A few days after the field test of Pentious’s machine, my life had finally returned to something that looked more like what it had been before Charlie Morningstar decided to knock on my door with her optimism, her ideas about redemption, and that particularly impressive ability to turn a simple visit into a succession of events I could never have predicted.
I didn’t actually regret the past few weeks.
It would even have been dishonest to pretend that some of those encounters hadn’t amused or interested me, and I could now admit without much difficulty that Pentious, despite his ego and pathological obsession with cannons, was a far more competent engineer than his reputation suggested.
Vaggie had also earned considerably more of my respect than before, and Charlie remained strange enough to pique my curiosity every time I thought I had finally figured out how she worked.
That changed nothing about a much more important reality: the Hazbin Hotel represented only a small part of my existence.
I was an Overlord.
I ruled a territory large enough that some parts required several hours to cross by road, an industrial organization capable of functioning without me personally supervising every workshop, and an army of thousands of soldiers distributed among facilities, checkpoints, warehouses, trade routes, and the borders of the domain.
Whenever I spent an entire day in Pentagram City or in an abandoned factory with Pentious, none of that magically disappeared while waiting for me to return.
The territory functioned precisely because the opposite was true.
An organization incapable of acting unless its leader personally gave an opinion on every detail wasn’t an organization.
It was a collection of dependents waiting for a single individual to think on their behalf, and I had spent far too long building what I possessed to tolerate something that fragile.
The main command room, located several levels beneath the manor, probably represented my real daily life better than every room Charlie had dragged me into since we met.
An enormous map of the territory covered almost the entire back wall.
The main roads appeared as carefully differentiated lines, while symbols marked the positions of military installations, mines, workshops, logistical depots, and observation posts.
The outer regions were represented with less precision, but still well enough to track trade routes and the territories controlled by powers with whom we maintained regular relations.
The central table could accommodate several dozen people, although there were considerably fewer of us that morning.
My lieutenant stood to my right, while several officers responsible for different sectors had taken their places around us with the reports compiled since the last general meeting.
I already knew some of the information from the daily reports, but I preferred hearing my officers regularly present the important elements themselves.
The way someone described a problem could sometimes tell me as much as the numbers sitting in front of them.
We had been working for almost an hour when the officer responsible for part of the southern sector finished his report on the fuel reserves of several depots before turning a few pages.
“We also had an incident last night on Route Eight.
A group estimated at around a dozen sinners attempted to stop Convoy Twenty-Seven, probably to extort it or steal part of the cargo.
The convoy leader refused to slow down and the individuals stopped pursuing once they realized who the vehicles belonged to.
No injuries and no merchandise lost.”
I briefly looked up from the document I was reading without feeling any particular irritation.
That kind of incident happened.
Hell was full of idiots, but most of them still possessed enough survival instinct to recognize a bad idea once it started staring them in the face.
Since the 666 News report and the incident that had caused it, the number of groups stupid enough to persist after identifying my vehicles had decreased considerably.
“Which unit is currently closest to the sector?”
The officer quickly checked the map in front of him before answering.
“Third Company of the Fourth Battalion is holding the southern post.
They are normally scheduled to relieve the defenses at Mine Twelve tomorrow morning.
I can detach a squad before they leave to inspect the road and the abandoned buildings nearby.”
I nodded, bringing my attention back to him.
“Do it.
If they’re only independent raiders, the squad handles the problem and checks whether they’ve recovered any equipment belonging to one of our previous convoys.
However, if you find signs that they’re working for someone more important or that their presence in the sector isn’t accidental, I want the report before any additional operation is launched.
There’s no reason to turn a local nuisance into a political incident because some lieutenant wanted to be overzealous.”
The officer acknowledged the order and wrote down the instructions before moving on to the next file.
I didn’t devote another thought to those twelve sinners.
I certainly wasn’t going to travel several dozen kilometers to personally explain to a group of raiders that stopping my convoys was bad for their health.
I had captains, lieutenants, and thousands of soldiers precisely so that this kind of event would be dealt with long before it reached me in a form requiring my direct intervention.
Most ordinary problems never even reached this room.
A warehouse manager was perfectly capable of dealing with a delayed delivery without asking for my authorization.
A company commander didn’t need to contact me to move an additional patrol when a road became dangerous.
If a small armed group entered our territory and refused to leave, the local officer had more than enough authority to eliminate them without waiting for me to personally sign a piece of paper.
I rewarded competence because I needed it.
And those who couldn’t bear the weight of their responsibilities were replaced.
The meeting continued with a series of considerably less interesting matters: construction work on an industrial building, insufficient production from a workshop, the need to replace several vehicles sooner than expected, and negotiations with a supplier who had decided that a twenty-two percent increase in his prices could be presented as a simple market adjustment.
I ordered that he be sent the offers we had received from three of his competitors.
If he genuinely wanted to discover how a market worked, I had no objection to contributing to his education.
My lieutenant then picked up a file considerably thinner than the others and waited until the previous officer had finished before speaking.
