"This is the main and private hive of the entire Crivald family. Come with me."
I was genuinely surprised.
I knew it was possible to have a personal Pod, but I didn't expect to see so many that the structure of that family was so close to the hive I had entered for the first time. The size was smaller, of course — but the structure remained practically identical, and in some details it even seemed to have superior finishing. It was the kind of discreet luxury that only real money could buy: not something flashy, but something well-made.
"This Pod is new, so it's the one you'll return to at the end of the first period. Now, if you could raise your sleeve, I'll need to take a few vials of your blood to align the Pod to your DNA."
Who would have guessed that, right off the bat, I would already have my own Pod.
Until the end of the mission, it would have to remain in the Crivald family's hive. But, according to the contract, I would have it at the end of the period — and, being linked to my DNA, it would be impossible for anyone else to alter it or take it from me. It was mine. Permanently mine, even if still out of my reach.
"And now? What do I need to do?"
After my blood was drawn, my Tag became permanently linked to that Pod.
It meant that, when I came back — if I came back — it would always be to it. Cris, who was one of the personal men of the one I believed to be the family's leader, explained to me that, despite the Pod already being available, it would remain locked for return until the end of the period. It made sense. They didn't want, under any circumstances, for me to abandon the mission halfway through.
"Now that you're linked to this Pod, you have two hours to record this content. Afterward, we'll head toward the portal."
✦ ✦ ✦
Cris handed me a thick folder.
Inside it, all the content of the mission — and it was there that the real problem finally revealed itself. I knew it would be difficult. There was no secret in that. But, while I leafed through the papers, I understood the real reason that mission bore the S+ grade.
[ Mission Report ]
The only daughter of Grand Elder Eris Crivald was sent to Shadowed Region 24B. The protection items were used the moment she identified what had occurred. Despite having managed contact with one of the family members closest to the territory, it has not yet been possible to reach her physically, due to the route and the enemies. The Tyrin dominate a large part of the territory, but there are other races resisting, forming a defensive centurion — including an Aquamarine. However, any weak link is removed from the main protection area. The intense cost demands a sacrifice for the protection of the outer wall. You will be this sacrifice, for the sake of Eris.
I reread the last line more than once.
You will be this sacrifice. There was no euphemism, no attempt to soften it. The Crivald family wasn't hiring me to save the elder's daughter. It was hiring me to die in her place — or, at best, to buy with my life the time she needed to escape.
✦ ✦ ✦
The Shadowed Territory, as it was called, belonged to one of the most enigmatic races in the Oasis.
Many still questioned how the Tyrin had even managed to enter the Oasis — and the reason was simple. Unlike all the other races, the Tyrin didn't seem to be intelligent. At least, not in the sense most understood by intelligence, which was having a minimum of diplomacy, of negotiating capacity, of reason.
They were something much closer to a colony.
No one had ever managed to study them in depth — because no one who entered their territory came back to tell about it. But, to me, one thing was obvious: they had some kind of chain of command. It was the only explanation for the fact that, even after hundreds of years, they had never expanded beyond their own territory. They never abandoned it. And they always kept it viable — not through destruction, as a virus would, but through a kind of symbiosis with the environment itself.
But that didn't make them any less lethal.
On the contrary. No race survived that place, and there was no kind of contact with the Tyrin that wasn't war. It was, in fact, one of the reasons the markets of that region were so empty — serving only the very few who lived on the fringes of the shadowed terrain, always with one foot in the grave.
To see a human survive in a place like that would already be surprising. A rookie, then, bordered on the impossible.
Which meant one of two things: either the elder's daughter was extraordinarily prepared, or extraordinarily capable. And, honestly, seeing the amount of money the family had, I bet on the first hypothesis. But the very fact that I was there proved that not all the money in the world had been enough. There was a limit to what gold and influence bought. And it was exactly at that limit that I came in.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Now… how am I going to prepare for this?"
