Chapter 38: Two Hundred Nine Learn One Formation—and a Realmwide Announcement
"Aegis Fold?"
Veyra turned the thin black-and-silver Codex over in her hands.
It had no pages. Three interlocking shield patterns were set into the center of the cover.
Cassian had already opened its description.
[Aegis Fold]
[Quality: Epic]
[Type: Formation Codex]
[Can bind to one established Troop Building.]
[After binding, active troops from that Building may receive the basic formation imprint. Troops recruited later may learn it through training inside the Building.]
[Basic Form: When at least three trained units maintain stable positions in the same line, frontal impact and formation-breaking pressure concentrated on one point can be distributed to adjacent nodes.]
Cassian read the description once and opened Eclipse Muster Hall immediately.
Veyra looked at him.
"You’re not even checking a second option?"
"Do I have a second Building that can use it?"
"No."
"Then what am I checking?"
Cassian confirmed the binding.
[Formation Codex: Aegis Fold]
[Binding target: Eclipse Muster Hall]
[Confirm.]
Silver-white lines lit across the nine narrow spires above the Hall.
The light did not burst outward. It followed the dark-gold patterns already formed by the Temporary Covenant and flowed straight into the army standing before the Hall.
The nine Praetorians raised their heads first.
Then the two hundred Legionnaires.
A hair-thin silver line appeared beside the black-gold pattern already running around the edge of every shield.
[Eclipse Praetorian ×9: Aegis Fold basic imprint completed]
[Eclipse Legionnaire ×200: Aegis Fold basic imprint completed]
Two hundred nine troops.
Not one missed.
Veyra watched the new silver lines for two breaths.
"Nine at a time."
Cassian looked up.
She was already walking toward the first line.
"Don’t test the entire wall. First find out whether it can actually move force away from a single point."
Cassian had no objection.
One Praetorian took the center, with four Legionnaires locking shields on either side. All nine lowered their center of gravity as Eira moved a dozen meters away.
"Still no Thunder Javelin?"
"No."
"Storm Body?"
"Same as last time. Keep it low enough to stop whenever you need to."
Lightning crawled over Eira’s shoulder armor.
She accelerated through three steps and drove the shaft of her spear straight into the Praetorian’s tower shield.
BANG!
This time, the center shield did not slide back by itself.
The instant the impact landed, the silver line flashed outward from the center—second shield, third, all the way to both ends of the formation.
Loose stone scraped backward beneath all nine pairs of boots almost at once.
The entire formation gave less than half a step.
No single point collapsed first.
Eira pulled the spear back immediately and looked down at their feet.
"This suits them."
"Mm."
Veyra turned toward Cassian instead.
"You just won first place, and the chest went straight back into the army."
Cassian closed the now-empty Codex interface.
"The army won first place."
Veyra studied him for a moment. This time she did not laugh. She turned and looked over the other eight lines.
"Then I’ll rearrange the remaining eight."
Cassian had already taken two steps away. He stopped when he heard that.
"Once I leave, you decide how Aegis Fold gets trained."
Veyra’s brow lifted.
"You’re giving me the training?"
"Yes."
"But you still decide where they fight?"
"Of course."
Veyra laughed softly.
"Fine. At least you’re not dumping the entire army on me."
This was more than pointing out a few places where a line might break. While Cassian was away, Veyra would decide how the nine Eclipse lines turned the new Formation into something they could actually use.
Where those lines went and what they fought for would still be Cassian’s decision.
He put the Wild Tide Lure into his personal storage and headed out.
Sigrid and five Stormlance remained at the Gold Vein.
Cassian took Eira and the other five Stormlance with him. Four Blackfang moved ahead, while the five Gloomhoof that had just reached Level 6 came along for mountain mobility and ranged route control.
No Praetorians. No Legionnaires.
This trip was about speed first.
Get there first. See it first. Find the Building first. If he later needed to crush the mountain entrance with a frontal line, the Eclipse force could move then.
The ridge behind the Nightstripe mining area was less than twenty kilometers from Forgotten Shrine.
They encountered no new high-grade targets along the way, and the Blackfang stayed ahead the entire time.
