On the lovely plains surrounding the high, sturdy walls of the Sun Empire, a great march was ongoing. Hundreds of thousands of men and women garbed in different attires marched orderly towards the wall, led by a few men riding Drakes.
Species that were so hard to find on the mapped parts of the main plane were being used as mere mounts here. Then again, unlike the mapped parts of the main plane where True Gods had left the field, Shinoka Continent still had its True Gods around.
This was something Eva and Zaine were still trying to parse as it was a super big deal. There was a great divide between the mapped sections of the world and the ones located in the darkness of the unknown, but the main question was: did that affect True Gods too?
Could it be that Sunna, Sigurd, and co could not see into these places, and Amaterasu and co could also not see outwards? It would certainly explain the lack of interaction and the differing circ.u.mstances, but Eva would have to meet her digital counterpart to find out more.
For now though, she just folded her arms and watched them march onto the Sun Empire. The soldiers of the Sun Empire, comprised of typical classes, and their officers, comprised of special classes like the Samurai or the Exorcists all remained calm despite being heavily outnumbered.
It wasn't because they were naturally fearless, but because they all knew that their Goddess was with them. With Amaterasu here, watching over the battlefield with a bored expression, how could they lose?
A man at the forefront of the invading army rode his Drake forward slowly and approached the wall. He lazily cast his eyes over the people arrayed there, from the average-looking Shogun Nobunaga to the Four Beauties.
When his eyes landed on them, they lit up with interest and desire. He rubbed his chin with an expression of wonder, but his gaze stuck on Eva, as his expression changed slowly.
"Good Lady, may I know your name and purpose?" He asked carefully and politely.
"Eva Morningstar." Eva answered calmly, patting Roma on the back gently, as the Mystic Witch wanted to rip the fellow's soul out for daring to look at her that way, as well as refine his unborn children into vengeful spirits for eternal torment.
Roma's violent inclinations were calmed down by her sisters, but the Moon Empire's leader was completely unaware of the horrible fate he had barely avoided.
Hearing the unfamiliar name, the fellow snorted and announced: "My name is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and I am the Emperor of the Moon Empire! My duty is to carry out the will of the Great God Tsukuyomi and unify the Shinoka Continent!"
Hearing his name, Eva facepalmed. Now everything finally clicked together. According to earth's history, Nobunaga had been this close to unifying Japan when he was ambushed by one of his close retainers and assassinated.
The one who took over after him was called Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As one of Nobunaga's former retainers, he completed Nobunaga's unfinished task.
He also naturally took all the accolades for the job at the time, and only through the passing of centuries as history was dug out did he cease to be known as the Great Unifier and rather the second Great Unifier.
With the current events leading up to here, Eva understood how the play was supposed to go without her involvement. However, if she did intervene now, everything would change from how it had occurred in the abridged history of Japan which was obviously used for Shinoka Continent.
But heh, did Eva care about that? She was changing the history of an entire universe due to her and her soulmate's reincarnation, changing the history of a mere continent not even part of the mapped area of Boundless was nothing to her.
As such, Eva boredly waved him away. "Enough of the theatrics. Begin the battle and let us see which side will be victorious."
Eva planned to watch the war for a bit and learn how the classes interacted, what kind of skills they used, and which empire had better battle tactics and formations. As the reincarnation of Amaterasu and the current Princess of Japan, she had already marked Shinoka Continent as her playground, so she had to assess her toys properly.
Oda Nobunaga and the troops of the Sun Empire wore determined expressions. They were aware who Eva was and what she represented, so her saying it like this meant that they would have to show why she - and their Amaterasu - should even bother to fight on behalf of such an empire if they were trash anyway.
As for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, he naturally had not been there when Eva landed, but her visage was the exact same as that blasted Goddess, minus the different colored hair. From the way Nobunaga stood one step behind her and how the enemy troops looked fearless in her presence, Hideyoshi would have to be a retard not to put two and two together.
His assumption was that Amaterasu either cut a piece of herself off or created an avatar/incarnation to bolster her troops. He was not far off the mark, but his considerations that came after would be what doomed him.
To Hideyoshi, this meant that Amaterasu had weakened herself even further in her long battle with the Great God Tsukuyomi. Their deity had already been gaining the upper hand steadily, so now that Amaterasu had gone and done something so foolish…
As such, Hideyoshi changed his battle plan almost immediately. He now understood how much importance Amaterasu placed on the Sun Empire, so he decided not to destroy it anymore, or it might push the Sun Goddess into madness and she might do something extreme in their mortal realm.
Instead, he would prolong the battle as best as he could and keep Amaterasu's incarnation here. If he could provoke her to expend some energy during the battle, that would be even better.
The faster their Great God could vanquish Amaterasu and take away her power, the faster they could control everything and own the entire Shinoka Continent!
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a truly intelligent man as evidenced by the history books. To unify the chaotic Japan of the past, it had required more than the sheer martial might Nobunaga had displayed. The things he lacked had been diplomacy and scheming.
