Iseis Alturiel did not think battle suited her, truly. She had not been in many battles. Which was a bit surprising considering her age, she knew, but really, she hadn't had much cause to get involved.

And she tended to be respected by her people, in a way she had probably grown too used to. Even if the smaller states south of the mountains had fought on rare occasions, they'd usually kept her out of it.

Among the elves, at least, priests weren't supposed to be warriors.

Under the circumstances, she thought it was entirely understandable if her hands were shaking just a little, as they descended in the city.

But Iseis was unquestionably doing her lady's work. She'd repeated that to herself all through the chaotic (hair-raising, terrifying) fight among the clouds. It had helped to steady her a little, she fancied. She was not unused to death, even if seeing her new friend Galatea rip through a giant monster like a wolf with fresh meat was eye-opening, even if she was not used to dealing it out herself. She'd killed one of the attackers, the female mage with a hand for ice spells, and she knew she wouldn't forget her face. It weighed little against the thrill of having survived.

Or the pain. Her injury was not too great, but it bled freely; she'd need a bit of medical assistance from the Hivekind or their allies.

Regardless, Leianaleine (Leian Blue-White, Leian Therod-Dhrian — so many variant names to choose from and they used the one that didn't even mean anything) was invested in this war, more invested than Iseis had ever seen her in any affair of this world. She needed, not just wanted, the Central European Empire to win. Regina the Hive Queen Empress might not be her Champion, but she was clearly far more of a champion in other ways. And Iseis had taken oaths, had accepted a sacred duty. Her patron's will was hers; that was the way of it. It was partly what granted her the power she had. Not that she'd ever regretted that decision, and she wouldn't start now. If she died for this, so be it. If the Empire won the war and managed to break the stalemate that had been forced on the world like an ill-fitting straitjacket by callous gods, it would be well worth it.

"Iseis!" Via called, gliding over. "Give me a moment."

Iseis held out her arm, letting the healer grab it and use her mana on it, while she looked around. They were currently in a small open square, which had not been there before, considering the ruins of what had been a building strewn on one side and the hole in the earth that opened further off. It was like a giant had stomped it flat, and soldiers were standing on caked stone and brickwork.

They were maintaining a new barrier, reinforced at several points by physical shields, and which was clearly taking the last of their mana. It was a small oasis, a safe spot in the chaos outside. Already, Esemen soldiers were gathering. She saw a group of what had to be high-level fighters or even Champions of the other gods. They'd attack soon, she would wager. At the moment, she was simply glad they had this moment of respite. She suspected she'd need it.

"What happened?" Galatea asked.

"I messed up," Tim sighed. He was striding towards them, limping slightly. Given the look Via gave him, he'd refused or skipped treatment.

"Are these your explosives they used for this crater?" Galatea asked.

"Some of them. They managed to get into our stores. We were too distracted and hard-pressed by the fighting. As best I can guess, they just mixed everything together, threw in a little magic, and boom."

Iseis glanced at the ruined castle. 'Crater' was overstating it. There was a lot of rubble, though, and bodies. Far too many bodies. It was hard to make out how many of them belonged to each side and she couldn't make herself look more closely.

"Is everything okay?" Galatea asked, and Iseis glanced at her to find she was looking at her. At least as best she could tell. One could never be sure with Galatea, she didn't have physical eyes after all.

She did feel Via stiffen slightly. The drone's eyes were a little wide as she looked up, her hand still hovering over Iseis' injury. The one that was not closing as quickly as she'd expected.

It took a moment for Iseis to realize why. In the confusion of this battle, she was distracted.

"Sorry, I wasn't going to say anything," Via said, looking at her apologetically. "But your biology is … a little weird?" She winced slightly. "Sorry, not trying to be offensive. But I've healed elves before and you seem a bit different, are you from a different subspecies or something?"

"Not —" She cut herself off; this wasn't the time. "Something like that. Will it compromise the healing? I know I am old …" Though Iseis didn't feel as old as she likely should, or as old as she looked. Her skin tone was a bit darker than the other elves at baseline, which was usually a sign of elves 'weathering' with age, and her hair had gone white far too soon, centuries ago. Regardless, she felt spry enough for combat.

Via shook her head. "No, I've got it. Just one moment."

"Good, because we don't have much time," Tim interrupted. He had grabbed a spear from somewhere and was pacing a few meters away from them, clearly talking to others over the psychic network.

It was easy to see why: The shield around them was flickering. A human mage staggered back with a nosebleed. A Hive drone was lying on the ground and struggling to sit up beside her.

"I hope you can teleport us out, Madris, Iseis," Via said, straightening up.

