Harold waited.The city moved around him in disciplined fragments. Gates sealed. Ranks formed and reformed. Archers stood ready along the wall, bows already drawn, arrowheads glinting faintly. Below, the pass narrowed exactly where the map said it would. For a moment, Harold felt the weight of expectation settle on his shoulders, a mix of fear and determination. What if this was the moment he failed, and everything crumbled? Yet, in the quiet undercurrent of his mind, a flicker of hope ignited. Surely, the plan would work; he had prepared for this.The enemy advanced with confidence.Ten thousand bodies compressed by terrain into something smaller, tighter. Shields overlapping. Knights riding forward where they could, dismounting where the slope demanded it. Siege beasts lumbered behind them, their footfalls echoing like distant thunder, massive silhouettes framed by fog and iron, the air heavy with the smell of churned earth and sweat.They were committed now.Harold watched until the last of the vanguard cleared the bend and the bulk of the army pressed fully into the choke. He counted breaths, not seconds, a habit born from his mana control exercises—a discipline that had become both his anchor and a silent balm for unseen scars. Inhaling control, exhaling fear.Almost time...A horn blew somewhere down the line. The enemy began to deploy."Archers," Harold said quietly.The command rippled outward."Loose."The wall erupted in fire.Hundreds of flaming arrows arced into the sky, rising high and bright before gravity claimed them. They fell well short of the army, embedding harmlessly into stone and dirt, guttering out before they could threaten a single soldier.Confusion rippled through the enemy ranks. Some of them started openly laughing.It didn't matter.Nearly a mile above the pass, earth crafters froze mid-motion and looked for the signal.They saw the light. Then, with one final effort from them...the mountain answered.At first, it was only sound. A deep, grinding groan that rolled through the pass like distant thunder. A few rocks dislodged from the slope, tumbling down toward the army.Shouts rose. Orders barked.A handful of elite knights surged forward, blades flashing. They leapt impossibly high, cutting through falling stone, shattering boulders before they could build momentum. Yet, amidst their heroic feats, one knight's sword struck a boulder at a flawed angle, sending a vibration down his arm that threatened his grip. Another hesitated ever so briefly as his footing slipped upon the slick stone, a reminder that even they are not infallible.It worked for the stone. Then the lake broke.Water poured over the ledge in a roaring white wall, not flowing so much as falling, carrying rock, mud, and debris with it. The force hit the middle ranks first, flattening shields and hurling bodies backward into those behind them.Formation vanished.Men screamed. Horses vanished beneath the surge. Siege engines tipped, snapped, and disappeared entirely. Knights were lifted like toys, slammed into stone, dragged under by sheer weight. Amidst the chaos, a broken banner jutted from the mud, its once proud colors smeared and indistinct, fluttering feebly against the torrent. The river claimed its spoils mercilessly, turning soldiers into flotsam.The pass became a treacherous river, and the army broke. It didn't retreat. Somewhere in the back, someone attempted to rally them and form ranks in the water that rushed around them. Desperation echoed amidst the crumbling formation, countered by the roar of the flood that marked their defeat.Harold didn't look away.When the water began to slow, when bodies and wreckage clogged the narrowest points, when survivors stumbled and clawed for footing in mud and panic—"Open the gates," he said.Steel screamed.The city surged forward.Shields locked. Pikes angled. Veterans moved as one, crashing into an enemy that no longer had ranks or rhythm. Siege beasts roared, half-buried and furious, but even they were off-balance, surrounded by chaos instead of command.Archers moved with the formation and loosed again. Armour-piercing heads this time strike any moving target. His own elite knights moved in teams to strike the siege beasts.He watched the momentum shift as the first one started to run away, then it became a rout. A horn sounded, and his army surged forward.That was when the light took him.The mountain city vanished, replaced by rushing brightness that swallowed form and sound alike, and for a heartbeat, he wondered if this was how it had ended for everyone who failed.Then even that thought was stripped away.And the trial ended.Light receded.Not all at once. It peeled back in layers, sensation returning before sound, depth before detail. Harold found himself standing on nothing that felt solid, yet nothing gave way beneath his feet.He stood above the world.It stretched out below him in impossible scale. Continents curved away under thin cloud cover. Mountain ranges cut dark scars across the land. Rivers traced silver lines through valleys and plains. It wasn't a globe so much as a living map, suspended and waiting.A section glowed faintly. Human territory.A vast, irregular region highlighted in muted light, bounded by sharp edges that felt less like borders and more like permissions. Beyond them, the world faded into gray, details blurred and inaccessible, as though reality itself refused to resolve.A panel appeared in front of him.Clean. Centered. Unmistakable.LEGENDARY STARTING VILLAGE STELE EARNEDCONDITION: PERFECT CLEARBONUS EFFECTS LOCKED UNTIL DEPLOYMENTHarold didn't react right away. Perfect clear.He exhaled slowly, the sound lost in the open space, and let his gaze drift back to the world below. Somewhere in that glowing section, his people would arrive. Confused. Naked of tools. Given only what the system decided they deserved.He waited.Another panel slid into existence, almost apologetic in how quietly it announced itself.SELECT STARTING LOCATIONThe world shifted subtly, the human-allowed region sharpening in response. Terrain resolved into finer detail. Elevation lines. Watersheds. Forest density. Natural choke points.Harold searched without hurry.He already knew where he was going.There. His eyes shone as he looked at the familiar area.A wide basin, ringed by mountains on three sides and ocean on the fourth. Rivers braided through fertile land, converging toward a central valley large enough to grow inward before it ever needed to push out. Passes were few and defensible. The center was a small, shrouded area he couldn't see into, but he knew what was there. Last time, Humanity failed here; he couldn't let it happen again. It was the perfect spot for him to begin his Imperium.He focused, and the map responded, zooming until the contours felt close enough to touch.The exact portion he wanted lay near the inner curve of the basin, elevated enough to avoid flooding, close enough to stone and timber to build quickly. Far enough from other likely spawn points to buy time.Beyond the basin's edge, the land dissolved into gray. Unavailable and unknowable, It was the other races lands. Some of those boundaries he knew about.Harold studied the boundary for a moment, then dismissed it. He'd see it soon enough.He reached out and selected the location.The panel acknowledged the choice with a muted pulse of light.LOCATION CONFIRMEDDEPLOYMENT IMMINENTHarold didn't look away from the basin as the world began to shift again.This was where it started. And this time, he knew exactly what he was building.
