begins here.”

  That flame was a mere flash. It appeared, it held for ten seconds, spiralled into the air, and then went out. The room teetered with a deadly atmosphere, as if ready to burst out into a brawl the moment anyone took a breath. Ekkerson stared for a few moments. His eyes shot to Jabari. If the man wasn’t looking deadly serious right now, he would assume it a joke.

  Five seconds passed.

  Ten seconds passed.

  Fifteen seconds passed.

  Twenty did not come to pass.

  The mountain disappeared behind a column of blazing fire white and purple flame, unlike any seen on Arda. It reached down to its valleys and shot up all the way to Ashen Skies. And then it simply held. “At this point, this lasts for amount twenty minutes.” Jabari said leaning down to drag the mouse about and fast-forward the video. “Shelling proved ineffective, we lost the communication lines almost immediately but there’s no survivors.” He said it in the flattest tone possible. “Sensors on nearby mountains capped out within a minute. Inside that pillar…”

  Ekkerson said it. “Nothing.”

  “Nothing.” Jabari confirmed. “We can estimate its thousand of degrees, maybe the temperature of the sun. Maybe hotter, I’m no scientist.” He fast forwarded again. The flame expanded for a moment and began to change colour. “It ends now. Twenty-five minutes roughly.” The purple and white fire ceased immediately, it transformed into orange and then it was gone. In the span of a few seconds, the entire mountain range had gone from shining to suddenly being flooded by darkness that was only broken up by lamps and fires in the distance.

  But Ekkerson did not look at the change in colour, he just looked at the bubbling pool of lava that was beginning to set where a mountain had stood previously. It was gone. Nothing remained.

  Behind it, the column of flames began to move to the side.

  Onto the next one.