Looking at the mission, it was clear I wasn't a savior. I was a necessary sacrifice — someone disposable, whose only function was to buy time so the contractor had time to participate in the purge and get out of that hell.
I expected nothing different from a mission of maximum difficulty.
But, now that I knew exactly what I would face, it became much easier to assemble a strategy to keep myself alive. Because the difference between a sacrifice and a survivor was, often, just information — and information had always been my sharpest weapon.
"The Tyrin are very territorial, but respond well to force. If I'm not mistaken, there's a race that managed to expel them on the very first push. The question is… how did they do it?"
What I knew about the Tyrin was little, but enough to start.
Like everyone, they were thrown into random places by the Oasis. Most agglutinated in the shadowed territory — but there were reports of some sent to isolated regions, and those, invariably, were suppressed before they could multiply. In fact, most of what was known about the Tyrin came precisely from those executors: the ones who killed them as soon as they identified them, preventing the expansion before it began.
And if there was anyone who had been successful at that, it was those who commanded the border of the shadowed terrain.
"Who would have guessed I'd have to encounter those sons of bitches so soon."
Lycans.
They were the ones who had the most contact with the Tyrin rookies that were sent — and, therefore, the ones who held the most information about that race. But, due to the betrayal they suffered, they were reduced to a territory that no one, in particular, cared to covet. Today, they were seen more as a wall of flesh against the Tyrin than as anything else.
And the rage had transformed them.
The fury of having had their own weakness exposed and exploited in every possible way had made them, over the centuries, extremely hostile to anyone who wasn't a direct subordinate of theirs. And, the main problem for me: they blocked any sharing of information. The knowledge that could save me was locked behind the rancor of a betrayed race.
✦ ✦ ✦
But not everything was bad news.
Success in the test — despite the setbacks with that girl who had fainted in the process — had allowed me to obtain the item I most needed.
In my hands, a large vial containing something of a brilliant amber.
Ammit blood was beautiful. The books I had read already said that — in fact, any race's first contact with that blood came through its beauty, long before any benefit was discovered. And, looking up close, I understood why. It was hypnotic, like liquid light trapped in glass. But what truly mattered was what it represented: with it, I would finally be able to build the Incubator.
And I would never set foot in the shadowed territory without it.
Because there was one thing that was no secret to anyone: the Tyrin reproduced as fast as ants, and were always, eternally, hungry. A strong army would be of no use if it couldn't be replenished constantly. What I needed wasn't just power to withstand the attacks — it was the capacity to replace my casualties as fast as the enemy replaced theirs.
✦ ✦ ✦
"I'll probably be attacked every day. Maybe I'll have to double the defense towers. Lucky that, with the magical powers they now possess, I'll manage to hold out with some ease."
The problems I would face would be more about logistics than about power.
In a place so hostile, I wouldn't have time to raise the level of anything. Everything would depend on what I already brought ready. For that reason, very probably, I would have to resort to some duplication tactic — mainly of the towers, because they would be the backbone of my defense, and I would need them always active. The best way to guarantee that would be to keep one always on standby while the other evolved. It was on them that I bet my survival.
But crucial information was still missing.
I didn't yet know how, exactly, that so-called sacrifice process would work. I didn't know whether I would simply be abandoned at some forgotten point, forced to defend all flanks at the same time, or whether there would be something even more complex waiting for me. The mention of an outer wall in the report clearly meant something — but it was as vague as the very idea of "sacrifice." And, unfortunately, that kind of information wasn't even in the dossier handed to me — which, in itself, was already a sign. It meant there was a complication still deliberately unknown to me.
"I'll have to find out for myself."
✦ ✦ ✦
Even so, the power I had gave me security.
And that security didn't come from naivety. It came from the fact that my territory was extremely solid and compact — and, within it, I had the guarantee that I would manage to hold out. There was an enormous difference between fighting in open field and fighting behind one's own walls, and I had always been the kind of Lord who built for the second scenario.
