Anktyda, with its monopoly on uer titans, would have uhe ey of the os into a single nd where Uriamel o have found Nahum’s stohe immediate area around the pce went mad, the creatures are it where disfigured and twisted, the coral and flora in the area greidly out of trol. Some feared that the entire o would slowly grow to be overtaken.

  Past the immediate impact site, the iion starts to be less promi. Creatures grer, crabs harden their shells as they turn bck, coral starts to ooze natural oils. Fish slowly grow as rge as the beasts of burden that humanity possesses: cows and horses. The exploitation of this unique flora and fauna paved the way for Uriamel to industrialize rapidly.

  Yet it was the creature within Nahum’s stohat secured Uriamel’s survival in the face of Anktyda’s expansion. Some call it a God from above, others say it was a creature expelled from another world, some even say it was an escapee from somewhere else. The creature, easily rivalling a titan, proved to not only be powerful. It was also intelligent.

  So intelligent in fact, that it could be bargained with.

  - Excerpt from Alsaria's report on Modern Uriamel.

  “I REPEAT FOR THE LAST TIME! ALL UNITS HAVE FIFTEEN TO RETREAT FROM THE RED-ZONE! ALL UNITS HAVE FIFTEEN MINUTES! DO NOT AWAIT RESCUE! ALL UNITS ARE TO RETREAT THEMSELVES!” Wiktor screamed into the radio as Damian Sokolowski flung his rifle over his shoulder, it cttered and bounced against his back as the man stuffed papers into a suitcase. They should have packed up earlier, but then who would have thought that Uriamel would have so quickly adapted to nd warfare?

  Certainly, Sokolowski would have assumed this se of Nanbasa had at least another month in it before it had to be evacuated. He fixed the bandage over his shoulder, that was there to cover up a shrapnel wound. It had happened retly and with the frontlines in this much chaos, there had been no time to go to the Clerics for healing. Wiktor unplugged the radio from the power and waved for Pawel to help with the -up. “Leave it!” Damian shouted. “Don’t bother, we have spares.”

  “Uood boss!” Wiktor dropped the thick green straps that were used to hoist the heavy maery onto his back as Damian pulled out his military radio for unication with the and team.

  “Mat, how’s the transport looking?” Damian asked as he pointed for Wiktor and Pawel to pick up the rest of the suitcases stuffed with the battlepns. Most of these had been made in the past week, and most of these had no other copy that what Damian had written down there. It wouldn’t be the end of the world if they were lost, but likewise, there were units that only appeared on these maps and none else.

  “I’ve hotwired a civilian jeep.” Mateusz replied over the radio. “Tried to find key.” He spoke iween quick, hurried and rapid breathes. “No.”

  “Good job.” Damian replied. “Get it to the front door now. We have…” He checked the clock hanging on the wall. “Fourteen minutes.”

  “Aye Aye boss.” Mateusz replied as Damian gave the room o look over. The plumbing did not work, the toilet was blocked, the kit sink was leaking after the building had been hit by one of those ons on the backs of the giant bck crabs that served as Uriamel’s artillery. The fridge had nothi, and the otle of dri behind under a ter had taken the four men of the and team all of fifteen mio finish. They had only been here for two days, but it was a good two days. The beds were rge and fortable and the water was still running, those were the important parts.

  And then Damian’s eyes went outside to the window. They were in a tall tower bloot the top floor as those had a tendency to be shelled by Uriamel’s magis, but high up. Ahead of them y what remained of the industrial distrid the crumbling seawall. Damian had thought that part of the city was destroyed when it was blown.

  If it was destroyed back then, then the week of bombing and artillery had utterly devastated it. What remained of the huge factories and warehouses could not even be called ruins. Nowhere across the charred ground stood more than a dozen bricks overid on each other. The port’s t es used to move tainers had long since colpsed too, two still maintaiheir shape as they ft on the ground, the rest had been torn apart by Uriamel’s forces to make way, or reduced to mere shards of steel by the tinuous bombing and artillery. What remained of the seawall was a mere mound of crete interced with steel, Iniri’s wood had all been burned away already. Of all of it, the smell was the worst part. The charred tarmac was ohing, the toxic pstily added to it. The bones and corpses though could make men uo the stench throw up.

