[Units Deployed: 4 Panzergrenadier Ptoons; 3 Panzer ptoons]

  [Command Mode Active: Frontline Assault]

  [Remaining Points: 2031]

  [Designation: Confirmed]

  The echo of steel boots on stone filled the district like a drumbeat of authority. The storm had arrived — not one of chaos, but of order recimed by force.

  Reinhard’s troops flooded into the Cathedral District with grim purpose. Their presence struck like a bde of relief through the battered heart of Stonewatch. Refugees—huddled behind makeshift barricades, hidden in shattered homes and the cathedral’s hollow—stared in stunned silence as the soldiers formed a perimeter. No chaos. No shouting. Just the precision of men who had known nothing but war.

  The cathedral square, once a pce of prayer and peace, now became a forward operating base.

  Panzergrenadiers regrouped in tight formation across the square, their armored half-tracks parked in a crescent around the cathedral’s steps. Panzer IVs rumbled into defensive positions at each approach, turrets scanning the ruined streets. Tigers stood at the rear, hulking sentinels against further assault. Drone wings buzzed overhead, maintaining overwatch while also scanning the surrounding rooftops for remaining threats.

  A few soldiers dismounted from their transports to hand out canteens and rations to stunned civilians. The dispced huddled in the shadow of the cathedral steps, their expressions numb — until they saw the medics. Then came the tears.

  Reinhard stepped down from his command half-track, Mars at his side, both fnked by dust-covered Panzergrenadiers. His boots crunched through blood-soaked cobblestone and scattered gss, and took in the sight.

  A field officer approached. “Sir. Cathedral District secure. No enemy movement. Anchor confirmed inert. Refugees gathered in the nave — some are wounded, but stable.”

  Reinhard gave a short nod, thenbriskly walked into the cathedral, fnked by Mars. Ahead of him, behind the altar in a small alcove, was the prize they’d come for — the Soul Anchor.

  Cracked but intact, the obsidian monolith pulsed faintly, like a heart still beating under rubble.

  His HUD flickered to life.

  [Soul Anchor Detected] [Status: Inert] [Authorization: Reinhard Stahl – Confirmed] [Linking…] [Anchor Online] [Deployment Zone Secured – Cathedral District]

  His gloved hand touched the monolith’s surface. A pulse of light radiated outward — invisible to most, but felt in the gut. Soldiers straightened without knowing why. Civilians stopped trembling. Even Mars lifted his head, ears alert.

  [Soul Points Acquired: +390] [Total Soul Points: 2521] [Logistics Access: Medical Station | Field HQ | Civilian Triage] [Deployment Zones Secured: 2 / ???]

  [Soul Anchor Tier 1 Activated – Cathedral District]

  Soul Point Efficiency +10%

  Passive Soul Regen: +0.25 SP/min

  [Tech Tier 2 – Progress: 20%]

  Reinhard turned to his gathered officers. “We move immediately.”

  He pointed across the square.

  “Panzer groups — sweep outward from the Cathedral District. Clear the surrounding blocks. Push toward the walls and clear all buildings of vermin. Don’t let a single beastman or vermin slip out.”

  The order was received without hesitation. Two grenadier ptoons peeled off to join the tanks, engines revving low, boots falling into cadence.

  Reinhard turned again.

  “The rest of the grenadiers — with me. We descend into the tunnels. The underbelly must be purged.”

  A new HUD line appeared:

  [Panzer Ptoons: Cathedral District – Objective: Surface Reconquest & Wall Reinforcement] [Grenadier Ptoons 1-2: Assigned – Surface Operations] [Grenadier Ptoons 3-4: Assigned – Tunnel Sweep & Verminthar Eradication]

  He paused, gaze falling to the refugees. Behind their relief, there was fear. Not of him — but of what y beneath the city.

  They had reason to fear.

  With Mars at his side, Reinhard moved toward one of the sewer access hatches uncovered during the sweep. Beneath the masks, the grim-faced grenadiers followed without question, their rifles held high, and fshlights mounted to their helmets. The smell rising from below was foul — but not unfamiliar. It reeked of old blood, rot, and war.

