Strongest Incubus System

Damon reached the canal exit breathing heavily, the dark blue lines still visible beneath the bandage around his arm. Ester climbed out immediately behind him, keeping enough distance not to interfere with his movements but staying close enough to catch him if his legs failed. The Heart’s second beat had left cracks in the underground walls, and the vibration remained trapped in his bones even after the sound disappeared.

Outside, the tannery district was beginning to react. People abandoned their workshops, animals pulled against their reins, and water reservoirs trembled on top of wooden structures. Most did not know what had happened, but everyone recognized a disturbance coming from the mountains. Fear spread before any official explanation.

Damon entered the carriage and looked at Ingrivid before she closed the door.

"Take Mael and Sella by another route. No one can see them entering the mansion, especially the servants who have not yet been verified."

"And what do you intend to do?"

"Discover why the Heart changed its rhythm."

Ingrivid held the door without closing it.

"You already know. It is awakening."

"If it were awakening naturally, the interval would decrease gradually. It went from several minutes to two almost consecutive beats. Something forced that change."

Ester entered and sat across from him.

"It may be reacting to your root."

"I was far from the mines when it happened."

"That has never stopped the Heart from sensing you."

"But before, it called me. This time, the vibration pushed outward."

Ester remained silent. Damon closed his eyes and tried to remember the sensation precisely. The previous beats passed through his chest and pulled the cold toward the mountains. The last one had been different. The pressure spread through the galleries, the underground canals, and the stone, like something trying to expel accumulated energy.

It did not feel like a summons.

It felt like resistance.

The carriage began moving. Damon opened his eyes and found Ester watching the lines on his arm.

"I am not going to enter the memory," he said.

"I did not ask."

"You were thinking it."

"I was."

"You are beginning to know me too well."

"Six months caring for someone unconscious provides plenty of material."

Damon rested his head against the wooden wall of the carriage while the wheels moved through the uneven streets.

"Vorn’s mark is reacting to the Heart, but not in the same way as my root. When it beat, the lines tried to climb. Then they retreated."

"As though something interrupted the path."

"Or as though the mark were listening to a different order."

Ester lifted his arm and pressed the bandage with two fingers.

"Vorn created this mark to block and destroy memories. We do not know what else he placed inside it."

"Iris said he uses artificial cold."

"Iris only knows what they allowed her to know."

Damon nodded. That was true for every one of Seraphine’s agents. Each carried a specific part, enough to fulfill a function but insufficient to understand the plan. The network did not depend only on secrecy.

It depended on organized ignorance.

When they reached the mansion, Morgana was already waiting in the courtyard. Three closed wagons stood prepared near the side gate. Lia, Elin, and Toma would be removed in separate groups, accompanied by people they knew. The guards wore ordinary clothing without any symbol of Arven. Nera was being taken along a fourth route under Elizabeth’s responsibility.

Damon stepped down and walked directly toward Morgana.

"The children leave now."

"They are ready."

"Change the routes after the first post. If anyone is watching the mansion, they will follow the obvious roads."

Morgana nodded.

"Elizabeth prepared three changes. None of them are registered."

Damon looked toward the wagons. Lia appeared through an opening in the first one and recognized him. She did not smile, but the fear on her face diminished slightly. Damon approached and rested one hand against the side of the wagon.

"You are going with Mara. Do not leave until she says it is safe."

"Are you going to the mine?" Lia asked.

Damon did not lie.

"I am."

The girl held the blanket against her chest.

"Is the thing still calling?"

"It is making noise. That does not mean we need to obey."

Lia continued looking at him for several seconds.

"Toma said she was scared."

Damon became still.

"Who was scared?"

"The big thing."

Mara tried to interrupt, but Damon raised one hand.

"Did Toma say anything else?"

"He said something was coming down from the other side."

The information immediately reorganized his thoughts. The Heart was not trying to escape. It was reacting to something advancing toward it through a region of the mines they did not yet know.

Damon looked at Morgana.

"I want the oldest maps of the galleries, especially those from before the Arven family’s expansion. I also need every record of eastern tunnels."

