[Day 14 — Dawn — Before moving]
Kira had left camp at four in the morning.
No one asked her to. When Alex woke at dawn, she was already back.
"The trade route," she said as soon as Alex opened his eyes. "I went to verify."
Alex sat up.
"And?"
"There are traces. Kiloter one hundred eight." Kira sat down in front of him. "Two groups. The first is established in a fixed position — they’ve been there for at least forty-eight hours. The second is mobile, patrolling between one hundred ten and one hundred twenty." Her amber eyes direct. "They’re not adventurers. The footprint pattern is too uniform. Combat formation, not travel."
"Heralds?"
"I didn’t see insignia. But I did see that the fixed group has a position that covers exactly the point where the northern route and the trade route converge." Pause. "No one without specific information places their team there."
Seraph had been right.
Alex processed that in silence.
"The Iron Pass?"
"I checked that too, from the edge. No traces of human activity in the last seventy-two hours." Kira took out her notebook. "There are traces of high-level creatures. The Bull that Seraph ntioned exists — it left marks on the trees at the southern edge of the Pass. Deep."
"How deep?"
Kira spread her fingers to indicate the width of the gouge.
Alex looked at her hands.
"Good."
---
[7:00 AM — Camp broken]
Maya had the new map ready when everyone was assembled.
She had recalculated during the night — Alex could see it in the new strokes over the old ones.
"The Iron Pass enters here." She pointed. "Kiloter forty from our current position. The main corridor runs south to north with two branches — the western one leads directly to Veltharr but passes through the Bull’s marked territory. The eastern one exits north of the Pass and requires an extra half-day detour."
"Which one do we take?" asked Raven.
"The western one." Maya closed the map. "Half a day extra is ti we don’t have."
"And the Bull?"
"We handle it."
Raven looked at her.
"With what percentage?"
"Seventy-three."
"That’s lower than the Shadow Forest."
"The Shadow Forest didn’t have a level eighty-two zone boss." Maya put the map away. "But we also didn’t have Grim’s evolution."
Grim, eighty centiters on Alex’s shoulder: "Correct."
---
[Kiloter 30 — 11:00 AM]
Kira stopped.
The team behind her.
Her ears turned northeast. Held.
"There’s sothing ahead," she said quietly. "Not creatures. People. Five. Maybe six."
"Distance?"
"Three hundred ters. On the branch leading to the Pass."
Alex activated [Soul Sight].
Auras in the forest ahead. Five solid white — mid-high level. Without the faint glow of area creatures.
"People confird. Five."
"The first reconnaissance team took the sa alternate route we did," said Kira. Her voice without surprise. Just assessnt. "Seraph said they had the detour covered. She didn’t say they had it all covered."
"We can’t let them go," Maya said directly. "If they report our position and the route we took, the ones at the Iron Pass will know before we arrive."
"I know," said Alex.
He looked at the team.
"Contact formation. Kira ahead. Grim with . Raven covers the east flank. Maya and Akari the west. Emily support from the center." A pause. "Fast and clean."
---
[11:08 AM]
The Heralds saw them coming but not in ti.
Five figures in dark cloaks with no visible insignia — exactly like the ones the team had encountered on the previous route, only these had specific reconnaissance gear. Signal devices. Encrypted maps. Secondary weapons in addition to primary ones.
Trained to detect, report, and survive long enough for the report to get out.
The first Herald reacted well — turned and cast a level 58 [Barrier] that slowed Alex and Grim for three seconds.
Three seconds he used to shout to his companions.
The other four scattered in patterns that weren’t panic. They were protocol — two covering flanks, one trying to fall back, one seeking high ground.
Kira took down the one heading for high ground before he reached the tree.
Raven summoned eight skeletons that cut off the retreat route of the one trying to fall back.
Grim expanded to Interdiate Form and moved toward the two on the flanks simultaneously.
The two flank Heralds tried to coordinate — one distracting, the other attacking from behind Grim.
Grim didn’t need to see behind him. Alex’s [Soul Sight] covered both.
"Right first."
Grim turned right. The scythe connected.
The left one ca in — Alex intercepted with [Shadow Step] and [Blood Weapon] already in hand.
The Herald who had cast the initial Barrier was on his knees, Emily with [Blessing of Protection] already active over the team, the Herald’s containnt runes fading.
