Chapter 215: The Rescue Begins

The Imperial Guard launched its assault on Saint Aurelia Preparatory Academy shortly after sunset.

By then, the streets surrounding the school had been evacuated, and several hundred soldiers had quietly taken their positions.

The authorities had spent nearly a week preparing for this moment, but the discovery of the Cult of the Second Dawn had forced them to act sooner than anticipated.

Whatever the hostage-takers intended to accomplish with their so-called final examination, the Imperial Guard had no intention of allowing them to finish.

At SkyRune, Professor Antoine was waiting beside a communication terminal with Ilya and several Imperial officers. He had insisted on remaining available throughout the operation, although the rescue commander had already explained that the research team’s immediate work was finished.

His daughter was somewhere inside that building.

Antoine wasn’t going anywhere until someone brought her out.

"Professor, you should sit down," Ilya suggested.

"I’ve been sitting down for the past six days, Belozersky. It hasn’t accomplished much."

"Fair enough. Would you prefer coffee?"

"I’ve already had four cups."

"Then perhaps water. Your daughter would be disappointed if she came home and discovered that her father had died of caffeine poisoning."

Antoine gave a weary laugh.

"She certainly would. She’d probably insist on examining my research notes to determine where I went wrong."

Their conversation was interrupted by a message from the Imperial Guard.

The assault had begun.

The eastern team entered through the main building while another unit advanced through the western maintenance corridors. Several armed men attempted to resist, but they were quickly overwhelmed by the Imperial combat wizards.

Within minutes, the soldiers had secured the principal entrances.

The operation was progressing well.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t located the children.

The eastern team searched the classrooms and discovered that most had been emptied. Desks had been pushed against the walls, schoolbags lay scattered across the floors, and several rooms contained abandoned examination papers.

The assembly hall was similarly deserted.

One soldier found a notice instructing students to report to their assigned examination rooms.

The Imperial Guard immediately suspected that the hostages had been moved underground.

That possibility had already been considered during the planning stage, so the western team began searching the older parts of the building.

Their efforts soon produced results.

Behind the abandoned machinery chamber, the soldiers discovered a concealed passage leading beneath the school’s central courtyard.

The entrance had been disguised during the renovations conducted several months earlier.

After securing the corridor, a small reconnaissance team advanced toward the underground facility.

They encountered two armed defenders near a reinforced door. One surrendered immediately, while the other attempted to activate a magical weapon and was incapacitated before he could fire.

The soldiers restrained both men and continued.

Beyond the door lay a large underground hall.

Dozens of children were seated inside.

"Hostages located!" the reconnaissance commander reported. "Approximately seventy children. Several appear to require medical attention."

At SkyRune, Antoine immediately approached the communication terminal.

"Is Lucile among them?"

"They’re confirming identities, Professor."

"Please ask them to check. She’s eleven, with light brown hair. Lucile Chastellain."

The officer promised to forward the description.

Antoine was hardly the only parent waiting for news, and the Imperial Guard had established a procedure for identifying hostages without delaying their evacuation. Nevertheless, the discovery of so many children was encouraging.

For Ilya, the report also confirmed that the perpetrators had gathered at least some of their captives underground, just as the recovered examination documents suggested.

The reconnaissance team immediately began preparing to escort the children out.

However, the students responded strangely.

Several were too exhausted to stand, while others became frightened when the soldiers instructed them to approach the entrance. One older boy even insisted that they weren’t allowed to leave until their examination had been completed.

The soldiers assured him that the Imperial Guard had come to rescue them.

Unfortunately, the children had apparently been warned that disobeying their supervisors would result in punishment for everyone.

The boy refused to abandon his classmates.

"Listen to me," the reconnaissance commander told him. "I’m Captain Reinhardt of the Imperial Guard. The people who brought you here have no authority over you. We’re taking everyone home."

"Everyone?"

"Everyone we can find."

"What about the children they took away?"

The captain couldn’t answer that.

Instead, he promised that additional teams were searching the school and instructed his soldiers to help those unable to walk.

A young girl near the entrance began crying.

She explained that the adults supervising them had promised to let everyone go if they passed the final examination.

Reinhardt assured her that no examination was necessary.

Then one of the soldiers attempted to carry an unconscious child toward the exit.

A loud bell rang throughout the hall.

The entrance slammed shut.

Several soldiers reacted immediately, placing themselves between the children and the walls while others attempted to reopen the door.

Before they could accomplish anything, a voice sounded overhead.

"Unauthorized personnel have entered the examination area. All participants must remain in their assigned positions."

The children immediately became agitated.

One began begging the soldiers not to disobey the instructions.

Another repeatedly apologized, insisting that they hadn’t asked anyone to rescue them.

Captain Reinhardt understood that the captors had spent days frightening the students into obedience. However, he had no intention of accepting their threats.

He ordered two soldiers to protect the children while the others examined the exit.

The door resisted their attempts to open it.

Worse, the hall’s walls had begun glowing faintly.

Reinhardt immediately contacted the rescue command.

