The fire crackled low.
Reynar sat hunched over his knees, eyes lost in thought as the burned ritual site replayed in his mind. Liora stood nearby, arms crossed, chewing on the edge of a dried root as if it might help her decide what to say. Sylvie was perched in a low branch above them, silent, still, like a wildcat waiting for a signal to pounce.
"I'm done waiting," Reynar finally said, voice low. "If we just sit here, they'll finish what they started in Windrest. And next time… we might be too late."
Liora didn't respond at first. Then she nodded, slowly. "I was hoping you'd say that."
Sylvie dropped from the branch, landing softly beside them. "You want to attack the town?"
"No," Liora said. "Not recklessly. But we need to get inside the city again. Deeper this time. Not just the market. The underbelly."
Reynar turned to her. "You've been there before."
She nodded grimly. "My parents... suspected Windrest long before they died. They never had proof. Only theories. I was just a kid, but I remember their notes, their maps. Secret prison floors beneath the city. Disguised warehouses, alchemy shops that never opened to the public. And something else… a name. 'Project Abyssion.'"
Sylvie's eyes flickered. "That sounds familiar."
"You've heard it?" Reynar asked.
She nodded hesitantly. "Once. Whispered by a merchant. He was talking about… people going missing. He said they weren't just being killed—they were being used."
Liora's jaw clenched. "It's worse than I thought."
Reynar stood up. "Then we go back. Not just to investigate. To destroy whatever they're building."
"We'll need a plan," Liora said. "Tight entry, false identities, magic suppression cloaks—"
"I can move unseen," Sylvie added. "You two? Not so much."
Reynar grinned. "We've got a system."
That night, they laid out a blueprint for infiltration.
Windrest had multiple layers. On the surface, it was a bustling trade town. Beneath it? An underworld of secrets. Liora drew a rough map from memory—alchemical routes, black-market paths, rumored tunnels under the central tower. One of them, she believed, led directly to the forbidden sanctum. Where Lord Castien ruled.
Sylvie agreed to scout the outer guards. Liora would forge the necessary papers. Reynar would gather diversion items—smoke orbs, illusion scrolls, anything to buy them escape time if things went wrong.
They didn't expect to bring down the entire system. But if they could sabotage Project Abyssion or uncover its proof, maybe—just maybe—they could ignite something bigger.
Hope.
[System Notification]New Quest: Operation Black VeinObjective: Infiltrate Windrest and locate the heart of Project AbyssionBonus Objectives:
Expose Lord Castien's connection to the Void King
Disrupt the summoning rituals before Rift 47 opens
Warning: High-Risk Mission. Failure may result in permanent companion loss.
The next morning, Reynar slid a new enchantment core into his upgraded gear—Shadowveil plating, resistant to detection spells. Liora sheathed her new knives, rune-marked with silence glyphs. Sylvie merely vanished into the trees.
By the time they returned to Windrest's outskirts, the sun was just beginning to set.
The town looked as peaceful as ever.
The lie was complete.
Inside the central tower, Lord Castien stood before a mirror of obsidian, watching.
"They're coming," he said softly.
The masked cultist behind him bowed. "Shall we accelerate the gate?"
"Not yet. Let them struggle."
Castien turned, smiling faintly. "A rat in a trap always runs hardest… right before the jaws snap shut."