The Glorious Evolution

The sunlight had returned to Heliodor, but another section of the western district had just lost power.

High Chancellor Valemont watched the affected buildings disappear from the electrical grid’s display with a solemn expression.

The temporary connection had lasted less than ten minutes before the damaged equipment failed again.

According to the technicians, restoring a dependable supply would take days, and their emergency generators wouldn’t help them for that long.

He opened the Council’s dimensional channel, and the surviving governors joined as they received the notification.

Hicham and Ysara connected shortly afterward, followed by Naima, who represented the Blood Hunters in her husband’s absence.

Most of the governors remained in the settlements they were responsible for protecting, following the Chancellor’s orders... especially since the capital hadn’t been the only target.

Several settlements had been attacked... hell, one had fallen while its governor was killed in the line of duty.

While Fang occupied the capital’s defenders, the Hound and Rain had targeted places with far fewer people capable of stopping them to cause much more damage in the shortest period.

The rest of the reports left little room for relief over the sunlight’s return... Hundreds were confirmed dead; the number was still climbing, and vital infrastructure had been destroyed beyond repair.

Of the ten governors who should have attended the meeting, only nine remained.

For decades, Heliodor hadn’t suffered an attack of this severity. The man they had lost was a Solarbound Daywalker... someone whose presence had reassured thousands of citizens that their homes were protected.

Now, the Council was discussing where to house the refugees who had managed to escape his settlement.

”How the hell did they get explosives into our stations without anyone noticing?!”

The question interrupted the report before the officer could finish.

One of the governors dismissed the casualty figures from his own display and turned his attention to Ysara.

He had listened through the account of the station’s destruction, the reservoir’s sabotage, and the attacks outside the capital... with every new location, it became harder to accept that the enemy had arranged all of this without attracting anyone’s attention.

”Your Midnight Slayers didn’t hear a word? Not one warning?”

”None,” Ysara replied.

Her admission drew an angry response from another governor. The Lightbearer Alliance had members working overseas, while the Midnight Slayers gathered information on threats within the holy region and around it.

Between them, they should have noticed something... hired nightcrawlers gathering, suspicious deliveries, strangers taking an interest in their defenses.

Yet the first warning had been the explosions themselves.

Hicham allowed him to finish before responding.

”This is no regular attack... Bishop Na’thir’s elites are involved, which means he has invested heavily to make it succeed.” Hicham rubbed his brows. ”A Tier 8 ancient demon putting his interest in us is never going to end well.”

Hearing the Bishop’s name, all governors were left silenced with grim expressions... they would have accepted any other answer but having the Bishop actively attack their region.

”...why? Is this related to what we did to his pawn Darius?” One of the governors was confused. ”Isn’t he worried about breaking the CRS Platform’s rules?”

Hicham shook his head.

”Since he has used these three elites, it’s fair to assume that everyone hired has no connection to the Duskbound Order or him.”

High Chancellor nodded in agreement.

The CRS Platform’s restrictions applied to listed planets, governing the conflict between the Conquerors and the Saviors.

Even visiting Noble Houses had to respect them... being powerful enough to destroy a holy region didn’t grant an outsider the freedom to do so.

However, the Bishop had no intention of openly challenging those restrictions.

He sent personal subordinates and unaffiliated mercenaries, leaving Heliodor to fight what could be presented as an independent nightcrawler attack.

Their loyalty to him was known, but their actions weren’t officially those of the Duskbound Order.

That was the loophole he had been exploiting for years.

”And the Saviors?” one governor asked bitterly. ”Are they going to pretend they don’t know who sent them?”

”They will accept his denial,” Valemont sighed. ”They have done it before.”

The agreement between the Bishops and the Saviors gave them another reason to do so.

Neither side wanted to commit its forces to an open war when the current arrangement allowed both to continue profiting from Earth.

Human regions supplied crystallized seeds to the Saviors, while the nightcrawlers consumed the people who fell outside their protection.

As long as Na’thir avoided a direct, official confrontation, the Saviors could preserve that arrangement by accepting that his servants had acted independently.

The governor who had raised the question fell silent. On his display, the dead governor’s name remained beside the report from the fallen settlement.

The Council could submit evidence and demand assistance, but neither would stop another station from being destroyed that night.

”Send the reports to SAS Headquarters to seek some assistance,” the Chancellor ordered. ”Meanwhile, we prepare our defenses. We will not wait for their answer.”

Then he turned to Ysara.

”Start with the stations... we must know how they got inside... It’s the only way to stop any future attacks.”

One governor demanded the names of everyone responsible for the stations’ security.

Another wanted the Alliance’s recent deliveries examined before any more vehicles were allowed through his settlement’s gates.

A third objected at once... his people were waiting for replacement lights and medical supplies... shutting the roads now would leave them with neither.

