When the earth moves, it keeps every possibility in mind.
The southern plain of Montera, capital of the Terra Empire.
“Huh?!”
The pebble felt a strange vibration from the earth.
“Grandfather, over there, over there—they’re coming again.”
The pebble whispered as it looked at the boulder.
Above the ridge on Terra’s western border, a wind of dust was blowing.
It was the dust kicked up by the army of the Metalum Empire as it roamed inside Terra’s territory.
The boulder did not move.
Embedded in the earth, it merely answered with a deep rumble.
“Hmm, yes. It seems Terra and Metalum have each made a grave choice.”
The pebble stood upright on the ground.
“What? A grave choice?”
“Yes. As you said, perhaps they have joined forces.”
“Ah……”
As the pebble looked around, countless steel knights of Metalum were moving without pause toward a single place.
“If they have joined forces…… what happens now? Will the center move?”
“Who can say? Terramont is not one to yield the center.”
“Then?”
“He must have had his own thoughts. Even I cannot know that.”
The pebble quietly stared at the steel knights beyond the boulders across the way.
“Hmm…… but where is Metalum going now?”
“Someone must have called them. And that would be for defense.”
“Defense……?”
Suddenly, the pebble hopped.
“C-could a war be starting? Who is it? Aqua? Silva?”
The boulder’s voice rumbled again.
“Yes. They will come at the same time. Each has its own cause. The flow reacts to outside influence, and roots seek to dig deeper in order to grow.”
The pebble trembled in place.
“This time, I’m scared. Last time, we somehow stopped them…… Will we really be all right, Grandfather?”
After a long silence, the boulder answered.
“The earth is meant to be sparing with its words. But today, it seems I cannot remain silent.”
The boulder’s words carried years deeper than the dust itself.
“We have always been at the center. That is why we have not moved, and the world has always taken us as its center. But now, the time has come for even the earth to decide.”
The pebble asked cautiously.
“The earth will decide? Then will the earth move now too?”
The boulder spoke slowly.
“It is a decision to protect the center. When the flow comes rushing in, its traces remain upon the soil. If we do not hold our place, the flow will have nowhere to go, nor anywhere to remain.”
At that moment, another vibration rang out from afar.
The direction from which the vibration came was entirely different.
The energy of water and life had reached the earth.
“Huh? Over there is……?”
The pebble edged close to the boulder’s shadow.
“Do we have to fight now too?”
The boulder laughed soundlessly and answered.
“We do not fight. We merely endure. Terramont will make that same decision.”
Meanwhile, around the northeastern border of the Terra Empire, the defensive forces of Terra and Metalum had already quietly taken position.
“The atmosphere is ominous.”
“They say the slimes are going to swarm this way?”
The earth guardians muttered as they lowered their massive bodies, and behind them, steel knights stood in ordered ranks.
Some of the crystal infantry from Metalum were also fixed along the forward boundary.
Terramont was on his way there as well, together with Oruma.
“I am grateful that you moved in person.”
When Terramont offered his greeting, Oruma replied curtly.
“I’m surprised you know how to say such things.”
Terramont climbed atop the highest boulder.
Behind him followed his vassals—Gaia, Gorban, and Latos.
Gorban spoke carefully, as if uneasy.
“This time, the flow seems faster, and the roots seem deeper. I question whether we are strong enough.”
Latos calmly surveyed the formation.
“Metalum’s crystal infantry are in front, with the earth guardians and steel knights supporting them from behind.”
Gaia took a step forward and fixed her gaze on one place.
“The problem is that the enemy’s flow has not dispersed. They are moving as one.”
Beneath Terramont’s feet, the soil was quietly trembling.
“There is no major problem yet. It is true that they are strong. However, in the end, we will still hold this place. That is the center.”
A short while later, the direction of the wind changed.
The damp scent of moisture and the energy of tree sap were slowly pressing toward the border of the Terra Empire.
The battle was now on the verge of beginning, and the soil held its tension.
At last, the forest boundary split in the distance.
Slime infantry, having climbed up along vines, appeared silently,
and behind them, another unit of slime infantry surged in along streams of water.
Waves and roots overlapped.
Flowing in, spreading, extending outward, they formed a single battle line.
Gorban reported.
“They are coming. They seem to be from Aqua and Silva respectively, but I can only see slime infantry.”
The earth guardians on the front line slowly began to move.
They were firmly rooted in place.
“Wait.”
Oruma, who had been standing beside Terramont, stepped forward.
“We will deal with those. Sorry, but against them, we are stronger.”
As soon as Oruma finished speaking, the steel knights passed ahead of the earth guardians.
When the steel knights formed the battle line anew, Aqua and Silva’s slime forces also reorganized their formation just before the border.
In the silence, the battle line was complete.
Soil and stone, metal and crystal.
Over them, slime was approaching.
“They’re here!”
Silva’s flexible warriors advanced as if sliding across the ground, and behind them, Aqua’s slime infantry followed in a low flow.
