Wissel looked at the various diagrams that had just arrived at his desk. Maybe an Allian or a Rancais man would think up of a name for them, but not here. Frankly, he did not mind, it was satisfying to know all Epa would be using Dos armoured bat vehicles, or as the name went: Panzerkampfwagen I

  Iliyal turned around a immediately. It was hard to be noticed iunnels, the o of darkness was good cover, better yet was the fact all the demons stood about in the warm glows of the fires. They preferred the heat, but the lights would blind them against the darkness. Still though, Fer’s hair was bright gold and Kavaa wore her steel armour. It was hard to be noticed, but he would wait around for one of them to catch a glint against the light.

  He took a breath and looked at the five Goddesses some thirty steps behind them. They were utterly terrified. Legs were shaking, hands clutched onto onry so hard they may as well have been ging onto their final lifeline off a cliff. Eyes jumped about, maybe they’d want a reason, but he wasn’t to inform here. The worst case was one of them would scream. Even with Fer, they wouldn’t be able to escape against aire army. He put his fio his lips, saw Olonia and Paida nod as they uood. Then he flicked his hand forwards to indicate they were returning.

  So the long march back began. The first hour ent with barely any light, the torches set on their lowest setting. If they had any luck, then the demons would not veo the almost freezing temperatures of these tunnels. They were more pleasant in the past, the World Core actually warmed these up.

  Two hours ter, they saw fmes ahead of them.

  Jozef took a rifle aed it. He held it as he as assumed it should be held. Butt pressed just before the arm, and he looked down the sights. Two simple iron railings, the one closer to him adjustable. “Is this good or not?” He asked, he oliti, not an engihe men designing them did not too happy.

  “We’ve not mao design Kassandora’s rapid fire guns, however she makes them, but these are close.” He showed off the bolt on the side. “It shoots quickly. Depends how traihe men will be, but we’re easily looking at ten, maybe twenty shots a mihe magazines are thirty bullets, like Kassandora’s.” He took a sigh. “Apart from the rapid-fire, it matches Kassandora’s specificatioly. We’re eveer e in fact.” Jozef put the gun back down. This a’s key to freedom from Divinity.

  “How we got a name for it?”

  “Karabin Wersja Jeden, just K1 for short.”

  Iliyal drew his sword and swung it to stop Fer from advang. It was a small expeditionary party from the looks of it, with fifty or so soldiers. Those would make food training, the biggest issue the five Nationals had was in their mentality. They had never killed before, so they didn’t how it was easy it actually was to go into a fight. He would have already told them to charge frankly, if not for whatever that massive thing behind the demons was.

  Huge and made of steel. Not bcksteel, it looked to be some on alloy. With legs and an array of spotlights fag in all dire and illuminating the tunnels. It had two arms, each arm ending off in a on same fashion that Fer had stupidly strapped fshlights to her hands. That would have to be ied, it’s a good thing he had brought Fer. “Olonia, Saksma, Agrita, Aliana. Paida. These are your kills. Fer, you take that big thing in the back. Kavaa and I will stay in the back.”

  Olonia jaw dropped, but she maintained her posture. Paida though did not have that sort of eagero prove her own worth. “You’re sending us in?” She asked.

  “If it’s not now, it’s never.” Iliyal said. He supposed they would need some pragmatic reasoning to get them moving, people usually did. “I’m just a mortal, Kavaa o defend me. Only Fer get around them. If you five don’t do it, then we’re either dealing with this group, or we’re marg back to that army back there.”

  No terargument came.

  Artois looked at the pake off. It twisted in a sharp ahe jet engines bsted, it boomed, the grass and trees around the airfield shook as it broke the sound barrier and the jet fighter disappeared into the clouds. It lived up to its he Mirage.

  Kassandora thought she could enter Epa just like that? Maybe in a hundred years, after Kirinyaa had built up expertise and if she ended up quering all of Arika. Maybe then. But now? What was she even plotting? This was the ti were the Great War had bee on. And the White Pantheon? Aire colle of Gods defeated by a siion? Did they really think they could go up against aire ti?

