Maria changed into brand-new armor, fastened her two-handed longsword at her waist, and stood before the mirror in the lounge.
Facing her sister Margaret, she still felt a trace of unease. She knew how strong her sister was and understood her true capabilities. In the past, during their few training sessions together, Margaret had always been the one guiding her, patiently teaching young Maria how to hold a sword and how to wield it properly.
But now, she would finally stand opposite her sister on the battlefield.
Thinking of all the people who had been watching her journey, Maria let out a soft sigh. She feared disappointing them, but more than that, she worried about whether she herself would be satisfied with the outcome of this match.
She did not want to lose, yet in a battle between two people, only one could emerge victorious.
Feeling the reassuring weight of the longsword at her waist, Maria suppressed her sigh and stepped forward.
The enormous arena was packed to the brim. When Maria entered first, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Her face regained its gentle, confident smile, the charm that had captivated so many. Though her fighting style was fierce, her expression remained bright and radiant.
She thought the cheers were already deafening, but when her sister Margaret appeared, the roar of the crowd nearly split the sky. Clad in knight armor produced by Tomorrow's Development, holding a lance, Margaret strode toward Maria.
A smile appeared on her usually calm face.
"I'm here."
"Sister, I'm here too."
Margaret smiled. "It makes me so happy to see you standing here."
"Sister… I'm no longer the little girl who needed your protection behind you. I'm a knight now, and from today on, I want to fight alongside you."
"Good."
Margaret nodded with a faint smile. Then she raised the weapon in her hand. "I heard Degenbrecher has been giving you special training lately. I'm curious to see how much you've grown."
"You'll be very surprised."
"Alright. Let me see it."
The two sisters spoke as if no one else existed. Greatmouth Mob, who had been idling on the sidelines, was left speechless. Neither of the two standing on the stage were knights of the Chamber of Commerce. After a string of recent setbacks, Greatmouth Mob, a mere low-level pawn, had gained nothing from the situation. Though he was still receiving pay, even an outsider like him could sense the panic spreading within the Chamber of Commerce.
There might still be Kazimierz Major in the future, but they would no longer be dominated by the Chamber of Commerce.
That realization made even unofficial personnel like Greatmouth Mob worry about their livelihoods.
And it was not just people like him. The Chamber of Commerce's rule over Kazimierz had been monopolistic for many years. If it collapsed, countless workers would lose their jobs, dealing a heavy blow to Kazimierz's economy.
Naturally, such concerns had no bearing on the two knights on the battlefield.
The twin beams of light above the arena grew brighter and brighter, until they became almost impossible to look at directly, forcing spectators to squint.
Bang!
Then the first clash erupted.
___
At the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi headquarters, the Grand Knight, Lady Russell, set down her phone and gave a slight nod to those seated around the conference table.
"The Chamber of Commerce has already begun its operations."
"What is their target?"
"Eight years have passed, yet their goals have not changed," Lady Russell replied calmly. "They dare not provoke Tomorrow's Development, nor the Fate Knight. Just like eight years ago, their targets are mid-tier knight clubs and infected knight clubs. The assassins of the Armorless Union have been fully deployed, with infected knights as their primary targets. Today is their last chance."
By killing a controversial infected knight, they could incite unrest among the infected population, forcing the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi to divert its attention to pacification. Seizing that opportunity, the Chamber of Commerce could attempt one final push before the situation stabilized, hoping to slightly overturn their initial disadvantage.
Lady Russell was well aware that most of the Chamber of Commerce's investors had already fled or withdrawn their funding. Their decline was obvious to everyone. No one wanted to remain on a ship that might sink at any moment, so they chose to abandon it decisively. In recent days, the Chamber of Commerce's operations had been barely sustained by its internal families, who were paying out of their own pockets.
This was also the final time.
"The Silverlance Pegasi have received orders to guard the main roads. Once assassins are discovered, they will be eliminated immediately."
Lady Russell nodded. "And the adventurers?"
"Our informant within the Armorless Union reports that they have begun their operation. As predicted, their primary targets are the various Infected knight clubs."
