The facility took three hours to fully clear.
Owen stood before the villa within the dungeon while the Association teams were still going in, a steady stream of uniformed agents moving past him in the opposite direction. Their eyes widened as they saw him.
Their expressions shifting from professional composure to something rawer, more visceral, as the staircase delivered them into the underground corridor and the full scope of what lay beneath began to register.
He maintained his humanoid form by conscious effort, the dragon's fury that had carried him through the battle now locked behind a wall of necessary restraint. There would be time for that later. Now, there were protocols to observe, authorities to coordinate, and lives that needed careful extraction from the nightmare they had endured.
