Chapter 629: Lucan Changes Terms

Water rushed through the subterranean conduit pipes with a hollow roar that echoed across the vaulted valve hall.

Lucan walked across the slick catwalk, holding Malakor’s stamped wax token loosely between his fingers.

Twenty paces ahead, where colossal intake pipes converged into the reservoir manifold, stood an armored Choral guard captain.

The officer leaned against a polished brass terminal, surrounded by four elite sentries armed with barbed poleaxes.

"The broker sent a stray dog instead of returning himself?" the captain asked, sneering through the visor of his helmet.

"Malakor suffered an unfortunate occupational accident," Lucan answered coolly, stopping on the catwalk.

"His hands are occupied with bandages, so I came to finalize the extraction terms for my sister."

"Your sister is valuable property of the royal courts," the captain barked, tapping a glowing relay tool mounted to the wall fitting.

"If you want safe passage out of the provinces, you surrender your weapons and bind yourself to the reclamation collar."

"Take three steps away from that brass wall fitting, and then make your demands," Lucan replied with an amused smirk.

"Are you giving orders to an officer of the Choral garrison?"

"I am pointing out that your courage comes entirely from that little harmonic relay tool behind your shoulder."

"Insolent gutter rat!" the captain shouted, his face reddening with fury as he drew a serrated broadsword.

"I will take your limbs first, and then drag both of you back to the Underworld in iron chains!"

The captain lunged off the wall fitting, advancing across the catwalk with an aggressive, telegraphed downward cleave.

The moment the officer stepped five paces away from the brass terminal, the glowing runes on his breastplate flickered and dimmed.

’Just as Cessy suspected... his wards depend completely on proximity to the wall conduit,’ Lucan noted with cold satisfaction.

’Without that external power feed, he is just an arrogant bully wrapped in ornamental bronze.’

Lucan did not draw his primary daggers to meet the oncoming cleave from the broadsword.

He sidestepped along the catwalk railing, letting the broadsword bite deeply into the iron grating beneath their feet.

With a lightning flick of his left hand, he hurled a short throwing spike straight into the exposed relay tool on the wall.

The slender steel spike pierced the delicate crystal housing of the relay, shattering its internal resonance coils into powder.

Deprived of their harmonic connection, the captain’s perimeter wards collapsed in a shower of sputtering green sparks.

"The relay!" the captain cried out in sudden panic, trying to wrench his wedged broadsword free from the grating.

"Surround him... cut down the bridge!"

The four sentries charged across the catwalk with leveled poleaxes, attempting to impale the intruder against the reservoir railing.

Lucan drew his twin curved daggers in a single fluid motion, spinning through the thrusts like a shadow dancing on water.

His right dagger parried the first poleaxe, guiding the lethal point harmlessly into the rushing water below.

His left blade slashed across the second sentry’s leather harness, severing the shoulder straps and throwing the guard off balance.

He drove his elbow into the third sentry’s faceplate, crushing the nasal bridge and knocking the man flat onto his back.

The fourth sentry hesitated, his hands trembling as he stared into the assassin’s chilling, unblinking eyes.

"Drop your weapon into the sluice," Lucan commanded softly, his voice colder than winter frost.

The sentry dropped his poleaxe without another word, sprinting down the catwalk in frantic terror.

The captain finally wrenched his broadsword free, swinging blindly in a desperate, wide horizontal sweep.

"I am a royal commander!" the officer roared, spitting saliva through his broken teeth.

"You cannot defeat me with simple knives!"

Lucan ducked cleanly beneath the whistling blade, closing the distance until his chest pressed against the captain’s breastplate.

He drove the pommel of his dagger directly into the captain’s throat, crushing the windpipe with concussive force.

Before the suffocating officer could stumble backward, Lucan drove a concealed stiletto straight through the armpit seam of his cuirass.

The captain stiffened, gasped for breath, and collapsed onto the iron grating with a dull, metallic thud.

[ Subterranean valve hall secured: Choral relay hub destroyed ]

[ Guard captain defeated: Hostile ward grid deactivated ]

[ Objective complete: Reservoir manifold access granted ]

Lucan wiped the crimson from his blades with a cloth, sheathing his weapons with calm, practiced efficiency.

In the corner of the hall, a terrified civilian maintenance apprentice huddled behind a stack of pipe flanges.

"Please... do not kill me, master!" the boy sobbed, curling into a ball.

"I was conscripted from the lower valley... I only turn the grease valves when the bells ring!"

"Stand up, kid," Lucan said gently, extending a hand to help the frightened apprentice to his feet.

"Nobody is going to hurt you."

"Close the primary intake, then open the lower spillway drain," he instructed, pointing toward both manifold wheels.

"If I close the intake, they lose rehearsal pressure!" the boy stammered, his eyes wide with fear.

"That is the entire point," Lucan chuckled with a dark, satisfied grin across his face.

"Then open the drain and let the spillway take what remains."

The apprentice ran to the manifold, shutting the intake before he threw his weight against the lower spillway wheel.

A tremendous mechanical shudder rumbled through the floor as the intake sealed and the spillway gates opened below.

Millions of gallons of mountain water surged into the lower spillways, revealing the submerged entrance to the rehearsal chamber.

Hajin, Ferra, and Cessy walked onto the catwalk from the upper access tunnel, surveying the drained staging area below.

"The feed is shut and the drain is open," Lucan announced, stepping up to meet his sister.

"And the captain will not be sending any more retrieval dispatches to the royal courts."

"You did not claim you were secretly loyal to our house all along?" Cessy asked, raising a teasing eyebrow.

"I told him the truth," he answered with a soft shrug, looking down at his daggers.

"I fight for my own freedom, and I choose who stands at my back."

High above the roaring waterworks, the celestial broadcast screen exploded with deafening cheers and brilliant superchats.

[ Seoul_Tactician: "LUCAN IS AN ABSOLUTE SAVAGE! Disabling the wall relay with a throwing spike was galaxy brain!" ]

[ StarlightScholar: "Close combat dagger work in the valve hall, that was so slick and cinematic!" ]

[ IronVanguard: "He spared the conscripted kid and made him turn the floodgate wheel, what a chad!" ]

[ HearthKeeper: "The chamber is exposed beneath the water. Ferra, tell me you brought a tool for that!" ]

[ ShadowMage44: "The Choral Incarnation is getting dismantled piece by piece, our team is unstoppable!" ]

Ferra unrolled a large sheet of drafting parchment across a tool crate, her eyes blazing with technical focus.

"Now that the water is drained, we can see their structural supports," the smith declared, holding up her charcoal quill.

"Let us see what kind of dishonest diagrams these Choral architects tried to hide from us!"

"Do not reopen that feed when we leave," Cessy told the apprentice, pointing to the pressure gauge as its needle settled.

"I will tag the wheel and stay here until the last person clears the chamber," he promised.

Lucan left a guard with him, keeping the drain open while Ferra studied the exposed supports.

The stage was set for the final breach, and the secrets of the Incarnation were about to be laid bare.