Chap 160: The Plotting

Terror stabbed through Tee, realising she created a dark energy forceshield. Her breath hitched. She didn’t understand—couldn’t afford to. With a panicked cry, she dismissed the shield just as the shockwave roared past.

The world was all smoke and screaming stone.

Then—A quake.

Legion’s true form slammed into the earth with seismic fury. The very ground convulsed beneath his impact, rupturing in spirals. Chasms split open. The sky dimmed. And the war truly began. 

The other Sentinels staggered, their force shields flickering out one by one as concentration broke. Smoke curled from the scorched earth, rising around them like the breath of a dying god.

“Finally.”

Kie ascended, forming fragile Ultramana steps in the air, bounding upward with blade raised. His blue flame sword burned bright, wild and alive. He crashed into Legion’s centipede form, locking his sword with a massive smoke-forged scythe-arm.

“Die!,” Kie growled.

Legion laughed—hundreds of mouths forming along his bone-ribs. In a split second, he hurled Kie across the sky with a tendril-whip made of metal bones.

On the ground, Lilith fought like a living storm—vanishing and appearing, striking with long metal claws, using the terrain’s shifting edges to trap and flank. 

Her blade sang through the chaos, a blur of steel and fury as it clashed against Miko and Zod. The impact hurled them backwards, bodies skidding and rolling across the scorched terrain.

Saeda retaliated fast, unleashing glowing swords that spun toward Lilith like burning wheels of light—each aimed to pierce the darkness she embodied.

But Lilith was faster. She danced between the blades like a shadow given form, untouched.

Tee, meanwhile, was spiraling. She had formed a dark energy orb almost instinctively, but when she activated her foreseeing vision to view herself—her heart dropped. Her irises had turned pitch black.

Panic tightened in her chest. No. Not again.

She dropped to her knees, eyes squeezed shut, breathing fast and shallow as she tried to suppress whatever she had triggered. In. Out. Get your eyes back to normal. You're not one of them.

Lilith wasn’t supposed to harm the vessel, but she was clearly not ready. For the sake of the plan, she lunged toward Tee—arms raised to strike.

She was stopped cold.

A shimmering orb of energy snapped shut around her, locking her mid-stride.

Lilith's eyes flicked up. One of the mortals had trapped her. Impossible.

Saeda stared in disbelief—then conviction. Her forcefield had worked. She'd trained for that. And now Lilith was sealed.

Focusing hard, she began to shrink the orb, condensing it tighter around Lilith’s form. Light and darkness could not coexist. One would consume the other. She knew which side she was on.

Across the battlefield, Kie finally came to a brutal stop after crashing from Legion’s last strike. He groaned, pushing himself up through a haze of pain.

Zod gasped in a lungful of air and unleashed a concentrated beam of Ultramana energy at Legion’s cluster of skeletal heads, hoping to vaporize the abomination.

Legion countered, raising a shield made of twisting bones and moaning skulls. The energy burst collided, but it wasn’t enough.

“Damn it!” Zod hissed, leaping aside just in time to dodge a massive whips of spiked bones hurled his way.

The field shrieked with voices. Legion’s dark spirits slithered along the ground, whispering, screaming, wailing like the damned. Yet they kept their distance from the Sentinels—their light was lethal.

Miko had just finished off Sade's twisted spider constructs and turned to assess the battlefield. She saw Kie and Zod fighting Legion, and Saeda and Tee confronting Lilith.

Wait a second—she looked back. 

She saw Tee—on her knees, shaking. That was enough. She sprinted toward her.

Inside the shrinking energy orb, Lilith transformed. Her body became a furnace of darkness, the inside of the orb like a collapsing star in the black vacuum of space.

Saeda held the forcefield, teeth gritted, refusing to let go even as pressure and heat pushed back. Then—the shield cracked. A hairline fracture... then another... until the orb shattered in a violent explosion.

Saeda held her ground, barely.

Kie started gathering energy, preparing for a long-range attack.

Tee, still on her knees, felt a sudden hand grip her arm—it burned against her skin. Instinct screamed, and she blasted dark mana from her palm.

The figure was Miko.

Miko’s eyes widened in shock right before the blast slammed into her skull, sending her crashing backward—unmoving.

Tee staggered to her feet, horrified. “No... no no no—”

Miko had seen her.

She wasn't supposed to see that.

Her head spun. The wailing spirits warped her thoughts, but clarity came crashing in. If they found out…If they thought she was like Lilith...

It was Lilith. Tee would tell them it was Lilith. Only Harbingers had that kind of darkness. Not Sentinels. Not her.

