And so, Warfare has been revolutionized once again. Out with the money-making mercenary, in with the Imperial Foreign Legion. Ultimately, the model is simple. All major Divines who possess Orders, or the smaller ones that manage to cling onto a Sect, a Temple, School or Cult already operate in this manner. There is no one who born a Guardian, it is an identity that is adopted. The model of National Armies, which take their own and none other is standard for basic loyalty is assumed out of tenets of duty or patriotism but why would that be enough for Arascus?

Even at the height of the Great War, we were not brave enough to make such a declaration. It is one thing to swear to Maisara herself, to Allasaria, Goddess of Light, to become a mage and follow in the footsteps of Elassa. Or to join the military of a White Pantheon aligned nation. But to swear to the White Pantheon as a whole and not an individual Goddess? Pantheon Traditions have banned that idea for it would lead to unified identity and that would create a Divine representing collective Divinity. We would have not even dreamed of it. The concept thrown around the Pantheon although it was settled that the risk to create an overwhelming “Of a White Pantheon”, or worse “Of Pantheons”, would not be worth taking. It is through the fact that Pantheons are individuals standing together, through laws that I and Arascus himself have set out long before the Age of Heroes even started, that humanity has never had an idea cohesive enough to string a Divine of Pantheons together. Nevertheless, I am getting side-tracked.

It was a simple thing, to adapt that idea of orders and tie it into a national identity. The requirements are fairly straightforward, as all Im…

We have seen this concept in the past.

This is not the first attempt at a Foreign Legion. The Empire had one during the Great War. It was not an order of Arascus either, it was an army loyal to the Empire as a whole. An army that believed in their morality, in their ideals. The Foreign Legion was announced eight years into the war. It lasted for a grand total of ninety and had how many millions of men? Three, four even, generations served under that banner. Almost a full century of believers so fanatical, they left their homes to fight under a foreign flag.

If they believed in the Empire…

A Divine takes around ten to fifty years to incarnate…

We have a deity unaccounted for.

- Excerpt from “Spectator to the Surface War”, written by Goddess Fortia, of Peace.

Olonia stepped off her transport plane as she landed in the UNN. To think she would be chosen for such a grand mission, the training of another Divine… Well. It practically made her smile with glee when Helenna had forwarded the situation off to her. It had been backed by Iliyal’s word of course, but the very fact that he trusted her to be competent enough in battle to now serve as the teacher of another was something else entirely.

Olonia gazed down upon grand Orripoli, a city so ancient it was said to outlast even Worldbreaking. They even had a few archways and old buildings, now historical relics no matter whether they were the home of a peasant, a wall of a palace or a public baths, that still stood for all that time. The ancients of the Age of Heroes could build, that was certain. Yet whereas Olonia expected to see ruin and resort, she found none of that. Orripoli was a huge sprawl around skyline that was all sharp twists and turns. Olonia stared at that skyline of golden sandstone. Even the skyscrapers here lacked the usual reflective metals, had to have a layer of yellow coating. Maybe decorational bricks? Olonia did not know but she stole the idea for herself. Zawitz could be made grand with skyscrapers of red brick. No one had ever done that.

But Olonia was not here to sight-see. The Empire was in General-Mobilization, they could wait until later to explore the sights this land had in sore. Olonia had been the one who was most forthcoming with Imperial Help, it was her country that had been the frontline in the Epan War, it was her country that housed the Divines of the Empire. It was her duty to be here and represent all Lubska could offer.

And so, Olonia stared at the crowd that had been waiting for her arrival. Helenna had organised everything, or maybe it was Malam, but Olonia did not know or care. The Empire gave her a job and she knew that the Empire would give her every tool needed to complete it. A truck rolled off the back of the huge cargo plane on one side of Olonia. That carried a whole host of spare blades and weapons for Tanit to practice with. On the other side, a full team of a dozen Clerics marched down and spread out in a line. Training could not be done without injury and they did not have time for injury to be paved over with health naturally.

The crowd that was waiting at the small airstrip outside of Orripoli started to close in and Olonia picked out the tallest figure. Easily as tall as her, the rest were inconsequential. If they think they were going to be buying favours then they were sorely mistaken at how the Empire was ran. Olonia focused her gaze upon Tanit.

Beautiful was one word, but all Goddesses were beautiful. Beautiful, and an inversion of Olonia. White hair on the latter, black hair on the former. Bright eyes on one, dark on the other. Black Imperial uniform complete with cap and a multicoloured shawl of warm shades that would put rainbows to shame. Olonia stared at Tanit as she approached. She saluted the newbie, realised she would not get a return salute back and dismissed herself. Tanit inclined her head slightly in a bow. “Greetings, my blessing and my thanks upon you.” Tanit’s voice caressed as well as a warm scarf in middle of cold Lubskan winter. Officials streamed in behind her. Olonia didn’t appreciate the audience. Not because she was self-conscious or anything like that, but Iliyal did not do audiences and neither did Arascus when he held meetings. Audiences were for shows and they would not be showfighting.

“Greetings.” Olonia said. “And those?”

“My entourage, men and women who will make sure your stay is pleasant.”

Tanit stood before Olonia. A Goddess of Ibya, dark haired and dark-eyed, with skin that shone almost like copper. “We do not need them.” Olonia said. “Tanit, Ibya has joined the Empire, you are an Imperial Goddess. We do not give entourages to each other.” Well, not usually. Tanit just needed some more meetings with the leadership and she’d catch on quickly.

Olonia hoped so at least.

Those brown-orange eyes, like the desert in dawn, merely stared at Olonia. “Excuse me?” She asked. Olonia tried to remember what it was like when Iliyal and Kavaa took her to Erdely to train. How did that first meeting go?

