Strategic Report, Underground. To somewhat lighten our dour mood, I would like to remind everyone that the surface campaign has not yet reached total frontal saturation. The issue of the unnamed weapon covered in General Pelinkal’s report is concerning, nevertheless we can assume it to be a regional phenomenon. The amount of destruction it caused fundamentally precludes it from being used on areas that are worth defending. The Ardans are mad creatures, I have no doubt that if push came to shove, they would destroy their world to prevent another ruling it. Nevertheless, the Ardans are mad creatures, I think that even if the night-time stars of theirs burned out, if their moon cracked and their sun went cold, they would hold onto hope and spit in the face of any who came to help them.

  Underground, the situation is going much better. We have confirmed the presence of Neneria, Anassa, Kassandora, Kavaa, Baalka, Fer & Irinika. In such a way, it is already a success that we are tying down so many of their Divines, especially their four strongest in INAB. K and K are currently encircled in Levhen. The ashfront will make contact with its gates tomorrow. We expect breaching to take a week. Combat engineers have already been tasked to get close. F & B are travelling as a pair, B has laid out poison which needed to be circumnavigated, attempts at incineration have failed. A has retreated to the core Holds and frequently appears as a lone raider, however she will not enter the Ashfront. N is being contained by Legion. I has not moved. She maintains the holding of the critical junction to northern Epa.

  I have read the reports detailing the insurgents that have managed to sneak in through the ashfront in northern Arika. We have not witnessed this underground, thus, I would like to offer a suggestion. They have a single specialist Divine that is capable of such a feat. I do not think it is a reproducible tactic, else we would have seen it in the underground. It could be that the tight stones down here prohibit the use of such a tactic, nevertheless my words should be taken as only words, speculation can only be speculation.

  Irinika will most likely soon retreat as our forces are spreading through the ring-road of the Core Holds.

  We will soon be able to skip the Imperial fleet and their defensive line in southern Epa once a hold with a major entrance is conquered. In such a way, I advise for sending initial scouting forces through minor entrances. In this regard, it should be specialized troops. The Empire will respond no doubt, it would be better to try and overwhelm them in one blow. Likewise, it is impossible to bring a spewer through the tunnels. If we do open battle, then we should expect to fight under clear skies. We should take note of this supposed air-force that has been confirmed to exist by infiltrators.

  Strategically, I would suggest a two-pronged assault. One to tie down their frontlines, another to seize as much terrain as possible in the rear once our forces march out of the underground.

  - Report by Prince Malphus, commander of Tartarus’ underground forces.

  Arascus stopped by the door to Elassa’s library once again. Another day of travel had been utterly wasted because the woman had locked herself in her studies. Another day of travel would be wasted on going back to the front. At least modern technology allowed for Arascus to manage trivial issues from anywhere. He stared up at the sky of Arcadia. Bright blue, with a hurricane rumbling to the south. Next to it was a blazing pillar of fire that had just ignited. It lasted for a few seconds, then burned out. The ground began to rumble once again, it had done so a dozen times since Arascus had come to Elassa’s War College.

  Progress was being made, he could tell that. He stopped and turned around to the gaggle of mages who were following him. The first time, they had respectfully bowed their heads and averted their eyes from the God of Pride’s gaze. Now… Well, that hadn’t changed. They still didn’t meet his eyes but their backs were straighter. It would be a while yet before they got to be the warriors Arascus and Elassa both wanted to represent Arcadia. “I will enter myself.” Arascus said.

  “Understood your Highness.” One of the mage’s said. The red outlines by his cuff and colour indicated a pyromancer. The fact they were triple lines was a mark of seniority. “But if I may, I wish to ask something.”

  Arascus stared at the man for a moment. He towered over the human, more than twice the height of him. Almost three times as tall, and definitely more than twice as wide. In the distance, a pillar of flame was put out by a sudden monsoon that materialized out of the empty sky. This was certainly an improvement, they wouldn’t have even been brave enough to ask something minor of him the first time he came. “Ask away and don’t ask for permission to ask, magician.”

