Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Eastern Quarry Collapse Route / Hidden Safehouse): May 6th, 1011. Night.
It was a catastrophic night for the world. The quarry shaking itself apart with enough falling stone to bury greed, ambition and poor tunnel design all in one convenient grave, yet if you were to look closely inside of the central chamber as supports snapped and men forgot dignity in favor of screaming. You could see one furious child trying to rob a collapsing bounty target while his people fled around him like common sense had personally abandoned the room.
The atmosphere expensive.
(David's POV)
I grabbed helmut crane by the hair and dragged his bleeding face up off the ground and said with a kind closed eyed smile "Tell me the route codes to your hidden caches and I might let the cave kill you gently."
Crane laughed bloody into my face.
I sighed and said calmly "Good. That means we're doing this the annoying way."
Another piece of the ceiling crashed down behind us.
*BOOOOM*
Nyx hissed and yelled over the noise "DAVID."
"I know." I snapped.
Benjamin stepped through a silver door near the wall with three wounded syndicate fighters already vanishing behind him into avalon and said calmly "Master david. Thirty seconds."
I clicked my teeth, shoved mana into my grimorie and said "Loaded Fate."
The six burned through my veins again.
Pain. Good. I needed pain.
It kept my thoughts lined up.
Crane's eyes widened slightly as the symbols wrapped up my arm.
I leaned in close and whispered "You should have taken the surrender option life never offered you."
Then I slammed my forehead into his nose.
*CRACK*
He howled.
Nyx let out a ugly delighted laugh.
I flicked two dice straight into the air. Critical roll.
One struck the falling beam above us.
The other hit the broken cart.
The first ricochet changed the beam's angle just enough.
The second detonated the cart.
*BOOOOM*
The blast sent the beam crashing not on me, but across the escape path of the remaining tunnel men.
Stone blocked them in with terrified screams.
Crane stared at me with horror and spat "You boxed them in."
I smiled with all the warmth of a knife. "Correct again."
He broke first.
Good.
Very good.
Crane spat out three route marks, two vault codes and one merchant name before trying to bite me.
I punched him in the throat.
Nyx clapped sarcastically.
Benjamin opened another door and said calmly "Master david. Twelve seconds."
I ripped the bounty token from crane's neck and grabbed the ledger chain, then glanced at jarred stumbling under a half conscious twin while missing an eyebrow.
"JARRED." I yelled.
Jarred looked up. "Yes boss man."
"Drop the ugly one and move." I said with a wave of my left hand.
Jarred looked at the unconscious earth mage slung over his shoulder. Then at me. Then at the collapsing ceiling.
He sighed and dropped the man instantly and said "A tragic but understandable leadership decision."
Nyx snorted.
The entire chamber gave another violent shudder.
This time I felt the floor crack under my boots.
I didn't hesitate.
"World of fortune." I said loudly, not to deploy the full field, but just enough.
A short burst of numbered panels flashed beneath our feet.
Panel 6 under jarred.
Panel 5 under the wounded.
Panel 2 under me and nyx.
I shoved mana through the spell and screamed "SHIFT."
The ground tilted.
Bodies slid.
Allies launched toward benjamin's waiting door while the remaining hostiles got thrown into the collapsing right shaft instead.
Stone and screams swallowed them whole.
Crane clawed weakly at my boot from where he'd fallen.
I looked down at him.
Then at the bounty token.
Then back at him.
"Alive paid more." I muttered irritably.
Nyx's eyes lit up and said Immediately "So keep him alive."
I stared at her. Then smiled. Ugly.
We both grabbed a limb.
Crane had exactly enough time to look offended before we dragged him bodily through benjamin's last silver door as the quarry ceiling came down behind us.
*BOOOOOOOOM*
⸻
Clover Kingdom / Diamond Border (Hidden Safehouse Beneath Outlaw City): May 6th, 1011. Later That Night.
It was a profitable night for the world. The hidden chambers beneath the ruined city noisier than usual with blood, liquor and the kind of relief only criminals tend to celebrate with, yet if you were to look closely in the central lower room around one ugly iron table under too many lamps. You could see a bound man bleeding in a chair, one chained ledger, several grinning syndicate survivors and a eleven year old boy looking at the stack of bounty gold like fate had finally apologized a little.