What a fond memory. It had started with them being tricked into thinking that some bear was actually a bear. That was followed by a scolding from Iliyal. Then a beating by Kavaa. Then another beating. Those beatings lasted a while. By the time they had started gaining on Kavaa, Fer had joined in. Olonia didn’t know how much pain she had taken in the span of that month.

But it wasn’t just the pain. It was the knowledge. Humans said it: one needed to stick their hand into the fire to know it was hot. Olonia had needed that experience to know what she was capable of. When the Epan War came, it was not mindset but experience that had stalled her. She remembered Fer saving her from the God of Discipline. She remembered how outmatched she had been.

And now, she stared at Tanit and knew the tables had been turned. How, she could not explain. It was the same as when Iliyal had never truly experienced what battle-sense was. It was simply intuition from experience, knowing when to feint a blow, knowing when to look around, learning to keep track of everything around her. An Olonia of the past could now do it.

An Olonia of today could.

An Olonia of the past would have never believed she would be one of the most influential figures in the Empire. From a nation of hundreds of millions, Olonia was easily in the top-thirty. An Olonia of today knew she deserved that spot.

And just as Iliyal had begun with a quick speech and an immediate introduction to the lessons, so did Olonia. “I am Olonia, Goddess of Lubska, I was the first in Epa to swear to Arascus. Now, I have come to train you Tanit. Tartarus marches on Ibya, we lack the time for sightseeing and preparation, for diplomacy, for anything bar the lessons I shall teach you. Those lessons will be in survival on the field of battle. These are the lessons that were taught to me too. We shall not be learning strategy or diplomacy or tactics, we will be making sure that you stay around long enough for that investment of effort and time to be worth it.” With each word, Tanit’s eyes grew wider and her smile grew shallower “. In this regard, I have no need for your entourage and neither do you. Your weapon shall be your entourage and that will be enough.”

At the very least, Tanit held up her arm to force the companions she had brought with herself to a stop and separated from them. She came close to Olonia. “So we shall be learning fighting and battle?”

“We shall.” Olonia said. “From one Divine to another, I will teach you how to fight Divinity, you will not realise you have learned how to fight mortals by the time we’re done.” That was how Olonia had been taught. She remembered her first real engagement against Tartarus. Back then, she had thought that everyone would be as strong as Fer and as talented as Kavaa.

“I have one problem.” Tanit said. “For I have no weapon.”

Olonia narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t have a weapon.”

“How?”

“I just don’t.”

“Not even a ceremonial one?”

“Not even a ceremonial one.” Tanit replied and Olonia merely stared. What was this? Even during Pantheon Peace, the Epans still held sporting competitions and duels. And not in Ibya? How?

“If you had to fight with a weapon, what would you use?” Olonia asked. “Choose one, I train with the sword but I can teach them all.” At least, she could recall the things Iliyal had said back then. Tanit stared at her for a while longer.

“What weapon?” Tanit looked down at herself. “Can I use my hands?” Olonia turned to the Clerics behind her and the audience behind Tanit. The former group gave no emotion, the latter was excited.

“Tanit the only Goddess I know who uses her own fists is Fer. Neither you nor I are Fer. There is a reason we fight with a tool.” No. Not fists. That was one of the first things Iliyal had said. They were not training to defeat humans, they were training to fight the things that hunted humanity. A single demon was no threat to Olonia even if she was naked. The sheer advantage brought on by Divine height, Divine speed and Divine strength was too much of a gap.

“Are we not Divines though?” Tanit asked.

“This is why we use swords.” So a sword it would be. Olonia looked at the woman again and thought for a minute. Even before Iliyal had ever seen her though, Olonia had spent centuries in mock-duels with her friends. How else would they pass the time? They had grown so confident of themselves that they thought they could even defeat Kavaa. And Kavaa had shown them just how far behind they were.

No. A spear would be better for someone who had never held a weapon in their life. Maybe a gun? But guns had ammunition though and one of Divinity’s greatest strengths was that they did not tire or need food. They were the perfect troop for protracted engagements. Ammunition would destroy that entire advantage. A spear it would be. “You’ll use a spear. It is a fine weapon.” After the Epan War finished, Agrita had become the best duellist of the nationals and it was thanks to the fact she trained in the spear. The sword was noble. The sword was grand. And the sword was a third of the length of a spear.

“I apologize.” Tanit said. “But I do think I can fight like this. I can command the sands as well. And summon my spirit animal.”

Olonia stared at Tanit for a moment before she realised what the woman meant. Never, not once, in her entire life, had Olonia called Bielik a spirit animal. Bielik was her as much as was it. “What is it?” Olonia asked.

“The Ibyan Eagle.” Tanit said.

“Show me it.” Olonia said and suddenly, an eagle’s cry sounded from the sky. A dot began to expand in the light blue sky. A dot which quickly revealed itself to have wings. “Are there limits?” She could not call upon Bielik now. He could only appear from behind mountains or cloud cover. Frankly, Olonia didn’t even know how he came about. Not once had she ever actually seen him appear and he disappeared in much the same fashion: simply flying behind a cloud and not coming back out.

“I need clear skies.”

“Does he have a name?”

“Arba.”

“Mine is called Bielik.” Olonia said. “He is the colour of my hair.”

“Mine is the colour of sun-carved rocks.” Tanit replied.

“You can let him go now.” Olonia said. Eagles may be fantastic creatures but she had seen anti-air fire in the Epan War. As fast as Bielik was, he could not outrun massed gunfire in all directions. That though, Tanit would be told later. They needed a duel first. “Fight me one on one then.”

Tanit looked around, stunned. “Here?”

“Why not?” Olonia asked.

“What with?”

“Did you not say you have fists?”

“You’re a Divine.” Tanit said. “And a veteran at that. I…” She sighed. “I’ll need a weapon.”