Onp didn't waste time in pleasantries. He didn't even explain the meaning of his words, but Khan understood it. Some things couldn't be said, and that admission was already too much for a Thilku.
The environment was magnetic for Khan, but the admission kept his gaze on the elevator. He couldn't see Onp properly but felt the need to owe him some respect. It must have taken a lot of resolve to say such words, and Khan couldn't dismiss it.
For a species as proud as the Thilku, putting so much trust in an outsider was a grave insult. Onp had even gone beyond that, vaguely hinting at something deeper. In Onp's mind, Khan had almost become the key to everything, the only soldier who could solve Cegnore's situation.
Khan could see those meanings in Onp's mana but didn't add anything. That was another proof that his power had touched an incredible realm, a level capable of crossing the barriers between species. Even Onp was showing his respect, and Khan stayed silent for the same reason.
After a few seconds, Khan broke his stare and inspected his surroundings again. The vast underground hall had opened a new path, but Khan couldn't pursue it from there. He had to wait for the Thilku to advance once again.
That realization dispersed any curiosity Khan still had for the hall. He suddenly stood up and returned to Onp's side. The Thilku didn't even look at him before tinkering with a rune to bring the lift up.
After returning inside the building, the elevator performed a decontamination process before opening up, bringing the two back into the corridor and, eventually, the meeting room.
The room still had the team leaders, who inspected Khan and Onp without hiding their curiosity. They tried to find answers in the two's faces, but both had nothing but coldness and intensity to convey.
"[We must discuss the offensive now]," Onp announced as soon as he stepped into the meeting room.
Khan understood the silent order and strode forward, crossing the room without meeting anyone's gaze. He had no place in those discussions, so he left the area, ready to isolate himself in his habitation.
The team leaders let Khan go without uttering anything, but their eyes converged on Onp as soon as the metal door closed. They wanted to know the outcome of the underground visit, and Onp knew exactly what words he had to say. It was just hard to believe a similar day had arrived.
"[The Global Army created a monster]," Onp announced, "[But the humans are too stupid to use him. The Empire won't make the same mistake]."
A few team leaders wanted to complain for political reasons, but the memories from the battlefield closed their throats. Khan was something that couldn't exist in the world, and they were lucky to have him on their side.
.
.
.
A quiet day passed in which Khan mostly remained stuck inside his room. He left only to eat, and the main hall showed that he wasn't an exception. Many teams that usually fought at his side were there, feasting during the night shift and confirming that the building didn't deploy them.
Khan was in no position to question whether attacks came during the night and didn't really care too much. He knew Onp was planning something entirely different, and the following day showed the result of that wait.
In the middle of the morning, Naoo summoned Khan into the corridor, and a surprising scene unfolded in his eyes. A few members of her team were also outside, waiting for him with stern and resolute stances.
Khan immediately spotted the only common aspect among those companions. He had watched them fight, so he knew they were the best warriors in the team. The building was creating an elite group for reasons Khan knew far too well.
Apa was among those companions and the only one willing to break her stern stance to glance at Khan. That gesture barely lasted a fraction of a second, but Khan appreciated it anyway. Even with the barrier erected by Khan's battle prowess, Apa still didn't completely cut ties with him.
Of course, the situation didn't allow anything else, and Naoo wasn't the type to waste time in friendly exchanges. As soon as Khan appeared outside, she shouted a short cry before hurrying toward the exit.
The team followed Naoo, and a familiar scene unfolded. Small groups had come out from their respective habitations to gather in the corridor and approach the main hall, which featured the usual mass of Thilku waiting on its sides.
Khan had seen that scene many times already, but something was different now. The general awe among the troops waiting on the hall's sides described the importance of that mission. The deployed Thilku weren't going to a simple battlefield. They had been chosen to strike Cegnore's core, and the audience could only respect them.
Leaving the building showed a similar but also different environment. The army had spread on the plain to occupy the area between the two trenches, and most teams stood around a huge hole in the middle of it.
Naoo's team and the other troops chosen for that special mission headed directly for the hole, and standing on its edges revealed its vast insides. The Empire had dug it overnight, and Khan could only praise that incredible efficiency.
The hole was big enough to fit a medium-sized ship. Fifteen or so soldiers could descend through it simultaneously, and the Thilku had also attached simple elevators or metal staircases to its walls.
Rectangular lamps hanging from the walls filled the hole with red light, making its distant bottom visible. Most Thilku could only see a rocky floor from the surface, but Khan instantly knew about the presence of an underground river due to the symphony.
The river wasn't the only detail conveyed by the symphony. The stench of synthetic mana also rose toward the surface, revealing the presence of machines. Khan connected those sensations to the excavators mentioned by Onp, but guessing soon stopped being enough for him.
Naoo and the other team leaders didn't even start arranging the troops when Khan jumped into the hole. His figure quickly accelerated due to Cegnore's gravity, crossing a few hundred meters in seconds, but his graceful steps eventually dispersed that momentum.
Khan stopped falling right above the rocky floor, and stretching his legs made him step on it. His landing was silent and uneventful, but his heavy presence made the underground workers turn and gasp. They had reacted instinctively, but Khan ignored them.
An underground hall expanded around Khan. The area was bigger than the one visited with Onp and had more machines. They were mostly lamps attached to the rocky ceiling and circular scanners standing near the walls, but bigger vehicles existed near the river.
