The Twin Heaven Mountain valley front, on which so many hopes had been pinned, lay along the Kingsbia army's north-central defensive line.
Smoke filled the Kingsbia positions. While their army had expected Dierjia's Forward Legion to rest for a while and then attack during the day as usual, Mulan had ordered a nighttime assault.
A small number of Gargoyles had also appeared in this battle. Combined with the Dierjia legion's growing familiarity with the pressure exerted by dark creatures and the rhythm of combat involving supernatural forces, as well as the vast disparities in troop quality, tactics, and morale, the outcome had been decided almost from the start.
On the hilltop, Mulan stood amid the ruins of a fortified firing position at the highest point, surrounded by a few Kingsbia soldiers' corpses and a large crowd of surrendered troops.
"Legion Commander, the quality of Kingsbia's soldiers has clearly dropped sharply. Most of them must be forcibly conscripted recruits. Their elite veterans are just about all finished."
An officer beside Mulan gave this assessment. Mulan looked around at the surrendered troops and saw youth and fear on many of their faces.
"How far are we from Dover?"
A soldier immediately opened the leather satchel he carried and took out a map. Beside him, an officer held a kerosene lamp over it and traced the route.
"If we follow the original plan and occupy two cities that shouldn't offer much resistance as staging points, we should arrive in two or three days."
"What about the shortest march?"
Mulan did not turn around. He gazed into the distance toward Dover. There, his sense of the Book of Dawn had entered a strangely indistinct state. There was no sign of it moving in the outside world, yet it felt farther and farther away.
"About