I didn't know exactly how much time had passed since the sun had touched the other side of the planet, but I knew it was already morning—or at least the closest thing that sickly gray sky allowed.
The village streets were already alive when I came out of meditation. Old generators belched black smoke between rows of containers while mechanics shouted arguments over the deafening roar of pneumatic tools.
Small cargo vehicles tore through the narrow alleys without ceremony, hauling crates of parts, water tanks, ammunition, and food from one sector to another.
It felt like that place simply didn't know what sleep was.
Maybe no one living a few kilometers from Gron-Tarh could afford that luxury.
I dragged a heavy hand over my face.
My skin felt rough as sandpaper, my eyes burned, and my head throbbed with an uncomfortable weight.
"You look terrible."
I turned my head.
Tsukumo had just stepped out of the quarters, calmly adjusting the sleeve of his coat.
"Good morning to you too," I grumbled.
The sound of footsteps crunching over gravel interrupted us before I could think of a comeback.
Havelyn was coming down the main corridor.
"Candice sent for us."
The exhaustion weighing on my back vanished instantly.
I turned on my heel and started walking.
Tsukumo followed just behind me, maintaining his usual calm pace.
We found Sahger near the central courtyard. He was already fully equipped; his dark-blue armor was sealed up to his neck, though he carried the heavy helmet beneath one arm.
"Candice is waiting."
I quickened my pace to match his long stride.
The operations room felt even smaller and more suffocating than it had the night before.
Maps covered nearly every vertical surface. Some were so old that the paper had yellowed and frayed around the edges; others had accumulated so many notes, chalk lines, corrections, and symbols that they looked like layers of overlapping scars.
There was everything in there: aerial photographs, orbital routes, radio frequencies, patrol schedules, underground maps, lists of names.
And at the center of all that obsession stood the unmistakable silhouette of Gron-Tarh.
Candice was leaning over the main table.
Her blue hair had been tied back with little care, and deep shadows surrounded her eyes.
At least her mechanical arm looked new again. Every plate was perfectly fitted, and there was no trace left of the deformation caused by my fire.
She raised her eyes when the door opened.
"Finally."
Havelyn pulled out a chair and sat down carefully.
Tsukumo remained standing beside the table, studying the papers, while Sahger leaned against the nearest wall.
I approached the table and stared at the device mounted in its center.
Candice touched the panel, and the central projector came to life, bathing the room in blue light.
Gron-Tarh appeared before us.
Even reduced to a holographic projection only a few meters across, the fortress still looked like a monumental aberration.
Sahger pushed away from the wall, his expression changing the instant he began studying the projection.
"It's changed so much in such a short time."
Candice, holding a cup of something hot, took a calm sip.
"That place always manages to scare me."
She tapped the controls and enlarged one section of the map.
Sahger closed his mouth and fell silent, staring at the updated details.
Candice set her cup on the table with a sharp click.
Tsukumo leaned slightly over the projection, his eyes following the smallest details.
"Who mapped all of this with such precision?"
Candice gave a quick, humorless half-smile.
Then she turned toward the partition wall at the back and struck it twice with her metal fist, making the steel panel ring.
"GORDON!"
No answer.
She waited three seconds before pounding on the wall again.
"GORDON!"
A rough, guttural voice exploded from the adjacent corridor.
"I HEARD YOU, WOMAN! I'M NOT DEAF!"
Candice looked at us with a neutral expression.
"He's a little slow."
The side door flew open, and a dwarf entered carrying so many metal parts, cables, and gears that I could barely see half his face.
He was short and incredibly broad, with a gray beard streaked with brown and divided into four tightly bound braids.
A gleaming articulated mechanical lens completely covered his left eye.
He dumped the pile onto a side bench with a deafening crash of metal against metal.
"If you keep yelling like that, Candice, I'm going to start charging you."
"You practically live in the room next door, Gordon."
"Exactly! And I still had to walk all the way over here."
Candice simply pointed at us.
"Here are the idiots."
The dwarf turned, adjusted his mechanical lens, looked me over, evaluated Tsukumo, stared at Havelyn, and finally locked onto Sahger.
