Sapphire no longer calculated arc depth.
They fired point-blank. Explosions tore through clustered cavalry.
Emerald abandoned corridor projection and formed full-bodied spears in hand — visible, solid, devastating at arm's length.
Jasper shifted from wall to layered pockets, isolating intrusions rather than stretching wide.
It was brutal. Immediate.
No distance to soften anything.
And for a heartbeat—
It felt better.
For two years they had defended.
Measured. Endured.
Now they could strike without range delay. Now they could meet force with force. The battalions moved as they were meant to — not artillery operators, but fighters.
Roah stood behind the forward shift and watched the chaos unfold.
He understood in the same breath what had changed.
Distance had been their shield. Distance had also been their cage.
The enemy had just removed it.
And the battlefield—
Was no longer the same field it had been since the beginning.
