Chapter 1109: Well Met Lacome
I had spent the entire night hidden within the conference chamber.
The massive room remained empty for most of those hours, leaving me with little to do beyond studying the tower and refining the details of the plan. Fortunately, patience was one virtue I possessed in abundance.
Eventually the artificial sun hanging above Region Four began its ascent.
The city stirred.
Administrators emerged from their quarters and resumed their endless routines. Streams of phantoms flowed through the streets below. Across the region, another day in the service of the Eternals had begun.
From my position within distorted space, I watched the conference chamber slowly come to life.
Administrators entered first.
They carried stacks of reports, crystalline storage devices, and enough documentation to remind me that no civilization, no matter how powerful, could ever escape bureaucracy. Some arranged the materials on the conference table while others prepared projection formations throughout the room.
Nobody noticed the Saint sitting less than five meters away.
One hour passed.
Then the first Saint-level presence entered the chamber several minutes later.
I immediately recognized what he was.
The figure stepped through the doorway without any attempt to conceal his aura. He stood nearly three meters tall, with smooth grey skin and the familiar black orb eyes shared by every Eternal I had encountered so far. Dark robes hung from his frame while silver force flowed beneath the surface of his body in slow, controlled currents.
An Eternal. But he was not Lacome.
The second Eternal arrived shortly afterward.
My attention sharpened immediately.
’There you are.’
Like the first, he possessed the same towering frame, the same grey skin, and the same unnatural black eyes that seemed less like eyes and more like holes punched directly into reality.
I remained hidden within the dimensional folds of the chamber while observing the room.
For a brief moment, the temptation to simply kill both of them crossed my mind.
Unfortunately, killing Eternals inside the heart of Region Four would create complications. Complications had an unfortunate tendency to grow into disasters.
At first glance, Lacome appeared almost disappointingly ordinary. He possessed the same grey skin as the others and the same towering frame common among his race, but covering the upper half of his face was a strange black visor unlike anything I had seen before.
Countless runes crawled across its surface.
They moved constantly. Flowing across the metal like living creatures.
The moment I saw it, understanding clicked into place.
The All-Knowing Eyes.
Or at least part of them.
The phantom had referred to them as eyes, but the truth appeared considerably more complicated.
This wasn’t a biological ability. It was an artifact. A very powerful artifact.
The moment Lacome entered, the other Eternal acknowledged him with slight nod before turning their attention toward the center of the chamber.
The meeting began shortly afterward.
For nearly half an hour, I listened to discussions regarding transportation routes, resource allocation, population statistics, and regional security matters. Despite involving an empire ruled by Eternals, the conversation felt remarkably familiar.
The participants discussed reports.
The only meaningful difference between this meeting and similar meetings I had attended in the Blue Spiral Galaxy was the occasional mention of harvesting souls from entire sectors.
Otherwise, the atmosphere felt disturbingly normal.
Eventually, however, my focus shifted away from the discussion itself.
I was here to steal someone.
Fortunately, stealing someone was considerably easier than stealing information.
The teleportation formation hidden beneath the conference chamber remained dormant beneath my control, waiting patiently for activation. I had spent the better part of the previous day studying the region’s transportation network and modifying several forgotten formation pathways hidden throughout the district.
All I needed now was an opening.
It arrived sooner than expected.
Midway through a discussion regarding disturbances caused by none other than me, one of the Eternals requested additional reports. Several large projections immediately materialized above the conference table, filling the chamber with streams of information.
Discussions shifted toward the newly displayed reports while the various officials began examining the data. Even Lacome’s gaze lifted toward the floating displays.
That was the opening I had been waiting for.
Hidden beneath the chamber, the formation I had prepared finally activated. The process lasted less than a heartbeat. Space folded inward before immediately correcting itself, reality bending just enough to exchange one location for another without creating any detectable disturbance. To every observer present, nothing happened at all.
The meeting continued uninterrupted.
Not a single participant noticed that one of the Eternals was no longer sitting at the table.
A carefully constructed spatial projection remained in Lacome’s place, maintaining the illusion of his presence while mimicking every subtle movement closely enough to deceive even the Eternals seated beside him.
The deception would not survive prolonged scrutiny, but it didn’t need to. A few minutes were more than enough.
Meanwhile, far away from Region Four, space rippled itself inside a concealed pocket realm hidden beneath one of the Ironhart outposts.
Lacome stumbled forward as the sudden displacement ended, his instincts reacting before conscious thought could catch up. Silver force erupted from his body in a violent wave powerful enough to annihilate entire cities, yet the moment that power collided with the surrounding formations it simply disappeared.
Layer upon layer of suppression runes absorbed the attack without allowing even a trace of energy to escape.
The Eternal immediately halted.
Confusion flashed across his face as he looked around.
His gaze moved across the chamber slowly, taking in the countless runes covering every surface, the overlapping dimensional barriers sealing the space, the spatial locks woven through the structure itself, and the complete absence of any visible exit.
As the reality of his situation settled in, his attention finally rose toward the stone platform overlooking the center of the chamber.
And there, waiting calmly for him, was me. I remained seated atop the stone platform while Lacome studied me from across the chamber.
Unlike the phantom, the Eternal recovered from the initial shock remarkably quickly. By the time his gaze settled on me, most of the confusion had already disappeared from his expression, replaced by the cold calculation I had come to expect from their kind.
For several seconds neither of us spoke. He was evaluating the situation, testing possibilities, searching for weaknesses, and trying to determine exactly how much danger he was in. Then I saw the moment recognition dawned on him.
His body stiffened ever so slightly.
It was subtle enough that most people would have missed it entirely, but not me. The instant he recognized who I was, his eyes changed with urgency.
And immediately afterward, his right hand began moving toward the inside of his robe.
I almost laughed.
Apparently some habits were universal.
The movement was so small it looked completely innocent, but I already knew what he was reaching for. There was only one reason an Eternal trapped in an unknown location would reach for a concealed object before attempting conversation.
He wanted to summon Verilux.
Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t particularly interested in meeting Verilux today.
Before his fingers could complete the motion, I casually raised my hand.
The surrounding space immediately rippled as an invisible wave of authority spread throughout the chamber.