Arascus, I greatly appreciate. I have no other way to describe, I simply appreciate him and his ideas. There are some of us, like Neneria, who have almost been lost to immortality. It is not that they have bee zy or apathetic, but some souls simply he grip of fiime to get moving. Why do something today when it be doomorrow? And when tomorrow bees today, tomorrow will still be tomorrow. At the end of the day, Divines are ageless. What is one day lost? A week? A month? Year? tury? A millennium of apathy?

  Mortal thinking is slightly more pressing. Any crime must be punished, and it must be punished immediately. If it does not, then the criminal escapes. I appreciate human philosophy on this matter the most, the fact they sider death an escape from life, rather than us Divines or Elves, who scramble in madness in order to escape it. The criminal who lives to be felled by time has escaped, there is a certain victory in that. Yet this thinking blinds them, even though they have the drive, they are uo make the gra decision from fear or retribution.

  I know this of myself, and I know it for Arascus. We have both been able to bihat motivated discipline found in mortals with the grandiosity only a Divine is able to bear. A man be killed, because eventually the world would move on past his death. Likewise, a city be destroyed for the same reason. We will still be here, and that city will not.

  The simple fact of the matter is where does this logic stop? Is a region too much? Aire try? The whole world? I have found my answer, and it is the same as Arascus’. There is no end. What will be fiven, what ’t will eventually be fotten.

  - Excerpt from “Divine War Strategy”, written by Goddess Kassandora, of War, the text was lost after the Great War although it has frequently appeared in illicit bck markets.

  Kassandora looked over the city of Nanbasa as she saw helicopters arrive from the north, from the south, and from the west. It was only a small ge of pns at the end of the day, she was simply requisitioning a thousand men from the Recmation War and a few Goddesses from the coast. And several million in research grants, but Arascus was there to hahat. The requisitioning of civilians and stists was not here demesne, she liked soldiers, who simply did things when told to.

  Kassandora stood on the roof of one of the tall skyscrapers. The building was once part of Kirinyaa’s banking glomerates. Most of them had turned out to be in a bad situatiohe coup happened, although that had only been discovered once Arascus was in gover. Many of the donations Kassandora had received were not donations in the first pce, but rather loans. Betting on the success of a Divine had never been done before so ions against the practice existed, and everyone smelled the easy money on the horizon.

  About half of the banks had almost ran out entirely of any liquid capital. Arascus had seized the opportunity, with the insider information that came from leading the try, bank runs were anised on the most vulnerable ones. In one week, half of Kirinyaa’s financial sector had been nationalized by the Imperial govero stop it from colpsing. Arascus was tralizing his grip further on the try and he was busy today. There was no need for him to attend.

  Iliyal came first, Kassandora heard the elevator doors slide open behind her, she didn’t o turn. The man had a distinct pattern to his steps, slower than a human’s but faster than a divine’s, and the heels of his boots clicked in that way a nobles had been traio saunter about. “General Tremali, rep for duty.”

  “At ease.” Kassandora didn’t o turn to know he would be salutiher. The world would be ending and the man would still hold his salute. “How is the defence of Nanbasa looking?” She asked. The elf responded immediately as Kassandora stared out of the ring-city. In the middle of that ring stood the massive animal reservatioy had been built around. The animals had been taken away to other locations now and Kassandora could catch the tracks that meant artillery had been driving through it. She found a few of the Lemurs and Lynxs hidden underh trees that once housed lions.

  The new SPAAG-M1s were there too, these, she mao finally get a normal name for. Self-Propelled-Anti-Air-Gun-Mark-One, Arascus had been too busy to notice such a trivial piece of information and the two men who had been assigned on giving the stupid animal o her new vehicles had bee off to the fight the Jungle in the West. The SPAAGs stood there, hidden near rocks or behind buildings, four barrels tilted upwards as they waited. Kassandora had seen them fire, the hail of lead they put out would overwhelm most magical barriers. If enough of them trated on a target, they may even be able to overwhelm Alsaria. “Troop-wise, it is all about produ.” Iliyal said. “What be sent, I will be thankful for but it’s nent. With the sea-wall and the sheer size and yout of this city, it would take two months to clear it even if it wasn’t fortified.”

  Kassandora looked up to the huge sea-wall that Iniri had grown, and that the elf had reinforced with crete and steel. Even now, there were still diggers and trucks w, filling out the hollow trees Iniri had grown with much harder material. It stood as tall as a warehouse, and the work of branches was byrinthian. A huge helicopter was currently h over one of the huge wooden towers, a small on held up by ropes on its underside, aing it down on the wall. “Then Nanbasa will move down on the list.” Kassandora replied.

