Krax hurled the general across the main hall. The man skidded over the polished obsidian floor, his dented armor scraping loudly against the black glass.

He groaned and clutched his ribs. Krax tossed the scavenged breastplate onto a nearby table and rolled his shoulders to stretch his muscles.

"He whined the entire march back," Krax complained, kicking a stray piece of rubble. "But he is breathing. You can have him."

Syra stepped out from the shadows of a vaulted archway. She twirled a condensed shadow dagger between her fingers, her eyes locked on the prisoner.

The general slowly pushed himself up on his elbows. He looked around the pristine, alien architecture of the newly formed base. His confusion rapidly gave way to sheer panic.

This was not a military camp he recognized.

Heavy footsteps echoed from the northern corridor. Gulag marched into the hall. She carried a massive iron chain slung over her shoulder, the metal links clinking with every step. She stopped next to Krax and tilted her head, inspecting the bleeding man on the floor.

"You brought back a pet," Gulag noted in a deep rumbling voice. "He looks fragile. Will he break if I step on him?"

"Try not to flatten him yet," Syra said. She walked toward the center of the room and knelt in front of the general. She tapped the flat of her blade against his cheek. "We need to know what we are dealing with. Start with the artillery."

The general spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "You are not Voranthar’s men. Those crests were a lie. Who are you?"

’He asks too many questions,’ Rubedo spoke to his commanders. ’Remind him of his position.’

Gulag did not wait. She stepped forward and slammed her boot onto the general’s calf. The bone snapped with a sickening crunch. The man screamed, thrashing wildly against the glass floor as Gulag applied more pressure.

"Syra asked about the artillery," Gulag reminded him, her tone completely flat.

Syra watched the man thrash. Her expression remained entirely bored. Men always clung to their pride until the physical reality of their situation set in. She waited for the screaming to subside into hitched sobs before she spoke again.

"Your mages brought lightning cannons to a border skirmish," Syra said softly. "I want the exact number of siege weapons your king possesses. I want troop counts, supply line routes, and the specific magical wards protecting your capital. You will detail every single military asset your kingdom holds."

The general squeezed his eyes shut. "If I tell you our defenses, my king will execute me for treason."

Krax let out a booming laugh. He leaned against the stone table and crossed his arms. "You think you are going back? Your king already thinks Voranthar killed you. You are a ghost."

"If you speak, I might let you keep your other leg," Gulag offered.

The general looked between the three imposing figures. His resolve crumbled under the agonizing pain radiating from his broken limb. He realized he was not a prisoner of war, but a simple resource. He let his head fall back against the cold obsidian.

"Fifty cannons," the general wheezed, his chest heaving. "Three thousand active foot soldiers in the standing garrison. The capital is warded against aerial bombardment, but the southern aqueducts are entirely unshielded."

Up in the sanctuary, Rubedo cataloged the information as it flowed across his screen. The neighboring kingdom had a decent military force, but their reliance on magical artillery made them predictable.

He plotted the unshielded southern aqueducts on his digital map. The army now possessed the exact blueprint needed to dismantle the first major player in the Tarnstead coalition whenever they chose to strike.

Syra turned away from the bleeding general and left the interrogation to Gulag. She descended the spiraling staircase into the deepest sublevels of the fortress. The swarm had systematically devoured the biological architecture, leaving only black glass behind.

Yet, at the end of the lowest corridor, a solitary anomaly remained intact. A circular door forged from an unrecognizable alloy sat embedded in the wall. Glowing geometric runes pulsed along the metal frame, generating a localized ward that had successfully repelled the feeding insects.

Syra ran her hand along the edge of the door, searching for a mechanical release or a magical bypass. The containment unit was completely sealed from the outside.

Up in the sanctuary, Rubedo watched her inspect the vault. He reached for his console to analyze the locking mechanism, but a blaring alert abruptly overtook his primary monitor.

[ A swarm of individuals of opposite faith detected! ]

He shifted his attention to the surface cameras.

A Tarnstead strike force had bypassed the buffer zone. They had tracked the physical footprints of Krax’s returning detachment straight through the tall grass.

Two hundred armored soldiers were currently planting grappling hooks and raising siege ladders against the eastern perimeter of the base.

’You brought guests back from your raid,’ Rubedo told Krax. ’This is getting ridiculous. Clear the eastern wall before they breach the courtyard.’

Krax left the main hall and jogged up the steps to the battlements. Novus and Hawl were already stationed along the parapet.

Novus stood with his longsword drawn, his heavy shield resting against the glass. Hawl paced behind him, rolling his shoulders and cracking his knuckles. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"They followed your tracks," Novus said. He raised his shield to block a sudden barrage of arrows. The kinetic impacts vibrated through the metal, storing the physical energy deep within the core.

"Then we kill them," Krax replied. He unhooked his greataxe from his back. "Do not let them establish a foothold on the wall."

Hawl did not wait for further instruction. He vaulted over the parapet and dropped straight toward the advancing soldiers. He moved with blinding speed, becoming a total blur as he slammed into the frontline. Hawl drove his fists into the Tarnstead infantry.

The moment his knuckle dusters made contact, the soldiers’ armor and flesh rapidly calcified into solid stone. He shattered the petrified men with subsequent strikes, clearing a wide gap in their formation.

Up on the wall, Novus stepped forward and slammed his shield against the parapet. He released the stored kinetic energy in a concentrated wave of explosive fire.

The blast incinerated the siege ladders and the soldiers climbing them, sending burning debris raining down on the courtyard.

Krax leapt from the battlements. He swung his greataxe in a wide arc as he plummeted toward the ground. He channeled the gravity crystal embedded in the weapon, violently multiplying his physical weight.

He hit the dirt with the force of a falling meteor, crushing a dozen soldiers beneath his boots and sending a lethal shockwave through the remaining Tarnstead ranks.