The atmosphere victorious.
(David's POV)
I looked at the pile of stamped coin bars on the table and thought with a pleased look in my eyes "Yes. This is what responsible healing looks like."
Jarred was on his third bottle already and yelled loudly "THIRTY SIX THOUSAND GOLD. GYAHAHA. BOSS MAN WE ARE RICH AGAIN."
Benjamin corrected him calmly and said "Temporarily solvent."
"Why do you always ruin the mood with numbers." Said jarred while staring at benjamin with a judgmental look.
Benjamin adjusted his cuffs and said "Because somebody has to."
Nyx sat on the table beside the chained ledger with one boot on crane's chair and a grin on her face and said "We should skin him a little."
Crane's face had gone a very unhealthy shade of gray.
I looked at him and said calmly "Relax. I only need your routes, your cache locations, your buyer names, and anything you know about the remaining mana suppression distributors. After that whether you continue breathing becomes a scheduling issue."
Crane swallowed so hard I heard it.
Good.
Very good.
Benjamin laid out the recovered ledger.
Six route symbols.
Twelve coded entries.
Three merchant names.
Two church contacts I did not recognize.
And one mark that made my eyebrow twitch.
A double stamped insignia shaped like a droplet inside a broken circle.
I tapped it and asked "This."
Crane looked away.
Nyx instantly drove one sharp nail through the wood beside his ear.
*THK*
Crane flinched so hard the chair nearly tipped.
Nyx smiled and said sweetly "He asked nicely."
Crane broke.
Good.
Always good.
"Secondary suppliers. Old border wells. Hidden labs. The powder gets cut there before transport. I only handled routes."Said crane hoarsely and immediately.
I rubbed my chin and thought "Good. So the organization isn't dead. It just has more necks to break"
Benjamin calmly sorted the coins into three neat stacks and said "Medical. Bribes. Food and ammunition."
Jarred stared in betrayal and asked "Where is liquor."
Benjamin didn't even look at him and said with honesty "Not a priority. You need to lose weight and train."
Jarred looked personally attacked.
Nyx leaned toward me and asked with her tail wagging "So. Did your little bounty hunt prove anything besides the fact that caves hate us."
I looked down at my grimorie floating beside my chair.
Then at the ledger.
Then at the battered survivors still alive because we had moved faster, cleaner and smarter than we would have a week ago.
My lip curled slightly.
"Yes." I said calmly.
Nyx raised an eyebrow.
I leaned back in the chair, ignored the pain in my side, and counted on my fingers while saying "I can deploy partial board control without emptying my organs immediately. Critical roll is accurate enough now that I can direct fights instead of merely ruining them. Loaded fate still hurts like hell, but I can stack it long enough for a real kill window."
Nyx stared for a second. Then grinned and said "So your results are that you're still insane, just more efficient."
I looked at her with a dead expression and said "Correct."
Benjamin gave one slow nod in approval and said "A successful arc of growth."
I slowly turned my head toward him.
Benjamin paused.
Nyx started laughing.
Jarred choked on his bottle.
A bulging vein appeared on my forehead and I asked with a dangerously calm voice "Did you just call my life an arc."
Benjamin adjusted his throat and said "Poor word choice."
"Terrible word choice." I said honestly with my eyes squinting.
The room went quiet for a second. I looked back down at the ledger.
At the routes.
At the names.
At the gold.
At the new map of violence slowly forming in my head.
Ariella had taken the city above.
Fine.
Let her keep the smoke, the church ruins and the upper streets.
The underground was still breathing.
And now it was better funded.
Better informed.
And led by someone with a grimoire, a locked six, and enough irritation to count as a doctrine.
I smiled.
Ugly.
Hungry.
"Good. Then tomorrow we start cutting into the wells. We strangle the drug routes, buy what loyalty gold can buy, and grow until the next time that old undead bitch looks down at me, she regrets not finishing the job." I said softly.
Nyx's grin widened.
Jarred lifted his bottle.
Benjamin bowed once.
Crane quietly started crying in the chair.
I looked at him and sighed while saying "Please stop. It lowers the tone."
Beneath the broken city where saints lied, criminals healed, and fate had finally started paying out with interest, David Swallow finished his first profitable training arc and began planning the next set of murders with a much better budget.
…
THE END…