Actors, Take Your Places 2/3

Ooooh—oooh—

As the morning sun rose, the desolate horn blasts washed away the bloodshed and chaos of the previous night, shattering the Athenians' dreams. Under the solemn atmosphere, the summoned populace either instinctively opened their doors and windows to watch from afar, or stepped onto the streets and gathered along both sides of the roads.

The city bustled with crowds, and gazes filled with surprise, confusion, and tension converged upon the limestone hill at the highest point of the Acropolis of Athens.

Under the eyes of the masses, Valkyries clad in white hooded cloaks, with swan wings on their backs and wielding Shields of Divine Iron and spears of light, gracefully rose from Mount of the God of War. They spread out in orderly formation above the Acropolis of Athens, like an iron dome sheltering Athens beneath its wings.

Then, the superbly equipped Athenian Heavy Infantry poured out from the barracks in several phalanxes, maintaining their formations as they strode forward in great waves. They appeared before the Athenians and marched toward the foot of the Acropolis. Tens of thousands moved as one; the earth trembled, metal rang, and the soldiers' fierce, murderous aura crashed over the crowd like tigers unleashed from their cages.

The residents along the route unknowingly clenched their fists. Their faces flushed, their blood surged, and in their excitement, they could not help recalling the mobilization before the first Battle of Marathon. It had been just as solemn and magnificent.

Buzzzzz!

Immediately afterward, the sky suddenly darkened. Brilliant patterns of light intertwined as the Eighty-Eight Constellations lit up one after another. Amid multicolored stardust cascading down, pillars of light descended from the heavens and lined up in orderly rows at the turns of the Acropolis of Athens' stairs, together guarding the arrival of that shining star.