The letter's content turned out to be true. They'd bet right by taking it seriously and retreating.
Morikawa couldn't muster an ounce of joy, however, since while the content was true... it turned out to be too true.
This Narkal army—no, this black wave of endless beasts couldn't be described by mere words, so Morikawa didn't blame the spy for not conveying the real magnitude of what he was seeing.
He glanced around, and unsurprisingly, despair and resignation were etched on every soldier's face.
"Haah... I guess this is it. General, what's our next move?"
He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh before opening them again, slipping back into his usual demeanor as if it were any other day instead of his last.
"Even if the demi-human army came right now, we'd just get wiped out all the same... Holing up in the fortress isn't feasible either, not with those giants around."
"..."
"...Rowan?" Morikawa glanced sideways, curious about the prolonged silence, but what he saw made his face turn cold.
Rowan Vance, the ever-unshakable general, stood with his expression frozen and his eyes dim, silently staring at the black horizon.
Morikawa cursed under his breath and swerved his horse closer.
Once he was close enough to reach him, he grabbed him by the neck. "What are you doing?"
Rowan barely reacted to the rough grip; he merely glanced emptily at the seething Morikawa.
But the gaze told enough. What was he doing? No... What could he even do? They're already finished. There was no way out. It's a checkmate. A dead end.
Death is finally upon them after countless struggles. This was the end of the road.
Morikawa wasn't having it, though. "Fuck! Wake the fuck up, or I'll take your head off before the beasts get to it!"
"..." Rowan's gaze turned questioning. What more did he want to accomplish?
"Who are you?!" Morikawa asked—no, shouted, nearly headbutting him.
Their horses grew restless, but neither man paid them any mind.
"...Rowan Vance." The general muttered.
"No! Before that!" Morikawa asked again, not satisfied.
"...The Pride army's supreme general." His voice was dead, but the moment he spoke the title, it was as if his spirit started slowly re-igniting.
"Yes! Now, what are you?" Morikawa pushed further.
"Humanity's shield..." Rowan's lips unconsciously spelled the epithet he was known for, and as if by magic, the dead spirit revived once more, now more vibrant than ever.
"Then do your damn job! Even if it's the last day! Even if we're dead anyway! Make it so that there is at least one less of those fucking monsters!"
"Everyone can despair, but not you! Everyone can fear death, but not you!! You are our pillar and shield before you are Rowan Vance!"
Morikawa was practically spitting in his face now from all the yelling, but Rowan didn't mind. If anything, he looked grateful for the blowtorch to the spirit.
"...Yes."
"Good. Who'd have thought I'd be the one reminding you..." Morikawa finally let go of him with a weary exhale.
"...That's one of the reasons why I always have you close by. To remind myself who I am and what my duty is." Rowan faintly smiled, and then his expression returned to the ever-unreadable one, as if everything was taken into consideration and calculation and nothing escaped his notice.
"...So, what now?" Morikawa asked the initial question once again.
And this time, Rowan delivered. "What you said earlier is right. Even if we combine our forces with the demi-humans, we will end up dead anyway."
He paused for a beat. "...Since we are dead either way, then our primary objective is securing a larger chance of survival for those behind us."
"The inner domains...?" Morikawa confirmed.
"Yes," Rowan nodded. "I've already sent word back for reinforcements the moment I received that letter, but the Narkals are already gathered and marching. They won't allow our main army to assemble before they blitz through us, domain by domain, until there's nothing left..."
Morikawa shook his head. "What kind of reinforcement would be able to hold that off?"
"Every soldier of the human race." Rowan uttered grimly. "...And if that is not enough, then as you have said, we would have killed as many as we could have."
"...All of them?"
"Yes..." Rowan explained. "The human territories are large, so our army is scattered to defend every point, but now... Clearly, every Narkal on our borders has gathered here, making the other points empty, which will surely incur suspicion."
He concluded, "Coupled with my call for aid, someone will surely connect the dots and converge all of our military in retaliation."
"...How can you be so sure? ...Are we gambling again?" Morikawa complained in exasperation.
"Morikawa, we are not the only ones who like to act clever... There are cunning foxes everywhere, so don't underestimate our higher-ups."
He smirked. "Besides... I've been on a roll lately, so I'm willing to take a last gamble."
Guiding his horse back, Rowan began a slow march through the empty aisle toward the rear of the army that was now standing face-to-face with the coming doom.
Morikawa naturally guided his own horse to follow. "...Either way, we won't be around to see how your gamble ends."
"As long as humanity fights with every ounce of its strength, then I'll be content with the outcome." Rowan was indifferent. "Though for that to happen, we need to buy some time. One day is not enough for every soldier to converge, even if we count the time for the Narkals to traverse the Pride domain."
Seeing the general moving back to the other side of the army alongside his deputy, the soldiers, even in their despair, turned around in turn.
With every line they passed, more and more soldiers turned to directly face the Narkal tide.
"We will use The Riven Formation to slow them down as much as possible. We have to hold on until the demi-humans arrive, and when they do... They'll be the next distractions." Rowan explained the plan.
"...The sacrifice of the Pride army, and later the demi-human army, will be our last gift for humanity. I only hope that it is enough."
"...The Riven Formation, huh..." Morikawa muttered. "Who'd have thought the formation that earned us our fame would be the same one we die in..."
Formations were a common way for human armies to resist overwhelming odds, using the unity of the many to fight the mightier.
They came in all shapes and forms, like ones that concentrated the powers of the majority of soldiers on a select few or ones that made coordination and maneuvering much easier.
There were even ones that made communication between battalions possible.
While it was possible to use and train in formations, creating a new one was a whole other beast. Even the formations already present weren't created by the current humans but were extracted from ancient sites... making one wonder about their ancient ancestors' wisdom.
There was one outlier to this fact, however: Rowan Vance.
He was able to create a whole new set of formations by combining the abilities of existing ones.
The Riven formation was one of the many he'd created, and it was also what saved his and his army's lives countless times.
And that was because it allowed a combination of abilities whose sum exceeded the whole.
Chief among them was the increased coordination of each battalion, communication between key points, and the authority for the general to distribute the mana of each soldier as he liked, allowing him to strengthen weak points or create breakthroughs.
What Rowan used it most for, though, was to fight larger armies with a much smaller force using the formation's boons to kite, distract, and slow down the opposite force until it wore down completely.
Since his army was outnumbered most of the time, this became its mainstream use, and now, the formation was going to make another, and perhaps its last, appearance.
Rowan finally reached the end of the line with Morikawa in tow and found himself face to face with the ever-approaching Narkal wave.
He glanced back and found that every soldier now faced the despairing sight alongside him, but despite their empty looks, their actions clued him in on their resolve to charge alongside him for this last time.
He inhaled sharply and then let mana accumulate in his throat before letting out a shout that thundered against the ears of all two million soldiers.
"MEN!!"