And it came to pass that The Exalted Army gathered outside the Great City, and the follows of the Most Dark and Powerful Saban joined the army there, and on the eve of battle they prepared the Army a feast.  And The Mountain came, and though he ate heartily his appetite was not subdued.  The people asked him, “Oh Mighty Mountain, what can we put before you so that you might devour it and your hunger be put aside?”  And he said, “Only the flesh of the most strange of birds, whose neck be long and whose body be wide, can satisfy my hunger.”  And the people asked him, “Oh Mighty Mountain, where can we find these strange birds, so that we might present them to you?”  But before he could answer, The Dark Lord stepped forth and said, “You finding these birds is not part of The Process.  The Mountain and his comrades must seek these birds themselves, and they must hunt them with great competitive spirit and tenacity relative to causing their ultimate demise.  Only then shall their hunger be self-gratified.”  And the people were confused, but The Mountain knew the words were true.

After the feast, the Dark Lord addressed his Army, saying, “Tomorrow, The Process continues.  It does not begin anew, for it shall require all the lessons you have learned relative to your previous victories and defeats.  Great was your power, but not great enough.  Deadly were your weapons, but not deadly enough.  Do not rest upon the past relative to your successes, and do not dwell upon the past relative to your failures.  But take with you unto the field of battle all the lessons that I have taught you and all the lessons you have taught yourselves, and self-gratification shall be at hand.”

The people were restless that night, but the Army slept deeply, for they knew that this battle was fought many fortnights before, for the Great Saban had told them, “Not on the day of battle is the victory won, but through your preparation for battle is the helm of your adversary hewn.”

The sun rose bright and gleaming, like the fiery eye of Saban himself, as the Exalted Army clasped tight their helms and formed ranks to meet their foe.  Onward they marched to the field of battle, and so great was the splendor of their banners that wise men who saw it proclaimed it to be beyond even the Grand Army in power and might.  But so too marched their foe, and at the head of their columns sat the old general, and at his side sat his commander, a man who the scribes say moved with such haste that no man could know his place until he was already behind them, his sword sheathed in the back of his opponent.  For on this commander had the general laid his hopes, and he had told his colonels, “They say the men of the Exalted Army are as the mountains are; towering to the heavens, broad like the sea.  But a mountain cannot run, nor can it walk.  But one can go around a mountain, and one can go over a mountain.  Our commander shall go around the mountains, and the rest of our men over them.  Saban believes his mountains strong, and verily they are, but what is strength if it cannot catch its foe?”

In the center of the Great City the two armies met, and sword met helmet, and also limbs, and bones were cracked, and sinews sliced, and blood splattered, and skin torn, and hearts bruised, and livers punctured, and groins punched, and faces smashed.  And as the battle raged, the forces in purple and orange delighted, for they said, “Their might is not what we had feared!”

But as the day turned to night, and the moon rose high in the heavens, The Great Saban came to one of his young warriors, the one they called The Bull, for he ran through men like the bull stampedes the grass, and he said, “Destroy them.”  And The Bull went, and he put on his shining helm, and like a boulder rolling down a mountain did he plow through the old general’s defenses.  Lines that had long been held by their sweat and their blood broke like a twig on a young oak.  Just minutes before, they felt the swell of victory in their hearts, but now they found themselves to be just another clump of earth to be trampled asunder by the Dark Lord’s terrible boot.

And when the general knew that his men were spent, he went and humbled himself before the Dark Lord, and the Dark Lord told him, “Go, and take your men, and take your swords, back to the country near the sea where you call home.  And march and meet those other armies by the seas if you choose.  But come not again to the Southern Lands, for as I told your allies before you on this very ground, we fight a fight here you cannot win, relative to us being much better than you in every conceivable way.”

And the general hung his head, for he knew it was true, and he took his men, and they marched back to the sea.