Heavy grilles of dark steel chugged on its descent; behind it was the monster brought forth by the Gray Fox's dimension cutters. Thick chains collared and fettered the beast. The steel might not hold the monster in place, but it would do so long enough for the guards to put it down. Crystal lamps that were hung overhead emitted a greenish glow that became a bright sheet of light. The devices hummed before it began sweeping left and right; its radiance passing from the tip of the monster's tail to the nose of the lion head's snout. The railings used to mount the lamps were installed not long after Trevalyn witnessed the monster's defeat. He would have asked the machinists to make the healing lamps move faster, but he wouldn't want these recovery instruments be the cause of the monster's final death.

The wounds should close after four hours, Trevalyn thought. That would buy him enough time to mount the circlet and course the rage serum into its body. He wondered if three circlets were needed to completely control the monster. A single piece would be enough, based on how the still-unknown gunman brought the monster to near-death with four bullets to the lion head's throat. There was an unlikely chance that the other two heads would not follow the "governing head". Trevalyn could still not remove the image of that dark coat from his mind.

Him, again.

His partner was more or less destroyed by the monster's fireball, but then another man took the magician's place. Perhaps the Dragon's Claw wasn't truly obliterated after all. Their existence wouldn't pose that great of a problem; what could rabble from a destroyed enemy do to derail his projects? He could count on Winston Norton and his men to seek the two and snuff them out. Trevalyn was considering taking them more seriously, and perhaps extending some of his resources to the task of getting rid of the Dragon's Claw permanently.

The sound of a metal door rolling away took the Gray Fox's eyes away from the monster; that notable green eye was seen from a distance. Winston Norton's voice started out coarse when he said:

"All the machinery is successfully removed from the ruins. We also lost two of our men when the group broke into the area."

"Have you disposed of the corpses?" Trevalyn's eyes peeled away from his advisor. "You know that we could not risk our facility's contamination if you have taken them in."

"Our sanitizers are sent out for that task. They should be burying them as we speak."

"This would have not happened had your men finished the job before those vermin could reach the rift site." Trevalyn's hand pointed towards the half-conscious monster.

"A grave miscalculation, Master." Winston bowed his head. "I thought that we could gauge the monster's might by making it hunt down the intruders. The result turned out otherwise."

"I did agree to your idea at some point, thinking that the monster would 'gobble up the intruders'. I share part of the blame." Trevalyn looked at the beast once again. Norton seemed to have understood how his master was pushing the matter. "They served good test subjects in their own way. It was convenient that those people dared measure the might of this monster. I wouldn't be too pleased had I opted to have my men or machinery get the information."

"How they've found out our site still baffles me, Mister Norton. Do you think that they followed one of the discs from Altrecht?"

"Surely they will come to us in a larger group than just three people if they were to attack this facility." Winston's focus was lost to the green flashes in front of him. "Also, the attack would have begun inside our facility. I do not think the remnants of that group would muster such a force in short notice."

"I still find it hard to believe that those three managed to reach the cutters. This is too much of a coincidence."

"Yes, it is much unexpected of them to turn up here. The closest possibility was that they went through the forest seeking something else."

"And what would that be, Mister Norton? Care to enlighten me on that?"

"That... is something I wouldn't know yet, Master."

"Perhaps it would benefit the both of us if we leave this room and talk about our issues at a proper place."

"Agreed." Winston nodded and headed towards the exit.

Both men left the beast to the devices, ignoring the green sheets of light that came near and far from their eyes. They walked without their speech; footsteps echoed throughout the stretch of the hallway that led to a flight of stairs connecting the monster's enclosure to the second level of the facility. The Gray Fox and his advisor arrived at a long room where a conference table looked before a wide white board.

"It has been a long time since we made use of this place apparently." Trevalyn slid his hand across the table's surface; a gray film formed on his fingertips. "I'm going to have this room cleaned after this."

The Gray Fox stared at the board; the Altrecht incident recording played inside his mind. Flaming buildings that he saw began to distort; the new image that he was seeing was the burning battleground the otherworldly beast brought to the interlopers.

"You know me, Mister Norton. I would like to go through with my plans with the least inconvenience possible. Odd, but there is a feeling that those people would make matters worse for all of us if we don't eliminate them now."

"Understandable." Winston took a seat and eased his back. "This is the first time we'd come across the same people more than once. A shame that our cameras could not properly capture their faces, but we should be able to track them down based on what they wore."

"Do you think that they have an idea that we watched them?"

"Perhaps, but they ran afoul of our guards, so they would most likely have changed how they looked by now. A minor hindrance. If I-"

"Well? Speak." There was a slight rise in Trevalyn's voice.

"I was looking at the possibility that what if these strangers were not part of the Dragon's Claw."

