One had to realize that the trial's imminent conclusion wasn't purely bad news. At least for players, the ga's rules offered a kind of protection—essentially granting them a window of ti to act freely and recklessly.
Of course, the prerequisite was being a peak player with the ability to protect yourself.
Big Cat clearly qualified. She launched herself from the high wall above the dungeon entrance, and before the garrison knights could even ring the alarm bells, every last knight stationed outside the door had been offered up to the One seated upon the Bone Throne.
"..."
Watching this unfold, Cheng Shi's expression was one of pure exasperation.
'Sis, no matter how fast you kill them, you can only take out the ones outside the door. There are sentries inside too—once they hear the commotion, can we even get in tonight?'
'We can't exactly spend the last few hours in an all-out war against the Iron Law Knights, can we?'
But just as Cheng Shi nervously scanned their surroundings, debating whether to follow her down, Big Cat's next move stunned him all over again.
The Dense Forest Spotted Leopard that she'd been a mont ago threw back her head with a low growl, and her entire feline body began to swell explosively. In the blink of an eye she had transford into a colossal bear, all four massive paws planted on the ground.
The bear's entire body radiated terrifying battle intent. She extended one monstrous paw and brought it crashing down on the dungeon's iron gate—a slab that looked less like a door and more like a solid block of iron. A deafening boom rang out, and the door, thicker than a man's palm, caved inward like plastic under the blow.
Cheng Shi didn't even get a look at the interior guards before the gate—now crumpled into a wad of iron—blasted away like a cannonball, carving countless jagged scars into the floor.
Dust billowed. Rubble flew. As the mangled gate vanished from sight, crimson slowly seeped through the grooves and gashes beneath the settling dust, and before long it had painted a vast stretch of the floor inside the dungeon entrance a vivid scarlet.
"..."
The fight was over. Absurdly fast.
A genuine steamroll.
But a new battle was already brewing—Big Cat hadn't bothered to muffle any of the noise. The periter garrison knights had sounded the invasion alarm the instant they heard the thunderous crash, and a tidal wave of enemies was closing in fast.
Big Cat didn't care in the slightest. The great bear issued two low growls and curled a finger—a massive, clawed finger—toward Cheng Shi, who still sat atop the high wall watching the show. The aning was unmistakable:
"Go ask your questions. These people—I'll hold them off for you."
Cheng Shi stared, his expression blank, his eyes glazed.
He dropped from the wall with a look of bewildernt, walked up to Big Cat's side, and craned his neck to gaze up at the royal war-bear, clicking his tongue in wonder:
"Hong Lin, you're making this much noise—don't tell
you actually want to throw hands with the Grand Executioner?
Aren't you worried all six of them are in Katouting right now and they'll co out to gang up on you?"
He ant it as a tease, but to his surprise, a sharp gleam flickered through Big Cat's eyes the mont she heard it.
She grew even more excited.
"???"
Cheng Shi was speechless. At this point, how could he not see it? This Heir of Prosperity's hands were itching for a fight. Her real target had always been the Grand Tribunal's six supre authorities!
Yu Go was far beyond reach, but the Grand Tribunal was right here.
"..." Cheng Shi went numb.
'Seriously, sis—is it Mo Li who's trying to align with War, or is it you?'
'Everyone else is still agonizing over their second faith, and here you are, already shopping for a third?'
Cheng Shi fixed Big Cat with a complicated look, and with his trademark steadiness, asked one question: "You won't die?"
The great bear snorted derisively, assud a fighting stance, and then lightly flicked one leg—punting Cheng Shi straight into the dungeon.
"Stop getting in the way. Go do your thing."
"..."
'Fine, fine—I'm in the way. I bring you here and sohow I'm the one in the way!'
Cheng Shi laughed in frustration. He stopped paying any attention to the fight-hungry warrior, turned on his heel, and headed down into the dungeon. To avoid being captured by the knights on the lower floors, he didn't forget to snatch a few fragnts of armor from the pool of blood at his feet and hastily paste them onto himself, disguising himself as a wounded knight.
And so, before long, a garrison knight who had narrowly escaped with his life ca staggering down toward the lower levels.
Nobody knew how many floors the Howling Iron Prison's underground extended, but the deeper one went, the more dangerous the offenders against Order beca. Ard with that knowledge, Cheng Shi set his sights on the very bottom from the start, his steps never faltering.
The trendous noise from the surface had clearly alard the underground guards as well, but the chaos hadn't spread down here. Even the prisoners in their cells showed no reaction to the commotion.
In their eyes, presumably, no one could breach the most fortified stronghold in all of Katouting under the radiance of Order.
The garrison knights followed protocol, ascending in orderly fashion to reinforce the upper levels. But when they encountered a fellow soldier stumbling down in a panic, their expressions finally changed.
"The gate's been breached! Hurry, send reinforcents—go, now!"
The squad leader of a garrison patrol grabbed hold of the soldier who was about to collapse, his face grave and shocked: "What happened?"
"Sothing—no, a bear smashed through the dungeon's iron gate!" The blood-soaked knight wheezed feebly.
"A bear?"
"One single bear?"
Every knight around him froze in place. Their expressions turned strange beyond words.
When sothing is too absurd, the tension in people's hearts gets displaced by the sheer bizarreness, and calm replaces alarm.
Sothing else occurred to the squad leader. His face hardened, and he fixed the wounded knight with a suspicious stare.
"What's your na? Wipe the blood off your face. Let
see you."
"..." The knight startled, clutched his cheek with a groan of agony, and cried, "I can't go on—you need to send reinforcents, hurry!"
"We will, but first—what is today's shift-change password?"
'Huh? There's a password too?'
'Wasn't that ridiculously thick iron gate above enough? You've got passwords down here as well?'
The wounded knight was, of course, Cheng Shi. Seeing no way to dodge the question, he rolled his eyes, struck by sudden inspiration:
"The fla of Civilization rises?"
The squad leader nodded: "Order endures!"
But the instant the words left his mouth, he hurled Cheng Shi to the ground, drew the longsword at his hip, and together with every knight around him pressed their blade-tips against every inch of Cheng Shi's skin.
"We have an intruder! Sound the alarm—enemy attack!
All personnel, hold your positions! The radiance of Order stands with us!"
"The fla of Civilization rises—Order endures!"
"..."
Feeling countless pairs of razor-sharp eyes boring into him, Cheng Shi's face collapsed in an instant.
'Wrong password...'
'But if it was wrong, why did you go ahead and finish the phrase?'
'You made
look like a fool who pops champagne at halfti!'
The squad leader didn't strike imdiately. He was cautious.
"Surrender peacefully. Under the Grand Executioner's watch, intruder—you have nowhere to run!"
Cheng Shi let out a helpless sigh:
"Well, can't talk my way out of this one. Looks like we're doing this the hard way. Good thing I brought enough dice. I wonder, have any of you ever seen...
A real rain of dice?"
The words had barely left his lips before countless dice exploded outward, scattering across the sky.
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