"The eastern tunnels were closed decades ago."

"Then that is where someone would enter."

Morgana called Aria before he had even finished. The archivist appeared carrying a box of documents and listened to the instructions without complaint, which demonstrated the seriousness of the situation.

Damon turned back toward Lia.

"You did well telling me."

"Will you come back?"

The question was simple, but he did not answer immediately. Easy promises were useful only until the first real problem appeared.

"I will do everything I can to return," he said. "And I will not let that thing reach any of you."

Lia accepted the answer. Mara closed the opening, and the wagons began departing at different intervals. Damon continued watching until the first disappeared through the side gate. Seraphine had used those children to guide him.

Now they were off the board.

For the first time, he could enter the mine while thinking only about the problem in front of him.

Aria returned with three rolled maps. She spread them across a table in the entrance hall, securing the edges with small weights. The most recent map showed the known tunnels, extraction chambers, and the region where the ritual had been interrupted. The second revealed abandoned galleries. The third was so old that some of the lines had disappeared.

Damon identified the difference almost immediately.

On the old map, a passage left the deep chamber and continued east, crossing the mountain until it reached an unnamed region. In the newer records, the tunnel did not exist. It was not marked as destroyed or blocked.

It had simply been removed.

"Who ordered the alteration?" Damon asked.

Aria checked the notes in the margin.

"The intermediate map was copied during Morgana’s grandfather’s rule. The cartographer recorded that the eastern gallery possessed no mineral value and presented a structural risk."

"That does not explain removing it completely."

Morgana pointed toward an almost faded seal.

"This mark does not belong to Arven."

Aria brought a lens closer.

"It resembles the ancient symbol of Valcair."

Damon felt the cold harden inside his chest. Seraphine had not discovered the Heart recently. Her family had known about the galleries of Arven for generations and erased the only passage that reached the chamber from the other side.

"She is not waiting for the Heart to awaken," Damon said. "Someone is already down there."

Ester placed her case on the table.

"Vorn."

"Probably."

Morgana called Ingrivid.

"How many men do we need?"

Damon answered before the knight.

"Few. Narrow tunnels turn numbers into an obstacle. Ingrivid, two knights, and two miners who know the structure. Ester comes with me."

Ester raised an eyebrow.

"Generous of you to allow me to participate in the decision."

"You would come even if I said no."

"Finally, you are learning."

Morgana closed the map.

"I am coming too."

Damon shook his head.

"You stay."

"These mines belong to Arven."

"Exactly. If the structure gives way or the Heart reaches the surface, someone needs to coordinate evacuation, guards, and containment. Besides, Mael and Sella are arriving. You need to control the Council before they realize their inspector disappeared."

Morgana did not like it, but she understood. Damon was not keeping her away because of weakness. He was leaving her with the part of the war no one else could assume.

"Bring my men back," she said.

Damon looked at Ingrivid and the two chosen knights.

"They return if they obey me."

Ingrivid crossed her arms.

"Does that apply to you?"

"Probably not."

"Then we are already starting badly."

Less than half an hour later, the group reached the northern entrance of the mines. The third beat occurred while they dismounted. The ground sank several centimeters beneath their boots, and a wave of cold air left the tunnel with enough force to extinguish two lanterns.

Damon remained standing before the darkness.

The root inside his chest tried to respond, but he closed the lower meridians and kept the flow concentrated within his body. The lines left by Vorn reacted along his arm, climbing to the elbow before stabilizing.

Ester held his wrist.

"Can you still separate the two sensations?"

"Yes. The root wants to descend. The mark wants to look."

"And you?"

Damon watched the tunnel.

"I want to discover who is knocking on the wrong door."

The miners lit new lanterns and took the lead during the first part of the route. Damon walked immediately behind them, using his glacial perception to sense cracks in the stone before they became visible. At two points, he ordered them to change course seconds before small slabs of the ceiling collapsed. The Heavenly Ice Body did not show him the future, but it allowed him to perceive minimal changes in temperature caused by moving stone.

