Shen bet that this invasion was why Long Hei went to such lengths to lock Samir and hunt fugitives down. Whatever the dragon's plans were, he had hoped to keep things under wraps for a while. Martino had likely realized Long Hei wanted things to remain quiet, too, hence not raising the alarm herself.
But she failed to see that if even a D-rank could find out about the incoming attack, no matter how good of an investigator she might be, then things were so advanced that the traitors could allow themselves to be less secretive. The attack was imminent.
By raising the alarm, Shen was informing the Acting General that it was time to spring whatever trap he had laid.
If Martino had been fooled or lied to Shen, or if Rayna was lying, he would be very embarrassed. But he wouldn't risk delaying such a critical warning to everyone.
----------------------------------------
Four red notifications appeared in the gigantic being's mind despite his eyes being closed.
| Full alert called by First Lieutenant Shen of the 7th Exemplary Brigade
| Claim: "Void invasion imminent! There are traitors among us!"
| Inferred Original Source: Sergeant Specialist Marzia Martino, Justicar, Human
| Do you want to engage in the Emergency Defensive Protocols? If so, at which tier?
A massive black eye opened in the darkness, filled with shock. It turned to look at the drow in the corner. She was passing as B-rank and hadn't received any notification, but he had no doubt she was paying attention to everything the boy did.
Darla was sitting in lotus position, meditating and healing her soul. She had brought an item that could quickly heal her but was unwilling to use it because of its value. At her current rate, it would take her a few dozen Standard years to return to peak state.
The punishment for what she had done was much more severe than almost anyone realized, beyond Long Hei's wildest estimations. Even the cthulhu had revealed surprise through a slight shaking of its soul, and few things in life could make such an ancient A-rank from the Primordial Bridge surprised enough to display emotion before its prisoner.
Long Hei hadn't understood why she would go to such lengths for the boy. Her "he is drow" speech was too ridiculous to believe in, despite her lack of signs of lying. But if her plan touched on the Void...
As expected, even while healing, she had been watching over Shen. She opened her eyes as soon as the dragon glanced her way, revealing as much surprise as Long Hei felt, then laughed with abandon.
"Sharyan's ass!" she swore good-naturedly. "One of your Justicars did something actually useful, but instead of telling you and getting a dragon hoard's worth of credit, pun intended, she trusted our boy more. I told you this ominous dark form makes you look bad. Too similar to a Void Spawn. Who would believe you have nothing to do with the incoming attack? You even let her get humiliated for months before doing anything! And I bet you didn't tell her the pretentious yellowhead wanted to abuse her, and that's the only reason you advanced your plans of killing him and many others, did you?"
The General didn't waste time repeating that this was his original form, and he wouldn't bow down to prejudice. "I did not," he replied, but before she could say anything, he asked, "Are you purposefully misleading me away from Lieutenant Shen's claim? This sounds much worse than you said."
The Drow Potentate had a vast information network and had previously mentioned key figures assumed the Void was pulling its punches. It had attacked with force after the Calamity started, but it wasn't as bad as it should have been.
It seemed they had been partially correct. The damn Void had been brewing something, and he just happened to stumble into it while minding his own business. However, if even a D-rank could smell something wrong where he couldn't, there was a very powerful party blindsiding him in his own front line.
Long Hei wanted to release his Realization and cross some lines to find out who that was, and he would do it—as long as it didn't get in the way of Darla's schemes. He wouldn't sacrifice countless lives for the boy with his genes, but delaying a little wouldn't change anything as long as he was willing to shield the fallback later, which he was.
"Nope, I'm not misleading you at all," Darla said sarcastically.
Sometimes, she spoke like that even when she meant her words. It was a mark of her feeling close to him and considering him as much of a friend as a baby could be to someone her age, at least according to her. Why she liked to make her almost-friends have to work to figure out the true meaning of her words was beyond him.
"This is not the time," he said firmly. "If it's that big of a surprise for you, I'll engage the S-tier Emergency Defense Protocols. It'll affect your plans. At least the ones I know of."
"I won't tell you to do anything one way or another," Darla replied, her words surprising him. She noticed and smiled. "I know how to pull my weight, Lizzy Boy, but I smell a Void Tide, and I won't interfere with something that big."
Long Hei opened his other eye and looked at her. He moved his head quickly, and the entire fortress shook at the amount of Air and Space he displaced. "Is this a joke?"
