Typhon had declared war.
Maryland stood in a room atop Longwind Fortress's highest tower, gazing toward the Typhon Empire through the crystal glass window. His face was taut, and he remained silent for a long time.
The order from the imperial capital and Typhon's declaration of war lay separately at his hand.
A massive vortex had already taken shape. Whether it was the gods or Typhon's hawkish faction stirring it no longer mattered. What mattered was that once such a colossal vortex began exerting its power, everyone caught within it seemed to have little choice—perhaps this truly was being driven by the God of War faith spiraling madly out of control, but to Cecil's soldiers, it made no difference. Enemies acting on the emperor's orders and enemies acting on the gods' orders were both enemies, and the enemy was in the direction of Winterwolf Fortress.
Intelligence showed that the Winterwolf Fortress Defense Line had begun large-scale troop movements last night. Vast main forces were gathering, and even Winterhold's Black Flag Battle Mage Corps was moving toward the border. Reports from within Typhon also indicated that several reserve legions might have received orders from Alderan. Though that last piece of intelligence was vague, it was enough to corroborate Typhon's intentions for war.
Cecil's advantage now lay in the speed of its military operations.
Maryland lowered his head. Spread across the desk before him was a tactical map of the Longwind–Winterwolf Fortress region. Pact Fortress stood out prominently in the central buffer zone, and beside this fortress that symbolized peace between the two nations, several blue flags bearing Cecil's markings had been planted on the map.
On the open ground beside Pact Fortress, a Mechanized Force composed of hundreds of tanks, multipurpose infantry fighting vehicles, and troop carriers stood in the