"…Good."
Lady Russell nodded again, put on her coat, and looked out the window as dark clouds slowly gathered. She paused briefly, let out a quiet sigh, and then stepped out of the conference room. Behind her, the senior members of the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi erupted into heated arguments. Their disputes revolved around knight deployments, the priority of rescuing knight clubs, and even the distribution of spoils after the war.
Such topics could never be avoided anywhere, so it was hardly surprising that the upper ranks of the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi behaved this way.
Even in matters of postwar division, that mercenary nature remained unchanged.
Lady Russell disliked this atmosphere. She preferred stepping into the corridor, letting the wind brush past her.
She thought of Felix, and also of her adopted daughter Viviana, and their earlier conversation about the future of Tomorrow's Development.
Why were the top executives of Tomorrow's Development so cautious, even in the face of enormous profits?
And why were they able to remain so steadfastly loyal to Felix?
If the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi wished to one day lead Kazimierz and guide it forward, then it would have to undergo the same tempering as Tomorrow's Development.
Just then, Lady Russell turned her head and saw that the upper management was still arguing fiercely.
"Lady Russell, what is our next move?"
"Do we still have enough manpower?" Russell asked, looking at her secretary holding a tablet.
The secretary pressed her lips together and displayed the estimated combat strength. Aside from the knight clubs, the majority of the Infected Knights' forces consisted of adventurers. Russell was already well aware of their capabilities. Their ability to resurrect endlessly made her deeply wary. Even though most of their troops had already been dispatched to the Infected Knight camps, she still felt it was insufficient.
"How many knights can Adeptus Sprawiedliwi deploy?"
"There are still two hundred and ten knights," the secretary replied. "But the vast majority are stationed here to protect the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi Headquarter."
"How many could actually be spared?"
"…Fifty," the secretary finally said through clenched teeth under Russell's gaze. "The higher-ups believe the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi itself is one of the Armorless Union's key targets, so they've kept most of the knights here."
"Fifty knights. Is that enough?"
"Yes! I'll begin preparations immediately."
Before long, fifty knights marched out through the corridors of the Adeptus Sprawiedliwi under Lady Russell's watchful eyes. They stopped before her and nodded respectfully.
"For the honor of Kazimierz's knighthood, fight alongside me."
Lady Russell drew the longsword at her waist, her expression solemn. "There is no time to lose. We move immediately to support the Infected Knight camps."
"Yes!"
While the Grand Arena roared with noise and excitement, the infected knight encampments on the outskirts of the Kawalerielki were suffering an unprecedented assault. Unlike eight years ago, when the Chamber of Commerce merely hired bounty hunters to burn, kill, and loot, this time they had drawn bounty hunters from all across Kazimierz and mobilized members of the Armorless Union, most of whom were adventurers.
Adventurers wielding the power of immortality were nearly invincible on the battlefield. The Terrans clearly understood their fearlessness, and the imbalance became apparent the moment the two sides clashed.
The knights were forced into constant retreat, while the Armorless Union advanced step by step. Some adventurers had initially been unwilling to accept such a brutal mission, but the rewards offered by the Chamber of Commerce were simply too great, and the promised resources too tempting.
Under the relentless assaults of the Armorless Union and the opportunistic arson and plundering by bounty hunters, several knight encampments were quickly reduced to raging flames.
The headquarters of the Fate Knight was one of the few knightly strongholds that had never been touched. Neither the Armorless Union nor the bounty hunters had dared approach it.
On the training grounds, the Blood Knight raised his head and set down his massive axe, faintly sensing the tremors echoing from afar.
"No… something terrible has happened!"
An infected knight burst into the training ground, panting heavily and shattering the calm. "Blood Knight, multiple knight encampments have been attacked by a combined force of the Armorless Union and bounty hunters. Large numbers of knights have rushed to the front lines, but they are no match for them!"
