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Hector could hardly believe what he was reading. A stream of texts were coming in from Gina back at Warrenhold, bringing him up to speed on intel from the Sairi team. Apparently, she was receiving constant updates from them.

The Vanguardian and Sandlord forces had been broken through and were now in a scattered retreat. Abolish had already entered Kuros and was seemingly headed for the Golden Fort, the seat of Sandlord power.

People were fleeing the city. Average citizens were being slain in broad daylight or rounded up. The undercover team had defended themselves from hostiles twice already and were now pulling back.

No confirmation yet on any high-ranking casualties, but rumors were spreading that Lamont and Jackson had both been killed.

By the Mad Demon himself.

It was too much to take in all at once. Ravi excused himself from the table, and Hector hardly even noticed.

For a while, he just sat there, reading and rereading while he waited for more news to arrive.

It couldn't be true. It couldn't. Rasalased would have warned him that something like was going to happen. And the Vanguard... and the Sandlords... they were too strong to be defeated so abruptly like this...

It made no kind of sense.

'We need to keep a level head,' came Garovel's private words, finally drawing Hector's gaze away from his phone.

'...Lamont AND Jackson?'

'It's just a rumor, for now. One that greatly benefits Abolish by being spread around, I might add. I highly doubt that they have both been killed.'

'It says Morgunov was there, though...'

The reaper gave a grim nod. 'Yes. It does.'

Hector leaned back in his chair. A waiter dropped off a dessert entree with a smile. A chocolate sundae. He just sat there for a moment, blinking at it. 'Garovel, what the hell am I doing here...?'

'Hector...'