A personal attack would not save everyone.
Even if I bought a sword skill, my body would still be weaker than Arad's. Even if I bought an element, I would only become one more inexperienced mage throwing magic into a battlefield already drowning in chaos. A blade in my hand would not stop the golems, and a spell I barely understood would not protect the people trembling behind me.
I was not a warrior or a mage. I was a leader, and if there was one thing I had to do in this moment, it was to turn this broken crowd into something that could survive.
Then my eyes stopped on one skill.
[Skill: Emperor's Command]
[Category: Leadership / Authority]
[Price: 80 Points]
[Description: Grants a temporary enhancement to those who recognize the user as their commander. Increases morale, coordination, reaction speed, and physical output according to the strength of their loyalty and the clarity of the user's orders. The effect consumes the user's energy continuously. Excessive use may cause rapid exhaustion, loss of consciousness, or physical collapse.]
For a brief moment, I forgot to breathe.
Eighty points.
Almost everything I had.
The price was not the only problem. The warning written beneath the description was just as heavy. Rapid exhaustion. Loss of consciousness. Physical collapse. In the middle of this battlefield, any one of those outcomes could mean death.
My gaze lifted from the translucent screen and swept across the field.
Arad blocked another blow from the largest golem and staggered back half a step. Hana threw a wall of ice in front of a charging golem, only for the creature to smash straight through it with a single punch. Bredt, still trembling from head to toe, dragged a worker away from the edge of the battlefield while shouting curses at the golem, as if insulting the damn thing could somehow slow it down.
Behind them were the people of Constantia.
Former slaves who had only just been told they were no longer property. Workers who had chosen to trust my orders. Mercenaries who had been arrogant and broken, yet were still standing beneath my banner now. They had only just begun to believe that this land could become something more than a cursed village buried under fear and hunger.
If I fall, they fall.
The thought was cold, but it was clear.
System, purchase Emperor's Command.
[-80 Happiness Points have been used.]
[You have obtained the skill 'Emperor's Command' Lv. 1.]
[Remaining Points: 20P]
Something heavy awakened inside me.
It was different from Intimidation Aura. That skill had felt like a dark door opening in my chest, releasing pressure meant to crush the will of others. Emperor's Command was the opposite. It did not press outward to dominate. It pulled inward, gathering the scattered gazes around me and forcing them toward a single point, like a banner rising in the middle of a battlefield.
Unseen threads seemed to stretch from my body toward the people around me. They were not chains. They did not take away anyone's will. Instead, they carried weight, direction, and expectation, as if every person who acknowledged me as their leader could suddenly feel where my command was pointing.
My knees almost weakened immediately.
The cost came faster than I expected. A sharp emptiness opened beneath my ribs, as if something had begun drinking directly from my body. My breath shortened, cold sweat ran down my back, and the strength in my legs trembled for one dangerous moment.
So this is the price.
I forced myself to stand straight.
A leader could be afraid. A leader could be exhausted. But a leader could not collapse before giving the order.
I stepped forward.
"Everyone!"
My voice rang through the Silent Domain.
It was not loud because of my throat alone. The skill carried it. The name struck the field like the sound of a great bell, and every head turned toward me—workers, mercenaries, former slaves, Hana, Bredt, and even Arad.
For one instant, the chaos paused.
I raised my hand.
"Workers, ropes and tools! Do not fight the golems head-on. Bind their legs, slow their arms, and target their balance!"
A warm pressure surged from my chest and spread through the group. Several workers flinched as the effect reached them. Their eyes sharpened, and their breathing steadied. The fear did not disappear from their faces, but it no longer ruled their bodies completely.
"Mercenaries, protect the workers!" I shouted. "Do not chase glory. If you want to call yourselves knights one day, then prove you can protect those weaker than you!"
The Rank E mercenaries stiffened.
Some of them looked ashamed. Others gritted their teeth, as if the words had struck somewhere deeper than pride. Then they moved. Not perfectly, and not like trained soldiers, but they moved in the same direction.
"Former slaves with strong bodies, carry the wounded and support the rope teams! Those who cannot fight, stay low and keep the path clear!"
The former slaves obeyed with desperate urgency. A broad-shouldered man grabbed a fallen worker under the arms and dragged him away from the front. A woman with trembling hands gathered scattered tools and pushed them toward the rope team. Another former slave picked up a wooden pole and stood beside a worker twice his age, his face pale but his stance firmer than before.
I turned toward Hana.
"Hana, stop trying to destroy them completely. Control their movement. Ice their joints, use wind against their footing, push water into their cracks, and save your fire for when Arad creates an opening. Conserve your mana."
Hana's eyes widened for a fraction of a second.
Then she nodded sharply.
"Understood!"
Finally, I looked at Arad.
