The Daejeon facility was buried beneath a research campus that specialized in "advanced awakening studies."
Raze spent a week gathering intelligence before attempting infiltration. The facility's security was thorough — mana-detection arrays, biometric locks, rotating guard patrols, and layers of bureaucratic access control that made unauthorized entry extremely difficult.
But difficulty wasn't impossibility.
"The maintenance network is the weak point," Kira reported, reviewing building schematics she'd acquired through the Sanctuary's information network. "The facility draws power from the city grid, which means physical conduits connecting their underground levels to the surface infrastructure. You can't access their systems through those conduits, but you can access their space."
"Earthmeld through the foundation."
"Exactly. Their security is designed for people who need doors. You don't need doors." Kira highlighted the relevant sections of the schematic. "The research levels are here — sublevels four through eight. That's where they're doing whatever they're doing with captured aberrants."
"What's the detection risk?"
"High. Their arrays are designed specifically to identify non-standard mana signatures. Even phased through stone, your presence might register." Kira hesitated. "But there might be a way around that."
"Go on."
"The facility uses its own aberrant detection equipment. If we could acquire one of their suppression devices — like the one Morrow used against you — you could mask your signature while inside their walls."
Raze considered this. "The Alpha has access to such devices?"
"The Sanctuary has collected various Association equipment over the years. Captured during operations, salvaged from failed attacks on our network." Kira pulled up another file. "There's a suppression amulet in storage that might work. It's not perfect — you learned that the hard way — but it should mask your signature long enough for reconnaissance."
"How long?"
"Hours, maybe. Depends on how hard their systems push against the suppression." Kira's expression was troubled. "This isn't a guarantee, Raze. If the amulet fails while you're inside, you'll be trapped in an Association research facility with no backup and no extraction plan."
"Then I'd better not fail."
---
The Alpha approved the mission with minimal discussion.
"The amulet is yours," it said, producing the device from somewhere within its chambers. "Your approach is sound. Infiltrate through the infrastructure, gather intelligence on their research, extract before detection. Standard reconnaissance protocol."
Raze took the amulet. It felt similar to the one he'd worn during his initial assessment — the same cool weight, the same slight wrongness in how it interacted with his mana signature. "What are we actually looking for?"
"Evidence of their program's scope. The Association has been capturing aberrants for decades, but their research has accelerated recently. They're working toward something, and we need to know what." The Alpha's golden eyes carried unusual intensity. "There are rumors of replication attempts. Trying to create artificial aberrants through controlled core consumption."
"Is that possible?"
"With sufficient subjects and experimentation, anything is possible. The question is whether they've succeeded." The Alpha turned away. "The Sanctuary's protection depends on being harder to attack than we're worth. If the Association develops the ability to create their own aberrants — controlled, loyal, designed for hunting — that calculation changes."
The implications were clear. The Sanctuary's survival depended on information they currently lacked. Raze's mission might determine whether the community had years of safety or months.
"I leave tonight."
"Good hunting." The Alpha's voice carried something that might have been respect. "Be careful. You're more valuable alive than as a martyr."
---
The Daejeon research facility was exactly as the schematics had depicted.
Raze approached through the city's utility infrastructure, following power conduits that led beneath the campus. The suppression amulet activated as he neared the facility's mana-detection perimeter, and he felt his signature dim to something that might pass for baseline human.
Earthmeld carried him through bedrock, navigating by Tremorsense toward the vibrations of equipment and activity. He emerged in a maintenance corridor on sublevel four, surrounded by pipes and cables that fed the research levels above and below.
No alarms. No response. The amulet was working.
He moved through the facility methodically, mapping layout and observing activity through walls and floors. Most of the space was standard research infrastructure — laboratories, storage, administrative areas. But sublevel seven was different.
Containment cells. Dozens of them, arranged in a grid pattern, each one housing a mana signature that registered as aberrant even through his suppressed senses. Captured subjects, stored like specimens, waiting for whatever experiments the facility was conducting.
And at the center of sublevel seven, something else. A chamber that hummed with power, surrounded by equipment Raze didn't recognize, staffed by personnel whose mana signatures carried the distinctive patterns of high-level awakened.
He positioned himself in the walls near the central chamber and watched.
---
The research was horrifying.
Through careful observation — listening through stone, reading thermal signatures, tracking vibrations that carried voices — Raze pieced together what the facility was doing.
The captured aberrants were being systematically drained.
Not killed — maintained on the edge of survival while their mana was extracted, processed, concentrated. The extraction equipment took something essential from each subject, leaving them diminished, emptied, barely conscious.
And the extracted material was being used to create something.
"Subject Seventeen is responding well to the latest injection." A researcher's voice, carrying through the stone. "Mana integration is proceeding at predicted rates. The Devour-type template is expressing as designed."
"Any consciousness contamination?"
"Minimal. The purification process is removing most of the source's guidance signatures. What we're left with is pure ability — consumption without the drive that makes natural aberrants unstable."
Raze's blood went cold.
They weren't just studying aberrants. They were replicating them. Taking the Devour ability — his ability — and creating controlled versions without the hunger that defined natural development.
Artificial aberrants. Soldiers who could consume cores without losing themselves to the source's guidance.
"Director Morrow wants timeline updates for the Phase Three rollout," another voice said. "Political situation is heating up. The Seoul incident exposed how vulnerable conventional hunters are to aberrant tactics."
"We're months away at minimum. The replication process is stable, but scaling production requires more subjects than we currently have."
"Procurement is working on that. The Protocol 7 assessments are generating candidates at increased rates. We should have sufficient material by end of quarter."
Protocol 7 wasn't just containment. It was harvesting. The Association was collecting aberrants not for study or disposal, but as raw material for their replication program.
Every aberrant captured, every Devour type taken, fed a process designed to create weapons. Controllable, deployable, aimed at the very community those aberrants had come from.
Raze withdrew from his observation position, the weight of what he'd learned pressing down on him. The Alpha needed to know. The Sanctuary needed to prepare.
Everything was worse than they'd imagined.
---
Extraction from the facility was nearly as smooth as infiltration.
Raze phased back through the bedrock, following his entry route in reverse, letting the suppression amulet mask his signature until he was clear of the detection perimeter. He emerged in the city's utility tunnels, breathing hard, mind racing with implications.
The Association wanted to create an army of controlled aberrants. They were using captured subjects as raw material. And Director Morrow was driving the program personally.
If they succeeded — if they scaled production as planned — the Sanctuary would face an enemy that understood aberrant abilities intimately. Hunters who could consume cores without consequences. Soldiers designed specifically to hunt and destroy communities like The Alpha's.
The balance of power would shift catastrophically.
Raze moved through the night toward the nearest dungeon entrance, toward the network that would carry him back to the Sanctuary. The information he carried could change everything.
He just hoped it wouldn't be too late to act on it.