  “If you may, then could you please inform Goddess Elassa to restart her tutoring with us?” Arascus stared down at the man and felt as if he was staring at some sorcerer asking for him for Anassa or a general trying to find Kassandora. Although that latter wasn’t so common, Kassie learned quickly enough that her men could have good ideas.

  The God of Pride sighed. He had done this by giving Elassa a task she would enjoy doing in the first place. “Elassa is working on a project to bring down Ashen Skies.” Arascus said. “Whether she will or not, I will not promise.” He supposed a little bit of notice would be good for the man. “And I am not sure how good a teacher she will be when her mind is elsewhere.” The man nodded and stepped back. Sometimes, Arascus hated the fact that he couldn’t help himself from helping. These magicians were Imperial too after-all, he may not have adopted them, but they were still his. “Nevertheless magician, I will tell her to watch her own health and take breaks.”

  “Thank you.” The man said. Whether he realised he was being saved from being beaten into the ground by the Elassa or not, Arascus did not know and frankly, he did not care.

  “Now leave me.” Arascus said. He watched the group of magicians make their way from him and pulled out Fortia’s letter. To think that it was the Goddess of Peace who had raised the complaint:

  To Arascus, of Pride.

  I send this not to scold, admonish or anger you, nor will I praise you for the display of power in Arika. Your war is not my concern and I am much too busy to deal with things as they stand here. Nevertheless, it has to be said. Tell your men to be wary of whatever magic they are using in Arika. We have hurricanes in southern Khmet thanks to this.

  As we know, I am in no position to stop you so I will skip the threatening and rattling of sabres. Instead I will remind that we live on the same world. Tell your men to control themselves and keep Arda intact. Hurricanes are one thing, throwing the atmosphere into chaos is another. The fact it is visible via satellite is concerning.

  Additionally, it would be appreciated if we got advance warning of the deployment of this magic.

  Peace between us. Fortia, of Peace.

  Elassa would never read this letter. She was simply too rotten of a character to see the actual worth in words from someone she didn’t like. And frankly, Fortia was correct. Elassa would take her words as a challenge, but Arascus saw the value in them. Whether they liked it or not, whether Arascus was Imperial and whether Fortia was White Pantheon, they still indeed live on the same planet.

  Arascus folded the letter, put it on the inside of his black coat, turned, and open the doors to the building that Elassa had supposedly locked herself in. Arascus swung them open and…

  Well…

  That was something.

  He had not expected a structure in Arcadia, windowless though it may be, to actually be a warehouse. The floor was concrete, the walls looked as if they were stone… She had dragged this building out of the ground, hadn’t she? She must have. Inside, there was absolutely nothing save for Elassa herself and maybe twenty men. He had to do a double take at them. Definitely not mages but scientists in white hazmat suits. Each one had a barrel of oxygen on their back and black gloves. Was the air here toxic? Arascus tasted it, it certainly wasn’t fresh. There was a pile of ash on the far side of the table, more scientists were working on scooping it up into small vials.

  It was the white-boards and scattered papers pinned onto walls that had been haphazardly pulled out of the ground only so high as to serve for being decorated with explanations of physics. Arascus decided not to question the diagrams of particles or chemical equations on the walls. Nor the temperatures or anything else. He found Elassa, she was peering over a table, not gas mask on her. The air couldn’t be that bad then.

  The Goddess of Magic turned around, her blue dress swishing around as the doors behind Arascus closed. “We have a controlled atmosphere here!” She shouted. “Don’t leave them open for too long.” She wore several rings on each finger, each one tipped off with a jewel. On her necklace was a fat gem, her dress had maybe a hundred small gems sewn onto them. The blue was tarnished with smoke. Arascus didn’t know if the woman was happy to see him or not.

  The two Divines came close to each other, shouting here just caused an echo. “Why have you come?” She stared up at him as if she had a problem with him being here. Fists on her hips, frown on her face, blue eyes practically shining with annoyance.

