Bone Canyon, long and narrow as a wound torn into a god, lay deep within the White Bone Mountains of the Northern Frontier.
Ice and snow covered both walls, never melting throughout the year.
This had been the last mass burial ground when the Snow Kingdom Dynasty fell a century ago. Legend said a hundred thousand restless battle spirits lay buried here.
Now it was the battlefield Duke Edmund had chosen, the Empire's final defensive line in the Northern Frontier, and a desperate gamble built from the flesh and blood of fifty thousand men.
"Bury every Quake-Stone Demon Explosive Bomb along the first line. Dig an oil trench every fifty paces and connect them across the entire front. Leave no gaps!" The duke's stern command rang out through the snow.
Within seven days, the entire allied army had been organized into three defensive lines:
The first consisted of light cavalry. Like needles hidden beneath the ice, they were responsible for detonating the explosive traps once the Barbarians entered.
The second consisted of the Ninth Legion and the other nobles' knights. The main cavalry forces of the Silver Fang Army and the Broken Edge Army were deployed in staggered layers, forming three interlocking defensive lines-a dense mesh woven from steel, ready to reap the Barbarians.
The third was held by the Cold Iron Army and the duke's personal guards. Every man wore heavy armor, their shields like mountains, their hammers like thunder.
They would meet the Frost Giants head-on, forming the true wall of flesh and blood in this bloody battle.
The knights' last letters were delivered to Edmund, one after another. Their rough envelopes held hopes for their children, instructions for their wives, remorse toward their elderly mothers... He accepted each one, every letter weighing as heavily as a mountain.