A knight stood in the middle of a snow-covered forest, her armour battered and bloodied, a Terran rifle slung over her shoulder. As she thought of what to do next, pieces of paper started falling from the sky like snow.

Finlay’s armoured hand grabbed a descending flier, her deep blue eyes quickly scanning over it.

‘Do you really wish to die for an uncaring God? There are no famines or disease in the Republic, can your so-called divinity say the same?’

Below the text was a life-like picture of a city with gigantic metallic buildings, along with a smiling family of four.

Turning the flier around, she read over the text there.

‘Any soldier presenting this safe-conduct is to be disarmed, made prisoner, and sent to the rear, after having been given food and medical attention, if necessary.’

Below the text was a map of Eigos, the Terran-controlled territory depicted in green. It was almost half a continent at this point. The Sarak Archduchy and the Merev kingdom that lay on the Archduchy’s northern border both fell quickly after the Teilen Mountain Range was breached. They couldn’t give battle, the regular soldiery being little more than meatshields, but their guerrilla efforts were not enough to slow the advance much. Worse, the Terrans retreated in good order whenever too many of the Chosen appeared, even leaving their Eigosian allies behind. There was nothing they could do to stop the flying machines from moving troops around with impunity. It would not be long before the advance reached the First Temple.

Who knew what would happen then?

“Heresy,” she muttered tiredly, before chuckling.

Around her, more of the fliers descended from the sky.

Finlay crumpled the flier up and threw it away, before noticing that the snow didn’t do anything to it.

Frowning, she picked it up again and uncrumpled it. The flier looked brand new, with no wrinkles or wetspots.

Annoyed, she threw it to the ground again, before stomping on it a few times for good measure.

Raising her head, she chuckled again as she saw the multitude of paper falling from the sky.

She adjusted the rifle on her back, before her feet began crunching snow again.

One foot, then the other.

A few minutes later, she began singing quietly. Her quarry was still a ways off, so there was little risk of alerting anyone.

“Through endless dusk and dawn anew,

With battered steel and purpose true,

No rest, no home, no peace in sight,

She marches on through endless night.

The road behind-forgotten dust,

The road ahead-a silent trust,

No voice to call, no hand to stay,

The Soldier walks; she must obey.

No time to weep, no right to yield,

No grave to claim on blood-stained fields,

She marches on, her oath still binds,

Wherever the Goddess’ will may lie.”

The song had more verses, but Finlay couldn’t remember them, so she settled for humming.

An hour or so later, she reached the edge of the forest and unslung the rifle, scanning the road there.

Sitting down and resting her back against a tree, facing the forest, hidden from view, Finlay settled to wait.

The cold made her shiver, even though Eternity’s grace protected her from the worst of it, the physical enhancement enough to keep her functioning. The sun was up and shining, but plate armour was not good winter clothing and she hadn’t had the opportunity to resupply.

She wondered whether the debate on whether there even was a point in wearing the armour had been settled.

Terran weapons punched through it easily enough, but it was still useful against the traitors. However, after the fall of the Serpent’s Pass, the armies of the southern kingdoms were being left more and more behind by the Terrans' unceasing advance.

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They just weren’t very useful. A single Terran was easily worth hundreds of their Eigosian allies and much easier to supply.

That wasn’t to say they were completely worthless, even if the Terrans were happy to ignore conventional military doctrine, dealing with logistic issues by splitting up their army and through their flying machines. It was perhaps the first time in the history of Eigos that the defending military faced more problems with feeding their troops than the invader.

A few hours later, Finlay perked up as she heard voices in the distance, peeking behind her tree. True enough, her quarry had arrived.

She could see soldiers appearing, along with the first wagons. If their Accadian source was correct, it should be around two hundred soldiers and thirty wagons of supplies.

While Finlay couldn’t see the entirety of the procession, she didn’t spot anything strange, though the sight of a few Terran weapons made her scowl.

Lying on her stomach, she aimed her rifle.