The air thinned.

Saeda’s body still stood—barely. But Lilith was gone. All that remained was a clean, bloody slash... and Saeda’s head rolling to a stop at Tee’s feet.

Tee froze. She couldn’t breathe.

Two teammates down. Both possibly dead.

Lilith, returned to her humanoid form, licked the blood from her fingers. Her unnaturally long, black tongue slithered across the stained skin like a serpent savoring the kill. The left side of her face, scorched, was testament that she was not deathless. 

Tee summoned twin buster swords, feeble with her drained power, and charged.

She barely got close.

Lilith sliced through both Tee’s arms in a single, surgical motion. Blood fountained. Tee crumpled in agony.

“I’m not going to kill you,” Lilith whispered, voice dripping with unnatural calm. Her eyes—black pools against pale skin—locked on Tee for one last moment.

Then she vanished into smoke.

Zod was still ducking and weaving through Legion’s stabbing strikes. Giant bone-lances slammed into the ground behind him, each missing by inches.

At last, Kie had his chance. Above Legion, a massive Ultramana construct materialized. He dropped it like a divine hammer.

The resulting shockwave tore across the field, scattering the shrieking spirits like water under pressure.

Zod skidded to a halt, panting. That might have bought them time.

But something felt wrong.

He tapped into his telecom—and his blood ran cold. The yellow signals for Tee, Saeda, and Miko had all gone red.

Unconscious.

Zod cursed under his breath, blood trailing from his brow. Their squad was broken. 

Lilith stepped through the smoke, unbothered, like a goddess of ruin. Legion stirred behind her, already regenerating from Kie’s last hit, bones clicking and realigning with grotesque ease. They were running out of time.

“Kie!” Zod shouted through the telecom. “We’re the only ones left.”

Kie didn’t argue. From where he stood—bruised, limping, but burning with resolve—he saw the collapsed forms of Tee, Saeda, and Miko amid the cracked terrain. Smoke billowed. The sky above twisted with residual magic. And beneath it all, those hellish whispers still echoed like a death hymn.

“We’re pulling out now.”

Zod channeled his energy into spheres of Ultramana, guiding them across the battlefield with telekinesis, their movement concealed by swirling dust. One slipped behind Legion and detonated in a brilliant flare—an explosive act of misdirection. It wasn’t meant to kill, only to disorient. The rest of his energy he held back, reserved for his escape.

The earth erupted in light and debris. Legion darted towards the source of the blast, shrieking in a thousand voices, his many eyes darting in every direction. Lilith’s head snapped toward the blast instinctively—just the hesitation Zod needed.

“Now!” he hissed.

Kie dashed to Tee’s side, lifting her with one arm. Her bloodied limbs hung heavy, but she was still breathing. He fought the urge to pull away, pushing past his own walls. Carefully, he secured her telecom around her neck—making sure she stayed connected.

Zod reached Saeda and Miko, dragging them closer. His breath caught when he saw Saeda’s headless form—frozen, unable to move.

Kie arrived, carrying Tee, and together they converged on the others. With trembling fingers, teeth, and elbows, they pressed the teleportation buttons on all five telecoms simultaneously.

In a blinding flash, they vanished from the carnage.

No Harbinger eliminated.

The mission had failed.

Hours had passed since their return. The Sentinels had finally begun to stir, each waking to the suffocating silence of the infirmary. No one spoke. The mission had failed—there was no denying it. The weight of that truth settled like fog over the room.

How many more battles like that could they survive?

How long until the Harbingers were finally defeated?

Kie was the first to rise, his form moving stiffly as he sat at the edge of the bed, eyes distant. Zod lay nearby, still trembling—not from pain, but from what he’d seen. From what couldn’t be unseen. The image of Saeda’s headless body refused to leave him.

Then, with a forced exhale, Zod broke the silence.

“Well... dinner’s not gonna make itself.”

It was late—far too late for dinner—but no one argued. They needed something. A distraction. Normalcy. Warmth. Anything.

While preparing the meal, they noticed Tee was nowhere to be found. As usual, she had slipped away, keeping her distance. But that time, Miko couldn't stay quiet.

“She blasted me,” Miko said. Her voice was low, tense. “Right in the head. That wasn’t normal energy—it was dark energy. Just like the Harbingers.”

Zod scoffed, his voice sharp with denial. “That’s crazy. Tee? You’re saying she’s like them?”

“I saw it. And it wasn’t the first time,” Miko insisted. “The Leak mission before—we were swarmed. She blew them away. With darkness. There was nothing left of them.”

