“Great gods…” Lieutenant Marie muttered, her eyes fixated on the little scarred assassin as he vanished. Her mind was still playing the events that had happened in the past ten minutes or so.

           “In the flesh, no less. And…one of them just died. Like that.” Sergeant Aziz flopped onto the floor as the murderer of a demigod vanished into thin air. When the Human God descended, he’d felt that the battle had went south so far that Ark City would have been in view, but who knew that such a plot twist awaited them?

           The other observers, from the Eastern Territories and the Western Holdings, were also equally cowed. After all, everyone had vividly felt the build-up of what should have been the Human God’s killing blow against the Northern Demigod. The world itself had stopped, and no one could move. Even them, viewing the battle from faraway, were no exception.

           Major Igor had explained to them the limitations of a great god descending, but even if the Human God was operating only with one-tenth of his full strength, it was more than enough to crush any of the Five Continents alone. 

           And yet, the Human God had still failed in the end, felled by a mystical assassin that rivalled the strength of his avatar. Sergeant Aziz found it unbelievable that the Northern Continent had somehow managed to plot against a myth, a great god of over a hundred thousand years ago, and succeed magnificently at that. It also meant that…for all intents and purposes, the Northern Continent was pretty much the undisputed overlord of the Five Lands now.

           Similar realisations flickered across the faces of the observers from the East-West Alliance, and an epiphany struck Aziz. He was here, not just to report and inform the higher ups about the new military doctrines developed by the Northern Continent…but to also subtly hint at the overwhelming might of their military. In fact, he could see the conversation play out between him and Colonel Wickers.

           When he came back and told Colonel Wickers to avoid aggravating the North, the colonel might say, “Us beastfolk are unparalleled in the art of close combat!”

           And all Sergeant Aziz would say was, “Well, they managed to kill the Human God Anren when he took over the body of his familiar spirit.”

           The Colonel might then follow up with, “But we have Paragons who are brave and unyielding!”

           And the Sergeant would still say the same thing. Over and over until the entire Congress got it into their head that the Northern Continent just killed a familiar spirit of the Human God, even after the Human God himself descended onto the familiar spirit to fight.

           The bottom line was that until Ark City was able to take on an actual great god, it would be a very good idea to not antagonise the North. Even if that was possible, the Northern military was a huge headache on its own. Its artillery was far superior to anything else on Orb now, while its military doctrine was flexible beyond comparison. And the fact that they were able to scheme against even a great god spoke volumes of the strategists that supported them.

           It was little wonder that the North could so easily overcome the forces of the Central Continent. The latter had been too arrogant at the start, and too late to learn from its mistakes at the end. In less than a day, the North would resume its assault, and Sergeant Aziz would see the end of a historical hegemony that had spanned a duration that men couldn’t fathom.

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           “Lieutenant Marie,” whispered Sergeant Aziz. “What are you thinking of now?”

           “How not to fight a war we will definitely lose,” the lieutenant replied. “Let’s hope that no one would notice Ark City as we flee the Five Lands.”

           “You think we’re still going to flee? After this?”

           “Even more so after this.” Lieutenant Marie drew closer. “The acts of the North will have antagonised the great gods as a whole. The sin of blasphemy is death — and killing a familiar spirit, as well as the avatar of a great god who had descended…is nothing short of the highest order of blasphemy.”

           Sergeant Aziz narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t thought of it that way…or perhaps he didn’t want to. Now that the Human God of myth had been seemingly beaten back, how would the people of Orb treat the Great Gods? How would the common man view natural disasters from now on, and who would they blame for that? The gods?

           And…if the Human God could descend, why couldn’t the others? The cowed sergeant didn’t want to see a day where the combined armies of the Five Lands faced off against all the great gods and their familiar spirits — even if the North had beaten back the Human God, they had paid a great price to do so. 

           “Major Igor,” said the sergeant, his mind churning madly, “is it possible for you to tell us how many contingency plans were laid out? How did your strategists predict that a familiar spirit would appear? And in the same vein, how did they predict that the Human God would descend onto his servant?”

           “Truth be told, I’m not sure about this part either,” replied the major. He frowned for a moment. “What I do know, however, was that this specific plan was put in motion on Friday afternoon, and we’ve been making preparations ever since. If it hadn’t, we would have drawn out the battle and grind them down through attrition tactics.”

           The observers from Ark City exchanged glances, as did the others from the East and the West. The sergeant could almost hear the gears spinning in their head, as they tried to figure out what exactly started the North’s new plan.

           “The presence of the assassin,” whispered Lieutenant Marie. “That assassin was the key to overcoming the Human God and his vessel. If he wasn’t available, then the plan would have been put on hold otherwise, right? After all, the next closest variable, the Northern Demigod, was part of the Northern forces in the first place.

           She frowned. “Does that mean that the assassin wasn’t part of the Northern forces? A mercenary for hire?”

           “You’re forgetting the chains that sealed the sky,” Sergeant Aziz added on. “I’m quite sure these chains were meant to restrain the Human God — his presence was weakening the whole time. Only one such being could have done that...”

           “Yes. But the North wants to eradicate the demons too, so I cannot see them working with the legendary Demon God.” Lieutenant Marie ran her hands through her hair. “What exactly is going on?”

            Major Igor shrugged, as the observers began to throw questioning looks in his direction. “As lofty as I might seem, I am ultimately just a Major, esteemed observers. Such matters of planning rarely pass by me, unless I cop a look at papers I haven’t been cleared for, which I clearly didn’t. In a similar vein, I know that some of you are eager to talk to the people behind this massive, qualitative change behind the North, but I don’t think I’ll be able to help you secure an appointment.”

           Sergeant Aziz smiled faintly at the sight of his superior pouting. The major’s words were clearly intended for her, a runabout method to inform Lieutenant Marie that his promise from earlier could not be fulfilled.

          But still, thought Sergeant Aziz, this plan of the North was so intricate and detailed that I can scarcely believe that it was the work of a human…