“Regarding the investigation connected to Carmilla Carmine, no direct evidence has yet been found confirming her personal presence in the sector where the Exorcist was killed.
Several indirect accounts still exist, but they are not consistent enough to be considered confirmation.”
I slid another report in front of me and shook my head slightly.
“Don’t devote any additional personnel to that lead.
Those already working on it can continue listening to whatever comes up naturally, but I don’t want any new teams or more intrusive attempts.
We’ve already learned what we actually needed.”
He understood immediately.
The important question was no longer whether Carmilla had personally killed the Exorcist.
I was now almost certain she had, but the difference between ninety and one hundred percent certainty wasn’t worth committing significant resources.
The essential point had been confirmed by the testimony recovered a few days earlier: angelic steel could genuinely wound Exorcists and, by logical extension, kill them when the damage was severe enough.
The rest could wait.
The officer responsible for the northeastern sector began his report next.
He had barely been speaking for two minutes when the door to the room opened.
The sound alone was enough to interrupt several conversations almost immediately.
Nobody entered this room during a command meeting without a good reason.
The soldier who had appeared quickly approached the communications officer, handed him a sheet of paper, and murmured a few words.
The officer read the document, then looked up with an expression that would have been difficult to interpret for anyone unfamiliar with my soldiers.
I knew them.
Something was wrong.
“Commander, we’ve lost all communication with Outpost Forty-Seven.”
I immediately stopped reading.
“Since when?”
“Its last regular report was transmitted at five forty this morning.
It contained nothing abnormal.
Another status report was due at eight, but nothing arrived.
Post Forty-Six attempted several times to contact them through the usual channels, then through the buried secondary line, without receiving a response.”
I looked at the clock on the wall.
It was almost nine thirty.
“Did you send anyone to check?”
The officer nodded.
“A six-man patrol left Forty-Six at eight twenty.
The trip should have taken no more than thirty minutes, but they never reported their arrival and stopped responding at eight fifty-two.”
This time, several officers around the table straightened.
So did I.
Outpost Forty-Seven wasn’t a simple observation post with two guards and a radio.
It monitored one of the northeastern approaches to the territory, possessed several fortified positions, and maintained a permanent garrison capable of holding off a conventional attack long enough for neighboring posts to send support.
A technical problem could explain the loss of communications.
It did not explain the disappearance of an entire patrol sent to investigate that failure.
I stood and walked over to the large map.
“Current strength at the post?”
The officer responsible for the northeastern sector moved closer to answer.
“Sixty-four soldiers, two officers, three vehicles, and two fixed heavy positions.
No exercise was scheduled this morning and no unit was supposed to leave the installation.”
A group of raiders didn’t make sixty-four soldiers disappear without someone finding a way to warn the neighboring post.
Even an organized assault should have produced easily observable signs: smoke, explosions, prolonged gunfire, or the movement of forces large enough to attract the attention of patrols.
I traced the roads and terrain around the installation with my eyes.
The outpost stood in a rocky area crossed by old mining facilities dating from before our actual occupation of the sector.
Some tunnels had been sealed, while others had simply been abandoned after extraction ceased to be profitable.
“No significant forces observed in the area?”
“Nothing.
The night patrols reported no vehicle columns or unusual gatherings.
Posts Forty-Six and Forty-Eight haven’t seen anything either.”
I didn’t like that.
An attack powerful enough to overwhelm an entire garrison should have left traces before it ever reached the outpost.
“Immediately close Routes Six and Seven to civilian and commercial traffic.
Convoys go south until further notice, even if it adds several hours to their journey.
Neighboring posts go to heightened alert and double their patrols, but nobody approaches Forty-Seven without direct orders.
I also want every installation in the sector to test its secondary communication lines and confirm that they actually work instead of simply telling me that they should work.”
The officers immediately began relaying the instructions.
I continued studying the terrain.
“Prepare a full company with medical support, transport vehicles, and an engineering team.
A second company will move into reserve at Forty-Six and remain ready to advance as soon as we have a better understanding of the situation.”
My lieutenant moved close enough to speak without raising his voice over the others.
“You’re going with the first force.”
It wasn’t really a question.
I turned my head slightly toward him.
“If something can neutralize an installation of that size without giving sixty-four soldiers enough time to send a clear message, then this is no longer a problem I’m going to leave entirely to a captain while waiting for a report.
I want to see what happened myself before sending more men into a situation we don’t understand.”
I picked up my cap from the back of the chair I had left.
“And if whatever did this is still there, I’d rather not give it time to realize we’ve only just noticed its presence.”
This time, nobody felt the need to add anything.
Less than an hour later, the military column left the main complex.
The difference from my recent outings would have been almost comical if the reason for this trip hadn’t been considerably less amusing.
There was no limousine leading the way.
No Egg Boi trying to carry a gear bought on impulse.
Charlie wasn’t sitting beside me explaining that communication could probably solve part of the problem.
Several armored vehicles opened and closed the column, while troop transports advanced between them at regular intervals.
The soldiers inside checked their equipment or remained silent while awaiting orders.
