"Whoo—whoo..."
The wind whispered past Lin Qi's ears; all around him was azure.
Just a slight glance downward and he could easily see how tiny everything below looked.
Clusters of buildings, soldiers in red garb—they were no larger than ants.
Lin Qi was riding atop a wyvern, surveying the enemy's troop deployments from the sky.
Good thing he wasn't afraid of heights—just this altitude alone would have been enough to make him sweat otherwise.
After the strategy meeting, Nero had set the battle plan going forward, namely—
Crush every enemy who stands in the way head-on!
In Nero's words: "Only by doing so can I display my heroic bearing and prove that I am the rightful emperor of Rome."
With several Servants assisting, that could be called a decent strategy.
If something went wrong later, they'd adapt on the fly.
If the Servants couldn't handle it… then no strategy would fix things anyway.
A sharp-eyed soldier in the allied army spotted Lin Qi flying in the sky and, without thinking, drew an arrow and fired upward.
The arrow shot into the clouds—then described an arc through the air and fell.
It didn't even reach half the height where Lin Qi was.
"Idiot! Do you think an ordinary soldier can touch someone at that height?" cried the allied commander—also one of Rome's former outstanding emperors, Caesar—slamming a fist down on the fool's head, exasperated.
And didn't you see the arrows you shot rained down onto our own troops?
"Sir… I—my head went hot for a moment, I didn't pay attention…"
The soldier looked ashamed.
"You… sigh, never mind."
Caesar rubbed his temple, no longer wanting to scold his idiots.
Perhaps it was because of that Great One's presence?
It was as if these soldiers had left their brains at home.
As one of Rome's emperors, Caesar's attire was a mix of gold and red.
Unlike serious history, this Caesar appearing in the allied camp was a rotund man with a big belly.
"Really… that Great One's delusions should be toned down, shouldn't they?" he muttered.
"Perfect leadership, perfect rule—only creates a population without self-awareness."
Caesar spoke helplessly to himself.
Like that soldier before him: thinking had been basically abandoned.
They'd completely sunk under the awe-inspiring majesty of the Divine Ancestor Romulus.
By contrast, the enemy soldiers over there performed far better!
Caesar recalled their conduct during prior engagements and nodded repeatedly.
"Now let me see what kind of a splendid existence this generation's emperor truly is!"
Caesar gazed into the distance, waiting for Nero to charge toward him.
Thanks to the Divine Ancestor's terrifying charisma over Rome, the allied Roman army had already taken a twisted path.
Every citizen was a soldier; all the people spontaneously joined the war, each contributing what they could…
On paper that sounded great—what if the Divine Ancestor could no longer protect them?
Caesar keenly hoped to see Nero put on a different, dazzling performance.
But he did not want Nero to come so easily, so he dispatched several units to circle around from the Mediterranean.
He even brought Caligula along.
Caesar wanted to see whether, under such intense combat and exhaustion, Nero could still shine when she reached him.
If she could, how brilliant that light would be.
—Elsewhere—
After making a patrol and memorizing the allied army's deployments, Lin Qi rode the wyvern back.
Keeping a normal speed, the wyvern glided downward; when close to the ground, Lin Qi leapt and landed steadily.
The wyvern adjusted its heading and rose again into the sky.
Lin Qi jogged into the tent and, without speaking to anyone, hurried to the central map and began scribbling and drawing.
Only when everything was settled did he let out a breath.
No choice—the memory window was time-limited, and Lin Qi wasn't a genius; he had to quickly transfer what he'd memorized onto the map.
Nero spoke up only after waiting for Lin Qi to finish.
"Mm! My guard is indeed versatile! You even have a way to fly up and scout—what else do you have that I don't know about?"
She picked up the marked map on the table with satisfaction.
"My usefulness ends here; there's nothing more I'm hiding…"
Lin Qi looked completely spent.
Several days had passed since the strategy meeting.
During that time Lin Qi had taken on many roles; not only was he Nero's personal guard—
He also handled part of logistics and some reconnaissance.
Although Jing Ke had Presence Concealment, she couldn't fly, so her scouting efficiency was ultimately lower than Lin Qi's.
So once Nero learned Lin Qi could fly, she gave him that job as well.
As for logistics—
Rather than mere logistics, it was military supply logistics.
Nero thought the normal pace of advancing the lines was too slow and wanted to increase efficiency.
She remembered Lin Qi once using a black key's explosion to kill many besieging allied soldiers.
A flash of inspiration: Nero asked Lin Qi whether there were any limits to making explosive black-keys.
Lin Qi didn't quite understand Nero's intent and casually said that as long as there were materials, they could be made at will.
And so the tragedy began.
In the days that followed, besides scouting, Lin Qi stayed in the tent making various explosive weapons.
Runic magecraft is theoretically most effective when inscribed on wood.
But Lin Qi took another path—given his magecraft level, inscribing on wood wouldn't yield much extra power.
So why not carve the runes onto iron weapons directly?
When they detonated, the weapon itself would shatter, and the scattering fragments would strike the enemy.
Thus the rune-engraved fragment grenade was born in Lin Qi's hands.
When you didn't want to blow it up, it made a decent melee weapon too.
Lin Qi didn't have many black keys; a small number of grenades wouldn't sway the whole battle.
So Nero ordered people to gather broken, unusable weapons—preferably the rusted kind.
Thanks to the soldiers' efforts, piles and piles of weapons were laid before Lin Qi.
Lin Qi begrudgingly carved repeated rune symbols onto heaps of rusty scrap.
Another period he'd rather not recall.
Luckily, the results were very good. Ever since Nero adopted the magecraft fragment grenade tactic, the battle turned decisively in Nero's favor.
Lin Qi even sometimes used the wyvern to "air-drop" payloads onto the enemy.
In just a few days' work, they recovered half of Rome's territory.
They fought all the way into Gaul.
Back to the present.
"Is that so? Even so, you and I make a match made in heaven. How could the petty allied Roman pretender force be our match?" Nero said proudly.
"Hmph, in just a few days we'll be close to their main base!"
She patted Lin Qi's back, clearly pleased.
"My Emperor, ordinary soldiers, however many, don't matter much—what's crucial are the Servants. Once we get this far, the enemy will surely dispatch Servant units to the battlefield."
Lin Qi didn't think his rune grenades would have much effect on Servants.
"I know that, of course. From now on you needn't make those devices any longer—just obediently stay by my side!"
Nero said confidently.
"When kings confront kings, commanders face commanders, I've come to the point where I must act personally."
"You must destroy the pretender alliance completely, as fast as possible—leave them no time to react!"
With such backing of combat power, Nero could finally vent the frustration she had felt from being driven back earlier.
...