  The list was a mere colloquialism they used, it was simply the list of cities they were sending the new equipment to. Iliyal nodded as Kassandora kept looking out over the city. The sky was a marvellous cloudless blue today, the o a deeper shade of the same colour. Somewhere in that o, Uriamel was marshalling forces to siege them. “Uood.” Iliyal said. “Actually, I would reend not sending anymore supplies to Nanbasa for the immediate time.” Kassandora smiled to herself, she had thought of the same. The city was simply too long and te. Uriamel would e from the coast, the entire pce did not o be fortified.

  “It will only be a minimal amount of stationary onry.” Kassandora replied. The guns that would be difficult to install during a battle. “But I agree.” She turo face to the elf. He stood there, his blonde hair had grown somewhat, but his green eyes were as sharp as they were back during the Great War. Apart from the modern biform, the cap and the pistol on his belt in addition to the sword, he had not ged a si. “Personally Iliyal, how do you think the defence will go?”

  “I see no reason for it to go terribly. The western manufactory district has beeirely evacuated and General Sokolowski has finished with the industrial relocation pn. Even if the seawall falls, they still have to cross that se. I’m rigging the buildings to blow, and then we will shell them over ruined ground.” The elf smiled in that way only Kassandora and her acolytes could. The gre that took ht joy in the fmes of war. “The first push will be the worst, the wall will hold them, but it will fall, and then we lure them in.” Kassandora turned back to the city.

  “That’s what I expect too.” Kassandora said. This city, whilst on the coast, was not coastal. It was not a port-towhough it had a port. A se of Nanbasa was coastal, and that was it. To call the ey a port-town would be as wrong as calling aire ti an isnd. They were close, but very different thiirely. “We blow give up the eastern part of the city, then we shell them when they reinforce liury from a ring to a horse-shoe.”

  Iliyal nodded. “A child could do it.” He said.

  “A child will do it.” Kassandora said, she turo look at the elf’s rea. He gave none. “Iliyal, you are wasted here.” He smiled at that, Kassandora rarely gave out praise to her own men, praise was a fickle thing, too mud a man got aced, too little and he lost motivation. “I am sending you off to Epa. To assist them because they are doing terribly.”

  And the elf smiled at that. “I have been keeping track of their war. Maisara in Lubska and Fortia in Rilia.”

  “It’s a good move for them.” Kassandora said. “I expect Fortia will go quickly up until she reaches Rilia’s north, whereas Maisara will expand her lio cover all Lubska from South to North, the into Doschia. Rilia most likely has a month, Lubska has about two.”

  “I would say the same.” Iliyal replied. Frankly, Kassandora did not know if that was true or not, the elf always agreed with her.

  “You will have no Divine support from Arika, who is here, will remain here.” Kassandora said. “But the on Divines and the Nationals should be enough. Unless you find a ove Fortia and Maisara directly, then you call for assistance.”

  “Uood.” Iliyal said. “But it’s doubtful that I will.”

  “Both are good at self-preservation.” Kassandreed. “But they’re not your objective, simply make sure Epa does not lose. If you mao cause enough casualties to the armies, that will be fine for us too.”

  “The one issue is that the war is impossible to win in the first pce.” Iliyal replied. “Even if they are pushed out of Epa, we have no way to strike at Olympiada. The Epan Coalition won’t go on the offehey’ll try tain.”

  “That is the part of the war I’m in charge of.” Kassandora said. “Simply slow them down in Epa. Attrition warfare, but be aware it’s not our nd. Too much salt in the wounds and the Epans will quickly point to you.”

  “I’ll make sure that if it stings, they know it’s the Pahat did it.” Iliyal said and Kassandora smiled. Sokolowski and Zalewski and Ekkerson were all good generals, but a man like Iliyal only came about on a hundred years. She knew he wouldn’t screw it up, frankly, she didn’t even expect him to hold, simply to slow the Pantheon down as much as possible instead. “If they crush Epa, then Fortia and Maisara are sweeping Kirinyaa from the north, we won’t be able to resist a sed war like that.”

  “If Epa does fall.” Iliyal said. “Then I’ll make sure it kicks and screams so much that Maisara and Fortia have nothing to return with here.” Kassandora smiled to herself as she turned back around to look at the city. A small dot in the distance, ing from the other side of the city, caught her attention. Kassandora narrowed her eyes.

  Anassa was there, floating through the air, a giant red hand jured out of sorcery was behind her, its fingers cupped upwards as if it was holding something. The edges of it were outlined, as if Anassa had ma a drawing ience. On it, Fer and Iniri and Kavaa were stood. That st one, Kassandora still debated ing, but she would be easily repced by Clerics here. Iliyal squinted and asked in a polite tone. “If I may, what are you pnning with them?” He asked.

  Kassandora smiled to herself. Iliyal khat pns were shared only on a o-know basis, he was simply indulging his curiosity. It was the good the man still had it. “Those four.” Kassandora poio Anassa and the Divines she was transp to the skyscraper Kassandora stood on. “I’m taking them west. To secure a on which strike at Olympiada, at Anktyda and at Uriamel.”