After exchanging some veiled barbs about transferred responsibilities and fraudulent expectations, Aziz and Marie followed Pauline back into the ocean of tents. This meeting on the enemy forces was not the first one that they had attended, but the two of them had found them to be relatively useless so far, which was why they didn’t attend the subsequent ones.

“Are you sure there’s actually concrete data for us to use?” Marie asked, a look of boredom on her face.

“Yes, there is.” Pauline paused. “It’s not all that useful, though. These photos aren’t of the best quality, since they had to be taken so far away. From what I know, the Demigods have pitched in to help with the sharpening of the photos, although they don’t have the bird’s eye view that the North has.”

“Bird’s eye view, huh.” Aziz dodged a soldier that was running with bread in his mouth, his mind wandering over to the North. Long ago, when they first travelled there to observe the war between the North and the Holy Temple, the Mortal Light Dynasty had taken out an artefact called the Skyclad Observer. “Were they using the Skyclad Observer?

“The Skyclad Observer?” Pauline asked.

“Ah, that name’s so nostalgic,” Marie murmured. “That was so long ago that I’m surprised you still remembered that name.”

“Marie, explain to me what’s going on,” Pauline replied.

“Sure thing, minister,” Marie replied. “Long ago, when we were still at Ark City, the two of us were given a task…”

As the two chattered away, Aziz found his attention shifting to the soldiers here. There were no fences, just the constant struggle to avoid sleeping or stepping on bad, slushy soil. Since there were many areas in which the soil seemed to be perpetually muddy, small dry patches of ground had turned into impromptu bridges that were used by all kinds of soldiers.

Oddly enough, there were no disputes or the customary exchange of insults whenever soldiers of two different nations crossed paths. Perhaps it was due to the influence of the huge tower that was visible even here, like what Pauline had told them about earlier on.

After watching two soldiers from different nations support each other in a particularly muddy field, Aziz was beginning to think that the current terrain had been left as-is to foster unity, but he wasn’t all that keen on thinking too hard about random ideas like that.

The airspace was already cluttered with lots of descending folks by the time they reached the centremost tent, which was an extra-large tent that was upsized over and over again to fit thousands of people. In fact, it was so huge that Aziz didn’t even want to call it a tent; in his opinion, having an open-air briefing would be better for morale.

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An odd drumbeat, faint and low, echoed throughout the campgrounds over and over again, and Aziz listened into Marie’s conversation once more as he subconsciously fell in line with her.

“Why’s there so many people this time around?” Marie asked.

“It’s important news,” Pauline replied.

“That’s what they say every time, minister.” Marie rolled her eyes, before sidestepping a lost-looking lieutenant. “It’s always important, it’s always something. In the end, it’s just a bonding exercise for the various officials and officers of the Five Lands, with nothing concrete to show for it.”

“Oh, come on. Didn’t I just tell you that this meeting is a really important one?” Pauline replied. “Stop casting doubt on me!”

“But it’s fun…”

Eventually, the meandering crowds tightened into a queue. Aziz found himself struck by how there wasn’t anyone shouting or ordering things around; it was as if everyone had abruptly reached an accord to queue up and enter in an orderly manner. In fact, even the crowds descending from the sky were doing it in an arranged manner, as if there was someone telling them what to do.

“What’s going on?” Marie, who had clearly noticed this anomaly too, asked. “This is unprecedented. I know I was talking about a bonding exercise, but there’s too many people for something like this to happen naturally.”

“There’s someone using a Zeroth Armament,” Pauline replied. “I can sense it. It’s not doing too much, but if you prick up your ears, you should be able to hear a regular drumbeat. It’s a supportive Zeroth Armament of the South — the Drums of Order.”

“The Drums of Order?” Aziz asked. This was the first time he’d heard about that Zeroth Armament; the one he knew about the most was the Sky-splitting Blade. This Drum thing didn’t sound like it was anything like a weapon, though. Did it, perhaps, use sound as the medium of attack?

“It’s a long-lost artefact, in many senses of the word,” Pauline replied. “The South has three Zeroth Armaments — the Drums of Order, the Canvas of Memory and the Sky-splitting Blade. The Drums of Order used to be in the possession of the Sephira family, until some thief stole it three hundred years ago.”

“A thief?” Aziz blinked. “But if the Drums of Order was stolen back then, why would it be used now?”

“The thief, or the thief’s family, presumably saw that this was probably a real crisis, that surpassed even the Demon God’s invasion and volunteered to help out. Either that, or the user arrived at the Heaven-cleaving Fortress only after the Demon God died,” Pauline replied. “Either way, it’s a very powerful tool for battles. Under its influence, troops in range to hear it would maintain a certain level of cohesion, and are far more unlikely to break.”

“That’s…well, if the South had this long ago…” Marie muttered, before sighing. “Minister, we should protect this person for as long as possible. Don’t let the Drums of Order fall into the grubby hands of the Assembly.”

“Everyone is aiming for it at this point, though,” Pauline replied. “It’s not an offensive Zeroth Armament, like the Canvas of Memory, but it is a potent force multiplier for any nation. Armies would be far harder to rout with the Drums of Order. For that reason alone, everyone’s keeping an eye on the wielder.”

“The wielder, huh.” Aziz clicked his teeth. “Who’s the wielder, then?”

“The fellow’s masked up. Looks like someone in his early twenties, though,” the minister replied.

Marie looked around the place. “And why did he come here to help, despite knowing the danger he’s exposing himself to?”

“Because there are things that are worth fighting for,” Pauline replied. “Isn’t that reason enough?”