  And the reason for Damian’s retreat from this building was ing in from the seaside. A massive horde had amassed from the o and was now marg onwards. The ever-present giant crabs were there, although they were low in heir shells pitch-bck, with tents and ptforms strapped onto their tops. Some were used as mobile bunkers, from which Uriamel’s anders would shout orders, other had artillery mounted on their backs. The ons were powerful, but they were slow. It was obviously a teology not built to the standards of being used on the surface. Around them swarmed Uriamel’s soldiers with the multitudes of species of beasts.

  The sea-wolves that were just as fast out of the water as they were in it. Eae would require the bined fire of aire squad to take down, especially now that they were being fielded with thick vests of armour for them. Then aype of animal, that Damian did not even bother to try and name. Everyone simply called it the pore, a thing as rge as a horse, with four stunty legs as if it had once been a tortoise, but where another animal would have a shell, this had long spines, eae as long as Damian’s leg. The only thing that could stop those spines was the heavy of the Lynx tanks, and even then, it wasn’t certain.

  But it was the trio of warehoused-sized turtles that were chewing what remained of the seawall with their massive jaws that sighe retreat. This week, Nanbasa’s defenders had mao stall out Uriamel’s invading forces. Kassandora’s general lure-them-in strategy had been implemented, and Damian did not know why he ever even had a single question about the Goddess’ thinking. The entire coastal se of the ringed city was devastated, reduced to ft rubble. With no cover, it did not matter if Uriamel sent a dozen, a hundred, a thousand or a huhousand invaders. They all fell to the hail of steel that would e from the air. The few standing would be picked off by snipers and infantry on the ground. And Response Forces were here to plug any gaps or suppress the enemy into one location as the artillery re-calibrated.

  Until these turtles. Three of them, with magic structures on the backs of their shells. Eae basically carried a tower, tipped off with a crystal and bustling with activity. Binocurs revealed it was Uriamel’s magis ohat would have been bad enough, but then Sokolowski had seen those crystals start to glow and fire lightning at ining artillery.

  Where Anassa’s Sorcery had the reality-erasing shields, and where Essa’s Magic had the brute force of solid elemental barriers, Uriamel’s Teology brought about ter-measures. Sokolowski had already sent a dozes to Kassandora on what he witnessed here. He watched another round of shelling. This would be all the batteries firing in unison, as he had told them to. The crystals of those towers started to glow a blinding white, and then they burst out with white strings that split the blue sky.

  And the sky set alight in fire and explosions as lightning jumped through the artillery shells. Uriamel’s army below cheered. The cheers sted even as a few of the shells impacted against the ground. They had been thrown off course by their neighbours’ destru, o a ptoon of a dozen troops armed with sword and shield and harpoon gun. Another sent rubble flying onto a giant crab. The creature blocked most of the damage with its massive cw. A few mao hit the turtles. They didn’t even take a break from demolishing the remains of the seawall.

  Damia himself take a breath though, that was good enough. It meant that the defences could be overwhelmed. Kassandora had once again been correct. There wasn’t a defe there that could not be breached with firepower. “Hey boss!” Wiktor called from the door, a suitcase in both of the man’s hands. “We’re going!”

  “Right! Right!” Damian shouted back as he chased them down. Explosions from outside shook the building as they raced down stair and stair. Damian with one suitcase, Wiktor and Pawel both with two, they bounced against the walls and kicked off to maintain speed. Then jumped the final set of ten stairs, dropping down into a roll as they picked themselves up.

  Mateusz already had a luxury pickup truck prepared. Bck, with tinted windows, he must have gone for the best of the best that the local car-parks had. The doors were already swung open, the man was revving the engine and waving for them get in. One end of the street led to the ruined industrial district, a ptoon of Uriamel’s soldiers, supported by their sea-wolves, were closing the gap quickly as Damian jumped and dived into the rear of the . Pawel smmed into him, then cursed as Wiktor smmed the door on them. “GO GO GO!”