  “I’ve come to scold you.” Arascus said. “Because you obviously don’t understand how things work around here.” He launched straight into it. “You’re given a phone for a reason. I’m too busy to be running checkup on whether you’ve accidently killed yourself on not.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Elassa’s frown cracked into a smile. “Oh?” She cooed. “Worried about me?”

  “Annoyed more so because you’re too old a woman to close yourself up in a room as if you’re a child.” There, that was the scolding done. Anymore and it was simply beating a dead horse. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m working on what you told me.” Elassa said, arms crossed in front of her chest. “Unless you think you can work on bring down Ashen Skies with the snap of your fingers.” Arascus ignored the attempt at agitation. If he had handed the job to Elassa, it was because he couldn’t do it himself. “Who are those?” Arascus pointed to the men and women in white suits who had stopped fiddling about on their tables.

  “I don’t know.” Elassa answered. Arascus turned and just shot her a questioning, patronizing look. That sent the message across. “Some team I pulled from one of the science bureaus.” Arascus took a deep breath.

  Funny how he found an answer to this problem right where he least expected it. “It’s Atomic’s research team, isn’t it?”

  Elassa didn’t even pretend she had been caught. “It is.” She said.

  “Helenna raised a stink about it.” Arascus said. “That we have scientists disappearing.”

  “I’ve given them permission to tell their families they are still alive.” Arascus once again shot her that look. Was she actually stupid? He… Well, Anassa certainly had to learn her behaviours off someone, didn’t she? “What?”

  The God of Pride had to laugh. “How did you do it?”

  “Do what?”

  “Kidnap them?”

  Elassa took a deep breath. “I employed them by walking through their laboratory, deciding they had nothing better to be doing, and taking them with me.”

  “Grand.” Arascus said. “That’s another scolding. We have channels for this.”

  “It would have taken longer.”

  “It would have taken less time than me travelling here.” Arascus said. “You’re a major Divine, you get put on the priority list.” He turned back to the scientists. “Are they even useful?”

  “I would have returned them if they weren’t.” Elassa said.

  Arascus rolled his eyes. What a way with words from the Goddess of Magic. What a pleasure she was. “Don’t pretend you can’t understand the question.”

  Her tone was as flat as a board. “They know a lot on atomic theory and particles. I’ve learned a lot from them.”

  “And?”

  “We’ve made progress.”

  “What progress?”

  “Come, see, I’ll show you.” Elassa said and walked off to one of the tables which looked as if it was covered in various dusts. As Arascus approached, he realised that was exactly what it was covered in. Metallic dusts that had been poured out in different lines. The Goddess of Magic came to a stop before the table, Arascus stopped next to her. “Sulphur.” Elassa said. She didn’t even bother moving her fingers. One of the rings on her hand gently pulsed a blue light and one end of the line set afire. It continued to burn down the entire material. Arascus watched it burn out, then Elassa moved on. “Iron.” And once again, Elassa demonstrated. Her ring flashed, this time the flame was a bright white, it burned so hot even Arascus could feel it. And the iron melted, from one end to the other. “Copper.” Same demonstration. “Aluminium.” Elassa went through all the elements that had been laid out on the table. “I’ve not tested gold because of the Mammon protocols, but I am sure I can do it too.” Arascus stared at the table. The steel itself had been scorched, but it didn’t look damaged.

  “Self-sustaining reactions.” He said. That’s what it looked like at least.

  “Indeed.” Elassa declared proudly. “It’s a big advance in magic.” Elassa pointed to the boards filled with detailed diagrams of the atomic structures of elements. “I wouldn’t have managed it if I didn’t know about that.”

  “That’s good.” Arascus said. “What’s the problem?”

  “I don’t want to ignite the atmosphere.” Elassa said and nodded to the scientists. “I mean, I knew this already but they have maths to prove it. Mixing the elements also doesn’t work. If the ash was uniform, it could be done. It’s not though, so I’m trying to figure out a way to mix the different whilst not having nuclear fission.”

