Over the next few days, the Fallen Star Guard rotated through the Celestial Stairway in shifts.
There were simply too many of them. This wasn't something you knocked out in a day or two. At their current pace, it would take at least six or seven days to get all twenty thousand through the climb.
Ethan showed up on the first day—and after that, he didn't bother coming back.
Instead, he took the Fallen Star Squad home and basically holed up, using the ritual circle's power to grind their own strength upward.
During their time in the Yamato Empire, it had been nonstop—either killing people or killing zombies. They barely had time during the day. Most of their growth had come from nights spent staring up at the sky, absorbing that mysterious energy. It worked, but the progress was slow.
Ethan had been stuck at Stage B peak for a while now. The last couple days, he'd started to feel a breakthrough coming, so he kept the ritual circle running all day, every day.
