Chapter 108 - 107: Eyes in the Wall

Chapter 108: Chapter 107: Eyes in the Wall

Iris had expected the change to be obvious.

It wasn’t.

By the time she finished the installation, the Blackstone Wall looked almost exactly the way it had before.

That was the strange part.

There were no metal structures sticking out from the top of the wall. No strange machines humming along its surface. No obvious weapons mounted between the dark stones.

The sentries had simply become part of it.

Iris stood a short distance from the wall and stared.

If she had not known where to look, she probably would not have noticed anything at all.

The Blackstone Wall remained the same imposing structure it had always been, dark and solid, stretching around Velaris in a massive circle. Its surface was uneven in places, giving it the appearance of naturally formed stone rather than something constructed by a System.

But now, hidden among those stones, were hundreds of sentries.

Eyes in the wall.

That was what they felt like.

Iris slowly walked along the inner side of the wall, studying the places where she knew she had installed them.

There.

A faint difference in the stone.

And another one farther ahead.

Then another.

They were subtle enough that someone who did not know they were there would probably walk right past them.

That was good.

Very good, actually.

She had been expecting something that would make Velaris look like it had suddenly acquired a collection of strange machines.

Instead, the sentries looked as though they had always belonged there.

"Can you see them?"

Iris turned.

Claire was approaching from the direction of the main settlement.

She had apparently noticed Iris standing there and decided to investigate.

"Not really," Iris admitted.

Claire stopped beside her and looked at the wall.

"What am I looking for?"

"The sentries."

Claire’s eyebrows rose.

"The what?"

Iris pointed toward the section of wall in front of them.

"Defensive structures."

Claire stared for several seconds.

"I don’t see anything."

"Exactly."

Claire looked at Iris.

Iris smiled faintly.

"They’re integrated into the wall."

That seemed to interest Claire.

She stepped closer and ran her eyes over the black stone.

"How many?"

"Enough."

"That doesn’t sound reassuring."

"It isn’t supposed to be."

Claire gave her a suspicious look before looking at the wall again.

"So what do they do?"

"They’re supposed to identify hostile threats within the defensive range."

"Supposed to?"

"I haven’t seen them work yet."

Claire’s expression changed immediately.

"You installed something you haven’t tested?"

"I didn’t exactly have a practice target available."

"You could have tested it on a rock."

Iris looked at her.

"Claire."

"Yes?"

"It’s supposed to attack hostile threats."

"Oh."

Claire considered that.

"Right. Rock probably wouldn’t qualify."

"Probably not."

They both looked toward the wall.

For several seconds, neither said anything.

Then Claire sighed.

"I really hope they work."

"So do I."

Iris had spent enough resources on the installation that failure was not something she wanted to consider. ℴℴ𝘮

More importantly, after what happened during the hunt, she needed them to work.

The walls could keep monsters out.

They could keep strangers from simply walking into Velaris.

They could provide a safe boundary.

But the moment someone stepped outside, the protection ended.

That was the problem.

The sentries were not a replacement for people learning to fight.

They were not a solution to every danger.

But they could make the territory itself capable of responding to threats.

That mattered.

Especially now.

People were beginning to understand that becoming stronger was necessary.

The hunting group had already proven that.

Eventually, more people would leave Velaris.

Some would go scavenging.

Others would hunt.

Some might have to travel farther from the walls as the settlement grew.

Iris couldn’t be everywhere.

Neither could the bodyguards.

The wall, however, could stay.

And now it had eyes.

"Iris!"

A voice called from farther down the road.

Iris turned.

One of the survivors was running toward them.

Not running in panic.

At least, not yet.

He slowed when he reached them, breathing heavily.

"There are monsters outside."

Iris’s expression sharpened.

"Where?"

"Near the northern side."

"How many?"

"Just one that we saw."

Claire immediately looked toward the wall.

"How close?"

The survivor pointed.

"Maybe two hundred metres?"

Iris moved before he finished speaking.

Claire followed.

By the time they reached the northern section of Velaris, several others had already gathered.

Nobody was screaming.

Nobody had raised an alarm.

They were simply watching.

Beyond the Blackstone Wall, something moved between the trees.

At first, Iris could barely see it.

Then it stepped into the open.

A monster.

It looked nothing like the zombies they had encountered inside the territory.

Its body was low to the ground, almost wolf-like, but far too large.

Its shoulders were broad, its limbs unnaturally long, and its mouth opened to reveal several rows of sharp teeth.

It stopped.

The creature lifted its head.

Even from this distance, Iris could see it sniffing the air.

Someone beside her whispered.

"That’s close."

Iris nodded.

It was.

Much closer than she liked.

The monster began walking toward the wall.

One step.

Then another.

Its pace was slow at first.

Almost cautious.

The survivors instinctively moved backward.

A few of them reached for weapons.

Iris watched the creature carefully.

She was already considering whether she needed to order everyone inside when something happened.

A faint sound came from the wall.

Click.

Iris froze.

It was so quiet that she almost thought she had imagined it.

