Chapter 336 - 329 — Avarran

"So what exactly went wrong on the other side of the world?"

Vale did not answer immediately. He looked toward the others sitting nearby, and for once, the heavy silence between them felt far less like caution and much more like shared memory.

"Avarran," he said quietly at last.

Aurethar’s expression changed slightly at the name.

Vale continued speaking before anyone could interrupt the mood.

"Avarran was preparing to sign a critical defense treaty with the Alliance. The long negotiations were nearly finished when the demons suddenly invaded."

The first months had been brutal, but Avarran had not collapsed right away. Its armies held the major land approaches, the Alliance quickly sent heavy reinforcements, and both opposing sides poured more troops onto the burning continent.

"What began as mere assistance became a full war," Vale said gravely. "That war has been going on for years now."

Ghara leaned forward in her chair.

"For a long time, neither side could break the other," she noted. "Fortresses changed hands continuously, cities were abandoned and retaken, and thousands died for ground that sometimes changed owners twice in the very same season."

Malen’s expression tightened at her words.

Vale nodded solemnly. "It became a complete stalemate."

Lucien already suspected what came next in the grim tale. "Then the Warhounds appeared."

Vale looked directly at him. "Yes and that was when everything changed."

Ghara took over the explanation.

"The first reports were casually dismissed," she said. "Demons have used massive siege beasts, enchanted war wagons, and armored creatures before, so another strange machine did not seem particularly important."

Her hardened expression grew darker. "Then they began deploying them together in large groups."

Lucien stayed silent, listening intently.

"There was a crucial defensive line west of the canal," Ghara continued. "Stone positions, fortified trenches, mage emplacements, and barriers strong enough to stop heavy demon assaults. That line had held firmly for almost a whole year."

She looked directly at Malen. "The Warhounds broke it before sunset."

The room became completely quiet.

"Their main guns destroyed key strongpoints from far beyond the range where our infantry could answer effectively," Ghara explained. "Anyone who tried getting close met the rapid machine guns, and once the defenses broke, demon infantry followed straight through the open gaps."

Lucien had personally designed the Warhound for exactly that kind of brutal fighting.

Hearing someone describe the gruesome result from the receiving end made the machine feel very different to him now.

Pib shifted restlessly in her chair. "The Alliance tried hitting them from high above."

"With airships?" Lucien asked carefully.

"What else would we use?" Pib countered.

The short answer carried a subtle trace of her usual sharp personality, but it disappeared quickly.

"Most Alliance airships are crewed by us goblins," she explained. "We carry heavy cannons, bomb racks, and sometimes both. Against ordinary ground formations, coming down low and dropping bombs accurately is rather unpleasant for whoever happens to be underneath."

She kept tapping a single finger rhythmically against the wooden table.

"The Warhounds changed all that."

Lucien understood the problem immediately. "The machine guns."

Pib nodded in agreement. "They fire fast enough that a full formation of Warhounds can put a great deal of heavy metal into the open sky. An airship coming low enough for accurate bombing becomes a very large and vulnerable target."

Cedric folded his arms across his chest. "So you tried to stay much higher up."

"We tried," Pib admitted, "but accuracy became terrible. A fast-moving armored machine seen through thick battlefield smoke from high altitude is simply not an easy target."

Pib gave a small, weary shrug. "You could empty half a full bomb rack and achieve nothing beyond creating several new useless holes in the ground."

Ghara added quietly, "The demons enjoyed watching us try."

"They were especially cheerful when we missed completely," Pib noted dryly.

Pib’s expression hardened once again. "The Warhounds were also heavily supported by demon infantry and mages. If an airship descended to use its cannons, the crew had to worry about much more than just machine-gun fire."

"So they could still be destroyed," Lucien said thoughtfully.

"Certainly," Pib replied. "Destroying them was simply extremely expensive, and the airship still had to survive long enough to make it back home."

Cedric looked over toward Durn. "When did you learn the demons had actually copied the design rather than created it themselves?"

Durn answered immediately without any hesitation. "When we captured one."

The focus of the entire room shifted toward him.

"An Alliance officer managed to take a damaged Warhound before the demons could recover it," Durn explained. "It was still intact enough to transport safely, so they sent it far behind the lines and dismantled it."

"How thoroughly?" Lucien asked.

"Completely."

Durn’s voice had taken on the measured tone of a skilled craftsman describing something he had carefully studied for weeks.

"They removed the outer armor, stripped the running gear, opened the engine compartment, and separated the weapon assembly," Durn said. "Everything that could be measured was precisely done."

He paused for a brief beat. "The casting was rough."

Lucien understood immediately what that implied.

