CHAPTER 282: THE THREE PLAZAS OF DEATH

With the city’s cohorts ascended and the Sentinel anchored into the realm's bedrock, Caius turned his sovereign gaze toward the grand perimeter of Æthrynn. The citadel possessed three primary gateways, each opening to a distinct direction and threat level. The First Gate faced the active war front, the blighted territories of the Nerathil, the Ruinborne. The Second Gate remained anciently locked and buried beneath subterranean stone, yet Caius refused the comfort of complacency. The Third Gate looked toward the borders of the Gale Realm, protected by a delicate diplomatic truce he refused to trust.

At his command, craftsmen restructured all three access points into a terrifying architectural defense, the Plaza of Death. Rebuilt into massive, three-sided horseshoe barbicans, each entrance lured enemy forces through an outer archway, trapping them inside an open court enveloped by elevated battlements and locked behind a heavy inner gate. Along these elevated walls, the Crow Mages layered overlapping spatial wards, turning the plaza into a localized gravity trap where incoming projectiles and escape spells folded into sub-dimensional voids. At the inner gate, the Red Sentinel Knights locked their kinetic tower shields, reflecting impact shockwaves inward like a pressure cooker. Meanwhile, the open court allowed the Sabre-Tusk Orcs, Black Flame Demons, and Obsidian Archangels to unleash devastating broad-range kinetic lightning, hellfire, and divine spears without bottlenecks or friendly fire.

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To man these killing floors, Caius stepped to the central star-node altar, linking his Tri-Pupil Eye of the Void directly with The Sentinel’s core to establish an automated garrison matrix. He divided the standing army evenly: four thousand seven hundred and fifty troops retained within the inner district as a mobile rapid-response reserve on a monthly combat rotation, and four thousand seven hundred and fifty assigned directly to the perimeter gates.

Recognizing where the true threat lay, Caius directed the vast majority of active gate forces, over three thousand four hundred primary warriors, supported by the largest detachment of Red Sentinel Knights, Crow Adepts, and Shadow Assassins, to the First Gate facing the Ruinborne. The locked subterranean Second Gate and the Gale Realm's Third Gate received vigilant, smaller garrisons to maintain absolute security.

Standing atop the high obsidian wall of the First Gate, Old Bones gazed down into the gleaming horseshoe pit as pulsing lines of mana routed the cohorts into position. "A grand arena where armies enter, but none leave."

"A treaty is only as real as the wall behind it," Caius replied smoothly, his eyes scanning the Ruinborne wastes. "Let the Nerathil test these gates, and let the Gale Realm take note. Æthrynn will offer them no blind spots."