Following the coordinates indicated by the Imperial Guard, the knights activated their Jetpacks just thirty seconds later, descending through the thick smoke and deploying before the Silver Stone Gate. This was undoubtedly an extremely dangerous maneuver, far more dangerous than low-altitude parachuting at night. The scorching smoke produced by the burning corpses obscured everything below; no one knew whether there would be ground sturdy enough to absorb the impact, or whether they would step straight into the perilous tide of blood. But to the knights, this was merely a routine military operation. Their reflexes were quick enough to correct mistakes and adjust their posture in an instant, and their immense courage supported them in undertaking every dangerous act.
The knights' arrival provided formidable fire support. Heavy Explosive Rounds and Chainsaw Swords stabilized the Imperial Guard's controlled area and pushed toward the gap in the open Silver Stone Gate, wide enough for ten people to pass through side by side. For the moment, they suppressed the Extra-dimensional Beings wearing shells from the Material Universe and forced them back. The fact that the stone gate had been opened only a crack was also the result of Kamar-Taj's efforts, though the result was hardly ideal. Still, it gave Imperial Guard Supiluliumas time to keep an eye on Kamar-Taj's Arcanists and ensure there were no loopholes in his work. The price of cultivating an Arcanist was extraordinarily high: exquisite medicinal meal recipes, forbidden knowledge, magical alchemical potions with extremely limited production, carefully crafted magical artifacts, and more. Every one of them was a resource rarely found in the world.
Even Arcanists trained through such long cycles and immense expenditures might not fully achieve Kamar-Taj's goals. Even those who performed well at first could encounter trouble during a mission because their will faltered or their