King Wissel of Doschia and President Jozef of Lubska looked over the green field. A hundred men stood there, all muscled, a few scarred. All stood in formation, a gap between them, encircled by a thick cordon of Lubska’s riot police. “Awful, the lot of them.” Jozef said. “But if you want awful people who know how to fight, I couldn’t think of a better option.”

“Where did you even get them?”

“Piotrkowa Prison.” Jozef replied. “And yours?”

“Same thing, Schwalmstadel.” Doschia’s maximum security prison. For those who were deemed to be worse than the worst.

“We need arms for them.”

“Artois is working on that one.”

Kassandora pulled Joyeuse out of the sand and took to the field. The drums in her head issued an order, a single burst large pound. Fire. Fortia’s army was repelled one step by the advent of gunfire from her lines. The strings came in as she organised her forces. Half of them held the fire. Trumpets played to signal for those who ran out of ammunition to reload. The side that held fire opened up. Constant hail of lead burst forth from her lines as the drums mercilessly overpowered every instrument in War’s Orchestra.

Fortia’s first rank fell. Bullet penetrated heavy chest-plate and Guardian’s dropped their heavy tower shield into a shield wall. Kassandora saw the dents appear through the eyes of her men. Only harsh indentions, not penetrations. Impressive still, those shields would shrug off swords and arrows and crossbow bolts like nothing. The violins roared as she started moving and ordered the heavier calibres to start firing.

The heavy machine that had been pulled back, too large and cumbersome to be used by anything smaller than one of Fer’s tremendous bullmen, opened fire. A round of trumpets went off in Kassandora’s Orchestra and the bullet holes appeared through the first of rank of soldiers. They took another step, then stopped. Fortia’s guardians uttered a drowning battle-cry as Kassandora spread her Clerics out even thinner. Kavaa’s blessing of healing started to pour from them pre-emptively.

And the Guardians kept charging forwards. One more step, and the first jumped into a trench. Kassandora took a deep breath as she made it to the front-lines. Sokolowski received a command into his mind and called the neighbouring divisions. Close enough now. Fifth Division was on the horizon. Sixth would be approaching soon.

And Kassandora issued her orders. Some men were to be left behind, some would flee, those on the heavy guns would not survive. Her ranks collapsed as she watched a Guardian strike down a man with a spear. A paladin, in thick steel armour, clad in metal from foot to the top of his head, cleaved another of her soldiers in two. Then a hail of steel clipped through the man as one of the machines gunners swerved his rifle on its tripod. The Paladin fell, a mage in brown behind him put up a shield. The ground opened up and the soldier on the gun was impaled by a spike of sand that burst from the ground.

Kassandora flicked through a hundred perspectives in an instant. She saw men flee from blade, she saw men aim, pull triggers as they aimed into the crowd. She saw gunners squeeze their guns as the barrels of their rifles started to glow red from the heat. She saw through the eyes on a man’s who rifle jammed, saw him pull out his pistol and unload onto a mage. The bullets stopped in mid-air, caught by an invisible net of winds. She saw the witch, in her light-shawl, flick her staff forwards and mutter some spell. The bullets turned back around, launched forwards, and the man’s vision went dark.

She saw a minor God run rampant through one of the trenches, half again the size of a man. In heavy armour and moving like the wind as his sword slice man and man. She issued a command to her men, the music changed, the trumpets got louder as they all turned their guns in unison. She saw the God stop, look around, and panic flash across his face. And she saw fifty men from all sides unload into that massive body. And she saw whatever that invention Divine was drop to the ground bleeding, the light fleeing his eyes.

Kassandora’s vision flicked again as she looked through the eyes of her artillery crews. She saw them, carefully aim guns at Maisara. Maisara did not move, she danced and pirouetted through her vehicles. The few times someone managed to get a lucky shot on her, the bullet hit her armour and then bounced off her skin. Standard tactics from Maisara then, the unbreakable body that contained the world’s Order merely danced and dodged as her axe hit the cabin of a lemur artillery.

