Kazimierz northern border.
The commander of the 3rd Banner Team of the Campaign Knights, old knight Konstantin, was wiping his riding lance inherited for three hundred years with a rough burlap cloth.
The family crest engraved on the lance blade remained clear in the morning light; it was the source of his glory and his only comfort at this moment.
The young knights around him were still chatting and laughing softly, discussing the latest competition stars in the Grand Knight Territory, completely disregarding the Ursus ultimatum.
"Snap out of it, all of you!" Konstantin barked in a deep voice.
"Ursus never jokes, especially when they smell blood."
A young knight shrugged nonchalantly.
"What can they do, sir?"
"Send a few shield guards to show off, then wait for the Commercial Federation bigshots to send money? Same thing every year."
Konstantin wanted to say more, but a strong unease from a veteran's instinct gripped his heart.
He instinctively looked up at the northern sky; the horizon remained calm.
However, the next moment, the ground trembled without warning.
Immediately after, the distant sky was lit by countless rising firelights, arcing in parabolas toward their positions.
"Artillery barrage—!!"
Konstantin shouted the two words with all his strength.
The next second, thousands of heavy artillery shells blanketed Kazimierz's northern defensive line.
Defensive works were effortlessly torn to shreds in the explosions.
Knights were blasted into flying debris in the first salvo.
The mockery on the young knight's face froze forever; his body was hurled into the air by the shockwave, then directly shattered by another shell.
Konstantin was flung to the ground by the blast wave, his ears filled with continuous ringing.
He struggled to lift his head; everything in his vision had turned into a burning hellscape.
His lance, inherited for three hundred years, had been snapped in half, the broken shaft stuck in the scorched earth.
In the distance, Ursus Emperor Fyodor Vladimirovich stood on a high ground, coldly observing through binoculars.
Grand Duke Begar bowed slightly behind him.
"Your Majesty, they couldn't even mount a proper charge."
"Glory cannot withstand cannon fire, Grand Duke," Fyodor lowered his binoculars.
"Send the 3rd and 4th Armies forward. I don't want to waste too much time here."
The order given, Ursus's massive army array began advancing slowly.
Imperial vanguard, heavy shield guards, caster squads, shock troopers...
Hundreds of thousands of troops crossed the still-burning border, crushing toward Kazimierz's heartland.
...
Almost simultaneously, Kazimierz's southeastern border, adjacent to Leithanien.
The garrison here was also a Campaign Knights unit.
Their commander had just received urgent intelligence of the northern line's artillery strike when a scalp-numbing howl descended from the sky.
"Wheee—"
It was the signature screech of Stuka dive bombers.
The knights looked up in terror, seeing dozens of gray-white aircraft diving nearly vertically toward their assembly area.
Fear gripped every heart.
The next moment, bombs released from racks, landing on the knights' command post and gathering grounds.
"Boom, boom—!"
Violent explosions hurled knights into the air.
A knight attempting to erect an Originium Arts shield saw it shatter under the bomb's shockwave just as it formed.
As the air raid ended, the ground tremors intensified.
On the horizon, Leithanien's 1st Armored Division appeared.
Tiger I tanks in wedge formation advanced, coaxial machine guns on turrets sweeping surviving resisters while main guns picked off remaining defenses one by one.
"For Kazimierz!"
A knight captain's eyes burned red; he raised his lance high, leading his remaining dozen knights in a desperate charge.
They were Kazimierz's pride; their charge could shatter rock.
But they faced frontal armor forged from Drummond Alloy No. 1.
The knights' lances struck the sloped armor, emitting teeth-grinding metal screeches before bending powerless.
The knights were repelled by the massive recoil, vomiting blood.
Leon, now promoted to tank commander, calmly traversed his turret in Tiger 037, targeting the knight captain struggling to rise.
"Farewell," he murmured.
The shell's thunderous discharge heralded the final dirge of the old era's knights.
...
Grand Knight Territory, Adeptus Sprawiedliwi headquarters.
The conference room was in chaos.
News of the northern line's collapse and eastern breakthrough shattered all illusions.
Commercial Federation Chairman Czarny's face was ashen, cold sweat beading on his forehead; his cigar had fallen unnoticed onto the expensive carpet, burning a hole.
"Impossible? How could this happen?" he muttered, unable to comprehend.
"Have the Ursus gone mad? The Leithanians too?"
"Aren't they afraid of trade disruption?"
"Czarny!"
Grand Knight Iolanta Russell's voice snapped him awake.
"This isn't the time to worry about that! I warned you—war's logic differs from business!"
She slammed two frontline reports on the table.
"North: Ursus 3rd and 4th Armies have breached the first line, advancing deep!"
"East: Leithanien's two armored divisions tore our line in five minutes, pushing toward the Grand Knight Territory!"
A Commercial Federation representative trembled.
"We can... compensate! Give them money! Winter supplies for Ursus, more business for Leithanien! Doesn't Minister Meklen love money?"
"Naive!" Russell nearly laughed in fury at their stupidity.
"Think this is kids fighting? When tanks cross the border, only more tanks or corpses stop them—not your worthless checks!"
She took a deep breath, forcing calm.
"Issue national mobilization immediately! Order all Campaign Knights to contract defenses to the Grand Knight Territory! Order the Silver Lance Pegasus Knights..."
"To the frontlines at once, delay the enemy at all costs!"
Czarny slumped despondently in his chair.
He finally realized how fragile his gold-measured worldview was before true state violence.
His commercial empire seemed thinner than paper under tank treads.
War's shadow had fully enveloped Kazimierz's skies.
________________________________________
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