Nobody spoke unnecessarily, and nobody needed to pretend they didn’t understand why we were there.
I occupied the command vehicle with my lieutenant and the captain responsible for the company.
A detailed map of the sector was spread across the central table, secured by several clips to prevent the engine’s vibrations from making it slide.
The captain pointed to a junction roughly two kilometers from the outpost.
“I propose stopping the heavy vehicles here.
Two sections will then advance along the flanks to cover the approach while the third follows the main road with the engineering team.
If the outpost’s defenses are still active, we’ll remain outside their firing lines until we can confirm that the identification system is functioning normally.”
I studied his plan for a few seconds before moving my finger toward a ridge farther north.
“Have the second section pass behind this terrain before they branch off.
From the outpost, the western approach is almost completely concealed by the rock, and I’d prefer any potential observer not immediately see our full deployment.
The engineering team stays with the third section until we know whether the gates and automated systems are safe.”
The captain studied the map, then nodded.
“It’ll add a few minutes to their advance, but they’ll arrive with better cover.
I’ll modify the orders.”
He transmitted the changes by radio while I leaned back slightly in my seat.
The sensation gradually returning wasn’t really fear.
I knew fear.
I had spent enough time in wars to recognize what it did to the stomach, the hands, and the way thoughts began to turn.
What I felt now belonged to something else.
An almost familiar concentration, the kind that appeared when too many variables remained unknown for the situation to be considered safe, but not enough to prevent action entirely.
I had known that feeling in my previous life, when my body was still human and every operation required calculating distance, fuel, available magic, and the probability that some idiot would decide to overturn the plan at the worst possible moment.
Back then, a narcissistic deity had also developed the habit of demanding prayers from me in exchange for properly accessing power I had never asked for.
I did not miss that part of my existence at all.
Here, things were simpler.
My power belonged to me.
My soldiers followed my orders because they were bound to me and because the organization I had built rested on a clear hierarchy, not because some general several hundred kilometers away had decided to sacrifice me for a front line badly drawn on a map.
I greatly preferred this system.
Even when it involved infernal creatures, Overlords, and a constant probability of violence.
We abandoned the vehicles a little over two kilometers from the outpost.
The company deployed quickly according to the formation decided during the journey.
Two sections began moving toward their respective axes while I took my place with the central group.
My lieutenant remained slightly to my left, and the captain moved far enough behind to maintain a clear view of his men’s advance.
The terrain grew rougher as we moved forward.
Formations of black rock rose from the reddish ground like broken teeth, sometimes separated by the remains of old industrial structures abandoned for decades.
Rusted rails disappeared beneath the dust, and several sealed tunnel entrances were still visible at the foot of the cliffs.
I extended my magical detection.
The presences of my soldiers immediately appeared around me, familiar and easy to distinguish.
Ahead of us, nothing stood out clearly.
We continued without increasing our pace.
About five hundred meters from the post, the captain abruptly raised his fist.
The entire column stopped almost in the same movement.
A rifle lay in the middle of the road.
My lieutenant approached with two soldiers while the others covered the heights.
I followed after a few seconds, sufficiently certain that no obvious trap surrounded the object.
I immediately recognized the model.
One of ours.
A small dark stain also marked the stone beside it.
My lieutenant crouched.
“The blood is already partially dry, but the trail continues behind that formation.
If this rifle belongs to the patrol sent this morning, they were attacked before reaching the post.”
We followed the traces.
The first body lay several dozen meters farther on, concealed behind a cluster of rocks.
I crouched beside him while the soldiers secured the surroundings.
Part of his coat had been torn away along with his shoulder, and several deep wounds crossed his torso.
There were no projectile impacts or magical burns, and the marks were far too irregular to have come from a blade.
Something had struck him with enough force to tear through several layers of fabric, then closed its jaws around his body.
My lieutenant examined the ground.
Several footprints were visible in the dust, each deep enough to indicate considerable weight.
Four long claws ended every print.
The captain joined us a few moments later.
“Two more bodies have been found east of the road.
The other three members of the patrol are still missing.”
I stood without taking my eyes off the tracks.
“Tighten the formations and keep the flanks covered.
From now on, nobody considers the walls or high ground safe simply because they can’t see anything.
We continue to the outpost.”
My primary weapon materialized between my hands.
The captain noticed, but simply relayed the orders.
Outpost Forty-Seven appeared a few minutes later.
From a distance, the installation looked almost intact.
That was probably the most disturbing part of the entire scene.
The outer walls hadn’t been destroyed.
The main gate hadn’t been forced, and the two heavy positions installed at the corners of the post bore no obvious signs of impact.
No enemy vehicles burned nearby and no significant smoke rose above the buildings.
Yet the ramparts were empty.
The main gate remained partially open, and a trail of dark blood ran beneath one of the doors before disappearing into the courtyard.
I raised a hand.
The company stopped.
“First section with me.
Second circles the wall from the east and confirms that nothing is moving out the rear.
Third secures the perimeter and restores communications before entering.