The words struck Saeda like a bolt of ice.

A memory surged back—her aura-sensing, normally razor-sharp, dulled whenever Tee was near. It hit her like the final piece snapping into a maddening puzzle. That strange, unreadable void Tee carried… it wasn’t just unusual—it was unnatural. Almost as if something was actively hiding her.

“She's the reason,” Saeda whispered. “The aura block. The interference. It’s her.”

Kie sat in silence at the center table, shoulders rigid, a silent storm behind his eyes. His hands curled around a lukewarm mug he hadn’t touched. He didn’t speak. His ears couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

They all turned to Kie. 

“Kie, have you noticed anything strange with Tee?”

Kie’s expression was blank, still not sure how to process that. Then his brows knitted so tight as he said, “No. And I need more than ghost stories and gut feelings before I believe this madness.”

“Then let’s get proof,” Saeda said.

Without another word, they abandoned dinner and stormed through the silent halls of Primus to the Elder Caledor’s office. 

Saeda, with calm insistence, requested access to Miko’s memories from the recent fragment mission.

Elder Seriphal obliged without question.

The orb flickered, then bloomed into visions. Scenes flickered like lightning in a storm. Tee, alone in a cluster of Leaks. Tee drawing dark energy—not from herself, but from the Leaks, pulling it into her like a black hole. Then, another memory. Tee turning, her hand crackling with violet-black mana as she blasted Miko in the face.

The room went silent.

Kie swallowed. Even he couldn’t argue with that.

Both Elder Caledor and the Elder Seriphal said nothing. Their gazes were unreadable.

“It is time we take our leave, Sentinels,” the Elder Caledor said, his voice echoing softly. Then, without another word, he and Elder Seriphal vanished into the shadowed gap between two towering bookshelves, swallowed by the darkness.

Miko’s skin crawled. “Why were they just… watching? It’s like a horror vid where the audience disappears before the blood-bath starts.”

Kie felt something inside him already beginning to shatter. A revelation loomed. One he knew, deep down, was going to break him. His heart started to race, each beat loud in his ears, while his thoughts tangled into a frantic mess. He searched his memories of Tee, grasping for anything. Any small moment, any subtle sign that might support their insane theory, or prove it wrong.

Saeda didn’t wait. She dragged the others to the mission base.

“Where are we going?” Kie asked.

“To the last Leak mission’s location. I want to test something,” Saeda said, her voice razor-sharp.

The Lieutenant, the operator for their teleportation, blinked. “What about Tee? Isn’t she—?”

“No,” Saeda interrupted.

The Lieutenant raised an eyebrow but handed them fresh telecoms. The three Sentinels stepped into the light and vanished from Primus.

The broken battlefield where they’d fought the giant insect-like Leaks was littered with half-scorched vegetation and shattered stone. It smelled of ash and blood and something older—something that didn’t belong to the present.

Saeda stepped forward and exhaled. She opened her palms like antennae, letting her aura-sensing unfurl.

She could feel the whisper of life in the leaves. The faint tremble of the planet. It was working again.

Not around Tee.

To confirm her theory, she unclasped her telecom and threw it to Kie.

“Go. Far. Burn as much Ultramana energy as you can.”

Kie hesitated. “You sure?”

She nodded. “If I can feel you without a device, then it proves it. Tee is the source of the interference.”

He took off in a blur of speed, his form disappearing behind the blackened trees. Zod and Miko stayed with her, watching.

Saeda closed her eyes, stretched her senses again—and there it was. Like a trail of heat in the dark.

She ran toward it.

She didn’t need a tracker. She could feel him.

She found Kie standing near a cliff, panting, his eyes still gleaming with the release of Ultramana energy.

“You found me,” he muttered.

Saeda nodded. “I shouldn’t have been able to. Not without a telecom.”

The others arrived moments later.

“What does this mean?” Zod asked.

Saeda looked up at the smoky sky. “Whenever I’m far from Tee, my abilities work. But near her? It’s like the world turns blank.”

Zod nodded. “Unless she’s not one of us at all.”

They turned toward him.

Kie remained quiet, eyes narrowed.

“I mean,” Zod continued, “what if there was a mistake? The Elder’s found us through intel from the Verge about our identities. But what if the real Tee was captured—or killed—and this one is someone else? What if the Harbingers sent her?”

Silence.

Kie’s left eye twitched. 

Saeda shivered. “An impostor. Take us down from the inside out.”

“She’s a Harbinger,” Miko whispered, her voice trembling as the memory of Tee’s blast echoed in her mind.

