Eastern Border of Bolt Kingdom.
Cid, Elias, and Yuri marched with the stream of students toward the southern border. The ground was churned mud from the passing of thousands.
Ahead, campfires glimmered.
The Royal Army had assembled: 10,000 Power-users standing in tight formations, their Auras pulsing faintly in the cold air and 20,000 soldiers with rifles, trench coats, and wheeled vehicles.
Old-world tanks, half-track carriers, and mounted guns lined the ridges, their barrels pointed toward the fog-choked plains beyond.
Even the King himself was there, standing on a raised platform. Around him were dukes, generals and the robed Senate.
The mood was like iron, no cheers, no speeches. Just the sound of men and women preparing for something that no one could fully picture.
As they joined the forward lines, Cid felt his chest tighten. He could hear Elias muttering low, checking his gauntlets.
"Cid," Elias said, half-smirking despite the tension, "this is bigger than the Red Spire, huh?"
Cid didn't answer.
Hours passed.The Army's vehicles rumbled. Spotlights swept the dark.Then…
A sound.
At first, distant. Then growing. A low, thunderous vibration that made the ground itself tremble underfoot.
Cid's eyes widened.
The front ranks of the Royal Army shifted uneasily. The King narrowed his gaze toward the horizon.
And then they felt it.
It wasn't just a sound, it was pressure. A crawling sensation that dug into the bones, like standing too close to the ocean during a storm. The air thickened.
Elias muttered, "That's... not human."
Yuri's aura flared involuntarily. "It's coming."
And then the smell hit them.
Rot. Burnt flesh. Something ancient.
Far beyond the barbed wire, three shapes moved in the fog. Hulking shadows that didn't move like men or beasts, but like walking mountains.
Cid's fingers trembled. He remembered Eiran Kingdom, how reports said a Colossal flattened it in hours.
But this... there were more than one.
A soldier near them dropped his rifle and vomited. Another whispered a prayer over and over.
Cid felt it then... a wave of despair.
"This... this is what we're are supposed to stop?"
"We're ants before a storm."
His breath caught. He almost couldn't move.
Yuri stepped in front of them, eyes sharp despite the sweat on his brow.
"Hope isn't dead yet. You feel that gravity? That fear? That's proof we are still alive. We fight because we're alive."
Elias's voice rose, shaking.
"You taught me to crush limits. Don't stop now. We've got this. Together."
Cid looked from Elias's bloodshot eyes to Yuri's calm stance, and something steadied in his chest.
Ahead, the colossal shapes finally stepped fully into the dim light.
Titanic forms, their skin like night without the moon, their eyes glowing faintly with ancient hunger.
The King raised his sword.
"ALL UNITS, READY!"
The Royal Army roared as one, rifles snapping into position, Aura‑users flaring.
Cid squared his shoulders, breathing deep, as the ground shook with the enemy's approach.
"No more fear." he thought.
"No more hesitation."
"Let's go," he said quietly, stepping forward with Elias and Yuri into the shadow of the coming war.
The battlefield trembled.The fog hid their forms, but their footsteps carved the rhythm of dread into the earth.
Cid, Elias, and Yuri stood shoulder to shoulder, breaths ragged, Auras still steady.
Around them, the Royal Army was firing, shouting, reloading, chanting, but then, something changed.
The three Colossals stopped.
For a heartbeat, silence reigned.
Then...
They moved.
Not like beasts, not like mindless titans. But with purpose.
One turned sharply, thundering toward the left flank, trampling trenches and artillery crews.
Another broke into a sprint toward the right, cutting off a retreat path.
The largest, the one with the bone‑cathedral chest, pressed straight ahead, driving through the center as if to tear open a road to the capital itself.
"They're splitting! They're...oh God... THEY'RE FLANKING!"
"They think...! THEY'RE THINKING!"
Panic ignited like wildfire. The ordered lines of soldiers dissolved into chaos. Some fired wildly; many dropped weapons and ran.
A ripple of screaming men surged toward the rear, toward the capital.
Cid watched a lieutenant throw down his rifle and sprint past."Fall back! FALL BACK! We're dead! We're DEAD!"
Elias's jaw clenched. "Cowards."
"They're afraid," Yuri said softly, eyes still locked on the Colossals. "But fear doesn't stop what's coming."
Around them, students and Power‑users were wavering, shaken by the fleeing soldiers.
Cid turned,
"Oh..n..no."
He saw Ryn, lifeless, crushed underneath a tank.
Cid felt it... His chest tightening, that old cold feeling from the pits of despair.
"R..Ryn."
Cid fell to his knees. Flashbacks of Ryn's obsession with his father flooded his mind.
Elias slapped him on the face.
Elias grabbed his shoulder hard.
"Look at me, Cid. Don't fold now."
"Are we really this weak?" Cid said.
He bit down hard, shaking his head.
Yuri stepped up beside him, "If no one else is alive to protect the civilians… then we will."
Cid exhaled, a long, shaky breath and his eyes sharpened.
They took their stances, three figures amid a collapsing front line, their Auras flaring brighter against the darkness.
The Colossals lumbered closer, screams and retreating footsteps fading behind them.For a moment, it seemed they would be crushed underfoot and then...
The air itself shifted.
A whistle of wind cut across the battlefield.A shadow dropped from the sky, landing between the three students and the advancing Colossals. His cloak fluttered in the acrid smoke.
Cid's breath caught.
"...Master...?"
The tall, scarred figure turned his head just enough for Cid to see the familiar iron eyes beneath the hood.
"Cid," the old man said calmly, as if the world wasn't ending. "You've grown."
Two more shapes blurred in from the flanks.
One was a woman in lacquered black armor.
The other was a giant of a man carrying a glaive.
The three stood, blocking the path of the Colossals, like legends from another age.
The old man raised his hand, his Aura igniting.
"You three." His voice was calm, steady. "You've done enough. Now... watch carefully."