“So since we have the time, anyone want to share what year this is?” Sir Zexis asks.

“What do you mean what year? Shouldn’t you already know?” I ask.

“He is asking because he went to sleep about two days after the empire split into two. Anyways, it is currently the 2127th year of the Solaris Calender. So you've been asleep for about 26 years.” Lord Pulk says.

“Are you not hungry, Sir Zexis?” Annette asks.

“A cultivator of my rank needs not to eat but once in a few decades. I am however very close to no longer being in need of food, perhaps in another hundred years or so I’ll breakthrough.” Sir Zexis says.

“I’ve heard the stories but have you really been around since the founding of the empire?” Annette asks.

“I’m not sure what you’ve heard little girl, but I have certainly been around for quite some time. Let alone witness the founding, I took part in its founding. His imperial majesty, Charles Dieudonné, and me… I guess that annoying Demon God helped as well, but the three of us built the empire up from nothing. It saddens me to see it’s current state. This old daoist is willing to bet my cultivation that he shares the same sentiments and it’s why he sent you two here.” Sir Zexis says as he looks towards Irina and me.

“Are you trying to say that Akkre was involved with the founding of this nation because he didn’t tell us that when he threw us here.” I say.

“So he didn’t tell you anything? Seems like he hasn’t changed at all in these past 900 years.” Sir Zexis says.

“Since there is someone of your strength here, how come this war has been going on for so long? Couldn’t someone have just woken you up to fight?” Irina asks.

“We’ve tried. We’ve tried many times. I didn’t actually think that bomb would have gotten him up, my intention was to drag his sleeping body along and use it as a shield.” Lord Pulk says.

With steam practically coming off his head, Sir Zexis shouts, “so it was you who put the bomb under my bed! I had just gotten up then all of a sudden there’s an explosion under my feet, blasting me up into the air. The blast destroyed my room too!”

“Let’s put that issue aside for now, as we have arrived at our destination.” Lord Pulk says.

“How is that possible we were only in these vehicles for a few minutes? There is no way we could have gotten to the battlefield in such a short time.” I say.

“Of course our destination wasn’t the battlefield, after all, it was the launch site.” Lord Pulk says as he steps out and points to the several large cannons behind him. “We are going to throw ourselves into battle, in a literal sense.”

““Your not serious are you?”” both Irina and I say simultaneously.

“I’m completely serious. Now everyone into the pods, hurry up so we can fire!” shouts Lord Pulk.

After stepping out from the transport and getting a better look at just what he expects us to get into, we see several large metal cylinders. Each one seems to have an entrance on several levels, so as to accommodate as many people as it possibly can. As we step into the first level of the cylinder, we see a vast sea of seats filling out the entire floor. The ceiling lays just above our head, most likely to fit more people in the space above. Following the instructions of Lord Pulk, we firmly strap ourselves to the seats as he gives out some orders to the people on the outside before shutting the door tight.

“I hope everyone here is ready, we will be launching in a couple of minutes.”

“Have you ever even done this before? Are you sure it’s safe?” I ask.

With an unconcerned look, Lord Pulk just says, “nope.”

“… which part?”

“Yes. Anyways, I suggest you stop talking unless you mind regretting your choice in a few moments.” Lord Pulk says.

“What do you mean by tha— ahhhh!”

Before I can finish my question a large force throws us into the air at high speed, causing me to bite hard on my tongue. Everyone in the cylinder is screaming at the top of their lungs, with only Sir Zexis and Lord Pulk managing to keep a straight face. Before long, everyone calms down and the screaming fades away… until we realise we’ve stopped pushing forwards as we begin to slow down and fall. The now falling cylinder begins to pick up speed once more, causing several people to begin screaming. A few seconds after we reached terminal velocity, it begins to feel as if we are slowing down. As the screaming fades once more we hear a rumbling sound, Lord Pulk explains that it is the system that is designed to allow for a safe landing.

“And now we have arrived.” Lord Pulk says as the doors on each level of the cylinder open up creating a walkway to the ground.

As we leave the cylinder, we find ourselves right by our main forces strategic HQ. With several people dizzy and Annette over on the side puking, a messenger from the main camp comes bearing a message.

“Thank you for your swift response, Grey Knights and honoured guests. The orders given to your group are, to quote the minister of defence, ‘just do what you always do’. That is all.” The messenger says as he returns to the main camp.

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“All right you heard the man, everyone…” Lord Pulk says trailing off. “They had already left.”

Hearing his words both Irina and I take a look behind us to see that aside from Lord Pulk all the captains have already joined the battle.

“Why is it so hard to get these idiots to work as a team. Anyways you two should go follow Elder Zexis, I’ve got a feeling something bad is going to happen.” Lord Pulk says as he walks off to give orders to the rest of the Grey Knights.

“But you didn’t tell us where he went…” I say.

“That’s not a problem, Eillim. I can feel the energy he is releasing from here, not like he tries to hide it though. Just follow me.” Irina says as she runs off.

As we run along the sidelines of the battlefield, dealing with whatever enemy comes our way, we hear a loud explosion. In the sky we see someone being blasted away towards our landing zone. Wait thats…

“Hey Irina, you saw that right? Someone was being thrown across the sky by that explosion. Doesn’t he look kind of familiar?” I ask.

“Yeah, think that was the Tea Bee E guy. Well, he looks like he is going to fall pretty close to where we landed so he should be fine, I think.” Irina says.

“Not just close, at this rate he is going to crash into that cylinder we were in.” I say.