The deeper they descended, the clearer it became that the Heart was not the only source of activity. Smaller pulses traveled through the walls, always several instants before the main beat. They were artificial, regular, and too weak for an ordinary person to notice.

Damon stopped at a fork.

"The ritual tunnel is on the left," one of the miners said.

"We are going right."

"That passage ends at a wall."

"It does not."

The man opened the map.

"I worked here for twenty years."

"And someone spent more than twenty years making certain you never knew."

Damon placed his hand against the stone. He did not release Qi.

He only felt.

There was a cold current on the other side and small metallic vibrations distributed throughout the wall.

"Silver," he said. "Thin wires inside the stone."

Ingrivid removed a short tool from her belt.

"A false barrier."

Damon marked three points. The knights began breaking the surface layer, revealing smaller blocks fitted inside the wall. After several minutes, the structure gave way and opened a narrow, ancient passage in perfect condition.

The air that emerged smelled of metal, dried blood, and burned herbs.

Ester became serious.

"Vorn passed through here."

Damon entered first. The floor was covered in almost invisible symbols drawn with a silver substance. Small fragments of bells had been placed inside cracks in the walls. Each received the Heart’s vibration and returned it in a different rhythm, forcing the structure to respond with greater strength.

"It is not an awakening," Damon said. "It is a provocation."

One of the miners brought the lantern closer.

"Can we break the fragments?"

"Not all at once. If the rhythm disappears abruptly, the Heart may react as it did during the ritual."

Damon closed his eyes and listened. There were seven nearby points, but the network continued deeper. Each fragment functioned as part of a larger bell spread throughout the passage. Vorn did not need to carry an entire instrument.

He had turned the tunnel itself into one.

"We remove alternating pieces," Damon decided. "First the second on the left wall, then the fourth on the right. We wait one beat and evaluate."

Ingrivid distributed the men. Ester remained beside Damon, watching his marked arm. When the first fragment was removed, the pressure in the walls changed. The Heart beat several seconds later, strongly but less aggressively.

"The artificial rhythm weakened," Damon said. "Continue."

The second fragment came out with difficulty. A silver line snapped inside the stone and released a glacial discharge. Damon raised his hand and absorbed only the temperature, redirecting the energy into the ground. Ice covered his boots, but did not reach his chest.

Ester immediately checked his arm.

"The mark climbed."

"A little."

"It is still climbing."

Damon pointed toward the next location.

"One more."

When they removed the third, the entire tunnel trembled. A crack opened in the ceiling, and tons of stone began collapsing over the two miners. Damon reacted before Ingrivid. Cold left his arms and formed an ice structure between the floor and ceiling, not as a solid wall but as interconnected columns distributing the weight toward the sides.

The pressure immediately struck his shoulders.

Damon clenched his teeth and maintained the structure.

"Pull them both out," he ordered.

Ingrivid dragged one miner while the knights pulled the other. Ester seized Damon’s arm.

"Release it when they are clear."

"I know."

The final boot left the area. Damon broke the columns at the base and retreated. The ceiling collapsed, closing part of the path behind them, but everyone remained alive.

The effort made the blue lines reach his shoulder.

Ester pushed him against the wall and pressed the cutoff points.

"You used the root."

"I used my Qi."

"Your Qi passes through the root."

"Medical details."

"Details that determine whether your brain remains inside your skull."

Damon breathed until the cold retreated. His entire body hurt, but the structure had remained under control. No excess had escaped. He had not destroyed the tunnel or frozen his allies.

It was progress, even if Ester would never admit it at that moment.

"We can return," Ingrivid said. "The path is partially blocked."

Damon looked toward the passage ahead. The artificial pulses continued, now stronger because the remaining fragments were trying to compensate for the ones they had removed.

"If we return, Vorn finishes."

"You do not know whether it is Vorn."

"Then I want to meet whoever else learned to turn a mountain into a bell."

He continued.

The passage widened after several meters. Recent boot marks appeared in the dust, accompanied by grooves left by something heavy being dragged. Damon crouched and placed two fingers near one footprint.

