An hour later, the more than twelve thousand human knights within the war fortress rose into the sky like bees pouring from a hive, blotting out the heavens in a dense black mass.
For many people who lived on the surface, perhaps not one in a million would ever witness more than ten thousand human knights taking flight together in their lifetime.
Once people numbered ten thousand, they stretched beyond sight. With over ten thousand knights flying through the sky, they truly blotted out the sun and covered the heavens...
The exact number of knights joining the battle was 12,474. Of them, more than ninety-five percent were Black Iron Knights; the rest were Earth Knights and a number of Phantom Knights.
The knights came from every continent and nation on the surface. The main force consisted of knights from Great Xia's Hua Clan, while the others came from the Western Continent and various subcontinents. There were also no small number of knights with red hair, blue eyes, and every variety of skin color.
12,474 was a very special number. It was special because it was a multiple of 81.
Why a multiple of 81? Because the most basic Trinity Knight Battle Formation required three knights. Three basic Trinity Knight Battle Formations could form a larger, nine-man Trinity Battle Formation. Three nine-man Trinity Battle Formations could form an even larger twenty-seven-man Trinity Battle Formation, and three twenty-seven-man Trinity Battle Formations could form the highest-level, eighty-one-man Trinity Golden Battle Formation.
3, 9, 27, 81—these formed a perfect ascending staircase, corresponding to the four ranks of the Trinity Knight Battle Formation: Black Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
12,474 comprised 154 Trinity Golden Battle Formations. At this moment, every Trinity Golden Battle Formation became a component unit of an even greater knight battle formation.