User blog comment:Xilinoc/Ch. 611 - The Soul King Dies (edgy as ever, Kubo)/@comment-5303512-20141228175314/@comment-5398287-20141229073047

I'm honestly not super surprised or angry about their defeat (albeit I am at how it happened off-screen, though that seems to have happened so Kubo could end the year with this revelation/cliffhanger) because of what the power transferred to the Sternritter by Yhwach did for Lille - changed his power from bullets that pierce most everything to a shot that creates a hole in EVERYTHING, regardless of how durable it is. We didn't really see any of their injuries aside from Nimaiya's, but if Lille gained that sort of power boost, I can't imagine what it did to the others. Hence, defeat of the Royal Guard was all but inevitable and not too surprising.