"The Swarm Drones will cover our retreat, but we need to get out somehow," Tim said.

"I assume the rest of your forces are retreating?" she asked.

"Yes," Tim confirmed. "They're executing our fallback plan as we speak. We're still bleeding the Esemen worse than they bleed us, but it's not sustainable. I hope most of the troops will manage to disengage. They can scatter and vanish into the countryside and reassemble easily at our next stronghold."

Another benefit of Hivekind psychic links, she supposed. Iseis nodded, looking around. There were still a lot of people, even discounting the Swarm Drones fighting outside, or some inside the shield. Half a dozen mages and even more others had gathered here. They must have been trying to protect their prince. It was obvious the Esemen had not let him retreat, after they'd caught him off guard with this explosion.

She didn't see Lianne anywhere. The psychic must have been separated from them and retreated with the rest of the Imperial forces.

"This is too many people, we won't be able to take them all," Galatea said. "Not if you want us to teleport outside the enemy army's reach."

The shield flickered again and failed. Not a total failure, but localized; still, it allowed several projectiles and magical attacks through.

Despite herself, Iseis flinched a little. Fortunately, the others reacted quickly. Galatea had already raised a magical shield and Tim rushed to stand in front of them, raising a physical shield he'd clearly taken off one of the bodies, given the Esemen symbols painted on it. Iseis took a step back, glancing around.

Then she threw a couple of Firebolts just in time to go through the next failure of the shield, this time on the other side.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Retreat!" Galatea called to the mages. "You're exhausting yourselves trying to keep that up, but it's useless."

Tim echoed the order, and the remaining Imperials quickly retreated to form a knot around them. Iseis realized that they'd already lingered too long; the Esemen were winning what remained of the battle outside, most of the Imperial troops retreating where they could, and they were too deep in now to easily run away. Not when she could already see several Champions in the sky, coming closer.

"Ladies," the Star Guard closest to Tim spoke up, she presumed he was the highest-ranking one, but didn't recognize him. "You must get at least the prince to safety, and Lady Tia and yourselves. We will buy you as much time as possible."

"They'll kill you in seconds!" Tim snapped.

"I will be proud to die for the Empire," he replied stoically.

Then the soldier turned and stepped forward, intercepting a javelin and facing the oncoming enemies

Iseis winced as another Firebolt exploded too close to her. The shield was in tatters and the fight was escalating. Just in the few second she'd spent watching, most of her allies were almost hit, and they were hard-pressed trying to defend themselves.

One of the other fighters went down with a cry. His left foot was just missing, torn off by an explosion whose source Iseis couldn't localize.

Galatea shifted closer to her and knew she was preparing to do as the captain had said.

Iseis felt like time slowed down as she stared at the scene. Her mana reserves were already depleted — not fully, she might manage the four of them and perhaps one or two more with Galatea's help, but she also might not. It would leave the rest of these brave soldiers dying to cover their escape; they already were.

I can't leave them behind. The realization was almost startling to her, but Iseis still knew it was true. It was just not in her. She was here to help people.

It probably wasn't the most militarily sound decision, but — Iseis had never aspired to be a general. Her father had been first among Leian's priesthood, back when there still was such a thing, and he'd never lost that. Iseis herself had been raised for the priesthood, even after the Cataclysm; it had taken her until later to realize Leian had actually disapproved of that. But she'd never tried to be something else, even when she could have (it wasn't like anything was going to stop her from just leaving and doing something else.)

She'd devoted her life to serving a goddess, but also to something more. (Her father had served not Leianaleine the goddess of Travel on Haven, but something else, something more, even if they'd never come out and said that.)

Iseis straightened up, taking a step forward. "Steady yourselves," she said, almost as if someone else was speaking. "For you have help."

And then she reached deep into her mana well and the secret portions of her being and the skin coating her and she pulled.

It was generally a bad idea to try to directly use a god's mana. Having the right Class could mitigate it, with the help of the System, otherwise it was likely to go badly (she wondered if Regina had ever done it, then pushed the thought aside for later). But not every priest or paladin had as much of their deity's mana as Iseis carried, or had as much available in a channel to their patron. Just for insurance, Leian had said, and Iseis knew what she meant.

And right now she called it all up and wove it in a net around her, simultaneously bending all of her focus to her deity and widening the channel with little bites. This was a risk (she really hoped Leian was there — but yes, she was, she could sense her).

Blinding light erupted under her skin, where her mana diffused throughout her body, now charged and compressed by the divine mana flowing through her. It exploded out of her like she was a miniature star, throwing the scene around her into sharp relief even as the battle seemed to pause. More and more mana flowed into her.

