****
After the outbreak of war, the situation did not devolve into a boring local skirmish but expanded across the entire western border.
It took the form of a full-scale war.
In the end, the division I belonged to was also committed to the battlefield, and as soon as full-scale combat began, even the communication network of the personal terminals permitted only to Colonel Lee was cut off.
Thanks to that, I couldn't even log into the game and quietly took my seat at the head of the table, commanding the unit with my adjutant, Harman.
No matter how much training they had received, the soldiers were little more than consumables on the battlefield, so they all showed clear signs of tension.
With these soldiers having no one to rely on but their commander—and that commander being a game addict who had risen to a high position solely because he was the lord's son—their anxiety seemed even greater.
I ignored what others might be thinking and, like a proper noble, leisurely enjoyed some tea and pastries while biding my time.
"V-Vanguard squad from the Croisen Empire—one squad of five—is approaching!"
"Don't panic. Pull back the formation. And issue the order for Sir Billion to deploy the Vanguards."
"Yes, sir!"
Now that I had the confidence that I wouldn't die easily no matter what happened, I didn't even flinch as the enemy Vanguards charged in, enveloped in their fearsome Force auras.
Thanks to that, the officers of the brigade headquarters and my adjutant Harman looked at me with renewed surprise...
"What?"
At my curt question, they quickly turned their heads away, saying it was nothing.
But it was then.
"Hm?"
Through the omniscope, I could see a massive amount of energy gathering in the Force sword of the enemy Vanguard.
Frowning, I set down the teacup in my hand and shouted at the same time.
"2nd Battalion! Deploy energy shields at full power!"
My shout was swiftly relayed to the relevant unit, and the blue beam that shot out in a surprise attack collided with the red shield.
-Kwaaaang!
A dazzling brilliance of red and blue light seized my vision, and a violent explosion that made my ears ring shook the command post as if an earthquake had struck.
'Crazy!'
Even though I was already well aware of the Vanguard's power, facing its might directly with my own eyes drew only a hollow laugh from me.
What kind of swordsman spams long-range attacks like that?
I could see exactly why mages below 7th Circle couldn't handle Vanguards.
"2nd Battalion energy shield is down! Recharge will take 90 seconds!"
The defensive device that was the lifeline for the soldiers and our command post had been neutralized by a single Vanguard attack.
In terms of cost, it was even more expensive than the Vanguard's Force gear, but it couldn't compare in efficiency.
It was no wonder this equipment had changed the tide of wars.
'While they're at it, couldn't they have made some magic-using gear too?'
The designer of the Force gear that amplified auras was Duke Lucas.
It was ironic that he himself was a mage yet had created gear that upgraded the power of knights, who were a bad matchup for mages.
Since I was a mage too, I couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret.
'No, I don't need to envy mere Vanguards.'
Once I maxed out in the game anyway, I'd reach 9th Circle, and I even had Arcia, who had the makings of a Grand Master (8th Circle level).
Wanting more than that might be excessive greed.
"Brigadier, what if we pull back the 2nd Battalion?"
Shaking off stray thoughts, I accepted Adjutant Harman's suggestion.
"Do that."
Energy shields were deployed by battalion, so with the 2nd Battalion's shield depleted, we pulled them back for the soldiers' safety until it recharged.
"We almost had a disaster. Thanks to the Brigadier spotting it quickly, we survived."
Harman and the other command officers who had escaped with their lives now looked at me with favorable eyes.
"Just luck."
"You're too modest."
No planes would fall from the sky just for giving them a ride.
I shrugged and surveyed the battlefield.
'The invading forces are locked in a fierce back-and-forth, roughly the same size as our division. The variable is the Sky Fortresses...'
As my gaze turned skyward, Harman naturally looked up as well.
The brigade command post was set up inside an armored train.
A perceptive soldier manipulated the cameras, projecting holograms of objects floating 500 meters above the ground.
And there appeared massive disc-shaped floating objects that looked just like UFOs.
One was deployed with our formation, and two with the enemy formation.
Ours had a diameter of 700 meters and weighed a million tons, while the enemy's two had diameters of 500 meters and weighed 500,000 to 600,000 tons each.
These massive UFOs were the Sky Fortresses, the main aerial combat forces of the modern era.
"The Croisen Empire's Sky Fortresses number two, but they're considerably smaller than ours."
As Harman observed, the enemy Sky Fortresses were only half the size of ours.
"Probably mass-produced for invasion."
Even though the enemy had one more, the huge size difference—and the fact that the Reinhartz Magic Tower's Sky Fortresses were renowned for their superiority—meant ours wouldn't be pushed back easily.
"There's no prior intel on them, so this must be their first deployment."
But if there was no reason, they wouldn't have chosen that shape, so I judged the Sky Fortresses to be the key variable in this war.
'As they say, if Vanguards rule the ground in war, Sky Fortresses rule the skies.'
