“Hahaha! Medith’s hands got beat so bad she can’t even lift them!” The Mountain Bandits cackled like magpies on a fence, bodies buzzing like hornets, itching to swoop on the city now.

“Without my command, none of you move…” Erig’s voice rolled out like a cavern wind from the underworld, his gear grim as night, and his blood-red eyes burned like twin embers; the bandits froze like stones in frost.

Bang—crack! Erig’s outer armor split like a molting shell, revealing his original white warplate beneath, his breath steady like a winter lake untouched by storm.

Erig watched Medith stumble back like leaves torn by wind, sorrow shading his gaze like dusk over fields. “It’s not your fault, truly not. In stratagem, I’ve lost to you by miles; your tactics stunned me like thunder under a clear sky.”

“But war isn’t solved by cleverness; raw force is the bedrock, like mountains holding up peace and storm alike. Do you think this old and frail Eunomia can sit calm much longer on its crumbling cliff?”

“If you can’t even defeat me, how can you stand as their ally, like a bridge that can’t carry a single cart?”

“Enough—why am I talking to the wind?” His voice cut like a cold blade through mist.

“All troops, hear me! The main field has buckled like an avalanche; pursue Medith with full force like hawks on a hare! Once she falls, the whole battle collapses like a house of reeds, and Sia City loses its final hand.”

“Glory of the Empire, everlasting—”

“Glory of the Empire, everlasting—oooh—aaah—” The Sage Soldiers stepped from shadow like dawn cresting a ridge; till a moment ago, Medith was a cloud darkening their hearts.

With only fifteen hundred like stakes in a flood, she held back four thousand elite, forced Commander Erig to shun a frontal breakout like a wolf avoiding a spear, lured his flank into a net, knifed him in the fog, and bled him hard.

Pity—no matter how fierce, she can’t match Regido, like a village lamp against a sea storm. How much could a country-bumpkin Sprite grasp of Regido’s iron and fire?

So the army rolled forward in tidy waves, marching toward the tall building in the distance like a tide toward a cliff.

…

“Lady Medith lost!”

“How can this be?”

“Hurry! Down to the cellar!”

“Shh! Don’t make a sound under the bed…”

“It’s over… we’re finished…” The people of Sia City curled inside their homes like turtles in rain, hope drained to ash, and the worst news slipped into their ears like cold water through cracks.

“Lady Eunomia… if a thread of your divinity remains, please grant Lady Medith a single strand of hope…” An old woman knelt before a small statue, the girl upon it drawing a thin sword like a silver reed; her half-smile curved like a crescent, as if she’d long expected this plea.

…

[South and North Fields]

The message reached Noel and Bell like a sudden drumbeat; they’d half expected it, yet shock hit them like a hammer—strong as Medith was, she couldn’t stop the world-shaking iron hooves.

“Retreat—abandon the line, everyone link up with Officer Medith—” They remembered the final plan and dropped the front like a snake shedding skin, pulling back in a rush, because with the center broken like a snapped bow, they were already defeated.

…

[Western Line]

The fire wall breathed heat like a dragon, and figures on rooftops trying to break out were cut off like birds tangled in net. When Sinis and Sais arrived together, the crowd locked into a strange stalemate like ice meeting fire.

Sinis faced Milia to the front and Sais at his back, boxed in like a boar between spears, yet neither side dared strike like cats circling under storm.

“We don’t have time for your games,” Milia said, sword long and bright like winter moon. “If we fight, both sides lose feathers. We’re leaving; if you dare block, go ahead and try.”

Sinis tilted his head and laughed to the sky like a crow at noon. “Ha! Who says there’s no benefit? For us, it’s rich as a gold vein.”

“Then try blocking,” Sais said, her powder-white fists clenched like shells, her slender hand itching like lightning under skin; one twitch from Sinis and she’d pull the Dark Blade like a moonless slash and carve him down.

