The vision of artifact four's location faded, leaving Jacob standing in the ruined mansion with his team staring at him in concern. Anna steadied him as the mystical backlash from combining three artifacts subsided, his body adjusting to the surge of power that had momentarily overwhelmed his senses."Verons has the fourth artifact in his command tank," Jacob repeated, making sure he had heard his own words correctly. "It is leading the invasion convoy right now.""That makes tactical sense," Carl said, already thinking through implications. "Keep the artifact close where he can protect it personally rather than leaving it in some vault that could be raided."They rushed back to the command center, arriving just as reports flooded in about Argo's main force crossing the border. Dozens of armored vehicles supported by infantry battalions were pushing into Seron through three primary routes. At the center of the northern column, heavily protected by escort vehicles, rolled a massive com

The invasion had been raging for six hours when reports reached Anna about a catastrophic situation developing in the western evacuation corridor. Two hundred civilians—mostly women, children, and elderly—were trapped between advancing Argo forces and a collapsed bridge that had been their planned escape route."They are sitting targets," Leo reported grimly. "Argo has infantry moving to surround their position. Without immediate relief, those civilians will be captured or killed within the hour."Jacob was engaged on the eastern front, fighting desperately to prevent Argo breakthrough at the main defensive line. Carl's forces were pinned down in the northern district. Roseline was coordinating guerrilla operations that kept her teams scattered across the city. No one was available to mount a rescue operation.Except Anna."I am going," she announced, already gathering her equipment."You do not have forces for a rescue mission," Leo protested. "Maybe eight fighters total available in

The battle for Seron's northern district had raged for six hours without pause. Argo forces pushed relentlessly against defensive positions that Jacob's fighters held through sheer determination and increasingly desperate tactics. Bodies littered streets where civilians had walked days before, and the smell of smoke and blood permeated everything.Anna had lost the artifact during a chaotic engagement when Bishop's forces ambushed her squad while they were repositioning. The mystic bracelet was torn from her wrist during hand-to-hand combat, disappearing into enemy hands before she could prevent it. The loss stung not just strategically but personally—she had been entrusted with safeguarding one of the Krigg family's sacred relics and had failed.But there was no time for self-recrimination. Argo troops were exploiting gaps in the defensive line, threatening to break through into the city's residential core where thousands of evacuated civilians sheltered."Eastern barricade is fallin

The vision from the combined artifacts faded, leaving Jacob shaking and disoriented. Verons possessed the fourth artifact and was carrying it directly into battle inside his command vehicle. The opportunity was clear—if Jacob could destroy that tank, he could recover the artifact and eliminate Argo's supreme commander simultaneously.But there was no time to act on that revelation. Argo's invasion had begun in earnest, and defenders were being pushed back across multiple fronts despite fierce resistance. The battle for Seron had transformed from skirmishes into full-scale urban warfare that was consuming the city block by block.Jacob returned to the command center to find the tactical situation deteriorating rapidly. Northern defenses were holding but taking catastrophic casualties. Eastern positions had collapsed entirely after sustained artillery bombardment. Southern districts remained contested, with street fighting raging through residential neighborhoods where civilians were tr

The vision from the artifacts faded, leaving Jacob standing in the ruins of Bishop's mansion with knowledge that changed everything. The fourth artifact was not hidden in some vault or treasure room—it was actively being used by Verons, integrated into his command tank's mystical defenses."We need to get that tank," Jacob said, still processing the implications. "Before the invasion begins, while it is still on Argo's side of the border.""Impossible," Carl replied flatly. "That tank will be surrounded by Argo's best troops. We cannot just drive up and steal it."But Jacob was already planning the operation in his mind. The artifacts had shown him more than just the fourth piece's location—they had revealed weaknesses in Verons's defenses, timing windows when the tank would be vulnerable, and tactical approaches that conventional military thinking would never consider.The next hours blurred together as Seron's resistance fought desperately to hold back Argo's invasion. The fighting