Herald was used to dealing with long shifts, multi-day stakeouts were among his specialties. Selene, however, was not as far as he knew. So the doberman had been more than a little bit surprised when she hadn’t lost her edge at all throughout the night. If anything, the mouse seemed actually refreshed and energised as the new day dawned even as they knew they would have to stay awake throughout.

Well, that certainly deserved a bit of praise. A lazy grin played over Herald’s lips.

“Heh, congrats. First time of night shifts brilliantly mastered.” He declared with an amused drawl, hand landing heavy on her back.

Selene turned to blinked owlishly at him.

“I’ve had longer nights during my studies.” Selene explained deadpan, a musing look crossing her face as she rubbed her chin. “Honestly, this was probably one of the most refreshing nights in comparison.”

“… remind me to talk to you more.” Herald stated after a beat of silence.

“Sure! Anyways, the sensors haven’t picked up anything out of the ordinary. But I’ve been checking the books on the pumps and think I have the two most likely entry points figured out.” She grinned, hand waving towards the pile of books and files covering the tables that had slowly build up over the course of the night. A chaotic collection of notes were paradoxically neatly laid out besides the pile.

“Have been wondering what that was about.” Herald mused and leant over them as his eyes flitted over her writing. And then promptly glazed over as he couldn’t make heads or tails out of her writing, and what he did manage to decipher went right over his head.

“Welp! I’m leaving you to that then. Good work.” He grinned, gave her thumbs up and turned to wander off to do whatever.

“Yeah, no. You’re going to give the update to the rest of the team now. I’m not letting you off like that.” Selene drawled, giving him a deadpan stare as she pulled him back, her hand catching him tight by the shoulder.

———

“Up, up! Night’s over!” Mirabelle cheerfully called into the simple sleeping tent that the four of them had been using over their breaks.

Bleary eyed and with a wide yawn crawled Leora out of the tent.

“Ugh, now I remember why I hated night shifts…” She grunted under her breath, stretching and bending this way and that until her body no longer felt so uncomfortably stiff. Repressed memories of her early years in the City Guard flitted back through her mind.

She gazed out over the cavern’s gloomy, blue-lit landscape.

“Uah, eight in the morning and it’s still moody. I can’t wait to get back on the surface.” Leora sighed quietly and fell into her morning gymnastics to loosen her body for the day. She threw an envious look over to Lagua who had been woken by Kai around the same time, the doberman looking completely fine despite the early morning.

There was still some bottled Hazelnut Pot over from the day before that they eagerly dug into. And a few minutes later Leora was left to the command centre while the other three surveyed the cavern.

They had barely left when the communicator blinked and she opened the connection.

“Leora here.”

“Yo, it’s Herald. We’ve got our shifts done and found no suspicious readings from the sensors. Selene’s got an idea for which of the pumps we’ve got to be most concerned about, though.” The doberman’s voice echoed over the speakers a moment later. The sound of rustling paper could be heard. “And she just handed me her notes.”

“We haven’t found any suspicious sightings either. And thank you, Selene. Now, please give us the update on the pumps, Herald.” Leora responded with a smile, not surprised by the news. She had been the one to keep in contact with the small mouse for most of her shifts and so had been steadily updated on Selene’s research throughout the night.

“Okay. So, according to this…” Herald began slowly before trailing awkwardly off. Immediately Selene intruded, pushing him away from the communicator. “Agh, hey! No need to shove! It’s not my fault you write worse than my doctor!”

Amused Leora sweatdropped as Selene’s aggravated voice echoed through the speaker a few seconds later.

“So, what that illiterate was supposed to relay is that I’m almost certain that either the SE or W pump is going to be our intruders’ entry point.”

It was a result of combing through countless boring and obtuse records stretching throughout the last few years which she had to cross-reference with each other before finally being able to accurately lock these two pumps down as the cavern’s likely entry points.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“How sure are you of this?” Leora narrowed her eyes.

“Absolut.” Selene corrected herself.

“Okay, then we’ll focus on those two. Good work.” Leora called back, a smile coming to her lips.

“Got it!” Selene replied, a grin audible, and the call came to a close.

Leora had to give it to the Amber Caster, she had worked diligently despite being restrained from exploring the Crystal Well. Still, a disquieting feeling was making itself wide within her as she regarded the blue glow. There was no doubt left in her mind. A Primal Glyph was located below Dampfstadt. This was more than just a simple state secret.

Leora swallowed down the uncomfortable weight on her chest and turned around. She had to inform the others of the change in patrol.

———

While the Crystal Team turned their attention towards incorporating Selene’s research into their new patrol route, said mouse and Herald found that little changed in their current occupation of the Research Centre. They still had to focus on the sensors’ statistics and the addition of two more communicators, connected to the two aforementioned pump stations, wasn’t really all that worthy to be called even a minor change.

