Strongest Incubus System

Ester forced Damon to remain seated throughout the rest of the preparation. She placed a thicker containment band around his arm, covered the dark blue lines with a mixture of mineral powder and treated blood, and warned that any attempt to observe the memory again would end with sedatives. Damon did not ask how many would be necessary. Judging by the way Ester arranged the vials across the table, she was clearly willing to find out.

Even while physically restricted, he continued directing the operation. Aria and Iris worked on the message intended for Orven, comparing the symbols on the broken coin with codes recovered from Havelock’s documents. Iris knew only part of the sequence, but Damon quickly noticed that the gaps followed a pattern. Seraphine did not trust complete codes to her agents. Each person received a specific structure, and the other half of the coin determined which sections were meant to be read.

"We do not need to reproduce everything," Damon said, studying the notes spread across the table. "Orven expects a short message sent by someone who should be dying or fleeing. If it looks too perfect, he will become suspicious."

Aria raised her eyes from the notebook.

"So you want deliberate mistakes."

"I want convincing haste. One incomplete word, one repeated symbol, and no long explanation. Iris entered the mansion to make the map respond. If she had failed and escaped wounded, she would not write an administrative report."

Iris kept her expression closed, but agreed. She pulled the paper closer and wrote a shorter sequence, using the inside of the coin as a guide. The message stated that the mark had activated, the plate had disappeared during the discharge, and Damon had refused full contact. It did not mention the blue route, the passage through the mountain, or her survival.

Damon read it twice before handing it back.

"Remove the final sentence."

Iris frowned.

"It confirms that the host remains incompatible."

"Seraphine did not send you to evaluate compatibility. She ordered you to observe the map. That sentence sounds like your own conclusion, and you were trained not to draw conclusions."

The girl stared at him for several seconds before crossing out the line. Aria watched Damon with a discreet smile, clearly pleased not to be the only person in the room obsessed with details.

"You are enjoying this," Damon commented.

"A little. Normally, I am the only one accused of turning words into weapons."

"Words are quieter than ice."

"And leave less water on the floor."

Ester tightened the band around Damon’s arm without warning. His face tensed while Aria returned to her work with an expression far too innocent to be genuine.

The coin and the message left the mansion hidden inside a medicine box intended for a small post along the western road. The messenger was neither a knight nor one of Morgana’s servants. He was a merchant who regularly worked with the duchy and did not know what he carried beneath the false bottom. Two of Ingrivid’s men would follow the wagon from a distance, while others would be positioned at the city exits.

Damon followed everything from Albert’s old strategy room. The chamber had been abandoned during the years under the former Duchess’s control, but Morgana had ordered it cleaned after taking over the duchy. Maps covered the walls, a wide table stood at the center, and small wooden pieces were used to represent troops, cities, and routes. Damon replaced some of them with the names of agents.

Orven was placed on the western road. Sella remained without a defined position. Halder Mays was with the Council delegation, probably traveling beside Seraphine. Caelis Vorn was represented by a black piece outside Arven’s borders.

Seraphine received no piece at all.

Morgana noticed.

"You are not going to mark her?"

"She is not where we imagine," Damon replied. "If I place a piece somewhere, I begin thinking of her as though she were limited to that position. Seraphine works through other people. As long as the network exists, she is everywhere."

Elizabeth nodded.

"And when the network falls?"

Damon observed the pieces across the map.

"She will be forced to appear somewhere."

The wait lasted almost two hours. Damon did not like waiting, but for the first time he understood that impatience could also be used against him. Seraphine had counted on his need to resolve everything immediately. Every minute he remained seated, watching the movements and refusing to run toward the first threat, was a small break in the pattern she had studied.

Ester used that time to examine the lines on his arm. The mark remained inactive, but reacted whenever Damon looked toward the stone box where the map had been stored. He did not need to touch it to feel the connection. The path to the fortress now existed in three places at once: on the white plate, in Xue Lian’s memory, and inside the scar created by Vorn’s discharge.

"You are thinking about using it again," Ester said while changing the bandage.

"I am thinking about understanding it."

"That is the same sentence you use before doing something dangerous."

"I also use it before reading."

"You almost never read."

Damon looked at her.

"That was unnecessary."

"But accurate."

Before he could answer, Ingrivid entered the room accompanied by one of the disguised knights. The man was covered in dust and kept his breathing controlled, although he had clearly traveled at high speed.

"Orven received the message," he reported. "He did not open it at the post. He took the box to a warehouse near the abandoned mill and remained there for twenty minutes. Then he left without the coin."

Damon leaned over the map.

"Who entered the warehouse afterward?"

"A woman. Brown hair, merchant’s clothing, no visible escort. She arrived in a wagon from the south."

Iris immediately raised her eyes.

"Sella."

