The crimson firelight tore through the night like a serpent breaking free from its cage, slithering wantonly through the city.
The moment the rebels’ iron hooves crashed open the city gates, the entire royal city appeared as if it had been cast into a hellish furnace.
Uncongealed blood flowed over the stone slabs, mingling with shattered spear shafts and broken blades into a twisted dark river. The screams of the kingdom’s soldiers and the roars of the rebel army clashed violently in the air, rattling the window frames.
The new Knight Commander, Gareth Ironblade, ripped off his cloak, scorched by sparks.
“For the glory of Her Majesty the Queen—!”
His greatsword gleamed with cold light amid the flames.
The golden royal emblem on his plate armor flickered with every warhorse’s neigh.
As panicked humans and Beastfolk civilians surged forward like startled sheep, he slammed his shield into the ground.
The dull thud of the bronze great shield instantly froze the surrounding chaos.
“Anyone fleeing the city—”
He drew his shortsword and pressed it against a runner’s throat.
A crimson line of blood slowly dripped down the man’s jaw.
“—is guilty of treason!”
That low growl was like ice poured into boiling water. The wavering spear tips straightened once more, and trembling hands tightened their grips on shield rims.
Gareth vaulted onto his warhorse, the silver command flag crackling in the firelight.
“Heavy cavalry, wedge formation!”
“Musketeers, cover the flanks!”
“Drive those rats that crawled into the city back into the sewers!”
Cries and screams never ceased.
When the rebel banner was raised atop City Hall, the entire marketplace instantly became a hive out of control.
Mothers in linen nightgowns dragged barefoot children, shoving their way toward cellars; blacksmith apprentices brandished unfinished scythes, trying to protect children from the frenzied Blood Clan, only to have their cries cut short as a cavalry saber descended.
At the Inner City Moat, the replaced Thomas was being supported by two guards, wading through waist-deep water.
This once-arrogant Knight Commander was now covered in mud, his left arm in a sling, the royal medal on his chest dim and lusterless under the moonlight.
But Gareth’s command flag had already been planted on the battlements of the city wall.
Lifting a burning beam aside with his darksteel greatsword, he gazed at the queen’s silhouette reflected in the distant Palace Tower and bellowed at the top of his lungs:
“Archers, ready! Let these clowns see—”
Before he could finish, a stray arrow grazed his ear and lodged into the battlement.
“—what the walls of the royal city are built with!”
As his sword pointed diagonally at the sky, tens of thousands of crossbow bolts screamed through the air.
Burning fire arrows blossomed into hellish sparks among the rebel ranks.
Yet not everyone was fleeing.
Spurred on by the rebels, the power of the common people had already begun to rise.
Rebel leader Fesca swung his battle-axe, cleaving through a burning barrel.
Liquor flowed along the stone steps, forming a golden river.
“For freedom!”
He roared and hurled a torch at the dome of City Hall.
Flames instantly consumed the royal emblem.
“Take up your arms!”
Fesca leaped down from a burning beam, his battle-axe drawing a cold glint in the moonlight.
“Today, either freedom or death!”
“For the children!”
A barefoot baker charged into the street, brandishing a rolling pin.
A blacksmith’s apprentice threw red-hot tongs at the soldiers.
“Enough of this damned chain!”
Even a laundress joined the riot, raising a copper basin.
The clanging of copper and shards of broken glass played a chaotic symphony on the stone slabs.
“Burn the tax records!”
“Burn those vampires’ ledgers!”
Torches rained down like a storm onto the tax collector’s office.
The kingdom soldiers’ crimson capes churned in the firelight, the sound of steel boots crushing bricks mingling with the civilians’ roars into a hellish symphony.
Seeing the defiant crowd, a knight of the Royal Guard Corps was enraged.
He charged into an alley on horseback, sword in hand, and screamed hysterically:
“How dare you defy the queen, you rabble!”
The blade split a wooden door, sparks flying.
“Please, let us go!”
A baker’s wife knelt at a street corner, dragging two children.
The baby in her arms was illuminated red by the fire.
“We just want to go home…”
In a flash, a Beastfolk youth burst out.
He slammed into the Blood Clan soldier hard, then stumbled back up after falling, placed himself in front of the woman and her children, and glared up at the knight on the tall horse.
“You filthy Blood Clan!”
“You’re the ones who should get out!”
He spat out a broken tooth, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth onto the stone.
“Traitors. No survivors.”
The knight’s voice was cold as his sword slowly pointed at the youth’s throat.
“Please!”
Nearby, the Beastfolk youth’s father knelt in a pool of blood.
Tears mixed with coal dust streaked his face.
“He’s just a child…”
There was no mercy in the knight’s eyes.
He raised his sword high, ready to sever the youth’s head on the spot—
At that critical moment.
A dark red cloak tore through the night, a nimble figure appearing like a ghost.
Before anyone could even react, the blade had already sliced open the knight’s throat.
The darksteel helmet spun through the air and hit the ground; blood gushed out; the head rolled across the stone street.
A moment later, the crowd finally saw that flash of crimson.
Flame-like red hair swayed in the firelight.
Emerald-green eyes cold as stars.
It was a girl.
She held a short sword, her figure slender, but drenched in blood.
Yet before she could steady herself, several longswords pierced her body simultaneously.
The blades went through her linen robe and emerged from her back.
The soldiers swarmed forward, nearly running her frail body through.
But the girl only sneered.
Blood kept pouring from her mouth, yet she forcibly pulled out the swords embedded in her body.
Then, a spine-chilling sight unfolded.
The wounds that should have been fatal healed at a visible speed.
New flesh covered the old injuries, and in moments, she was restored.
The girl stood up again, picked up a sword from the ground, raised it high, and pointed it straight at one of the attendant’s throats.
Not just the surrounding civilians, but even the battle-hardened Blood Clan soldiers were stunned.
“Phoenix…”
A Blood Clan soldier stammered out the girl’s code name.
“That’s Phoenix! A killing monster raised by the Wu People!”
“What?! That Undying!”
At those words, terror dawned on every face.
But Tii only smiled slightly.
The next instant, she swung her sword, and an attendant toppled from his horse.
“Butchering your own people without mercy—”
“What right do you bastards have to call yourselves soldiers of Ansels?!”
Her sharp roar tore through the night.
In that moment, the Deputy Commander of the Guard roared and charged, while the kingdom soldiers’ longswords fell at the same time, slashing toward the crowd.
Almost simultaneously.
A dense metallic screech erupted from the darkness.
Countless figures surged like a tide from stone crevices, dark alleys, and ruins.
Cold glints of curved blades, the whistle of thrown spears, the dull thuds of axes tearing leather—all mingled into a cacophony of chaos.
The ambushed soldiers barely had time to organize resistance before they stumbled backward into the night.
Only then did they realize—
The enemy had already laid an elaborate trap.