The battle began like the numerous battles witnessed by Kacius Black. Because he was to be responsible for healing, he was placed at the back of the army, and from here, he could watch the battle proceed.
His unit commander, a seventh-dimensional magus named Clesplain Ayo, was an old foggy who never left the library. The amount of information in his head never failed to astound Kacius. It was a testament to the endless years that he had laid down in search for knowledge.
All of these, while Kacius had not been stupid enough to observe the army arrayed in front of them.
There was so much power in front of him that he did not dare to open his perception to it, even as a sixth-dimensional immortal, such a thing would instantly kill him. He was not worried that he would miss the battle; each division had a Spectral Mirror crafted by an Old One that would reduce the higher-dimensional emanations from the formations and the ongoing battle, so that auxiliary units could properly follow the battle and render aid when needed.
In his formation alone, Kacius counted a million mages, with twenty percent of them being in the higher dimensional level, and the rest were a single breakthrough away from it.
There were countless formations like this spread into the distance from millions of races that Kacius’s consciousness could detect, and undoubtedly, there were many more that he could not. There would also be countless Spectral mirrors in all of these formations.
It was through this Spectral Mirror that Kacius was able to follow the battle, and the voice of his unit commander, Clesplain, was never far.
"What you see today may define you all for the rest of your lives, even my own too." The voice of the unit commander pierced through the formation of Magus healers. "We don’t know what will happen in the future, but one thing is certain: we will be needed. When it begins, hold fast to your positions, and proceed with your task with swiftness and discipline."
Waving his staff, the unit commander activated the massive circular spectral mirror, and Kacius was able to finally see the magnitude of the forces arrayed against the Great Desert.
A profound silence gripped the one million mages who were looking at the mirror as the unit commander whispered in horror and awe,
"Our eyes were not meant to see something like this."
Kacius had to agree. How else was it possible to see such magnificence and think any mortal or immortal eyes were supposed to see it?
The army that stands before the endless desert defied all laws of form or number. At least that was what Kacius’ perception was telling him.
They were truly endless, not just in form, but also in kind. Kacius could glimpse the endless number of races that were here on this field.
Rank upon rank of immortal soldiers shimmer in and out of perception, even the Spectral Mirror seemed unable to entirely catch their form, as their bodies seemed to be flickering between dimensions.
Kacius believed that this must be the effect created by the Spectral Mirror as it attempted to dumb down the sights of the higher dimensions to a lower level.
He thought he saw an army clad in jagged armor of blackened void-stuff in the front row, and it was the voice of the commander that dispersed his confusion.
He heard that in the beginning, multiple Primordial Domains were destroying the Primordial Vortexes inside their dimensions, before they slowly ended that practice.
Kacius could only draw one meaning from that, and it was that, besides the great Primordial Domain, there was an unknown power stirring in these turbid waters, and it was so powerful that it was able to contend with the Primordials.
The emergence of the New Light, glimpses of the Origin Land, the destruction of the Frozen Road.... Countless incidents like these were not simply coincidences; something was coming, and it would seem many were so scared of these new changes that they would rather lie to themselves than admit the truth, even mages who swore to only pursue the truth.
Still, it did not matter what Kacius was thinking because the presence of the forces ahead was overwhelming his senses... and still, they came.
From rifts in space and unknown dimensions, from folds in the air, from the gaps between breath... reinforcement kept gushing into the battlefield in a cascade of nightmarish logic.
The desert ahead seemed to recoil in the presence of this army, but more kept pouring in until something inside Kacius began to fray at the edges. He dimly realized that apart from him and a few of the higher-dimensional forces, the rest had looked away from the Spectral Mirror.
Even the sight of the gathering army was enough to shake their consciousness. How would they withstand the battle?
And then there was a mighty roar as the first probing forces met the opposition inside the Great Desert.

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