Along Terra’s border, they rushed in like a stream of water, and in an instant collided with the crystal infantry.
Latos muttered to himself.
“Crystal is not a substance that can stand against slime. What are they planning?”
Of course, Latos’s words were true.
According to compatibility, crystal, no matter how strong, could not harm slime.
On the other hand, slime could destroy crystal if it was stronger than the crystal, but if it was not, then likewise, it could not attack crystal.
Metalum had placed the crystal infantry at the front in order to use them as shields.
The crystal infantry repelled the waves of slime, but the slime found gaps and dug in again.
In the meantime, the steel knights also began suppressing the slime by swinging their hammers.
Splat! Splat!
The viscosity of some flexible warriors was disrupted by the hammers, but they opposed the steel knights with even stronger cohesion.
“Wait……”
Oruma spoke as if flustered.
“Those bastards are definitely strong.”
Latos answered.
“That is a troop type called flexible warriors. They are soldiers one rank above the existing slime infantry.”
“Damn, they’ve already come that far……”
The crystal infantry could not hold back the flexible warriors.
The crystal infantry’s defensive wall was collapsing faster than expected.
Then Aqua’s slime infantry began burrowing into the flanks.
Terra’s earth guardians tried to hold the center as they moved their heavy feet, but the earth had already begun to shake.
Gaia shouted.
“Our resistance is weak! They are different from Aqua. There is a framework within their flow!”
Terramont watched the situation without a word.
Aqua and Silva were not invading with particularly outstanding tactics.
They were simply advancing troops produced with their own two-attribute cores, pushing against soil and metal at the same time.
And there, the cracks in the earth were slowly opening.
The slime forces entered deeper into Terra’s territory, and Terra and Metalum’s forces continued to be pushed back.
Fewer than ten of the crystal infantry still survived, and Terra had already lost two regions of its territory.
Though the slime forces might have been inferior in number because of the large amount of resources required for their production, the strength of each individual one was powerful enough to face two or so earth guardians or steel knights at once.
“I cannot believe it. That mere things like those could do this much……”
Oruma turned to Terramont and continued.
“Are you going to keep watching? This is your land. Come up with a definite alternative.”
“This will not do.”
When Terramont spoke, Oruma asked him,
“Do you have another method? I hope you do not mean to keep throwing our forces in.”
Terramont looked at him as well.
“Defense alone is not the answer. We, too, will move according to your way.”
“How so?”
“Each of you advance directly against the opponents easiest for you to fight!”
Terramont immediately gave Gaia an order.
“Advance the troops into Aqua!”
“W-what do you mean?”
“I will command this place personally. You are to lead the soldiers to Aqua.”
Following Terramont’s command, Gaia began moving the earth guardians north.
After watching for a moment, Oruma also gave orders to his soldiers.
“Retreat for now! Then advance straight east!”
Soon, Metalum’s crystal infantry and steel knights also withdrew from the battlefield, then turned toward the Silva Empire.
With the defensive wall inside the Terra Empire gone, the slime forces charged forward with even greater momentum.
Now the only forces remaining within Terra’s territory were the rock infantry and the boulder throwers.
At least by using the boulder throwers’ long range, they were preventing even a little of the loss of troops.
Now Aqua and Silva’s slime forces had advanced all the way into Terra’s capital, Montera.
Even Terra’s citizens, who had maintained their composure until then, panicked and scrambled to flee when they saw them.
“W-what are those things……?!”
“Everyone, evacuate!!”
But shortly afterward, something akin to a miracle occurred.
Aqua’s slime infantry, which had only a short distance left before reaching the fortress within Montera, gave up advancing any further and began to withdraw.
Not only that, Silva’s flexible warriors also hurriedly turned around and tried to get out of Terra.
Terra’s citizens stared wordlessly at the slime forces as they slid away into the distance.
“Huh? What happened?”
“Are they just leaving?”
“Then…… are we alive now?”
After some more time passed, the earth guardian units and the steel knight order appeared.
“It was a decent strategy in its own way.”
Oruma said.
“Those Silva bastards had left their own land defenseless. As soon as the slimes returned, we withdrew as well. Is this enough?”
Terramont nodded.
“You have done well. It was a perilous moment in which we nearly lost the fortress, but we protected the center. Our soldiers brought additional cores from Aqua, so take these as well. We do not need them.”
At their feet, Aqua’s wave cores were piled up.
Oruma looked down at the cores and said,
“You are quite capable against Aqua. I will not refuse. Thanks to this, we seized a few of Silva’s cores as well, but because we retreated immediately, we could not bring many. Do you not need Silva cores too?”
Terramont turned his head without hesitation.
“If you insist on giving them, give us only one. We need no more.”
Oruma looked at Terramont for a moment, then began preparing to return to Metalum with his soldiers and the cores.
Meanwhile, the Ignis Empire, the only one that had not been involved in this battlefield, remained in place, scattering sparks.
After Terra grew quiet, the flames of Ignis began to blaze fiercely once more.
The fire had not yet spread.
But the heat was building.