The third dive went faster.
The team had a rhythm now.
Lily seeded the approach. Ainen wrapped them in camouflage tuned to the new depth's signature, which his origin flame had collected during the descent. Almond cut the path with Grim Severam. The Discord Bloom rifles handled the monsters that drifted too close. The Spirit Lords and Dreadling Monarchs held the flanks. Vorth's team scanned, copied, and replaced. Almond stored the original. The Master Key took them home.
It was almost mechanical.
They had targeted the Thalmyr depth, which was the most dangerous of the four remaining because the Thalmyr monsters had a precision-resonance that made them harder to fool with Ainen's camouflage. The team had been worried about it going in.
In practice, the precision-resonance only required Ainen to layer two flame signatures instead of one. The camouflage held.