Maisara roared as she lifted that vehicle and slammed it on another. Then let go of her axe as Anassa’s sorceries devastated the spot she had just been in. Some dozen or so copies of Kassandora’s sister hovered in the air, they blinked around and moved independently, but every single copy of Anassa was focused on Maisara. A storm of sorcery uttered from the air as its Goddess painted the sky crimson, and blade and needle and ball and sphere began to rain down upon the Goddess of Order.

Maisara turned and fled, deeper into the camp and towards the frontlines. Back to the safety of her support from Fortia. Kassandora issued an order to Kavaa and moved herself, her vision still flicking through the soldiers. The three platoons she had sent off previously opened fire onto an exposed flank of Fortia’s army and men fell.

Shields of sand were put up quickly, but that was about two hundred dead, most likely five times that wounded. These guns truly were the weapons of the modern age. But they did little when Fortia managed to close the distance. Kassandora looked through the eyes of another soldier. A man who struggled to put his magazine into the rifle in a panic. His fingers slipped, he dropped the bullet container, then shouted in fear and put up the rifle above his head as a Paladin closed the distance. A massive greatsword cut through the rifle effortlessly and Kassandora’s vision flicked back.

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Kavaa and Kassandora crossed through tents, Kavaa running around as Kassandora leaped over them to block Maisara’s path of escape. The first division pulled out further into the camp, some men ran into Maisara as she fled back. The ground behind being torn up by Anassa’s sorceries. The unlucky platoon raised guns and didn’t even have a chance to pull their triggers as Maisara threw her axe at one section, then rolled into the other. The sheer weight of her armour and body crushed bone and tore muscle.

Those she didn’t kill, Anassa’s magic did. Red swords, opaque as if they were shades drawings, fell from the sky as the Goddess of Sorcery angrily hissed behind Maisara. The Goddess of Order didn’t even take a moment to think, her axe was recalled back into her hands and she smashed it upwards into the magical attack.

Anassa’s blades were crushed and shattered by the swing. Maisara the attack forwards, the axeblade smashed into the sand and catapulted her across the camp as ground underneath erupted into spikes of red sorcery. Kassandora watched through the eyes of her retreating army. Gods that couldn’t fly didn’t want to stay in the air, there was little you could do to alter your trajectory. It applied to Kassandora, and it applied to Maisara as well. Kassandora calculated Maisara’s flight path, Joyeuse spun in her hands, she twisted her core, pulled the arm over her head, and threw the great blade forwards.

Kassandora launched herself forwards to slam into that position from above. Maisara silver eye’s saw the sword immediately, she twisted, extended silver gauntlets and slammed the back of her fist in Joyeuse. The black blade flew off into the air and then rematerialized into Kassandora’s grip as she slammed the blade from overhead into Maisara.

Sword smashed into silver armour and axe smashed into black. Maisara slammed into the ground, Kassandora was launched into the back of a random tent. Kavaa got the order immediately, she started to sprint, catching tent posts to spin around corners as Maisara and Kassandora stood up to face each other. Kassandora’s side was split and bleeding, Maisara’s armour straight and re-forged itself as it healed the damage from Joyeuse’ attack. “Pleasure to see you again Kass.” Maisara said as she twisted the arm holding the axe.

She took a step forwards, Kassandora saw her eyes flicker open in panic and then Maisara immediately jumped back. A beam of red flashed in front of her, it severed through the camp. Cut through Kassandora’s soldier and Fortia’s magician and minor Divine and Guardian and Paladin as if they were nothing. Kassandora told Sokolowski to retreat and reorganized her troops into battle lines as she spun Joyeuse in front of her. “I’ve lost my touch.” Maisara chirped. “Back then, you wouldn’t have survived that.”

It was obvious the Goddess of Order was enjoying this, but then Kassandora didn’t fault her. She was too. A thousand years was a long time. “Neither would have you.” Kassandora shouted back, she tried to swing Joyeuse but her arm couldn’t raise it.

