The escalating political tension between the German Empire and the Ottoman Sultanate found its bloody, sudden manifestation not in a grand battle, but in a chaotic skirmish at a small, remote border town on the eastern frontier. This town, Fort Aethelred, was typically defended by commoner Imperial Guards—men without magic, armed primarily with swords and spears. Their only modern advantage was the canisters of M-1 explosive (the B-1 compound) that Duke Steiner had supplied months prior. They had integrated this weapon into their defense protocols, using the explosive's force to scatter and disrupt enemy formations.
That night, a large, aggressive band of Ottoman-backed bandits attacked Fort Aethelred. The ensuing fight was brutal, but it held a terrifying technological parity. The Imperial Guards fought with disciplined desperation, tossing M-1 canisters to neutralize the enemy's numerical advantage and their crude, low-level elemental magic. They had relied on the explosive's shock and awe for months to repel similar incursions. But this time was profoundly different. Just as the Imperial Guards readied a volley of their canisters, the bandits retaliated with their own. A series of identical, blinding flashes erupted from the bandit lines. The Ottoman forces were also carrying canisters of the M-1, a stock likely supplied directly by Pasha Musa's new operations. The Imperial Guards, stunned, realized their unique advantage had vanished; they were now fighting a mirror image of themselves, facing the same pure, non-magical destructive force they wielded.
Though the Imperial Guards eventually repelled the bandits, holding the line through superior training and local knowledge, the casualties were immense. The tactical shock was total. The M-1—the weapon designed specifically to arm Imperial commoners against magic—was now being used by foreign commoners against Imperial commoners, supplied by a hostile foreign power.
News of the skirmish, specifically the devastating, non-magical chemical exchange, reached the Imperial Council in the capital before dawn. The urgent session was marked by raw panic and immediate mutual recrimination. The primary topic was no longer simply border defense, but the single, terrifying question: Who armed the Sultan?
Duke Steiner, looking pale and furious beneath the flickering Aetheric lamps, was immediately targeted by rival noble houses. "Steiner! You guaranteed the commoner Daemon was isolated! This weapon—this M-1—was supposed to be a limited, strategic advantage for our forces, yet the bandits of the Sultan are now throwing it at our gates!" demanded Count Varenius, his voice shaking with outrage.
Steiner fought back, his political career hanging in the balance. "I sold the initial materials months ago, yes, but the supply chain was cut off the moment the commoner blew up the lab! This is not my supply! This proves, conclusively, that Daemon has either fled to the Ottoman court and is manufacturing the M-1 for the Sultan, or the Ottomans have successfully reverse-engineered the formula from the debris! Either way, the source is in the Balkans!"
Chancellor Altdorf, though outwardly composed, felt a grim satisfaction at the political destruction surrounding Steiner, but the operational threat was undeniable. He finally articulated the strategic nightmare to the Council. "The identity of the manufacturer is irrelevant for the moment," Altdorf cut in, his voice cold and commanding attention. "The M-1 is now generalized. It has armed the commoner and the bandit, effectively neutralizing the numerical superiority of our magical legions in direct, close-quarters combat. If the Sultan can field fifteen hundred canisters—and we must assume he can, based on the known volume of the original lab—he can force us to dedicate our elite Aetheric forces to holding ground against non-magic infantry armed with tactical explosives. Our magicians are too valuable to trade for common bandit lives."
The Council descended into a chaotic, heated debate, caught between a deep-seated magical arrogance that refused to acknowledge a non-magical threat and the chilling reality of the border reports.
The Traditionalists—the large majority of the Council—argued forcefully for doubling down on magical superiority, suggesting massive, sustained Aetheric bombardment to locate and destroy any Ottoman manufacturing site. Their logic was simple: The problem is technological; therefore, the solution must be magical and overwhelming.
The Pragmatists, led by Altdorf, argued that brute force magic could not detect the manufacturing source, which was fundamentally chemical. Destroying a random quarry with a spell was easy, but locating the correct quarry, the one containing the irreplaceable knowledge, was impossible without precise intelligence. "We are hunting for a chemical factory, not a magical circle," Altdorf reminded them sternly.
The resulting plan was a dangerous compromise, moving the German Empire from a passive, intellectual search to aggressive, targeted espionage and immediate technological escalation:
First, the bounty on Daemon's head was doubled immediately to sixty pounds of gold, now payable not just for Daemon, but for any living member of his "terrorist cell." To secure this, the Council authorized the immediate deployment of the Shadow Mages—the Empire's top espionage and infiltration specialists. Their new, unprecedented mission was not to track mana, but to find the industrial chemical signature of the M-1 production site deep within Ottoman territory.
Second, Altdorf successfully argued for a mandate to fund a secret anti-chemistry defense project within the Academy. This project would focus on creating low-level Aetheric dampening fields—small, incredibly expensive wards—that could be deployed to strategically protect key Imperial military compounds from the M-1's non-magical explosions. This ensured Altdorf retained control of the counter-technology and its budget.
Finally, Steiner's Direct Retaliation was authorized. Duke Steiner was ordered to mobilize a small, highly mobile force of elite mages—not for hunting Daemon, but for direct, destructive raids on known Ottoman supply points near the border. The goal was political retaliation and resource denial, forcing the Sultan to waste M-1 canisters on immediate defensive maneuvers rather than saving them for a large-scale offensive.
The meeting adjourned with the Council deeply shaken. The commoner Daemon had not only escaped; he had engineered a situation that fundamentally threatened the magical balance of power, forcing the mighty German Empire to pay a king's ransom and deploy its most dangerous assets to hunt a chemical formula being manufactured on its hostile border.