"That part looked like typical demon work," Durn continued. "Heavy, functional, and rough wherever refinement was deemed unnecessary."

Cedric frowned slightly. "Then what exactly was wrong with it?"

"The individual parts were standardized."

Durn looked directly toward Lucien.

"The road wheels all followed the exact same measurements," Durn noted. "So did the metallic fittings, the internal components, and the replaceable pieces. They were definitely not individually shaped for just one machine."

He tapped the sturdy table again.

"A road wheel was not simply made for that specific Warhound," Durn emphasized. "It was systematically made for Warhounds in general."

Lucien nodded slowly as he absorbed the realization. "Interchangeable production."

"That is apparently your word for it," Durn remarked.

Durn leaned back against his chair. "The demons can easily manufacture weapons in large numbers, but that is not how their equipment is normally designed. Their craft work usually changes from forge to forge and clan to clan."

He shook his head grimly. "This machine was rough because demons built it. The core design beneath that roughness clearly belonged to someone else."

Vale picked up the story from there. "That single discovery changed the entire direction of our investigation."

Until then, the Alliance had naturally assumed the Warhound was simply another novel demon weapon.

After the captured machine was dismantled piece by piece, the High Council began actively searching for where the original design might have actually come from.

"We checked every major possibility," Vale stated clearly. "Alliance territories, Avarran, dwarven foundries, goblin workshops, human arsenals, and known demon industry."

"Nothing matched," Cedric said flatly.

"Nothing matched at all," Vale agreed.

Vale looked back toward Lucien. "That left the one single place nobody could properly investigate."

"The shielded continent," Lucien said quietly.

"Your continent," Vale confirmed.

Elenwe spoke up for the first time in several long minutes.

"We knew civilization existed behind the energy shield," Elenwe explained softly. "Old records established that much clearly, but most information about what existed here was ancient or purely speculative."

"The shield effectively stopped any proper investigation," Vale continued. "Every other possible source could be thoroughly examined. This one could not be reached."

Lucien finally understood the full picture of why the High Council had been willing to spend so much precious soulsilver.

Avarran had been locked in a bitter stalemate for years. Then a deadly weapon unlike anything the Alliance knew had suddenly begun breaking their strongest defensive lines.

When the machine was captured, its methodical construction pointed directly toward a technological tradition that did not match its demon manufacturers at all.

The single strongest remaining lead was hidden right behind the impenetrable shield.

"That is why you were sent here," Lucien said softly.

Vale nodded in agreement. "We were sent to determine whether the design actually originated here and, if it did, how the demons obtained it."

They had not crossed the shield already believing Elarion had deliberately armed the demons.

They had come because they had exhausted almost every other possible explanation.

Lucien looked across toward Durn. "When did you know for sure?"

"When I saw one of your actual Warhounds," Durn replied.

The answer came immediately without hesitation.

Durn’s expression tightened further. "The demon machine was certainly rougher. The casting was noticeably worse, and some specific details had changed during their production."

He paused briefly. "But underneath those minor differences, the core design was exact."

Pib nodded right beside him. "I recognized it clearly as well."

Durn continued speaking. "I had spent long weeks studying the precise measurements from the captured machine. I did not need hours standing beside yours."

"How long did it take?" Lucien asked.

"Less than a minute."

Vale looked toward Cedric. "That was precisely when our mission changed."

"You began investigating Elarion directly," Cedric said sternly.

"We did," Vale admitted.

"And eventually decided stealing the blueprints was worth the massive risk," Cedric pressed.

Vale did not try to defend the choice. "We needed absolute confirmation."

The room fell completely quiet again.

Lucien barely heard the rest of their words.

His mind had already moved rapidly backward in time.

A Warhound sold to an allied customer.

The secretive Veiled Church.

The machine disappearing without a trace,though it was found but its blueprints were gone.

At the time, the theft had been deeply infuriating.

Now, the terrifying consequences stretched across an entire distant continent.

Cedric noticed the subtle change in his expression first. Malen noticed immediately afterward, and Aurethar turned toward him when the heavy silence continued.

"Lucien, what is it?" Aurethar asked softly.

Lucien looked up directly at Vale. "You believe the demons somehow reached this hidden continent and obtained the design."

Vale shook his head slightly. "We only know the design most likely originated here. How it actually reached them was one of the primary questions we came to answer."

Lucien slowly leaned back in his seat.

"They never came here for it," Lucien revealed.

Vale looked nervously between them all. "Then where did they get it from?"

Lucien rested his steady hands on the table.

The eight people sitting opposite him had crossed the dangerous shield because they believed the answer might be hidden somewhere on his continent.

The truth was actually considerably worse.

"It was stolen from us."