Shay didn't return the way he usually did.
No exaggerated entrance.
No laughter echoing ahead of him.
Just a quiet step into the open air, the faint crunch of dirt beneath his boots, and a stillness that didn't belong to him.
He stopped.
For a moment, he simply stood there, his head slightly lowered, the painted smile on his mask catching the dim light but not matching the mood beneath it.
Then, slowly, he raised a hand.
A faint glow flickered at his fingertips, subtle and controlled.
The air around him tightened as he activated a mental link.
A long-range psychic spell used only among the Four, no symbols, no incantation, just intent.
A thread formed...Invisible.
Reaching for the other's connecting into someone mind.
His presence slipped into another's mind not forceful, not loud, but unmistakable.
On the other side, the connection settled.
Shay didn't speak immediately.
That alone was wrong.
When his voice finally came through, it wasn't playful like usually, It wasn't bright with emotions, it was quieter.
"…I ran into something."
A pause lingered in the link, heavy, like even the silence carried weight.
Shay exhaled softly, rolling a steel ball once between his fingers before letting it rest.
"They're not fun..."
Another pause, longer this time.
Then, lower...
"…And that's a problem."
The connection didn't break right away it stayed.
As if, for the first time, Shay didn't feel like letting go.
The connection held, steady and quiet, as Shay let the silence stretch just long enough to settle whatever unease lingered in his chest.
When he finally spoke again, his voice carried a weight that didn't belong to him.
"It's not just an army," he said, slower this time, choosing each word without his usual carelessness. "Something is wrong with them."
Images bled faintly through the link not clear visions, but impressions.
Steel, movement, impact.
The way bodies kept coming without hesitation.
"They don't stop, they don't think.. not giving any reaction, no fear, no wasted motion… just action, like...everything unnecessary was taken out of them."
He paused, recalling the war-beast.
"That thing I fought… it wasn't just strong."
"It felt… wrong...too controlled... and too heavy."
"Like something inside it was pushing past its limits." His fingers tightened slightly around the steel ball. "It didn't feel like a creature fighting to win, it felt like something made to keep going until it breaks."
Another pause.
"I don't know what they're using," Shay admitted quietly. "But whatever it is… it's changing them."
The silence that followed wasn't empty.
It was thinking.
Grimwatch was the first to respond, his voice cutting through the link with cold clarity.
"Then they're not raiders… they're advancing."
There was no hesitation in his tone, only calculation. "An army that moves without fear, enhanced beyond natural limits… and guided with discipline."
A brief pause followed. "And some kind of substance that amplifies both physical and magical output…?"
His voice hardened slightly. "That's too dangerous, left unchecked, they won't stop at villages, they're reach the kingdom..."
Elyndra's presence entered next, calm but sharpened by focus. "That isn't traditional magic," she said, her tone precise, already dissecting the idea.
"What you're describing isn't enhancement it's enforcement." Pages seemed to turn faintly in the background of her mind.
"Magic doesn't behave that way unless it's being forced into the body unnaturally."
A pause, quieter, more serious. "If they've found a way to stabilize that process… then they're not just using power."
Her voice lowered. "They're creating it."
Alaric followed, composed as ever. "The outpost exists," he confirmed without hesitation.
"My ravens have already seen enough."
Through the link came flashes of distant vision smoke rising, crates being loaded, soldiers moving in patterns too organized to be coincidence.
"The substance Shay described… I've observed its distribution, liquid form, processed, then sealed." A soft exhale.
"They are preparing for scale."
Shay listened to all of it, quieter than before, letting their conclusions settle over what he had felt in the moment.
Then he spoke again.
"…And they don't feel alive."
The words came softer, but heavier.
"When I fought one of them… there was nothing there, no hesitation, no reaction… not even pain." His grip tightened slightly.
"Like whatever they are now… it replaced something."
The link went still and for once no one had an immediate answer.
Narrator: "A substance engineered to amplify both physical strength and magical output beyond natural limits forcing the body past its restraints."
"An unnatural power… forged for the Pandemonium Legion..."
The silence didn't last.
It shifted.
What had begun as observation, as analysis, as quiet understanding tightened into something sharper.
The weight of Shay's words, the fragments gathered by Alaric, the conclusions drawn by Elyndra, and the certainty in Grimwatch's tone all aligned into a single realization.
They could not wait.
Grimwatch was the first to move, as expected.
There was no declaration and no hesitation only intent. "Then we need to act fast," he said, voice low and final, already turning away from stillness.
"If they're advancing, we intercept before they reach anything worth protecting."
Elyndra didn't argue.
Her thoughts had already moved beyond theory. "If that substance stabilizes, they will replicate it," she replied, calm but urgent. "We cannot allow that."
The faint sound of shifting pages echoed behind her presence as she flip her book at will, began preparing.
Alaric exhaled softly, not surprised by the conclusion.
"The outpost is the source," he said. "Destroy it, and we delay them, perhaps more."
There was no doubt in his voice, only direction.
Shay remained quiet for a moment longer, letting their resolve settle.
"…Yeah," he murmured, softer than before. "Let's break their toy."
The decision was made.
With no debate.
The Four would move.
Across distant skies, black wings spread wide as Alaric's ravens took flight, scattering into formation, their paths already drawn toward the outpost.
Their shadows crossed the land like silent omens, carrying vision ahead of action.
In another place, Elyndra stepped into open air, her fingers tracing a precise pattern as light gathered beneath her feet.
A circle formed intricate, glowing, alive with controlled power.
The moment it stabilized, she stepped forward without pause, her form dissolving into light as the teleportation spell carried her onward.
Grimwatch was already gone.
No trace left behind.
Only the faint disturbance of air where he once stood, his direction set, his purpose locked moving ahead of the others, already closing distance toward the source.
Shay lingered for just a second longer.
Alone again.
He looked ahead, toward nothing visible, the faintest tilt of his head betraying thought rather than amusement.
"…Not fun," he repeated quietly.
Then color burst outward.
Confetti scattered into the air in a soft explosion of motion and light.
And Shay was gone with it.
Far away, the world continued to turn.
But something had changed.
The pieces were no longer waiting to be moved.
They were already in motion.
And the world… wasn't waiting anymore.