The wind was still sweeping across the field when everything came to a halt.
There was no final explosion, no last desperate attack. They simply… stopped advancing. The gunfire faded one by one, and the noise of battle was replaced by something far more unsettling: silence.
I was still standing, barely. The snow was stained red; motionless bodies and traces of energy lingered in the air. The cold no longer bothered me. Or maybe my body was too busy trying not to collapse.
Sergei was the first to speak.
"There's no more pressure."
Anton slowly turned in place, weapon raised, checking the flanks.
"They're retreating."
Irina stood a few meters behind us, perfectly still. Her eyes were closed, her face tense. Then she blinked.When she opened them, they glowed with that blue tone I had seen before.
"That's correct," she said. "I'm not detecting any heat signatures."
Sophia spoke over the general channel, her voice sounding more exhausted than ever.
"Confirm. The Warsaw base has fallen. I repeat: the Warsaw base has fallen."
I felt something sink deep in my chest.It wasn't surprise. It was accumulation.
Mikhail took a few steps forward, looking out over the empty ground that only minutes earlier had been filled with enemies.
"This doesn't make sense," he said. "Just yesterday they attacked the main mansion, and today they strike us here."
That was when my legs finally gave out.I dropped to my knees in the snow before falling onto my side.
Eleonor was at my side immediately.
"Noah," she said. "Look at me."
I did.
"You did well," I said, not knowing why I needed to say it out loud.
"Yes, you did well," she replied. "You didn't cross the line. You stopped in time."
"Because you told me to," I said, my voice weaker than I wanted it to be.
She didn't argue.
The relic on my wrist was cold. Not inactive. Just distant, as if it had marked a limit and now refused to take another step.
Mikhail stopped in front of me.
"Eleven minutes," he said.
That was all the attack had lasted.
"I think their intention was to see our response, to evaluate us," Sergei added.
"Eleven minutes," I murmured.
It sounded ridiculous. To me, it felt like it had lasted a lifetime.
"After that…" Mikhail continued, "…this is too strange. How did they know where you were at the time of the first attack? I know your Mark and your relic emit strong, unusual magical waves, but I have the feeling they were waiting for you to arrive here."
Eleonor pressed her lips together and looked at Sophia.
"What do you think?"
"A year and a half ago, there was a break-in at the Warsaw base," she replied, "the same one that was attacked today. My conclusion is that there are infiltrators among the families."
Mikhail didn't hesitate.
"We need to move. This base is no longer safe. I won't wait for another attack.Prepare the helicopters. We're moving to Vayegi."
While all of that was happening in Anadyr, Eleonor and Kenji continued their investigation.
"According to my deductions," Kenji said, "the highest concentration of enemies was focused on this point."
He pointed to a specific area on the mansion's map.
"Can you tell us what is stored in that location, Mr. Luc Bernard?"
Luc studied him for a few seconds before answering.
"That information shouldn't be revealed," he said, "but given the circumstances, I'll disclose part of it."
He paused.
"In that chamber, we keep all the historical records of the five families. From how the first member was conceived by one of the Supreme Beings, to the name of the youngest of the Sevianko line."
He continued:
"That is also where the maps are kept, marking the exact locations where each division of the Kartnod army is sealed."
That information left me speechless for several seconds.
"Are you saying it's not just Slieve League?" I asked.
"Slieve League is the central point," he replied. "That's where the principal members are. But all around the world, there are multiple dimensional seals."
Kenji nodded.
"According to the records, the Kartnod had deployed troops on almost every continent and were gaining significant ground when the Deity of the Cosmos sealed them. He didn't gather them in one place; he simply opened the Mirror Dimension and confined them there as they were."
A knot formed in my stomach.
"That means the ones carrying out these attacks know there are sealed troops all over the world," I said. "They know their locations and want to break the seals to reunite them."
"I need to report this to central headquarters immediately," Kenji said. "The report we received from the ÓBroin states that the main seal has been compromised. We have less than a year."
That meant only one thing:there were troops waiting at every one of those locations.
"There's one more thing," Étienne said.
We all fell silent.
"In that vault, there is also information on how to locate the Nexus of the End. And as its name implies… if it falls into the wrong hands, it will be the end of everything."
Those words cut the circulation through my entire body.