Phase One of the raid was simple. Truth be told, the others were too. They had to be, given just how many people were involved in this insane idea. Maybe, with more time to organize and better tools to coordinate tens of thousands of fighters, they could have attempted something more ambitious.

  Alas, the current plan had to be enough.

  So, when the order to move out appeared in the group chat, nearly a hundred thousand human Hosts began to march. The chaos was still there, yes, but for the most part, people did as they were told. The stronger fighters stayed at the rear, letting the weaker ones carve through whatever monsters still lingered in Broken Hopes.

  After all, even if the goal was killing the worm and then invading enemy territory, that didn’t mean they couldn’t rack up more points along the way. With only nine days of the war left, every opportunity to take the lead had to be used. Phase One represented just that.

  With barely any breaks, they marched and marched. Soon enough, the ruins of civilizations gave way to a vast jungle. The yellow territory. There, some stronger Hosts were ordered to push to the front to help against any and all monsters that the current frontline couldn’t handle.

  Surprisingly, no disasters struck during that time. There were some injuries, but with an army this size, finding someone who could heal wasn’t difficult. They also had prepared plenty of potions for those who needed them. Nobody was dying at this stage of the raid.

  Later on, though…

  Well, Isaac wasn’t naive enough to think everyone would survive the battle with the worm and the following invasion. As much as he hated it—hated leading people to their death—they had volunteered for this. Everyone here understood the risks. And if they didn’t… that was on them.

  Close now, he thought, his gaze on the distant border between the jungle and the red desert.

  Two days. It had taken almost two full days to reach this point from their starting position. A bit longer than he and his friends predicted, but not bad. Seven days were still more than enough to complete the raid. They just had to deal with the worm quickly. Simple as that.

  Isaac snorted. Right… simple…

  He rose higher into the sky, gaze drifting to the dozens of birds already flying above the red territory. It seemed that Carmela had already sent their scouts ahead. Probably for the best. With the army so close to the border, they needed to be certain no Zerian forces were lurking nearby while they prepared for the battle with the worm.

  The scout’s job was just that. Identify any threats to the army and eliminate them if necessary. One of the Colonel’s people was leading that group, and based on the few conversations Isaac had with him, the guy knew what he was doing.

  Phase Two begins…

  It took a few hours to prepare everything. While the battle plan against the worm was just as simple as the rest of the raid, they still needed enough space for the entire army. Most would remain right here at the border, either waiting for the battle to end or supporting from afar with whatever long-range skills they had.

  Only those strong and fast enough would be at the front. Or maybe they wouldn’t. It all depended on how the initial assault went.

  Either way, the last few hours were spent clearing the jungle. Trees were uprooted, while the bushes and other greenery were burned. By the end, only scorched earth and tens of thousands of humans remained. Everybody here should have just enough space for themselves.

  If we can avoid friendly-fire, it will be a mi—

  A ping from his Communication Shard cut him off mid-thought. Isaac summoned the menu and checked the most recent message in the group chat with his friends.

  I see.

  With a small nod, he glided back toward the border. His eyes skimmed across the countless faces until he found the ones he was looking for. Moments later, he landed beside Elaine, Harry, and a group of about twenty waiting behind them.

  “All ready, then?” he asked, back in his human form.

  Elaine offered him a tired smile. “As ready as we can be. We either do it now or never.”

  Isaac nodded. “Harry?”

  In contrast, the man’s smile was almost blinding. “My team awaits your orders, dear friends. The Emperor’s days are numbered.”

  Wish we all had your confidence. Isaac chuckled. “All right. Give Carmela the signal, and let’s begin.” At once, he transformed and turned to Elaine. “Hop on.”

  She sighed but didn’t argue, climbing onto his back and wrapping her arms around his feathered neck. “Don’t drop me… please,” she muttered. “That would be a very anticlimactic end to the past few days.”

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  Rather than replying with words, Isaac spread his main pair of wings and leapt into the air with all the strength he had. Elaine screamed, her hold around his neck tightening. She probably would have punched him if not for the risk of falling.

  “I hate you!” she growled.

  “You asked for this,” he said, amused. “Besides, at least it woke you up, hmm?”

  “Whatever,” she grumbled, tugging on one of his feathers, hard. He let out an undignified squeak. “Serves you right.”

  Isaac rolled his eyes and climbed higher, this time going slower. Soon enough, he was flying in circles above the first stretch of the red desert.

  “Here they come,” Elaine muttered.

  True to her word, hundreds upon hundreds of transformed Hosts also took to the sky, joining Isaac above the desert. There were birds, wraiths, flying serpents, and more. Most, like him, carried a passenger or two. He had to hold back another laugh when he saw some of their faces.

  Obviously, not everybody liked flying.

