Darting into motion, grey stakes formed all around Gaius and hurtled towards his target. At the same time, his body bore down upon his enemy, the Terminus ready to strike. His opponent, who was fending off dozens of long, grey projectiles, barely reacted in time to his sudden strike, and an arm flew, severed by his single strike.
A second later, the grey mist in his Domain solidified around the demon Paragon. Gaius could feel his enemy’s Dominion whirl to life, in a bid to resist the hold pressing down on him, but the faint sphere of light began to crack under the pressure of his Domain.
His vision changed a moment later, and Gaius took a good long look at his enemy. Up close, the small ball that resembled an ether core — the energy-gathering structure of this particular Paragon — was trembling and shaking as it tried to produce more black mist.
Gaius stared at that sight, and closed his eyes briefly. He had already understood what the Human God meant by omnipotence, but using it in battle was an entirely different thing together. He looked down on his left palm, and then turned to the demon trapped in his Domain, and the small, restrained sphere began to shrink and crack.
A bloody flower bloomed as Gaius clenched his left fist fully.
Now that there wasn’t an enemy for him to face personally, he took this chance to examine the Paragons of the Five Lands. As expected, all of them also had the same energy-gathering structure as their demon counterparts, just that those little balls had lesser cracks and weren’t on the verge of unravelling. Such a difference was probably one of the many reasons why the Paragons of the Five Lands had held their ground against numerically superior enemies.
Paragon Ying Xin, for instance, was fighting three enemies at once. She was holding off two at bay with a bunch of artefacts Gaius had never seen before, her attention wholly focused on cutting the last enemy down. Darting and weaving through swipes and punches — the enemy Paragons were, for the most part, unarmed — she forced her sword into her target’s falling fist, destroying his entire arm a moment later.
Of course, the fact that there wasn’t a Demigod within the enemy ranks was the real clincher in this battle. A Divine Territory had encapsulated the entire upper airzone, and the demon Paragons, without any Demigod of their own to hold the line, were falling like glue-encrusted flies.
The absence of the demon Demigods, who had been participating in the battles earlier, were too conspicuous for anyone to overlook. For some reason, only the Paragons of the Wildlands was attacking the fortress, and—
A sonorous rumble shook the world, and the source was the huge volcano that had appeared on the Wildlands’ side of the landbridge. At the same time, enormous presences made themselves known, and the mountain of red-hot lava groaned as these presences unleashed huge waves of energy at it.
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As the last of the demon Paragons fell, the volcano erupted once more, spewing out huge clouds of ash and dust into the skies. Lava streamed out in all directions, and whatever demons that had made their way there died, burned to nothingness.
The demon Demigods continued to hack away viciously at the huge mountain.
Now that he was in the air, Gaius could appreciate the sheer size of that thing. It was taller than the walls of the Heaven-cleaving Fortress, and from how much effort the enemy Demigods were putting it, the volcano was probably as tough as the fortress walls too.
Thunderclaps echoed out in a regular rhythm, but none of the sortied Paragons made a move. For some reason, everyone was content to hang around and watch the enemy Demigods carve out rock after rock from the enormous obstacle, as if it was…
His thoughts faltered for a second.
“As if it was also an obstacle to us,” Gaius murmured out loud, completing the thought.
Paragon Ying Xin, who was floating a metre or two away from him, turned to look at Gaius, a complex expression on her face. “You figured it out, I guess.”
Gaius shook his head. “No nation will never say no to more land. Even if it’s an expensive, loss-making endeavour, the size of one’s territory is a key component to any state’s true potential.”
“Yes. That’s very correct.” The Governess of the East looked at the volcano, her usual jovialness absent. “But that’s a consideration for the far-off future. Right now, if we can push the enemy back and occupy parts of their territory instead, the fighting will occur on the demons’ homeland. There will be many…tactics and strategies we can employ once we’re there.”
“I don’t quite like the sound of that,” Gaius muttered. “What might those tactics and strategies entail?”
“According to the Pinnacle, the only way we can win this war is to make it a total war,” said Paragon Ying Xin. “No holds barred. All civilian life to support the military. Any and all possibilities considered. We don’t have a thorough understanding of our enemies, but preliminary analysis reveals that the demons also have a civilian economy…in some aspects, anyway.”
“You…plan to destroy that?”
“Not me. But us.” The Paragon’s face was set as she looked out, towards the Wildlands. “Our enemies are fundamentally immortal. In the long run, we will definitely lose. However, if we can hamper a great deal of their combat strength…”
Chewing his lower lip gently, Gaius shook his head and looked out at the Wildlands. In some senses, she was correct. This was a war of survival. The demons weren’t going to show them any such mercy either. The rules of war applied only when both sides had a fundamental respect for certain rights, but against an immortal foe…
Gaius didn’t like the sound of it.
However, until he reached the point where his power alone could stir up huge waves in this war, to the point that he could neutralise the great gods of Orb, there was nothing he could do.
The best scenario, therefore, was for both sides to eventually come into a peace accord. Fortunately, this entire war was driven by the great gods — if they could somehow come into an accord…
Letting out a small sigh, Gaius watched the demon Demigods dismantle the great volcano slowly. It was possible that they saw it as an impediment towards their campaign, but what would the Demon God think if he knew that the Five Lands were thinking the same?
As he pondered over that question, the silhouette of Ark City appeared from beyond the horizon.
The first of the Five Lands’ reinforcements were here.