"It is still cold."

One of the knights looked around.

"How long?"

"Less than an hour."

Ester pointed toward the grooves.

"They transported equipment."

Damon followed the marks with his eyes into the darkness.

"Or someone."

The fourth beat struck the tunnel.

This time, the Heart did not push energy outward.

The vibration stopped halfway, as though something had absorbed part of it before it reached the surface.

Damon felt the root contract painfully.

"He is draining the Heart," he said.

Confirmation came through a distant voice crossing the passage ahead.

"You finally understand."

Damon recognized the voice despite never having personally spoken to the man. Caelis Vorn had appeared in reports, marks, methods, and Iris’s fear. Now he was close enough for every word to reach the group.

Ingrivid drew her sword. The knights did the same.

Damon raised one hand, preventing them from advancing without seeing.

"You left a poor mark on me," he said.

Vorn’s laughter echoed through the tunnel.

"On the contrary. It worked better than I imagined."

Damon felt the lines on his arm move.

They did not climb.

They opened.

The vision of the fortress appeared for an instant over the mine walls. The black gate, the accumulated snow, and the guardian in white armor overlapped the real passage. Both images existed together for one second.

Damon did not close his eyes.

This time, he watched.

The guardian slowly turned its head toward him.

Then it raised an ice-covered sword and pointed toward something behind Damon himself.

He turned at the same instant.

One of the miners raised a silver needle, prepared to drive it into Ester’s neck.

Damon crossed the distance before the man completed the movement. He seized the wrist, broke it against his knee, and threw the traitor into the wall. The needle fell to the ground and released green smoke.

Ingrivid restrained the man.

Damon looked toward the passage again, but the fortress vision had disappeared.

Vorn laughed from the other side.

"Now you understand. The memory is not merely showing the past."

Damon flexed his marked hand, feeling pain travel to the shoulder.

"It is helping me."

"No. It is preparing you."

"Everyone continues trying to explain what is happening inside me."

Damon advanced toward the bend in the tunnel, ignoring Ester’s protest.

"It is beginning to become irritating."

When he crossed the passage, he found an ancient chamber far larger than the maps suggested. Silver wires covered the walls and converged on a metal structure installed over a deep well. At the center, suspended vertically by chains, was an elderly man with crystalline marks behind both ears.

Another descendant of the mining families.

Caelis Vorn stood before the mechanism, wearing a long gray coat and gloves covered in green symbols. In one hand, he held a bell without a clapper. In the other, a needle connected directly to the prisoner’s chains.

"Every beat passes through him before reaching the tunnel," Vorn explained. "The ancient blood opens the first ear. The cold opens the second. You already know the phrase."

Damon observed the imprisoned man. He was still alive, but every pulse of the Heart removed something from him.

"Release him."

"You did not come here to save him."

"That is exactly why I came."

Vorn smiled.

"No. You came because the Heart called."

Damon felt the root press against his chest, the mark open the memory, and the distant map respond inside the stone box at the mansion. Every connection tried to pull him in a different direction.

He remained still.

"You still have not noticed the difference," Damon said. "Hearing does not mean obeying."

Vorn raised the bell without a clapper. The silver wires across the walls began to vibrate, and the entire chamber answered with the deep sound of the next beat.

Damon opened his hands.

Cold circulated through his meridians, reached the Heavenly Ice Body, and remained under control. It did not spread. It did not attack.

It did not answer the imposed rhythm.

For the first time, he did something different.

He created his own rhythm.

A cold pulse crossed his body, slow and precise, running against Vorn’s vibration. The silver wires froze one after another. The bell in the doctor’s hand cracked. The chains restraining the old man lost their tension.

Vorn stopped smiling.

Damon took his first step into the chamber.

"Seraphine wanted to turn the Heart into an instrument."

The second step made the ice reach the mechanism above the well.

"You tried to turn my memories into a lock."

On the third, the root inside his chest responded to the rhythm he had created, not to the mountain’s beat.

Damon looked directly at Vorn.

"Now you are going to learn what happens when I stop playing your music."