Rowan didn't know if it was the buzz that he now regretted or just a normal response, but it took him several seconds of watching the demon's army charge before his mind could muster up the cognizance to move.

Screams had already started, bubbling up out of the throats of his people while the demons on the front of the horde leapt forward, splitting off from the main force to go and cause destruction and mayhem among the populace.

When his mind finally caught up, he was sprinting. As far as he knew, his Agility was one of the highest in the world. He practically ripped through the halls. Servants had to cling to the walls to stop from being blown over by the wind of his passing, but he couldn't slow down.

He burst into the throne room, but the throne lay empty. Veritas's assistants were nowhere to be seen nor were his guards. Had he sent them away or-

"FOUL DEMONS!"

Veritas's voice carried into the throne room. A door near the entrance led out onto the high balcony that opened across from the throne. It wound around the throne room in a four leaf clover pattern and when Rowan exited, he was greeted by the sight of Emperor Veritas and his two honor guards.

Veritas looked back, and for a moment, he saw the man that had become the most powerful person in the world. The one that had raised Veridia to her heights.

"General Rowan. Gather a resistance. I will protect our people."

A disc of Earth appeared to push out of the castle beneath his feet and he rose into the air.

"You need to save your strength! Their leader-"

"Just an opening salvo, Rowan. I'll have enough energy for him."

He sounded so much like himself that Rowan wanted to believe, but... he hesitated. What if he left and he wasn't okay? Would it doom them all?

"Tomlin! Ryker!" The two honor guards turned their horrified faces from the swarm pouring over Harlond to him. "You're two of our highest ranked fighters. I need you to get to the Commanders and help them coordinate a defense." They stared at him dumbly. "NOW!"

His shout woke them out of their stupor and they took off at a sprint without even acknowledging his orders. They were good lads. The stress of the day was getting to them, but they would do well with direction.

During his short conversation, he could feel Veritas's Aether spike in much the same way that the Demon Emperor's had.

Boulders about the size of sheep started popping into existence all across the sky. Dozens turned to hundreds as Veritas poured Aether into his Domain [Infinite Earth].

Too much Aether.

"EMPEROR, YOU HAVE TO HOLD YOURSELF BACK!"

His words didn't seem to make it to him. The meteors of rock started to descend. The forerunners had already made it into the city, but the bulk of the army was just now climbing over the remains of the wall.

The meteors crashed into them. Red tinted bodies were blown apart at the sheer power behind the colliding rock. He could hear it as their roaring charge changed to screams that blended with the ones of their people.

Rowan felt satisfied at the halting of the army, but the Emperor's Aether continued to churn, sending meteor after meteor crashing into their front lines.

"SAVE YOUR AETHER! AIM FOR THE BULK OF THEIR FORCES!"

Neither suggestion worked. Veritas was too focused on his grim work, but his mind was only able to lash out angrily much as he did at Gi. Even with hundreds of boulders crashing down into the enemy, it wasn't doing enough and when Veritas ran out of Aether, it might be just Rowan left to deal with the titan that had so easily destroyed their wall.

No. If they were to have a chance at all, he needed to stop Veritas.

***

If the hammering presence of Danna in his heart didn't warm him that something was wrong, the spike of Aether followed by the sound of an avalanche did.

"Harlond has been breached."

He felt oddly calm as he stood. The briefest panic and regret for all his preparations crumbling through his fingers rose to the surface and then descended back beneath the still pond that was Gi.

He stepped out of his tent to find his usual entourage of guards that had started following him around ever since the alliance became official. He turned to the two Hunters that guarded him from Kumo's unit.

"Whichever of you is faster bring me Poe. I'll be walking towards Harlond. Go now." One of them immediately sprinted off. "Please get me Tiria, Kumo, Samba, Wane, and Chum. Any order is fine."

She took off as well. He turned to his remaining guards. "Follow me while I provide orders."

They agreed and he set off moving through their camp. He wasn't the only one who'd felt the Aether or heard the sound so everyone was already preparing themselves. Any that asked, Gi asked them to be ready to move quickly once orders were given.

"Faithful," Gi said, gesturing to the two kobolds that followed him. "I don't know your names, but bring me Versha, Dukkar, and Nori. Versha first, but stop Nori if you see her rushing ahead."

The masked kobolds ran off. Gi had thought the fact that these various groups felt the need to guard him was inane political bullshit, but it was convenient now.

He turned to two humans that followed.

"The King?" the guard asked before he could say it.

"Yes. And Ellen."

The two humans sprinted off as well and that left only the Wavecrest pair - a Templar and her human pair.

"Should we go and get Alice or Tala, Progenitor?"

Gi wasn't sure if the title of Progenitor was still accurate as they'd renounced the Underbridge, but they also were serving under him as part of the alliance. The system seemed to recognize him as such.

He let the wandering thought fall back beneath the surface of the still pond that was his mind. The camp was a flurry of activity and he could already hear the sounds of battle kicking off.

In the skies above him, he could just make out the diminutive form of Emperor Veritas in the distance where giant spheres of rock began appearing in the sky. Gi knew of [Infinite Earth], but the small light shows he'd seen of it hadn't done it justice.

It looked like a meteor shower about to descend from the heavens.

"If they don't come with Samba, I'm sure they will find us. Please stay close in case I need more runners."

Gi reached the edge of the camp and saw Veritas's meteors soaring towards the ground like missiles. He couldn't see the impact from this angle, but he doubted anything less than one of the Demon Empire's heirs would survive.

