Arcane: TTB: Ch. 139

The Crimson Elite had successfully escorted Emystan into the building. Their judgment proved correct, after entering the reinforced terminal, the swarm ceased their pursuit.

These autonomous weapons seemed designed for area denial rather than close-quarters combat, relying on coordinated firepower and overwhelming numbers rather than individual unit strength.

"There are those strange flying machines everywhere outside now. You can't even see the landing platforms anymore. Piltover might have already fallen to Zaun, we're going to need reinforcements to get out of this alive."

Riven carefully observed the situation through a window.

Near the Hexgate facility, the entire sky was filled with countless black dots.

At that moment, four drake-hounds with bodies covered in dark, scales as hard as armor plating returned from their patrol. They approached a woman clad in battle-tested leather armor.

She was Arrel, one of Noxus' most skilled animal handlers.

Drake-hounds were distant descendants of true dragons, retaining much of their ancestral power and cruelty. A single trained pup commanded a price equivalent to three cartloads of pure silver, making them prized possessions among Noxian nobility. But without both exceptional physical strength and years of expert beast-taming experience, attempting to subdue such fierce and prideful predators was suicide.

The four drakes raised by Arrel were larger than typical specimens of their species. Massive in size with sleek, aerodynamically streamlined bodies, every muscle group defined beneath their armored hide, and retractable claws, each one sharp and capable of tearing through steel plate.

The four drake-hounds arranged themselves before Arrel, letting out low growls of "wooooh."

"The situation out there is strange. They're telling me that the buildings on both sides of every street are packed with people hiding inside, just watching the machines outside."

"No corpses were discovered anywhere in the area, not even traces of blood splatter or signs of combat. It doesn't look like any fighting took place here."

"I get the feeling those Piltovans... just locked their doors and hid in terror when this all started."

As a master huntress with years of field experience, her beast-communication abilities were nothing short of extraordinary among even elite Noxian forces.

In her hands, the four savage drake-hounds functioned like a specialized reconnaissance squad, absolutely loyal, completely reliable, and capable of gathering information that human operatives might miss.

Upon discovering that the patrol units showed no hostile intent toward the drake-hounds, she had dispatched them to conduct wider area reconnaissance.

"Ha! That does sound exactly like Piltover's typical approach to any conflict."

Emystan snorted. She knew Piltovans from previous trade relationships, cowardly, weak-willed, and obsessively clinging to their comfortable lives.

When confronted by superior force, their first instinct was never armed resistance, but rather negotiation, and retreat.

"I'm really curious to hear how Camille plans to explain this. Zaun somehow developed such a powerful force right under her eyes, what exactly has she been doing all these years besides collecting bribes?"

She pulled out a military communicator and contacted her primary Piltover intelligence asset.

"General Emystan, what do you require from me at this late hour?"

A cold, utterly indifferent female voice came through the device's speaker.

"What the hell is happening in Piltover right now? Where are your enforcers, your precious family militias? Why is the entire area around the Hexgate facility completely swarming with drones?"

Emystan's fury was barely contained. The moment she'd arrived in what should have been friendly territory, she'd been forced to run for her life like a common refugee. It had been years since anyone had driven her into such a situation.

"You're already in Piltover? That's... unexpected timing."

Camille sounded genuinely surprised, clearly caught off-guard. She had anticipated that Noxus would eventually send someone to exploit the power vacuum, but hadn't calculated they would move with such speed.

The Pale Lady... the Black Rose...

For such a massive and notoriously bureaucratic empire like Noxus to coordinate this efficiently, the Black Rose had to be directly involved.

This reeked of internal conspiracy. Camille was herself a covert member of the Black Rose, and Piltover fell within her designated sphere of influence and responsibility.

Normally, if the Black Rose decided to initiate operations within Piltover's borders, she would receive advance notification and coordination orders as a matter of standard protocol.

But now she knew absolutely nothing about Emystan's mission or objectives.