"We’re trapped inside the examination hall. The children are alive, but someone has activated a defensive mechanism. Requesting assistance."

The commander acknowledged the report and dispatched another team toward the underground facility.

At SkyRune, Antoine learned of the development almost immediately.

"They’ve trapped the soldiers with the children?"

"Yes, Professor. Additional personnel are already attempting to reach them."

"Then why aren’t they forcing the door open?"

"Because the perpetrators have threatened to harm the hostages if anyone attempts to leave. We don’t yet know whether that threat is genuine."

Antoine understood the answer, although it did little to ease his anxiety.

The soldiers had reached the children.

They were close enough to speak with them, reassure them, and even carry those who couldn’t walk.

Yet the captors still prevented anyone from leaving.

Ilya found the situation deeply unpleasant.

The Imperial Guard had already defeated several of the perpetrators and secured most of the school. In an ordinary hostage rescue, that would have placed the authorities in an excellent position.

Unfortunately, the Cult of the Second Dawn had prepared something far more elaborate than a conventional occupation.

The children themselves had become part of the threat.

The rescue commander immediately ordered his remaining teams to search for whoever was controlling the underground hall.

A captured defender revealed that several senior cult members had withdrawn into a concealed room shortly before the assault began.

The Imperial Guard dispatched a combat unit to find them.

Meanwhile, Captain Reinhardt continued reassuring the children.

One of his soldiers had discovered several students lying unconscious near the far wall. Their breathing was shallow, and the attending combat medic feared that some might be suffering from serious magical exhaustion.

He requested immediate evacuation.

Reinhardt agreed, but the exit remained sealed.

The soldiers could probably destroy the door with sufficient force. However, the warnings surrounding the hall suggested that doing so might trigger whatever the perpetrators had prepared.

The captain refused to gamble with the children’s lives until the rescue command could confirm the consequences.

Instead, he ordered his personnel to search for another exit while maintaining contact with the children.

A young boy approached him during the confusion.

"Mister, are you really from the Imperial Guard?"

"Yes."

"Then can you find my sister?"

"What’s her name?"

"Emily. They took her away yesterday because she couldn’t answer the questions."

Reinhardt requested her description and forwarded the information to the other teams.

He didn’t promise that Emily would be safe.

However, he assured the boy that the soldiers would search for her.

The child accepted the answer and returned to his classmates.

For the captain, the exchange was another reminder that this was no ordinary rescue operation. The perpetrators hadn’t simply imprisoned the children. They had separated them, frightened them, and convinced them that obedience was their only chance of surviving.

The Imperial Guard had to end the occupation before the cult could continue.

Fortunately, the search for the senior members was progressing.

The assault team had located another concealed passage near the northern administrative building. Several armed defenders attempted to prevent the soldiers from entering, but they were defeated after a brief confrontation.

Beyond them was a fortified control room.

The soldiers demanded surrender.

A man inside answered through the door.

"You have no understanding of what you’re interfering with."

The Imperial captain commanding the unit replied without hesitation.

"Open the door and release the children. Whatever you believe you’re accomplishing, it ends tonight."

"You cannot stop the Second Dawn. The examination has already begun."

"Then I suggest you stop it yourself before we come in."

The man refused.

The captain ordered his combat wizards to prepare a breach.

At SkyRune, Antoine received word that the Imperial Guard had located the remaining cult researchers.

For the first time that evening, the professor allowed himself to hope that the occupation might finally end.

"They found them," he said. "If they arrest those people, they’ll have to release the children."

Ilya wanted to agree.

Unfortunately, something about the situation bothered him.

The cult members had apparently abandoned most of their defenders and allowed the Imperial Guard to occupy large portions of the school.

Yet they continued insisting that the examination would proceed.

Either they were extraordinarily confident, or they had already prepared for the possibility of losing control of the building.

"Professor, do we know whether the people in that room can actually stop the examination?"

Antoine considered the question.

"They should be able to, assuming they’re controlling it."

"And if they’re not?"

The professor didn’t answer immediately.

The possibility was unpleasant, but Ilya believed the Imperial Guard needed to consider it.

The cult had spent months preparing the underground facility. It would have been foolish to assume that capturing a handful of researchers would necessarily disable everything they had installed.

Antoine therefore contacted the rescue command and warned that the perpetrators might have arranged for the examination to continue independently.

The commander acknowledged the warning.

His soldiers were already preparing for that possibility.

Unfortunately, the warning arrived just as another announcement sounded throughout the underground hall.

"Final examination commencing. All participants will remain in their assigned positions until completion."

Captain Reinhardt ordered his soldiers to protect the children.

Several began crying, while others attempted to hide beneath their desks.

The young boy who had asked about his sister began calling her name.

Then the hall’s magical lamps turned crimson.

At SkyRune, the communication terminal erupted with urgent reports.

The rescue commander ordered the assault team to breach the cult’s control room immediately.

Antoine demanded to know what was happening.

The Imperial specialist could offer only one answer.

"The examination has started, Professor."

And despite everything the Imperial Guard had accomplished that evening, not a single child had been brought out of Saint Aurelia.