Holding the City

Wales Moen had been crowned.

At a time when Ansu stood on the verge of collapse.

Some of what had happened in Golden Oak Hall eventually spread. Under deliberate or inadvertent control, the nobles living in the inner city who lacked the qualifications to enter Golden Oak Hall learned the general course of events. They knew that the king had executed the "traitors," that the new king had gained the loyalty of the Royal Knights even before his coronation, that Duke Baldwin Franklin of the West had handed over the king's golden crown, and that Wales had personally completed his own coronation. Beyond these surface details, however, only a few knew of the purge within the knight order and how several great nobles had been imprisoned for treason immediately after the coronation.

And so, a king finally sat upon the throne that had stood empty for so long. The Royal Knights returned to the battlefield in the king's name. That day, many pale-faced nobles emerged from Golden Oak Hall, and the previously clamorous voices of every faction were brought together as one. News of "southern reinforcements" began spreading throughout the city, and the new king came forward to confirm its authenticity.

The soldiers defending the city were thus encouraged, the noble children in the various knight orders settled down, and the panicked citizens regained a little courage. The royal capital's order, already on the brink of collapse, swayed once at the edge of the cliff before finally returning within safe bounds. Though all of this was only temporary, temporary was exactly what Saint Suniel needed.

A massive Arcane Arc split the air and struck the southeastern city wall amid an intense flash and a chain of explosions. The enormous Saint Suniel Great Shield rippled in layers, erasing the Arcane Arc's