As Sifa descended upon White City with numerous projections,
the other counties of the Pale Empire—
Kiena, Amarna, Benivev, Semalut, Bayviti, Kuz, and six others—
were all engulfed in war.
The Sifa Army launched a full-scale offensive, employing blitzkrieg tactics and rapidly advancing along the tributaries of the River of Life.
On the Empire's side,
due to a shortage of troops, every county could only gather its remaining forces along with the reserves
for a tight defense.
Naturally, the focus of their defense was the capital city of each county.
Under the pitch-black night sky, Gasa City, the capital of Kiena County,
was in the midst of battle.
The forces assigned to attack the city
were the Black Cloud tribe and the nomadic warriors of the grasslands.
Kiena City had no towering walls. Its boundaries were marked by rows of houses.
Therefore,
the grassland cavalry could easily charge into the city.
However,
Kiena City was divided into an inner city and an outer city.
The inner city was where the powerful and wealthy lived.
The outer city housed commoners and slaves.
The outer city had no walls, but the inner city did.
A five-meter-high wall marked the boundary between classes.
Under the cavalry's onslaught, the outer city had almost fallen.
Only the inner city was still holding out.
From the very beginning, the city's administrators had abandoned the outer city,
allowing the commoners to scatter while concentrating all their heavy forces in the inner city.
On the inner city walls, the Soldiers used rifles and cannons
to strike the enemy head-on.
But the grassland cavalry came and went like the wind, making them difficult to hit.
Only the cannons posed some threat.
Yet the number of cannons on the inner city walls was extremely limited. There were fewer than thirty