They held for a long breath like two storms staring. Then the killing chill faded from Sinis like mist off a river. “Forget it. You won’t live past tonight’s last ember, and I won’t gamble my life on a coin. If you want to roll, roll.”

“Hmph.” Sais and Milia snorted in tandem like twin arrows, and led their people at speed toward Medith like wind crossing grass.

A black-clad light cavalry trooper edged close like a shadow. “Commander, we’re just letting them run?”

Sinis tugged his reins and moved forward at a walk like a panther in dusk. “How could I? I just don’t need needless corpses. The big-chested one has a couple of tricks like knives up sleeves, and the short-haired one—I can’t read her depths; she throws me the shadow of that woman like a ghost in smoke.”

“In short, I don’t have sure victory, and they’ve no heart to linger like birds at sundown. We’ve met our aim, so why gnaw this bone?”

“You mean…”

“I mean…” Sinis didn’t finish; the fire pillar ahead burst apart strangely like a bursting seed pod, sparks fluttering like fireflies across rooftops, and houses caught with a roar into blazing seas.

The black rider watched and couldn’t help admiring like a novice before a master. “Commander, wise as a fox…”

“Now, let’s lead this army of death like a black tide and pronounce their sentence.” Sinis smiled oddly, eyes turning toward Medith’s direction like knives seeking throats.

…

[Delaia]

“Supreme Commander Delaia, Lady Medith has lost; this place will fall like a sand wall. Their target is you. We must fight to the death—if we can escort you out like a star through cloud, they lose.” A deputy spoke with resolve like iron striking anvil.

Delaia shook his head and stood atop the tower roof like a lone pine, watching the battle below like rivers splitting around stones; every side had broken, and there was no turning this tide. “Never thought I’d die in the city like this,” Delaia said wryly, wearing silver armor that shone like frost, eyes fixed on the rose war banner close enough to breathe.

He stroked the banner like a thousand-year lover, gaze soft as spring rain. Then his eyes sharpened like drawn steel. “Carry my order! Hold headquarters to the death like a gate against flood! This is our faith; if it falls, the whole kingdom falls like a tree with its roots cut. It wrongs our honored guest, but Commander Medith will understand this truth.”

“No matter what comes, we stand with Sia City and the Eunomia Kingdom like shoulders beneath a sky.”

“Yes!” The deputy, heart lit like a torch, led the last few dozen guards of the headquarter tower to brace the gate like a dam against the river.

…

[Medith]

“Commander!” The forces linked up like streams merging; each had losses like bark stripped, and Milia’s group seemed to have the most survivors, yet together they barely topped a thousand like seeds in a pouch.

“So this is everyone?” Medith looked at Noel, Bell, Palmer, Oliver, and the others, their faces tired like travelers in rain; the great battle had swallowed their strength like sand drinking water.

“Where’s Iling?” Sais asked, eyes flashing like blades.

Medith’s gaze dimmed like a lamp in wind. “Erig’s Magic Breaker Circle wounded her like a net of thorns. It’s grim, but she’s alive.”

“What?! Erig broke magic?” Sais’s brow leapt like a startled finch; she’d been rushing the road and missed it—no wonder Medith fell so fast like a cliff under storm.

“What do we do now…” Phiby’s small face went pale like paper, trembling like a leaf as armies closed from all sides like wolves in snow.

Guards held a ring around them like a wall of shields, hemming them tight, yet safety felt distant like stars behind cloud.

“Our burn-the-boats plan is ruined like ashes in rain. Now, I have one last move…” Medith’s voice turned firm like a blade set to whetstone.

“What?! You have a way?” The captains gasped like fish breaking water.

The women looked at her with eyes bright and longing like dew on lotus.

“This method has a low chance, like a dice thrown in storm, but if it succeeds, it flips the war in one stroke like sunrise over night. Only…”

“Only what? At this hour, why are you hemming and hawing?” Sais snapped, nerves strung like bowstrings; the enemy tide had five minutes left like a clock dripping sand.

Medith sank to the ground, strength gone like water wrung from cloth. “I need you dead…”