Deep within the shadows of the Wandenreich.
Several Reishi Lamps gave off a faint glow, stretching the shadows of the Sternritter members seated on either side of the long table across the cold stone walls.
At the center of the long table lay an open casualty list from the past few days of fighting.
Judging solely by the casualty exchange ratio between the rank-and-file Holy Soldiers and Soul Reaper squad members, the figures were not particularly bad. With their superior Reishi manipulation and fearless charges, the Quincy had even maintained considerable pressure as they advanced along the conventional front lines.
What truly suffocated everyone in the tent were the few names at the very top of the list, crossed out with crimson blood.
One Sternritter member after another had been killed or gravely wounded... this was the nightmare that shook the very foundations of the Wandenreich.
Beneath the appearance of triumphant advances along the rank-and-file front lines, they had actually been at an extremely passive disadvantage in clashes between their strongest fighters. The Gotei 13's veteran captains, with their deep reserves of strength, and their endless bizarre Kidō and Zanpakutō abilities formed an invisible net, separating, pinning down, and even killing the Sternritter's elites one by one.
When the lower-ranking Quincy recruited from every corner of the Light Empire first set foot on the battlefield, their eyes had burned with an almost obsessive fervor for His Majesty Yhwach. They had firmly believed themselves to be a divine army that would trample the Soul Society.
But now, as they watched the exalted Sternritter they had considered invincible fall one after another, that fervor was extinguished, replaced by a bone-deep weariness and emptiness.
On the second day of battle, the tide turned completely.
The Soul Reapers, poised for battle, did