Chapter 925: Ah yes, so it was revenge.
Strax took only one step.
A single step.
Even so, the avenue beneath him cracked as if something colossal had pressed against the city from within. The snow still falling evaporated before it could touch his shoulders, turning into white steam around his silhouette. The disguise had disappeared completely, and all that remained there was the white dragon who held Asgard up with one hand and could reduce it to ashes with the other, if he lost control for a few more seconds.
That was why Monica arrived first.
Not because she was the fastest.
Not because she was the strongest.
But because, the instant she heard the message, she understood that the greatest immediate danger was not only whoever had taken Vex.
It was Strax.
She appeared at the end of the street accompanied by three administrative officers, two knights, and a dozen guards who seemed to deeply regret being conscious. Her steps were firm, but her expression did not carry the natural panic any sensible person would feel before the aura crushing the city. Monica walked directly toward him, ignoring pressure strong enough to make runic lamps burst on the nearby façades.
"Strax."
He did not look at her.
"The trail goes east."
"I know."
"Then get out of the way."
The reply came low, almost calm, and that was much worse than a roar. His voice sounded as if it were scraping against the bottom of the world, loaded with such compressed rage that each word threatened to tear something apart.
Monica stopped a few meters away from him.
"If you leave like this now, you will lose information."
This time, he slowly turned his face.
His golden eyes were narrowed.
"She was taken."
"I heard."
"And you want me to wait?"
"I want you to think for ten seconds before crossing half the continent and killing every useful witness on the way."
The silence that followed was heavy enough to make the guards behind her hold their breath.
Strax stared at Monica.
Monica stared at Strax.
Neither of them looked away.
The snow continued melting around them.
Then, from somewhere above the rooftops, a shadow dropped into the street and landed with enough force to scatter loose stones. Kali appeared first, still wearing a savage expression, her hands clenched and her eyes searching for something to crush. Soon after, Scarlett came walking through a side alley, her hair swaying over her shoulders and a smile far too thin to be called joyful. Tiamat approached from another direction, in no hurry at all, but every step made the unconscious people on the ground tremble faintly, as if even their bodies knew they should move away.
"Who was it?" Kali asked, without greeting anyone.
"We do not know yet," Monica replied.
Kali looked at Strax.
"Then let us tear the answer out of someone."
Scarlett crouched near the torn bag of sweets, examining the marks in the snow with unsettling calm. She touched one of the partially erased footprints, then brought her fingers to her nose and narrowed her eyes.
"It was not amateur work."
Strax did not answer.
Scarlett continued, now looking around.
"There are at least four false mana trails here. Someone knew you would search for a magical signature. This was prepared."
Tiamat smiled.
"Good. Then they were brave."
"No," Monica said. "They were informed."
That word changed the air again.
Informed.
Someone knew where Strax would be.
Knew he was disguised.
Knew Vex would be with him.
Knew how to create a distraction short enough to seem like an accident, but precise enough to tear her away from him.
Strax closed his eyes for an instant.
When he opened them, the fury was still there.
But now there was something with it.
Focus.
"Report."
The word was directed at Monica.
She nodded immediately, as if she had been waiting for it.
"Three gates have already been closed. The eastern gate entered lockdown two minutes after your order, but there are old maintenance tunnels beneath the railway district. Some have been mapped, others were still being surveyed. Before you ask, yes, I sent teams to all of them."
"Time."
"If they used the correct tunnels, they may have crossed the first perimeter before the complete lockdown."
Kali growled.
"So they are still inside the city?"
"Possibly."
"Or outside," Scarlett said. "Depends on whether they had extraction prepared."
Tiamat looked east.
"I can smell blood."
"No one wants you to destroy half the districts in the process," Monica answered immediately.
"I promise nothing."
"You will promise now."
Tiamat slowly turned her eyes toward Monica.
Monica did not step back.
Strax raised one hand.
The gesture was small, but enough to end the tension.
"Enough."
Everyone fell silent.
He crouched and touched the snow near the shop window. There were too many tracks, too many people, too much noise. Even so, beneath all those layers, something remained. Vex’s signature. Weak. Distant. Interrupted in some places by concealment barriers, but still existing.
And there was something else.
A damp energy.
Salty.
Not in the physical sense.
In the magical sense.
Strax pressed his fingers against the cracked stone.
"Sea."
Scarlett raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
"The magic that concealed the trail has maritime residue."
Monica went still.
"Tides?"
Strax slowly stood.
No one needed to say the name.
Aelyra.
The Monarch of Storm Tides.
Kali’s face immediately darkened.
"She has gone insane."
"No," Scarlett said. "She took revenge."
Tiamat laughed quietly.
"Then let us return it."
Monica was already calculating possibilities, routes, diplomatic relations, collateral damage, and the chances of open war. Her expression hardened with each passing second.
"If it was Aelyra, she will not keep Vex in Asgard. She will try to take her out of the central continent or bring her to the far East. Her territory is full of ports, islands, coastal fortresses, and hidden sea routes."
"She will not get there," Strax said.
"Not if you act correctly."
"Monica."
"Listen."
Her voice became harder.
"I know you want to cross the sky right now and turn her castle into melted glass. I want that too. But if Vex is with her agents, and those agents receive warning that you are coming like a calamity, they may panic."
Kali understood before Strax answered.
"And use the girl as a shield."
The sentence struck everyone.
Strax went completely still.
For one second, his aura almost exploded again.
But he breathed.
Once.
Twice.
Control returned just enough.
"Then we find her before it reaches that point."
