When their lives were on the line, the usually sluggish bureaucrats and nobles, along with the greedy, scheming capitalists, formed an alliance with unimaginable speed. Private soldiers belonging to nobles and officials, bodyguards employed by capitalists, Factory Guard Units, and patrols—all the armed forces that had operated outside Stinnard City's military and Police—emerged in droves and converged on Edis Prison in the south of the city.
Edis Prison had originally been a military fortress, built to defend Stinnard when the city was first founded. As the city expanded, it swallowed up the fortress. No longer useful for defense, it became a prison for serious offenders.
The nobles and capitalists secretly colluding with the Revolutionary Army needed to stand against the Anomalies Bureau and the City Defense Army and hold back the advancing Undead Army. Naturally, they set their sights on this sturdy fortress.
Stinnard City imposed a curfew after dark, and the City Guard at every gate had strict orders. Escaping the city at night would be extremely difficult. So the many nobles and capitalists unwilling to sit and wait for death made Edis Prison their last stronghold. They hurried there with their families and retainers. In less than three hours, over a hundred families had arrived, bringing more than ten thousand private soldiers between them. They hastily organized their forces and set up defenses.
The Transcendents retained by those families numbered more than two thousand, and all were capable fighters. After all, a Transcendent needed real ability to catch the eye of Stinnard's nobles and capitalists and convince them to spend money. Even the weakest were Low Formal Rank, while one retainer of a Marquis family was a Legendary Rank powerhouse.
That Legendary powerhouse was unlucky, however. While protecting the Marquis family as they fought their way out of