If the automated defenses activate without proper identification, neutralize them from outside rather than sending someone running in front of them to check.”
The men separated.
I advanced with the first section toward the gate.
The damage became visible as soon as we entered the courtyard.
It simply wasn’t where we had expected to find it.
An interior door had been ripped outward.
Several vehicles bore claw marks, and bullet impacts covered the walls at roughly human height, proof that the defenders had fired in every direction inside the post.
A soldier lay behind an overturned crate, his rifle still trapped between his hands.
Farther away, two more bodies lay near a storage building, as though they had tried to reach a more defensible position before being caught.
A battle had indeed taken place.
But it had begun in the heart of the installation.
My lieutenant called me from the far end of the courtyard.
I joined him and discovered a metal grate normally meant to protect access to an old maintenance tunnel.
It had been torn apart.
Not from the courtyard.
From inside the tunnel.
Several bars had been bent outward, and deep marks covered the edges of the passage.
The tunnel floor was saturated with tracks.
Far too many.
“That’s how they got in,” I murmured.
The captain arrived behind us.
“These tunnels were supposed to have been sealed since mining operations ended.”
I turned my head slightly toward him.
“The ones we knew about were.
If something is digging or using passages older than our maps, our walls are useless against an attack coming directly from underground.”
Several trails of blood continued into the tunnel.
Some clearly belonged to bodies dragged inside.
My anger began to take a much more precise form.
I didn’t assign human morality to a creature hunting for food.
If a predator had found a passage beneath my territory and discovered that an installation full of soldiers represented a source of meat, it probably hadn’t conceived the attack as a declaration of war.
That changed nothing about what I was going to do.
A creature that had learned it could enter beneath my defenses would do it again.
And if it had an entire colony behind it, the problem no longer concerned only this outpost.
I looked at the captain.
“Get a complete count.
Every building is inspected before anyone goes down into that tunnel.
I want to know how many survivors we have, how many men are missing, and whether any of them had time to see what attacked them.
Third section stays outside until communications are restored.”
He nodded and left to give the orders.
I remained in front of the dark opening for several seconds.
Something had entered my territory.
Something that believed itself safe enough underground to leave with my men.
That mistake was going to cost it dearly.
The first casualty report came in a little under half an hour later.
Thirty-nine confirmed dead had already been found inside the post and around its immediate approaches.
Eleven soldiers were still alive, although five of them needed rapid evacuation due to serious injuries.
Fourteen were still missing.
One of the survivors who was conscious enough to speak explained that the attack had begun shortly after six.
The first creatures had emerged directly into the main courtyard through the maintenance tunnel.
Others had then surfaced beneath the workshop, probably from an even older passage nobody had identified.
The defenders had managed to regroup around the main building, but they had been caught from several directions and the creatures moved quickly enough to prevent any stable defensive line from forming.
The description matched the injuries found on the bodies: large quadrupedal creatures, strong enough to drag an adult soldier, capable of climbing walls and probably digging through certain relatively fragile layers of rock.
The survivor estimated their number at several dozen.
I looked at the tracks inside the tunnel.
Several dozen seemed extremely optimistic.
The captain found me in front of the underground access while the medical teams prepared the wounded for evacuation.
“The reserve company has already left Post Forty-Six.
They’ll be here in approximately forty minutes.
Given the estimated number of creatures and the fact that we still don’t know the extent of the network, I recommend holding this position until they arrive before advancing deeper.”
It was a perfectly reasonable recommendation.
And I was nowhere near stupid enough to believe that a reasonable decision automatically became a bad one simply because it slowed an operation.
I extended my magical detection into the tunnel.
Something was moving in the depths.
Not a single presence.
A multitude of weak signals, difficult to distinguish from one another because the rock absorbed part of the sensation.
The question wasn’t only how many there were.
More importantly, I wanted to know how far their tunnels extended.
If the network connected to other installations, waiting too long might allow some of the creatures to disperse beneath the territory before we even knew which exits needed to be sealed.
“The reserve company will secure the outpost and the access points when it arrives,” I finally replied.
“We’re going down now with two sections for a limited offensive reconnaissance.
Third stays here with the engineers and the wounded.
If we discover something larger than our force can handle cleanly, we come back up and return with more troops.”
The captain nodded.
My lieutenant had already drawn his blade.
I materialized a fresh magazine for my weapon and quickly checked the mechanism.
My lieutenant probably noticed my expression before we even began moving.
“You seem particularly pleased to have found a problem that justifies your personal presence.”
I turned my head slightly toward him.
He had managed to say it without actually smiling, which somehow made the remark even more irritating.
“Since when did analyzing my mood become part of your responsibilities?”
“Since you started smiling while staring into a tunnel full of predators that just massacred a garrison.”
I looked toward the opening.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t wrong.
For several days, my fights had amounted to improvised incidents, relatively short gunfights, or a creature we had ultimately decided to drive away rather than kill.
Here, the rules were simpler.
These things had massacred my soldiers, breached my installations from below, and created a potential threat to the entire northern sector.