  As Reinhard descended the first steps, his HUD adjusted again:

  [Tunnel Threat Level: Moderate] [Burrowing Detected | Unstable Chambers Below] [Enemy Movement: Sporadic | Caution Advised]

  He exhaled through his rebreather.

  The depths had to be cleansed, this time for good.

  **************************************************************

  The descent into the city’s depths was nothing like the first time.

  Reinhard’s soldiers moved with purpose. They marched with methodical precision, their masks and rifles casting angur shadows under the flickering lights mounted to their helmets. The Panzergrenadiers fanned out into coordinated fireteams, moving through narrow sewer junctions and colpsed tunnels with ruthless efficiency, killing anything that moved.

  The underbelly of Stonewatch stank of rot and warp-taint.

  Behind the first wave, recon drones hovered silently, their lenses scanning the tunnel ceilings and walls for movement and ready to dazzle their enemies with strobes and gas. One of them flickered red for a second—then green. Safe. For now.

  Reinhard moved in behind them, his HUD painting the underground maze in ghostly outlines. Mars walked ahead, low and quiet, muzzle twitching. The direwolf’s fur bristled, tail stiff. He smelled something… off.

  “Status?” Reinhard muttered into the comms.

  [3rd Ptoon: Northern sewer tunnels clear. Minor resistance neutralized. shifting south.][4th Ptoon: Engaged with Verminthar pack near the old cistern. Holding position.Deploying fmers and gas.]

  The fme teams had been outfitted with canisters of Noxshade. Down here, it spread fast. Efficient. The Verminthar had no masks. No protection. Their screams echoed through the pipes before dying in a chilling silence.

  And then came the hum.

  A low vibration tickled the edges of Reinhard’s senses—just as the lights flickered and dimmed.

  [ALERT: Netherstone surge detected | Southeastern vent junction]

  He turned his head just in time to see one of the sewer grates burst upward, a fsh of greenish light erupting from the gap. From it poured a fresh wave of ratkin, dozens of cnrats lead the mindless charge followed by another group. These were armored. Their movements controlled and measured.

  Nethergunners. Their rifles pulsed with Netherstone cores.

  The gunfire started instantly.

  The frontline Panzergrenadiers took cover behind sewer pilrs, unleashing return fire with ruthless discipline. MG42s tore through the confined tunnel, chewing through the first wave, but the Nethergunners advanced like zealots—more afraid of something else than death.

  “Suppress and fnk!” Reinhard ordered.

  One of the drones dropped low and deployed a stun charge—light fred through the tunnels, disorienting the front ranks of the enemy. Then came the fmer teams. A roar of fire surged forward, followed by the awful scent of burning fur and flesh.

  [Tunnel junction secured.] [Estimated enemy casualties: 180] [Soul Points Gained: +240]

  Reinhard’s HUD flickered again.

  [Current SP: 2761]

  He turned the corner, weapon raised—and saw it.

  A massive chamber, once a water reservoir, now corrupted beyond recognition. Chained in the center was some foul creation—part-machine, part-rat, part-unknown. A warp-cursed altar powered by concentrated Netherstone veins.

  This had been a focal point.

  The reason the Verminthar had fought so hard.

  Mars growled, and Reinhard stepped back instinctively as he felt the pull. Not magical. Not divine. Personal. His very presence here seemed to ignite the system.

  [Corrupted Soul Anchor Detected] [Option: Cleanse and Convert] [Required Units Nearby: ??] [Begin Purification? Y/N]

  He exhaled slowly. “Do it.”

  The anchor pulsed.

  A fsh of searing blue-white light erupted from the center of the room, seeping into the Netherstone veins. The taint began to burn away, melting like wax beneath a holy fme. Verminthar corpses twitched. Some tried to crawl away, but the purging light consumed them all.

  And then, silence.

  Only the soft trickle of distant water and the glow of a new symbol etched into the chamber’s stone.

  [Soul Anchor Purified: Tier 1 Soul Anchor: Sewer Systems – District Access Gained] [SP Passive Income Increased: +0.25/min] [Deployment Node Expanded]

  Reinhard stepped forward, gazing into the heart of the converted anchor.

