Harem Online: My Party Is Full of Beautiful Celebrities

"Stop answering the bells."

For a heartbeat, the route-keepers only stared at Mireva. The order itself was simple, but its consequences were not. Their entire upper city had been built around resonance that hid families, redirected danger, authenticated roads, and allowed information to travel faster than any runner.

Then the private gathering pattern for young Sairren rang again from the abandoned district below, and whatever hesitation remained disappeared with it.

"All upper resonance," Mireva continued. "No return calls. No shelter calls. No family routes. Nothing."

One route-keeper looked toward the crowded bridges behind them. Families were still packed outside workshops and storage halls, waiting for wardens to tell them where they could safely move.

"If we shut everything down, the Dark Force trails disappear too."

"I know."

"The upper routes will stop hiding civilians."

"I know."

Another copied gathering note floated upward. Mireva’s wings snapped open, and her voice sharpened enough to end the discussion.

"They know one of our private children’s patterns."

The nearest route-keepers moved first. They did not destroy the bells or tear apart the network. Instead, each Sairren placed a hand against the relay under their authority and severed its response from the rest of the Belfry.

Silver resonance began disappearing one section at a time. The western bridge darkened first, followed by the guide pattern beneath the upper market and the two shelter lines still operating around the workshop district.

Martin felt the difference almost immediately. The Sunken Belfry stopped behaving like one enormous living mechanism around him. No subtle vibration ran beneath his boots, no silver route-line waited at the edge of his vision, and no distant bell answered another with information he could not understand.

What remained was stone, bronze, bridges, wings, frightened voices, and the people standing behind him.

The copied gathering pattern rang again, but this time it reached the upper city and died there. Nothing answered.

The mercenary leader at the bottom of the approach stopped watching Martin and shifted his attention toward the dark relays instead.

Rias noticed. "They needed responses."

Mireva looked toward her while giving another physical signal to the wardens. "To learn?"

"Yes. Copying a pattern tells them what it sounds like. A response tells them what recognizes it, where the recognition travels, and what it connects to."

Martin understood immediately. "Then we give them nothing."

The golden field from Hold the Line was already thinning across the stair. Martin had activated it before Mireva ordered the shutdown, and its thirty seconds were almost spent.

The mercenary leader noticed that too.

He raised one hand.

The next assault began just as the golden curtain broke apart and disappeared.

Martin adjusted Breakwater Aegis instead of reaching for a skill that would not be available again anytime soon. They still had the stair, the elevation, Mireva’s wardens, and several people who had become very good at protecting narrow spaces over the last few hours.

That would have to be enough.

Without the Sairren resonance laying a stronger prey trail toward the invaders, the dungeon no longer directed its danger so conveniently. A Muteclaw crawled out of a side passage halfway up the lower stair and turned toward the nearest living target.

That happened to be a mercenary.

The creature struck the man from the side and dragged him away from his portable barrier before anyone around him could react.

Almost at the same time, another Dark Force monster emerged behind Martin’s line.

Katherine saw it first. "Kinnami, rear!"

The golden wolf spirit turned from the front approach and launched across the upper platform. A barrier appeared between the monster and the civilians packed outside a workshop, but the creature struck hard enough to send cracks spreading through the golden surface.

Katherine opened her tome wider instead of trying to keep the same barrier standing until it shattered. "Release right!"

Kinnami obeyed. One side of the barrier disappeared, and the monster’s own momentum carried it past the civilians instead of through them.

Alexandra and Kumoe were already moving. The curious head struck the monster’s shoulder while Alexandra cut across its flank. Kumoe’s right head twisted into the creature from the opposite angle, forcing it farther from the families.

Pack Rhythm flashed between them, and Alexandra used the shared opening to drive one sword beneath the monster’s forelimb. The middle head restored the damage Kumoe had taken during the first impact while Alexandra withdrew before the creature could turn on her.

Martin saw the rear stabilize and returned his attention to the stair.

The attackers had used the distraction well. Three portable barriers were already moving upward in a tight formation, with hooked poles extending between them to catch shields, legs, or anyone careless enough to stand too close to the edge.

