Through her scope, Light Seeker caught a flicker of unusual movement in an alley a thousand meters from their position. She zoomed in for a closer look and found eight Dorvian men hauling crates marked with carved runes. She sent word to Solanky and the others at once — gear up. She had a lead on suspicious activity in the city.
Solanky and the rest dressed down, casual clothes concealing weapons and artifacts tucked away in their space rings. They gathered in Light Seeker's room, and Thunder King asked to see the footage. She set down her scope and tapped her wristband, projecting the video of the men moving crates.
"That's strange," Thunder King said. "Why not just store them in space rings?"
"There might be something special about those boxes," Beast God offered, studying the runes carved across their surfaces. "Look at the engravings — a space ring might distort their spatial position in the blue ice region."
"Star god, send your nano-drones to shadow them," Solanky said. "We'll trail from behind."
They left the room and took the floor portal, dropping instantly from the three-hundredth floor to ground level. Hoods raised, they moved on foot, tracking the drone's signal until they reached a dead end — save for a narrow gap hidden in the wall. Star god recalled the nano-drone into his space ring, and one by one, they slipped through the opening.
A short walk led them to a descending staircase, and from there, into an underground tunnel — a corridor of near-total darkness that meant nothing to beings of their level. Light flickered at the tunnel's far end. As they drew closer, what came into view left them momentarily speechless: an entire underground city, bustling with life, its buildings crude and outdated compared to anything on the surface above.
"Well, well," Tee murmured. "Planet Dorvan's got some dark secrets buried in its closet. This is where the poor end up. Interesting."
The Blue Star team moved through the hidden city, searching for anything that might explain why it had never once appeared in their sect's records. Solanky quietly murmured a string of spells, weaving invisibility seals into a hundred nano-drones — rendering them undetectable to anyone below the fourth dimension — and scattered them across the fifty kilometers of the underground sprawl.
He made his way toward a small eatery, hoping to gather more information. But before he reached the door, he saw the owner shove a thin, malnourished Dorvian girl out into the street — she hadn't been able to pay for her food.
Solanky crouched beside her and asked her name. Tears welled in her eyes as she answered. "Jenny."
He offered his hand to help her up. She hesitated, flinching at the kindness — no one in this city had ever paid her any mind, let alone offered help. Then panic crossed her face, and she begged him not to take her away. She was too young, she said, to be sold as a sex worker.
The words hit Solanky like a blow. Shock gave way instantly to anger, and he called his teammates over.
Tee and Light Seeker helped the girl to her feet. "You're too young for that kind of work," Solanky said carefully. "Does this happen often here?"
Fury and concern flickered across Tee and Light Seeker's faces as Jenny nodded.
"Light Seeker, take her inside — get her something proper to eat," Solanky said. "We have some corrupt leaders to deal with once this mission's done."
Jenny brightened at the offer. Normally, she only ate whatever scraps the eatery tossed into the bins after closing. Tee crouched beside her. "Why do people come looking for girls like you on the street?"
Jenny swallowed a mouthful of food before answering, guilt creeping into her voice. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, big brother. They took my big sister once — told her they'd give her a real job so she wouldn't have to beg anymore."
"Don't worry," Blade Emperor said gently. "We'll find her. We'll bring her home to you."
Jenny froze mid-bite, eyes wide. "Really?"
"Of course we will," Beast God said, glancing toward Solanky. "Right, boss?"
Every set of eyes in the group turned to him. Solanky didn't hesitate. He nodded.
"Yay!" Jenny beamed.
"But first," Solanky said, "we'll need your help catching these men. Can you do that for us?"
She nodded eagerly. Solanky then walked into the eatery owner's office, shut the door behind him, and sealed the room with his world-defying magic. He raised his hand, and the man was pulled forward as if by an invisible current. Solanky locked eyes with him and activated his eye technique — in an instant, the owner's mind belonged to him.
