"Rejoice!"

"..."

"Did you not hear me? I said rejoice!"

"AAAAAAAHHHHH!"

What the...!? Some kind of giant red ogre is attacking the base all of a sudden! Everyone is running around, trying desperately to find cover, but it's no use, it's titanic in size! Shit, no way am I gonna be the first one to die to this damned beast! Quickly fumbling through my pockets to find my AFP, I hastily aimed right at it's head and... Bang!

"...Huh." It didn't even register the bullet passing cleanly through it's skull, "Not bad, kid. I admire your bravery!"

"W-What are you!?" I went to run back, but it had quickly blocked my path with its hands, "S-Shit!"

"Alright, alright, calm down now. I can see there has been some kind of misunderstanding here." It spoke in a reassuring manner, "Listen, weren't you guys the ones the called me over?"

"Huh?" I suddenly got the gist of who he was, "Could it be, are you...?"

"Brother, you said some beast was attacking the base?!" Pierre suddenly jumped into our conversation, seemingly after being told what was going on by Jorgen, "Oh... It's just the God of Fighting. Dammit, bro, you got me all scared for nothing!"

So this is the Golden God Auros? He looks... pretty much how you'd expect the Fighting God to look, although it was still quite unexpected. With a bloody-red tinted complexion and an orc-like face, he truly did his job of instilling fear into everyone around him adequately. The horns on his head also seem super sharp. I wonder if they'd make for a good blade?

"What do you mean "just" the God of Fighting, Pierre!?" Auros suddenly got pissed, "Listen here, kid! Just because you've been helping me around Sulfury's legal system doesn't mean you can stop fearing me!"

"I'm not a kid, dude. I'm in my thirties." Pierre nonchalantly replied.

"So what if you are? I was here before your world was even created!" Auros puffed out his chest with pride, "You're all kids to me, muahahahaha!"

"So what are you doing playing with kids all day then?" Jorgen jabbed, "Don't you have better things to do?"

"Y'know, I'm gonna ignore that because you're Pierre's brother, but next time you won't be off the hook so easily." Auros then added, "Yeah, I know your two's relationship, so what? I'm one of the Gods that created this world, so don't look at me so surprised."

So that's how it is, huh? All of the Gods know everything about everyone, is that it? And you're here to tell me Grim somehow managed to pull off conning this guy out? Damn, now I'm even more impressed. Then again, he seems like he's got a short fuse, the Golden God, so maybe it's not as difficult as it sounds to come out on top when you use your head a little.

"Mister God, thank you for coming." Meil bowed to him, showing great respect as he explained, "I was the one who sent you that letter, but to think you'd actually respond to our pleas, I've a newfound respect for you."

"...Hm." Auros ducked down to inspect Meil up close, "Who the hell are you?"

Wait, what? Didn't he just say he knows everything about everyone? So what's the deal here, why is Meil of all people immune to Auros' omniscience?

"Faker." Meil scoffed upon coming to the same conclusion as I did, "The God of Sun wouldn't make such a blunder."

"Eh?! You've met Ouroboras?!" Auros gasped.

"Ouroboras?"

"The God of Sun! I'm talking about the one and only here, don't you know?" Auros elaborated, "He was my senior, a great and gentle God who would help anyone that requested the Sun's temperature to give them what they needed. Sadly though, he suddenly got a stupid idea to reincarnate around 500 years ago or so. Said something about his current body getting too stale, so he wanted to spice things up."

"I see..." Meil looked down for a second before victoriously raising his fist into the air, "Hell yeah! I told you guys the Sun God was a real person, and none of you believed me! So there you go, I was right and you were wrong! Haha!"

"...Right, anyways." Auros seemed unamused, "Have you met him by any chance? When he reincarnated, he didn't mention what his next body would look like, nor did he say where he'd reincarnate into. Hell, Selzion's been searching for him for eons by now."

"Ah, uhh, no. Sorry." Meil finally composed himself, "Not a clue, I just sort of faintly know of the Sun God, but as you saw just now, not even the name sounded familiar, just the title."

"Right." Aaron suddenly chimed in, "And it doesn't help that no one seemed to have recorded this mysterious God's existence even once throughout history either. Hell, if you weren't the Fighting God yourself, I wouldn't have believed this information at all."

"Dammit." Auros clicked his tongue before getting back up, "Alright then, then just point me to your enemies and I'll obliterate them."

"Whoa now, no need to go in all gung-ho." I urged him to wait a bit, "We have a plan we've gone through countless times by now, so why wing it?"

"You're really just saying that because you don't want all those late nights of planning to go to waste, don't you, kid?" Auros saw right through me.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that claim."

"Hrmm...! Argh, what the heck!" He threw his arms high up into the sky as if giving up, "Alright then, I know the plan already because of my omniscience, but just in case, you should probably explain it to them."

"Them?" I questioned where he was pointing to.

"Yeah, them! In other words, you! The person reading this."

...No clue what he's doing, or who he's talking to. Well, at least I can now see how Grim managed to outsmart this guy. He doesn't seem all that right in the head.

"Just shut up and get on with the second half of the chapter!" He suddenly turned to yell at me.

