​Hana stood at the center of the damp room, her deadpan expression unblinking as she raised her tablet.

Her system interface instantly flashed with a brilliant, gold-tinted confirmation chime, violently overriding the previous pause.

> ​[SUB-SECTOR RESCUE: SUCCESSFUL]

> Objective Met: Hidden female captives located and liberated.

> Reward: +100,000 Karmic Points.

> Current Balance: -497,880 Karmic Points.

​A cold, satisfied smirk touched Hana’s lips as she swiped the notification away.

This was perfect. Thanks to this success, the system block on her primary mission was gone and it was now back on air.

> ​[MAIN MISSION RESUMED: THE TWIN PILLARS BET]

> Current Objective: Proceed to the courtyard and open Aegis Bunkers 03 and 04.

> Reward: +500,000 Karmic points.

Seeing the quest resume, Hana grew excited. Sweet. Now she could get her 500k karmic points again.

​"The captives have been found on your lands, Lord Kaelen," Hana said flatly, her voice cutting through the emotional cries of the reunited felines.

She pointed her glowing screen directly at the trembling, mortified Matriarch who was being dragged down the steps.

"Now, let the girls speak. Let’s see exactly who signed the order to cage them."

"Mina, step back from the bars," Ren commanded, his veins popping on his arms as he gripped the iron gates. He didn’t have the key, but his muscles were all the kinesis he needed to break it open.

Channeling the raw, apex strength of his snow leopard lineage, he dug his extended claws into the locking mechanism and wrenched backward.

​The iron gears fractured under the pressure, and the heavy vault door swung open. Ren immediately pulled his sister into a fierce, protective embrace, his icy blue eyes scanning the remaining thirteen females huddled on the mats.

The rest were not from his tribe, but they were weak and vulnerable, regardless. Just like his sister.

​Lord Kaelen stepped into the dim light of the torches, his white robes casting a stark, ghostly silhouette against the damp stone walls.

The six elders crowded behind him, their faces pale, their eyes auditing the broken cage before turning to the trembling Matriarch who had just been shoved down the stairs by the snow leopard archers.

​"Speak," Lord Kaelen commanded, his deep baritone vibrating with an executioner’s finality as he looked at the liberated females. "Who brought you into this dark?"

​Mina, shivering despite her brother’s warmth, scanned the crowd of people. Then, she locked on to a particular furious red set of tails and raised a trembling, pale arm. She pointed a finger directly at the corner of the room where Celene stood.

"Her," she whispered, her voice cracking with built-up terror. "That woman came herself under the cover of the midnight mist. She used her illusion arts to mask our scent, and she told us... she told us the lower ridges belonged to the spires, and that our blood would be used to feed the roots of her own lineage." She whimpered. "She said the High Sovereign ordered it!"

​The grand vault went completely ice-cold.

​"Insolent, lying stray!" Celene shrieked, her eleven crimson tails thrashing frantically against the stone steps, kicking up dust and loose gravel. "I am the High Matriarch of the Eleven Spires! Why would I ever look at your pathetic bloodline? Your Imperial Excellency, they are slandering me! The human has manipulated their tongues with her strange glowing brick!"

​"Silence!" Lord Kaelen roared, his white fur bristling as his eleven tails flared into a blinding fan of pure, suffocating pressure.

He turned his predatory green eyes onto Celene, his gaze cutting through her performative panic like a physical blade.

"The Crimson Line does not trade in stolen flesh to feed its roots. I pride our purity. I pride our superiority, but you... You have dragged the name of the progenitor into the mud of the lower ridges just to balance your own political ledger."

​"I did it for the clan!" Celene suddenly screamed, her aristocratic mask shattering entirely as she realized her excuses were dead in the water.

She struggled violently against the iron grip of the snow leopard archers holding her arms.

"The lower tribes look down on us! They think our spires are decaying and that we are full of air! I was merely teaching them a lesson!" She started confessing. "I was securing resources to ensure our dominance! There is no act too foul if it uplifts the Crimson Line!"

​"There is no uplift in a thieving kidnaper’s act," Hana cut in flatly, her voice dropping into a freezing, clinical register as she stepped forward.

She folded her arms across her breasts, her tight dress shifting over the prominent curve of her belly. "You didn’t do this for the clan. You did this because your own sector layout was failing, and you wanted a quick shortcut to boost your assets. It’s bad management."

​"You... you hairless abomination!" Celene’s eyes went completely wild with a chaotic, unhinged rage.

​With a frantic, desperate surge of magic, her eleven crimson tails erupted into a violent wave of spiritual fire, forcibly breaking the grip of the snow leopard archers.

She didn’t try to run up the stairs; instead, her claws extended into long, razor-sharp needles as she launched herself directly at Hana’s throat, completely blinded by spite. She wanted to rip the human apart before she met her end.

​ZZZZZZAAAAPPP!

​Hana didn’t even take a step back. Before Celene’s claws could even clear the distance, Hana’s right hand snapped up, driving the prongs of her high-voltage stun gun directly into the Matriarch’s throat.

A massive wave of blue-white electrical current exploded through Celene’s nervous system, instantly paralyzing her vocal cords and locking her joints.

​As Celene hovered mid-air, rigid and spasming, Caspian’s black scaled tail moved from the shadows. He whipped her down with a violent, bone-shattering CRACK, catching the Matriarch squarely in the spine and driving her crashing face-first into the damp stone floor.

​Before she could even groan, Kulu drove the sharp tip of the spear directly through Celene’s thigh, pinning her limb tightly to the dirt floor.

​"Aghhh!" Celene choked out, a ragged, bloody gasp escaping her lips as she lay pinned, the static electricity still making her silks twitch.

​"Don’t move," Kulu rumbled, his predatory amber gaze slit into narrow needles as his steeled feathers scraped together with a metallic hiss. "You’re lucky Hana hasn’t ordered for your head."