  Mateusz did not have to be told twice. He spuruck around with the handbrake as a harpoon smmed into the rear of the truck. A step on the gas pulled the vehicles’ rear wall off as Damian held onto the front passenger seat. Pawel and Wiktor both smashed the rear window, and started shooting back at the animals chasing them. “That’s the birds.” Mateusz said as he pointed forwards.

  Above them, six bck silhouettes in the sky. Like dark arrows against that blue o, KAF bombers. Nothing standardized, no single model, eae was slightly different taken from the refurbished civilian aircraft. “Keep going.” Damian said as Mateusz raced dowreet. “Turn to the zoo.”

  The zoo was Nanbasa’s animal reserve that the city was ringed around. It was merely a colloquial he joke had e about because most of the vehicles were named after animals. “Got you boss.” Mateusz said as he swerved into a bend so hard that the three men all almost crushed each other.

  Damian turo watch the bombing run. Another round of artillery shells had e in, once again enough of them were stopped. And then the bck spots in the sky started dropping their cargo. Six lines of barrels and crates and anything and everything that could be filled with liquid.

  Just as Kassandora had taught Damian to pn, the tactic was simple. Shells could be shot down, but could fire? The man grabbed onto the seat tighter as Mateusz turhe car onto a dirt bath. One of the ohat had been freshly structed to facilitate traffi and out of the zoo. They drove through the areas were lions had once prowled and rhinos were once kept. Now, it was the wheel Lemur artillery, supported by groups of Lynx tanks to serve as a shield. Skysweeper AA guns were strewn about, although they did not have much use yet. “Where should I park?” Mateusz asked as he slowed the car down. Ptoons of infantry were here too, all replenishing their ammo by handloading their magazines as a team of Clerics was stalking through them and findio heal.

  “Up there.” Damian said as he poio a hill that had a cave in it. He should have goo see what animals lived here before the siege of Nanbasa had started. Mateusz pushed the truck forwards, and it started to groahe heavy terrain. Somehow though, with no rear window, with fuel leaking and tires burst and the truck bed’s door torn off, they made it up that hill. Just in time to see the view.

  Damian groaned as he got out. A team of Clerics was already ing to assist them, but he didn’t really about the wound on the arm apart from the immediate strain it burned with when he opehe door. It was the firestorm in the distance he gawked at. The six pnes were swerving around, still saying in formation after dropping their ago.

  A hurrie of fme had formed, it tarred the skies and pulled Uriamel’s ground forces in. Even those giant crabs started to slide on the ground as the winds picked up. The turtles in the rear roared and pced themselves down on the ground, but the towers they had built onto the backs of their shells colpsed immediately. Man a and stone and rubble, it all set alight, and it ulled into the fmes.

  A beam of light suddenly knocked one of the pnes out of the air. Then another. A third. The fourth beam swept across the st three and downed all three at once. Damian pulled up his binocurs and pushed a Cleric away as he tried to firm his suspis. He had seen attacks like that before and…

  Alsaria was floating the air, in a dress of white and gold. She looked exactly how a Goddess should look, serene and peaceful, the only tell it was her beams of light that had dowhose six bombers was the fae hand, palm outstretched, ointing to where those pnes had just been before they became burning wreckages hurling themselves bato the nd. “Turn on the AA guns.” Damian started giving orders out immediately. “Wiktor!”

  “Yes boss!”

  “Radio to the men! Turn on the AA guns, anise perimeters and zones, if Alsaria gets close, then fk the entire area. I don’t care what or…” His voice trailed off. Alsaria was there, but Alsaria was not the only one.

  Underh her was a huge humanoid figure, easily surpassing the skyscraper that the general had his vantage point from. An enormous bald head slowly peered over the horizon, it had a beak where the mouth should, covered by a monstrous yer of octopus tentacles. It took a step and revealed the huge, muscled chest underh it. Its were too long, its fingers looked as if they had ara joint in them. And it waded through the water as if the o itself was a mere puddle.

  They were supposed to stop that?

  Arascus sighed as he looked out at the monster. Olephia was busy responding to Alkom’s raids in the north. Neneria could do little against a beast like that. Kassandora and Fer and Anassa had gone off.

  He supposed it would be up to him alohen.

  It’d be easier if Alsaria wasn’t on the se.