Chapter 358: The Bells Under Siege

The locking mechanism turned once, then again. Mireva moved before the third turn finished.

"Clear this platform. Upper shelters now."

The young runner snatched up his bronze case and took flight without being told twice. Two wardens launched from the surrounding bridges and carried Mireva’s order into the city through short physical signals rather than open calls. Nobody rang an evacuation bell anymore.

Martin equipped Breakwater Aegis while Alexandra drew both swords. Kumoe rose beside her with all three heads awake now. Katherine opened her tome, and Kinnami’s golden body unfolded from the floor beside her.

Cassandra already had Nightglass Longbow in hand. Rias dismissed every unnecessary evidence window except the recording tied to Seal 4.

Elisebeth looked toward the dark section of the route map. "I assume we’re past the part where we wait politely."

Mireva took her spear from the table. "We waited. They answered."

A metallic crack rolled up through the platform, and the map flashed.

[Lower Belfry Seal 4: Open.]

Nobody had authorized it. Martin felt the floor shiver beneath his boots. "Where does it come out?"

Mireva pointed toward a lower avenue on the western side of the city. "Three levels beneath us."

She jumped from the platform, wings snapping open. Martin ran for the stairs with the others.

The Sairren reached the avenue first. By the time Martin descended the last bronze stair, Mireva’s wardens had already formed a loose defensive arc around an enormous circular door built into the wall. The old bronze had split open by less than a meter.

Darkness waited behind it, but no monster emerged. That made every weapon remain raised. Martin stepped into the center of the avenue and looked through the gap.

A lamp appeared in the black, followed by another. Neither looked Sairren.

The first person through the door wore layered gray armor stripped of every crest. A narrow metal frame covered the lower half of his face, while a long hooked pole rested across one shoulder. Three more followed.

NPC nameplates appeared above them.

[Unregistered Road Mercenary Lv. 58]

[Contract Porter Lv. 56]

[Unregistered Road Mercenary Lv. 59]

No academy affiliation. No guild. No Just Die.

The first mercenary looked over the Sairren formation and stopped. His attention settled on Mireva.

"Route authority?"

Mireva’s spear lowered toward his chest. "You entered a sealed road."

"I asked a question."

"And I answered."

The man stared at the spear for a moment, then looked past Mireva at the city. More lamps appeared behind him. Martin counted at least twelve figures before the darkness swallowed the rest.

Rias spoke through party chat.

[Flash Fang: No visible house crest. No market guest marker either.]

[Flash Fang: Record them as unaffiliated intruders until evidence says otherwise.]

Martin nodded once. The first mercenary lifted an empty hand. "We are here under recovery authority. Cooperate, and there is no reason to damage the settlement."

Mireva’s wings spread. A few wardens behind her made low clicking sounds, and Martin understood the mood without translation.

Mireva did not raise her voice. "Leave."

The mercenary’s hand remained extended. "We only require route personnel."

The atmosphere changed immediately. Wardens shifted forward, Kumoe’s right head bared her teeth, and Cassandra drew an arrow without pulling the string yet.

Martin stepped beside Mireva. "How many?" The mercenary finally looked at him.

"One qualified route-keeper will satisfy the first claim."

Mireva’s grip tightened around her spear. "First?" The man did not answer.

Martin raised Breakwater Aegis. "Wrong city." The mercenary lowered his hand, and the people behind him moved.

They did not charge. Four contract porters dropped heavy iron cases onto the floor and opened them instead. Folded black frames sprang upward, locking together into portable barriers wide enough to fill most of the lower avenue.

Archers appeared behind them. The first arrows were not aimed at Martin. They arced over him toward the Sairren wardens.

"Barriers!" Katherine called.

Kinnami moved before the word finished. Golden light spread across the Sairren line, and arrows shattered against it. Two black projectiles behaved differently, bursting open into nets the moment they struck.

One wrapped around a warden’s wings. The second missed Mireva by less than a meter.

"They want captures!" Alexandra shouted.

Martin slammed Breakwater Aegis into the first portable barrier. The mercenary behind it braced, and two hooked poles struck Martin’s shield in return.

Stand Against the Current built through the impacts. Martin let the pressure gather, shifted his footing, then drove forward. The black frame slid backward.

Alexandra and Kumoe crossed the opening immediately. Kumoe’s curious head seized one hooked pole and dragged it away while the right snapped toward the wielder’s wrist. Alexandra used the opening to cut through the fastening on the nearest capture net.

The trapped Sairren warden fell free.

"Get him back!" Alexandra called.

The middle head pressed against his side as he crawled away, green restoration spreading through the shallow cuts left by the net.

The mercenaries did not panic because they had clearly entered expecting resistance. A second barrier locked into place behind the first, followed by a third. They were not merely defending themselves. They were constructing a protected corridor into the city.

Mireva saw it too. "They’re making a route."

Rias moved along the inner wall, keeping Gloamneedle low. "And they brought enough equipment to keep extending it."

Martin glanced toward the avenue behind them. Sairren civilians were still crossing the higher bridges toward shelter, which meant the intruders could not be allowed to establish a stable lane beneath them.

"Mireva."

She looked at him.

"You said the bells can hide your people from Dark Force monsters."

"And lay stronger prey trails elsewhere."

"Can you make this avenue elsewhere?"

Mireva understood immediately. Her gaze moved toward a bell mounted beneath the bridge above them.

"Yes."

Cassandra raised one hand before Mireva could move. "Before you do." Everyone waited.

She activated Hungerline and looked toward the darkness behind the intruders. Several thin black directions appeared beneath the lower gate, all pointing deeper into the sealed route.

"There are Dark Force monsters below," she said. "Their hunger is already being pulled somewhere."

"Toward what?" Martin asked.

"I can’t tell from here. Hungerline only gives direction."

Mireva looked toward the bell. "If our route-song reaches them, it may replace the foreign trail."

"May?" Elisebeth asked.

Mireva kept her eyes on the advancing barriers. "They have already copied our song once."

Martin shifted Breakwater Aegis. That was enough information for the decision.

"Do it."

Mireva launched upward. One mercenary saw her move. "Route-keeper airborne!"

Three archers changed targets, but Rias was faster. Gloamneedle flashed through two bowstrings while Cassandra released one quick arrow into the third archer’s shoulder before he could draw fully.

There was no Patient Draw. She had no reason to stand still long enough to build it. Mireva reached the bell and struck the bronze rim with the base of her spear.

A silver note spread through the city. Nothing happened at first. Then Hungerline changed.

Cassandra inhaled sharply. "The trails moved." Deep beneath the gate, black directions twisted away from whatever had been pulling them and turned toward the intruders.

A roar answered from below. The first mercenary looked back, giving Martin the opening he needed.

He drove the front barrier sideways. Alexandra and Kumoe hit the exposed flank together, with Alexandra knocking a hooked pole wide while Kumoe’s curious head seized the shaft. The right head shoved the mercenary behind it into his own portable frame.

Pack Rhythm flashed around Alexandra and Kumoe as each used the opening created by the other. Behind them, claws struck bronze. Something large entered the lower route.

[Ringing Maw (Monster) Lv. 60]

Bronze rings surrounded its throat. Two Muteclaw Stalkers crawled around it, their black limbs finding purchase on the walls.

The Sairren route-song brightened across the avenue floor. The monsters ignored Mireva, the wardens, and Martin’s party. They went straight for the louder trail among the invading force.

For the first time since entering the Belfry, the mercenaries lost formation.