Jill, a Reaper, froze for a moment when he heard the demigod ahead shout a warning.
Hadn't the Lenburg forces gone to Tarni? Why were they here?
But Jill reacted quickly. Following orders, he ran toward the surrounding hills and spread out with the others to meet the enemy.
Then he heard something whistling through the air. It sounded like a dragon's roar, terrifyingly loud in the darkness.
"Rockets!"
Someone shouted, but the next instant, orange bursts of fire exploded overhead. They were beautiful as fireworks, with a beauty that inspired dread.
The demigods had intercepted or detonated all of Lenburg's rockets.
Jill stopped to watch for only a moment before continuing on.
The people around him moved in apparent chaos, but there was order beneath it. These were some of Intis's elite Beyonders, and most had fought in the First World War.
After that initial defensive response, the churches' demigods finally acted. A miniature sun rose into the air, illuminating the entire broad valley.
Then some of the demigods began organizing the Beyonders, planning to counterattack from both flanks once they had regrouped.
At that moment, someone noticed snowflakes drifting down from the sky.
At the sight of the snow, everyone's spirituality warned them of danger. Danger was only to be expected; the enemy's rockets had caused this.
They had all heard about Lenburg's snow-and-ice rockets, but they had never imagined the weapons could truly change the weather across an area in an instant. October was already fairly cold, so perhaps snow came easily. After just one volley, it was snowing in the valley.
But just as the snowflakes were about to reach the ground, a demigod of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun shouted, "Get out of the valley! There's something wrong with the snow!"
As he