The Blood Knight rose to his feet, swiftly hanging up the towel he had used to wipe away his sweat before beginning to don his blood-red armor. Ever since his defeat at Maria's hands, he had grown increasingly aware of how lacking his martial experience truly was. Unfortunately, in the vast land of Kazimierz, there was not a single martial master who could guide him further. It was a lingering regret. He had once trained with the Black Knight, Degenbrecher, and had benefited immensely from it, but Degenbrecher was always at His Highness's side and could not remain in Kazimierz for long.
As he stepped out of the training grounds, the Blood Knight saw that many knights had already gathered in the main hall. Outside the gates of the encampment, dozens of civilians had arrived carrying stretchers, each bearing blood-soaked knights.
The civilians knelt before the gates of the Fate Knight, weeping openly. Their cries carried not only grief, but also the relief of surviving disaster. The Fate Knight hurried forward to help and to ask what had happened. They soon learned that these wounded knights had been fighting on the front lines and had suffered severe injuries. Their families had rushed them to hospitals, only to find that the facilities had been bribed or threatened by the Chamber of Commerce into closing for the day. With nowhere else to go, they had come here as their last resort.
This was the power of the Chamber of Commerce, an organization capable of controlling everything. Even now, when the situation was clearly turning against it, it still clung on like a dying centipede that refused to collapse.
"Blood Knight, what should we do?"
Flames burned in her eyes. The young feline girl was brimming with fighting spirit, her anger and desire for revenge plain to see.
After handing the wounded over to the doctors at the Fate Knight base, Viviana, the Candle Knight, straightened up. Her elegantly adorned white armor was stained with blood. She looked at the Blood Knight in silence, her restraint speaking louder than words.
More and more knights stepped forward, their gazes fierce and resolute, ready to spring into action at any moment.
"Set out! Rescue the knight camps! Half of the medics will come with us, we will need a large number of field medics!" the Blood Knight roared. "The darkness before dawn is upon us. Let us show them, with our weapons and armor, what the chivalry of Kazimierz truly means!"
"Oh oh oh!"
Hundreds of people raised their weapons, pointing them toward the besieged knight encampments.
At the same time, the operators of Tomorrow's Development were working at full capacity. Adventurers arrived sporadically, mixed in with professional players. Their presence eased the pressure on Tomorrow's Development forces, but made the Armorless Union players frown. Fortunately, these adventurers were mostly snipers and showed no intention of engaging in direct combat. With their arrival, the previously one-sided battle gradually began to balance out.
That balance shattered with the appearance of the Platinum and the Darksteel assassins, accompanied by hundreds of assassins. Once again, the knights defending the camp were pushed back. In addition, players from Tomorrow's Development noticed ragged raiders appearing on the battlefield.
"Damn it! What kind of benefits did the Chamber of Commerce offer to drag raiders from the No Man's Land into this mess?" Huang Tianhoutu cursed. He had been struck in the abdomen by an arrow. Although his equipment absorbed most of the damage, a dull sting still lingered. Glancing at his status bar, he shouted, "Medic, cleanse me. They're using poison."
"Coming, coming!"
What troubled the players of Tomorrow's Development most was not the bounty hunters or the raiders, but the Armorless Union players lurking in the shadows and firing poisoned arrows. After several encounters, those players seemed to realize that facing professional players head-on was unrealistic, and instead resorted to long-range harassment.
"Send half your manpower to find them."
"Understood!"
The scouting teams quickly adjusted their strategy and moved toward several abandoned buildings on both sides of the battlefield.
The Blood Knight charged forward with astonishing speed, his giant axe sweeping the field. Ordinary members of the Armorless Union could not even pierce his armor, let alone bounty hunters or raiders. After watching the first person who blocked his path get sent flying, the rest wisely chose to step aside and make way for the Fate Knight.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Three consecutive shots struck the Blood Knight's crimson armor, forcing him to halt. The blood instantly reduced the crossbow bolts to ash, but to the naked eye, the armor's crimson sheen had dimmed slightly.
Dressed in a black overcoat, Darksteel sat atop a streetlamp, casually swinging his legs back and forth.