While the Emperor Veritas's attacks would likely save a lot of his people, it might doom them all. Midnight Grove was supposed to be Gi's opportunity to further level. Between that and allying with Veritas, his hope was that they'd have enough power to combat the Demon Emperor.

Gi was weaker than he wanted to be and his best hope of trying to combat their enemy was burning through his Aether and might even attack him.

Things were dire. Yet, Gi was still calm.

He had faith in Danna and the other gods. Maybe Veritas's condition was just an oversight, but the Demon Emperor movements were not. Something had gone wrong. Something had shielded the sight of some of the most powerful beings in the universe.

And the only thing that matched Truth in strength was Chaos.

Danna's message meant that they were aware of it now. If they were aware of it, they could fight it, and if there was any way to fight back, they would find it.

So he'd rely on faith.

"BOSS!" Poe's voice shouted over the crashing meteors in the distance and the roar of an army charging. Gi smiled.

"Poe. I'm glad you're here. I need to know where the Demon Heirs are. Assume all of them are here even the ones that are supposed to be at Midnight Grove. They should stick out so find whichever ones are obvious and then work with Galvina to spot the rest. Hopefully, she doesn't flee with our plans in shambles."

"Aye aye, Captain!," Poe shouted before flying off. Versha came next and Gi had him coordinate with Poe to find the heirs without getting too close to Veritas.

Tiria and Chum came next. He asked Tiria to ready their forces and prepare to ascend the hillock made passing through on the south side of Harlond difficult. Chum was to distribute the priests through their entire army since only the Underbridge had such a high number of Aether based healers.

Alice and Samba came sprinting up next. Alice was slow to catch her breath, but she didn't wait for him to give her a command.

"Let us into Harlond. We can hold the demons off until people can escape."

Gi blinked. "You want to try and hold off their entire force?"

Samba looked like he wanted to bite him. "We can do it."

Gi didn't see how it was possible, but logic didn't have a way through this battle. Some things he'd have to take on faith. Well, mostly on faith.

"Very well. Fall back if you're in danger. Don't let our forces get wiped out. Take Rocky, his Deft Golems, and the Cave Goblins. Rocky and his golems should be durable enough to be on the front lines and help with the evacuation. The Cave Goblins might be able to create some makeshift fortifications to limit how many can come at once."

Alice hefted her axe. "No one else buries a loved one today."

The two of them ran off and Alice immediately started shouting out commands to the other Wavecrest members. The two guards that remained with him looked at each other anxiously. Gi raised an eyebrow at them.

"You're not going to let them go without you, are you?"

"Thank you, Progenitor!" The otter rattled off and then the two of them ran after Alice and Samba.

That left Gi alone.

His army was gathering up behind him and he had to assume that the Thousand Island leaders would be here shortly. Without the Templar, Gi's forces were weaker than they would be, but he couldn't take a frontal assault anyways.

His mind churned through every plan or even half thought idea that either he or the gods had had.

He took a deep breath to requiet his mind.

Then the King and Ellen arrived.

"What's the situation?" Ellen demanded.

"The wall has fallen. I've sent our Templar ahead to try and hold the line as best they can without risking themselves. My expectation is that the Demon Emperor will hold himself back and recover his Aether until we've played our cards."

"Playing our cards like that old fool is doing right now?" Ellen said, pointing towards Veritas in the distance. He was difficult to see surrounded by his [Infinite Earth] Skill, but to someone familiar with the powerful humans of this world, it would be obvious who it was.

"Yes. So now we have to decide if we play it slow and lose Emperor Veritas's help or rush to try and get some use out of one of our strongest assets."

Ellen sighed. "First One's ass, we're fucked."

***

General Rowan had sprinted around the entire castle just to finally find Targen on the high balcony below Veritas. The man's broad white wings were folded against his back as he watched the beginning of their demise.

His Stats weren't terrible, but the man wasn't a fighter. When he felt the tempest of Rowan's arrival, it was horror that plastered the man's face. It was the horror of a peasant child who's parents had been snatched away by some lofty noble. He was alone, his home was no longer safe, and the powers that be wouldn't help him.

"Easy, Targen." It seemed like shock had rooted the man in place and Rowan's words almost startled him into flight.

"Harlond's... gone." Targen barely whispered the words like a truth that he didn't want to believe.

"It's not gone yet. We can still save her, but I need to talk to Veritas."

Targen looked to the sky to see Veritas screaming out curses at the demons as he launched an unending number of meteors towards the walls. That sky full of traps had Targen shaking.

"Talk? To the Mad Emperor?"

Rowan winced. That was said with all the hallmarks of well established gossip. He'd never realized that it had seemed so bad to those in the castle.

"He's not mad! He's just... confused. I can help him. I can help him help us."

His lip quivered as though he wanted to believe him, but when he peeled his eyes back to the chaos in the sky and the sea of red visible past the destroyed wall, whatever burgeoning courage crumbled.

"N-no, Veridia's fallen. If I stay, I'm dead too. I-I have to go get Ayla."

"WAIT!" Rowan yelled, but Targen flew off over his head before cutting north for the Midnight Grove. The man was fool, but he couldn't blame him.

Hell, even Rowan's hands were shaking.

He was about to resort to shouting at Veritas again when the slightest hum of music seemed to thrum into his soul. It reminded him of running to the church on rest day to get fed with all the other kids in his village. A bell would ring and the priest of Hyshtel would rattle on about the wonders of the God of Justice.

Then Gi appeared, glowing in his white robe and shining breastplate.

"Should we take another stab at diplomacy?"