He didn't like fighting, but he would if she was lying to him about this. A Void Tide... He was new to the Alliance, but he had been briefed about how big such an event would be.
"I already said more than I should," Darla replied as her smile disappeared. "Hentai Boy can attest to it." She gestured at the side.
Only then did the General realize the cthulhu was in the room. Since when?! Had it heard his every conversation with Darla? Had it known about their plans?! Was it aware of her being A-rank, then?!
"Don't look it up, either of you," the drow added. "Tentacle hentai, I mean. Humans are creative in all the wrong ways. Just take my word for how fitting the nickname is. I kept the memory just so I could use it one day. I'm forgetting it right now. Sick bastards."
A tiny part of Long Hei noticed she was making them more curious on purpose but didn't dwell on it. He looked from the cthulhu to the drow and back a few times, wondering if they were partners in crime. He knew how challenging it was to infiltrate the Primordial Bridge, much less get it to look the other way. Having one of its members involved with a ploy involving the Void was unthinkable.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
But, damn, that was Darla.
In the end, he sighed and stood up. Cracks appeared throughout Mobile Fortress Samir-0 as its artificial Space failed to withstand his power. That was the smallest mobile fortress, not even manned, but also the strongest one. Even so, it was made to deal with external threats, not internal ones.
Long Hei smelled a plot, but also not. He hated even considering the implications of most schemes. He was also aware that he would be outplayed by the Drow Potentate. But it didn't mean he was dumb. He put his mind to it and decided that while Darla did have an agenda for mentioning the Void Tide, it wasn't part of her original plans. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to go to such lengths to lock Samir down.
In fact, the significance of a Void Tide went beyond activating S-tier Emergency Defense Protocols.
"I have received intel that suggests the Third Sector might be about to experience a Void Tide," he told the system while using his Realization to pierce through the Node and back into normal space. That way, the system's hubs in both Samir and that universe would get the news. It would prevent any issues.
He was astonished that an S-rank instantly verified his claims, and he got three new red notifications.
| VOID TIDE ALERT!
| ALL SYSTEM FUNCTIONS ARE NOW FUNNELEDUNELLED TO PROTECT THE ALLIANCE!
| THE ALLIANCE'S NEUTRAL FORCES ASK THE ONES INVOLVED IN CALAMITY TO END IT QUICKLY AND ASSIST WITH WHAT MATTERS!
The System Administrator wasn't asking the S-ranks to put the Calamity on hold. Instead, she finally admitted it could only end with one side as the winner. She just wanted them to be done with it, no matter who won or lost, so the remaining forces could help the entire Sector survive this Tide.
That was proof that she had checked, using whatever means at her disposal, and the Void Tide was real.
Long Hei noticed Darla's soul tremble in fright and uncertainty. She might be misleading him, but he believed he had been correct. She had known the Tide was possible and made plans in case it happened but had hoped they wouldn't be necessary.
Now, even she feared what the Tide would bring.
Then, he got eight yellow notifications.
| Samir's Secret Containment Protocol partially disengaged
| External forces can now travel to Samir if authorized by an S-rank or Samir's Commander
| Guardians can leave if approved by Samir's Commander
Those three were straightforward. Long Hei would need people to come help or send people to help other front lines, so teleportation had to be allowed to an extent. However, he had the last word on deciding who came and went because no one wanted traitors and wild cards messing with things in a Void Tide.
Every front line would be the same, though, for them, it wouldn't be their rules getting more strict.
| Every Guardian on the front lines is now under Collective B-tier Monitoring Priority
That one was slightly more complex. Collective B-tier Monitoring Priority meant that the system would optimize its resources to monitor individuals or groups it deemed more important. Such importance could come from being suspects or valuable Guardians.
That would make many, many schemes impossible. Hiding would also become almost impossible for a while and outright impossible once the system had already cleared most groups and started searching for missing individuals.
Traitors and some fugitives would rush to the Subnodes, making them much more dangerous and unstable, which the Void would take advantage of. Yet, not doing that would make it more likely to have those people among the Alliance's fighters. It would be worse.
| The Bounty Subsystem is now active in every Node
| Henceforth, the System Administrator will personally check and double-cross references without manual input
Those two were a direct interference of the Admin on the front lines. Nonetheless, it was for the best. She would follow trails and investigate matters herself, using her S-rank mind and her Realization, which was directly connected to the system, to flash out bad actors. She should finish the backlog for all front lines within weeks to months, then she would keep track of everything in real-time.
