The view from the observation window was a vision from a forgotten, terrible age.
The Heartstone was the center of this underworld. A single, mountain-sized crystal that pulsed with a soft, hypnotic purple light, filling the immense cavern with a twilight glow. It was beautiful, ancient, and utterly terrifying.
And its court was the thousands of Geode Sentinels standing in silent, concentric rings around it. They were dormant, their obsidian limbs still, their purple fissures pulsing in time with the Heartstone's slow, rhythmic beat.
They were sleeping.
"The Heartstone… it's a control node," Patrin whispered, his face pressed against the thick crystal window. The engineer in him was battling with the terrified man. "They're dormant, drawing power, recharging. Our fight with the patrol must have been an automated defense. The whole hive isn't truly awake."
"So if we stay quiet, they stay asleep?" Borin asked, his voice a low rumble.
"Perhaps," Patrin stammered. "But to attune the new geode, I have to get to the Heartstone itself. I have to place the blank crystal against its surface and perform the resonance ritual. The energy transfer… it will be like a lightning strike in a silent room. It will wake them all."
The problem was laid bare. A perfect, impossible trap. To get the water, they had to wake the horde. To survive, they had to stay silent.
Arthur stared out at the sea of dormant killers. He saw the path from their hiding place to the Heartstone. A few hundred paces of open ground. A suicide walk.
His mind, a cold calculator, ran the variables. He saw Borin trying to fight his way through, buried under a tide of rock and obsidian. He saw himself trying to sneak past, detected and instantly killed. He saw Patrin, who could barely stand from fear, trying to perform a delicate ritual while a legion of monsters woke around him.
There was no logical path to victory.
And in that moment of absolute impossibility, the System, which had been silent, flared to life in his vision.
[Threat Level Assessment: OVERWHELMING]
[Calculating Optimal Strategic Pathways... 0 Found]
[Probability of Mission Success: 0.01%]
[Emergency Protocol Activated. User is facing mission-critical failure. Awarding Key Skill based on Core Trait: Heart of a Tyrant]
[New Skill Unlocked: Absolute Order (Lv. 1)]
Skill Description: You may issue a single, irresistible command to any sentient target. The target will obey the command to the best of their ability, overriding all other instincts, including self-preservation. This skill cannot be used on the same target again until User reaches Level 20.
Arthur read the description, and a profound stillness settled over him. The pieces of the puzzle clicked into place. The System hadn't given him a weapon to fight the hive.
It had given him a tool to command his own men.
A new calculation began, this one far colder than the last. Borin was his sword and shield, too valuable to sacrifice on a single command. He needed the big warrior for the wars to come.
That left the terrified old man beside him. A single-use tool, vital for this one moment and utterly expendable afterwards.
The survival of Al'Khem versus the life of one man.
To Arthur Sterling, it wasn't a moral dilemma. It was a simple, brutal math problem.
"I can't do it, Commander," Patrin whimpered, as if reading his thoughts. "My hands… they're shaking too much. I'll drop the geode. I'll fumble the ritual. I'll get us all killed."
"You are correct," Arthur said, his voice soft. He turned and placed a hand on the old engineer's shoulder. "You, as you are now, would fail."
He looked the old man directly in the eyes. Patrin flinched at the cold, predatory emptiness he saw there.
"But you will not fail me," Arthur said.
He activated the skill. A subtle, invisible energy flowed from him into the engineer.
[Absolute Order]
His voice was a low, hypnotic whisper, laced with an authority that was more than human. It was the voice of pure command, the sound of a will that could not be denied.
"Patrin. You will walk to the Heartstone. You will perform the attunement ritual flawlessly and without hesitation. You will feel no fear. You will ignore the Sentinels, even if they tear you apart. You will not stop until the new geode is attuned or you are dead. This is my will."
The effect was instantaneous and horrifying.
The terror in Patrin's eyes vanished, replaced by a placid, empty calm. The trembling in his hands stopped. He stood up straight, his expression as blank as polished stone.
"Yes, Commander," he said, his voice a monotone.
He turned, unsealed the inner door of the observation post, and walked out into the vast, silent cavern.
Borin stared, his mouth agape, a look of profound horror on his face. "Commander… what have you done to him? That's not… that's not right."
"I have ensured our survival," Arthur replied, his voice flat, his eyes fixed on Patrin's lone figure. "I have taken away his fear so he can do what needs to be done. Watch."
Patrin walked. He did not sneak. He did not creep. He walked with a steady, unhurried pace directly across the open ground, his footsteps echoing softly in the cavern. He passed between the ranks of the dormant Sentinels, his presence as unnoticed as a ghost's.
He reached the base of the Heartstone. The colossal crystal pulsed with a light that bathed his small form in a deep purple glow. He looked like a priest at the altar of some forgotten power.
He pulled the small, blank geode from his satchel. He placed it against the vast, smooth surface of the Heartstone and placed his hands on either side of it. He began to chant, his voice a low, steady hum, the words of the ritual pouring from him without a single tremor.
Arcs of white energy began to spark between his hands and the Heartstone. The blank geode began to absorb the purple light, a faint amethyst glow kindling in its core.
But the energy transfer was not silent. A high-pitched, whining hum began to fill the cavern.
Across the cavern, the purple fissures on the nearest Sentinels began to flicker, their rhythm thrown off by the new sound.
One of them twitched.
"It's working," Borin breathed, his horror momentarily forgotten. "He's doing it."
The light in the small geode grew brighter, the amethyst color deepening, purifying. The hum grew louder, the sparks more intense.
More Sentinels began to stir. Their head-like appendages began to swivel, the soft pulse in their fissures turning into a brighter, more alert strobe. They were waking up.
Patrin ignored them completely. His eyes were closed, his face a mask of concentration, his hands steady as rock. He was a perfect, unthinking tool, executing his function just as Arthur had commanded.
The small geode in his hands now shone with a brilliant, pure amethyst light, no longer tainted by the Heartstone's purple hue. The ritual was almost complete.
One of the closest Sentinels, now fully awake, took a slow, deliberate step towards Patrin. Its obsidian scythe-limb lifted from the ground with a sharp click.
It raised the limb high, preparing to strike the unresisting man.
"Patrin, move!" Borin roared, forgetting himself, slamming a fist against the crystal window.
But the engineer couldn't hear him. He was locked in the grip of a power far stronger than fear.
The geode in his hands flared with a final, blinding pulse of pure, amethyst light. The attunement was complete.
At that exact, triumphant moment, the Sentinel's obsidian scythe flashed down.