Monica nodded.
"Exactly."
At that moment, Rogue came running down the street with two guild members behind her. Her tail was rigid, her eyes alert, and any trace of her usual laziness had vanished from her face.
"The entire guild has been mobilized," she said. "Mercenaries, trackers, scouts, informants. Whoever is in the city will search. Whoever is outside will block roads."
"Reward," Monica said. "Immediate. Any confirmed information about Vex receives triple payment. Anyone who lies or tries to profit from rumors goes to prison."
Rogue nodded.
"I was already doing that."
Scarlett smiled sideways.
"Good girl."
Rogue pointed at her without looking.
"Not today."
The comment would have drawn a laugh on any other day.
That day, no one laughed.
Then a different presence appeared in the air.
Ancient.
Silent.
Ouroboros appeared on the roof of a nearby building, her hair moving gently even without wind. She looked at Strax for a few seconds, then toward the east. Her expression was difficult to read, but there was something terribly precise in her eyes.
"She is alive," Ouroboros said.
Strax immediately turned his face to her.
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"How?"
Ouroboros closed her eyes.
"She is still pulling threads of fate. Weak, but whole."
Monica looked at her seriously.
"Can you locate her?"
"Not precisely. Something is interfering. Water. Salt. Movement. They surrounded her with layers of liquid flow to break direct reading."
Scarlett clicked her tongue.
"Aelyra, then."
Kali struck her fist against her palm.
"Good. Then we have the culprit."
"We have a strong suspect," Monica corrected.
Kali looked at her as if the correction were offensive.
"Monica."
"I know."
"No, you do not. I am going to break someone."
"You will break someone when I tell you who."
Kali opened her mouth, closed it, then breathed deeply.
"You are unbearable."
"I am efficient."
Strax was no longer paying attention to the argument.
He was looking in the direction of the trail.
The rage still roared inside him, but now it had been fitted into a shape. That was dangerous for everyone around him, but essential. The dragon who had promised to destroy the world needed to wait long enough to find the girl before fulfilling any threat.
That was when one of the guards returned stumbling, carrying a small object between his fingers.
"Lord Strax!"
Everyone turned.
The guard immediately knelt and extended his hand.
"We found this near a maintenance entrance below the eastern street."
In his palm lay a piece of blue fabric.
Small.
Torn.
Strax took the fragment with absurd care.
Vex’s scent was still on it.
Along with something else.
A bitter substance.
Sedative.
His hand began to tremble.
Not from fear.
From fury.
Kali stepped forward.
"They drugged her?"
Scarlett closed her eyes for an instant.
Tiamat stopped smiling.
Even Monica lost some of the color in her face.
Strax slowly raised the fabric close to his face. The sedative was strong, but not fatal. Made for a resistant creature. Perhaps calculated for a young dragon. Perhaps reinforced by maritime magic to weaken instinctive reactions. That meant they knew enough not to underestimate her.
And that meant they were far too close.
"Monica."
"Yes."
"Seal the city."
"It is already in progress."
"No."
He closed his hand around the fabric.
"Seal all of Asgard."
She remained silent for half a second.
Then she understood.
"You want a total lockdown."
"I want every gate closed, every train stopped, every tunnel sealed, every ship inspected, every cart opened, and every citizen identified."
"That will cause panic."
Strax looked at her.
"Then control the panic."
Monica nodded.
"Understood."
She turned to the officers.
"Activate internal siege protocol. No one enters, no one leaves. Suspend railway traffic. Close the underground workshops. Send the civil guard to evacuate secondary streets and keep the population at home. I want every report arriving at the administrative center in five-minute cycles."
The officers ran immediately.
The city truly began to change.
Runic bells rang in the towers.
Not festival bells.
Not fire bells.
A deep, repeated sound spread through Asgard, making doors close, soldiers move, and residents pull children indoors. The industrial capital, which minutes earlier had breathed with commercial movement, began transforming into a fortress.
But in a dark alley beneath the railway district, far from the main avenue, a small group moved quickly.
Three assassins carried a reinforced box covered in damp runes. Inside it, Vex lay unconscious, wrapped in magical chains that glowed deep blue. Her face was far too calm, a result of the sedative, but her fingers still moved from time to time, as if some instinctive part of her refused the imposed sleep.
One of the assassins looked back.
"He knows."
The group’s leader, a woman with pale skin and gray eyes, kept walking.
"Of course he knows."
"Then we are dead."
"Not if we reach the canal."
"Did you hear that voice?"
The woman did not answer immediately.
Because yes, she had heard it.
They all had.
Even in the bowels of the city, Strax’s promise had passed through stone, iron, and flesh.
She adjusted the dagger at her waist.
"Once we reach the canal, the artificial tide will carry us to the extraction point. After that, he can destroy the entire city searching and he will find nothing."
The third assassin looked at the box.
"What if she wakes up?"
The woman stopped for an instant.
The silence in the tunnel seemed to grow.
"Then pray her father finds us first."
Inside the box, Vex’s fingers closed slightly.
Very slightly.
A small white spark appeared between the chains.
Then vanished.
On the surface, Strax turned his face at the same moment.
He felt it.
Weak.
Almost nothing.
But he felt it.
The connection.
The resistance.
Vex was still fighting.
The smile that appeared on his face had nothing human in it.
"She woke up."
Monica’s eyes widened slightly.
"Are you certain?"
"Not entirely."
"Is that good or bad?"
Strax looked toward the east of the city.
His aura narrowed like a blade.
"For them?"
The snow stopped falling around him.
"Very bad."
