Jackal Among Snakes

Argrave had been wise in his instinct to be wary of this coming confrontation.

Argrave had joined Margrave Reinhardt’s force from on high. When he did, he could feel the distortion of time—the enemies all grew faster, while Argrave felt as though every movement was like trying to swim up the river. It had been easily remedied, fortunately. Any blood magic he cast would eat away at the divinity. He searched Erlebnis’ wiki to find a suitable spell, and found one created by a spellcasting sailor: [Tailwind]. The continuous yet relatively weak wind spell had been designed to push sails, but now Argrave infused it with blood magic and put it at the back of House Parbon’s army, breaking the fragile hold of the warped time over them all.

With that immediate concern addressed, he joined Margrave Reinhardt on the field.

Upon arriving above them all, Argrave grandly made countless divine servants perish with devastating volleys of blood magic. Droves of elites perished beneath his fire, and the margrave’s knights were granted reprieve from the relentless onslaught. Argrave thought he might’ve overestimated this force, until he saw familiar figures rise up, uninjured.

And worse yet… he received no return of essence for their deaths.

He was glad he’d learned this through relatively inexpensive magic. Without Elias’ report, he would’ve used [Godkiller] in an attempt to hunt down one of the leaders of the opposition. It would’ve worked—but the god of time would’ve resurrected the fallen deity, and the only result would’ve been a tremendous expenditure of power without any gain. Somehow, this new god had the power to hold together the fleeting spirits after a god’s death, and create them anew.

The obvious solution, then, was to kill their lynchpin. Facing three formidable forces—elite marksmen, expert assassins, and veteran berserkers—he wasn’t confident in simply bulldozing through the enemy. Still, if this god of time could so ably counter Argrave’s ability, why had he not been given a more prominent role? If he’d been able to provide the same treatment to that god of insects, Argrave couldn’t promise he’d have achieved victory at all.

There had to be a flaw in this formation. He intended to find it. With so many fronts strained, however, time was on the enemy’s side…

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Anneliese had assessed the situation objectively, compared it to her own abilities and the forces she had on hand, and came to the conclusion that she could defeat Almazora. Now that Argrave had trusted her capability and left her to the task, some amount of trepidation crept in. Her opponent was still the goddess of magic, and she was supported by the not-insignificant presence of the god of pain. The fact that Almazora had kept her godhood for several cycles of judgment meant she could at least defend the title against other gods. She couldn’t be underestimated as on opponent.

On top of her present enemy, the fact remained that Jaray had painted a target on her back.

This was a risk she didn’t like taking… but nevertheless, Anneliese felt she had to if they hoped to win. Mina had been indignant when Argrave left, but she had become mature enough to accept reality instead of raging against it. Now, Anneliese only hoped that she could demonstrate the same trust for the next order she was to give.

“Mina, I’m going to order Nikoletta’s force to stop retreating and counterattack.”

The small blonde woman said nothing, but Anneliese could see the emotions written on her face: horror, anger, betrayal. Mina’s whole world was falling down. She thought Anneliese was sending the only person she truly cared about to an early grave.

“If she continues to retreat, she’ll be caught in the valley between Jast and Dirracha,” Anneliese said, appealing to logic.

only stared,

opponent and prevail,” Anneliese said—simple, cutting words, drawing parallels to their two situations. “You need to trust Nikoletta to do the same. Love is trust itself, and I trust Argrave would not leave me here without believing in me. Nikoletta faces the god of pain—and she’s capable of shouldering more pain than you know. She could lose everything, and still

Almazora’s position. She didn’t spare another look back, trusting in her words to do the trick as she contacted Elenore. She

wouldn’t be without sacrifices, but few enough were. At the end of the day, Anneliese knew they’d

but they slowed their tremors until they were still, and Mina let out a calming exhale. Then, she dedicated all of her attention to the battle, waiting for Anneliese’s next order. There was confidence in her eyes, now—not self-confidence, but the confidence that came with knowing

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expose them to excessive risk. Anneliese, especially, needed to be protected. She was capable of fleeing competently should the situation devolve, yet jeopardizing herself so much… her death might mean true defeat, in both the battle

in numbers every second. The centaurs simply walked out of the sea—it sounded like an impossibility, yet it was the apparent truth. They followed the banner of the centaur god that Argrave had dealt with in

Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report

Reinhardt have worked out a plan,” one of her contacts reported. “It promises to be slow,

in a direct fight,” came another report. “She’s intending for Mina to prepare an ambush force to overwhelm and rout both gods at

horde of centaurs beginning their march toward the trade city of Relize. Even Law, who Argrave had hoped would utterly overwhelm Rook,

and pressure of the deep, was slowly being filled with lava from countless breaches in its dome. The forces in the Great Chu fought an enemy that came without an end, and faced treachery similar

had played every piece at her disposal. It felt like a complex knot, tied unto itself so many times that the only recourse was to laboriously untangle it… unless she were to simply cut the rope with a

faith was

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hand to the sky, using the whole of her magic to create one last grand illusion. High in the sky, an image that’d been seared into her head manifested—Tower Master Castro’s gray wyvern. Hause’s power birthed the construct into reality. It roared

And down below…

Anneliese in absorbing magic. The thing that had kept Anneliese alive was the connection to Argrave providing a source of vitality for wounds taken, Anneliese’s superior battle sense, and use of the shamanic spell [Requite]. That spell could reflect the many

was the reason Anneliese had won from the very first

exchanging spells with Almazora had been a victory. She had seen Almazora fight. She fought as spellcasters do—from safety, maintaining the option to retreat at any moment. She was no strategist, no commander. She was meant to support a force by bombardment, not engage in active battle. By fighting Anneliese at all, her power was focused away from where it ought to be… and because of

second it did, Anneliese fell back, teleporting back to the walls of Jast. She drew the blade out of the staff forged of Veid’s heart. In that moment, she could feel Veid’s heart grip all in her sight, shattering any

and fall back. Faced with an unexpected element, Almazora was also bound to falter. Until they realized that the option had been taken off the table,

took a deep breath, preparing for the chaos

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