Kane had just finished delivering his words to Greywatch's leader, the weight of his offer hanging heavy in the air, when the massive doors to the main hall creaked open.
The air shifted.
Reina, Lena, and Maya stepped through in unison, their eyes burning with grim determination. Behind them, their summons padded silently—Radiant Fang glowing with a holy luminance, Emberveil's flaming mane trailing embers across the floor, and Frostfang's chilling aura biting into the air. Between the three beasts dragged a limp body—an unconscious man in dark gear, his face bloodied and marked by claw slashes.
The Greywatch delegation froze, eyes widening. Kane's own gaze narrowed, his lips tightening into a razor-thin line.
"What is this?" Kane asked, his tone sharp but controlled.
Lena stepped forward, her hand clenching around the strange metallic device they had pried from the infiltrator's hand. She threw it onto the table with a clang. "Our summons tracked him in the rafters. He was marking the hall with this."
The device blinked faintly—red laser traces still active on its side.
Greywatch's leader's jaw clenched. His guards instinctively reached for their weapons before Kane's Ironbound Legion took a synchronized step forward, bone and steel scraping against the floor in perfect unison. The pressure of the Legion's killing intent suffocated the air, forcing the Greywatch escorts to freeze mid-motion.
Kane leaned back in his seat, his eyes fixed on the unconscious infiltrator. His mind raced.
Laser marking. Outside forces. Jets, drones, long-range bombardment?
His hand twitched once. "Barrier—full power!" Kane's voice thundered like a war drum.
At once, the Sanctuary Isle's defense grid came alive. Blue-white energy surged up the perimeter pylons as the barrier flared into existence, doubling its intensity, the air vibrating as if the heavens themselves had been drawn taut.
"All turrets, all launchers, maximum readiness!" Kane snapped.
Around the island, the ground shook as the massive Stormbreaker pivoted its main battery skyward, its runes blazing to life across the hull. Vanguard's javelin-class missile silos opened like the jaws of some metallic beast, loaded warheads lifting to aim at the heavens. Defensive towers clicked into alignment, rotating with mechanical precision as their barrels charged.
Drone hangars roared open. Squadrons of missile drones ascended in disciplined formations, their red targeting optics scanning the sky for threats. Scout drones zipped outward like hunting falcons, expanding the detection net.
The Greywatch leader flinched as the hall trembled with the vibration of hundreds of systems locking into place, as if the entire island itself had braced for war.
Kane's gaze swept across the delegation, his voice cold as steel. "You see this?" He gestured toward the unconscious infiltrator, then toward the device. "This is why I don't trust alliances without fire to test them. While you sit here, someone marked my home for slaughter."
Greywatch's leader raised his hands, his expression tense but resolute. "This was not us. We sent no assassin."
"I'll know if you lie," Kane replied sharply. His perception burned like a blade, his eyes boring into the man. "And if you lie, your safehold will be dust by nightfall."
The three girls stood in a protective line before Reina, their summons prowling like predators. The unconscious infiltrator was thrown at Kane's feet, and Kane gave a slow nod of approval. "Good work," he said simply.
Then his eyes drifted skyward. He didn't need confirmation—he already felt the distant hum of approaching engines. The infiltrator hadn't been a lone wolf.
And now… the storm was coming.
Kane turned back to Greywatch's leader, his expression calm, even cruel. "For your sake, I hope you came here to build bridges, not bury yourselves under rubble. Because someone has already declared war on me. And I don't take kindly to war."
The barrier hummed louder, runes glowing brighter as every turret, drone, missile, and warship focused skyward, awaiting the first strike.
The air was thick with dread. The room was silent—save for the faint crackle of power arcing across Sanctuary Isle's shield.
The main hall buzzed with restrained violence. Kane stood at the center, the infiltrator unconscious at his feet, Greywatch's delegation held taut between fear and awe. His Legion ringed the chamber, their hollow sockets blazing red, as the storm of defenses hummed outside the walls.
The Greywatch leader, pale but steady, raised his hands again. "This—this wasn't us. We wouldn't risk such a strike. We came here for diplomacy, not suicide."
Kane's stare pierced him, cold and calculating. "Then who sent him?"
Silence stretched. The tension was suffocating.
Before an answer could come, a shrill alarm cut through the hall.
Radar Contact: Two Hostiles Approaching. Supersonic. Bearing Northeast.
Vanguard's voice interface boomed across the island:
"Airborne intrusion detected. Two fighter-class signatures inbound. ETA—forty seconds."
Stormbreaker's hull rumbled as its long-range radar lit up. Runes flared, turrets rotated skyward, missile bays opened like iron jaws.
Kane's lips curled into a razor-thin smile. "So they've chosen the sky as their battlefield."
He snapped his fingers. "Engage."
Outside, the night was ripped apart.