Maisara opened her mouth to shout something back and Anassa shut her up. “You will not touch my sister.” Anassa’s voice boomed from above. Maisara straightened her back and slammed her axe into the ground she maintained her gaze on Anassa. Men started to run past them, Kassandora’s soldiers, they turned to stop and shoot off a few rounds, then return in their retreat. Sokolowski finished his phone calls and reported the information to Kassandora through War’s Orchestra. Fifth Division was set up on the hill, ready to fire, sixth needed a minute more, they were almost ready.

Maisara clicked her tongue as she looked around. It was obvious what was happening, she was waiting for Fortia. But then Kassandora was waiting for Kavaa. “You have lost this battle!” Kassandora shouted to keep Maisara talking.

“Have we?” Maisara shouted. A tent behind set alight as Fortia’s mages demolished a team of Kassandora’s who had dug in.

“You came in with eighty thousand, how many have you lost already?” To her left dropped, rolled over, aimed and squeezed their triggers. A group of Guardians fell to Kassandora’s right. Blood streaming from holes in their bodies.

Maisara raised her axe at Kassandora. Anassa tightened her fists from above. “How many is the Goddess of War worth?” Kassandora smiled at that question, frankly, that was a good counter to her question.

“Bring a million next time.” Kassandora shouted back. “I’m not so cheap.” Maisara laughed as the fires behind her were extinguished by Anassa’s sorcerers. Two of them flew threw the air and sent off wave after wave into a group of mages that were giving chase. Sokolowski asked through the bombastic music in Kassandora’s mind whether he should start organising a retreat.

Kassandora organised it for him. She took a step towards her lines. Anassa maintained position above her. Kavaa finally got to Kassandora and Maisara sighed. “Where you waiting for Fortia?” Kassandora asked.

“I was.” Maisara said and clicked her tongue. She looked up to Anassa. “We both know neither of us will defeat the other.”

“Eventually a fly will tire itself out.” Anassa’s voice cut through the chaos of the battle. The explosions and screams and gunshots and roaring flames. The shifting ground and the howling winds. “One slip up is all it takes.”

“That’s for me?” Maisara asked. “Or for yourself?” Too confident. Kassandora saw it immediately. Maisara was too confident. She felt Kavaa’s hands touch her as the Goddess of Health started to heal and scanned through the eyes of her troops. A thousand burning needles stitched the wound in her eyes shut as she peered through the eyes of her men. Through a man shooting one of Maisara’s Paladins. Through a man holding onto a spear that pierced through his chest. Through men that were hurled into the air by magical winds, their rifles escaping their hands as their bodies started to panic. Through the eyes of the sorcerers. She saw Fortia. Standing at the end of the road, spear aimed and pulled back to throw.

Kassandora’s arm grabbed Kavaa and the Goddess of War pulled both of them to the ground as Fortia’s spear broke the sound barrier again. Maisara launched herself forwards Kassandora and Kavaa as the wind knocked them back. A blast of sorcery stopped Maisara in her tracks, coming down from Anassa.

Kassandora looked up, the wind was strong, but its track felt wrong. It didn’t feel like the spear had gone past them, it felt... Kassandora panicked as she looked at Maisara be thrown high in the air, the sorceries around her cracking and collapsing. Anassa’s fingers snapped and a massive paw appeared behind her, the same Fer’s most monstrous beastmen had. It glittered in the sunlight, opaque, constantly breaking apart and redrawing itself as two artists were battling. One drawing, one erasing. It swung towards Maisara, the Goddess of Order lifted her arms to block it but she couldn’t fly. There was nothing she could rely on to use her enormous strength.

The paw knocked her a league back in the direction Fortia’s army had come from. Kassandora heard Maisara curse them all as she gave up trying to defend herself twisted her body in preparation for a hard landing.

And then Kassandora saw Anassa again. The Goddess of Sorcery, in the brilliant red dress, looked down at herself, at the gaping hole in her chest that penetrated through her chest. The paw flickered away as Kassandora pushed away from Fortia and recalled Joyeuse into her grip again.

Fortia walked towards them, smiling and secured in her victory as Anassa fell towards the ground. And Kassandora heard Sokolowski echo in her mind. “Guns are ready, ready to fire on your position. Give the green light.”