The great outer gates of the Starry Imperial City were forged from twelve-inch-thick plates of sky bronze, hung upon hinges of cast star-iron and set into fifty-foot castle walls of polished white granite.
For three hundred hundreds of years, these gates had been the impossible to climb boundary of heaven. No mortal army had ever stood before them. No rebel blade had ever scratched their gold-trimmed surfaces. Behind them lay the outer office districts, the granaries of sky tribute, and the vast military barracks housing eighty thousand royal guards.
Now, those bronze gates stood abandoned.
Through the settling cloud of white green jade dust, Tie Shan led the vanguard of five thousand heavy spearmen up the grand raised stone road. His fourteen-pound star-iron pry-bar rested on his broad shoulder, its star-white-gold tip still warm from the strike that had shattered Pylon 00. Beside him walked Lin Tao, his land-mapper metal pen resting ready at his belt, his eyes scanning the defensive low roof walls above.
On the high walls, the sky guard post was in total, disorganized collapse.
Without the protective embrace of the Nine-Dragon Barrier, the royal soldiers—trained only to fight from behind invulnerable energy shields—panicked at the sight of fifty thousand disciplined mortals advancing in locked formation. Officers in gold-trimmed breastplates abandoned their commands, throwing off their heavy capes and fleeing down the rear castle walls toward the Inner Citadel. Weapons, axe-spears, and silk banners were discarded across the castle walls in wild confusion.
