The Blue Banner patrol took the Dockside Wolves away in separate vehicles.Their leader tried to claim that Adrian had started the fight. The body-camera footage, the Exchange security report, and the caster's pinned sleeve made that argument collapse before it properly began. Captain Finch texted once to say the patrol would handle the charges and that Adrian was not to turn the warehouse into another incident without calling her first.It was sound advice.He followed it by standing in the alley beside Zoe's delivery van while Mara watched the warehouse from above."You did not have to come out here," Adrian told Zoe."I know. But the Exchange flag came through my desk because I processed your sale. I wanted to make sure you were not being followed into something worse.""You got here before Blue Banner.""I drive fast when I am irritated."Her phone rang before Adrian could say anything else. She glanced at the display, hesitated, then answered with a more formal tone."Zoe Park, R

Kade Mercer entered his berserker state with a roar that shook the empty street.Red light ran beneath his skin. His muscles tightened against the black hoodie, and the silver armor under it brightened like moonlight trapped beneath cloth. He swung the crescent blade in a wide arc that forced the nearest Cinderwall Knights to lift their shields.The impact shoved both knights backward."His armor is distributing force," Nora said through the team channel. She was not at the warehouse, but Adrian had left an audio link open. "Do not keep hitting the same place. Make him turn.""Gladly," Adrian said.Kade hit a third Cinderwall Knight hard enough to crack the pavement under its feet. The guardian held. The fourth knight came in from the side. Kade pivoted, blade flashing, and cut deep into the seam beneath its shoulder. The knight dropped its sword but did not collapse."Two down," Kade said. "How many more?"Adrian looked at the formation around him.Ten Cinderwall Knights stood in the

The low mechanical hum beneath Meridian Warehouse stopped the moment Captain Finch's vehicle arrived.Blue Banner sealed both ends of the access road. Ward technicians set up portable scanners at the warehouse entrance while investigators photographed the blue rail chalk and the open basement stairwell. Kade Mercer and his two companions were already in separate response cars, their statements incomplete and their faces carefully unreadable.Adrian stood outside the perimeter with Mara, Soren, and the Crimson Railguard Captain. The captain had not lowered its shield since the hum began."No one goes below until the structural scan is complete," Finch said.It was an order Adrian agreed with.That was why the first blast caught everyone off balance.The warehouse floor heaved beneath their feet. A black line split the concrete at the base of the stairwell and raced through the entrance. The portable scanners died at once. Every ward lamp along the perimeter flashed red."Back!" Finch s

Blue Banner closed Meridian Warehouse before dawn.The damage report was long. Two patrol officers needed treatment for aether shock. Three Cinderwall Knights required hours of repair inside Adrian's summoning ring. The Crimson Railguard Captain had taken the worst hit. Its shield was broken, and the blue light in its chest core pulsed weakly whenever Adrian checked the bond.Mara stayed beside it until the first response medics arrived."It protected you," she said."It did.""You should let it rest."Adrian dismissed the captain carefully. The red armor vanished into a black circle, leaving no body behind, only the memory of a shield raised at the right moment.Captain Finch finished giving orders to the warehouse team and walked over with Deputy Commander Julian Rook. Rook's navy coat was clean despite the gray smoke coating every other surface. His expression was not."A Level Thirty Hexwright on a municipal access road," he said. "That is an escalation.""It is also proof," Adria

Adrian did not sleep much after the hospital monitor flickered.At home, he laid the Blackwater evidence across the kitchen table: copies of the Waygate report, the Soulwake archive, Meridian records, the Blue Banner auxiliary agreement, and the photograph of the rail symbol burned into the warehouse wall. The pieces did not make a full picture. They made a direction.The obvious ways to grow stronger were still there. He could enter licensed Rifts, hunt monsters, record stronger echoes, and collect idle experience through the Continuum System. He could accept a guild contract, take their training, and become useful to someone who had already decided what his power should mean.Neither path was enough by itself.The Hexwright had proved that higher levels could crush a formation built only for ordinary fights. The Hollowborn had proved that monsters were not the only danger entering through Rift doors. If Adrian wanted to protect his father, friends, and city, he needed a third road.