Chapter 25: Dawn
The Hybrid slave who had looked back at him before was staring straight at him now.
He was kneeling on a rune node not far away, his body shaking from the life being drained out of him. His face was pale, his breath ragged, yet there was something steady in his eyes. It was the look of someone who had already stepped past fear.
Days of torture had sharpened his instincts to a cruel edge. To everyone else, Hodell was just another filthy, exhausted Hybrid shoved into the array. To him, the difference was obvious.
Neither of them spoke.
No signal passed between them.
But the moment an inner guard noticed something off in the energy flow and began sweeping his suspicious gaze across the slave group, the Hybrid moved.
He threw back his head and roared.
It was not a cry for mercy. It was the sound of a man tearing the last chain from his own heart.
Then he drove himself forward with everything he had left and slammed headfirst into the rune node beside him.
Bang!
The sound was not especially loud beneath the shriek of the teleportation array, yet it hit every person in the chamber like a hammer.
"No!"
One of the black robed mages shouted in fury and disbelief.
The node he struck flashed wildly. The rune lines around it convulsed, and the energy passing through that section of the array instantly went unstable.
That first act of defiance broke something.
Then came the second.
A different slave let out a hoarse cry and hurled himself into a nearby energy channel.
Then the third.
Panic and chaos spread through the formation like sparks in dry grass.
…
Outside the low grey building, four figures moved in silence through the dark.
They wore plain combat suits with no insignia, their magitech gear stripped of all identifying marks. The leader crouched behind a broken wall and watched the readings on the device over his eye shift rapidly.
"Spatial coordinates are stabilizing. Peak energy output has crossed eighty percent," one team member reported through bone conduction.
The captain kept his gaze fixed on the structure ahead, as though he could see through stone and earth into the blazing array below.
"The target is in the trap," he said. "Prepare silence protocol."
Several palm sized devices were placed onto the ground, forming a temporary spatial locking field. If the teleportation activated, they would thicken the surrounding folds of space for a brief, fatal moment.
"Unexpected energy disturbance detected within the target zone," another team member said.
The captain's eyes shifted slightly.
"Continue observation."
They were patient, almost unnaturally so, like hunters waiting for an animal to step fully into the snare.
…
"Stabilize the array! Kill the ones causing trouble!"
The Black Bone supervisor in charge of the ritual was screaming now, half mad with panic.
The inner guards surged toward the slaves, their club weapons crashing down without mercy.
But the brief chaos bought Hodell what he needed.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears. Around him, the slaves were bleeding, screaming, collapsing, but the cold fire inside his chest only burned hotter.
Now.
He drove the interference he had already planted straight back into the weak point in the array, this time not as a nuisance, but as a violent reverse surge.
Buzz!
A deep, ugly sound exploded through the chamber.
Blue white turbulence burst from the damaged node like a miniature storm. Strands of energy lashed outward and struck nearby mana crystals, showering the area in blinding sparks. The great array lost its rhythm all at once. Lines that had been feeding cleanly into the core began to flicker, skip, and howl.
The whole formation looked like a lamp on the verge of bursting.
"What happened?!"
Above ground, the Black Bone Patriarch staggered as he felt the tremor run through the floor beneath his feet.
"Patriarch!" a black robed mage cried out, one arm charred where the backlash had grazed him. "A violent energy storm has erupted in the core circuit! The structure is losing stability! We need time to repair"
"There is no time!"
The Patriarch kicked him aside.
His face had gone from dignified grief to outright madness.
"Force the transfer! Do you hear me? I don't care about the risks. Burn every crystal. Drain every reserve. Start it now! Anyone who hesitates dies here before the officials can touch us!"
Under those orders, the remaining mana crystals were fed into the array all at once.
The core light swelled to a blinding white.
Space began to warp again, but this time the edges of the distortion shook violently, producing a high tearing scream that made the skin crawl.
…
Outside, the unnamed team reacted at once.
"Target area energy is out of control. Forced teleportation activation confirmed. Stability below safe threshold."
"The internal disorder is weakening the life binding at the perimeter."
The order came immediately.
"Scavenger team authorized. Move."
A dark red beam lanced from the shadows.
The low building shuddered. The foundation dropped. Cracks burst across the walls and raced outward like lightning. Deep underground, the teleportation array's swollen brilliance was snuffed out by a force from outside, and the energy it had been trying to contain lost all guidance at once.
What followed was not a clean collapse.
It was detonation.
Boom!
Mana crystals burst one after another. The underground ritual chamber turned into a furnace of shattered stone, twisted metal, and screaming light. Black robed mages were thrown into the air or ripped apart on the spot. The Black Bone Patriarch himself was slammed against the wall so hard his body nearly folded around it. Blood poured from his nose and mouth as the black crystal atop his staff cracked into fragments.
He saw his last chance disappear right in front of him.
His scream was raw enough to strip the dignity from his title.
Then the ceiling and walls broke open, and several dark figures descended through the smoke like executioners.
At almost the same moment, Hodell used the recoil from his own sabotage and the chaos of the explosion to disappear back into the crowd of panicked slaves.
No one noticed the shift.
No one looked at one more terrified fox eared Hybrid stumbling for safety.
He lowered his head, put fear back on his face, and ran with the others toward the passage leading to the surface.
He did not stop.
He did not look back.
