The corridor sloped downward, carved from raw rock and reinforced with rusted metal ribs. Emergency lights flickered along the walls, casting spasming shadows. Every few meters, a speaker crackled with panicked announcements, "All units to level three, intruder in central command, Leader Corvin is down, repeat, Leader Corvin is down—"

Julian walked at the front, his footsteps silent despite the debris. His left sleeve was torn, and blood trickled down his forearm, but he didn’t slow. The Void’s Edge was gone, but he didn’t need a sword. His hands were enough.

Zoe stayed at his right flank, her senses stretched thin, listening for footsteps, breathing, heartbeats. Her nose caught the scent of fear, sweat, adrenaline, urine. The guards were terrified. That made them dangerous.

Dori brought up the rear, her pistol reloaded and held in both hands. She kept her Conceal ready, but Julian had told her to save her stamina. They didn’t need stealth anymore. They needed speed.

"Mineral stockpile," Julian said without looking back. "Orin’s map showed it on sub-level four, east wing. Corvin’s personal vault."

Zoe nodded. "Guards will be thickest there."

"Then we go through them."

They reached a metal staircase spiraling down into darkness. Julian descended without hesitation. Zoe followed. Dori took a breath and went after them.

At the bottom of the stairs, a heavy blast door stood half-open. Beyond it, voices, shouting orders, loading weapons, the clatter of armored boots.

"...seal the vault! Don’t let them take the cores..."

Julian raised a hand, signaling Zoe and Dori to stop. He pressed himself against the wall and peered through the gap.

A large cavern. Stacked crates of refined mineral cores, pulsing with faint blue light. Forty, maybe fifty guards, most with basic combat skills. A few with visible mutations, enlarged arms, metallic skin, extra eyes. At the far end, a vault door made of thick steel, already closing. A woman with a cybernetic arm was spinning the lock.

Julian calculated. ’Forty hostiles. One vault closing in thirty seconds. Three friendlies. Zoe could take maybe ten before being overwhelmed. Dori could Conceal them, but not during combat. And I...’

He had enough.

"We’re not fighting all of them," Julian said quietly.

Zoe tilted her head. "Then what?"

Julian stepped into the doorway.

The guards nearest him turned, raised their weapons. Before they could fire, Julian spoke. A word, wrapped in Domination.

"Kneel."

The command crashed through the cavern like a physical wave. Half the guards dropped instantly, their bodies obeying before their minds could resist. Rifles clattered to the floor. Men and women fell to their knees, eyes blank, mouths slack.

The other half, those with stronger wills or partial resistance, staggered but didn’t kneel. Their leader, a hulking man with a cybernetic jaw, roared and raised a minigun.

"Kill the..."

Julian raised his hand. A blue-white bolt arced from his palm, struck the minigun’s ammunition feed, and detonated it. The man screamed, his cybernetic jaw sparking, as he collapsed.

Zoe moved. She flowed into her beast form, black fur, golden eyes, teeth like daggers, and tore through the nearest cluster of standing guards. Three went down before they could scream.

Dori raised her pistol and fired. Two shots. Two more guards fell, clutching their throats.

Julian simply walked, and any guard who tried to stop him was met with a casual application of Gravity, pushed into walls, pulled to the ceiling, or simply crushed into the floor.

The woman with the cybernetic arm finished locking the vault and turned, a plasma cutter in her hand. Her eyes went wide when she saw Julian standing five meters away, untouched, while her soldiers lay groaning around him.

"The combination," Julian said.

"I... I don’t..."

"The combination."

Her mouth opened. The numbers spilled out against her will. "17...24...08...36..."

Julian nodded. He walked past her, to the vault door. He pressed his palm against the cold steel and spoke into his communicator.

"Emma. Fey. Status."

Static. Then Emma’s voice, breathless and excited. "We’re inside Xlomoph’s energy core! Fey just flooded their control room with liquid coolant. They’re pissed. How’s your side?"

"Neo is secure. Corvin is dead. I’m about to take their entire mineral stockpile."

A pause. Then Emma’s laughter. "Show-off."

"Finish securing Xlomoph. We regroup in two hours."

"Copy that, boss."

Julian cut the connection. He looked at Dori and Zoe. Zoe had shifted back, her muzzle covered in blood. Dori was reloading her pistol with steady hands.

"Open it," Zoe said.

Julian turned to the vault. He entered the combination, 17-24-08-36. The locks clicked. The door swung open.

Inside: thousands of refined mineral cores. Enough to power a small army.

Julian stepped inside. He placed his hand on the nearest crate and focused.

[Inventory].

The crates began to vanish, one by one, drawn into his extra-dimensional storage. The guards who were still conscious watched in stunned silence as a fortune in Aethel-adjacent minerals disappeared into thin air.

When the vault was empty, Julian turned back to the room.

"Neo is finished," he said. "Spread the word. The Ghost takes what he wants. And he doesn’t leave survivors who still hold weapons."

He looked at the kneeling guards, the ones still under Domination. He released them with a thought. They collapsed, gasping, weeping.

"Let’s go."

They climbed back through the ruined mine, past the crater where Corvin’s office had been, past the bodies of the centipede and the guards, past the workers who pressed themselves against the walls and averted their eyes.

When they reached the surface, the sun was setting. Orin was waiting by the broken excavator, his prosthetic hand twitching. He saw the crates missing from Julian’s hands and understood.

"You actually did it."

Julian didn’t answer. He walked past Orin toward the extraction point where a transport car was waiting.

Dori paused beside Orin. "He’s not much for words."

Orin watched Julian’s back. "Doesn’t need to be. The results speak for themselves." He shook his head. "What now?"

Dori glanced at Julian, then back at Orin. "Now we go to the base. And then we finish what we started."

She jogged after Julian and Zoe, her boots crunching on the broken asphalt.

The transport’s engines roared to life.