  Blasphemy, he thought, opening his communication menu. He shot a quick message to Harry.

  “Begin.”

  For a minute, maybe two, nothing happened. Then, a squad of about a hundred different creatures led by Harry’s monstrosities entered the red territory. They advanced until sand surrounded them in every direction for at least half a mile.

  There, they stopped.

  Come on. You took the bait last time.

  Time dragged on as nothing happened. A single minute stretched into five. Five turned into ten. By fifteen, Isaac was getting worried. Sure, they had a backup plan, but he really didn’t want to send actual people as bait when they had created an entire squad of minion-summoners for this exact job.

  He was just about to ask Elaine what she wanted to do when a flicker of shifting sand in the distance caught his eye. He narrowed his eyes and waited for it to happen again.

  It did.

  “It’s here,” he said. “Send the message and prepare yourself.”

  “On it,” Elaine muttered.

  Almost instantly, the summoned creatures scattered in every direction, sprinting across the desert as fast as their forms allowed. As it happened, four large birds—each carrying a passenger—separated from the swarm in the sky and dropped to a lower altitude. Only a bit, though.

  Here it is, Isaac thought as the worm’s massive, circular jaw broke the surface and consumed two summons at once. It then dashed toward the other creatures, dragging more and more of its body out of the sands.

  Not yet. Hold…

  On and on it went, with more summons dying by the second. Still, nobody attacked. They all just watched, and then watched some more. It wasn’t until only three summons remained that the monster’s tail finally revealed itself to the world.

  “Now!” Isaac sent the order.

  The four birds dove, splitting toward different sections of the about half-mile-long worm. At the same time, their passengers summoned a single item into their hands.

  A huge, almost human-sized, glowing silver pike.

  Within seconds, all four were hurled downward with precision unmatched by most Hosts. The moment they struck, blinding silver-gold light erupted. Chains exploded outward from the pikes, spreading across the worm’s entire body and wrapping around it like serpents.

  Just like that, the monster froze. It was trapped.

  Isaac wanted to laugh, but there was no time. This was their chance. The Chains of Heaven wouldn’t hold forever after all.

  “Catch me, okay?” Elaine said from his back.

  “Always.”

  The word barely left his beak before the weight from his back vanished. He quickly glanced to his left, just in time to see a silver, three-tailed fox shoot him a wink before plummeting toward the worm. She wasn’t the only one, though. Plenty of other passengers also jumped, their bodies shifting mid-air.

  Isaac chuckled and dove after them. Timing mattered more than anything now.

  Different lights flared across the sky as the falling creatures prepared their techniques. This was the first line of attack. A salvo of hard-hitting, long-range ultimates. It was no surprise that Elaine was in this group. Or Carmela, for that matter.

  As for Isaac? His job here was just to catch the cargo. His time to strike would come later.

  And… Boom!

  Fire, Light, Plasma, and countless other energies slammed into the worm, shaking the desert. The creature shrieked, so loud that Isaac’s eardrums almost burst. Still, the momentary pain did nothing to stop him from swooping low and snatching the falling fox with his talons. Then, he veered away from the wailing worm just as the second wave of ultimates slammed into its body.

  “Where to?!” he shouted over the chaos.

  “Border!” Elaine yelled back.

  He nodded and spread his smaller wings, too. With a grace he couldn’t have matched a few weeks ago, he weaved between the hundreds of skills flying through the air toward the worm. It looked like the army at the border had also begun its assault.

  Good.

  Almost at the border, Isaac dropped lower and released Elaine the moment she nodded. He didn’t linger, though. In the same breath, he wheeled around and shot back toward the battlefield. The dust from the initial assault might have hidden the beast from view, but now, he could see it clearly.

  The worm’s armored brown flesh was torn open in dozens of places, dark blood pouring onto the sand in waves. Better still, the beast’s head was pretty much unrecognizable. Its jaw and countless teeth were gone, replaced by a massive opening of writhing dark flesh.

  Not all was good, though.

  The Chains of Heaven, the ones that held down the worm, were half gone, with the other half showing cracks all across their length. Whether the worm had overpowered them or the barrage of ultimates had damaged them didn’t matter. Either way, with this, it had regained some mobility, as well as an ability they weren’t aware of.

  Massive tentacles of sand erupted around the worm, snapping at anything that dared to come close. If that wasn’t bad enough, some were so long that they reached toward both the fliers in the sky and the army on the border. Only the quick reactions of a few stronger Hosts prevented a disaster.

  Isaac growled and sent a quick message to the small squad under his command.

  “All in. Attack the head. Create an opening.”

  He didn’t wait for confirmation. He simply shifted into Freedom mode and pulled on the two energies in his Core.

  Blood Moon. Burnout.