By the time he reached the cold night air outside, the thunder of the collapse was still rolling through the manor like distant judgment.
He slipped into the broken edges of the estate and vanished into shadow.
…
He circled around the active battle zones and returned, by memory alone, to the patch of ruined wall where he had hidden his
gear.
All around him came the sounds of mopping up operations, shouted commands, scattered clashes, and the sharp whistles of official signals. But the spot he had chosen was secluded enough. For the moment, no one was watching.
He dragged the rubble aside, pulled out the uniform and equipment, and immediately took out the gene specialization potion.
The needle touched his neck.
He pushed the serum in.
[Faction Quest: Operation Black Bone has ended. Objectives completed: [Reconnaissance I], [Reconnaissance II], [Rescue Operation], [Prevent Evacuation], [Destroy the Black Bone Family]]
[Quest settlement in progress…]
[Settlement complete. Performance evaluation: Excellent]
[General Administration of Mysteries favorability +300. Current relationship: Neutral [800/1000]]
[Ministry of Magic favorability +150. Current relationship: Cold [150/1000]]
[Excellent grade reward granted: Extra 50,000 EXP, Random Reward x1]
The familiar warmth spread through him, accompanied by the unpleasant sensation of bones and muscles being nudged back into place. His fox features receded, his aura shifted, and Ryan returned.
He leaned against the broken wall and exhaled through gritted teeth.
"The forced reversal feels worse every time…"
Then he glanced at the settlement again.
"No exposure. Good."
It was a pity he had not managed to identify the so called hidden faction behind the mess, but surviving cleanly was already worth more than curiosity spent at the wrong moment.
The random reward appeared.
[Random reward type: Talent Feat]
[Please choose one of the following:]
[Frost Resistance: Ice resistance +35%, reduced susceptibility to slow and freeze effects]
[Bat Habit: Vision unaffected by darkness, able to perceive surroundings through sound, Agility +5% in night combat]
[Tough Physique: HP +400, Abnormal Status Resistance +4%]
Hodell barely needed to think.
"Bat Habit."
[You have acquired [Bat Habit]]
A faint sensation passed through his senses, subtle but immediate.
Then he switched his encrypted communicator back on.
"Captain, this is Ryan. Please respond."
Kyle's voice came through almost instantly, urgent and sharp.
"Ryan! Where the hell have you been? Your signal vanished for too long. Report status and position!"
"Near the southeastern reconnaissance point," Hodell answered, pitching his tone with just the right mix of exhaustion and lingering shock. "I ran into heavy interference and a small hostile group, lost stable communication, and had to take cover. I observed a major explosion from the manor's inner area. It looked like the enemy tried to activate a teleportation array and failed. Resistance is collapsing, but there are still scattered exchanges of fire."
Kyle was silent for a beat.
Then his voice relaxed, though only slightly.
"Stay where you are. Someone will retrieve you. Details later. Good work, Ryan. Alive is enough."
The line ended.
Hodell let out a quiet breath and sat back against the wall for a few seconds more, giving his body time to stop shaking.
…
When he finally entered the team room, he was, as usual, the last one there.
"Ryan!"
Eileen stood first, concern plain on her face.
"Are you hurt? The captain said your signal went dark. We thought…"
"I'm alright," Hodell said, giving her a tired smile. "Nothing serious."
Baron turned toward him from where he was leaning against a table, his expression grim but visibly relieved.
"Good. The front was bad enough. Then that damned blast happened inside. Thought you might've gotten caught in it."
Loyi, who had been sorting reports, pushed his glasses up and immediately homed in on the part that interested him most.
"The manor core. What did you see?"
Hodell took the empty seat and rubbed at his temples before answering.
"Black Bone was using Hybrid slaves to power a large teleportation array. Not just as hostages outside. As fuel. I saw the setup myself. When the array destabilized, it took most of the underground site with it."
Baron's face darkened.
"Bastards."
Kyle entered not long after and shut the door behind him.
He looked around the room, counted heads, and let out a breath he had probably been holding since the operation began.
"The preliminary result is in," he said. "Black Bone is finished."
No one cheered.
Not after what they had seen.
…
Elsewhere, in a quiet review room lit by pale magic, officials from the Ministry of Magic and the General Administration stood over a projected reconstruction of the underground blast.
"Most of the core data was lost," a Ministry official said, clearly displeased. "Black Bone triggered multiple destruction sequences, and the scavenger team's intervention finished the rest. What remains is fragmentary."
A General Administration official took a slow sip from a restorative potion and answered in a calm, practical tone.
"They're gone. That was the strategic objective."
The Ministry man changed the display. A blurred energy track from one corner of the ritual site appeared on the light screen.
"This anomaly. It does not match the main array collapse. Nor does it fully match the scavenger strike. It looks like a third hand was present. Possibly assisting us. Possibly interfering for its own reasons."
The General Administration official leaned forward, studied the trace for a few seconds, then leaned back again.
"Or it is residual distortion from the array tearing itself apart under overload," he said. "After an event like that, unclassified signatures are inevitable."
The Ministry official frowned.
"You think it means nothing?"
"I think," the General Administration man said, "that with most of the site destroyed, chasing a minor irregularity is a poor use of time. Focus on the surviving materials. If there was someone there, they are gone now."
The Ministry official did not look fully convinced, but he let the matter rest.
"For now."
The lights dimmed slightly as the projection shut down.
.....
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