A small team of soldiers stood on both sides of the river's path, watching the water flow away from them. Two huge passages stretched behind them, expanding toward the source of that underground channel.
The passages were big enough to fit five Thilku each, and lamps hung from their ceilings, revealing big rectangular vehicles at their bottom. Excavators with mouth-like tools on their front dug through the rocks, expanding the tunnels forward.
The excavator also took care of the place's stability. Whenever they crossed a few meters, mechanical arms stretched from their sides and stabbed beacon-like tools into the rocks. Those devices rhythmically released faint waves of synthetic mana, reinforcing the tunnels and preventing them from crumbling.
Khan only needed a minute to confirm that everything was okay. The machines made that underground expansion possible, but the strategy had flaws. If monsters appeared before the vehicles, the Thilku would be forced to replace them.
Moreover, the tunnels didn't exactly give the teams enough room to fight. Khan could probably spot ambushes with his senses, but fighting in those passages wouldn't be smart. Cegnore's ground was too brittle for third-level warriors.
"[Do they have a specific trajectory]?" Khan couldn't help but ask since his senses couldn't provide answers. He also advanced toward the teams, but that only increased their hesitation.
"[So]?" Khan pressed on, stopping a few meters from the teams to crouch beside the river. He immersed his hand in the water and confirmed that the direction was right, but the lack of answers kept his concerns alive.
The silence annoyed Khan to the point that the workers faltered when he looked at them. His eyes were so intense even people with no sharp senses could read them. He demanded answers, and those Thilku couldn't refuse him.
"[There's a bigger area ahead]," The worker's leader explained. "[The excavators shouldn't be needed at that point]."
The explanation didn't give Khan much to work with, but elevators arrived downstairs in the meantime. Naoo and other team leaders came out of them, dispersing the temporary annoyance that had taken over Khan.
The team leaders' arrival marked the beginning of a tedious process. The other troops had to use the same elevators and remaining staircases to reach the underground hall before arranging themselves into battle formations. The mission involved only a hundred of them, but that still required multiple trips.
Khan approached the excavators while waiting for everyone to descend. The workers stepped away whenever he walked or flew toward them, but the inspection from the new position didn't reveal much, forcing him to leave the tunnels.
The soldiers were ready by then. They had split into two big groups, with the smaller one arrayed before the tunnel occupied by Khan. Some wielded scanners and lamps, but that was the only technological presence among the troops. Everyone else had simple weapons that involved no firearms.
Khan didn't receive any specific order, but his role was clear. Naoo walked at his side while both groups entered the tunnels, following the excavators as they dug through the rocks.
The advance was slow, but the general tension kept everyone busy. Only Khan was relatively calm and noticed how the tunnels began to descend. They were going deeper while reaching areas almost adjacent to the new trench.
The march was uneventful, but the walls before the machines eventually crumbled, showing a massive open space that brought humidity into the tunnel. The sound of running water also enveloped both teams, and the excavators and troops wielding lamps got to work to illuminate the area.
As soon as the red light stretched forward, an immense cave became visible. The place featured wet surfaces and natural tunnels that expanded in every direction. Multiple rivers also crossed it, filling most of the floor.
Khan had stepped forward even before the artificial illumination arrived. The place was truly immense, but the multiple rivers distracted him from those superficial features. Those channels ran in different directions, hiding the path toward the source.
The Thilku left the excavators behind and stepped into the immense area, doing their best to create battle formations on that slippery surface. The presence of so many rivers confused them, but they had scanners to fix that. Yet, most gazes converged as if they knew he would be faster.
Khan jumped toward the nearest river without showing the slightest hesitation. He immersed his hand in the water and closed his eyes, focusing entirely on his senses.
The call grew louder in Khan's mind, but confusion joined that feeling. The array of rivers created a messy scenery, but his mana stepped forward to clear it. Chaos recognized chaos, and Khan opened his eyes to look in a precise direction.
The team leaders were waiting for that reaction and promptly looked in the same direction. Khan was eyeing the largest river and the huge tunnel that originated it, and the troops didn't hesitate to march toward it.
The wet and uneven ground made the troops advance slowly. At times, the Thilku had to jump over small rivers to keep moving forward, but Khan didn't have those problems. He walked in the air, carefully approaching that big, dark, and loud entrance.
Khan got near the entrance before his companions were even close, but a glow only he could see suddenly ran through the river, forcing him to land and hold his ground.
Orders resounded at Khan's abrupt movement, making the troops halt their advance and follow his gaze. He was looking at a specific spot near the passage where the sudden glow had accumulated, and the water there rose to create a familiar figure.
A Thilku-shaped puppet made of water grew from the river and stood on its surface. The figure was almost transparent, but the lamps' red illumination highlighted its figures, making it shine in that loud environment.
The puppet ignored Khan and the troops to look at the other side of the river, and its water shook to release sounds that resembled Thilku words.
"[Your voice is powerful]," The puppet said. "[We have watched you, real hos-]."
The puppet couldn't finish its line since a purple-red needle stabbed its head, detonating to destroy the upper part of its body. The water fell back into the river at that point, dispersing the glow only Khan could see.
The area suddenly grew colder and tenser, making many eyes converge on its source. Most soldiers looked at Khan, but he didn't bother turning and jumped forward, flying into the passage.
