Soldiers fought soldiers atop the land of dead men. Corpses accompanied their feet as they pressed on or were pushed back. At times, the bloodied obstacles of fallen friends or foes took others with them, tripping the living to an earthen embrace where they would then be either trampled or shot to death.
But even the dead were not allowed to rest. Bodies were desecrated by sudden firing from the sky.
Mark watched as fiery tears of war dropped from the clouds and onto comrade and enemy alike, killing both with the same efficiency, the same agonized shrieks resulting from the devastation.
Yet the people fighting seemed to ignore the calamity they were enraptured in. A haze of hatred covered their eyes as they fought on, bathed in scarlet light as blood was shed in rivers.
Controlling from the back, Mark saw that forces had beaten their way another few meters forward. Even though it had resulted in a lot of casualties from his side, using the artillery ended up killing a lot more of the enemy.
Was it right to use such a method? Probably not. Firing on a friend is always among the last things a person would wish to do. Then again, the artillery operators probably didn't know the others very well.
Besides, what did he care about morality? Such a concept refused to show itself in his head. He was ruled by a cold feeling in his chest - his heart.
From the distance, he could feel his connection to his victims as the fighting continued forward.
He felt a disturbance in his control.
The flame that was in his soldiers' eyes seemed to dim as a sudden, intangible, and almost imperceivable change came about them. His enemies began to gain ground with startling efficiency.
Mark didn't understand what was going on until he felt it too.
Amidst his inner void of emotions, he suddenly felt dreadful of the fighting to come, of the potential of losing. His actions slowed as fear grabbed at the reigns of his mind.
Luckily, he had some inner control.
Stretching his mind with newly empowered intensity, the potency of his ability had grown to incomparable heights.
It spread through his army, heightening the willpower and perseverance of his side. At the same time, he felt his ability hit a sudden wall.
That wall was undoubtedly a Blessed being that was on the enemy team.
Taking it as his job to defeat the enemy control, Mark felt the impulse to leave the safety of his position and seek out the opposing Blessed.
His foot took off from the ground as he prepared himself to step into the fray.
'Wait. Stop.'
He felt his body promptly heed like a well-trained stallion.
'That had to be a trap. The bastard must have tried to urge me from afar, to come to it under the pretext of duty. That could have been the end for me if I hadn't been more careful.'
Out of the back of his head, a whistling noise made itself more apparent to Mark as he looked up.
His eyes widened and he jumped back.
A missile landed right in front of him.
It didn't explode - it was a dud.
Sighing, Mark watched as more missiles approached him. The enemy seemed to be using their heavy arms to inflict losses on his side. Taking note of that, Mark started to periodically look up so as to see that there was nothing threatening his safety from above.
Overall, the battle seemed to be reaching its climax.
Bombs were dropping with unbridled and ruthless intensity, soldiers screamed and shrieked as loud as they could. At the same time, some had already lost the voices of the war and were dragging themselves to fight on. It was a desperate effort from both sides as they tried to gain and keep territory, the overall boundaries of both sides went back and forth like a swelling wave.
Trying to keep track of it all, Mark was his with another shock as the mood of his soldiers changed once more, becoming terribly disappointed and melancholic to continue on. Mark counteracted this by instilling a turbulent wave of hatred and valor. It worked as the fire under his soldiers' eyes was reignited.
With that done, it was time to think about how to deal with the source of the problem.
Getting onto the other side and personally dealing with the fellow manipulator wasn't the best idea he could come up with. He would get mowed down before even a second elapsed.
Another explosion took place right in front of him as shrapnels of the explosion scratched against his face. His vision sharpened and he scanned the environment for anyone that stood out.
After a few seconds of looking, he locked onto the suspicious man.
Nothing in appearance would indicate that the man is of the Blessed, yet it seemed so apparent to Mark.
Maybe it was an innate ability that he had - to be able to tell who had innate capabilities like him.
A figure with vibrant blue eyes and an expressionless face looked back at him.
He found his enemy.
All of a sudden, the movement of the soldiers took an unprecedented turn.
Rather than forward and back, they instead began moving to the left and right as a space started to open up amidst the center of the parting sides.
From it, the two Blessed were able to fully see each other amidst the calamitous scene they had created.
They could equally see each other, the perpetrators, the machinators of the mess before them.
In all of the chaos, there was an alien-like tranquility between the two soldiers from opposing sides. It was as if rather than being stuck in a warzone they were simply taking a stroll in a garden. Death was close to them, but victory was not so far either.
It just depended on who came out alive to control the masses.
Mark looked forward with pale black eyes that gleamed with scarlet radiance.