"Arad!"
He turned his head slightly while still holding back the largest golem with both arms. Dirt slid from the creature's body onto his shoulders, and his boots had sunk deep into the field from the force pressing down on him.
"You are the shield of Constantia," I said. "Hold the center. I will give you the field."
A deep light seemed to pass through his eyes.
The effect of Emperor's Command reached him fully.
Arad's posture changed. His trembling arms steadied, and his feet pressed deeper into the dirt. The air around him did not glow, but the weight of his presence sharpened until even the nearby mercenaries instinctively stepped back in respect.
"As you command, my lord," Arad said.
Then he roared.
The sound shook the fear out of the field.
Arad drove his shoulder into the golem before him and forced it back two full steps.
"Now!" I shouted.
The workers threw their ropes.
Three ropes wrapped around the golem's damaged leg. The workers pulled together, teeth clenched, boots sliding through the dirt. A mercenary rushed forward and slammed his shield into the creature's knee, not to break it, but to shift its balance.
"Pull!" Bredt screamed, grabbing one of the ropes with both hands. "Pull, you cowards! Do you want Commander Arad to do everything himself?"
He was weak.
Painfully weak.
His arms shook almost immediately, and his heels carved useless lines through the dirt as the golem resisted. But he kept pulling. His face twisted with effort, and his voice rose again.
"If your legs still work, then use them! If your hands still move, then pull!"
The others pulled harder.
Hana moved at the same time. Wind struck the golem from the side, not strong enough to throw it, but enough to tilt its weight. Water streamed into the cracks around its ankle, and ice sealed it in the next breath. Arad stepped in, lifted his fist, and smashed the frozen joint.
Crack!
The golem dropped to one knee.
"Do not let it repair!" I ordered. "Separate the broken pieces!"
The command spread through the group like instinct. Workers rushed in with shovels and hooks, dragging chunks of earth away from the damaged leg before they could crawl back into place. A few mercenaries stood over them with raised weapons, striking at smaller stone hands that tried to reform.
Another golem advanced from the left.
"Second team!" I shouted.
The words came out steady, but my vision blurred for half a second. The drain was getting worse. My chest felt hollow, my limbs were growing colder, and every command I gave pulled something out of me while Emperor's Command fed on it greedily.
Still, the field obeyed.
A second group of workers moved before I finished raising my hand. They did not know proper formation, but the skill made my intent clearer to them than ordinary words could. Instead of clumping together in fear, they spread out.
Two mercenaries held the front. Former slaves dragged the wounded away. Hana turned, swept her arm sideways, and unleashed a crescent of wind that knocked dust into the golem's path.
Its step faltered.
Bredt saw the opening.
"Rope!" he shouted. "Rope on the arm!"
"Are you insane?" one mercenary yelled.
"Yes! Now throw it!"
They threw.
The rope looped around the golem's wrist. Bredt grabbed the other end and immediately regretted his decision when the golem yanked him off his feet.
"Gah!"
He skidded across the dirt, refusing to release the rope even as his body bounced once against the ground. Two former slaves rushed in and grabbed the rope behind him. Then a worker joined them. Then another mercenary.
"Hold!" Bredt screamed through clenched teeth. "Just hold!"
The golem raised its arm, dragging all of them forward.
Arad appeared before it.
He moved faster than before. Not fast enough to match Amonn, and not enough to end the battle in one strike, but faster than he had been moments ago. Emperor's Command had not turned him into a different man. It had simply pushed the strength, discipline, and devotion already inside him closer to the surface.
Arad slammed both fists into the golem's restrained arm.
Thud!
The stone limb cracked.
Hana followed with ice, then fire.
Boom!
The arm burst apart into heavy chunks that crashed into the dirt.
This time, the cheers were real. They were short, breathless, and still frightened, but they were real.
Amonn stopped laughing.
Above us, the white smiling mask tilted downward. For the first time since the Silent Domain appeared, his amusement thinned.
"Oh?" he said softly.
The word was quiet, but it carried through the dome.
I lifted my gaze toward him even as my knees began to feel weak. My lungs burned, my pulse hammered in my ears, and black spots flickered at the edge of my vision. I knew that if I kept Emperor's Command active too long, the System's warning would become reality.
But behind me, the people of Constantia were no longer frozen.
Arad stood at the center like a shield that refused to break. Hana controlled the battlefield with fire, water, ice, and wind circling around her hands. Bredt, bruised and shaking, pulled himself back to his feet while still holding a torn piece of rope. Workers moved, former slaves carried the wounded, and mercenaries guarded the weak.
The formation was crude, desperate, and incomplete, but it was still a formation.
And we were still standing.
I forced my trembling hand to rise once more.
"Do not celebrate yet," I said, my voice lower now, but still carrying.