Revive Rome: Wait! Why not make the empress fall in love with me first?
Chapter 143 - 47 Gravity Trap

Chapter 143: Chapter 47 Gravity Trap

"The staircase is too narrow," said the leading Knight as he led his companions charging up the stairs. Due to the bulky size of their Power Armors, the Knights had to proceed one by one in single file.

"I’ve got a bad feeling about this."

"We couldn’t possibly take the elevator," his companion behind him remarked.

Not to mention the lack of electricity, the elevator itself couldn’t withstand the weight of multiple Power Armors, and it was impractical for the Knights to expect the elevator to slowly send them up one by one.

As they reached the fifth-floor corner, the Knights saw a masked girl sitting on the balustrade of the stairs above.

Her figure was small, seemingly not yet of age, with jet-black hair that fell straight down her shoulders. She wore a plain Mage Robe, her left leg bent and resting on the handrail, the right leg idly dangling.

"Hm?" She turned her masked face to look at them.

"Get out of the way!" the leading Knight drew his Broadsword.

"There are no heretics above," the girl’s voice was crisp and pleasant, yet her tone seemed to convey scorn.

The Knights were momentarily stunned, the solemn oaths they had sworn to defend their faith when they first joined the Crusaders flashed across their minds.

But the remnants of their fervor and sense of justice were quickly swallowed by the cold reality and a nagging sense of guilt.

"We are but loyal to our Monarch," the leading Knight pointed his Broadsword at the girl, "God above, may He witness our loyalty and honor."

"What if God commands your King to Hell, will you follow him down as well?" the girl said coldly.

Inside the Power Helmet, the Knight’s expression changed, then he immediately chose to Straight Stab with his sword.

Even if one day they really had to descend to Hell, they at least wanted to take this girl with them to the afterlife!

Before the Longsword could reach her, Thira remained seated unmoved, a low chuckle emanating from beneath her mask.

"Heh."

Her hand that was resting on her knee flipped over rapidly.

Gravity Augmentation.

The Knight’s Longsword continued to thrust forward, but his body bizarrely sank downwards.

No! The floor was collapsing!

The staircase, already on the verge of breaking under the strain, couldn’t support the suddenly doubled weight of several Power Armor Knights and instantly shattered and collapsed.

The bodies of the Knights, encased in steel frameworks, crashed through the stairs of the fifth, fourth, third, second, and first floors, landing heavily on the ground with a thud.

The violent shockwave transferred through the armor forced the Knights to spit out blood.

Thira waved her hand and a pile of pebbles, already prepared in the corner of the stairs, levitated.

These pebbles collected into a cluster in mid-air, the air pressure nearby quickly decreased, causing the surrounding air to rush in frantically and tightly compress each pebble.

Then, she suddenly removed the air pressure underneath the pile of pebbles and doubled their gravity.

Under the influence of the atmospheric pressure from above and the augmented gravity, the "cannonball" made of numerous pebbles instantly passed through the torn floors and hit the Knights’ Power Armor.

The severe physical impact shattered the Air Pressure Technique. The next second, the tightly compressed air between the pebbles suddenly expanded, blasting all the pebbles violently in all directions.

All of the Power Armors were pockmarked in an instant, as if they had been hit head-on by a high-powered Shotgun.

"Still not dead?" Observing the Knights below who could no longer stand up, but were still twitching slightly, Thira was also somewhat astonished, "Is Power Armor really that tough? Or is it that their flesh is more durable?"

She sighed, summoning another heap of pebbles—this time, twice as many as before.

"Team One! Respond if you receive this, Team One!"

From the distant streets, a Knight futilely shouted into the helmet communicator, yet only a crackling noise like fireworks came from the other end.

After a moment, the communication was forcefully cut off, unable to be reestablished.

"Team One is silent," the Knight hastily reported.

"Move! Retreat!" After a moment of somber silence, Alfred reluctantly gave the order.

Under the continuous suppression of the sniper’s shooting, the Knights quickly stood up, shielding the unprepared Knight Followers and two Commanders in the center, giving no opportunity to the opposing snipers.

Only a sniper can counter a sniper, Alfred realized deeply at that moment this well-known adage.

However, Joel thought of another weapon: the mortar.

If it was not possible to take out the distant snipers with precision, then perhaps it was cheaper and more direct to eliminate the entire cover, including the snipers within.

It was rumored that the Holy Solomon Empire, under Emperor Otto’s no-expense-spared development of the military industry, could now produce mortars.

Not just assembling the exterior shell and framework like Power Armor, with the internal control chips smuggled through Venice channels, but from casting raw material to final shaping, the entire production and supply chain were connected, capable of independently producing mortars.

Upon returning, he must suggest to His Majesty the King to import a batch of mortars from the Divine Luo on a large scale, to deal with the mages and snipers of Olympia.

Otherwise, sustaining hits from such a range, even Power Armor Knights couldn’t hold out.

"They’re retreating; do we pursue?" Watching the frantically fleeing Knight squad, Mia asked over the radio channel from the shadows.

"No need for us to take action," Aske said.

"Who?" Mia asked curiously.

"I saw them," Miel remarked from the rooftop, peering through her sniper rifle scope towards the outskirts of the town.

"The Spartans are coming," she said softly into the communicator.

——————

The Spartans, leading an army made up of a large number of mercenaries, arrived neither too early nor too late.

They had just emerged from the tunnel entrance when they were stunned by the violent explosions in the town below the hill.

After observing for a few minutes and seeing no further movement, they cautiously proceeded down the mountain road toward the town.

As soon as they neared the town, they immediately saw Alfred and others, escorting around twenty Knights, hurriedly retreating from the town center to another Crusader stronghold, not far to the northeast.

The Spartans attempted to intercept them, and a large number of Crusaders also rushed out from the stronghold, trying to aid them.

And thus, a chaotic battle ensued near the suburbs of the city.

To be honest, Aske hated chaotic battles the most.

Once the numbers rose to the hundreds or thousands, even a professional combatant could not be sure of surviving.

The most important advantage of a professional over ordinary players lies in the ability to read the battlefield.

However, once the battlefield complexity reaches a certain level, even professionals cannot grasp the overall situation.

In the extreme chaos of battle, maybe a stray arrow, a random bullet from a blind spot or angle outside the field of view, could end your life.

The most typical example was the "Unjust Expedition," the third version and expansion pack, where the Divine Luo Empire fought against the Church Court’s allied forces—immense and chaotic battles, daily skirmishes, with a mountain of player corpses after each.

Aske definitely did not want his team to suffer losses due to some inexplicable reasons before the storyline developed to the time point of the "Unjust Expedition."

Of course, even if the members of The Azure Longsword didn’t join the fight, the Spartans wouldn’t lose any time soon.