Andrea steeled her heart.
Her signature white armour materialised piece by piece around her body, the engraved runes glowing brilliantly for a brief moment before gradually settling into a soft golden radiance. Moments later, her white sword appeared at her waist, completing the familiar sight that had come to represent humanity’s strongest.
She pushed aside the tent flap and stepped outside.
The freezing wind struck her immediately.
The blizzard had grown noticeably fiercer since she’d entered the tent, countless snowflakes sweeping across the camp with enough force to sting exposed skin. Visibility had dropped considerably, reducing the distant landscape to little more than shifting walls of white.
Even so, the camp remained orderly. Every Awakened already understood what was expected of them.
Beyond the entrance, an army of three hundred elite Awakened stood assembled in disciplined ranks. Hundreds of torches burned against the storm, their orange flames swaying violently beneath the relentless wind while illuminating the determined expressions of those prepared to march.
Andrea walked through the silent formation, every pair of eyes instinctively following her movements before she finally reached the front of the army.
Waiting there was Yuri.
She wore black clothing beneath a long white overcoat that fluttered continuously in the wind. The familiar black katana rested quietly at her waist, while her calm black eyes remained fixed on the endless snow-covered wasteland stretching before them.
Unlike everyone else, Yuri never looked back when Andrea approached.
"I guess this is the part where I say something to lift the spirits of my men." Andrea joked.
Yuri’s expression remained as calm as still water.
"You could try, but I doubt they’d hear you in this storm."
Andrea blinked before a quiet laugh escaped her.
Yuri had never been the type to make jokes. She had delivered those words with complete sincerity, genuinely believing Andrea’s voice would be swallowed by the raging blizzard before it reached the army.
Somehow, that only made it funnier.
Andrea shook her head with a faint smile before turning her gaze back towards the waiting Awakened. The storm could drown out her voice if it wanted to. It didn’t really matter.
They already knew why they were here.
Within the three hundred Awakened standing before her, Andrea recognised quite a few familiar faces. Ryan stood quietly among the front ranks, Hannah rested both hands on the handle of her enormous shield, while Chad was impossible to miss with the unusually long spear resting against his shoulder.
Most of them were strangers.
Men and women who had chosen to place their faith in her despite barely knowing anything about the person leading them. They knew her strength, they knew her status and they had witnessed her victories, but they knew very little about Andrea herself.
She wondered if she could ever do the same, the answer came almost immediately... No.
She never would’ve entrusted her life to someone she barely knew. Oddly enough, that answer reminded her of Damien.
In that regard, the two of them weren’t so different. Damien never struck her as someone capable of placing blind faith in another person either. Every decision he made seemed to come from his own judgement rather than someone else’s conviction. Sometimes she even questioned whether he was capable of trust at all.
Andrea quietly pushed the thought aside. It was becoming irritating how often Damien found his way into her thoughts, she even wondered if he had some kind of charm ability he’s been hiding.
She raised her hand and gave the signal.
Without a single command being spoken, the three hundred Awakened began marching into the blizzard.
The march continued in complete silence.
Only the crunch of boots against frozen snow and the distant howl of the blizzard accompanied them.
Yuri was walking directly next to Andrea, at the tip of the army.
"Do you see that?". Yuri suddenly said.
Andrea glanced in the direction Yuri was pointing at, the blizzard was hollowing and her vision was impaired, but deep within the storm, she could spot figures.
There were no torches, only vague silhouettes appearing for brief moments before vanishing back into the storm. Andrea didn’t respond. Instead she silently drew her blade and came to a stop.
A ripple of unease spread through the formation.
Chad immediately broke into a jog until he reached Andrea.
"What do we do?" he asked, his unusually long spear already lowered into both hands. "Should we stop?"
Andrea didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she looked back over her shoulder.
The camp was nowhere to be seen beneath the raging blizzard, yet she knew they hadn’t travelled very far. At most, only a few hundred metres separated them from the wooden barricades. Under normal conditions, she would’ve still been able to see the wooden walls.
Her gaze returned to the shifting silhouettes ahead.
"Stop the advance".
Chad nodded sharply before turning.
"HALT!"
His voice carried surprisingly well despite the storm.
The order was repeated further down the formation until all three hundred Awakened gradually came to a standstill. Weapons were quietly unsheathed one after another as everyone stared into the endless white before them.
Nobody spoke, until the waiting itself became suffocating.
Andrea narrowed her hazel eyes, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Then the snow ahead suddenly exploded apart.
Hundreds of white figures burst from the blizzard at once.
The Eidolons charged straight towards them with terrifying speed, their distorted roars tearing through the frozen wasteland as countless claws crashed against the ice beneath their feet.
"ENEMY!"
"EIDOLONS!"
"They’re already here!"
The disciplined formation immediately erupted into chaos as warnings echoed from every direction. Awakened scrambled to ready their weapons while others instinctively stepped backwards, completely caught off guard by the distance separating the two armies.
Even Andrea and Yuri stood frozen for the briefest moment.
"Impossible. They are far too close".
Based on Ethan’s report, the Eidolon army shouldn’t have reached this position yet. Even if they had marched without rest, there simply wasn’t enough time.