Rainnes' breath hitched in her throat. The scent inside William's cell had shifted—it was no longer the musty smell of a dungeon, but a rotting sweetness, like meat left too long under a scorching sun. The thousands of ants that had formed the symbols earlier now began to crawl up William's body, yet the man remained unbothered. In fact, he seemed to relish it.
"William... what are you doing?" Rainnes whispered, her hands trembling as she gripped the silver bars.
William stepped closer. The chains on his wrists clattered, but the sound was no longer that of ordinary metal. It echoed with a low frequency that made Rainnes' ears ring. "My beautiful sister-in-law, Anne, thinks she can tame this power with wires and crystals. She thinks she is harvesting energy. In reality, she is merely setting the dinner table."
William touched the silver bars with his fingertip. Black smoke billowed from his skin, and the silver—meant to be an impenetrable barrier—began to blacken and turn brittle.
"Bael is the King of the East, Rainnes. He did not come to be harvested. He came to inhabit," William smiled, and Rainnes realized that William's shadow on the wall no longer followed his movements. The shadow possessed three heads that were slowly swaying.
In the fortress's main hall, the air of victory still lingered. Harold sat in a large oak chair, while Anne and Caine examined the new energy distribution maps.
"With four more stabilizer towers, we can open Mine Nine," Anne explained, her finger pointing to the deepest area of Isfellan. "That will triple our steel production within three months."
Caine nodded, but his sharp amber eyes kept flickering toward the indicators on the mechanical device on the table. The clock hands were vibrating erratically. "Anne, the background frequency here is rising. It's not because of our machines, but something... biological."
Harold suddenly stood up. His warrior instincts were screaming. "Where is Rainnes?"
At that exact moment, the warning bell at the top of the fortress rang—not with a bronze toll, but with a piercing, fractured shriek. Through the large windows, they saw a horrific sight. From a sky that had been grey, millions of black insects began to descend like a storm, covering the entire surface of Fortress Isfellan.
"Damn it," Caine cursed, immediately pulling the emergency lever on his technological briefcase. "Those aren't ordinary insects. They are Bael's messengers!"
"Rainnes is in the dungeon!" Harold shouted, instantly grabbing his sword and sprinting toward the dark corridor.
Anne did not follow Harold. Instead, she turned toward Caine. "Caine, activate the Silver Lining protocol. Now! If this fortress falls, we cannot allow William to walk out of there."
Caine stared at his sister with a moment of hesitation. "That protocol will detonate the entire subterranean level, Anne. Your husband is still down there."
"He is a de Croul," Anne's voice was cold, though her eyes flashed with anxiety. "He will survive. But if Bael gains full possession of William's body, there will be no world left for us to manage."
Underground, Harold arrived just as the door to William's cell shattered into pieces. He saw Rainnes thrown into a corner, unconscious. In the center of the room, William stood surrounded by a storm of flies and ants that formed a pitch-black cloak.
"Harold," William's voice was layered now, as if a thousand people were speaking at once. "You were always a good soldier. But you never understood that a sword is just a piece of iron waiting to rust."
William raised his hand, and a wave of sonic pressure slammed Harold into the stone wall.
"Welcome to the banquet, Brother," William hissed. "Regrettably, you are the main course."
In the distance, the hum of the Silver Lining engine began to roar—a mechanical heartbeat signaling the countdown to the total destruction of Isfellan's underground.