***

After this, it seems I had no other choice but to repeat to everyone the plan to beat the King and Vivia. Climbing atop a vantage point to get everyone's attention and make sure they could hear me clearly, I had begun my speech by clearing my throat.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Ahem, the plan is..."

"No! Don't say it now, idiot!" Auros suddenly stopped me, "I meant after we got there!"

"What? I'm not gonna say the plan that close to the actual enemy, are you crazy?" I furrowed my brows at him, "That's too dangerous! And besides, what would that even achieve?"

"It'd be way more climactic and memorable that way." He pointed out, "Doing it randomly here at your base all of a sudden is way too boring."

Sighing, I didn't feel like arguing anymore than I already did with this guy, as he struck me as the type to not let go of his ideas easily. Thus, the other Generals and I did one last giant roll call, though to save time, we abbreviated the whole process by quite a bit.

"Cardina Unit, everyone ready?" I shouted.

"Aye!" They shouted back.

"Sulfury Unit, what about you?" I turned to them.

"Ready!" They yelled out in unison.

"Trivis Numerica Unit, what'll we do them?" I put my ear to listen to the roars of the people.

"Make them pay!" They answered.

Alright, it seems with that everything is settled. Heading out of the base was kind of a scary feeling, but the excitement far outweighed the anxiety. There was nothing else to do now but to fight, and although I would have really liked for us to have properly communicated the gameplan with everyone before starting this campaign out, it seems no one felt unsure of the God of Fighting's advice. Surely, luck will be on our side this time!

The journey to the Western side of Trivis Numerica was pretty calm, all things considered. Certainly, it wasn't that odd for the cities and paths to be completely abandoned, as all of the enemies have already pillaged what they needed, and all of the allies and innocents have long since ran away or died. Thinking about it like that, I silently prayed that my family got out in time. My mom and sister probably advocated to run away without any qualms as soon as they caught sight of the first sign of danger, but my dad might've tried fending the Carmen soldiers off. Ugh, let's not think about this now. Just hope everything is fine, Edward...

"Alright, kid!" Auros suddenly lifted me on the palm of his hand high above the other soldiers, "Now, with the castle in the horizon, THIS is the perfect place to explain the plan!"

"Ah, I see now." I chuckled as I turned to the soldiers who were all staring solely at me, "Ahem, right then! I'll keep it short and simple so that everyone can understand!"

"Go on, then." Jorgen jeered from the crowd, only to get hit by Max and Aaron.

"Take your time to explain things properly, Ed." They encouraged me.

"O-Okay." I let out a nervous chuckle before shaking the anxiety away, "Phew! First off - The Cardina Unit shall serve as the vanguard with Auros! They'll be led by Jorgen and Pierre and will be the distraction needed for the rest of us to flank them from the back."

"Heh, I gotta hand it to ya', kid, you're making me more and more glad to have met you!" Auros praised, "Putting me straight into the heart of the action, I couldn't have asked for a better position!"

"Glad you like it, because..." I turned to the Sulfury Unit, "Step two: You guys will be following us around the other side of the castle, where Max and Aaron will spread about as many high-caliber explosives as we can fit into the back entrance."

"There's a dirty joke to be made here somewhere." Aaron joked.

"Never mind him, Edward." Max chuckled, "We're on it."

"And what will the two of us be doing, Edward?" Meil inquired.

"Hey now, I still haven't forgiven you for that thing you said about Nelly." I glared him down, "That being the case, we'll be operating separately."

"Nelly?" He tilted his head, "Never mind that. What do you mean by separately?"

"I'll give you a hint - There are two primary targets that need to be addressed here. I'm talking about Vivia and the King. You'll go after him, and I'll take on Vivia."

"Hey now, hold on!" He protested, "You're not the only one who wants to exact revenge upon that woman. Let me join you!"

"We can't risk this, Meil." I ordered calmly, "You've fought the King before and know all his tactics, so chances are you'll do better in a fight against him than I would. Don't worry, I won't kill her, instead I'll only capture her. Letting her go easy with a swift death isn't on my agenda."

"Ho ho!" Auros guffawed, "Look at y'all getting all Red in the Eyes like that! That's quite the vengeful spirit burnin' in ya'!"

And with that, the plan was complete. Now all that was left for us was to actually go through with it. Now I'm by no means a war expert, but it's not like this plan was thought up solely by me. It took a lot of discussing it with the other Generals before we got to this conclusion. Really, the only thing I changed from the real plan was to have Meil and me split up. Everything else was carefully sifted through all of the Generals prior to coming out of my mouth.

"That is all, thank you for hearing me out." I ended off my grand speech with a bow of appreciation.

"What the hell? What kind of motivation is that, kid!?" Auros went to throw me high into the sky, "When you reach the apex of your ascent, shout something amazing to hype everyone up, y'hear?"

"Wai-!" I tried stopping him, but was already tossed way high up in the sky. As I looked down at all the soldiers eagerly awaiting my next command, I didn't really care about what to say, as I was moreso worried about hitting the ground and dying. Thus, the only thing I could muster up the strength to shout was: "Don't die, damn iiiiit!"

Cheering at my motivational(?) proclamation, everyone had set off to their posts. Though I was still falling, but thankfully Auros had grabbed me just as I was about to hit the gravel and go splat. Damned God, why the hell did he do that? I almost shat myself just then...