Challenging the Sky

On the western side of the Dark Mountains, an undisclosed military training facility stood amid the forests.

It was a rather large facility. Gray concrete walls and sprawling buildings no taller than two stories were its most distinctive features. This color scheme and architectural style allowed the entire facility to blend almost completely into the rocky backdrop. Within the architectural complex enclosed by walls and watchtowers stood plain barracks and warehouses, along with unusually large open grounds where the soldiers undergoing training were assembling.

The biting winter wind stirred the Imperial Flag in the distance. Soldiers in winter uniforms stood in neat ranks on the open ground. At the front of the formation, griffon knight Jinna waited somewhat nervously for her superior to arrive.

This female knight, born into a family of griffon knights, had already trained for nearly a hundred days at the facility known as Windcaller Camp. So had the soldiers who had come here alongside her.

The soldiers had not been told their exact mission or the purpose behind the camp's construction. Their daily training generally fell into two categories: theoretical knowledge concerning magic-infused machinery and instrument calculations, and repeated practical drills on a certain type of simulator.

Yet even with the secrecy imposed by their superiors, after a certain period of training, Jinna and her comrades had roughly guessed the purpose of this facility—

Seventy percent of the soldiers selected for this place came from griffon knight backgrounds. Throughout their training, they had constantly encountered terms seemingly related to flight. The vast open grounds were also well suited for landing something...

This world was not without aerial forces. To soldiers who had all dealt with the sky to some extent, flight was not an unfamiliar concept.

This place was meant to cultivate a new kind of