This was Nobunaga's weakness and why he had been offed by his own people. Nobunaga had been too hard with very little softness, but Hideyoshi had managed to be perfectly flexible as long as he achieved his goals.
As such, Hideyoshi simply flowed back to his troops and spoke quietly to his officers and generals. Their faces changed when they heard what he had to say, and they cast furtive glances at Eva who had been seated on a throne previously intended for Nobunaga.
They also relayed the changed orders to their men while withholding key information. As trained soldiers, their job was to obey before complain, so they quickly followed up.
The Sun Empire's troops also got into their own formations, with the Shrine Maidens at the core. Exorcists and Shrine Maidens were unique to Amaterasu as the former utilized her edifying light to vanquish evil while the latter used her healing light to dispel suffering.
Ninjas and Yokai were unique to Tsukuyomi as the former used the darkness of the night to hide their activity while the latter dwelled in the area that Amaterasu's light of purity could not evaporate.
As for Samurai, they were not exactly unique to any particular deity, but each country's Samurai would manifest different special techniques depending on who they worshiped.
Eva got to see all this as both armies clashed and fought brutally. It was a horrifying spectacle of blood, flesh, and gore spraying around, with Hikari wearing an ashen expression at the loss of all these lives while Zaine seemed nonchalant.
Roma was excited and looked like she wanted to dive in while Eva watched on with interest. She fully concentrated on analyzing the various classes and their abilities with her Control that could cover the entire battlefield.
Nothing was hidden from her and the battle became a pitched one where the Sun Empire made use of its defenses to protect themselves while the Moon Empire regulated their offensive pushes to maximize their advantage of supplies and time.
However, Nobunaga was not pleased by this, as their Goddess was watching on. It was one thing for the Moon Empire to keep pushing on as they fought back desperately and heroically, but what was this dogshow that only wasted human life like some military play?
Once Nobunaga made eye contact with Hideyoshi, he understood. The fellow must have noticed something about Eva and was playing it safe, which was the smart thing to do when not having any information about the new key figure.
Nobunaga banged his fist on the table before him as anger seethed through his body. At this rate, the Moon Empire would soon retreat and begin to siege the city slowly, prolonging this final battle which should have taken a maximum of a month to at least a few years.
As Nobunaga was seriously infuriated, he didn't notice a gleam of light streaking towards his back. The Dragon Guards, Ichi to Shi, noticed this the second it occurred and struck out to defend their Shogun.
However, their face blackened with anger when they saw their retaliatory strikes blocked by four other gleams that were easily shattered by them, the bodies moving these weapons cut in half.
Truly despicable. Sacrificing four good Ninjas to ensure that the most skilled of them would succeed in their duty. The Dragon Guards couldn't find any satisfaction in killing these top-tier Ninjas as they had to watch death approach their incensed Lord.
However, a bolt of severe lightning crackled and connected with the form carrying the weapon about to end the life of the Shogun, creating an intense lightshow that capture the attention of many.
The body subjected to this attack was fried to a burnt crisp without even being able to let out a single scream. Zaine retracted her pointed finger without even looking at the one she had vanquished and blew away the smoke that arose from her dainty hand.
Nobunaga, who belatedly realized what happened, shook his head. He was not afraid of death, only afraid of being dishonored before death. Being stabbed in the back by an assassin was one of the most horrible ways to go, and it showed how insidious Hideyoshi was to plan something like this.
He turned and bowed to Zaine with respect, and the Dragon Guards mimicked him. Zaine waved her hand lazily and cradled Loki properly, as she had gotten bored some time ago and had taken out her son from the nannies in the super mini small world mansion Eva had brought along.
Roma had similarly taken her beloved daughter into her arms, while Rila had jumped about in Hikari's bountiful chest before she fell asleep. She had been quite tired from having to deal with Loki all the while.
Eva continued to watch the battle boredly for a while. She collected as much information as she could, then decided to end this farce altogether. With a wave of her hand, an intense explosion of light occurred above the battlefield as her voice resounded over the fighters.
"Enough. Step back and clear the battlefield." She commanded.
The troops of the Sun Empire immediately did as they've been told, while those of the Moon Empire hesitated but still complied following a strange compulsion. Hideyoshi frowned deeply, but still obeyed and allowed the troops to be separated.
Even though this was not what he wanted, it was still technically delaying for time, and he wanted to see what this strange Amaterasu had up her sleeve.
Once the battlefield was cleared, Eva nodded to Hikari. The White Dragoness looked like she had been waiting for this moment all this while as she practically jumped to her feet - but still carefully as to not disturb Rila - and channeled obscene amounts of Worldly Energy in the surroundings and even from a converted Aether Crystal.
Her body glowed with a white hue that refreshed the spirit of all combatants on the field and made them gaze at Hikari with awe and reverence. She might not be a Goddess with divinity like Eva, but she certainly exuded something like that.
Hikari raised her hands and cast her newest and most demanding skill over the entire battlefield where thousands of dead bodies lay in a heap.
White Light Resurrection!