The sky burned.
Scarlet disks appeared in the pale blue sky. There was not a cloud for thousands of miles, yet ripples in the airflow, stirred by immense force, were visible to the naked eye.
Stars were falling, just as they had ten thousand years ago.
The space stations in Terra's orbit fell like plucked stars cast down, streaking into Terra's atmosphere. Vast explosions bloomed one after another in the sky like fireworks at a grand festival.
Yet they were far less magnificent than the colossal objects that followed.
Seen from the ground, that fleet occupied nearly a quarter of the field of vision. Its once pearl-white paint had long been reduced by artillery fire to a brutal, profound gray, like a blade tempered by countless battles.
Farther away, in the direction of Mars beyond the pale blue vault of the sky, a bewildering sight unfolded. The cruelty forged from artillery fire and blood, viewed from afar, looked no more than a few careless strokes scribbled across the heavens by a child.
All of Terra began to tremble, from the depths of the earth to the loftiest mountain peaks—then blue light ignited.
Tens of millions of dazzling blue magic circles appeared out of thin air beside the falling fleet. Then, as if following someone's sigh, a gigantic magic circle whose cross-section could encompass the entire fleet appeared directly in the path of the charging ships. After flashing nine times, the circle seemed to come alive as a huge, writhing eye.
Now, that giant eye stared fixedly at the fleet charging toward death upon Terra's soil.
Bzz—
A distant hum sounded, sweeping over Terra's boundless plains, over its highest peaks, over its endless oceans, turbulent and strange as living creatures.
This was a force that twisted reality, bearing the endless curses