September 18th, 629

Umara bit her nails as she watched John meet with that Versal.

She had a few views, more than a few cameras trained on his position. She could feel the tension among the army around her. The Commander of Iron Legion was meeting face to face with the enemy by himself. Although he was a mythical existence among them, everyone knew he was still a summoner. Underneath that esoteric armor, he was still a weak man of flesh.

Umara knew he could handle himself, that he wouldn’t ever put himself in the position to get hurt, let alone get killed. Still, he could be unpredictably reckless on occasion. Especially now, with his mental state being where it was.

Thankfully she had managed to create a teleportation trinket. It would destroy itself upon use, but it was capable of teleporting the user miles away and, most importantly, instantly.

She saw John and that Versal stand apart from each other. She saw the Versal’s smile, that almost abnormally perfect face and his disgusting excitement. She could feel his attention fall on her for some moments, feeling like eyes were sliding over her body and making her shiver.

She lashed back with an application of Aura, glancing at John, seeing no reaction.

She couldn’t hear then as they started talking. She couldn’t read the Versal’s lips either. They were speaking their language from Earth, that much was obvious.

She just sighed and watched, waiting around. Neither of them were making moves, and based on the Versal’s smile, it seemed they really were just conversing. Her desire to hear what they were talking about was palpable. She’d be bothering John later to hear about it.

“A Versal with talent supposedly equal to John.”

Feiden and Tana appeared by her side, Umara’s eyes never shifting from John’s figure.

Tana scoffed.

“If he’s anything like John, it would be impossible for me to hide from him. Stupid Versals.”

“Can either of you feel what Authority he is? I’m struggling to…”

Umara asked, the others throwing scrutinizing glances toward the Versal so far away.

Both of them returned shakes of the head.

“No. Which means he’s at least above us.”

“Authority 10, definitely.”

“So what are the odds he’s able to kill John?”

“Zero, probably. John could probably ‘hear’ the man trying to kill him entire seconds before he even tried.”

Umara sighed again, feeling more anxious the more they talked.

Her eyes never left the two of them, and then, things happened almost too fast for her to make sense of.

She saw a flash of energy, a red line being drawn across John’s neck. His head tilted, the Versal’s hand finally exposing his movement, impossible to react to.

Umara felt that sinking feeling in her stomach before she could consciously react to what she saw. Then, she saw the Versal’s head explode with light and sparks, half of his head being vaporized before his body suddenly disappeared.

John’s figure faded away, nothing more than a clone, and then they heard his voice over the TACNET.

“All units, weapons free.”

Having waited with bated breath, the army took the opportunity the microsecond John’s words ended. Tanks let off their shots in unison, one massive explosion rocking the entire battlefield.

Shells slammed into the army, shields on their side raising and shattering just as fast, unable to stop the barrage. Snapping shockwaves of flame washed over the armored Royals and Corrupted, blowing apart their formation and tossing dozens into the air.

But it was only that much, and not even that damage could phase the army. Uncaring of the sudden carnage around them, the armored warriors began their charge.

Massive beasts that shook the ground with every step used their incredible strength to stampede straight toward the line of tanks. Shells flew toward them and made constant impacts at rates that seemed almost desperate. Those were supported by incoming missiles that made flashing impacts targeting the strongest of the army, as well as bombs from planes overhead that detonated with incredible flares of mana.

It wasn’t long before a quarter of the charging army was either annihilated or incapacitated. At the same time, Ironheart stepped forward, those Scourge Sovereigns making their move.

Only one emerged, a warlock-type Sovereign and the sole reason for the barrier around the Nexus. It had escaped Ironheart’s clutches once. Umara knew that the man had been endlessly irritated by that, as if forcing another Sovereign to run for their lives was a disgraceful performance.

Ironheart didn’t give a single word before disappearing from his position, launching himself over the incoming army and shooting straight toward his target. Just as fast, the barrier around the Nexus dropped, the Sovereign forced to focus its power as Ironheart slashed at it with a blade of such disgustingly dense Vigor that it made the skin on everyone’s necks sting, like they had already been cut.

