Neither Green nor Cyrabelle had expected the Revolutionary Army to recover so quickly. Earlier, it had used a Void Airship to transport thirty thousand troops borrowed from the Rune Federation, planning to coordinate with the Holy Crusaders in a two-pronged attack. To Green, that had looked like a desperate last resort.
The Rune Federation could not have been unaware that any alliance with the Holy Light Church was a deal with a tiger. It had spent decades preparing to wrest the Number Twelve Void World from the Lorenzo Kingdom, pouring in countless people and resources to bring the Revolutionary Army this far.
Inviting the Holy Light Church into the game now meant adding another party to divide the spoils. Worse, given the church's size and strength, it would never be easily satisfied once it joined the fray. It would surely tear a sizable chunk out of the Rune Federation's expected gains.
That was why Green and Cyrabelle had concluded that foiling the Revolutionary Army and Holy Crusaders' surprise attack would buy them a lengthy respite.
Yet they had underestimated the Holy Crusaders' strength, and underestimated the Rune Federation's resolve even more.
According to current intelligence, of the 140,000 Revolutionary Army troops that had suddenly appeared at the Red Fortress, at most eighty or ninety thousand belonged to its hidden forces. The rest had surely been drawn from the Rune Federation's national army under the guise of volunteers.
The earlier loss of thirty thousand troops had already put the Rune Federation's government under enormous pressure. That it had sent even more soldiers this time showed how determined it was to seize the Number Twelve Void World.
By now, quite a few people could see that. It was why everyone present felt such immense pressure.
With the Red Fortress fallen, the Revolutionary