Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 3009: The Military

The frontline was nothing like the training grounds of Neo Terra.

After weeks of travel, the Earth faction’s combined fleet finally arrived at the edge of a contested sector deep within the Neutral Zone—a vast expanse of contaminated space where the scourge had consumed world after world, leaving behind drifting husks of dead planets wrapped in dense clouds of violet miasma. Fragments of shattered moons floated through the void like forgotten tombstones, while the wreckage of countless warships drifted silently between them, grim reminders of battles long since ended.

Alliance warships maintained an endless patrol along the sector’s perimeter. Their armored hulls were scarred by years of relentless warfare, and the cultivators aboard wore the same marks upon their faces—hollow eyes, weary expressions, and the quiet discipline of veterans who had survived too many campaigns to count.

This was where the war against the scourge was truly fought.

Upon arrival, the allied expedition reported to the regional command station, an enormous fortress-platform anchored at the sector’s edge. Hundreds of military vessels surrounded the station in orderly formation. At the same time, transport ships and supply convoys moved constantly between docking ports, creating a ceaseless flow of soldiers, equipment, and resources toward the front.

Unlike the previous deployments—when Earth’s forces had arrived as small reinforcement detachments, absorbed into existing Alliance regiments and assigned whatever duties remained—this time was entirely different.

The Earth faction had arrived at the head of its own fleet.

Ten ships.

More than five thousand personnel.

Twenty-four Grand Magus.

A force of that magnitude could no longer be regarded as mere reinforcements.

It was an army in its own right.

Before they could be assigned to the battlefield, however, there remained one unavoidable step.

Administration.

The Magus Alliance military operated with uncompromising precision. Every cultivator, from the lowest-ranked soldier to the highest commanding officer, was formally registered, assigned an official military rank, attached to a designated regiment, and placed under the full authority of Alliance military law. Once enlisted, they fought where the chain of command ordered, followed regulations without exception, and could not simply leave the battlefield at will. No enlisted cultivator was permitted to withdraw until their assigned operation had concluded or official leave had been granted through military command.

For most members of the Earth fleet, this would be their first time serving under the Alliance’s formal military structure.

One by one, they disembarked from the fleet and entered the massive command station, where the enlistment process awaited them before they could take their place on the front lines.

Emery’s light avatar accompanied the group through the registration process.

When an Alliance officer directed him toward a glowing registration pedestal, he stepped forward without hesitation.

”Emery Ambrose,” he said calmly, registering under his true identity.

A translucent system panel materialized before him.

[Emery Ambrose]

[Faction: Earth]

Beneath his name, his military record unfolded line by line.

His recent participation in the Baeldum mission.

The Valaryn campaign, where he had led his Academy students into battle.

The classified operation on the elven world to rescue the captured Academy members.

The Nexus Planet expedition.

Even his earliest assignment to Kulturmak, issued decades ago by Zodiac City.

One commendation followed another, accompanied by a long list of completed missions, accumulated merits, and battlefield achievements.

Then the line he had been waiting for appeared.

[Military Rank: Officer, Rank 1 — Lieutenant, First Class]

Emery studied it for a moment before opening the attached explanation.

The Alliance’s military hierarchy was built upon cultivation as much as command.

At the foundation stood the ordinary [Soldier] ranks, composed of all enlisted under the Magus realm. They formed the overwhelming majority of every Alliance army—the countless warriors who defended the front lines, held the trenches, and whose sacrifices often passed unnoticed beyond casualty reports. They possessed no formal command authority.

Above them were the [Elite Soldier] ranks, reserved exclusively for Magus Realm cultivators.

A Private served as an experienced combatant without command responsibilities.

A Corporal was entrusted with leading a small fire team.

A Sergeant commanded a full squad of up to twenty Magus cultivators.

Beyond the Elite Soldiers stood the [Officers] of the Alliance, divided into seven known command grades, each defined by both cultivation and the size of the force they were authorized to lead.

Rank 1 — Lieutenant (Full Moon Magus minimum) — Command of up to 50 Magus.

Rank 2 — Captain (Full Moon Magus) — Command of up to 300 Magus.

Rank 3 — Commandant (Grand Magus, One Cosmos) — Command of up to 1,000 Magus.

Rank 4 — Major (Grand Magus, One Cosmos) — Command of up to 5,000 Magus.

Rank 5 — Colonel (Grand Magus, Two Cosmos) — Command of up to 20,000 Magus.

Rank 6 — Brigadier (Grand Magus, Two Cosmos) — Command of up to 50,000 Magus.

Rank 7 — General (Grand Magus, Three Cosmos minimum) — Supreme command over an entire battlefield front.

Each rank was further divided into three classes: Third Class, Second Class, and First Class, with First Class being the highest.

”Next,” the administrator called.

Morgana stepped onto the pedestal as the engraved runes beneath her feet flared to life.

Unlike Emery, her military record consisted solely of her participation in the Baeldum campaign. A single operation, but not enough to earn her an official officer rank within the Alliance’s military hierarchy.