Yet, Umara noticed how the other Sovereign didn’t move, simply waiting, not so much as exerting undue Psykic influence on Iron Legion even with John missing.

Artillery was finally able to find its home within the Nexus itself, shells punching holes through buildings and wreaking havoc. More monsters started to flood through the gates like a disturbed nest of wasps, not enough to be annoying, but enough to add another layer of concern.

Umara felt her adrenaline spike as she watched the incoming army. She had seldom been a part of such a frontal battle as this, where every soldier on each side was more equal in strength than otherwise. No longer were they slaughtering hundreds of lesser monsters each, concerned only about energy efficiency. Now, she’d have to hold her own in a free-for-all, every enemy threatening in its own way.

They were fighting intelligent soldiers, not mindless monsters. They may have an edge in terms of the quality of their armor and weapons, but it was only that, an edge. It wasn’t going to guarantee their lives.

For perhaps the first time, these soldiers of Iron Legion would be sustaining losses in direct battle. Not merely dying in the crossfire of a Sovereign battle, but dying by the blade of another individual, a Royal or Corrupted.

Umara jolted when she saw John appear by her side, scowling at him as he peered down at her from his exosuit.

“We’ll be speaking about this later, husband.”

“I quite look forward to it.”

He responded as groups of Flickers started to inch forward, their faces warped with instinctual hatred. Growls and hisses were hardly audible as the tanks around them continued to fire, unleashing hundreds of shells every minute.

Bombs and missiles continued to impact amidst the incoming army, and they continued to charge as if they didn’t care. But nothing could completely put them down.

And before long, they made contact.

The Marshals and Brigadiers on both sides launched forward to meet each other first, massive clashes of energy rending the ground beneath them and even killing some of the Royals nearby. Then, the mass of the Scourge army slammed into the barriers and tanks.

John hoisted Totenstahl, his finger pulling back the trigger with casual ease, the barrel a bright glowing orange.

Fire spewed as hundreds of rounds riddled the armor of those incoming Royals. Their mounts were shredded even behind their armor, the penetrative power of each bullet unable to be stopped and punching through the fleshy bodies underneath.

Each bullet left red streaks through the air, drawing lines of death as claw met steel all around them.

Umara’s eyes widened in adrenaline-backed focus, her heart thrumming with tangible mana as she drew spells before her. Wielding them like a blade, her Aura found her first target, a Corrupted sitting at Authority 9 with a massive axe wielding arm disproportionate from the rest of its body.

Her first spell unleashed a bolt of fire backed by penetrating spatial magic that tore a hole clean through the chest of its grizzly mount. When the Corrupted jumped off the mount toward her with speed that she could barely keep up with, she created a barrier and leaned to deflect the axe coming toward her chest.

The blade met her barrier and she watched as it was redirected, her barrier cracking in the process. It barely held on long enough for her to complete her dodge and let off her next spell.

A lance of compressed fire and air streaked toward the Corrupted. She saw it try to contort its body out of the way, yet the lance made contact with the side of its chest anyway.

Its armor melted before the two even touched, a hole being blown through by the sheer pressure as the lance pierced its flesh.

As soon as it met enough resistance, the lance detonated inside its body, blowing apart its arm and body, both pieces flying apart.

She sent another lance at its head for good measure, watching it explode before turning back to the battles around her.

She couldn’t see Tana. By this point, that girl had managed to reduce even her exposure while making contact with others. The most one could pick out was a flicker of something while her enemy was being decapitated.

Feiden was too fast to allow battles to linger. He and Shadowbane both snapped around their opponents with their movement abilities, their attacks backed by that impossible speed and making short work of each Royal or Corrupted.

The rest of their Desert Eagles were busy driving back those that tried to pierce into the ranks of Iron Legion, failing to do so since there were only so many of them. Their battle lines were nearly a mile long, dense with tanks, vehicles, barriers, soldiers, and Flickers. But there were only so many specialists among them. Sector 4 had made a direct appearance to aid in the battle but as above average as they were, these battles couldn’t be dictated by a minority, not when the average Authority of the enemy army was technically higher than their own.

