The Great Divide. The enduring wound of the First Extermination, of the first and only great war between the Human God and the Demon God. It was the place that separated the Wildlands from the Five Lands, and the first battleground for the impending invasion in four years. The land bridge leading up to it wasn’t anything much to look at, but the Great Divide itself…

“Wow,” said Paragon Maylin. “This looks surreal, and I’ve been in more than three Divine Kingdoms.”

Indeed. In front of Aziz was a black wall, tinged with the faint azure of the long-departed Lifespring. He wasn’t too sure how to describe it, either. The black wall towered to the heavens beyond, as wide as the Never-ending Ocean that surrounded the land that led up to it. Green lines that crisscrossed each other could be seen on the wall, forming what looked like one of those wire meshes that were used in the creation of Ark City’s wargame figurines. Curious, he walked up towards the vast expanse of darkness and placed his palm on it, only to see it enter the wall itself.

It was as though as the wall contained an entirely different world. Some of those meshes were clearly curved up together to form small hills and things like that. No matter how Aziz looked at it, he was reminded of the time when he was asked to create terrain and models for wargaming, back when he was a piddly little scout.

“This place…those green meshes look very familiar to me,” said Marie.

“You too?” Aziz asked. “I keep thinking of those wargaming models I made years ago.”

Marie’s eyes swam for a moment, and her face brightened in the next. “Yes, yes! That’s exactly it! Oh man, the glue, and my poor fingers…”

“You…really aren’t the artistic type, are you?” Aziz commented idly. “They were quite easy to make, and after we were done with the wargaming sessions, some of us would use them to create art pieces.”

“Che, non-coms. We had to dismantle them afterwards and place them in a stupidly neat fashion, or else we would get punished. Play with them? Pshaw.” Marie raised her chin, seemingly looking down on Aziz’s own training.

Aziz rubbed his nose. Well, she was an officer to begin with, so…

“Still,” said Paragon Maylin, “why did the Stabiliser do all this? He could have just created a solid spatial disjoint here or something. I can sense the flow of divinity, and most of them are spent on these meshes.”

“Doesn’t work that way,” said Paragon Abele. “If he did it that way, this spatial disjoint wouldn’t have lasted as long as it did.”

Aziz turned to Paragon Abele, surprised. This was the first time that something that had nothing to do with fighting or insults had come out from the Paragon’s mouth, but from the unsurprised looks the other Paragons had, it seemed that they knew about his expertise.

“Without anything inside, an empty space — whether it serves as a small world or as a barrier — would be eventually crushed. If the Great Divide was set up like that, the demons would have invaded millennia ago,” said Abele. “The reason why the Great Divide’s about to fall is because those meshes are on the verge of vanishing.”

“And they’re vanishing because they’re aren’t receiving enough power,” Maylin added on thoughtfully. “So, there really isn’t any way to avert this?”

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“Tried. If the demons weren’t sapping away at the integrity of those meshes, it would have stayed up for another century or so, but it’s now at the point of no return.” Paragon Abele shook his head. “Alright, I’ve seen enough.”

“Yeah.” Maylin turned to Marie and Aziz. “You two should set up whatever you need. That hill over there is the Crest of Crimson Shine. Rene told us not to step onto it fully, so you guys probably shouldn’t either. Lastly, remember not to take detours when leaving — you guys are to head back after you’re done immediately.”

“Okay.”

“See you around, the two of you.”

“Don’t do anything stupid, mortals—ow!”

“Goodbye!”

The Paragons bade farewell and left one after another, leaving the two of them alone. In silence, the pair began to take out the monitoring artefacts that the State Council had provided them. Most of them took the form of small balls, with a small glass eye at the top. For a moment, the colonel wanted to toss one into the sea, but that would probably get him a good scolding.

“It’s a bit creepy, these things,” Aziz said.

“They happen to be the least noticeable, so…well, let’s get on with it.”

It didn’t take long before the land around the Great Divide was now placed under surveillance. As to whether it worked or not, Aziz had no clue, but that wasn’t their problem now. At most, they would receive some complaints, but the colonel didn’t believe for a second that Pauline would order them to go here again to make things perfect.

“Done,” said Aziz. “Now, all that’s left is to—Marie?”

She was tapping him on the shoulder rapidly. “Look at that. What’s going on?”

Aziz followed her finger to the Great Divide, and felt his blood chill. Somehow, somehow, there was someone inside the world of black and green lines. A silhouette was staring back at them, one whose colour flickered from grey to black and to grey again — but what was most important was that this person was someone made from those green meshes, which turned it from a two-dimensional drawing to a real thing.

“What is that?” Aziz whispered. “Is it a demon?”

Despite himself, the colonel took a few hesitant steps forwards the wall. The figure raised a fist, before slamming it into the ground. Sand flew as the ground around Aziz and Marie shook. The colonel watched as the figure raised its hand again, bringing it down with an earth-shaking tremor, and with a jolt, he realised that this…demon was attacking the Great Divide. White began to cloud his senses as his vision tracked the demon’s moving arm, dispersing only for a moment after a fist was brought down.

The ground shook again, as the demon — it had to be one — raised its fist up once more with an agonising slowness, only to bring it down onto the ground. Aziz wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but the sky seemed to darken every time his wits returned to him for the slightest instant after the demon smashed its fist into the Great Divide. In the moments that followed, his instincts would take over, pulling him a tiny bit further away from the Great Divide, only to fall dormant when the demon raised its hands once more.

Hours had passed in what felt like minutes. The afternoon sun had set, and the moon was beginning to rise, but Aziz and Marie were only able to properly move once the pair had crawled and pulled themselves far enough from the Great Divide, in the moments of clarity that followed every heavy punch.

Sweat ran down Aziz’s brows, and a stinging pain burned dully in his hands as his senses returned to him with one last mighty pull. Abrasions and scrapes lined his arms and hands, but he didn’t waste any time in nursing them as he scrambled to his feet. At the same time, Marie also managed to escape from the demon’s mental compulsion, but she too was injured.

The two didn’t speak, flopping over onto the ground after taking ten or so steps. The soil below them darkened rapidly as sweat and tears pooled. Crimson liquid was pouring out of his eyes, turning his vision red. Fear, a familiar, primal fear of an existence who stood at the peak of life, flooded every cell and every nerve of Aziz — the demons were really attacking the Great Divide.

“D-demons,” Aziz forced out. “H-he wasn’t lying.”

Marie rolled over to his side. “Warn the oth—”

Her words turned into red-hot hammers that smashed the insides of his skull. His vision flickered, and strength left his body entirely.

The last thing he saw before darkness fell was the shaking, black curtain.

[End of Book 7: Limina of Ruin]