Nobody was going to ask me to study their difficult childhood or search for a solution that allowed everyone involved to go home satisfied.
“Let’s simply say I appreciate problems whose solution doesn’t require three meetings, two contracts, and a conversation about everyone’s feelings.”
The lieutenant tilted his head slightly as he took his place beside me.
“I understand better now.”
We descended.
The first few hundred meters produced almost no sound apart from our own footsteps.
The old mining tunnel was wide enough for several men to advance side by side.
Rusted rails disappeared beneath the dust, and old cables still ran along the walls, sometimes torn loose by the creatures’ recent movements.
The two sections advanced in a formation adapted to narrow passages.
Two soldiers led several meters ahead of the main group, each covering a different direction.
The men on the flanks watched the cracks in the walls as carefully as the ceiling, while one team constantly kept the rear under observation.
The trails left by the dragged bodies continued through the dust.
Sometimes they stopped in front of a secondary tunnel.
Sometimes they resumed several meters later after crossing areas where the ground became too hard to retain marks.
We had been advancing for almost twenty minutes when my detection reacted violently.
I immediately raised my fist.
The column stopped without a single verbal order.
Something was moving behind the wall to our right.
Very close.
I angled my weapon slightly toward the rock.
“Presence approximately three meters away.
Multiple movements, but I can’t determine how many yet.
Move away from the wall and maintain spacing.”
The first soldiers stepped back.
The rock exploded less than two seconds later.
The creature that burst through the wall vaguely resembled the one we had fought during Pentious’s test only because it also possessed four limbs and a mouth full of teeth.
It was much leaner, built almost entirely around speed and explosive strength.
Its black skin formed thicker plates around the skull and back, while its limbs ended in claws long enough to perfectly explain some of the wounds found at the outpost.
I fired before it had fully regained its balance.
The burst tore through the side of its neck.
It collapsed against the opposite wall just as two more shapes emerged behind it.
My soldiers opened fire.
The tunnel almost instantly became a space saturated with detonations, dust, and fragments of rock.
One of the creatures took several rounds to the chest but continued advancing until concentrated fire shattered its front legs.
The second leapt onto the wall, continued almost horizontally, then reached the ceiling.
“Above!”
Several weapons rose.
The creature released its grip.
I deployed a barrier just before it fell onto the front line.
Its claws struck the magical surface with enough force to make the entire structure vibrate, but it remained trapped several dozen centimeters above the soldier it had targeted.
My lieutenant lunged to the side.
His blade traced a rapid arc that nearly severed the creature’s neck entirely.
The body hit the ground.
My barrier vanished.
“They can dig directly through the walls.
From now on, no formation stays completely against a wall, and the second line watches the sides as well.”
Farther down the tunnel, a growl echoed.
Then another.
The rock vibrated in several places.
The soldiers tightened their formation slightly.
I felt my smile return despite myself.
“They know we’re here.”
The tunnel exploded from three directions almost simultaneously.
This time, enough creatures came through to turn the confrontation into a genuine melee.
The first wave hit our line with impressive violence, but my soldiers didn’t panic.
The front ranks dropped to one knee so those behind them could fire overhead, while the men closest to the openings used short bursts to avoid wasting entire magazines into the dust.
One creature nevertheless broke through the barrage.
It caught the barrel of a rifle in its jaws and nearly ripped it from the soldier’s hands.
His comrade immediately fired into it at point-blank range before two more shots tore through its flank.
I destroyed a second creature as it leapt toward me, then let my weapon disappear when a third came too close for the rifle to remain practical.
I pivoted aside, materialized a pistol directly beneath its jaw, and fired.
The impact snapped its head backward.
Another presence was already approaching.
This time, I took off just enough to pass over its attack before twisting in midair and materializing a heavier rifle between my hands.
The burst tore through its back and into its chest.
My boots touched the ground again as my lieutenant finished off a creature that had managed to slip behind our line.
The captain was giving orders from several meters behind us, repositioning his men as the wounded were evacuated toward the second line.
He wasn’t waiting for me to tell him what to do.
Nobody was.
They knew how to fight.
One creature nevertheless managed to catch a soldier by the leg and began dragging him toward a side tunnel.
Two of his comrades immediately grabbed his coat and slowed the movement enough to give me an opening.
I projected a barrier behind the creature, abruptly cutting off any possibility of retreat.
It turned.
Six rifles fired almost simultaneously.
Silence returned less than two minutes after the attack had begun.
The creatures’ bodies now littered the tunnel alongside my wounded soldiers.
One man didn’t get back up.
A claw had penetrated his chest deeply enough to make any attempt at treatment pointless.
I approached while the medical team dealt with the others.
There was nothing spectacular to say.
No grand declaration.
A soldier dying in combat was neither a surprise nor a unique tragedy in the history of Hell.
That didn’t mean I left my men to rot in a tunnel.
“Identify him and prepare his body for evacuation.
Nobody stays down here.”
The captain nodded.
I reloaded my weapon while another soldier transmitted the new instructions to the outpost.
We continued deeper.
The farther we descended, the less the network resembled the old mining tunnels.