  “This is how we take our city back,” he said.

  Behind him, the soldiers began to sweep through the tunnels again, securing what was left.

  Junction by Junction.

  Pipe by pipe.

  gallery by gallery.

  ************************************

  The further they moved beneath Stonewatch, the more the tunnels seemed to breathe.

  A mechanical pulse echoed through the dark — not from engines, but from something older, deeper. The Verminthar had made this pce their own, not just with blood and cw, but with twisted industry. Pipes webbed the ceilings, dripping corrupted runoff. Stagnant pools shimmered with Netherstone contamination. This wasn’t a sewer anymore.

  It was a hive.

  Reinhard’s units pressed forward, moving in tight, overpping formations. Floodlights mounted to their helmets cut through the gloom. Every corner was swept. Every angle covered.

  “Contact ahead,” one grenadier radioed. “Movement. Multiple.”

  A burst of light, then the tunnel lit up with enemy fire. Crossbows ced with Netherstone shards cracked the air, sending screaming bolts down the corridor. Behind the ambushers, a barricade of junk-metal and stone had been hastily erected.

  “Suppress and breach,” Reinhard ordered.

  Grenades thumped forward. Shrapnel cleared the chokepoints. A fnking team moved through a maintenance tunnel and drenched the barricade in fire from the side.

  The defense broke.

  Another few dozen Verminthar fell. But they were getting bolder. More fanatical. That was the warning.

  “They’re protecting something,” Reinhard muttered.

  The deeper they went, the stranger the architecture became. Natural stone gave way to warped reinforcement structures — bone-ced steel, spiraling reinforcements etched with runes, conduits pulsing with green light. This was more than a stronghold.

  It was the center.

  Mars growled sharply just before the tunnel opened into a vast gallery like chamber.

  The heart of it.

  Netherstone crystals jutted from every surface, casting warped reflections across the walls. Strange glyphs glowed on the floor, forming a web of power. Mechanical scaffolding crawled across the ceiling, filled with rattling conveyor systems still dripping sg and broken equipment.

  And there he stood.

  The second Nethersmith.

  The true architect of the assault.

  He was rger than the first—though not through strength. His body sagged with age, the flesh held together by crude welding and bone splints. His augmentations were ancient, yet brutal: a metal cage where his chest once was, filled with glowing, churning Netherstone cores. A breathing apparatus fed warped air into his colpsed lungs, giving his every rasp a rhythmic wheeze.

  But his eyes…

  His eyes gleamed with intelligence. Cunning. Triumph.

  “You’re too te,” he rasped through his mask, voice yered with static and bile. “The damage is done. Stonewatch bleeds. The world shifts.”

  Reinhard stepped forward, rifle raised. “You designed the detonations.”

  “I lit the fuse,” the Nethersmith said proudly. “You hear it still. In every scream. Every orphaned cry.”

  He spread his arms as though embracing the devastation.

  “I saw the fault lines beneath your streets. I fed your soil with rot. I watched as your people burned.”

  Reinhard didn’t reply.

  He just raised his fist.

  The command was wordless.

  Two squads moved in, surrounding the Nethersmith’s ptform. The creature didn’t run. He didn’t scream. He merely stood tall—defiant—as the air filled with fire and steel.

  A Panzerschreck round hit his feet, sending him sprawling backward. The follow-up was merciless: suppressive fire tore through his augments, rupturing his Netherstone core.

  He tried to ugh. The sound was half-scream, half-cackle.

  Then Reinhard stepped forward and fired a single shot into the creature’s skull.

  Silence fell.

  What remained of the core sputtered… and died.

  [Soul Points Gained: +200 (High Value Target: Arch-Nethersmith – Confirmed Architect)] [Tunnel Network Secured: 98%] [Netherstone Activity: Suppressed]

  One of the grenadiers approached the broken ptform. “Sir… looks like this was their primary node. We found partial schematics here. Sewer youts. Runes. Targeting matrices.”

  Reinhard took the dataste. The glyphs were cwed onto it in shaking hands, the scrawlings of a genius gone mad.

