Chapter 26
The world noticed immediately.
Energy fluctuations normalized. Anomalous distortions vanished from long-range sensors. Probability fields stabilized into something dangerously predictable.
The Enigma was still there.
But the world felt… unguarded.
The first challenge came from a minor faction.
A border collective that had once bowed to Crescent, then flirted with Night, now testing neutrality with calculated audacity.
They seized a neutral trade corridor.
No civilians harmed.
No official claim.
A message written in plausible deniability.
The council turned to Kai.
"Handle it," they said.
Without looking at the Enigma.
Kai understood the implication.
Prove neutrality works without divine intervention.
He deployed negotiators first.
They were turned back.
Then sanctions.
Ignored.
By the third day, trade stalled, medical supplies thinned, and pressure mounted.
Veyr approached him quietly.
"You can still ask them."
Kai shook his head. "No."
"They'd do it."
"I know."
"And if this fails?"
Kai met his gaze. "Then I fail."
The operation was precise.
Delta units secured the corridor under Kai's direct command. No Enigma presence. No reality manipulation.
Just strategy, discipline, and risk.
It should have worked.
It didn't.
The ambush was perfect.
Hidden reinforcements. Trapped terrain. Weaponized pheromone dampeners that turned Alpha instincts sluggish and unreliable.
Three units lost.
Not killed.
Captured.
Broadcasted.
The message was clear.
Without the Enigma, you bleed.
The council erupted.
"This is what restraint gets us!"
"We should have kept them unleashed!"
"You gambled lives for principle!"
Kai absorbed it without deflection.
"Yes," he said. "I did."
Silence fell.
"I will get them back," he continued. "Without sacrificing neutrality."
"And if you can't?"
Kai didn't hesitate. "Then I step down."
The Enigma found him afterward, alone in the command hall.
"You're not required to martyr yourself."
Kai didn't turn. "I'm required to be accountable."
"You're protecting me."
"I'm protecting what we said mattered."
The Enigma's voice softened. "And if I break my seals?"
Kai faced them then.
"If you do it to save me, I'll accept it," he said. "If you do it because the world demands it, I won't."
The Enigma closed their eyes.
That distinction mattered more than any law.
Kai led the retrieval personally.
No overwhelming force.
No spectacle.
Just pressure applied at the right joints—cutting supply lines, isolating leadership, turning the faction's allies neutral through exposure and negotiation.
It took five days.
They got the captives back.
Alive.
Broken trust—but intact principles.
Kai returned exhausted, wounded, and very aware of his limits.
The council did not applaud.
They watched him differently.
Not as a shield.
As a leader.
That night, Kai collapsed into a chair beside the Enigma.
"You could have ended that in minutes," he said.
"Yes."
"Do you regret not doing it?"
The Enigma studied him. "No."
Kai exhaled slowly.
The world without a weapon was harder.
Slower.
But it was still standing.
And so were they.