GENERAL IMORU’S REGIMENT ARRIVED AT THE MILITARY HOSPITAL a few hours later. Ite was situated in one of the wards of this hospital. Mrs. Olivia Abrams, an elderly nurse, was tending to Ite’s shoulder, using a mixture of conventional medical practices and magical influence to help assist her.

“Am I good to go back into the battle now, Mrs. Abrams?” Ite asked the nurse.

“Not yet,” Olivia responded. “Your shoulder blade is still fractured.”

“I thought you fixed that already,” the archer replied.

“It’s better than before,” the nurse continued, “but it’s still not in good shape.”

“It’ll be fine,” Ite huffed, trying to get up from her cot. She seared very heavily as the pain began to flood her body from her injured shoulder.

“Don’t get up,” Abrams protested. “You’ll hurt yourself even more.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she carried on. “I need to get back out there.” Ite continued to limp away from the cot and toward a window.

“You need to let your body rest. Magical healing takes a lot of energy from the target.”

“I can’t just lie down. No. Not when their lives are at stake.”

“Their lives? Who’s ‘they’?”

“My friends. Yukan, Kadaina, Zero, they’re out there risking their lives and I’m stuck here waiting, hoping that they don’t get slaughtered out there. How am I supposed to just stand aside, just out of range, when they’re standing at point-blank? Yukan especially. I’ve known him for six years. I love him. We have a future that we’re striving for together. What kind of fool do I have to be to push that aside and let him go off and get himself killed? No, I’m not letting that happen. That’s why I need to go back out there. I-”

In the middle of her next sentence, Ite suddenly loosened up her tense stance, stumbling slightly. The nurse saw this and helped support Ite as she brought her back over to her cot.

“I tried to warn you,” Olivia began. “You’re probably going to be exhausted. Now get some rest.”

Ite turned her gaze away from the nurse.

“And Ms. Daitan,” she continued. “I understand what you’re saying. I’ve been robbed enough already by war.”

Mrs. Abrams then left the ward, nodding to a pair of men outside of the room before continuing on.

“Thank God she’s going to be alright,” Yukan sighed.

Another figure approached Yukan and Kadaina from the other side of the hall. When Yukan recognized him, he began to walk toward him.

“You!” the swordsman exclaimed upon seeing his general. “This is your damn fault!”

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“Weren’t you the one that left her unattended?” the general retorted coldly.

“You were the one who took us into that battle blind!” Yukan fired back. “All of the people that died today died because of YOUR miscalculation.”

“This is war, Yukan!” Zenpan argued. “Death is inevitable if we are going to achieve victory. We could go in with a perfect counter-strategy and we’d still have casualties. Insisting otherwise makes you look like an idiot.”

“At least we would’ve had a counter-strategy!” Yukan complained. “We didn’t have any plan but charging in blind!”

“That’s enough, both of you!” Kadaina yelled out. “Arguing will do us no good when Kunshu’s already planning his next attack. We were lucky he retreated this time. We were pawns fighting against knights, bishops, and rooks. We would’ve been pulverized if they didn’t stop at Oka Hill.”

“Well, what are we going to do now?” Zenpan remarked. “All of our best generals are either too old to fight or working in the North Campaign. How are we going to find a new general in the middle of a war?”

“What about Kadaina?” Yukan suggested. “This guy knows how to get in his opponent’s head. He’s a genius. He can pick apart every single move you make before you do it.”

Zero contemplated the idea for a moment. He knew he was nowhere near an optimal strategist. He had grown quite accustomed to the fact that death was nigh impossible for him in Crenon, so he let his strategic prowess die down in favor of brute force. He worked alone once the Great Trifecta War was over and only accepted the position of Akuni’s premiere general since he knew that he wouldn’t fall a similar fate to his predecessor, General Abrams. That being said, suggesting a sixteen-year-old to take up a mantle as co-general seemed like a mockery of his position. Yet, if it meant the survival of his troops, he had no option but to swallow his pride.

“I guess you’re our best bet at this point,” Zero sighed. “Welcome aboard, Co-General Meiji.”

“Wait, really?” Kadaina replied. “Woah. I’ll make sure you don’t regret this.”

And thus Kadaina Meiji became co-general of the 154th Akuni Regimen, mentored by Zenpan Imoru.

❒︎❒︎❒︎❒︎❒︎❒︎❒︎

Kunshu sat at his throne, tapping his fingers against its arm. He was still disturbed by the encounter during the Battle on Oka Hill. He gazed into the fireplace, trying to find some form of comfort in its glow. Zenpan’s true identity had reminded Kunshu that he was not as indestructible as he had once thought. Shirei soon entered the throne room.

“May I ask why we did not continue to push, my liege?” Aotoshi’s leading commander asked his emperor. “Our strategy was going perfectly. We could have wiped that entire fleet off of the face of Crenon.”

“Shirei,” Kunshu muttered. “Something happened on the battlefield. It stopped me dead in my tracks. I realized that we couldn’t take them all down. At least, not with Akuni’s general there.”

“Why is that?” Shirei inquired.

“He isn’t human,” the emperor began. “Not too long before I met you, I had tried to claim the Omega Blade. I eliminated Sofu the moment he inherited it, but I could not lift the blade. Then, an assassin emerged and began to pursue me. That encounter was the closest I have ever been to death. None have brought me that close since, Shirei. I was so scared for my life, I was able to tap into Suornha, something my father never was able to. It was the only way I could escape. You know, the only way to access Suornha with these blades is if either you or somebody you care about is at risk of dying. Otherwise, the threshold of adrenaline cannot be channeled into the blade fast enough to trigger the transformation. After that, the amount of energy needed isn’t as potent, but the initial activation is no easy thing to force. Yet, that assassin managed to force it out of me.”

“I see,” Shirei remarked. “I’m going to start work on our next course of action. Will you be joining us for the battle?”

“I’m afraid I cannot,” Kunshu stated. “My survival is the most important part of our plan. If the king is captured, it’s game over.”

Shirei nodded before leaving the throne room. Kunshu threw sand into the fireplace, suffocating the flame and embracing the darkness of the night.