  “Pack up everything,” he said. “It will be studied once the city is secure. We’re burning this nest after.”

  He turned, Mars beside him once more.

  Above them, the city was beginning to breathe again.

  But in the deep?

  They had found the heart of the infection—and torn it out.

  **********************************************************************

  The st Verminthar corpse slumped into the muck, twitching once before going still. The fmes of the fmethrowers crackled low, their operators stepping back to let the smoke clear. The underbelly was quiet now — eerily so. The kind of silence that comes after something final.

  Sergeant Sch?ffer swept his fshlight along the moss-covered walls, the beam catching the glint of metal — tools, twisted cages, smashed Netherstone capacitors. Burned-out nests. Colpsed barracks. Hundreds had died here.

  But it was over.

  Or so they thought.

  “Commander,” Sch?ffer’s voice crackled through the comms, sharp and alert. “We’ve got something… off-grid. Southern quadrant of the underbelly.”

  Reinhard responded immediately, his tone clipped. “Send visuals.”

  A drone zipped into the corridor, its camera feed syncing to his HUD. What it revealed was not more infestation — but a tunnel. One that didn’t match the others.

  It wasn’t carved in the same chittering chaos of Verminthar construction. This one was reinforced. Smooth. Purposeful. Marked with sigils Reinhard hadn’t seen before.

  And it sloped downward — steeply — then curved east, deeper than any mapped structure beneath Stonewatch.

  Reinhard’s brows furrowed.

  [NEW OBJECTIVE: Origin Tunnel Detected] [Status: Unmapped | Origin Unknown] [Preliminary Analysis: High Energy Residue – Netherstone Concentration: Elevated] [Caution Recommended]

  He tapped his comms. “Mark it. No one goes in until I do. Set up a perimeter and seal it. Full containment.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The squad began securing the entry, ying trip sensors, remote charges and a pair of drones to patrol around it. Reinhard watched the screen a moment longer before disconnecting the feed.

  So this was how they got in.

  Not through brute force — not at first.

  They tunneled in from somewhere else. Somewhere far beyond the city.

  And now that passage was theirs.

  Reinhard looked away from his HUD, the knowledge weighing heavier than the rifle on his back. Mars gave a low, almost instinctive growl.

  “Yeah,” Reinhard muttered, more to himself than anyone else. “We’re not done.” With this, they made their way to the city once more.

  The tunnels behind them stank of blood, char, and wet stone. Reinhard’s boots were coated in soot and sewer grime, but his pace didn’t falter. The path had been cleared. The underbelly was theirs.

  He emerged into the lower district pza, the te evening light cutting through the lingering smoke. A cold breeze blew across the ruined cityscape — the fires had died down, but the scars of battle still glowed faintly beneath the ash.

  Mars padded beside him, silent, ever-watchful.

  Behind them, the remnants of the assault force climbed up from the depths — soot-streaked Panzergrenadiers, their gear still sharp despite the exhaustion in their eyes. The Tigers, Panzer 4s and Fkpanzers patrolled the city, rolling over rubble-strewn roads like steel.

  **********************************************************

  The battle had ceased, but the war had not ended.

  Stonewatch stood — scarred, broken, yet not defeated.

  Beneath the golden glow of the setting sun, the city looked like a bleeding titan slumped in exhaustion. Embers of fire still crackled in distant quarters. Smoke coiled zily through shattered alleys. But for the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was silence.

  Reinhard stood before the Cathedral, its high spires scorched by war yet standing defiant. The courtyard had been converted into a central command post and triage station. Inside, dozens of soldiers worked without pause — tending to wounded, accounting for supplies, and building outward defenses. The Soul Anchor, nestled behind the altar of the broken sanctuary, pulsed with faint energy.

  He walked through the cathedral’s half-colpsed archway, boots echoing against the stone as if announcing the weight of his grief. The stained gss above had shattered, but the remaining shards still cast fractured light across the floor — red, violet, green. Like memories bleeding together.

  A squad had already completed the retrieval.