He froze.
"No."
Sahger raised an eyebrow slightly.
"Good morning, Gordon."
"You died."
"No."
"You absolutely did. I saw the reports!"
"Clearly, you didn't read them properly."
Gordon walked toward him with heavy steps, extended a calloused hand, and touched the metal of Sahger's armor.
He looked at the hunter's face and, without warning, slapped the armored shoulder hard with his palm.
"You son of a bitch."
"Good to see you too."
The dwarf kept muttering under his breath as he dragged over a reinforced wooden chair and dropped heavily into it.
Candice pointed at him with her thumb.
"Sixteen years working inside the Gron-Tarh complex."
Gordon scratched his braided beard, his tone turning professional.
"Infrastructure. Internal transport. Deep ventilation. Thermal systems. Structural support. Industrial elevators... and several godforsaken places I would've preferred never to discover."
"And now he's with me, trying to find a way back inside," Candice added.
Tsukumo studied the flow lines running through the hologram.
"So you know the prison from the inside."
"Most of it, yes," Gordon corrected immediately, pointing toward the interactive map.
"That abomination changes constantly."
He entered several commands on the side panel, and Gron-Tarh's internal layers began unfolding through the air.
"The harder it becomes to escape that place, the more certain those bastards become that no one in their right mind would ever try to get in."
"And we're going to," I declared.
Gordon turned his mechanical lens toward me and looked me up and down.
"Are you always like this, kid?"
"Like what?"
"You look like someone shoved a sword up your ass and you're in one hell of a hurry to pull it out."
"Let's eliminate the obvious options first so we don't waste time."
Candice made a gesture, and several green routes appeared across the projection.
"The first option would be entering aboard commercial transport."
One of the lines flashed and turned red.
"Doesn't work. Every ship is checked before approach."
She pointed to another route.
"Industrial freighter."
The second line turned red as well.
"Rejected."
A third route appeared closer to Gron-Tarh's ports.
"Routine prisoner transport."
The line flashed.
"Doesn't work either."
Candice crossed her arms.
"Those were the three most discreet ways of getting close to the prison. All of them are compromised."
Sahger folded his arms across his chest.
"They changed the security protocols."
"Changed them and tripled them," Candice confirmed as she enlarged the orbital ports.
"Every shipment gets checked three times."
"Exact weight is compared before atmospheric reentry and again after landing."
"The crew goes through full biological identification."
"The energy signature of any unregistered passenger is isolated and analyzed immediately."
Tsukumo stepped forward and pointed toward a side sector.
"What about automated supply transport?"
"Internal molecular scans," Candice replied.
"Underground?"
Gordon answered this time.
"Worst option of all."
"A remarkable defensive system."
"Thank you," Gordon replied with a sarcastic clearing of his throat.
"I helped build some of that shit."
Candice crossed her metal arms.
"That was exactly our problem before you people showed up."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Candice planted both hands on the table and leaned forward.
"That's exactly what I spent all night trying to decide."
Her tone changed completely.
The room, which until then had been filled with interruptions and muttering, fell absolutely silent.
Even Gordon stopped fiddling with the parts on the workbench.
"I spent years trying to find a way into that prison without them noticing," Candice said, her eyes fixed on the projection of Gron-Tarh.
"Twenty years looking for a gap. Tunnels, bribes, stolen codes, cloned ships, fake uniforms, infiltrated employees, waste-disposal routes, medical convoys... everything."
She let out a short, bitter laugh devoid of humor.
"And every time we found one hole in their security, Yashin went and closed two."
Sahger watched his former companion in silence before asking,
"And what's your conclusion, Candice?"
She took her time answering.
First she looked at the map, then directly into Sahger's eyes.
"My conclusion is that maybe I've been trying to solve the wrong problem."
I frowned, liking where that answer was going.
"What do you mean?"
She disabled every green and yellow route on the hologram, leaving only the cold structure of Gron-Tarh floating in the air.
"I spent two decades focused on getting inside without them noticing."
Candice dragged a finger along the holographic wall.
"But getting in unnoticed simply isn't possible anymore."
Gordon looked up, startled.
