Twenty years ago.
Fireworks blazed overhead, searingly bright and crimson.
On the Day of Bloodshed, Bulida City was engulfed in a sea of flames.
The celebratory atmosphere of the National Day Festival had long since been replaced by fury and riots.
The streets, usually bustling with prosperity, echoed with cries, screams, and roars.
Groups of rioters surged toward noble estates like a tide, clutching knives, clubs, and other weapons, hatred burning in their eyes.
Most of the city's major buildings had been attacked. Billowing smoke obscured the sky, while flames licked at ancient wooden beams. From time to time, panicked nobles tried to flee by carriage, only to be intercepted by angry crowds wielding heavy weapons. Women dressed in gold and silver were dragged from their carriages, their jewels and ornaments stripped away. Before long, they lay on the ground with blood covering their faces, lifeless.
The Twelve War Gods of the current age had all fallen into disagreement. They should have received the blessing of the God of War and Sword that day, but instead, they had all joined the battlefield, attacking one another, protecting the imperial family, aiding civilians, or helping the nobles suppress the riots.
The flashes of the Imperial Army's mechanical weapons and Magic Energy particle cannons crisscrossed above the City Defense Barrier. The Imperial Army's screams rang without end, and civilians were inevitably caught in the crossfire. Even the City Defense Barrier could barely function fully under the strain.
Whenever a noble estate was unlucky enough to be overrun, flames erupted, and crimson rooftops collapsed with a thunderous crash.
All of Bulida City had fallen into a frenzy of self-destruction.
The heart of the vast Krui Di Empire had become a ruined wasteland in a single day. The prosperous age of the past had turned