"Did she leave carrying anything?" Damon asked.

"A small bag. She went toward the tannery district. Orven returned to the post as though nothing had happened."

Morgana touched Orven’s piece on the map.

"We can arrest both of them now."

"No," Damon replied. "The coin remains in the warehouse or is with Sella. If she took the message, she will deliver it to someone else. I want to know who maintains the route to Seraphine."

Ingrivid did not like it.

"The longer we wait, the greater the risk of losing her."

"Then follow more closely."

The knight placed a marker over the tannery district. Damon studied the surrounding streets and recognized an old passage connecting the area to the drainage canal. Seraphine always preferred routes with two exits. If Sella was there, she would not choose an ordinary house.

"She will go to the abandoned baths," Damon said.

Morgana looked at the map.

"Why?"

"There is access to the canal beneath them. The main entrance is in the tannery district, but the exit ends near the southern road. She can deliver the message and disappear in different directions without being seen."

Ingrivid called another man.

"I will surround the place."

Damon stood.

Ester seized his shoulder immediately.

"No."

"I recognize the coin’s sensation."

"You sensed the map, the mark, and the Heart. Do not invent another connection now."

Damon looked at Iris.

"Does the coin contain resonant silver?"

"A small amount. Vorn uses it to activate the messages when both halves approach each other."

Ester went silent.

Damon took advantage of it.

"I can find the other half before Sella notices the perimeter."

"Your arm is still contaminated."

"That is exactly why I can sense Vorn’s pattern."

"That justification makes the idea worse."

Morgana remained watching the two of them. Damon expected her to support Ester, but the Duchess only asked:

"Can you do it without using the root?"

"I can use the Heavenly Ice Body to perceive the silver’s temperature. The mark reacts to Vorn’s method, but I do not need to open the memory."

Ester closed her eyes for an instant, as though calculating how many different ways she could strangle him without causing permanent damage. Then she placed a second band over the first and fixed three needles along his forearm.

"You will have ten minutes outside the carriage," she said. "No running, no fighting, and no following any visions. If the lines reach your shoulder, I cut the circulation before asking for your opinion."

Damon nodded.

"Reasonable conditions."

"They were not negotiated."

"Even better."

The journey to the tannery district took place in an unmarked carriage. Damon was accompanied by Ester, Ingrivid, and two knights. Morgana remained at the mansion to coordinate the children’s transfer, while Elizabeth took responsibility for Nera and Iris. Damon did not like leaving the agent outside his observation, but acknowledged that bringing her near former allies would be an unnecessary risk.

The smell of the district arrived before the buildings. Wet leather, chemicals, and dirty water formed an unpleasant mixture in the air. Damon stepped out of the carriage without showing the discomfort in his leg and kept the marked arm close to his body.

The abandoned baths occupied a low stone building, partially hidden between closed workshops. There was no light in the windows. Two of Ingrivid’s men watched from a distant rooftop. One of them gave the agreed signal: Sella had entered, but no one had seen her leave.

Damon closed his eyes.

He did not search for the root.

He felt the cold around him. The moisture trapped in the walls, the old water beneath the floor, the metal pipes, and a thin, almost imperceptible vibration coming from underground. The coin’s silver was not naturally cold, but it carried the signature of Vorn’s mark. To the Heavenly Ice Body, it felt like a splinter of winter inside a warm room.

"Below," Damon said. "She is already in the canal."

Ingrivid signaled the men to close the exits. Damon walked toward a side door, following the vibration through the stone. Ester remained so close that he could feel her disapproval without looking.

The canal entrance was hidden beneath a broken bathtub. One of the knights lifted the structure, revealing narrow steps. Damon went down first before Ester could stop him. Not because he intended to ignore her, but because only he could sense the exact direction of the coin.

The tunnel was low, damp, and illuminated by small stones fixed to the walls. There were fresh footprints in the mud. Damon followed slowly, avoiding the use of Qi to reinforce his legs. The vibration grew when they reached a fork.

"Right," he said.

Ingrivid checked the route.

"The southern exit is to the left."

"She is not escaping yet. She is meeting someone."

A few meters ahead, low voices crossed the tunnel. Damon raised one hand, and everyone stopped. Sella was speaking with a man.

"...the message confirms that the plate disappeared. The disciple died during the activation."

The male voice answered with irritation.

"Seraphine wanted the route’s pattern."

"There was no route."

"Then Damon is not the successor."

Damon recognized the voice. Not personally, but from the Council chamber.

Lord Joren Mael.

He looked at Ingrivid and realized she had recognized it as well. The inspector sent to investigate Arven’s debts was not merely someone with old ties to Valcair. He was inside the network, receiving reports directly after leaving the mansion.

Damon felt a cold satisfaction, but did not advance immediately.

He needed to hear more.