"My sincere apologies for the confusion. The Piltover Council is still conducting heated debates about our official response to Zaun's declaration. As for deploying the family militias to assist you..."

"You must understand, that Piltover's structure is quite different from Noxian military hierarchy. The great families are primarily concerned with the great families themselves. Unless something directly threatens their bloodlines and personal wealth, the noble houses won't deploy the private armies."

"They exist solely to protect their own legacies. Piltover as an entity is not considered worth the investment of private military assets."

It was unclear whether she was mocking Piltover's aristocratic selfishness, the city's weakness, or perhaps both. But her current mood was obviously foul.

The Black Rose's abnormal patterns revealed several troubling possibilities. The most serious scenario was that Camille herself had already been written off as expendable.

"I don't give a damn about your internal Piltovan soap opera, nor do I want to waste time learning about it. But what about your intelligence network?"

"The Clan Ferros claims to be the real power in Piltover. So why does Zaun possess such formidable military strength, and yet the Empire hasn't received even a scrap of intelligence?"

"That underground city is right beneath your feet! How could you miss something this significant?"

Emystan's rage was escalating.

Swain had fallen from grace in his eastern campaigns. The House Medarda had offended someone with serious influence, fled from territory like beaten dogs, and were no longer worth considering as obstacles.

Now represented the perfect opportunity to move against Piltover and Zaun while they lacked powerful protectors.

She had paid an enormous personal price to secure the right to claim the spoils of victory before other warbands could stake their own claims. Yet before she could even establish a foothold, she had been struck hard.

In Noxian culture, only strength and carried weight. If she failed to conquer both cities as promised, the Imperial command structure would show no mercy, they would certainly dispatch another warband commander to replace her.

If that scenario came to pass, not only would Piltover and Zaun slip completely from her grasp, she would probably lose her head in the process.

"General Emystan, I believe you should be aware that Commander Swain issued a formal decree regarding Piltover and Zaun. It currently hangs in Piltover's council chamber. You know its contents, it bears both the personal signature and official imperial seal of Emperor Darkwill himself."

Piltover might indeed be weak, but what exactly was Emystan supposed to represent, charging in blindly without proper intelligence or coordination? Did she seriously consider herself another strategic genius like Swain?

"Furthermore, General Quiletta received direct orders from Commander Swain before his recent... difficulties. Together with three hundred elite Noxian soldiers under her command, they are currently stationed in Zaun to prevent anyone from disturbing the peace between the two cities."

"Zaun currently enjoys the protection of both Commander Swain's agreements and General Quiletta's presence. I am powerless to assist you in any meaningful way."

"In honesty, I only discovered the true extent of Zaun's military capabilities today myself, when those drones appeared without any warning."

"Even the intelligence operatives my family has spent years inserting into Zaun's infrastructure have yet to return any substantive information about their core military assets."

Though Camille was providing a reasonable explanation for the intelligence failure, her attitude was dismissive and condescending.

A seasoned military veteran like Emystan naturally heard the subtext loud and clear, Camille was telling her to handle her own problems without expecting assistance.

"Stop making pathetic excuses for your incompetence!"

"I am now the officially appointed Noxian military governor stationed in Piltover and Zaun. General Quiletta has her own mission. The Empire's documents are in my possession."

"Deploy reinforcements to the Hexgate facility immediately to extract me and my forces. If anything happens to me or my troops, both Piltover and the Clan Ferros will be completely wiped from the map."

"This entire city will become nothing but a ruin populated by corpses!"

Camille's indifferent, almost dismissive coldness finally pushed Emystan's fury past the breaking point.

Since Piltover refused to provide support, she would be forced to issue orders for her warband's mage troops to transit through the Hexgate and join her position immediately.

But this was risky. The memory of that laser cannon's power still made her uneasy.

Those battle-mages represented one of the key assets ensuring her family's strength and influence. If they suffered heavy casualties, it could seriously threaten her family's standing within Noxus.