  Olonia was suddenly gd that Iliyal had dressed them all up armour. He had said it was merely enduraraining, but she would do it a thousand times again to keep this suit of steel around her. Iliyal had given them no choi it, although he did expin himself well. If there was an army there, and these tunnels did not have the resting rooms, then there was no way to avoid the horde ahead of them.

  She ran into the spotlights without a word. It would be just like fighting Fer and Kavaa. Just another practice session against them. There was nothing to worry about. Nothing at all. She held her breath, kept her eyes open. Saw the demons in their bcksteel. Eae taller than a man, only slightly shorter than Iliyal. In their heavy ptes.

  They moved immediately. There was no screams, no roars, no iven. Bck pikes started to drop. Some of the demons spread out to the side. Olonia felt the wind shoot past her as Fer unched from behind and onto that massive thing. Iliyal had said not to even worry about it, so she would not. She pushed that steel maation out of her mind and found the first target.

  A demon, just a demon with a heavy cleaver. Nothing her longsword, but rather a thick piece of steel, sharpened on one side. She closed the gap as she would close the gap on Kavaa, she made sure to focus on the armour, the creature as a whole, rather than just the on. It had spikes on its gaus and two red eyes angrily looking at her through the visor.

  Maybe three months ago, she would have said there was no weaknesses in that heavy bcksteel. But she had listened when Iliyal expined, she had watched when Kavaa demonstrated. And now she saw them herself. At the wrists, the cuffs had a piece of skin showing, the helmet didn’t sit perfectly on the shoulders, the inside of the elbows, the gap by the shoulders, the back of the knees, ihe thighs too.

  She saw them all. The demon closed the gap, his cleaver ing down in an overhead blow. Just as Iliyal had expined, if you dodge, then dodge. The parry was the sed line of defence, a dodge was much easier. Olonia twisted her foot, let the bde build up speed, her legs ached as they begged to jump, theepped to the side at the st moment. That…

  That was much slower than Kavaa. That wasn’t even in the same realm as Fer. That… She blinked as the demon’s cleaver made a cra the stone floor. Why would he do that? Her arm responded before her mind did, it had learhat with the battles with Fer. A moment to think was a moment too long, she o work like the Goddess of Beasthood. On pure instind nothing else.

  Olonia’s sword swept through the demon’s arm. It found that weak, it was easy. It did not even pare to that stupid log exercise. And the demon’s arm was separated from the body at the elbow. Olonia gave no spin, no twirl, nothing fshy. She merely carried the blow, twisted the momentum back up, and then to the side.

  And once again, the slight openiween the chest-pied the helmet was easy to find. There was no crash of metal, no angry sparks brought on by steel arguing against steel, no feedback as when Fer would catch her bde with a bde, or when Kavaa would angle a piece of armour to catch it at the moment. The bde went through the demon’s skin, muscle, veins and bones like a hot kting through butter. It rolled off after a sed.

  Olonia blihat was it. She had just killed.

  Poof. And something was gone.

  Richard VI looked through the ships that were docked. Hulls which had been take his gover’s behest. Cargo ships that operated mainly to Arika and back. The various embargos on those nations had destroyed their routes, and now SeaTrekker, one of Allia’s great trading panies, wao be rid of them. There was no reason to pay leasing costs on dog rights for what looked to be permaly, especially now that Arascus had formally taken over Kirinyaa and the embargos were spreading to other Arikan nations too. Those too friendly with Kirinyaa.

  They had practically given them away too, just ecstatic that finally someone would take them off their hands. So SeaTrekker would be made happy, and Richard would have the ships that would serve as the bae of transp from Allia onto the ti and back. He loved win-win sarios.

