Fallen Dragon

Month of Revival, Day 43. Clear skies, light wind, good visibility.

Griffon Knight Jinna guided the partner she had flown with for eight years, escorting the Elf Giant Eagle across the clear sky.

The landscape below lay clearly within Jinna's line of sight. She saw land scorched black by blazing fire and targeting beams, terrifying shell craters covering the burnt earth, wisps of smoke and dust still rising between them. Far to the north, she could vaguely make out the trudging silhouettes of giants.

These were the marks of war—a kind of war unlike any before it. The contest between machines and monsters had torn this land apart, and the tearing would continue.

The form of war had changed—this was something the female knight who had once served Viscount Leslie understood deeply. She had gone from being a messenger who delivered letters for nobles to an aerial scout in the Cecil Legion. Riding a griffon from the south to the north, she looked down upon this war, upon the battlefield ravaged by war machines, and reflected on the changes in her own life and in the nature of warfare.

Knights charging on horseback had been replaced by thunderous armored vehicles, while soldiers in crude armor charging recklessly had become Magic Power Combat Soldiers comparable to Supernatural Beings. So many new things had replaced the old. When would Griffon Knights be replaced as well?

A bank of cloud drifted nearby. The Elf Giant Eagle to the side slightly adjusted its flight path, and Jinna immediately tugged the griffon's auxiliary reins, following the figures of their elf allies.

Griffon Knights were among the few remaining "old-era units" in the Cecil Legion. Thanks to their unique ability to fly, no new unit had yet replaced their role. These knights soaring through the skies