There was no golden battlefield curtain to expose them now.

Martin had to read the formation himself.

A hooked pole struck the center of Breakwater Aegis while another caught its lower edge. The two mercenaries pulled together, clearly expecting Martin’s guard to break or the shield to tear free from his hand.

Unyielding Grip prevented exactly that.

Martin twisted Breakwater Aegis sharply and stepped backward. Both poles crossed, turning the attackers’ equipment against them and pulling the two mercenaries toward each other.

He drove forward again.

Breakwater Aegis hit the nearest man hard enough to throw him into the second.

A Sairren warden descended from the bridge rail above them and planted one foot against the exposed mercenary’s shoulder, sending him tumbling down two steps. The warden did not remain on the ground for a prolonged duel. His wings opened immediately, carrying him back toward the upper bridge before the surrounding attackers could close around him.

Rias had gotten through to them.

Every unnecessary exchange revealed something about how they fought. Every defense they prolonged gave the attackers more time to learn what mattered.

The Sairren were no longer trying to dominate every street simply because those streets belonged to them. They were protecting the people behind the line and refusing to reveal anything they did not have to.

Elisebeth remained farther back with both hands raised, waiting instead of filling the battlefield with magic.

A copied tuning device opened beneath the eastern bridge.

She reacted immediately. "Silent Stage."

The spell formed only around the device. Foreign resonance struck its boundary and folded inward instead of spreading through the upper city.

Elisebeth gritted her teeth. "Rias!"

"Seen."

Shadow Step carried Rias beneath the bridge, and Gloamneedle flashed once.

The outer tuning fork broke.

The copied signal distorted but did not stop.

Rias stared at the device. "Wrong one."

Elisebeth looked at her through the edge of Silent Stage. "Wonderful time for experimentation."

"I know what the last model used."

"This one changed?"

"Yes."

Rias watched the operator’s hands instead of the instrument itself. The man reached toward the rear fork, revealing which component mattered before he could finish adjusting it.

Gloamneedle moved again.

The second cut broke the correct component. The trapped route-song collapsed into meaningless metallic noise, and Elisebeth released Silent Stage immediately.

Rias looked down at the ruined device. "They learned too."

Elisebeth lowered her staff. "I preferred when only we did that."

A black capture seal lit on the opposite side of the stair, and Cassandra saw it before Martin did.

There was no time to build Patient Draw. Nightglass Longbow came up, and she released almost immediately.

The arrow struck the Beastslayer at the waist and shattered the capture seal.

The older Sairren who had fought beside Cassandra during their escape from the western maintenance road pointed at the broken fragments.

"Chainbreaker!"

Cassandra looked irritated despite the battle around them. "Please stop announcing me."

"You broke another one."

"That is not how names work."

The Beastslayer attacked before the Sairren could answer.

Cassandra moved aside before the inherited bone claw could reach her. The player changed direction and attacked again, forcing her to use Nightglass Longbow itself to catch the strike.

The impact drove her backward.

The older Sairren stepped between them with his spear.

Cassandra recovered her footing. "I thought you were supposed to stay behind me."

"I changed my mind."

"Convenient."

He lunged and forced the Beastslayer to give ground.

For the first time in several seconds, Cassandra stopped moving and drew. Patient Draw began to build while the Beastslayer noticed what she was doing and tried to push around the Sairren’s spear.

The older Sairren shifted with him and refused to surrender the lane.

Cassandra kept drawing until Patient Draw sharpened.

Then she released.

The arrow entered the gap between the inherited bone plating and the player’s shoulder armor. The Beastslayer stumbled sideways, and Cassandra immediately abandoned her firing position before an archer could answer.

Across the battlefield, the copied private gathering pattern sounded once more.

Nobody answered it.

The attackers were still dangerous, and the Sairren had voluntarily disabled one of the greatest advantages of their city. Yet Martin could already see the difference in the mercenary leader’s behavior.

The man kept looking toward the silent upper relays.

This time, there was nothing for him to learn from them.