Another piece of news that brought me comfort was the nature of the Tyrin themselves.
Like the Infernals, they didn't seem to have any kind of military power capable of stopping aerial attacks. Which meant I could keep scouts and support in the air all the time, without needing to worry about protecting them. The sky was mine. And whoever dominates the sky sees the enemy before it arrives. The bad news was that the ground belonged to them — but even that I would manage to map, with the help of my Yokais.
"Let's go."
✦ ✦ ✦
The time Cris gave me to study the dossier was exactly as promised.
After the period passed, he took me to a flying car with darkened windows. From what I understood, the location where the main family and its leader lived was a secret no outsider could know. To me, honestly, it made no difference. As long as I left there with everything I needed, it was all fine — and I had entered with nothing, and was leaving with much more than I expected. Even more so after what the elder himself had given me.
"Why did he bother to give me this?"
"The Grand Elder liked your presentation. And, honestly, he would like to maintain a relationship with you. Don't worry — however expensive it may be, it's not something our family will miss."
Being rich and influential was indeed something extraordinary.
Because what was in my hands was something that money, alone, didn't buy.
[ Thorn Wall (Rare) ]
The Thorn Wall does not differ from the standard wall, except for the metal spikes embedded in it, which cause continuous damage to the enemy. The damage can be enhanced along with the upgrading of the wall. Free incorporation.
A rare blueprint.
It wasn't exactly uncommon, but it also wasn't something you found on any corner — even more so one that directly reinforced a kingdom's defense. I knew defensive blueprints were immensely cheaper than offensive ones, but, even so, that would never be for sale in a common market. Maybe at the more select auctions. And, even there, it would be the kind of item worth the entire GDP of small countries.
For a mission in which I would be attacked every day, a wall that wounded the enemy with each push was almost a gift from fate.
✦ ✦ ✦
"We've arrived."
The trip didn't take long. Soon I was again before the train that would take me back to the structure I had arrived at — but, unlike the first time, I didn't need to pay to enter. And the place we entered was at least five times larger than the first time, and with many more people.
"I didn't know it was possible to choose better places."
"Hahaha. Don't worry, no one talks much about it. But, if you pay more stones, you're taken to more luxurious places. Few people know that — and we make no point at all of advertising it."
Cris was an interesting man.
Despite having the appearance of a president's bodyguard — imposing, vigilant — he was polite and cultured like a noble. My theory was that he was one too, or at least the son of one, which only increased my curiosity about how someone like that had ended up becoming a henchman. Maybe for a complex reason. Maybe a simple one. But I didn't have enough intimacy to ask — and, fortunately, he also preferred to leave me alone while he talked with other nobles who seemed to know him.
The trip, if I can even call it that, lasted very little.
In less than twenty minutes, I was again before the black portal.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Well then. This is as far as I'll accompany you. As soon as you cross the portal, the kingdom transfer will be requested. The location has already been defined, and the price, paid. Otherwise… I wish you luck."
"Thank you, Mr. Cris."
There wasn't much ceremony. There was no intimacy for that.
Everything that needed to be done was already done. The only thing left for me was to accept the mission and cross that enormous black portal — the same kind of darkness that, days ago, had chilled my blood by instinct.
"Why do I feel so nervous…"
The tranquility of having returned home had planted something dangerous in me.
A desire to stay. To not go. The comfort of the bed, the smell of the food, Helena's embrace — all of that now pulled at me like an anchor. I caught myself looking back, almost instinctively, in search of someone's comfort. But everyone who truly mattered was too far away.
Almost everyone.
Because, in the distance, I could still see Sinfonia.
She watched me with a worried face, in that way of someone who knows exactly where you're going and would like to be able to stop it. I gave a smile and waved. She, after an instant, did the same — a small wave, hesitant, but genuine. It was strange how, in so little time, that small one had become a person I cared about.
I breathed deep. And faced the darkness.
"I guess this is it… fuck it, here we go."