Dawnforger Part 2 done. Huge huge huge improvement from Part 1. I enjoyed it immensely.
Vasily is such a great character. His development into a leader is portrayed comprehensively, and the process is logical and well-developed. The moment when he realised that
Mokosh doesn't solely need a messiah like commander but rather its people honestly stunned me a bit - so many stories in animes and videogames out there right now are trying to build the protags into almighty beings that can change the course of story. While commander does receive a fair amount of glaze, it is refreshing to see a character who thinks deeply and sees through what's really important to bring forth a long-term change.
On the other hand, the villains are also written really well. Theia and Gaia suprised me a lot. From
underestimating their enemy to
combining into one in order to win, they are truly formidable foes, and I certainly didn't expected to see such character development from them. Their
2vs1 fight against M200 was also exciting to read. In addition, the backstory of George also feels very real. Like Vasily said at the end,
being a leader is tough. In the flashback,
George was forced to give in to demands from Zimmermann. He may had truly cared about the settlement at first but later descended into corruption. In my eyes, he is just another human in this cruel world.
Last but not least, our daughter did very well.

I'm so proud of her. She even dropped the best line in the story.
I was honestly quite disappointed by Part 1, but this Part 2 is so good. Knowing what happened in the Basti story, commander seems to have entered the phrase
of gaining allies from different places in the Yellow Zone. I wonder what awaits in Liu's story. Going to start reading it soon.