Walls shaped by tools gradually disappeared, replaced by natural cavities connected by passages widened with claws.
Bones and pieces of material scavenged from the surface had begun accumulating in certain areas, and the smell gradually filling the tunnels left little doubt about the purpose of these places.
We found three of the missing soldiers in a side cavern.
All dead.
Two more were discovered farther ahead.
The sixth was still breathing.
Weakly, but enough that his hand closed around his weapon when our silhouettes appeared in the opening.
Good reaction.
His arm fell again when he recognized our uniforms.
Part of his left leg was missing below the knee and several wounds covered his torso, but he was conscious.
The medical team rushed toward him.
I crouched nearby, close enough for him to see me without getting in the way of those working.
“How many are there?”
He tried to speak.
Almost nothing came out.
A medic administered something, then the soldier slowly inhaled before trying again.
“Way more than the ones at the post.
They dragged us deeper… big cavern… I saw dozens, but behind them… more.
Maybe hundreds.”
I looked at my lieutenant.
The estimate given by the survivor at the outpost had probably just been exceeded by a considerable margin.
The wounded soldier weakly grabbed my sleeve before I could stand.
“They took the others… farther down.”
I placed a hand over his wrist.
“You did your job.
Now let the medics do theirs and save your strength so you can make it back alive.”
His fingers loosened.
I stood as two soldiers prepared to transport him.
The captain approached.
“If we’re genuinely dealing with several hundred creatures, advancing with two sections is becoming too dangerous.
We should withdraw to the outpost and wait for the second company.”
This time, I didn’t immediately dismiss the proposal.
He was right.
Fighting several hundred predators capable of attacking through the walls inside narrow tunnels would have been an excellent way to lose an entire company without accomplishing much.
However, the wounded soldier had mentioned a large cavern.
That considerably changed our options.
I extended my detection as deeply as possible.
A massive concentration of presences seemed to lie somewhere beneath us.
Not close enough to distinguish each individual, but far too dense to mistake for a few isolated creatures.
“We’ll only confirm the existence of that cavern and its access point.
A reduced team advances with me until we obtain direct observation.
Everyone else establishes a defensive position here, prepares for withdrawal, and immediately transmits the coordinates to the reserve company.
If we discover something too large to deal with cleanly, we pull back.”
The captain approved the plan.
This time, nobody tried to argue further.
The large cavern was less than five hundred meters farther down.
We reached it through an opening several meters above the main floor.
I lay down near the edge beside my lieutenant and looked at what was below.
The first word that came to mind would probably have disappointed Charlie.
“Holy fucking shit…”
The soldier had seriously underestimated their numbers.
The cavern had to stretch for several hundred meters, and its ceiling rose high enough to disappear partially into the darkness.
Dozens of tunnels opened along its walls.
The creatures occupied almost the entire lower area, some gathered around carcasses, others sleeping in natural hollows or moving among smaller forms that were probably their young.
I stopped counting when I approached two hundred visible individuals.
There were probably many more inside the tunnels.
At the center of the cavern, a much larger mass moved.
The creature that rose must have stood nearly eight meters at the shoulder.
Its body possessed the same black plates as the others, but these formed genuine armor around its torso and skull.
Several bony protrusions ran along its spine, and its jaws looked wide enough to cut one of my soldiers in half.
I felt my smile widen.
My lieutenant turned his head slightly toward me.
“We were supposed to observe before deciding what to do.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
I looked up toward the ceiling.
Very high.
Then I studied the concentration of creatures below.
A large open space.
No civilians.
No important buildings to protect.
No Charlie nearby to stare at me in horror if I dropped several dozen tons of explosives into the area.
I slowly moved back from the edge.
“Pull everyone back to the last fortified intersection and inform the outpost that the colony is much larger than expected.
When the second company arrives, it immediately begins securing the exit routes behind us.”
My lieutenant straightened beside me.
“And regarding the colony itself?”
I briefly looked back toward the cavern.
My smile became openly predatory.
“I’ll deal with the main part of the problem.”
The observation team withdrew without incident.
A few minutes later, I stood in front of the main entrance to the cavern with my lieutenant and around twenty soldiers.
The rest of the force had withdrawn far enough to position themselves behind several bends in the rock and prepare improvised defensive barriers.
I looked at my lieutenant.
“You should fall back with the others.”
He calmly drew his blade from its sheath.
“I’ll stay here as long as you do.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“I could simply order you to leave.”
“You could.
But you probably won’t, because you know I can keep some of those creatures from jumping on you while you deal with the rest.”
I stared at him for a few seconds.
He was right.
Which was annoying.
“Fine.
But if you get crushed by a piece of ceiling because you wanted to demonstrate dramatic loyalty, I promise I’ll find a way to make you write your own report after you die.”
His sharp-toothed smile widened slightly.
“Noted.”
I took a few steps toward the opening.
Then I extended my magic.
The first portal appeared in the air above the cavern.
A second followed.
Then a third.
A fourth.
Enormous glowing circles tore through space as the ends of heavy artillery pieces appeared through them.
