The attacks did not come from the front.
They came from everywhere else.
Within hours of the Protector's withdrawal, Varkhul strike patterns shifted across the globe. Assault formations avoided Legion concentrations and instead targeted evacuation corridors, energy relays, and transportation hubs that civilians depended on to survive.
The change was immediate.
Supply convoys vanished between checkpoints. Shelters lost power without warning. Transit tunnels collapsed under precision strikes that left surrounding districts untouched.
It was not chaos.
It was pressure.
Across the Legion command network, projections darkened.
Civilian risk curves spiked sharply upward.
The Protector observed the data in silence.
The enemy had learned.
Within the Varkhul command nexus, Rakh studied Earth with renewed interest. The guardian's intervention had confirmed his suspicions. This world was not protected by impulse or fury.
It was protected by restraint.
"Redirect assault wings," Rakh ordered. "Do not engage Legion concentrations unless required. Target dependence structures. Force the guardian to respond."
The order propagated instantly.
Earth felt it as a tightening grip.
In a coastal evacuation zone, a Legion escort column halted as warning glyphs flared across their command feeds. Incoming strike detected. Civilian transports were still loading.
"We won't clear in time," a Legion officer transmitted.
The Protector received the signal.
Distance to impact minimal.
Legion response probability insufficient.
He did not hesitate.
Atmospheric displacement rippled as the Protector entered transit, his trajectory calculated in microseconds. He did not descend directly. He intercepted the strike at altitude, engaging before the Varkhul craft could reach the corridor.
Green fire cut through the clouds.
Red counterfire answered.
The exchange lasted seconds.
When the smoke cleared, wreckage fell harmlessly into the ocean. Below, the evacuation convoy rolled on.
The Legion held.
Elsewhere, the pattern repeated.
Everywhere the Legion was stretched thin, the Protector appeared briefly, decisively, and vanished again. He did not stay. He did not pursue.
He corrected.
Across Earth, survivors began to understand what they were seeing.
"He shows up when it matters," someone whispered in a shelter lit by emergency power.
"He doesn't stay," another replied. "He moves on."
The idea spread quietly.
The planet had a defender.
But not an omnipresent one.
Rakh watched the engagements unfold with careful attention.
"He is predictable," one of his strategists said. "He responds to civilian threat vectors."
"Yes," Rakh replied. "And every response costs him time."
Rakh turned his gaze to the broader projection.
"Expand the net," he continued. "Force simultaneous crises. He cannot be everywhere."
The Dominion adapted again.
Multiple strike groups launched in coordinated waves, each targeting separate population centers. The intent was clear.
Divide the guardian's attention.
Overwhelm restraint with scale.
Within Earth's command core, the Protector processed the escalation. Civilian exposure multiplied beyond single-point correction capacity. Legion units could hold many lines.
Not all.
This was the moment the Kharans had anticipated.
The Protector issued a planetary directive.
Legion-wide coordination elevated.
Autonomous defense authorities released.
Subsurface Forge access remained locked.
The solution did not require escalation of force.
It required distribution.
Across Earth, Legion command nodes shifted from centralized response to layered autonomy. Units began acting not as extensions of a single command, but as interlocking guardians of their assigned zones.
The Legion adapted.
Civilian casualties stabilized.
Not eliminated.
Contained.
Rakh narrowed his eyes as the data updated.
"He's decentralizing," he said. "He's letting his army think."
"That reduces his direct load," the invasion commander noted.
"Yes," Rakh replied. "But it also exposes something else."
He gestured to the projection.
"His priorities."
Rakh isolated a cluster of zones that received repeated Protector intervention. Dense population centers. Historical human capitals. Cultural anchors.
"Prepare a focused operation," Rakh ordered. "Not to destroy. To threaten."
The command node hesitated. "Threat vectors only?"
"Yes," Rakh confirmed. "Let him see the choice."
On Earth, warning systems flared again.
Multiple high-density zones flagged simultaneously.
Probability curves fractured.
The Protector paused.
Not from uncertainty.
From necessity.
He could intervene in several.
Not all.
The Legion would hold where it could.
Some places would have to rely on preparation alone.
The Protector calculated outcomes measured in lives.
This was not a battlefield problem.
It was an ethical one.
Across the planet, Legion units braced as new Varkhul formations emerged from the clouds, weapons charged but not yet firing.
They were waiting.
Deep within Earth, the guardian made his decision.
The war was no longer about stopping the enemy.
It was about choosing who could be saved.
And the Dominion was about to learn that Earth's restraint was not weakness.
It was judgment.