Mounted Royals and Corrupted were swift to annihilate barriers and punched through, regardless of the expense to do so. Soldiers quickly met their charge, and using the superiority of their armor and weapons, put a stop to their momentum. The two sides locked themselves in fierce battle, human adrenaline matching the ferocity of Flicker hatred. Iron Legion was aided by many thousands of ravenous fairy beasts that stopped at nothing to tear apart their nemesis.

The Scourge army was outnumbered and outgunned, but as the two sides met, the onslaught of tank fire, bombs, and missiles completely ceased. Redirected toward either the Nexus or incoming horde of fodder monsters, the ranks of Iron Legion soldiers were forced to handle the battle directly.

After killing another Royal, a fight that took nearly a minute, Umara glanced at John. He gunned down everything that got too close with focused fire that nothing short of Authority 9 could resist for longer than a few seconds. Predicting the every move of everything around him, nothing could catch him off guard despite the Psyka palpably radiating off of him making him a magical beacon that attracted more than it dissuaded.

“HAHAHA!!”

She heard his cackle, his Psyka beginning to resonate across the battlefield.

Slowly, she started to hear it.

“Listen to it! Hear the crescendo! For I have led this symphony, so shall this battle follow! Sing for me! SING FOR ME!!”

She heard his screams, and then heard the symphony.

Umara’s eyes widened, John’s Psyka pervading more than just the atmosphere. Nearly unavoidable, she allowed it in, curious instead of vigilant.

The music then filled her ears, and she nearly froze as her mind was overwhelmed. Everything had a sound. Each clash of metal blades resonated through her hands, each scream echoed through her chest, every movement strained her legs. The entire battlefield was a choir of maniacal screams and otherworldly tongues.

Yet it exposed to her the flow. That symphony John had referenced incessantly, now before her, exposed her to the truth of the universe. Or, she would describe it as the reality, which meant more than just knowing the here and now.

She felt her Concept of Abstraction tingle. Gifted by the Weaver and his Tapestry, it had remained entirely dormant until she could breach the Great Barrier. The Conceptual remained beyond her, and yet hearing the Symphony stirred her mind with the influence of the Horizon.

She realized now what John had always heard. It was more than just the Barrier. She knew his symphony was a consequence of becoming more in tune with the world, a requisite of breaching the Great Barrier.

No, this Symphony went beyond the Great Barrier. Its chords and times created rivers of comprehension that stretched through the skies. Or, perhaps it was the opposite.

She decided to follow the tune, listening to her enemy instead of seeing it. She almost didn’t understand what she was doing when she did it. A spatial fissure here, a detonation there, some poison all around, and suddenly a dozen Royals dropped dead around her. It made her bleed from her ears, and yet the silence of their deaths brought the clarity she was looking for.

And she turned her head upward in a moment of realization.

Strings descended from the heavens, songs of control, fingers over the instruments, and they led their pawns upon the world like conductors. So fathomless that she would never be capable of comprehending how, yet she knew by the voice of her soul that her deduction was true.

She lost herself in her stare, feeling the voices of the beyond, and eventually, discerning some of the words they uttered upon the lands.

And then she was interrupted by a blast of Psyka, John’s massive armored hand grabbing her armor with enough force to cause her Auric senses to flare.

“Avert your gaze, wife! Shut your ears to that which you shouldn’t understand! By our marriage, they cannot inflict upon you curses or afflictions so long as I stand before you! Use my Song as a guide in your battle, but no further shall you stray from my influence! I am your husband! Stay by my side!”

Umara shakily nodded, the voices fading from her mind as she placed John’s ‘Song’ at the forefront.

She listened to him, and refused to delve further. She felt her mind regain clarity, and he released her.

He looked straight at her, their faces close when his voice went deep.

“Welcome to spiritual warfare, Umara. Now, come dance with me.”

She slowly smiled as his song turned to a serenade, and she felt her mana move in resonance, slaughtering their way through Royals together.