The compound inside the settlement smelled of glorious old power.

It was was built from the bones of Galdr Source Beasts as it carried an oppressive quality and added the weight of bones that had come from things powerful enough to have accumulated considerable Source pressure before dying, the structural material of the walls still emanating faint traces of what had been inside the beasts when they were alive.

He stood in line alongside dozens of Superbius Gilded Ones and felt the sacred weight of the assembled power pressing outward from each of them.

His Custos stood at his right, fully healed, the warmth of her Primordial Bond restored to its full expression after the trauma of the crossing and the early battles in THE Strand.

At the compound’s center, a group of Gilded Ones radiated.

Not the standard radiation of Paleozoic Scale cultivation. Something heavier. More saturated! Dietrich had spent enough time in THE Source Lands now to have developed a working sense for what Source Demarcation pressure felt like on his perception, the difference between Seidr and Galdr and the sharp elevation that Einherjar represented.

The group at the center carried something that had moved past the Galdr category, their Sources pressing outward with the density of existences that had been feeding here long enough to have developed past anything he had encountered among the other entrants.

Among them, an old man.

He wore garments made from the skin and bones of Source Beasts, the material carrying its own ambient pressure, and the beasts that pressure belonged to had not been Galdr Source.

He was bald, his long golden beard resting against his chest, his eyes moving across the assembled Gilded Ones.

Shrewd! Powerful! Both entirely present in the same face.

This was Ealdor Ubergulden Marxist.

He spoke without preamble.

"This is a land of tremendous opportunity. THE Source. THE Source is everything. And for too long it has remained in the hands of Source Lifeforms."

His eyes moved across the assembled Gilded Ones with the expression of a being who found this situation genuinely unreasonable.

"Who are they to demand it remain with them? How selfish. How unruly! Existence is built on Civilizations, and Civilizations thrive on cooperation. Infinite Lifeforms and Source Lifeforms wish to ignore this." He looked at the center table. "We will remind them. And we start here."

HUUM!

His eyes were filled with boundless pride as he moved to the bone table at the compound’s center where a vibrant golden map of THE Strand of Broken Scales glowed with charted coordinates, the cartography representing weeks of collective exploration from every Gilded One who had survived long enough to gather and contribute information.

He pointed to a region considerably further inland than any of their current operations extended.

"At this coordinate, a resource saturated with THE Primordial Source sits surrounded by countless Source Beasts. Getting it to our hands, getting it to my hands so I can advance, is paramount." His finger held the position on the map. "I advance, and we all advance. We join hands with the other Settlements to venture deeper into these lands. We—"

BOOM!

The compound shuddered.

An alarm function activated through the wall’s architecture, the sound carrying the sharp register of a defensive mechanism.

Dietrich’s attention moved to the wall immediately.

He had been inside this Settlement long enough to have developed a working knowledge of its primary defensive construction, the system the engineers among them had developed and the assembled Gilded Ones had reinforced with their collective cultivation over the weeks since establishment.

THE Bellum Pulse of THE Scales.

They had drawn from THE Bellum Cause’s expression and compressed it into the wall’s foundational architecture, the Pulse running through every log of every felled Lotusvara Tree in the perimeter with the war-truth that opposing force met opposing force and neither survived the meeting.

Galdr Source Beasts that reached the wall were rebuffed with the force of a concentrated Bellum expression backed by every Gilded One who had contributed their authority to the wall’s reinforcement. The Pulse hadn’t failed since establishment.

It had sounded the alarm, which meant something had hit the wall hard enough for the wall to have... an opinion about it.

A swarm of Source Beasts pressing simultaneously would produce this response. A particularly powerful entity above Galdr tier arriving at the perimeter would produce this response.

Both possibilities sat in Dietrich’s assessment with equal weight as he turned with the others to look toward the distant compound entrance.

Then, Silurian Gilded One entered the compound in a hurried manner and moved directly toward him.

"Ubergulden Dietrich." He stopped. His expression held the specific quality of a being who had seen something they lacked adequate vocabulary to prepare someone else for. "Your sister has found the Settlement, but..."

He shook his head.

The words did not come.

"You have to come see for yourself."

...!

Dietrich’s frown deepened. His sister was found? This was good! He had always been worried about her because she had that trash good for nothing Custodes that was now even fucking dead, that useless trash.

He had always hated that arrogant and prideful look on that Luxuria. Now that he was dead, he would simply find someone sufficient enough for his Sister even in this Settlement, someone who would even give her a greater edge to survive.

He looked toward Ealdor Ubergulden Marxist.

The old man met his gaze and nodded with the composed authority of someone accustomed to delegating matters below his threshold of direct concern.

"Go," Marxist said. "Handle it."

Dietrich stepped out of the compound with the others moving behind him, his Custos taking her position at his right, the alarm still sounding through the wall’s architecture in its rhythmic pulse.

The Silurian who had delivered the news walked ahead without further elaboration, which meant what awaited outside the compound walls was something for which no elaboration would have been adequate preparation.

His sister had found the Settlement.

And something had struck THE Bellum Pulse of THE Scales hard enough to trigger the alarm.

He walked faster as he pieced together how the two were connected!