Sidney looked out through the porthole.
A barrage had just ended when the enormous Nightmare charged forward with a pack of Dream Creatures, forcibly driving back the Blood Vampires that had been battered to within an inch of their lives as they tried to break out.
Before, he might have wondered why these Dream Creatures also obeyed Elliot's commands.
But now, those doubts had completely vanished.
Not only the Dream Creatures, but even the Blood Vampires seemed to be following his orders.
The battlefield was no longer an unpredictable, chaotic mess, but an intricate chessboard where every move of every piece was anticipated.
This held true for enemies and allies alike.
Sidney did not know how to describe the feeling.
It was like the plays he had watched as a child, where soldiers and generals fought to the death onstage, yet the ending had long since been written into the script.
Back then, Sidney had only found it boring. He yearned for a real battlefield instead.
Yet when he actually witnessed such a scene on a battlefield, he was too stunned to speak.
If fate truly existed, if the world was also a performance, then Elliot was the one pulling all the strings.
Sidney withdrew his gaze and looked at the youth before him. Elliot was watching him with a smile, his tone flippant, as though he had merely done something trivial that they could joke about, rather than accomplished the feat of saving the entire Expedition Army.
Hope and warmth suddenly stirred in Sidney's heart, like a traveler walking alone through the night who happened to glimpse a flicker of firelight.
The destruction of the Second Era hung over everyone like a pall, yet at this moment, a stray shaft of sunlight fell through the gloomy sky.
Perhaps he