  “What you did before wasn’t it?”

  “No.” Elassa said. “It was specialized flames with the correct amounts of other atoms from the air sucked in to break the particles down into different elements. Don’t breathe in the gas, it stings.” That would explain why every mortal was wearing hazmat suits.

  “Good job.” Arascus patted her on the back. “I mean it, well done. You should be proud of yourself.” Elassa just stood there, smiling mightily.

  She held the silence for a few moments. “Thank you. See, I haven’t been lazing about.”

  “No. I didn’t think you were.” That, Arascus had been sure of. He had just hoped she hadn’t just jumped off the deep-end. “One of your students said you should hold lessons again.”

  “This is more crucial.”

  “Don’t burn out.”

  “If there’s anything I’m not going to burn out on, it’s this.” Elassa said. “I actually have a proposition for you.”

  “Oh?”

  “I want to open an Arcadian school of Technology.” Elassa said. “Or maybe let my mages have access to your labs. I don’t know, bring more of these types here though.” She nodded to the scientists again. “I’m very much surprised with what they knew, no doubt the rest of Arcadia will be too.”

  “We’ll get to it.” Arascus said. “No promises but we’re in a war.”

  “Understood.” Elassa said. “There, as you can see, I’ve not wasted my time. I’ll answer your calls once I found my phone.” Arascus sighed.

  “I’ll have Helenna send you a knew one.”

  “I won’t be able to remember your number.”

  “I know yours.”

  Elassa just stood there for a few moments. “I may have just remembered my phone is in my office then, save yourself the trouble.”

  “Atta-girl.” Arascus said.

  “Don’t ever say that to me again.”

  “Alright sweetheart.” Elassa shivered at that. “But there is another thing I came here for.”

  “Expected.”

  “Sokolowski deployed a new magic.” Arascus pulled out his own phone and found the video. “In Arika, I thought you should see it.” He played the video of Sokolowski’s Sledgehammer making impact. Where the ashfront had once stood was simply blown away under the terrible winds.

  Elassa watched the video again. “Aeromancy.” She said. “Arika you said?”

  “Sokolowski’s front, it’s his design.” Arascus watched her eyebrows furrow as she stood there and thought for a moment.

  She brought her finger close to the phone’s screen. “May I?”

  “Go ahead.” Arascus held it for her as she rewound. Once, then again.

  “What speeds did we see here?” She asked. “It has to be fast.”

  “The last recorded confirmed reading was five-fifty miles an hour.” Arascus said.

  “Five hundred?” She sounded stunned as they once watched the Sokolowski’s Sledgehammer wipe away the ashfront. Once the air passed, there was nothing left. Not even broken bodies. “A human?”

  “Sokolowski used four hundred and forty-eight mages for this operation.” Arascus said. “What do you think?”

  “A job well done.” Elassa said as her lips curled into a smile. “And here I thought we wouldn’t see these displays again.”

  “We’ve not seen these displays since Worldbreaking.” Arascus said. “You’re the only person with experience in the field, that’s why I’m asking because I’ve told Sokolowski to hold off on expanding it.” He made sure not to mention that the General had taken the liberty the of naming the weapon after himself, that was something for Elassa to find out herself.

  “I’m listening.”

  “Is there a chance of it a mass destruction event if it goes supersonic?” Elassa tore her away from the screen and up at Arascus.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Faster than the speed of sound.” Arascus said. “I assume you’ve done it before, will…” He trailed off. From the look on Elassa’s face, he had lost her.

  “I know what supersonic means!” She hissed for a moment. Arascus stopped himself from looking at the scientists. “I travel faster than that.”

  “I know.” Arascus said. “That’s why I’m asking about it. Is it safe or will Sokolowski crack the tectonic plates?” Frankly, if he cracked just a small section, it would be fine. Arascus simply did not want the man to be doing permanent damage to the atmosphere’s winds or anything like that.