And so the duo was left to their own devices, but luckily they had found a way to deal with the boredom.

“Ah, damnit! Again?! I’m starting to think this deck is absolute crap…” Herald exclaimed annoyed as Selene beat him for the third time in a row in a game of Duel Astral.

“My deck isn’t the best either. I just know how to play~” The mouse grinned smugly. She didn’t mention that she had been the Queen of Duel Astral back during her studies and had been keeping it as a little side hobby since, meaning she had a much better understanding of the game’s meta.

Selene had found a variety of Duel Astral cards and decks hidden within a number of the file cabinets, Herald had then found even more. With the sensor display acting as their playfield, the duo always had an eye on the situation should something change suddenly. And It was a good way to relax after an exhausting night, at least for Selene. Maybe not for Herald, though, he looked more and more frustrated than anything else.

“Yeah, yeah. I know, too. Just not this archetype…” Herald rolled his eyes, looking intently at his cards and tried to come up with a better strategy for his next hand.

And that was how the next few hours passed them by. Herald and Selene played, occasionally contacting the Crystal team, while time slowly shifted forwards. Really, Leora’s squad was doing a job that demanded at least three times as many people.

Time ticked forwards. Babylon’s team was quickly approaching in on the heart of Dampfstadt.

But where both groups had to endure through the night, the third faction had rest quite well. Hidden away from sight yet oh so close to the pulsating light that gave Dampfstadt so much life.

Now nestled into the side of the crystalline cavern below the Primal Glyph’s well had been built a surprisingly comfortable looking camp. A tent had been set up with two sleeping bags inside and a simple camping stove was sizzling in front of it between two folding chairs. The mouthwatering smell of food wafted up from the bubbling pot of soup atop the stove.

And the two sitting forms couldn’t have been more different from each other.

Flizz was feeling peppy and refreshed, a small grin playing over her lips as she hummed and cooked the delicious smelling soup. She had been able to to spend the entire night sleeping besides her darling Haggard! All while the dark blaze within her was so nicely fuelled by all the hatred they had kindled the day before. An annoyed pout puffed her cheek as she shuddered in revulsion of that annoying Lebensfest with all its positivity. It was eating away at her flor of power!

But other than that she was more than energised enough for the job ahead. Her gaze flitted towards the darkly brooding tiger wolf with barely concealed infatuation.

Haggard loomed over a bowl of already cooling soup. His face twisted into a frown that stood in stark contrast to Flizz own cheerful grin. Flashes of the pearl’s crimson fury played through his mind again and again. Its power had burned through his will, overpowering it and turned him into a wrecking ball of baleful energies. He had been swept away by it. Even now he could feel this overpowering urge to bask in its might. And he hated that feeling.

Sparks of crimson arced along his hands, they were the remnants of that power. Now they belonged to him, their hatred his to control. A pale imitation of the purity that had surged through him before.

Before, when he had just woken up, he had felt his body thrum with flickers of that purity still. A desire… an addiction urging him to call upon it again. And then Flizz had flicked him out of it.

Haggard still didn’t fully understand how any of this worked. Was this his Arc? Why he could control this incredible power of the Rose Box? A test by Flizz to see how he would fare with this might?

Rage welled up within him as he felt like he had failed her in that aspect. He breathed out.

Closing his eyes he could feel his own power bubble and swell within. But connected yet separate, distantly linked through… something, there was a second well of power that he could now feel. The source of the baleful sparks that danced over his hands. Hatred. Rage. Despair. Disgust. Born from death.

Those feeling washed through him and he couldn’t help but smirk as his eyes opened again, a crimson spark dancing within them before washed away by the azure blue of his iris again.

He liked it. He liked this power a lot.

To the side, Flizz giggled quietly under her breath in wicked delight. She could feel his mood flit back and forth. Oh, he had taken to the Nightmares wonderfully already!

The memory of flames. Of abject horror and despair. Those screams. The deaths. She wanted to coo as she remembered the moment in which she had finally realised the truth. But sadly Haggard wasn’t ready for his own truth just yet.

She sighed with a exaggeratedly cute pout and took peek through her Arc. An amused smirk played over her lips as she saw those City Guards still waiting for the intruders. So clueless.

Oh, she couldn’t wait for these sacrificial pawns to clash against Babylon’s annoying maggots! And when they were thoroughly exhausted, she would steal the heart from right under their noses. Ooh, the look of shock and despair would be so delicious~!

A Primal Glyph. Oh, what malevolence would be possible with it! She could practically smell the blood already. Blood. Blood. So much blood.

Blood that stirred as the gears of time etched ever closer towards the approaching storm.