Only the barrels protruded from the portals, aimed directly at the mass of creatures several dozen meters below.
The first monsters raised their heads.
A roar rose from the center of the colony.
The massive creature had noticed us.
I felt that old excitement that always accompanied the moment when a battle stopped being hypothetical and became something perfectly concrete.
I needed no prayer.
No divine name.
No permission.
This power was mine.
“Prepare the defenses and fall back behind the first line.
I want nobody in the path of the debris once this starts.”
The soldiers immediately activated the prepared defenses.
I reinforced their protection with a larger barrier covering the entire opening.
Then I slowly closed my hand.
“Fire.”
The first salvo turned the cavern into a storm.
The shells struck several areas of the floor almost simultaneously, throwing columns of rock, dust, and infernal flesh into the air.
The noise was so violent that I felt the vibrations run through my bones despite the barrier.
Before the smoke could even settle, the cannons fired a second time.
Then a third.
I mentally adjusted their angles by following the movement I could detect beneath the dust.
The creatures began scattering, some running toward the tunnels, others attempting to climb the walls to reach our position.
I redirected two pieces toward the densest groups.
Another series of explosions shook the cavern.
A few survivors still managed to reach the entrance.
My soldiers opened fire from their positions.
One creature broke through the first volley and leapt toward the barrier.
My lieutenant waited on the other side and severed one of its front legs when it struck the protection, then drove his blade beneath its jaw the moment it lost its balance.
Another came behind it.
I fired directly through an opening in my own barrier.
It collapsed.
The laugh came almost naturally.
Not hysterical.
Not cruel.
Something much simpler and deeply familiar.
I didn’t enjoy slaughtering the weak simply because they annoyed me.
I enjoyed fighting.
I enjoyed violence when it had a reason, when an opponent could genuinely force me to use what I had learned and built, and especially when no political or diplomatic considerations turned every decision into a secondary problem.
The creatures had attacked my territory.
The response was clear.
A massive shape emerged through the smoke.
The dominant creature was still standing.
Wounded, several plates torn from its flank, but far from dead.
It raised its head toward me.
I felt my smile widen further.
Now there was something worthy of my personal attention.
I left the ground before my lieutenant could say anything.
My flight magic launched me into the cavern.
“Commander!”
His voice echoed behind me.
I knew perfectly well what he was going to try to remind me of, but I had no intention of listening.
The massive creature leapt.
Its jaws snapped shut less than a meter beneath my boots as I abruptly gained altitude.
I twisted in the air and materialized two automatic weapons.
The bursts struck its face.
Most of the rounds ricocheted from the thick plates covering its skull.
I gave a small laugh.
“Of course you have armor.
It would be too easy otherwise.”
The creature landed before immediately jumping again.
This time, I waited for it.
When it came close enough, I opened an angled barrier in front of its head.
It struck the barrier at full speed.
Its own weight threw it sideways.
I immediately dove toward its flank and materialized a much heavier rifle.
Several shots struck the joint of its front leg, where the protective plates were forced to leave an opening for movement.
Dark blood sprayed out.
The beast roared.
I gained altitude again before its claws could reach me.
Around us, the artillery pieces continued crushing the last large concentrations of creatures while my soldiers controlled the exits near our position.
The dominant creature tried to catch me again.
I let it exhaust itself chasing a target too small and too mobile for it.
Every attack revealed a different angle.
Every charge exposed a gap between the plates.
I continued firing only when a genuine opening appeared, refusing to waste power against armor that absorbed frontal impacts perfectly well.
Then the opportunity came.
The creature abruptly turned to avoid an explosion and fully exposed its right flank.
I opened two new portals.
The ends of the cannons appeared less than thirty meters away.
The beast turned its head.
Too late.
“Bad fucking day, buddy.”
Both pieces fired almost simultaneously.
I had to climb behind a reinforced barrier myself to avoid being thrown away by the blast.
When the smoke dispersed, the creature lay at the bottom of a crater.
It was still moving.
Barely.
I slowly descended toward the ground.
Its eyes followed my movement.
I materialized a rifle between my hands and found the opening between the already shattered plates around its skull.
This time, a single shot was enough to make the body go still.
I remained in front of it for several seconds, letting my breathing return to normal while the gunfire gradually diminished around me.
The colony had practically ceased to exist.
I looked at the craters, the partially collapsed tunnels, and the soldiers already beginning to secure the access points.
It had been a long time since I’d had the opportunity to use this much power without calculating the proximity of allies, civilians, or buildings somebody would eventually make me pay for.
I had to admit something.
I’d missed it.
The second company arrived while we were finishing the clearance of the secondary tunnels.
A few groups had managed to escape the main bombardment, but none were large enough to require further personal intervention.
My soldiers advanced methodically from one passage to another, and the engineering teams had already begun placing charges in certain tunnels whose access we had no intention of preserving.
The cost remained heavy.
Two additional men had been killed since our descent and eleven were wounded, three seriously enough to require immediate evacuation.