He asked if the man knew Jenny. The owner admitted he did. Pressed further about her sister, the owner confessed he'd conspired with the town's head of security to sell her off to a group of wealthy, unnamed men. Solanky's jaw tightened, but he kept his voice level, asking where he might find this head of security. The owner gave him everything — where, when, how.
Solanky asked one more question: had he ever touched any of the girls himself. The man shook his head fervently.
"Lucky for you," Solanky said quietly. "You'd be dead already if you had."
He snapped his fingers, and the owner startled back to awareness, terror written plainly across his face.
"From today, you'll look after this girl until we bring her sister back," Solanky said. "Understood?"
The man nodded so hard it looked painful — more frightened of Solanky, in that moment, than of the shadow network that had run this city for years. Solanky asked Tee and Light Seeker to clean Jenny up before they left — proper grooming, a fresh start. Delighted, they whisked her off to a salon across the street. Half an hour later, they returned with a girl transformed, hair neat and shining, a shy smile on her face.
Blade Emperor's eyes welled up at the sight of her. Jenny and the rest of the team burst out laughing.
Solanky rested a hand on her head. "Stay here with the owner. We'll find your sister." Jenny nodded and threw her arms around every member of the team in turn. When she reached Blade Emperor, he broke down again, scooping her up mid-hug. She swatted at him, annoyed, insisting he was ruining her hair. The team laughed as he set her down, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. Jenny and the owner waved them off as they departed.
They could have flown straight to the head of security's residence in seconds. Instead, they took public transport, blending into the crowd, letting the twenty-minute ride carry them there unnoticed. Fortune was on their side — they arrived just as the man himself stepped into his apartment.
Solanky and the others walked straight past his guards without a single challenge. The moment they'd arrived, Solanky had cast a spell from the Forbidden Bewitchment Arts — the Broken Mirrors Art, an illusion technique operating at the level of the fifth dimension, nearly impossible to detect by anyone below it.
The illusion wrapped around the entire residence. Even Solanky's own teammates, walking through it, perceived only an empty apartment. The guards saw nothing at all. They slipped inside and made their way to the restroom, where they found two young girls locked away. Tee knocked them unconscious with a quick illusion, and Solanky tucked them safely into a separate pocket dimension he'd conjured with his magic.
Moments later, the head of security strolled in. "Hey girls," he called out, grinning. "Miss Daddy?"
Light Seeker answered him with a blinding flash of light that left him half-blind and stumbling. Blade Emperor raised a hand, and the air itself fractured into countless tiny blades, slowly peeling the skin from the man's body. His screams tore through the room — but no one outside heard a thing, thanks to the sound barrier Thunder King had already raised, and the illusion still cloaking them all.
The man begged for his life, swearing he'd give them anything.
"Oh, really?" Tee said coolly. "Then tell us — where do the girls you pick up off the street end up? Who takes them, and why?"
Solanky stayed silent, watching closely. Trapped within his own illusion, the man had no way to lie without being caught.
"There's a new group," the man gasped. "They pay well — very well — for the girls. Said they were cultivators. Said they needed... feminine energy."
Beast God's expression darkened. "That's the devils' and demons' way — feeding on innocent girls' life energy to fuel their own power."
"Give us the location," Thunder King demanded. "And any names — anyone from your own kind involved in this."
The man pointed with a trembling hand toward a shelf crowded with files, claiming it held every name and location tied to his dealings. Solanky moved closer and scanned the documents with his wristband, digitizing them instantly and sending copies to the rest of the team.
"Blade Emperor. You know what to do."
Solanky turned and walked out. Behind him, Blade Emperor smiled, raised a hand, and let the blades finish their work, shredding what remained of the head of security. They left the residence exactly as they'd entered it — unseen, unheard.
Back on the street, they boarded public transport and disappeared into the city. Only once they were seated on the bus did Solanky snap his fingers, letting the illusion finally fade away.