"Candice..."
"You know I'm right, Gordon," she said without looking away.
She touched the projection, and thousands of tiny red points spread across the surface of the complex.
"Gron-Tarh was designed and built to prevent infiltration. But every fortress, no matter how large, has one physical limitation it can't negotiate with."
Tsukumo understood immediately.
"The number of threats the system can process simultaneously."
Candice pointed at him.
"Exactly."
"You want to overload the defenses."
"I want to make the entire prison look in the wrong direction," she corrected.
Sahger pushed away from the wall.
"A strategy like that requires a large-scale distraction."
Candice smiled.
"No."
Her smile widened, revealing a ferocity I hadn't seen from her before.
"It requires an absurdly gigantic distraction."
I looked at Tsukumo.
He looked back at me with the same impassive expression as always.
Candice pointed at us.
"You."
"Now that's a plan I like," I replied, already feeling my energy beginning to leak out.
Candice enlarged the upper surface of the fortress.
"You and Tsukumo are going to attack Gron-Tarh's upper perimeter."
Havelyn's eyes widened in alarm.
"Attack?!"
"To make the biggest fucking noise this planet has ever heard."
"I want defense towers firing nonstop. I want elite troops redeployed from sector to sector. I want hangars at maximum alert and drones pouring out of their bases by the hundreds."
"I want every rapid-response unit in that prison convinced that a full-scale frontal invasion has begun."
Sahger stepped closer, crossing his arms as he studied the map from this new perspective.
"If we do this correctly, they'll concentrate their entire operational force at the top..."
"And empty the internal containment sectors," Candice finished.
"And what's my part?" Sahger asked.
Candice let out a short laugh.
"You're going to help kill things the way you know best."
Gordon stared at the hunter, adjusting his lens to maximum focus.
"I might need to put a few finishing touches on your armor."
"Gladly," Sahger replied dryly.
"You really are another idiot."
"Thank you for the compliment, Gordon."
Gordon took control of the hologram and began operating the panel with surprising speed for hands so calloused.
"That would force the prison's central system to redistribute power toward containment..."
A new green line flashed into existence, tracing a clean route through the deeper interior of the structure.
Candice looked at Havelyn, then at herself.
"And this is where the two of us go in."
Havelyn leaned forward, touching the edge of the table.
"Us? Just the two of us?"
"Just the two of us," Candice confirmed.
She studied the complex network of lower corridors.
"Why me?"
"Because we'll be light and fast enough to reach the bottom of the prison."
Havelyn kept her eyes on the map for a few seconds, tensing her wings before finally nodding firmly.
"I can do that."
"Besides," Candice continued, "trying to move five people through those corridors would be a bad idea."
"Two people have a real chance."
I looked at Candice. I already knew the answer, but I wanted to hear it from her.
"And what exactly are you two going to do once you get down there?"
Candice didn't answer immediately.
A different expression, much heavier and darker, settled over her face.
She operated the panel, and the projection shifted downward, passing through maximum-security levels and underground galleries until it reached an isolated point deep within the rock.
One specific sector lit up in red and gold.
"We're going to find my brother."
The room fell silent.
I already knew Candice had someone trapped inside, but until that moment, she'd never openly placed that person at the center of the operation.
"Rubens," she said, her voice coming out almost like a rigid whisper.
Havelyn repeated the name slowly.
"Rubens..."
"My older brother," Candice confirmed.
Gordon immediately became serious, all traces of his relaxed posture disappearing.
Even Sahger's demeanor changed as he stepped forward.
"I believe he's our best answer to Yashin," the hunter said.
Candice looked at him.
"If we manage to free Rubens, Yashin stops being our biggest problem. He becomes my brother's problem."
Sahger frowned.
"For years, we've monitored that isolated sector."
"It receives enough energy to keep a medium-sized country running continuously."
Tsukumo narrowed his eyes, calculating the numbers in his head.
"All of that to sustain a single containment cell?"
"Yes," Candice cut in, never taking her eyes off the pulsing point.
"That's his cell."
I looked back at her, still unable to grasp the scale of what she was describing.