Their voices began overlapping as each defended what his own settlement needed, until the first governor returned to the question none of them wanted to raise.

”Do we have another Darius among us?”

The argument stopped for a moment.

His betrayal was still too recent for anyone to dismiss the possibility. Someone with access to their facilities could have helped the attackers bypass the very precautions meant to stop them.

The governor faced Ysara again.

”He fooled us for years. Are you certain someone else hasn’t done the same?”

”No,” she asked. ”Are you accusing someone?”

He had no name to offer.

Others did, or at least wanted to... within moments, the discussion had turned toward absent officers, changed patrols, and workers who hadn’t reported back after the attack.

Naima had remained silent until then... through her screen, they could see officers moving between the wounded behind her.

”Some of those people are still buried in the stations you’re discussing. Let us find them before you call them traitors.”

One of the governors began insisting that nobody had accused the dead, but Valemont stopped him before the argument could turn any uglier.

”Enough.”

The Chancellor enlarged the fallen settlement’s report, returning it to the center of the channel.

He understood their anger... However, turning every missing guard into a suspect wasn’t going to make them safer.

”We will establish where our defenses failed. Anyone responsible will answer for it... Until then, keep the supply routes open and bring your suspicions to the investigators. We will not start arresting our own people without evidence.”

No one attempted to interrupt him this time.

He assigned the Midnight Slayers’ Agency the investigation into the station, the reservoir, and the other sabotaged facilities.

Ysara began assigning her people before the Chancellor turned to Hicham.

”Recall your agency’s people. Wherever they are, I want them preparing to return.”

The Alliance head brought up his overseas assignments. Several teams were on active commissions; others were waiting for their next deployment.

He issued the recall to all of them, requesting their positions and the earliest time they could leave.

The first acknowledgments appeared while Valemont authorized the same emergency recall for Heliodor’s registered Daywalkers outside the Region.

They would need to report their whereabouts and return for reassignment until the Council understood what they were facing... those already defending the settlements would remain at their posts; the capital would receive reinforcements without stripping the rest of Heliodor of protection.

Soon, a request from Naima reached the channel. One of the Blood Hunters’ treatment posts had exhausted its Recovery Totems, with more wounded still arriving.

Valemont released the government’s reserves while Hicham redirected the delivery around a blocked road and opened an intact Alliance branch to the medical teams, shortening the distance the injured needed to travel.

Next, the Chancellor opened the public broadcast.

”Effective immediately, Heliodor is under martial law... Nonessential travel is suspended. Follow the officers’ instructions and remain within secured areas.”

His voice reached the surviving street speakers, interrupting the repeated evacuation notices.

Medical teams, repair crews, and essential deliveries would continue under escort. The damaged grid would take days to restore, and even districts with working lights had to prepare for another failure.

”Bring out your emergency Nightwear Stripes. Illuminate the enclosed spaces around you, and report any area you cannot safely reach... Do not wait until nightfall.”

Across the shelters, officers began showing citizens where to place the breakable LED strips. Stairwells, storage rooms, corridors, and the gaps behind damaged walls all needed checking.

Fifteen minutes of complete darkness was enough for a Stygian Gate to form.

Artificial light wouldn’t burn nightcrawlers, but denying them an opening was something ordinary citizens could help with.

The Public Safety Wing began distributing spare strips and portable lamps... the Solar Order Enforcement Unit secured the delivery routes, while the Spectral Response Corps and Nightcrawler Containment Force continued clearing the buildings that remained unsafe.

For the families arriving from the fallen settlement, the officers found space beside citizens who had lost their homes in the capital.

Naima was arranging another shelter when Jamal approached her... his scouting arrow had found two survivors inside a building marked for demolition.

”Take me there.”

Guided by Jamal’s spiritual arrow, Naima secured the damaged staircase with her vines and freed the man trapped under a beam.

Rayan and Jamal helped him and his wife outside while Sergio lit the passage with Nightwear Stripes.

Only after the medics took over and replacement squads arrived did they have a moment to discuss contacting their friends.

”Should we tell them now?” Sergio asked. ”They’re preparing for the Great Campaign... this will only make it harder to focus.”

”Especially Shia,” Jamal added. ”She’ll want to come back.”

”Levi asked me to keep him informed about Heliodor.” Rayan’s answer was firm. ”I gave him my word. I’m not keeping this from him.”

Neither argued further.

Without a Nocturnal Ring or CRS Platform contract, none of them could open a dimensional connection themselves. They sought out Velmira, who agreed to contact Shia and Levi.

”Miss Velmira? To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Before she could answer, a passing vehicle’s siren sounded through the connection.

”What’s happening?” Levi’s tone turned solemn.

”Levi, it’s Sergio... Heliodor was attacked. Stygian Gates opened across the capital and some of the settlements.”