The meatgrinder far below her continued to churn as tides of shadows crashed into a solid wall of armoured troops. Emperor Grandis’ soldiers were armed to the teeth with artefacts, ranging from enchanted armour and weapons to emergency artefacts that could save one’s life. His troops were well-trained too; they marched in neat, unbreakable columns that created an impenetrable front.

  Dia gazed at the surreal scene below. Every soldier was a mana-user in one way or another; some were sub-folders, while others were one or bi-folders. Regardless of their strength, however, these folders fought like an integrated unit; the frontmost soldiers in every unit would create a thick barrier of mana with the shield in their left, creating an overlapping wall of light to repel their opponents. These soldiers would also attempt to chop down their opponents from the safety of their shield wall, only retreating when they ran out of mana.

  It was a highly disciplined unit, and against scattered troops of even numbers, Dia knew that they would be almost invincible.

  However…

  Dia watched as a cohort of troops vanished, submerged by a tide of shadows before they could retreat into the defensive line. The remaining cohort of soldiers continued to slaughter the flood of shadows as they attempted to banded together, but just when she thought that the Dark would press their advantage, the tide of shadows retreated.

  Her own opponent, who was floating high above and preventing Dia from making a move, turned and left with the other mid-ranked familiar spirits.

  “Damn.” Dia clicked her teeth. This was no strange sight to her, who had seen this occurrence multiple times. The Dark’s attacks on Grandia were contingent on numbers now; they just sent shadows to swamp the defending troops.

  “Why did these troops move onto open ground?” Schwarz wondered out loud. “They had natural fortifications, right? What happened?”

  Dia frowned. The normal conduct for these cohorts was to stay close to the defensive line, where reserve troops and tri-folders were waiting to intervene. A cohort would only be wiped out when part of the defensive line was breached and they were completely overcome, but for some reason, the troops sent out today had all advanced by quite a bit.

  “Maybe the enemy commander did something,” Farah suggested. “Used some weird skill or artefact to entice everyone present into more dangerous straits. Who knows?”

  Dia looked down at the Grandis soldiers, who were now cleaning up the battlefield. The shadows of the Dark were actually just manifested shadows given form; the actual Shadowed Ones didn’t seem to be part of their army now.

  In other words, these were the troops they could spare while fighting an actual war with the Moons. In fact, this phenomenon wasn’t just limited to the Dark; Dia had also received information that save for some mid-ranked familiar spirits, the Moonlit forces on the southern battlefield were just manifestations of tri-coloured light.

  The actual Shadowed and Moonlit Ones were busy fighting each other elsewhere; it was clear that the divinities believed that the Grandis Empire didn’t actually need too many warm bodies to take care of.

  Given the current wartime situation, Dia could only say that the divinities were right on the money. In fact, if it wasn’t for the existence of mid-ranked folders in the Grandis military, Dia believed that the Dark and the Moons wouldn’t have even bothered to dispatch their familiar spirits to the battlefield. The job of these mid-ranked familiar spirits were to dissuade their opposite numbers from acting; if Dia made a move, the familiar spirit locked onto her would strike instantly.

  Likewise, Emperor Grandis had no wish to have the mid-ranked folders make a move either. Their job was also to restrain the opponent, and if they struck, to kill or maim them in return.

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  This war was certainly one that was targeted at the lower echelons of strength.

  “Let’s go, then,” Dia muttered.

  “It does seem a bit pointless to do all this when the enemy doesn’t really exist,” Schwarz muttered, his face somewhat demoralised. “I’m a bit tired.”

  “From seeing people vanish in a flood of darkness?” Dia asked. “Well, you can head over to the south.”

  “Where they would vanish into the light?” Farah asked. “Don’t be silly. It’s all the same to me. Come on.”

  “Meh.”

  The three of them argued for a while over the topic of which sight was the more depressing one, before descending onto the ground. They didn’t do it purely for fun, though; it was also to get more familiarity with flying with artefacts. The belts that the three of them wore had the ability to make their users fly, with the speed of their flight being proportionate to the mana used. However, these belts belonged to Emperor Grandis…

  “Thanks.” Dia handed the belt over to the clerk, and the others followed suit. “It’s quite the useful artefact, don’t you think? Why don’t we have a flying artefact for ourselves?”

  “Let’s see if we bully Risti’s granduncle into giving them to us,” Schwarz suggested. “I mean, Emperor Grandis likes kids, right? Getting Beth to ask him for us would be a good idea.”

  “Oh, you little sneaky fellow…”

  Beth was playing with some toys under the watchful eye of a nearby orderly when Dia and the others returned to their tents. Thanking the young orderly, Dia sat down next to Beth, who was now busily building something like a toy tower.

  “I’m back.” Dia looked at the tower. “Had a good sleep, kid?”

  Beth nodded, and then pointed at the tower, which was as tall as Dia’s eye right now. “Tall!”

  “I mean, it’s as tall as you. I suppose it’s tall…” Dia looked at the little kid, and then squished her cheeks. “So, what did you dream of last night?”

  Beth shivered once, and for a moment, a chilling, hollow expression appeared in her eyes. Dia frowned, but before she could say anything, the kid shook her head and light returned to her pupils.

  “Bad.”

  “Nightmare, huh.” Dia patted her head, and then thought about the circumstances that she had found Beth in. Back then, during that massive Distortion…rather, Beth was the cause of that Distortion. Her mother had perished before her eyes, and through a set of circumstances that Dia couldn’t even begin to fathom…

  At any rate, that expression was similar to the extreme despair Beth had exhibited the first time Dia saw her. However, since it vanished as quickly as it came, Dia could only chalk it down to a nightmare or something, but it would be wise to pay attention to the kid.

  “Don’t be sad,” Dia murmured, carrying the kid over to her. “Your mother would want you to be happy, right? So don’t give up, and don’t be scared. There’s nothing to be scared of, and there’s no reason to be sad either. Your parents live on in you, after all…”

  She comforted the little kid until the glimmers in her small eyes vanished, and Dia sighed. It was all she could do to give Beth some comfort; even though Beth now lived a good life with them, what could compare to living with one’s loving parents?

  Nothing.

  After sniffing and sneezing a few times, Beth handed a little toy block over to Dia and pointed at the tower. “Build!”

  “Me, build?” Dia looked at the haphazard structure seriously, and then frowned. “Uh. There’s no way I can build it without the whole thing falling apart, though…alright, alright! I’ll build it, okay? Sheesh.”

  The tower fell apart as Dia tried to place the block in her hand on its uppermost floor, and Beth clapped with a weird glee as the whole thing collapsed. Children, as it turned out, could be oddly…destructive at times; indeed, rather than crying, Beth seemed to take some pleasure in watching the tower fall apart.

  Was it a problem?

  Dia looked at the happy little toddler, and then figured that it was probably some childish glee.

  “Alright, enough playing.” Dia poked her tummy. “You’re hungry, right? You can’t have eaten yet, so I’m going to bring you for breakfast now. You know, you should really sleep earlier at night, so you can eat with us when we wake up.”

  Beth sniffed, and then opened her arms for a hug. Rolling her eyes, Dia pointed at the little toy blocks and said, “We’ll need to keep these first. Remember, when you take something out to play with, you must put them back. Alright?”

  Beth tilted her head for a moment, and then nodded. “Okay!”

  As she bustled around to pick up those blocks, Dia thought about the war that was going on. If the Moons or the Dark overran Grandis and conscripted her and the others, would she be allowed to bring Beth with her at that point in time? Would the divinities care about little familial ties and the small things that make one human, when looking at the war?

  Dia didn’t like the answer she arrived at.