  Saksma looked at the line of pikes before her as her eyes jumped to Fer crashing into that massive behihat Goddess wasn’t a woman, it was a monster. It smmed into the steel like a onball and khe entire struct back. It had to quickly move oo catch itself, gears grinded and pistons hissed as it did. Fer kicked off and disappeared into the darkness around them as the mae tried to with its ons at her.

  Saksma took her eyes off the show above her and instead trated on the line of pikes before her. Iliyal had told her a greatsword excelled in these situation, that pike formations were not dangerous whatsoever and how to fight them. So she did. She took a step forwards, just out of reach of the tips and swung her bde low.

  She put as much strength and speed into it as the training with Fer demanded. A sed would be too long for that Goddess, half a sed would only make Fer do a theatrical stretd a yawn. A whistle if she was lucky. But she had just spent months fighting like that, so what else was she supposed to do?

  Her sword went through those pikes with the speed she would to hit Fer. Those pikes did not dodge, did not move, did not eve. They were there one moment, the , all of them were simply sticks in the hands of demons. Maybe a Saksma of a few months back would have taken a step away to ihe damage, but the Saksma of today did not. The Saksma of today saw the open, she came in with a spin, drawing the greatsword around herself to build up momentum and sending it crashing into the demons. Kavaa would have blocked it. Fer would have caught it.

  The demons did not. The demons were split in half at the waist, four of them in one blow.

  Saksma blinked as she looked up at Fer again. The Goddess of Beasthood shot down from the ceiling, she appeared from the darkness like a meteor bursting out of clouds. And that meteor peed through the steel cockpit, gss shattered, and she roared from ihat po she could look up. Not…

  She looked at the set of demon pikemen. These weren’t looking so fident now.

  Aimone looked up at the mountaineers. They would hold the mountains south of Erdely first, so mountaineers would be good. It was hikers and rock climbers here, one of Iliyal’s letters had said that men would o be trained for endurance, rather than for skill. Whether the elf could be trusted in politics was ohing, but the man had lived through the Great War. He was one of Kassandora’s generals for Divines’ sake.

  If he said that men needed endurahen Aimone would make sure that these mountaineers would be able to mar full kit for twenty miles.

  Agrita watched that massive mae tumble as Fer shot out of it again. This time, there was an arm stu her teeth. She disappeared into the darkness again as Agrita dodged another blow. She had been scared before, but she had been scared because she assumed she would be going up against someone like Fer or Kavaa. They still did not match the Goddess of Health in a duel, and trying to do more tha a hit on Fer was pletely out of the question.

  But evehis was almost… Agrita didn’t know what to say about it. She danced her feet, a feint here, a sidestep there. A step forwards to close the gap. The blows of cleavers and pikes fell lethargically around her. It was as if she fighting children. But then she was a Divine, maybe all mortals were simply this slow. Now that she thought about it, Iliyal had never sparred with them.

  But Fer did. Fer had ground them into the dirt. And from the dirt Agrita rose, dang and prang, swiftly dug and turning around blows that she knew she would have never even dreamed of dodging in the past. There were too many, they were too violent, too brutal. Yet she did not o dream, because she did it anyway.

  And as Agrita danced, so did her spear. A poke there. Light, only enough to cut one of the major arteries ihigh. A poke there, to catch the eyes. A poke there, underh the arm and into the chest. She poked and pranced, she poked and twirled.

  And everyone arouarted to drop.

  “This is the main gun. It’s not artillery, it’s for the PKF1. The gun won’t shoot upwards, it’s direct fire.” One of the engineers said to Wissel of Doschia as he ied a manufacturing. The system had bee up sneakily. One factory was creating pipes for industrial power pnts. Another factory was making sheet metal to be exported. Another was making caterpilr tracks for stru vehicles. Yet another was simply assembling radios. Large engines were being shipped in from Allia.

  And they would all e here, to Stukk Manufacturing. The pipes would be barrels, the sheet metal would be armour, the tracks would not go into stru vehicles, the radios would be mounted. He stared at the factory, and he felt his heart beat to tune of the Dos anthem. If he ever needed a reason for why this try was the industrial powerhouse of the ti, this was it.

