Kova did not talk much on the road, but when he did, it mattered. He had spent his childhood in Ashfen-North's stone-works district, apprenticed to an enchanter who specialised in hide-based armour — which meant he understood material science, structural weakness, and the exact breaking points of things better than anyone Raiden had met. He looked at the Abyss-breed with the analytical calm of someone studying a load-bearing wall.
"The phase-state," Kova said, watching the creature ripple alongside them. "It can choose the depth?"
"Partial or full," Raiden confirmed. "Full incorporeal makes it untouchable but it can't interact with the physical world. Partial is the combat state."
"If it went full incorporeal inside a Demetron — passed through and then re-materialised — the structural damage from rematerialisation alone would be catastrophic." Kova paused. "Has it done that?"
"I didn't think to try it."
"You should try it."
The second resonance signal — the one that had been driving Kova to distraction — resolved itself two hours east of Ashfen-North, in a way none of them had anticipated.
The fourth Super System holder found them first.
She dropped from a dead tree directly into the path ahead of them, landing in a low crouch, one hand pressed to the earth, looking up at Raiden with eyes that were calculating him the same way he was calculating her. She was slight and fast and had the particular stillness of someone who had decided before landing exactly what she would do if they reached for a weapon.
Her system had apparently activated in the open wasteland, not inside a dome at all. No registration crystal. No Guild office. The Super System had found her out here, between domes, where she had been travelling alone for reasons she did not immediately offer.
Mira Level 3
Dome of origin: Unknown (refuses to specify) | Super System: confirmed
Element: Dark / Air | God Style: active (precise — she has been training alone)
Style: No sword — God Style manifests as full-body combat enhancement. Unarmed.
Status: Independently operational. Deeply suspicious of groups.
"Dark and Air," Sera said quietly to Raiden. "Same primary element as you."
"Different application," Raiden said, watching Mira. "Mine is sword-channelled. Hers is body-channelled."
"I can hear you," Mira said flatly.
"I know," said Raiden. "Your hearing enhanced along with your other stats when the system manifested. Air-element amplification. Standard."
Mira looked at him with the expression of someone who was revising their estimate of a situation.
"You have a Super System," she said. It was not a question.
"All of us do," Jester offered cheerfully. "We're collecting them. You're number four."
"There are five," Mira said.
"There are five," Raiden agreed. "One more. And a Dark Nightmare-breed heading for Dome Vantris in under two days. Are you coming?"
Mira looked at the Abyss-breed, which had fixed its dim-light eyes on her with an unsettling attentiveness. She looked at the sky, where the Emperor-breed's invisible mass pressed a warmth against the air directly above them. She looked at Kova, who was eating another piece of Jester's travel cake. She looked at Sera, who met her gaze with the steady patience of someone who had also been alone with an uncontrollable power and no explanation for three days.
Something shifted in Mira's assessment.
"Where's the fifth signal?" she asked.
"South," said Raiden. "Intermittent. Possibly suppressed."
"Suppressed how?"
"I don't know. That's why it worries me."
Mira stood from her crouch in one fluid motion, dusted off her palms, and fell into step beside them without another word. The Abyss-breed shifted to accommodate her as though it had always known she was coming.
Four of five.
Super System · Signal Update
Super System holders located: 4 of 5
Fifth signal: South · Dome Craveth · signal intermittent, partially masked.
Possible explanation: Signal suppression ward. Deliberate concealment.
Dark Nightmare ETA to Dome Vantris: 42 hours
Warning: At current pace, reaching Dome Craveth and returning to Vantris before impact requires either: (a) faster travel, or (b) the fifth holder coming to you.
Raiden read the warning. Looked south. Looked at the four people now walking alongside him, each one a contained system of power and uncertainty, each one still learning what they were.
He pushed a shaped intent through the Sovereign bond. Not a destination this time — a question.
The Emperor-breed's response was immediate. The air directly above them compressed, decompressed, and a ripple passed southward through the sky like a stone skipped across still water — a pulse travelling faster than anything that walked could follow.
"What did you just do?" Mira asked, looking up.
"Sent a message," Raiden said. "South. To whoever is masking their signal." He paused. "The Emperor-breed's intelligence signal travels faster than we can. If the fifth holder has a Super System, they'll feel it."
"And if whoever is suppressing them feels it too?" Kova said.
Raiden was quiet for a moment.
"Then we run south anyway," he said.