Added to the losses at the outpost, those deaths were far too significant for me to consider the operation costless.
But the threat had been eliminated.
And it would not return in the same way.
I was standing in front of a provisional sketch of the network when the engineering officer came to join me.
“Commander, we’ve already identified six main branches from the cavern.
Some descend even deeper, but three rise toward the interior of the territory.
If the old mining maps are accurate, at least one could pass beneath the northern industrial sector.”
I looked at the route.
That information immediately changed the value of what we had discovered.
“Don’t blow all the tunnels.
Seal only those that leave our borders or would require too many men to control.
The others will be fully mapped before we decide what to do with them.”
The engineer looked up slightly.
I continued, pointing to several passages.
“If this network genuinely connects several of our installations, it could be used to move soldiers, ammunition, or equipment without exposing convoys on the surface.
We’ll secure the access points and install surveillance systems first.
Only then will we determine whether adapting it for logistics is worthwhile.”
My lieutenant, who had just joined us, examined the map.
“So these creatures may have revealed an underground transport network that would have taken us years to excavate ourselves.”
I gave him a slight smile.
“I appreciate enemies who leave something useful behind.”
The engineer noted the new instructions.
“We’ll begin mapping with escorted teams.”
“With a lot of escort.
I just destroyed the largest colony we’ve found, not everything that might be living beneath this mountain.
Nobody wanders through these tunnels alone because they consider the place secure after a single battle.”
He immediately returned to his teams.
My lieutenant remained beside me.
His coat was torn at one shoulder and covered in a mixture of dust and dark blood.
Mine had to be in a similar state, judging by the amount of grime accumulated on my sleeves.
He turned his head slightly.
“I suppose there would be little point in asking whether you enjoyed the operation.”
I gave him a look.
“If you already know the answer, why almost ask the question?”
“Because I believe this is the first time in a long while that I’ve seen you return from a fight in such a good mood.”
I looked at the devastated cavern behind us.
Once again, he wasn’t wrong.
“I enjoy fighting when the situation genuinely deserves a fight.
There’s a difference between using violence because some idiot annoyed me and facing something capable of representing a real threat to my territory.”
I returned his eyeless gaze.
“But if you start turning this into a recurring subject of conversation, I’ll personally assign you to warehouse inventory for a week.”
He inclined his head very slightly.
“Message received.”
It was late when we returned to the main complex.
I went to the command room first rather than heading directly to my quarters.
The complete assessment wasn’t finished yet, but the initial reports had already been compiled.
The wounded had been transferred to medical facilities, a temporary garrison occupied Forty-Seven, and several engineering teams were securing the main entrance to the tunnels.
I also ordered every post located near old mining facilities to immediately inspect its underground levels and compare current plans with historical records.
I had no intention of discovering the existence of a second colony when it emerged in the middle of another outpost.
When I finally left the room, my lieutenant walked with me back toward the manor.
“You should have your coat repaired before tomorrow.”
I looked at the torn sleeve.
“After the shower.”
He then examined the dust probably covering half my face.
“And sleep before going back to the reports.”
I turned my head slightly toward him.
“Since when are you responsible for my sleep?”
“I simply consider a commander operating with sufficient rest to be a strategic advantage for the Dominion.”
I stared at him for a few seconds.
“That was remarkably diplomatic.”
“Thank you.”
I pushed open the door to my office.
The room was exactly as I had left it that morning, which produced a strange feeling after spending an entire day underground bombarding several hundred creatures.
I removed my cap and placed it on the desk before sitting down.
My phone displayed several notifications: internal reports, commercial messages, a request for a meeting the following week, and, naturally, something from Pentious.
I opened his message.
He was informing me with far too much enthusiasm that he had found a new way to reinforce the mounting damaged during his machine’s test.
A file containing the plans was attached.
Then a second message explained why this new configuration would probably be superior to the previous one.
I looked at the screen.
Then at my dust-covered uniform.
Then at the time.
My lieutenant had stopped near the door.
He obviously noticed the name displayed on the screen.
“He’s already sent new plans?”
I let the phone drop back onto the desk.
“Yes.
And I categorically refuse to look at them tonight.”
My lieutenant remained silent for several seconds, which immediately gave me the impression that he was waiting for me to change my mind.
I pointed a finger at him.
“I just spent the entire day exterminating a colony beneath my territory, we lost men, discovered an underground network that will probably require several weeks of work, and I currently look like someone rolled me through a mine.
Pentious can survive until tomorrow morning without knowing my opinion on a lateral mounting.”
My lieutenant’s sharp-toothed mouth widened slightly.
“I’m sure he’ll find the necessary strength.”
I stared at him.
“Get out of my office before I make you personally write every casualty report.”
He obeyed, closing the door behind him.
I could still very clearly hear his laughter in the hallway.
I remained alone for a few seconds, then looked at my phone one last time.
Pentious had just sent another message.
I didn’t open the notification.
This time, I actually stood and headed toward the door.
He could wait.
And somehow, that was probably the most disturbing proof of the entire day that I still retained at least some control over my own existence.