Outside Havenloch City, the sky was on fire.
At ten thousand meters up, two Astral Cities and hundreds of warships hammered the city's magical barrier with cannon fire. On the ground, siege weapons added their weight from every direction. With each volley, the shield's light dimmed a little more. Hundreds of millions of mages inside the city fed power into it constantly, and it still wasn't enough to keep pace.
The defenders hadn't been idle. Every city-wall cannon was returning fire, and the results were real. King Tier combatants died to a single hit, Saint Tier fighters fell even with their domains raised, and Demigods caught by the giant magic cannons didn't fare much better. The Great Aetherium and Castle forces had already lost significant numbers. Havenloch itself hadn't taken a single casualty yet, sheltered behind the barrier.
But the barrier was the problem. The city's defense executive tried the obvious answer first—concentrate fire on the Astral Cities, pour everything into bringing them down. Round after round, tens of thousands of cannon beams hammering their defensive covers, but the Astral Cities didn't move. Didn't dim. It was like scratching at stone walls with fingernails.
He stared up at them hanging above like small moons and made the only call he had left.
"All Demigods, out of the city. Stop their assault on the barrier and destroy their magic cannons. And if anyone can reach those Astral Cities—" He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to, "Even if it costs you your life."
…
Hundreds of millions of Demigods poured out of Havenloch and into the sky.
What followed was less a battle than a collision of weather systems. Demigod Tier Laws cracked against each other at altitude, shockwaves scattering clouds and leaving thousands of kilometers of open sky above the battlefield. The Castle Faction's Demigods, led by the Great Aetherium's Angel contingent, immediately moved to encircle them.
The voices tangled together above the city:
"Guard the truth, guard the homeland!"
"Kill these exp bags!"
"Faith is supreme! Fuck your truth!"
Nobody said war was dignified.
…
Higher up, the God Tier engagement was quieter, and far more one-sided.
Two hundred thousand Gods of the Great Aetherium and over a hundred thousand from the Castle forces. Against fewer than ten thousand Gods of Truth defending Havenloch.
Havenloch's City Lord Jonas refused to accept it. Armed with a divine artifact, he cut through the Castle Faction's gods in a streak—Rangers, Castle Lords, anyone who came close.
His strength sat at the peak of the Intermediate God Tier, which meant nothing in the Great Aetherium, but was effectively untouchable by the Castle Faction. Nobody wanted to be next on his list.
Then an Angel looked his way.
"I, Yuna, shall honor the Lord's calling to redeem you."
This Fourteen-Winged Angel was at the same level as Jonas, a peak Intermediate Goddess, but a human didn't have the same combat strength as an Angel at the same level and both of them knew it.
Still, even if Jonas had every structural disadvantage, he still traded hundreds of rounds before he started to crack.
Yuna ended it with Angel's Holy Judgment. The phantom of an Eighteen-Winged Angel materialized behind her, her combat power spiking, one slash of light that shattered Jonas's Divine Body before it could reform. She cut the pieces apart and sealed his soul.
The City Lord of Havenloch City was gone. Without the Great Aetherium's High Gods even needing to step in, the God Tier battle was over in under an hour. A handful of Gods of Truth managed to escape via teleportation scrolls. The rest, either dead or sealed.
The Castle Faction hadn't escaped cleanly either. Hundreds of their Gods had fallen, including some Castle Lords and Rangers. But Guardian Angels moved through the aftermath, and the fallen rose again one by one.
"Praise Lord Haru." Someone said it like a prayer. Nobody argued.
…
Above all of it, the airship battle continued.
Havenloch's warships outnumbered the Great Aetherium's fleet, but they were inferior in terms of technology. The Great Aetherium's warship technology, borrowed from the Astral City, meant larger hulls, heavier armaments and most importantly, the two Astral Cities themselves added fire every few minutes. A Havenloch warship died on that schedule. Reliably. The fleet's numbers fell in a straight line toward zero.
Inside the city, the defenders watched the shield readings, watched the sky, and stayed at their posts. If they broke, the army behind them would pour straight into the empire's heartland.
They couldn't retreat. So they didn't.
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