Lentax Great City's defensive system could roughly be divided into four layers.
They were the Castle Towers of the first, second, and third rings.
At the very end was the Marquis's Castle, located in the city's core.
First, the third ring.
The Castle Towers there were not the most towering or magnificent, but they formed the ring with the greatest total perimeter.
The urban area they protected was also the largest.
Moreover, a large number of Garrison troops had been stationed there for a long time.
Under normal siege warfare doctrine, the outer third ring should have been the great city's first line of defense against external enemies.
Any enemy seeking to invade the city had to first break through the Castle Towers of the third ring.
But the Calamity Raven Church did not play by the rules. They directly set up both the long-range teleportation passage and the ritual to summon the divine projection within the city.
This rendered the third ring's various defensive structures useless.
Worst of all, it left the more than two hundred thousand Garrison troops stationed there trapped in a dilemma.
In the end, only about half managed to retreat to the second ring's defensive line.
Of the remaining half, some were wiped out by the Church's Apostle Groups, while others became prisoners.
It could be said that they had suffered an utterly undeserved defeat.
In a normal defensive battle fought from fortified positions, the Garrison troops could often achieve a favorable casualty ratio.
But when faced with the Apostle Groups' surprise attack from within, the Garrison troops were routed before they could even organize an effective resistance.
Now, the situation at the second ring was also hanging by a thread.
Theoretically, the large Mana Shields there could still hold for around an hour.
But