Faint cries of slaughter drifted from the other side of the mountain.
The heavily armored knights trudged up the mountain step by step. Looking up, they could see through the slits in their metal visors the boundary between the blade-sharp cliffs and the sky. White mist poured from their mouths and mingled in the frigid air, while pebbles occasionally rolled into the ravine below, clattering as they fell.
The knights' armor was vastly different from the thick, practical armor favored by the Cruzians. Its surface gleamed brilliantly, covered in beautiful patterns. Thick fur for warmth was layered beneath the metal plates, and every knight wore a long white cloak. Beneath the cloaks, the crosses and wild-rose designs on their breastplates appeared and vanished with every step.
The knights kept reaching back to seize their companions as they wound their way through the steep mountains, like a thin black line.
Step by step, they pressed forward, their line of sight gradually rising until they crossed the mountain peak. A chaotic gale swept toward them, whipping their cloaks into the air, and the knight in front instinctively reached back to seize his.
Thunderous cries of slaughter crashed over them.
Every sound on the battlefield seemed to be magnified a hundredfold in an instant. The long notes of the horns and the pounding war drums boomed as though every strike landed directly on their hearts. The army surged like a flood, its thunderous roar rolling across the land.
The battlefield at Odus Pass unfolded completely before them. On the open slope, the Cruzian knights who remained were attacking the massed Crystal Cluster Army. Deep purple flashes rippled through that "ocean" from time to time, wave after wave, as though a fierce wind were sweeping across the sea.
Looking down, the entire battlefield at