Arda lays broken and bloodied. The Great War has been formally ended but it shall be another century at the very least before we can move past it. Lands that once were Imperial are still loyal to their figurehead. A century from now, four generations detached, humanity will still start to move past the crimes that they inflicted and that were inflicted upon them. That is the general trend. The elves shall prove more troublesome. The only members of that race which were loyal to the White Pantheon were those sworn to Iniri of Nature. Exceptional individuals they may be, but collectively they are a proud and decadent race. Long-lived too. Maisara has proposed her most extreme measure, although the Pantheon will not go through with it: a mass culling of any that can be linked even by circumstance to the Empire.

The Dwarves have been defeated. Surface-Holds lay abandoned and ready to crumble. Tunnels have been collapsed. I doubt they will survive for the next fifty years. Without the power of the World-Core and with no one knowing how to re-active its eternal reaction, they will never reach the heights that they have once reached. Their civilization has peaked. Even Fortia and Maisara, who are usually argumentative, agree on this point. They are no threat against a victorious White Pantheon.

Yet the most crucial is that the White Pantheon is beholden to debt. Paraideisius wishes to return to its world and deactivate the Dream Towers, that cannot be allowed to happen. They demand debt repayments for their dead. Likewise, they are not particularly content with the secrecy of our negotiations, although they come from a different world. Arda would rise up against them if they learned of what we have done. Tartarus is much the same although they are amicable to negotiation. It is obvious they are looking for something else.

Tomorrow, their Emperor, Leonifer wishes to meet with me.

- Excerpt from Allasaria's Diary.

Kassandora sat on the back of a truck with Baalka read the report and at the huge thumbprint on the piece of paper. It was just an operational report and it had only caught her by luck because she had decided to head to support the Second Expedition's Vanguard and end this war quickly. And now she took a deep breath and was scanning through the report although her mind was elsewhere. Every now and then, she would catch the first few words, the most important, before the report detailed combat strategy and what was proving effective and what wasn't as well as the makeup of the army that was forcing a retreat: The Vanguard has been overwhelmed. The retreat is moving too quickly for reorganisation efforts to be started, but much fortification. With the permission of Goddess Fer, we have collapsed the North-South Highway. Fer's huge thumbprint was on the top although it wasn't needed. She trusted her officers not to make such ridiculous claims to be some simple joke.

"It is bad?" Baalka asked. She had been given a military uniform. Spares were in the huge next to her. She sat with a cap, the women's ancient emblem was on it, mirrored on the silver buckle for her belt: A snake arching its head, exposing its two great fangs.

"It's not good." Kassandora replied. Maybe Baalka should have not been dragged off to war immediately after awakening. They had three days to catch her up on everything that had happened in Arika. That was taken well, far better than trying to integrate her into modern technology. But she had been dragged off, now they were driving at a blistering speed through the cold underground, now Kassandora was back. And now the time for small-talk was over. But Baalka was a sister and Baalka knew what to expect. "It's terrible in fact."

"So we're retreating." Baalka caught on quickly. Kassandora sighed and finally passed her the report. Their truck, just some logistics wagon that was open-top to give the Goddesses room and large enough to bear their combined weight went over an ancient railway and bounced. Kassandora gripped the steel mesh that separate the cargo from the truck's cabin as it launched her slightly into the air. Baalka readjusted her legs to stop herself sliding towards the rear. "That's not good." Baalka said. "If Fer signed of on it. How many times does she..." She trailed off seeing Kassandora's emotionless face and cold crimson eyes. Of War's hair waved in the wind. So did Baalka's, save that the lack of light down here made it seem as black as pitch.

Kassandora finished the obvious. "If Fer signed of on it, that means they're overwhelmed. If my men decided to collapse a highway, there was no way other option. That means the North-South is closed and the Karaina route is still open."

"There's West Arika North-South too."

"That one is blocked off." Kassandora said. Baalka raised her eyes.

"Why?"

"It was breached by Alanktyda after we lost. The tunnel is flooded."

"Oh." Baalka said and took a deep breath. "So? The plan?" The Goddess of Disease never sounded cheerful unless she was brewing up some concoction in a lab. Battle for her was much like battle for Olephia, it was simply a task to be completed that took her away from what she enjoyed.

"I'm thinking." Kassandora said. And that she was.

The Vanguard had reached the Rift, as everyone was calling it now. They had confirmed photographs of active portals, as well as more under construction. And now, even with Fer there, they were being pushed back. This environment, claustrophobic and swallowed by darkness, should be perfect for Of Beasthood. The woman could see through smell alone. With an ashwave approaching though… Well, Kassandora did not blame her for the retreat.

"Your captain says they're digging out." The driver turned on the headlamps. Whereas the Holds had gotten light, here was still all but unclaimed land. The only marker they were in civilization were more trucks driving on the other side bringing back empty crates. Kassandora just stared at Baalka.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"They're out already on the Sassara." It wasn't a jump and it wasn't a conclusion. It was the obvious. The Vanguard was getting pushed back. That meant they had deployed more forces. If they unleashed an overwhelming force, the smaller portals that streamed through demons were simply not enough. There had been no note of a Prince sighting either, so it wasn't something like Pax simply overwhelming them. They would need larger entrances onto Arda to overwhelm the Vanguard. Larger portals let through the ash of Tartarus' atmosphere, or maybe they generated it themselves. The underground had been a blessing and a curse. Armies were funnelled down passageways and enormous highways. The frontline was not limited by the amount of bodies but by the cold emotionless dull grey walls of smoothed stone on either side of them. There were a lot of assumptions there but it made sense. That was the worst case scenario. That was what they were going with.