Then another sound came.

Click.

Click.

Several sections of the Blackstone Wall shifted.

Not enough to change the shape of the wall.

Just enough.

Small openings appeared between the stones.

Dark circles that had not been there a moment ago.

Claire stared.

"What..."

The monster stopped.

Its head snapped upward.

For the first time, it seemed to notice something was wrong.

A faint glow appeared within the wall.

Iris’s eyes widened.

The sentries had activated.

Nobody moved.

The monster took another step.

The glow intensified.

Then a sharp projectile shot from the wall.

It struck the creature in the shoulder.

The monster let out a horrible roar and staggered sideways.

The entire group went silent.

Another projectile fired.

Then another.

The sentries were not firing wildly.

Each shot came with frightening precision.

The monster tried to retreat.

It turned.

The moment it moved away from the wall, the firing stopped.

It stumbled forward.

Then it looked back.

Another shot struck its side.

The creature collapsed.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

Iris stared through the wall’s openings.

The sentries slowly returned to their dormant state.

The faint glow disappeared.

The openings closed.

The Blackstone Wall became silent again.

As though nothing had happened.

Someone finally whispered.

"Did the wall just shoot it?"

Nobody answered.

Another survivor stepped forward.

"The wall shot it."

"I saw that."

"It has weapons?"

"I thought it was just stone."

"So did I."

The voices began to overlap.

Iris remained quiet.

She was staring at the place where the sentries had disappeared.

That was exactly what she had wanted.

And somehow, seeing it happen was still different from reading the description on the Construction Directory.

The wall had responded on its own.

Nobody had needed to give an order.

Nobody had needed to stand there with a weapon.

Nobody had needed to notice the monster until the system had already identified it as a threat.

The territory had defended itself.

Claire slowly turned toward Iris.

"You knew it could do that?"

"I knew it was supposed to."

Claire looked at the dead monster.

"That’s not the same thing."

"No."

Iris couldn’t argue with that.

More survivors had gathered by then.

People came out from nearby buildings and paths, drawn by the noise of the monster’s roar.

Some had weapons.

Others had simply followed the crowd.

Everyone was staring at the creature lying outside the wall.

Then they looked at the wall.

For the first time since they had arrived in Velaris, they were not looking at it as a barrier.

They were looking at it as a weapon.

The realization spread quickly.

A wall that could attack.

A wall that could watch.

A wall that could identify a threat before anyone inside even knew there was danger.

One of the survivors swallowed.

"So we’re safe?"

Iris heard the question.

She turned toward him.

"Safer."

The survivor frowned.

"What’s the difference?"

"The sentries don’t mean nothing can hurt us."

Iris glanced toward the forest.

"They mean we have another layer of protection."

Nobody seemed disappointed by the answer.

If anything, the tension in their shoulders eased.

After the events of the hunt, they had all learned how quickly things could go wrong.

This was different.

They had not fought the monster.

They had not needed to risk anyone.

The territory had handled it.

That was the difference.

A few people began talking excitedly.

"I want to see if it can shoot another one."

"Don’t say that."

"Why?"

"Because I don’t want another monster coming here just so you can watch."

That earned a few nervous laughs.

The tension finally broke.

Iris smiled faintly.

But she did not relax completely.

Instead, she opened her Lord’s Panel.

The sentries were still listed under the territory’s defensive structures.

Their status showed active.

No damage.

No interruption.

No problem.

Iris read the information again.

The system had done exactly what it promised.

Hostile threat detected.

Target acquired.

Defense activated.

Threat neutralized.

Simple.

Efficient.

Cold.

Iris closed the panel.

Around her, the survivors were still staring at the wall.

They had spent days seeing it as the thing that kept monsters out.

Now they knew there was more to it.

Velaris was changing.

Not because the walls had grown taller.

Not because more people had arrived.

Not even because Copper had started changing hands.

Something more important had happened.

The settlement was beginning to develop the means to protect itself.

That mattered.

A place that could only survive because everyone stayed behind its walls was fragile.

A place that could defend its own borders was something else entirely.

Iris looked once more at the Blackstone Wall.

The sentries were invisible again.

Nothing about the wall revealed what had happened.

Someone could stand there for hours without realizing that hidden weapons were watching the forest.

Iris found herself smiling.

The best defenses were often the ones nobody noticed.

"Eyes in the wall," she murmured.

Claire glanced at her.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Iris looked toward the forest.

There would be more monsters.

There would be more danger.

There would be people who needed to leave the territory.

There would be problems she hadn’t even thought of yet.

The sentries wouldn’t solve everything.

She knew that.

But for the first time since she built Velaris, the territory was no longer relying entirely on the people living inside it to stay alive.

The walls could watch.

The walls could respond.

And if anything came too close with the intention of causing harm, it would have to get past them first.

Iris turned back toward the settlement.

"Let’s go."

The others slowly followed.

Behind them, the Blackstone Wall stood in silence.

Dark.

Still.

Unmoving.

But no longer helpless.