  Beneath a white-draped cloth, four shapes y side by side. Annabel’s ribbon still in Reinhard’s pocket. Heinrich’s dog tags pced reverently atop his folded coat. Alice’s cracked pendant cradled in one hand. Emma’s ivory ring.

  He stood there for a long time. Mars y beside him without a sound, as if mourning with him.

  “I wasn’t there,” Reinhard said quietly. “I was too slow.”

  Erich stepped in beside him, silent, his robes dirtied and torn from battle. “No one could’ve reached them in time. But you made the perpetrators pay.”

  Reinhard didn’t respond. He knelt down and pced one gloved hand on the cloth.

  “They will never be forgotten.”

  Halderan joined them, arms crossed, eyes heavy with exhaustion and command. “The city is secure. You saved this city, Reinhard.”

  “No,” he said. “I bought us time. That’s all.”

  He stood, exhaling slowly. Then looked toward the Soul Anchor at the back of the cathedral. Its pulsing had grown stronger — brighter. The first step toward reciming more.

  [SYSTEM PROMPT — Soul Anchor Interface Unlocked]

  [Soul Anchor - Cathedral District Online] Deployment Zone: Secured Passive SP Accrual: 0.25 / min Civilian Refuge: Active – [324 Survivors] Medical Facility (Improvised): Operational Soul Point Reservoir: 2993 SP

  Anchor Options Avaible [Upgrade Soul Anchor - 250 SP] [Construct Logistic Hub – 150 SP] [Construct Medical Wing – 100 SP] [Construct Ammo Fabrication Node – 200 SP] [Deploy Scout Drone Rey – 50 SP]

  [SP: 400] – Field HQ Upgrade (Unlocks Tactical Overview Map)

  [SP: 300] – Soul Reactor Core (Powers entire district)

  [SP: 300] – Airfield (Unlocks the use of Airpnes & Paratroopers)

  [SP: 500+] – Radar / Communications Uplink (World map awareness tier unlock)

  Reinhard read the options in silence. His hand hovered briefly, then selected:

  [Upgrade Soul Anchor x2 – 250 SP][Construct Logistic Hub – 150 SP][Construct Medical Wing – 100 SP]

  [Construct Ammo Fabrication Node – 200 SP][SP: 400] – Field HQ Upgrade (Unlocks Tactical Overview Map)[SP: 300] – Soul Reactor Core (Powers entire district)

  [Construction Confirmed] [Remaining Soul Points: 1343 SP]

  Moments ter, the ground beneath the cathedral trembled subtly. At the edges of the pza, bckened soil shimmered. Out of the shadows and dust, ghost-steel bunkers emerged — small, angur structures built by no known hand. Within minutes, automated crates of ammo lined the makeshift armory, and a generator hummed to life beside a triage facility now glowing with eerie, sterile light.

  Logistics personnel — summoned veterans — began hauling crates, setting up sentry positions, and mapping supply routes into the now-cleared districts.

  The cathedral was no longer just a sanctuary.

  It was the heart of a forward base.

  Reinhard stepped out onto the cathedral steps. His officers were waiting.

  Halderan. Erich. Several squad commanders. Even Mars stood ready, ears flicked toward the sound of artillery still echoing in the distance.

  “We have more work ahead,” Reinhard said. “The forest won’t clear itself, and the tunnels run deeper than we know.”

  He looked toward the distant eastern breach — now filled with burning trees, ruptured stone, and scattered corpses.

  “This city doesn’t just need to be saved,” he said. “It needs to be made untouchable.”

  His HUD flickered.

  [Deployment Zones Secured: 3 / ???] [Soul Anchors Controlled: 2] [Supply Chain: Operational] [Unit Morale: HIGH] [Civilian Refuge: STABLE]

  [Awaiting Next Directive…]

  Reinhard ushered a command to his officers: “Gentlemen, set up floodlights and MG nests atop the walls and around the sinkholes. Patrol the city streets.”

  [Directive Received: Secure, fortify & Patrol]

  They crisply saluted followed by “Yes Commander!”, and walked off briskly. To rey orders.

  The night fell quietly over Stonewatch.

  But deep below, and far beyond its walls — war still waited.