"How do you know that?" Baalka asked although Kassandora had stopped listening. The cavalry of thought had started to charge through her mind already. "Kass? Kass? Kass!" Annoying.

"It's dated to three weeks ago. How hard is it to burst through the ground?"

"Three weeks ago?"

"It's the 29th today. It's dated to the 6th. Three weeks, two days." Baalka cracked a smile.

"Walking calendar." Kassandora rolled her eyes. How long had it been since she was called that?

"Idiot." Kassandora replied and ignored the reply even though her ears caught it.

"How you keep track down here, I don't know." Kassandora let the bait drop as a sword hit a sword in her mind. The pace of clashing metal got more frantic as she tried to think. The Vanguard had Fer and the Vanguard had been overwhelmed. The other armies would not do much better, although it was wrong to call them armies. One, maybe two divisions were the hard maximum of what could engage in these depths. If the Vanguard was retreating, there was no reason for the others not to be.

Her mind went to the obvious bait. The East-West North Arika road. But it was bait. If they were getting pushed back through tunnels then the addition of junctions would not do anything. Fortification efforts would not matter if the… Kassandora took a deep breath as she realised what Tartarus breaching the Sassara meant. A war on the surface would happen then. But Arascus and Olephia were up there. Kavaa too, Malam, Helenna, the National Divines. The surface would need the heavy armour that had been sent underground. Her brows furrowed and Baalka leaned forwards. "So? What are we thinking?" She asked.

"The navy will be used to hold Epa. Arika has the Ashlands and the Central Mountains. Skirmishing tactics should fare well even if ash disables the airforce." Kassandora blinked as she saw Baalka's face grow cold.

"So we do have war up there on our hands."

"Three fronts." Kassandora said. If Baalka would not shut up, then she at least could be used to verbalize ideas to. "Arika, Epa and the underground." Kassandora held up three fingers. "Down here, we are at the most disadvantaged and yet we have the most forces." As she said it, she realised what had to happen. There was no one else in the entire Empire bar maybe Arascus who would make such a move, but it was Kassandora's job. She was the leader of the Imperial Military. It was her call to make. Her responsibility. "They'll need help on the surface."

And then she realised where they were heading. Immediately, Kassandora stood up and smashed her fist into the top of the cabin. She left a small dent in the huge steel as the driver let go of the gas and pressed down on the break but Kassandora still kept on vocalizing her orders to Baalka. Why? She didn't even know. Because the woman was a sister she supposed? Because even though she were back, things had not changed whatsoever? Because Kassandora was in her element? "You're going up." Baalka would do more damage the larger the armies were, and they were limited down here. Tartarus could counter her disease anyway, they would burn her illnesses away. "Elassa is too." Elassa had to go to rally Arcadia. Anassa would be good too. Fer as well. Kassandora herself?

But if they sent everyone, they were effectively abandoning this front. The Dwarves had been on the backfoot before this. The frontline Holds would fall within days if they put resistance. Someone had to stay behind to organize a retreat, a human would not be capable of it. The truck came to a stop and Kassandora leaned around the side as the driver was still rolling the window down. "Take us back." She said. "Take us back right now. Full speed. If it breaks down we'll get another truck." That was one thing that the logistics did not find themselves lacking whatsoever. "Go!"

"At once Goddess. Understood." And the truck turned on as Kassandora sat back down. The East-West was a trap. It could not be held anymore than the rest of the tunnels. She wished that the radio operated down here. Phone-calls should be going off right this instant to inform everyone of what happened.

"So?" Baalka asked. She crossed her arms. "I'll be happy to get out. It's cold down here."

"It's fucking freezing." Kassandora said as plans began to form. The World-Core had to be-activated already. More resources had to be sent to that. Kassandora would gladly send Anassa to simply burrow through and erase the dirt and poisoned waters if a plan wasn't being made now. And the Holds that were now frontlines. They didn't have many dwarves in them. Repopulation efforts were focused on the Core Holds anyway.

The exposed Holds in the south were nothing. Their defenders would last less than a few days each. Kassandora took a deep breath as she stared at Baalka. The decision had been made already. "Mass evacuation back to the Core Holds." Kassandora said. "They have to be warned."

"So we're giving up ground?" Baalka said.

What did ground matter when Tartarus would just roll them? If they had forced Fer to sign off on collapsing a Highway, then the biggest roadblock to them would be breaching the gates themselves. The Holds themselves, no matter how many defenders they had, would fall. Without the autonomous golems of stone and metal for the dwarves to defend themselves with…

Retreating the Holds was the correct choice. There was no doubt about it. No one would like but Kassandora made the call. The Second Expedition could not stay down here. Entrances to the Underkingdom would have to be blown as well, those that exposed definitely. Extending Tartarus' own logistical network would cause strain on their armies as well. Kassandora knew how they descended into rabble after just a few days without battle to release their rage. The truck swerved as it made a sharp from the side of the highway that was going forward to the one backward. And if she got to a Hold, she could communicate with those up above. Individual Princes would need tracking. General Mobilization had to be issued if it wasn't already. Kassandora's mind started to race down the avenues that went from that road and then she stopped herself. That was too much and she could not affect from down here anyway.

First a shortening of the front. A tightening of the lines. A retreat from the vulnerable Holds. Weapons would be sent to the Surface.

Then the mad scramble to get to the centre of the world.

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