Four Heralds on the ground in ninety seconds.
The fifth — the one who had shouted the alert — had his hand raised.
A small device. Cylindrical. Glowing with yellow light.
Signal beacon.
Alex saw it.
He didn’t make it in ti.
The yellow light pulsed once, bright, before Alex’s [Blood Weapon] cut the device.
The Herald fell.
Silence in the forest.
Kira was already over the destroyed device. She examined it for ten seconds.
"Activated." She looked up. "Signal sent before you cut it."
"How much ti?"
Kira assessed the chanism.
"Thirty minutes. Maybe less if they have a receiver close by."
---
[Soul Harvest active]
[Grim souls: 698 → 703.5/1,000]
---
Maya already had the map.
"Thirty minutes at standard response speed for a reconnaissance team. If they have cavalry, less." She looked at the team. "We move now."
The team moved.
---
[POV — Herald Base — Northern Sector — Sa mont]
The receiver blinked.
A middle-aged Herald with scars on his hands that indicated years of field work looked up from the map he had been studying.
Beacon from the first reconnaissance team, northeast sector of the detour.
Activated.
Which ant the first team had made contact.
Which ant the first team could no longer report through normal channels.
He calculated quickly.
The Fragnt 1 bearer took the Iron Pass route. Not the trade route. Not the standard detour. The Pass.
He took the communication device.
The response ca in seconds.
The violet mask on the other side of the channel — no direct voice, only text transcribed by the Herald acting as interdiary.
"How many were eliminated?"
"Full team from the northeast sector. Five people."
Pause in the communication.
"Is the bearer in the Pass?"
"Direction confird, yes."
Another pause. Longer.
"Do not interfere further. Withdraw the reconnaissance teams from the northern and northwestern sectors."
The senior Herald processed that.
"Withdraw? The Iron Pass—"
"Let them arrive. The ritual needs them close."
The communication closed.
The senior Herald looked at the deactivated receiver for a mont.
Then he turned to his assistants.
"Withdraw the northern teams. All of them."
---
[Kiloter 45 — 12:30 PM — Road to the Pass]
When the team had been moving for twenty minutes, Seraph appeared at the edge of the forest to the east.
At a distance. As agreed.
Raven looked at her.
"You saw the fight."
It wasn’t a question.
Seraph from a distance: "Yes."
"You didn’t intervene."
"No."
"Why?"
A pause.
"Because you didn’t need intervention. And because you didn’t ask to."
Raven looked at her for another second.
She said nothing.
She kept walking.
Seraph kept the distance and resud marching in parallel.
---
[Night — Camp. Kiloter 58 — Southern edge of Iron Pass]
The Iron Pass was visible from camp as a dark formation against the night sky. The trees at the southern edge marked with deep gouges that none of the creatures the team had seen so far could have made.
The team slept.
Grim didn’t.
Grim never slept, but tonight he wasn’t resting either.
Alex noticed.
"What?"
Grim looked in the direction where they had left the five Heralds.
"The souls we harvested today."
"What about them?"
"They’re different."
Alex waited.
"Fragnt 4 did sothing to them. Their souls have a mark. As if sothing touched them and left a trace." Grim turned his eye sockets toward Alex. "It’s not corruption like what I see in you. It’s different. Older."
"The Fragnt 4 bearer marked his own followers?"
"Not intentionally, I think." A pause. "The Original Reaper left similar marks on the souls it processed. Not harvest — contact. The re fact that the Reaper noticed you left a trace."
Alex processed that.
"What does it an for the bearer?"
Grim was still for a mont.
"That he’s been carrying it for a long ti. Much longer than Viktor believes." His red-dot eyes looking at the fire. "Fragnt 4 isn’t just integrated into him. It’s... imprinting on everything he touches."
The fire crackled.
"The Fragnt 1 bearer has sixteen months and Core Resonance." Long pause. "The Fragnt 4 bearer has these marks on his followers."
Alex understood without Grim saying it.
The Fragnt 4 bearer had had it for years. Perhaps many years.
And if he had had it for years and was still functional—
Either he wasn’t fully functional.
Or he was sothing harder to categorize.
"Tomorrow, the Pass," said Grim.
"Tomorrow, the Pass," Alex confird.
He lay back.
The Iron Pass waited in the darkness to the north.
And beyond, Veltharr.
And beyond still, the Catacombs.
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