"Interesting." A spark of curiosity appeared as a gleam in the Gray Fox's eyes. "Tell me what you led you to that."

"No doubt that they held out long enough against our fighting constructs and a monster. I have found out that most of our former rivals' men were found to not have such competent fighters. Perhaps they are from the Empire. Given that we hold one of their most-esteemed men prisoner, it would not be a far possibility that the throne would send a formidable force to recover him."

"You're telling me that we've been found?" Trevalyn almost stood up, but returned to his seat anyway. "Remember, Mister Norton that the magician is most certainly dead, and the gunner would take a while before he could completely recover, that is if he is not yet another meat heap for the forest creatures. You have seen it yourself."

"Nobody could survive being hit by a fireball of that size." Winston nodded. "Forgive me Master, it is just that I do not expect people to act in both a bold but rash manner. Those who survived our maneuver would not be foolish enough to enter their enemies' domain without a sizeable force behind them. Their timing to exact revenge is too quick and if I may say, too unpolished. Like what I've said earlier, they needed to recover from their losses first of all."

"I could see where you're going. How do you explain the fact that they managed to discover my mana cutters?"

"I would still call it an accident. None of them were prepared enough. If either the Dragon's Claw remnants or the Empire were to strike us, they would have focused on destroying your machinery first. It was obvious that nobody bothered to focus on your 'mana cutters' when they first arrived at the site."

"Valid points, Mister Norton." The Gray Fox stood up, pacing back and forth while looking at the ceiling. "I am not much of an expert in these... 'soldier operations', but the Empire should have sent their main force once their unfortunate scouts were killed off. "

"And that is a point against Imperial intervention. Unfamiliar machines in the middle of a forest would attract the attention of at least a rifle company."

"We are unprepared to react to that kind of action. It was a fleet that challenged and took my Schweiglands fortress from me, and surely they would not think twice finishing me off by sending an army against me."

A weak, irregular laugh came from Winston Norton's mouth before he said:

"Do I sense fear in the Gray Fox? Is he afraid that he would be destroyed before he could go through with his plans?"

"My reasons are valid. I have not recovered from my losses. Besides, you know that what you can do depends on what I provide, and I must not be reminding you of that."

"My mistake, but I find the attention to these vagrants too much for what they should be given. Of course, you wouldn't want to see everything here destroyed all because a ragtag group strayed in the forest to interfere in your plans."

"It is a matter of making sure, Mister Norton. This came to thought just now. Do you think we have a spy in our midst?"

"The Steel Rose, I presume?"

"Did you hire other men that I was not told of?"

"We only had a dozen people under our employ, and that includes Cornelia Sauvant. The rest would be acquired through taking the men of our defeated rivals prisoner for use with your puppet soldier program."

"Very well, back to the previous question then."

Trevalyn wasn't expecting him to agree with the idea. He was preparing himself to hear what Norton said about it:

"Quite far-fetched. I wouldn't think that a hired blade that we used to strike at one of her former employers would be that treacherous. What would she gain from such a feeble attempt to disrupt our operations?"

"Access to all our gold? Maybe wrest leadership of my organization."

"And to think you had gone that far speculating. Her skill with the sword may have the finesse and pomp of a storm, but she definitely could not hatch a scheme of such complexity."

"Much is true. The only way for me to keep Miss Sauvant to my side is to pay her well enough not to turn traitor."

"Agreed." Winston gave a slight nod.

Trevalyn returned to his seat, resuming the discussion in a position that was less taxing to his advisor's neck. He gave out a puff before saying:

"I am still relieved that the biggest threat among those vagrants has been slain. The beast did something good for me after all. Now, how do we put the others out for good?"

"I would advise against sending out the likes of the Steel Rose for this task. Hiring unaffiliated assassins would be better for this job."

"Scrounging for funds to run that is going to bothersome, given that this month's profits barely reached targets. I could test my first puppet soldiers against them."

"But Mas-"

"There is not much use for those men if I could not give them their 'proper combat testing'."

"I see. You would find what one of my guards interesting, if I may go on."

"Just get to it." Trevalyn's hand rose and thumped at the table.

"You don't have to ask for approval all the time."

"One of my men stated that a member of the group they tried to stop possessed womanly features." A low chuckle escaped from Winston's lips. "That magician seemed to be wearing a dress."

"Interesting, but too late."

Trevalyn cut his laughter short before resuming his speech. "It is a waste. Such magicians are very rare to find, and 'she' had to die a fool's death. One of such caliber would have been of better use alive and working for us."

"Those the magician left behind will follow soon enough."

"With 'her' gone, all we need to do is to seek the other two; they will fall easily." Trevalyn stood up and faced the exit. "My nose finds this place too musty for comfort. Let us ask the cook if there is anything palatable on the menu. I crave of fish today."

Winston nodded and followed the Gray Fox out of the room.