Kie blinked hard. He wanted to deny it. But the proof already was too strong. 

“We need a plan. A real one. To take her down,” Zod said. 

Tension thickened the air.

“No.” Kie’s voice cut through it. “We’re not doing this. You’re out of your depths.”

Saeda stepped forward. “You’re defending her?”

“I’m not,” he growled, the words rough with frustration. “But instead of plotting behind her back, maybe we should just ask her. She’ll talk if we push her.”

A short, humorless laugh slipped out of him as he tilted his head back and stared at the giant moon hanging in the dead of night. Its pale light washed everything in silver, cold and distant. “I mean—first the Harbingers supposedly targeting Tee because she’s the weakest, and now this?” He shook his head and scoffed. “Saeda, I think you’ve lost it.”

His gaze lingered on the moon a moment longer, jaw tight, as if saying it aloud might make the idea disappear.

A beat of silence.

“Look, I know you care about her, but she’s not who she said she was,” Saeda told him strictly. 

“She was hiding from the start,” Miko whispered.

No one disagreed.

“Now for the plan…” Zod said. 

Back in the dim sanctum of the Elders, silent figures watched as secret Priman footage replayed across hovering screens—Tee in the modern world, trying to get Priman attention. Her eyes wild. Her energy unstable. Wielding dark mana with terrifying precision. Her powers flared in unnatural arcs, undeniable and damning.

Later that night, Kie stood in the Commander’s office, the lights bright.

He spilled everything—the plan. The theories. The growing consensus that Tee was a spy. A fraud. A Harbinger.

The Commander listened, his arms folded, and then laughed. 

Kie’s eyes went wide apart from that unexpected reaction. 

“Tee is a Xeno-victim,” said the Commander. “Now a Harbinger—that, I’d have to investigate on.”

“What?” Kie blurted, the word tearing from his throat.

“I gave her plenty of chances to tell the truth,” the Commander said evenly. “But she refused every one.”

“A Xeno-victim?” Kie breathed, his voice barely there as his gaze dropped to the floor. His thoughts spiraled, and all the plans he’d made—quiet nights, shared futures, a life with Tee—began to crack and fall apart. Slowly, he looked back up at the Commander, a fragile hope flickering in his eyes.

“But I’ve never seen her wear a crest—”

“She’s covert,” the Commander cut in.

Kie turned his head away and blinked hard. The Commander wouldn’t lie. He clenched his jaw, struggling to steady himself.

“All this time?”

“She uses a concealer to hide her cursemark, located on the left side of her neck. You wouldn’t see it even if you saw her bare,” the Commander said.

With that explanation, Kie knew it was possible. He had seen Tee bare—and there had been no mark.

The Commander continued, his tone growing heavier.

“But Tee is no ordinary Xeno-victim. She’s a hybrid. Her mutation will eventually create a MegaSapian—a monster capable of global devastation and mass loss of life. Her altered power aura is proof of the growing darkness within her.”

The destruction at the park flashed through Kie’s mind—screams, chaos, ruin. A cold dread settled in his chest.

Had she somehow caused that?

It didn’t make sense.

“Now back to why you really came here,” the Commander added, leaning forward over his desk. “What about this plan from your teammates?”

When Kie kept staring at the empty air before him, the Commander snapped his fingers to pull him back. “The reason you came here. What’s this plan you have for tomorrow?”

Kie spoke lifelessly. “My teammates believe she’s a Harbinger, and they plan to take her out tomorrow.”

“Take her out?”

Kie met the Commander’s dark red eyes and said, “To kill.”

The Commander leaned back in his chair and stroked his goatee. “Very well.”

Kie’s eyes went wide as his voice rose. “Very well? You’re just going to let them have their way?”

The Commander didn’t flinch. “She’s made her choices. Now she faces the consequences.”

Kie’s fists clenched. “What if she mutates? What if they trigger something they can’t stop?”

The Commander’s eyes gleamed. “No one knows what triggers mutation. She’s endured worse without mutating. Let’s see her try to run from it. She always knew this moment was coming.”

Knowing things were truly over between him and Tee, Kie decided to spill everything. He told the Commander about all of Tee’s misconduct and how he had distorted his mission briefs in her favor. They had been in a serious relationship—but not anymore.

The Commander agreed that consequences were necessary. So did Kie.

That night, Kie couldn’t sleep.

He twisted in bed, haunted by memories of Tee—the laughter, the glances, the lies. He wanted answers. He needed an explanation for all of it.

Tomorrow, his team would try to kill her.

And he didn’t know which side he’d be on.