Quite a neat tool.

“No rest, no home, no peace in sight,” she hummed quietly, before depressing the trigger.

Blood erupted from one of the soldiers in front as the rest froze.

Before they could comprehend what was happening, four more collapsed.

“She marches on through endless night,” Finlay continued humming as she picked off the scattering men one by one.

Sighting another fleeing soldier, she pressed the trigger, only for the gun to click empty.

“Tsk,” she clicked her tongue, quickly replacing the ammunition box. She only had two more left.

By the time the rifle was reloaded, the soldiers were hidden from view.

Finlay settled to wait as shouting erupted from the caravan, the soldiers presumably trying to coordinate from their hiding spots.

There was no rush.

They only had two options, either to try and kill her or to abandon the wagons.

Both were acceptable outcomes.

Of course, by now the basic workings of Terran weaponry were common knowledge amongst the soldiery. While the ambush must have panicked some, the more hardened among them would have surely realised there was only a single rifle firing. The forest was too sparse to hide a significant amount of people too.

A single Terran weapon would not be enough to stop a coordinated attack by their number.

“No time to weep, no right to yield,” Finlay hummed, waiting for their response.

Soon enough, a war cry composed of a hundred voices echoed across the forest.

“No grave to claim on blood-stained fields,” she crouched, sighting the rifle again.

“CHARGE!” A throat-rending cry tore through the air.

The soldiers materialised from their hiding places like wraiths and immediately began running towards her position.

Finlay pressed the trigger again, though this time she didn’t release it. The gun barked as the front rank fell, but their comrades did not slow, even if their war cry became nearly indistinguishable from regular screaming.

Standing up, Finlay threw the rifle to the ground before unsheathing her sword.

“She marches on, her oath still binds,” she sang, loud enough for some of her enemies to hear.

Saluting them with her sword, she strode towards the rushing ranks of soldiers.

A few shots rang out from a few of their number, harmlessly pinging off of her divine shield.

Finlay smiled as she saw the panicked realisation on the faces of the rapidly nearing soldiers. It was too late for a retreat.

“Wherever the Goddess’ will may lie.”

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Finlay wiped her sword on a patch of white snow, a rarity amongst the sea of red.

Over a hundred corpses surrounded her. She didn’t get everyone, but she doubted most of the runners would survive. They had abandoned their supplies along with the wagons and winter was not a good season to be wandering around the woods.

Sword somewhat clean, she began the tedious task of freeing the horses from their harnesses, before grouping the wagons together. A difficult but not impossible task thanks to her Eternity-given strength.

Then she set them on fire. This took a while too, as the cold made starting a fire tricky, but eventually, she succeeded.

Soon enough, the wagons were aflame.

Finlay stared at the growing flames for a few minutes, before retrieving the rifle and reloading it with her last ammo box. Then she went about retrieving the Terran weapons her foes had possessed.

Unfortunately, they were of the small, one-handed variety and the ammo was not compatible. She counted four of the handguns, but after some consideration, she destroyed two with her blessings.

Carrying four would have been too unwieldy.

Sighing, Finlay gathered her things, before marching back into the forest, back the way she came, north, towards the First Temple.

Only a single kingdom remained between the Custodian’s seat and the Terran advance now.

The knight thought it likely that the Chosen would soon be recalled for defence.

“The road behind-forgotten dust,

The road ahead-a silent trust.”

Humming, she walked with a pep in her step. Despite the mounting lossess, she couldn’t help the feeling of anticipation.

What would happen when the awesome powers of the Custodian were finally turned to retaliation, instead of defence?

Would the war end, just like that?

“No voice to call, no hand to stay.”

Finlay almost felt pity for the Terrans. The godless heretics did not understand that their struggle had been futile from the start.

She supposed that most kingdoms had to have been humbled by the Custodian before they bent the knee, so perhaps some leeway was deserved.

Regardless, it felt good to know that she was on the right side of history.

“The Soldier walks; she must obey.”