The convoy stopped at the edge of Dockside.
Six black vehicles. No markings. No weapons visible.
Four people stepped out.
Plain suits. Data slates. Expressionless.
No cultivation pressure leaked from them.
Which made them terrifying.
[Registry Unit Identified: Compliance Audit Division]
Alpha walked forward alone.
No guards. No posturing.
The lead auditor adjusted her glasses and spoke without looking up.
"Alpha Phantom," she said. "Unregistered entity. Territory controller. Subject of review."
Alpha nodded. "You're early."
"We're always on time," she replied.
She tapped her slate.
"Unauthorized cultivation zone. Resource diversion. Influence manipulation. Failure to comply with Registry oversight."
Alpha listened.
Didn't interrupt.
Didn't argue.
When she finished, he spoke calmly.
"You're not here to fight me."
The woman looked up for the first time. "Correct."
"You're here to make me disappear," Alpha continued. "Quietly. Legally."
A faint pause.
Then she smiled thinly. "That's an emotional interpretation."
Alpha gestured around. "Then observe."
He turned—not to his people, but to the auditors.
"You cut our supplies," Alpha said. "We adapted. You flagged movement. We rerouted. You classified this place as dangerous."
He met her eyes.
"Yet it's calmer now than before you came."
The auditor frowned slightly.
Alpha continued. "If you erase Dockside, you don't remove instability."
"You create a contrast."
[System Insight: Authority Logic Loop — Detected]
The second auditor spoke. "You're suggesting we legitimize you."
"No," Alpha said. "I'm suggesting you hesitate."
Silence stretched.
Inside the warehouse, Nyx's body arched suddenly.
Silver fractures flared violently.
[Null Weave Threshold: Breach Imminent]
Alpha felt it.
So did something else.
The lead auditor stiffened.
She looked at her slate—then at Alpha.
"What's beneath Dockside?" she asked sharply.
Alpha didn't answer.
The ground trembled faintly.
A presence brushed the edge of reality—old, restrained, watching.
The Unrecorded man's words echoed.
The city beneath you.
The auditors stepped back instinctively.
"This zone," the woman said carefully, "has… legacy interference."
Alpha nodded once. "You don't want to trigger it."
Her fingers tightened on the slate.
"If we escalate," she said slowly, "this becomes uncontrollable."
Alpha tilted his head. "Then don't."
A long moment passed.
Finally, she closed her slate.
"This audit is suspended," she said. "Temporarily."
Rex exhaled audibly from behind.
The auditors retreated to their vehicles.
As the convoy pulled away, the lead auditor looked back.
"You're not cleared," she said. "You're… deferred."
Alpha met her gaze. "That's enough."
Inside, Nyx screamed.
Alpha was already moving.
[Immediate Crisis: Ally — Critical Threshold]
The real fight had just begun.