They were cutting-edge weapons that gathered the magical engineering prowess of entire nations, but in truth, the core of a Sky Fortress was the Vanguard's Force system.
Though they mounted powerful 7th to 8th Circle magic artifacts as main guns, the artifacts couldn't match the Force gear's firing rate or energy efficiency.
That was why the Sky Fortresses' primary attacks worked just like the long-range strike the Vanguard had just unleashed on us.
Looking at another hologram screen, I saw Vanguards from both sides fiercely clashing on the ground.
The enemy used hoverboards to boost mobility, but we did the exact same thing.
As a result, the ground battle was in a perfect stalemate.
That was why not just me, but everyone in the command post, was watching only the skies.
-Chijjit.
The massive metal behemoths slowly pushed aside the clouds as they approached each other.
Even from a great distance, thick sparks flew in the empty air where the high-output barriers of both sides Sky Fortresses influenced each other.
And those sparks became the signal flare for the start, as the sky was engulfed in light.
-Kwakwakwang!
With no probing shots, as if intent on finishing each other off, they unleashed a barrage from main guns to all manner of artillery.
The barriers barely held before evaporating.
Attacks then slammed directly into the hulking metal hulls.
"Fierce."
The outer walls, made by layering alloys onto carbon fiber with reinforcement magic, were a full 5 meters thick.
What barbaric armor.
Even though metals had vulnerabilities to auras and mana, the Sky Fortress armor—refined through constant iterations—didn't pierce easily.
Everyone was entranced by the spectacular aerial battle painting the skies.
"Hm?"
But as I steadily monitored the enemy data feeding into the omniscope, I voiced puzzlement at a change in the info for one of the enemy's two Sky Fortresses.
[Armaments separating]
[Bridge separating]
Incomprehensible messages.
Then the core of the Sky Fortress separated and plummeted toward the ground.
-Kwaaaang!
With the disc-shaped Sky Fortress's core detached, what remained floating in the sky looked like a donut.
Everyone floated question marks over their heads at the sudden turn.
Just as the omniscope had indicated armament separation, that Sky Fortress lost its offensive capability and became a sitting duck in the sky.
What had been a 2:1 fight abruptly turned into 1:1.
"Why's it doing that?"
"Broken?"
"Haha, ridiculous."
Chuckles rippled through the command post at the absurd situation.
But I couldn't laugh.
[Mana surge in progress]
[Mana surge in progress]
[Mana surge in progress]
The reason was the updated info now appearing in the omniscope.
Realizing one possibility, I freaked out.
"No way!?"
And as if proving my guess right, the donut-shaped Sky Fortress, stripped of its weapons, suddenly accelerated toward our ally.
"Relay to the Sky Fortress!"
I shouted like I was angry.
"It's definitely a suicide attack!"
Harman gulped beside me, and the command officers who had been chuckling at the inexplicable enemy action went wide-eyed.
My words were immediately passed to the Sky Fortress.
I worried the fortress commander might ignore me, but he must have thought it strange too, as it quickly began to retreat.
However, with its reduced weight and gained momentum, shaking off the suicide Fortress didn't look easy.
"Anti-air fire!"
The ground forces' primary anti-air asset was none other than the Vanguards.
In this world, where aerial power was dominated by the heavily armored Sky Fortresses, half-measures were just wasted money.
It made more sense to invest in more Sky Fortresses or Vanguards instead.
But right now, our Vanguards were tied up with the enemy.
So anti-air fire amounted only to soldiers' personal weapons and the 5th Circle area-attack artifacts supporting them.
Tens of thousands of flames shot from the ground toward the sky.
Not just our brigade, but anti-air fire from the entire division that had received the alert.
"It doesn't seem effective!"
But the Sky Fortress's speed was immense, and at such distance, they couldn't inflict significant damage.
And in the end.
-Kwaaaaang!
The enemy's Sky Fortress mana surge reached critical, unleashing an unprecedented massive explosion that blanketed the sky.
'Great Shield!'
The world seemed to flip as it shook violently, and a powerful shockwave reached the ground, shattering the windows of my command vehicle like explosions.
Thanks to activating the artifact my father gave me in time, there was little internal damage, but the soldiers waiting outside were flung about in pandemonium.
"Our Sky Fortress?"
I quickly checked the sky.
Gray clouds and dust mixed for the worst visibility, but the omniscope's see-through function let me assess the situation without issue.
Sky Fortress Asteron.
Fortunately, our Sky Fortress hadn't crashed.
It had some retreat speed, so the explosion had flung it away.
But it hadn't fully escaped the suicide blast's aftermath and seemed to have taken considerable damage.
'Thank goodness.'
I thought it fortunate it hadn't fallen at least.
If our Sky Fortress had crashed, the remaining enemy one would have massacred us.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I straightened up.
"Check the Vanguards' status and rally the soldiers."
At my command, the command officers and soldiers nodded as if entranced.
"Understood."