Sella spoke again.

"Halder sent copies of the documents. Havelock talked. Nera remains alive and may have revealed the Tomb."

Mael cursed.

"Then Vorn needs to return before Damon reaches the memory."

"Seraphine ordered no one to approach him."

"Why?"

"Because he has already begun rejecting the predicted path. She wants the Heart to awaken on its own. When Arven begins to collapse, Damon will go to the mines without requiring another provocation."

The sentence made the tunnel colder.

Not because Damon lost control.

He understood the complete plan.

Seraphine no longer needed to threaten children or steal documents. She only needed to wait. The interval between the Heart’s beats was already decreasing. When the structure awakened enough to threaten Arven, Damon would choose to descend into the chamber.

Exactly as she wanted.

Ester discreetly touched his arm, waiting for a reaction from the lines. They remained below the elbow.

Damon leaned close to Ingrivid’s ear.

"Sella alive. Mael as well. Neither of them can send a warning."

Ingrivid nodded and positioned the knights. Damon was supposed to remain behind, but when they entered the canal chamber, Mael pulled a small silver disc from inside his coat. Its surface began to glow before any guard could reach his hand.

Damon reacted first.

A thin blade of ice crossed the space, not to wound the man, but to freeze the mechanism between his fingers. The disc cracked before completing its activation. Mael looked toward the attack and completely lost the color in his face.

"Damon."

He stepped out of the shadows, keeping his left hand lowered.

"Lord Mael. Your inspection has become far more interesting."

Sella threw a knife. Ingrivid deflected the attack and advanced, but the woman opened a small pouch of green powder. Damon froze the moisture in the air around her, trapping the particles inside crystals before they could spread. The reaction required little Qi, but the lines on his arm immediately climbed.

Ester noticed.

"Enough."

Damon closed his hand and interrupted the flow.

Ingrivid struck Sella down with the hilt of her sword. The knights restrained Mael before he could reach another hidden object. In less than ten seconds, both were on the ground.

Mael stared at Damon with hatred.

"You do not understand what you are defending."

Damon walked toward him.

"Arven."

"The Heart will destroy this land."

"Perhaps."

"Seraphine can save it."

"By tearing out the Heart, using my body, and killing anyone who discovers the truth?"

Mael clenched his teeth.

"Some lives do not matter in the face of a calamity."

Damon observed him for several seconds. The sentence carried the same logic used by Seraphine, Vorn, and every agent willing to turn children into pieces. The difference was that Mael still believed he stood on the rational side of the story.

"You are right about one thing," Damon said. "Some lives do not matter to Seraphine."

He crouched and removed the other half of the coin from the inspector’s inner pocket.

"Yours is one of them."

Mael finally showed fear.

Damon stood and handed the coin to Ingrivid.

"Take them separately. Publicly, Lord Mael returned to the Council, and Sella was never in Arven. I want to use his seal to continue receiving messages."

Ingrivid nodded.

Ester seized Damon’s arm as soon as the prisoners were taken away. The lines had reached the middle of his bicep.

"You used the mark."

"I used ice."

"The mark responded."

"But we found Mael."

"You always answer as though the result erased the risk."

Damon looked toward the direction where the prisoners had been taken.

"It does not."

Ester waited.

He continued with enough honesty to surprise her.

"But this time, I knew the limit. When you told me to stop, I stopped."

She examined the lines.

"You still allowed them to climb too far."

"I am improving."

"Very slowly."

Damon almost smiled, but the vibration inside his arm changed before he could respond. It was neither the memory nor the map.

It came from much farther away.

Beneath the mountains of Arven, the Heart beat.

The water gathered inside the canal trembled.

A crack traveled across the wall.

Damon became still as the sound crossed his bones with enough force to erase every other noise for an instant.

The interval had shortened again.

And this time, the Heart did not wait nine minutes.

Or six.

It beat again before Damon and Ester reached the stairs.

He closed his eyes, feeling the root answer with violent pressure inside his chest, but kept the cold contained. Seraphine had been right about one thing.

Arven did not have much time.

She expected the awakening to force him to run blindly toward the mines.

Damon opened his eyes and watched the water vibrating around his boots.

"Take Mael to the mansion," he said. "Tell Morgana to accelerate the children’s transfer and summon every miner who knows the old galleries."

Ester understood immediately.

"You are going to the mine."

"Not to open the Heart."

"Then for what?"

Damon looked at the cracks in the stone. Arven’s resolution could no longer wait until the entire network had been dismantled. The political enemy had been captured. The agents were beginning to fall.

Now only the structure Seraphine believed she controlled through fear remained.

"I am going to stop it from choosing the moment for me."

Damon began climbing.

This time, he was not running after a trap.

He was going to meet the Heart before the next beat reached the surface.