"Candice... what exactly is your brother?"
She hesitated for two seconds before answering.
"A god."
I blinked at her.
Tsukumo subtly lifted his chin as he processed the information.
Havelyn remained silent.
Sahger, however, didn't show the slightest surprise.
Candice stared darkly at the projection.
"He's the kind of god who forced Gron-Tarh to build an entire absolute-containment sector just to keep him chained."
That was enough to silence the room.
Tsukumo moved closer to the table, his strategic mind already working.
"If we free Rubens..."
"Not just Yashin—the entire equation of the battle changes," Sahger finished.
"Changes doesn't begin to cover it."
"It gets turned completely upside down," Candice agreed.
Gordon pointed toward the fortress's defensive lines.
"The greatest limitation of this resistance has always been painfully simple."
He closed his fist.
"We don't have enough raw power for a direct fight."
"We have dedicated soldiers," Candice continued.
"We have weapons, experienced pilots, field intelligence, and hundreds of desperate fugitives who would do anything to see Gron-Tarh fall."
"But we don't have anyone capable of sustaining a prolonged confrontation against the prison's elite units and guardians."
"ESPECIALLY YASHIN."
She looked at me, then at Tsukumo and Sahger.
"You're strong. Incredibly strong."
Tsukumo simply nodded.
"So Rubens is our main piece."
"Exactly," Candice confirmed.
"The only thing I'm asking is that you hold Yashin off for as long as you can."
"This Yashin," I said, wanting to clear something up.
"Is he a Messenger?"
Candice looked surprised that I knew the term.
Gordon choked on his own spit.
"Yes. He's a Messenger."
I looked at Sahger immediately.
We found our target.
"Impossible," he said.
"He wasn't one seven years ago. There's no way he became one in such a short amount of time."
"But he did," Candice cut in.
"Gron-Tarh has countless contacts and contracts. Yashin has been active for centuries. His influence and power earned him that damned title."
"Fine. So be it."
"I don't care what title he has in this filthy place. When we invade, he's going down."
Gordon looked at Candice.
"He really has no idea what a Messenger is," the dwarf said.
"How long?" Tsukumo asked, cutting through the entire subject.
"How long do we have to deal with him?"
"As long as you can hold out," she replied.
"The resistance will provide external support too. We won't be going in alone," she explained.
"Gron-Tarh has more weapons than we do. More soldiers, more ships, and virtually unlimited resources."
"When you start the attack, the resistance moves with you. Your first wave of chaos will create an opening for my people."
I stared at the projection of the fortress.
For the first time since I'd arrived on this damned planet, the colossal walls of Gron-Tarh didn't seem completely untouchable.
Not because they'd gotten any smaller, but because we'd finally stopped trying to creep through the shadows like rats.
We were going to make that fortress bleed from every pore.
Gordon scratched his braided beard thoughtfully.
"What is it, dwarf?" I asked.
Gordon grinned, showing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"You really are a bunch of idiots."
I clenched my hand in response, anticipation burning through me.
"When do we start?"
Candice fell silent.
She looked at Gron-Tarh's hologram, then at the lonely point where her brother had been imprisoned for twenty years.
Finally, she answered.
"When the ships are ready. That should give Havelyn enough time to recover to one hundred percent."
Gordon stared at the ceiling for a moment, slowly shaking his head.
"Unbelievable..."
"So are you going to help us or not, Gordon?" Candice asked.
The dwarf turned toward her, exasperated.
"Candice, I've been helping with your terrible ideas for years. Why the hell would I stop now, right when you've come up with the worst one yet?"
She opened her arms with a crooked smile.
"That's exactly why I like you, Gordon."
"You don't like anyone in this room."
Gordon looked at each of us one more time before releasing a deep sigh that seemed to come from the bottom of his chest.
"Bunch of idiots," the dwarf said as Candice hugged him.
We were going to make Gron-Tarh look to the sky for the first time.
Candice and Havelyn would descend into the depths, and if they really managed to reach Rubens... the prison would no longer have only invaders on the outside.
Gron-Tarh would no longer have only invaders trying to get in.
It would have a god trying to get out.