To the Alliance, she was simply an unranked cultivator.

Despite her overwhelming strength as a Grand Magus, the regulations were uncompromising. Military rank was earned through service, not cultivation alone.

There was, however, one exception.

Alliance regulations permitted commanding officers to directly appoint the three Elite Soldier ranks to any unregistered personnel serving under their command. Since Emery held officer status, Morgana could immediately be enrolled at the highest Elite Soldier rank.

[Military Rank: Elite Soldier, Sergeant, First Class]

It was a position far beneath her actual strength, but no one protested. Within the Alliance, authority and cultivation had never been considered the same thing.

One after another, the remaining members of the Earth faction completed their registration.

Anpu, who had spent nearly three decades serving under the Earth faction’s banner during various Alliance operations, retained his previous commission as a Captain, Second Class, his accumulated merits preserving his standing.

Typhon, meanwhile, declined registration altogether.

Just as he had during the Baeldum campaign, the Qilin hybrid chose to remain outside the Alliance’s official records, preferring to operate from the shadows as an unseen safeguard rather than a registered officer.

Finally, Thrax stepped onto the pedestal.

He had served on the front lines for nearly thirty years, gradually earning promotion to Captain and commanding several hundred Magus cultivators. It had been an honorable career, but one that eventually reached its natural limit. Without breaking through to the Grand Magus Realm, advancement beyond Captain had been impossible. When he stepped away from active service a decade earlier, that was the rank he carried with him.

Things were different now.

Having finally stepped into the Grand Magus Realm, with his previous military record preserved, the Alliance recognized that he had long surpassed the qualifications of his former rank.

His promotion came without debate.

[Military Rank: Officer, Rank 3 — Commandant, Third Class]

The entry grade of the officer corps’ third rank, granting him command authority over a force approaching one thousand Magus cultivators.

For Thrax, it was a promotion more than a decade overdue.

He accepted it with quiet pride, his posture straightening ever so slightly as the new insignia appeared beside his name. Even after all these years, earning recognition from the Alliance still carried a weight that few other honors could match.

There was, however, one administrative matter that required special consideration.

The combined allied fleet assembled by the Earth Faction was too large to fall under a single standard command.

Between the Earth Faction, the Red Dawn contingent led by the Marquess, and the insectoid forces under the Insect Queen’s generals, the expedition fielded well over two thousand Magus cultivators. Under normal Alliance regulations, a force of that size should have been placed under a Major—an officer authorized to command up to five thousand Magus.

Neither Thrax nor the Marquess held that rank.

Both had been commissioned as Commandants, each authorized to command approximately one thousand Magus cultivators. Individually, they were qualified to lead their own forces, but neither officially possessed authority over the entire expedition.

Rather than requesting a higher-ranking Alliance officer to assume command, the Earth Faction submitted a different proposal.

An Independent Regiment request.

The Alliance had long maintained a doctrine that allowed allied factions to fight as autonomous regiments whenever circumstances justified it. Instead of breaking experienced armies apart and scattering them among unfamiliar commanders, each faction could retain its own internal command structure while coordinating under a shared operational objective. Centuries of warfare had repeatedly demonstrated the doctrine’s value. Soldiers fought more effectively beside commanders they trusted, under banners they recognized, and within organizations that had trained together for years.

The Earth Faction therefore requested that its expedition remain intact.

Thrax would command the Earth Regiment, operating under a joint command structure.

Under ordinary circumstances, such a request might have taken weeks to review—or been rejected outright.

But these were far from ordinary circumstances.

The frontline was under constant pressure, casualties among senior officers continued to mount, and experienced commanders were desperately needed everywhere. Faced with an escalating crisis, regional command approved the request with little hesitation.

####

With the enlistment complete, the newly formed regiment received its first assignment.

The deployment officer raised a three-dimensional star map above the command table. Countless stars shimmered into existence before entire sectors shifted and zoomed until a single region was highlighted in crimson.

The Sylvanar Reach.

The moment Emery read the name, his expression changed.

He knew this place.

Years of his life had once been spent among those stars.

The Sylvanar Reach was a vast region of ancient forest worlds, one of the ancestral homelands of the wood elves.

Now, much of it no longer exists.

The tactical projection painted a grim picture.

Nearly half of the Sylvanar Reach had already fallen.

World after world had been swallowed by the scourge, their once-vibrant forests reduced to blackened wastelands choked beneath oceans of violet miasma. The few surviving images displayed twisted forests, dead rivers, and entire continents crawling with infected life.

The surviving wood elves had been driven back to the sector’s eastern reaches, where they now fought a desperate defensive war to preserve what little remained of their homeland.

A new marker appeared along the battle line.

”Your objectives are straightforward: hold the defensive line, purge all infected worlds within your operational zone, and support the wood elves in reclaiming occupied territory whenever opportunities arise.”

Thrax examined the deployment for another moment before giving a firm nod.

Without another word, he turned toward the assembled cultivators of the Earth Regiment.

His voice rang through the massive hangar.

”We march to battle!”