Chapter 1013 — Spin-Up

"According to General Philip, it seems to be because the dragonkin's fighting style is exceptionally... rough," Hedy, clearly guessing that Gao Yang would have questions about this, explained at once. "Their method of combat is utterly without order, yet fiercely savage—they disregard injury entirely, completely unlike how they were in training. Our forces could provide no effective cover, and many of the dragonkin, once their weapons were destroyed in the final stage of the battle, chose to fight at close quarters—they seized the enemy's griffin riders and rammed them into the mountainsides... There was no way they would escape injury."

Gao Yang: "..."

Hedy asked cautiously: "Ancestor?"

"I understand," Gao Yang sighed softly and waved a hand. "In any case, the 'dragonkin' card in our hand has most likely been revealed to the Typhonians by now. There is no need to keep the dragonkin troops hidden anymore. The aerial confrontation between us and Typhon may well escalate further—the dragonkin and dragon-rider forces will become a crucial weight on the battlefield."

After this, Gao Yang was silent for a moment, then asked: "Tell me about the other side—what is the assessment of Typhon's losses?"

"There is no very precise conclusion yet—mainly because the enemy displayed a highly bizarre succession of 'resurrections' during that blizzard, and the extremely harsh weather conditions seriously hampered judgment of the shoot-downs. But one thing is certain—in terms of casualties, the Typhonians definitely lost more than we did," Hedy said at once. "According to the reports of the post-battle aerial observers, the canyons all along the mountain line are strewn with blazing wreckage and the bodies of men and griffins. The enemy committed at least two to three thousand griffin riders against our air forces, and after the dragonkin entered the fight, that entire force of griffin riders was annihilated..."

Here Hedy could not help shaking her head and sighing: "A pity that we too have suffered our greatest loss since the war began... The World Serpent was our most offensively capable armored train; the gap left by its destruction will not be easy to fill. Unit Zero must remain around Winterwolf Fort on defensive duty, and the War Citizen still has problems with its weapon systems—for the time being it cannot be used for frontal assault..."

"A temporary loss only. Ma Qi preserved all the experienced technicians and officers, and the moment the next train rolls off the production line, the World Serpent's combat power can be restored at once—whereas what the Typhonians have lost are elites that may not be trained in ten years or more," Gao Yang took it rather philosophically, though alongside that equanimity there was a touch of helplessness. "The only headache is that the Typhonians can more than afford to die..."

As he spoke, he leaned back against the back of his chair, a thoughtful look coming over his face.

A "miracle" on the scale of a celestial phenomenon... This was truly something he had never considered before. Or rather, he had considered that the Typhonians might employ some kind of large-scale strategic spellcraft to influence the course of battle, but he had never imagined it would be this kind of "miracle." According to the intelligence from the front, this miracle clearly bore the traces of divine power, and the feeling it gave him was... faintly ominous.

"Ancestor?" Hedy noticed Gao Yang's expression gradually turning grave and could not help asking, "Has something occurred to you?"

"Since the war began, have the Typhonians ever deployed the God of War's divine arts on such a scale?" Gao Yang asked.

"Large-scale deployment of the God of War's divine arts..." Hedy immediately began to recall, and after a few seconds shook her head. "No. The God of War's priests have only appeared on small-scale battlefields, and mostly as small 'suicide squads' carrying out suicide missions... A divine-art miracle on this scale is a first—it would likely require the participation of a hundred or more high-ranking priests."

"Yes, it would likely require the participation of a hundred high-ranking priests, and it must have been a very formal, very grand sacred rite," Gao Yang said slowly, a solemn expression on his face. "Hedy, something is wrong here."

"Wrong?" Hedy was startled, but in the next second she caught on. "You mean... using the God of War's power so recklessly..."

"Yes, recklessly," Gao Yang nodded. "We all know the truth of this war, and Luo Yan knows it too—in a normal engagement, using the God of War's power on the battlefield would be perfectly ordinary behavior, but this is a divine calamity, and to deploy divine power on such a scale now would be an extremely dangerous act. Since the war began, the Typhonians have been deliberately avoiding this. They split those contaminated, fanatical priests into small groups, denying them the chance to use large-scale divine arts, letting them be whittled down in the war of attrition... All of this was to prevent those priests from drawing too much of the God of War's power into this world. And yet in this operation... they staged a 'miracle' on such a grand scale..."

"Could this have been an unauthorized act by the front-line commander?" Hedy said instinctively, but she quickly shook her head herself. "No, that is hardly likely..."

"Of course it is impossible. If the Typhonians' front-line commander could be stupid to that degree, if the front-line army could be that out of control, then Luo Yan Augustus would have been driven from power in the very first stage of the war," Gao Yang shook his head. "An operation like this must have had Luo Yan's approval—or rather... it was his order."

Hedy's eyes widened slightly. For a moment she could not understand what that Typhon ruler was planning: "Why would he do such a thing?"

Gao Yang gave no answer. He only stared at the map before him, his mind racing—from the shifts in the front-line control zones between the two sides over the past stretch of time, to the forces each had committed thus far, to the Typhonian military movements, to the intelligence Suo Jilin and the Iron Rangers under his command had sent back from enemy-held territory... Threads of clue converged in his mind, as though turning into invisible lines, and at last he dimly realized he had grasped the crux of it all!

The horrifying discovery even brought a cold sweat to his brow!

"Ancestor?" Hedi's face at once showed concern. "What is it?"

"I think I can guess what Luo Yan intends to do," Gao Yang could not help rising from behind the desk. "...This is truly..."

Hedi cast him a look of astonishment and bewilderment. "What does Luo Yan intend? What do you mean?"

"This war has an ultimate objective. It is not to preserve the status quo, nor simply to destroy a church that has run out of control. All of us have considered only the mildest options, but Luo Yan... he means to do something far more thorough," Gao Yang said, drawing a deep breath. "He means to drag the God of War into this world."

"Drag the God of War into this world?!" Hedi was startled. "Is he insane?! Does he mean to let a god gone out of control destroy everything?!"

"No..." Gao Yang shook his head slowly. "From what I know of him, he may intend... to kill Him."