I didn't think you had this much mana, she thought distantly.

A System notification filled her vision, except instead of hanging on a screen projected into the world, it seemed like it was being shoved directly into her brain.

Congratulations, Iseis Alturiel, you have become a Champion of a god! Champions receive divine-aspected mana directly from their patron and may direct it to work miracles along with boosting their own abilities. Prolonged exposure and training may unlock further abilities. As Champion of *Leianaleine, The One Who Remains*, you will receive the following benefits: Boosted Progression: Your Experience gain is increased by 50%. Champion's Skill: Your Abilities will be boosted. Your Spells will cost less mana. Your non-System spells may also be enhanced with the aid of your patron's mana. Traveler's Gates: With the aid of the System and using your own spatial magic, you may construct semi-permanent portals. Universal Survivor: Your patron's mana increases your resilience and passive defenses. It may also shift luck in your favor in subtle ways when you are in danger, leading you to survive what would otherwise be likely to kill you. Your Soul is anchored more firmly in your body and mind. There may be other effects manifesting in time. Note that excessively channeling divine mana may cause spiritual, mental and physical injury.

She wouldn't have had enough time to read it, but she instantly knew everything it said. It vanished and was replaced by another message screen, except not truly, because it was simply Leian speaking to her; unlike a mental voice, it seemed like she was reading her words through the System, but that also wasn't truly the case — Iseis heard the emotion and tone in her words, as if she was speaking, not purely reading the written word. It was how she knew that Leian was slightly sarcastic and feeling a little concerned.

[I wasn't expecting to, but you're lucky I do. I will have enough for a few Champions. Do you like the benefits? I dare say my tinkering showed good results.]

I thought you'd left again, Iseis responded, turning and flexing her fingers, starting to gather more mana. It was both harder than usual, like trying to direct a raging river, and simpler since the mana seemed to flow so easily.

[I did. I told you I was taking care not to be gone so long this time.]

And you came back with more mana than expected? Did you find a source outside?

[… As it turns out, actually, this is not the only place I may be worshiped. Or, at least, something like that.]

Now that caught her attention, but she couldn't focus on the conversation when she still had a task to attend to. Iseis flexed her mana and ripped a hole into the fabric of the world, as controlled as she'd ever done. She reached out to the mana of all the living beings in her vicinity, picking out those she wanted to take along, and resisting the temptation to do something to the others — that would risk splitting her focus and endangering her primary goal.

She gripped her mana tighter, and everything in its grip, grasped it and twisted.

The light swallowed her for a moment and she felt the mana around her change as they moved. Pain pounded against her skull and it felt like the mana still flowing through her had heated up until she had molten metal in her veins. At least the flow was receding. And she could sense the people around her, in the same positions respective to her they'd just been in.

When she came fully back to consciousness, she was lying down, somewhere on a soft floor, and Leian's attention on her was slipping.

Something like that, my goddess? she asked, fuzzily trying to hold on to the connection. She was rarely able to talk to Leian this clearly.

[History becomes legend becomes myth, and the line between heroes and gods can be blurry, especially when all your real gods have been killed.] Leian sounded somber. [The White Lady, a figure of folklore, a culture hero — she is not truly me, but close enough, I suppose. Based on true events, one might say. Regardless she's been deified and syncretized with other deities sometimes, even the Idol of Death, what fun, in the border regions. I searched these out this time and could come back easier than I'd expected. The details hardly matter now.]

There were a lot of revelations packed into her words, but Iseis had to take a moment to simply breathe and marvel at the revelation that Leian had some kind of power base outside Earth, however vestigial.

No wonder she felt more solid and heavy than she had before. Still, not enough to rival Deirianon, not in terms of divine power.

But several Champions? That would be something to see.

"Lady Iseis? Are you alright?" Someone grabbed her, and she woozily got to her feet with their help, blinking as she looked around.

They were in an Imperial outpost at the border, roughly where she'd aimed at. Outside the barbed wire fence, she saw Tim and the others she'd been standing with staggering to their feet as well. The Star Guard captain was helping her up. Further away, more soldiers lay or milled around, filling the space around the outpost.

She'd managed to save most of them in her vicinity. Far more than she'd originally thought.

"I think I am going to be sick," she informed the one acting as her support, suddenly reminded of the pounding in her head and the ache in her body. Her bones felt older than ever. "Please don't let me fall again."

Then she started retching, the corners of her vision darkening. She dropped to her knees and felt for the solid earth under her fingers, obscurely comforted by the feeling of the humans and drones around her.

Perhaps she was not a bad choice of Champion after all, even in a war.

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