Chapter 77: Almost
It did not take long for Kael's men to take their positions and signal their readiness. They were prepared, having brought their best operatives, a mix of silent infiltrators and hardened close quarters fighters.
Kael himself was among them. While he appeared to be a professional administrator, suited for the office, he was equally formidable in combat. Truly a Crow's talons were sharpened for both.
Val, of course, had come alone. He would not reveal Amilios without a damn good reason, and even then, he would hesitate before its planned time. The bee warrior was a strategic asset, not a blunt to be paraded on.
When Kael saw Val arrive unaccompanied at the rendezvous point in a dank alley two blocks from the factory, a flicker of surprise crossed his features before being smoothed away. He had assumed Val's mysterious associates would be present.
"Your team?" Kael asked, his voice low.
"They'll be here," Val replied, his gaze scanning the eastern silhouette of the factory complex. "But before we move, I must introduce one of them to you. A reminder, Commander do not attack. Maintain discipline." His eyes shifted to the cluster of Crow operatives. Even in the gloom, the tension in some of the younger ones was palpable, a quickened breath, the white knuckled grip on a weapon hilt. "That goes double for the rookies. Stay calm. What you're about to see is an ally."
Kael's confusion deepened. Such a stern warning wasn't needed to meet another human ally. Was the helper a notorious criminal? A disfigured veteran? He ran through possibilities as Val lifted his right hand and clenched it into a fist, a pre-arranged signal.
What descended from the roofline was not a man.
A presence settled into the alley, a displacement of air that felt more like a mountain shifting than a being landing. Amilios unfolded to his full height, his chitinous purple and gold form absorbing the scant light, his two eyes reflecting the stunned faces of fifty warriors like a thousand fractured stars. He was strength and a beast made flesh, a high ranking entity straight out of the kingdom's most cautionary tales.
Instincts honed by a lifetime of fighting human threats screamed in alarm. Half the rookies shuddered violently, a few experienced hands twitched toward sword pommels or crossbow triggers. Their training overridden by primal recognition of an apex predator. The air crackled with suppressed panic.
"Remember!" Val's voice cut through the tension, sharp as a blade. "He is a friend."
Kael, who had seen countless strange and terrible things in the king's service, felt his own composure crack. His jaw went slack for a heartbeat, his mind scrambling to reconcile the monstrous form with the concept of ally.
He saw not a beast, but a sovereign power. The tales from Veor, the rumors of 'mythical beasts' that followed the hero... they were not exaggerations.
"This," Val said, his hand gesturing to the majestic, terrifying figure, "is Amilios. Amilios, these are the ones we will be cooperating with on this operation."
Amilios inclined his head, a regal gesture. "Nice to meet you. I will be in your care on this mission," he said, the words oddly formal, learned by rote from Raiz. The contrast between the civilized greeting and his utterly alien visage was disorienting.
Kael fought to reassemble his professional facade. He cleared his throat, the sound unnaturally loud. "Nice to meet you. I am Kael, commander of these... operatives." He snapped his fingers, a sharp, commanding sound that jolted his men from their shock. "Eyes forward. Weapons down. He is with us."
The raid that followed was less a battle and more a demonstration. They entered through a secondary drainage tunnel Amilios located by scent, a path their maps had missed. The Red Hand had guards, traps, and ambush points but they did not have Amilios.
The Crows moved with their practiced, lethal efficiency, disabling sentries with silent takedowns and disarming magical triggers. But whenever they faced a hardened position, whether it was a barricaded corridor manned by five fanatics, a chamber with two glowing, automated mana crossbows, Amilios was always the frontman. To the Crows, he was a blur of iridescent color and devastating force.
He didn't fight to be specific, it felt more like he was disfiguring them apart. Their barriers held no place as it pulverized, simply gone, shredded by limbs stronger than steel. Guards were just paper, they were neutralized, immobilized in a heartbeat by scarily precise attacks.
The hardest fight the veteran Crows had steeled themselves for, the moment they had whispered final prayers and mental goodbyes to their families, never came.
They were spectators to a force of nature working with terrifying, deadly precision. They didn't know whether to fear the being who dismantled their enemies faster than their eyes could track, or to feel a dizzying, profound relief that such power was, temporarily, on their side. It was a potent and confusing dilemma.
Casualties: Zero.
Now, they stood in the vast, excavated central vault beneath the factory, the air full of concentrated mana and the smell of ozone and hot metal. Before them was the machine.
It was a masterpiece of malign engineering. It dominated the chamber, three stories tall, constructed of dull, gunmetal gray arcane alloy and crisscrossed with pulsating veins of crimson energy that throbbed like a diseased heart.