  Aliana stayed back, in the darkness as she stalked. She watched that massive steel abomination fall backwards as Fer escaped back to where Iliyal and Kavaa were stood and watg. This was their grand examination, Aliana would not disappoint.

  She ran, she saw a demon e at Saksma from behind. An arrow left her quiver, it left her bow, it flew through the air, and the demoo the side as it peed his helmet. She saw another one, a team of pikemen trying to encircle Olonia and Paida, they had partnered up and were fighting side-by-side. Just like they had trained against Fer.

  And Aliana ran as she shot, these were easy targets. True, they did move, but it was nothing like that exercise Iliyal had put her through with the logs on strings. There, she had to be sprinting, and the logs would make erratic jumps with every bump in the ground. Here, the demons merely walked, maybe they swayed. Their heads and chests made for easy targets.

  Two arrows left her bow as she stayed within the darkness. Demons were starting to realise an archer was about. What could they do? Would they rush into this flood that blinded? No. They weren’t rushing anywhere anyway, already two of them had fallen, an arrow stig out from their helmets. Aliana’s fingers left her b, the third one dropped.

  She saw Agrita keeping demons at bay with her spear. The poddess of Rilia had gotten separated. Two arrows. Two dropped dead. Two more arrows, and another pair fell. And Agrita closed the distand finished off the final three.

  Aliana stopped and aimed her bow. A thought crossed her mind. One she smiled at herself to.

  Was it bad that she was enjoying this?

  Jozef looked at the dozen men all armed with rifles. Scopes had been secured by Artois, Rancais always had a good film industry, and it wasn’t hard to turn the lehat went into cameras into the lehat would be mounted on rifles. Jozef looked past them at the woods. Eastern Lubska this was, the closest vilge was miles away. “FIRE!” The sergeant shouted. The men fired, the guns drumming into the windless night. And the twelve targets oher side of the range fell over.

  The engineers had been correct. These guns may not shoot as fast as Kassandora’s, but they were more accurate and they had a better range. And besides, Kassandora would e ter. First was the White Pantheon.

  Paida blocked a blow with her shield. Not like in the past, where she would try to knock it away or absorb it with her strength. Iliyal and Kavaa both had shown her how to use it, the trick was to a, let the bde slide along, the push back at the st moment to throw the bde away. And so she did.

  The opening was created, her sword jumped on it, it bit through the demon’s bcksteel. Sparks exploded from where metal tore oal. But the endurance of a demon would simply not stand up against the strength of a Divihe bde peed, it sliced half way through the demon’s chest. She drew the sword out. She saw the demoo the one she just killed freeze up in fear.

  That was almost nostalgiostalgic because Paida knew she had dohat the first few times when sparring with Kavaa, and then again when brawling with Fer. And the demon’s head came off, through that gap where the helmet didn’t just quite meet the armour. And Paida stopped as she listened. No more footsteps around them. She straightened, her eyes readjusted and she gasped.

  Paida stopped as she looked around the se. Dead bodies y everywhere, some beheaded, some with arrows stick out of armour’s oints. Others simply had been poked and now leaked blood. She saw Olonia, her bde wet. Saksma was breathing steadily, taking deep breathes through her nose as stabbed the tip of her greatsword onto the ground. Aliana walked out from the darkness, her quiver still half full, she held onto her bow, an arrow hooked around the string. Agrita stood there, in disbelief, as sed her armour. That reminded Paida to do the same.

  The Goddess of Rancais looked down at herself. Gleaming steel, somewhat dirtied by blood, but she k wasn’t her own. The steel itself… Not a scratch.

  Had they just dohat?

  And she heard Iliyal’s slow cp.

  Still though, I have my reservations. As has been proven through the trials of history: Epans make very good subjects. Until they don’t.

  - Excerpts from ‘Thoughts on the Post-War World’ in the White Pantheon’s Closed Library, written by Goddess Maisara.