For the first time since the attacks began, I stopped trying to find the enemy.
Instead, I started looking for the reason.
That difference changed everything.
For days, I had been chasing traces of dark mana, following witnesses, examining destroyed buildings and trying to understand how someone could appear and disappear without leaving enough evidence to identify them.
But every path had ended the same way.
Nowhere.
The more I searched, the more the enemy seemed to know exactly what I would do.
That was no longer a coincidence.
It was a pattern.
And patterns had beginnings.
****************************************
The next morning, I returned to the command hall before sunrise.
The room was almost empty.
Only a few guards stood near the entrance.
I walked toward the large map covering the central table.
The red markings from the previous attacks were still there.
I stared at them.
Then I began removing them.
One by one.
The eastern village.
Gone.