At its base were complex runic arrays etched into the stone floor, siphoning ambient mana. In its core, visible through a thick crystal viewing port, roiled a sphere of unstable, prismatic energy, the catalyst. Conduits thicker than a man's arm snaked from the machine and disappeared into the vault walls.
It was clearly, meticulously maintained. It was also clearly operational.
"By the silent Queen," Kael breathed, his professional detachment finally shattered by the scale of the threat. "It's... Look." He pointed to a series of crystalline pillars near the machine, each filled with a glowing liquid that was slowly draining from the top chamber to the bottom.
"Timers. They're on a countdown."
"Looking at the conduits, it seems it already connected," Val said grimly. "Is there anything important happening soon?" Val asked.
"Not much, there's no official meeting or gathering. The only thing happening is the party at the... oh no. If I am right, behind these walls there's a passage to the palace hall," Kael said in horror.
A Crow technician, her face pale, consulted a subtle divining device. "The drain rate... extrapolating... activation is 99% likely synchronized for the height of the king's birthday toast tomorrow evening. Approximately twenty-seven hours from now."
"Can we dismantle it?" Kael asked, looking from his technician to Val to Amilios.
The technician shook her head. "The energy matrix is hyper coherent. Cutting the wrong conduit could cause a feedback surge and trigger immediate detonation. The catalyst core is a contained mana singularity. If its housing is breached improperly, the release would be... catastrophic, even if not channeled through the foundations."
"So we cannot break it, and we cannot move it," Kael summarized, his voice tight.
Amilios stepped forward, his eyes studying the machine. He placed a gentle, five-fingered bee hand against the outer casing. A faint, resonant echo from his form, a sensing pulse. After a moment, he retracted his hand. "The core's stability is maintained by a harmonic resonance field. It is delicate, but it is also its weakness. Disrupt the harmony, and the singularity will collapse in on itself safely. We should be able to handle this."
"How?" Val and Kael asked in unison.
"It requires four disruptions simultaneously, at precise harmonic nodes." Amilios pointed to four protruding crystal resonators located at the cardinal points around the machine's midsection. "They must be struck with a frequency that is the exact inverse of their current resonance. Not at full power, just tuned enough."
"We don't have the equipment for that," the Crow technician despaired.
"You do not," Amilios agreed. "But I do." He raised his four primary limbs. "I can generate the precise frequencies. But I cannot be in four places at once. I need three others to act as focal points. I will channel the disruptive pulse through you. You must be in physical contact with the resonators the moment I initiate the sequence."
He looked at Kael, Val, and the stunned technician. "The energy transfer will not be pleasant. It will feel as though your bones are ringing at a pitch that shatters thought. You must hold on for the seven seconds required."
Kael didn't hesitate. "Do it." He gestured to two of his steadiest veterans. "You and you, with me and the specialist. The rest, perimeter defense. The Red Hand will have final defenders here somewhere."
Val nodded, placing a hand on one of the cold crystal resonators. "Let's finish this."
As Kael, his two chosen Crows, and the trembling technician took their positions, Amilios moved to the center, his wings spreading slightly as he began to emit a low, complex thrum. The air grew thick. Before the sequence could begin, a door hissed open on the far side of the vault.
A figure in stark red stood there, flanked by six others whose eyes glowed with fanatical zeal. The woman from the cellar. Dean Elara Vane's counterpart in fire.
"I knew the crows would come pecking," she said, her voice dripping with contempt. "Is that the monster who did the work? How fitting for the kingdom's guard dogs." She raised a hand, on which glowed a command sigil linked to the machine. "One gesture, and I can advance the timer from hours to seconds. Stand down."
The vault froze, balanced on a knife's edge. The catalyst swirled. Amilios's resonant thrum continued to build, a rising counterpoint to the tension.
Kael's hand rested on his resonator, his eyes locked on the woman in red. Val's jaw was set, his own hand in place.
They were so close. And now, the Red Hand's heart still beat, finger on the trigger.
Click.
The machine started whirring as it started.
"How? Your trigger was never pulled," Kael yelled seeing the stirred machine.
The woman's eyes looked at the fool, with at most joy.
"Did you really think I would come with the trigger to threaten you? For what would I do that for? This isn't blackmail. From the beginning till the end, it was a mission to finish. Thankfully we finished preparations earlier. Now, nobody can do anything."
She had left the real trigger, with her subordinate behind the wall. They just needed to open the thick wall door, so the signal could be received.
Hahaha.
The maniac woman retreated with her subordinates as her job was complete. The capital was destined to be destroyed by her hands.