  Elassa’s reply was dry. “I don’t know.” Arascus stared at her. Was she just being difficult or not? The Goddess of Magic didn’t even flinch under his look. She just shrugged. “What? I seriously don’t know.” She extended an arm out to the whiteboards. “I didn’t even know about that, why do you expect me to know everything?”

  Because she was the Goddess of Magic? “Then what do you predict?”

  Elassa shrugged. “One thing about magic is that your predictions simply do not matter. I did not predict that iron of all things could spark a chain reaction and yet here we are. If anything, then I advise sending it to a university and having them calculate the damage, it sounds like a question of physics to me rather than magic.” Arascus stared at her as he processed her words. “What? Are you going to pull a Maisara or Allasaria just because I’m right and you can’t admit it?”

  “No.” Arascus said quietly. “No no. That’s smart.” To think he had been wrong coming here. Now that he thought on it, it truly was a question of physics and not of magic. Sokolowski’s report needed to be sent off to universities indeed. “That’s good.” He saw Elassa practically beaming. Her smile terribly smug, her eyes self-satisfied. Well, that was it. Arascus turned. “Continue then, give the men some breaks every now and then. They’re only human.” He managed only a few steps.

  “Wait…” Elassa shouted, her voice echoing. “Wait! Arascus!”” Arascus was already turning around. He just stood silently as Elassa caught up to him and spoke in a quiet voice. Quiet for her, but all the members of her team would obviously hear it. He looked around, all of them were smart enough to pretend not to be curious. “That spell. How did they cast it?”

  “It wasn’t a single spell.” Arascus said. “I sent a copy of Sokolowski’s report to you for the exact details.” At least she had the decency to let out a nervous giggle and blush at her own ignorance.

  “Would you believe I was busy?”

  “It’s on your phone. Do you know how to open an email?” Arascus said. Anassa was the exact same, when she got lost in a project, she would disappear. Now that he had to deal with his daughter’s ancient teacher, he could see who she got it off.

  “Can you sum it up for me?”

  Arascus supposed he could. “Don’t get used to it Elassa.” He prefaced the summing-up. “Mages created the Double-Line range in Arika, it’s a line of mountains like this.” He held his hands parallel in front of her. “Then a team on the south side funnelled air into it, teams inside sped it up, scattered teams of magicians later further on kept the winds steady and directed them towards the enemy.” He dropped one hand and pointed to the team of physicians she had stolen. “Not to be condescending, but it’s physics, not magic.”

  To him, it obviously wasn’t anything magnificent. There was pride, but it was more in the fact in that it had worked and that Sokolowski had used such a genius application of magic and organisation involved. To Elassa though, it must have been world-shattering. “How did they organise it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “As in was it one ritual or different teams?”

  “Different teams.” Arascus answered. “Ritual magic wasn’t involved. They did commune though.”

  “How did they organise that?”

  “Communion?”

  “No, the…” Elassa waved her hands. “The teams, how did they sync up? That sort of scale is impossible.” Arascus stood there as he tried to understand what she was meaning. His confusion must have been obvious. “We tried it in the Great War, it’s not… You get a mistake somewhere and we had better mages. It’s just handing off a spell, that’s not hard, but there’s just an upper limit eventually.” She made her hand horizontal. “The more power you have, the greater the risk. I assume he did it over hundreds of miles, right?”

  “More than a thousand.” Arascus said.

  “Exactly, how do you hand a spell over that many times and not have it go wrong? Don’t tell me they had it planned down to the second and everything. It never works like that in magic…”

  Oh. Arascus finally understood. “They used a radio.” Elassa stood in that cold warehouse with its bitter air with her mouth hanging open in stunned surprise. Her hands fell to her sides and she finally slapped her own forehead.

  “There’s no limit, is there?”

  “On the radio?” Arascus asked. “I don’t know, depends on the type.”

  “I don’t think you realise the advancement we just made.”

  “Oh?”

  “You can take your scientists back right now if you want. I have classes to teach.”