In less than an hour, the familiar gray-black ridge came into view.
Elara’s people had already withdrawn.
Only a few patches of blood that had not fully dried remained at the entrance, along with broad footprints where heavy shields had ground repeatedly into the loose stone.
Cassian did not enter immediately.
He pulled up the interface he had kept buried ever since Eclipse Legionnaire finished resolving.
[Eclipse Legionnaire Realmwide Announcement: Pending]
Orven had warned him before leaving.
Once a Rare troop sequence that could be recruited continuously became public, not everyone who came looking would be there to trade.
Cassian had not forgotten. He also had no intention of pretending that being away from Forgotten Shrine somehow made the Domain safe.
The real reasons he could publish now were different.
The Troop Power Ranking was locked. No one could use this information to change today’s result anymore.
All two hundred nine Eclipse troops had completed the basic Aegis Fold imprint, and the nine lines now had a real defensive framework.
Veyra remained at Forgotten Shrine and had formally taken responsibility for training the new formation.
Most importantly, the nine Epic Praetorians and Aegis Fold itself were still undisclosed.
Revealing the Rare layer now would explain why fewer than three hundred troops had taken first place.
It would not reveal his whole hand.
Cassian confirmed publication.
A golden announcement far brighter than anything in the Regional Channel appeared directly in his vision.
It did not stop at his newcomer region.
The same line lit up across the entire Shattered Marches.
[Shattered Marches Realmwide Announcement]
[Newcomer Lord Cassian Vale has established an unregistered Rare Troop sequence across the realm: Eclipse Legionnaire.]
[A stable recruitment path has been established for this sequence.]
[Realm Renown +10,000]
[Legend +100]
[Renown State: Known → Widely Known]
[A Rare Hero has been drawn by your Renown and is traveling toward Forgotten Shrine.]
The Regional Channel exploded first.
[Anonymous Lord: RARE???]
[Anonymous Lord: A Rare troop he can recruit continuously?]
[Anonymous Lord: Wait—he recruited two hundred nine today...]
[Elara Vayne: So those two hundred were these.]
[Rowan Ashford: That explains it. At least half of it.]
[Anonymous Lord: Half? What’s the other half?]
Rowan did not answer.
Neither did Cassian.
The nine Praetorians were still hidden.
No one had ever seen the Stormlance Valkyries’ complete twelve-troop roster either.
Let them finish pricing the Rare layer first.
But this time, the reaction did not stay inside the Regional Channel.
The first cross-region private message came from Orven.
[Orven: I’ve already left your newcomer region.]
[Orven: That announcement still appeared directly in front of me.]
Two breaths later:
[Orven: I told you people would come looking once you made it public.]
[Orven: Looks like I understated it.]
Almost at the same time, another name Cassian had not seen for a while lit up.
[Mariel Thorn: Vale, the previous invitation from the King’s Frontier Legion is void.]
Cassian glanced at it.
The next message followed immediately.
[Mariel Thorn: Not withdrawn.]
[Mariel Thorn: A provisional knighthood isn’t enough anymore. We need to renegotiate.]
More contact requests followed.
Cassian recognized some names.
Most were unfamiliar.
And the source tags were no longer limited to his current newcomer region.
Cassian accepted none of them.
The King’s Frontier Legion could wait.
The Renown had already been credited.
The mountain in front of him was not going to open its gate just because his name now carried farther.
He closed the messages.
Ahead, the first Blackfang to enter the mountain pass stopped abruptly.
Pack Dominion sent back a short sequence of intent.
Stone gap.
Heavy tracks.
Many inside.
Cassian dismounted.
Eira and the five Stormlance stopped with him. Wind pushed out through the narrow rocks, carrying the faint sound of metal striking stone from deeper inside.
Not one or two isolated clangs.
Metal was striking stone all across the passage ahead.
Cassian checked the Wild Tide Lure in his personal storage.
He still left it untouched.
"Not yet."
Eira tightened her grip on her short spear.
"What are we looking for first?"
Cassian looked into the ridge.
"The entrance."
"Find that Troop Building first."