Chapter 238: You Still Have More?

"A whole... your hidden force was an entire Dawnwing corps?"

Darian pointed at a squad crossing the distant sky. For once, he could barely get the words out.

"How? Our Region only passed a thousand Fortune recently. Where did you find the Legendary materials? Wait. Swordheart. It must have been Swordheart!"

Two minutes earlier, he had thought Cassian was holding back more veteran Eclipse troops. Even his wildest guess would have stopped at a few squads of powerful Legendaries.

This left him dizzy.

It shocked him more than the announcement that Cassian had created his own troop line. An Epic line was a remarkable achievement. A Building that could keep recruiting Legendary troops was something else entirely—especially a strong Legendary line like the Dawnwings.

Once the shock eased, a profound sense of defeat took its place.

"How can the gap between two people be this large?" he muttered.

Cassian had no idea what to say. Of all people, this was coming from one of the Crown’s most privileged heirs.

"I’ve revealed my biggest reserve to keep Divine Province’s losses down," he said, sounding almost comforting. "Next time, our enemies will send something stronger. I’ll be counting on the rest of you."

Darian caught the important word at once.

"Your *biggest* reserve. So you still have others?"

Cassian pointed at Celia beside him.

Darian stared.

"Don’t tell me she’s a Legendary Three- or Four-Star Hero. Or higher!"

"Could you keep your voice down?"

Darian clapped a hand over his mouth. He glanced around, then lowered his voice.

"What exactly did you find in Swordheart?"

A Four-Star Hero meant at least three Legendary Hero Souls. Those could have raised three Heroes to Legendary. Spending them on one Hero was extravagant beyond belief.

While Darian was looking elsewhere, Celia rolled her eyes at Cassian.

During the battle, the nine Nine-Star Praetorians had only shown the strength of ordinary Legendary troops, and only when the veteran Legionnaires were in mortal danger. The three Nine-Star Vanguards, Brigid among them, had blended into the rest of the Dawnwings without showing their full power at all.

And she, a mere "Four-Star" Hero, was supposed to be the hidden reserve?

Messages began chiming without a pause.

Cassian opened the Dawn Alliance Channel. Astonishment and praise filled the screen. Even Mira, usually so composed, was struggling to put her excitement into words.

He could understand it. Below him, even Maren, with all her experience from her former life as a Lord, had nearly lost her composure.

He read for a while, then curled his lip.

"Not very original."

He repeated what he had told Darian. His reserves were running thin. From now on, everyone would have to work harder.

One after another, his friends promised they would.

Cassian looked down at the battle.

"The Dawnwings are fighting. I should get some exercise too."

His cloud rose another hundred meters. His clear voice rang across the Capital.

"Origin. Divine. Fist."

Ten seconds later, a fist a kilometer across crashed down.

More than ten thousand low-grade Black Banner troops were obliterated beneath it.

Cassian let out a satisfied breath.

"That felt good."

Aurelia’s message reached him.

"Lord, shall I help the Stormlance finish the Golden Behemoths?"

"No."

His answer came at once.

"You’re a warrior too. You understand. This is their fight."

He had been watching that duel all along. The Stormlance still had the disadvantage, but they had learned how the Behemoths fought. Barely holding on had become confident movement, and now they were trading blows.

A hard fight against a worthy opponent was a reward of its own. With him watching, he had no intention of letting them die for it.

If Aurelia joined in as a Legendary Nine-Star Hero, she could cut the Behemoths down one after another. The fight would be over.

She had only been doing her duty by offering. She did not insist.

"Yes, Lord."

——

The Dawnwing corps left no doubt about its strength.

The statue’s aura, Sacred Light, the Physique site, Godslayer, and Aurelia’s Command all supported it. Cassian had also used Disarming Toast to strengthen her Command for this battle. Together, those advantages brought the Dawnwings’ attributes up to the level of the veterans’ Legendary troops.

Then there were skills such as Sacred Scepter and Resurrection.

The enemy’s Legendaries had strong attributes, but they were a jumble of different types. Their formations lacked the Dawnwings’ cohesion, and many fought almost on their own. Even in Sector 632, Lords with a Legendary Troop Building were rare.

Five hundred and twenty Dawnwings were worth at least three times as many enemy troops of the same grade.

The balance of the war swung sharply toward Divine Province.

Every feed filled with comments. Lords across the Homeworld called others to come and watch. New titles appeared almost at once.

[A Dawnwing Corps Appears in Divine Province!]

[You Call This a Newcomer Sector?]

[A Dawnwing Army at the Start—How Could He Lose?]

[Newcomer Lord Crushes Thirty-Year Veterans!]

Some people cursed the sensational claims. Then they opened a feed and fell silent.

Within minutes, the audience had doubled.

Behind the Black Banner army, Hadrian was shouting at the images in front of him.

"Impossible! A Crown illusion!"

He broke into laughter.

"What an idiot Cassian is! Even an illusion has to be believable. Who could raise a proper Dawnwing corps in a sector only a few months old? Starseers! Cast Dispel!"

His expression shifted between rage and forced amusement. Nothing remained of his calm an hour earlier.

It took ten minutes of repeated checks before he accepted what he was seeing.

His favorite entertainer had to support him to keep him from collapsing to the ground. He had brought her along using one of the precious descent places, worried that the trip might otherwise be too dull.

Then he read the latest report.

In the ten minutes since the Dawnwings appeared, more than five hundred of the veterans’ Legendary troops had been killed or wounded.

At that rate, the Black Banner army would collapse in less than an hour.

"Damn them!"

Hadrian burst into furious abuse.

"Everyone in the Special Intelligence Section and all four agencies should be dragged out and shot! Brienne Wren’s descent. Divine Province’s ordinary Lords. Four-Star Extreme troops. A Dawnwing corps! Those useless parasites didn’t find out a single thing that mattered!"

He was almost screaming.

"With Cassian this strong, we’d need a Commander or a general from a war sector to face him. Did they send us down here to die?"

Dorian spoke in a low voice.

"Uncle Hadrian. Your Golden Behemoths... I don’t think they can maintain their transformation much longer."