Vanguard's javelin-class missile launchers hissed to life, firing a storm of burning spears into the heavens. Stormbreaker's rail batteries unleashed streaks of incandescent light, each projectile moving at hypersonic speeds, cutting the night open like thunderbolts from the gods. Drones swarmed upward, their formation tightening, unleashing waves of micro-missiles that filled the sky with streaks of crimson flame.
From the approaching jets, the pilots swore.
"—What the hell is this? They're firing like a full carrier strike group!"
"We were told it was an island with defenses, not a damn floating fortress!"
Their engines roared, breaking the sound barrier as they tried to weave through the storm, countermeasures spraying flares into the night. But Kane's warships were not ordinary. Their fire was guided, adaptive, relentless.
One pilot screamed into his comms as Vanguard's missile locked onto his jet. "I can't shake it! I—" His words cut off in static as his craft erupted into a blossom of fire in the sky.
The second jet pulled hard, rolling through a wave of drones, narrowly dodging Stormbreaker's rail slug—but a missile swarm caught him mid-roll, tearing a wing clean off. His jet spiraled, alarms blaring.
"Payload away! Payload away!" the pilot roared as he pulled the ejection lever.
Two faint streaks arced into the sky as the pilots ejected, parachutes unfurling in the distance. Both jets disintegrated in flaming wreckage, crashing into the ocean with a thunderous roar.
But one object kept falling—heavy, dark, and humming with death.
ALERT: Nuclear Payload Detected. Altitude dropping. Impact in 60 seconds.
The words echoed through the hall like a death sentence.
Greywatch's delegation blanched. The infiltrator on the floor suddenly felt like the spark to an inferno.
Inside the hall, the doors burst open again. Two of Kane's fighters dragged the captured pilots, their hands bound, their faces pale with terror. Lena and Maya's summons padded close behind them, eyes glowing.
"They ejected before impact," the fighter reported, voice strained, "but one already released the payload!"
Gasps tore through the Greywatch delegation. Even Kane's commanders stiffened. A nuclear strike meant annihilation.
For a heartbeat, silence ruled.
Then Kane's voice sliced through the dread.
"Barrier—full saturation. Stormbreaker, Vanguard, Erebus—intercept protocols. Now."
The island rumbled as if the earth itself trembled under Kane's command.
The Greywatch leader, voice unsteady, looked at him. "Can your defenses even stop—"
Kane's eyes cut toward him like steel. "Watch. And learn why Sanctuary Isle stands above all."
The countdown ticked away in everyone's minds. Fifty seconds.
The moment the words nuclear payload detected echoed, Kane's voice roared like thunder across the island.
"Elders, children—inside your homes! Now! Lock every door, seal every hatch!"
His commanders moved instantly, voices booming over communication crystals. Families rushed, dragging wide-eyed children into reinforced shelters. The livestock pens clanged shut, shepherded by handlers, as Kane's order reached even the barn. The biogas plant, greenhouse, fish farms—all sealed their emergency blast shutters, reinforced by layered rune-plates.
"Deploy mini-shields!" Kane barked.
One by one, auxiliary barriers bloomed across the island like domes of shimmering light. Smaller households, bunkers, production facilities—each gained its own protective cocoon, tethered to the main Crimson Ward. The island shimmered like a fortress of stars beneath the blood-red moon.
"Drones—recall!"
Above, the swarms shifted, wings folding as they dove back inside the protective shield. Dozens of assault drones docked with eerie precision, scout drones tucked into their bays, and missile drones slid back under reinforced hatches. The skies cleared, as if Kane had called every bird from the air.
The Greywatch delegation watched with slack jaws. The infiltrator still lay unconscious, bound at the center of the hall, while the captured pilots—faces ashen—realized the scale of what they had unleashed.
The island fell into an eerie stillness. Only the low hum of barriers, the whir of runes, and the steady stomp of the Ironbound Legion echoed through the silence.
Above them, a faint speck fell through the clouds. Faster. Heavier. A storm of death wrapped in metal.
"Impact in 30 seconds," the system intoned coldly.
Reina stirred against Elysia's arms, rubbing her eyes, murmuring in half-sleep. Kane's gaze softened for only a breath—before it hardened into steel again.
"All defenses… full saturation," he ordered. His voice was ice. "If Sanctuary Isle falls, it will only be over my ashes."
The Vanguard and Stormbreaker adjusted, runes burning white-hot. Erebus surged closer to shore, its hull splitting open to reveal torpedo silos now re-purposed for intercept fire. Every turret, cannon, and rune projector turned skyward.
The Greywatch leader whispered, trembling, "This… this is madness."
Kane's gaze cut across the hall, sharp enough to make the man flinch. "This is survival."
The countdown pressed into every ear.
20 seconds.
The ground trembled as the nuclear payload roared closer, heat burning in the atmosphere. The Crimson Ward flared bright enough to paint the night red, brighter than the moon itself.
15 seconds.
Kane clenched his fist, eyes locked on the burning trail. The Ironbound Legion stood at rigid attention, as if waiting for a god's command.
10 seconds.
The sky screamed. The nuke was almost upon them.
And then—