The bad news was that, together with the previous notifications, that meant a period of chaos. The last two notifications made it even clearer.
| Automated Bounty Generation threshold decreased by 50%
| Execution Bounties can now be automatically generated if a Guardian's Traitor Likelihood Coefficient is higher than 2.7 or their crimes are 1,000% above the current threshold for Automated Bounty Generation
The Guardian System would tolerate less bullshit and had become able to declare that people should be executed. Still, there was a big difference between that and an actual execution. The ones who got automated marks placed on their heads could turn themselves in and demand a civilian trial. It gave them a way out if they weren't actual traitors.
People with influence, including some fugitives, would use it as a way out. But, again, it was the lesser evil. Having hidden actors quickly dealt with made all front lines much safer in a time of great crisis.
The Admin had gained a lot of authority. There was a question to be made about whether she would declare a fake Void Tide to have the Calamity finish quick or to become a tyrant. Still, everything was done according to Alliance law. A Void Tide seemed to be that terrible, enough to justify such measures.
And even if she abused her power, Long Hei could do nothing about it. That was for S-ranks to deal with. He could only hope he wouldn't be targeted if she was actually up to something.
"A Void Tide," Darla said with an unusually low voice. "It's been a while. Commander, with your leave, I'll head to my quarters to fully focus on healing. I'll be done in a few days. I humbly ask you not to reveal my true rank, but I promise I'll reveal it in an emergency if that's the only alternative. I'll not allow my disguise to put lives in danger. But be aware that hiding me means other front lines might lack A-ranks and be weaker for that. You'll have to pay a price to hide me, and I'll pay a bigger one. If I have to reveal myself, I might also be deployed elsewhere."
Long Hei knew Darla had wove a web of favors, both organic and system ones, to be able to pass as B-rank anywhere. Few people below S-rank knew of her existence. Yet, unexpectedly, a Void Tide strained her web and risked snapping the whole thing.
What surprised the dragon the most was her willingness to obey his commands. To avoid problems, only an S-rank could replace a Node's A-rank Commander once a Void Tide was detected. Still, she could get to any front line without an A-rank and get a lot of power. Even here, she could bully him into making concessions. She was that much more powerful than him.
He wasn't sure if that meant she had deep schemes that required her to stay in Samir, if she was scared of a Void Tide and wanted to be in a place that already had two A-ranks, if she feared receiving a Bounty for strong-arming him, or if revealing her identity would bring problems she would rather avoid.
Whatever the case, her assistance would be invaluable. The Admin had been too quick to confirm whether a Void Tide was coming, the powers-that-be were willing to give her so much power during a Tide, and Darla was acting too somberly. Those things meant the reports he had received about a Void Tide didn't do it justice, and he needed all the help he could get.
"Fine," he replied.
"Thank you, Commander," she said. She sounded genuine, too. A moment later, she teleported to one of the ten bedrooms that existed in Samir-0.
Long Hei turned to the cthulhu. "Shouldn't you report her existence?"
Primordial Bridge Wardens rarely answered a prisoner, but this one did now. Its whispery replied a simple, "No."
The dragon expected more, but nothing came.
Well, time to work.
Long Hei had no hope Samir would withstand something that seemed so dangerous—he was Titled the Hopeless Wanderer for a reason—but he at least had experience fighting for lost causes. He would stay and do his best until the end.
He covered all of Samir in his Realization. The General wouldn't save any Guardian who died at the hands of a traitor. The rules forbid him from doing so in a Void Tide because it would waste focus and strength, which he had to preserve to use against the Void.
But he decided to help just a little, which would give him a minor punishment if he survived this Tide.
He located and popped out all system-blocking enchantments, spells, rituals, items, and techniques he detected. The Admin certainly noticed it and, as thanks, gave Samir a slight priority. Bounties started appearing above countless Guardians' heads faster than before.
Then, Long Hei removed all legal blockades to his Realization. He located nothing less than seven unidentified B-ranks hidden in Samir. He killed them all.
They were too weak to have blindsided him. Yet, at the edges of his senses, in the Voided Subnodes, he barely felt powerful presences. Their tendrils might've been used by those B-ranks to affect his perception.
But no longer would anything pass unnoticed. He would actively keep close watch over everything in that front line. The time of schemes was clearly over, and he looked as far into the Void as he could.
From them on, the Abyss and the Void stared at each other.