“Let’s just keep moving we almost caught up with Sir Zexis.” Irina says as she runs off again.

As we near the site of Sir Zexis’s battle, we find the area littered with the bodies of enemy soldiers. Many of which have their bones twisted in ways I haven’t before thought was possible. Just up ahead is Sir Zexis, completely surrounded by the opposing soldiers. All the soldiers are shooting in volleys at Sir Zexis, but he is just standing there with the bullets just bouncing off his skin. As we run down a line of soldiers to assist Sir Zexis, several of the soldiers run up with blades and take a swipe at him. But upon contact their knives and swords shatter, leaving nearly all of the soldiers with a bewildered expression.

“Just how tough is your body to withstand all of that?” I ask as we finally reach Sir Zexis.

“…”

Wait… are you fucking kidding me!

“This guy was asleep this whole time!” Irina yells.

Upon hearing Irina’s words all the surrounding soldiers seem to have lost much of their morale, knowing that they couldn’t take down a sleeping old man. With the enemy’s morale low Irina and I nod to each other and take this chance for an easy cleanup of the surrounding troops.

We make swift work of the enemy troops when suddenly Irina shouts, “get back!”

Swiftly, we jump back as a sword falls to the ground generating a cloud of dust where we once stood. As the dust clears we see a rough looking middle-aged man, wearing an armoured uniform from the opposing army.

“Good reaction time you two got. Perhaps this will be more entertaining than I thought since the old man is asleep I can put that job off for now. General Adam Li, preparing for battle.” Says the man as he charges at us.

He swings his sword down and from it a crescent beam comes flying out. That was… sword intent! That means this guy is a cultivator.

“Irina!” I yell.

“I know what you want to ask but he has a higher cultivation than I do, so I’m not sure what stage he is at.”

“So you two know about cultivators and one of you is even at the third stage, impressive for someone so young. Although if your accompanying that old man then I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s unfortunate that I will have to kill off such a talented youth, such is fate for appearing as my enemy.”

Irina dashes forward, spear in hand, and thrusts towards the General. With speed far beyond my comprehension, he parries and returns with a quick counterstrike. In just the nick of time, Irina dodges as I run behind to get a strike on his back while he is preoccupied with Irina.

“What!” I say as a talisman appears from his backside blocking my attack.

A Ward Talisman, I didn’t think he would have such security when his strength is clearly above ours… no, he isn’t here specifically for the two of us. He came here prepared to fight someone much stronger, Sir Zexis.

The fight continues for a while but it feels as if he is just toying around with us as we stand exhausted and he hasn’t even broken a sweat.

“Half human magician, young spirit cultivator, is that all you’ve got. I was hoping for more entertainment, but it’s about time I wrapped this up.”

He readies his stance and swings his sword down in 6 different directions within a single second, sending a wave of sword intent with each strike. Irina manages to completely avoid each strike, but in my attempt to dodge I receive a hit.

“Shit! Again!” I yell as my foot gets cut clean off by the strike.

Damn it now my foot’s going to grow back all scaly like my arm… but more importantly why is it always me getting severely hurt.

In a quick rush, General Adam gets behind Irina and kicks her into me knocking us both around.

“It feels as though you weren’t at full strength mage, perhaps this could have been more fun if you had been. Not that it would have changed the outcome. Farewell.” General Adam says as he stands before us and brings his sword down.

Failing to muster up the last remains of my strength, I find it impossible to move with one foot as I prepare my shield as a last stand.

*clank*

The sound of clashing metal rings through the air as I look up and see… a stop sign… I should be happy to be saved but this… this is just ridiculous.

“So you're the rumoured Stop Sign Man. I hear you’ve been causing quite a lot of problems for our military. And to stop my attack like that must mean your rather strong, but you're only at the fourth stage, no match for me.”

He prepares to strike us down once more but before he can move to swing, Stop Sign Man picks up both Irina and I and runs to take cover behind Sir Zexis.

“Perfect, I’ll strike all four of you down at once!”

With more force than he had exerted previously, General Adam swings his sword down with the intention of cutting right through all four of us. The sheer pressure being released makes me realise the vast difference in our strength and I come to the full realisation that we really were nothing more than ants in front of him. But as his sword comes into contact with Sir Zexis’s head, the blade shatters into several pieces, leaving the General with the most dumbfounded look I’ve ever seen someone wear. And in a completely reflexive move, Sir Zexis slaps General Adam as if he was a fly disturbing his sleep, sending him flying far out of sight.

“And I thought Adam was strong. But Sir Zexis is still sleeping after all this and even sent Adam flying. I thought they were both at the same stage, how is the disparity between them so large?” I ask.

“Elder practises a special cultivation technique that greatly strengthens his constitution. Allowing him to take the hits of someone who is a stage higher, so brushing off attacks from someone of the same stage is rather trivial for him. Anyways I’m sorry if I was a bit rough with bringing you two ladies here, given the situation it’s clear that I didn’t have time to make sure you two were comfortable. Although looking at you right now, I doubt anything would be very comfortable given your missing foot. Regardless our side has won the battle in the end, although we lost a great deal of people as well. Someone will be here soon with a transport to pick up the injured. Just sit tight here with Sir Zexis, as long as he’s here most stragglers won't try to mess with you.” Stop Sign Man says as he hops onto his flying stop sign and takes off.

“That guy is so weird, but I guess he did save us. Hey, Irina wake up and stop drooling on me, the fights over.” I say

“Just five more minutes…” Irina mumbles.

This girl can be way too carefree sometimes.