The guard stood behind David, hand already drifting toward his weapon. "I don't recognize you, Guard. What's your business here at this hour?"

David's skull throbbed with another spike of suppressed power, the mandatory quest burning like acid in his mind. Time was slipping away, every second spent in explanation was a second closer to discovery, to failure, to permanent damage he couldn't afford.

Talking will take time we don't have.

"Fuck it," David muttered under his breath.

He spun around with fluid precision, his fist connecting with the guard's gut in a perfectly calculated strike. The man's eyes bulged as physics took over, David's suppressed strength still far exceeded normal human limits. The guard launched upward, his armored body slamming into the stone ceiling with a sickening thud before crashing back down in an unconscious heap.

David examined his handiwork with clinical detachment. Efficient. Quiet. No permanent damage.

Vespera's ethereal form phased through the nearby wall, materializing beside him with arms crossed. "That was... a bit extreme, don't you think?"

"Was it?" David grabbed the unconscious guard by the collar, dragging him toward a storage alcove. "He was reaching for his weapon. This way, nobody dies."

Luna emerged from his shadow, kneeling beside the fallen guard to check his pulse. "He's fine, Master. Just unconscious. Though he'll have quite the headache when he wakes."

"He'll live longer than he would have if he'd drawn steel," David replied pragmatically, depositing the guard in the storage room like a sack of grain. He brushed off his hands and adjusted the Umbra Veil back to his senior guard appearance. "Now we move."

****

The magical suppression control chamber hummed with crystalline energy, each focus stone channeling power to specific detention cells throughout the level. David studied the intricate array with a mixture of modern understanding and Solomon's inherited knowledge.

Complex but not impossible, he assessed, identifying the main control matrix. Disable the primary resonance crystals, and the entire network fails.

His hands shook slightly as he reached for the first crystal, the power suppression was getting worse, each movement requiring conscious effort to control. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the chamber's cool air.

"Master, let me help," Luna said, flowing through the shadows to reach multiple crystal alignments simultaneously.

"I've got the internal disruptions," Vespera added, her ethereal form phasing directly through solid crystal to manipulate the magical flows from within.

Working together, they methodically dismantled the suppression network. Each crystal that went dark was another step toward freedom for the prisoners, and another spike of pain through David's skull as his own suppressed power responded to the magical fluctuations.

The final crystal dimmed, and silence fell over the chamber. In the distance, faint sounds of movement confirmed their success.

Veylith's voice crackled through the communication crystal: "David, guard rotations in ten minutes. Move!"

****

The detention level was eerily quiet as David approached the first cell, Vespera and Luna flanking him through shadow and ethereal form. The suppression fields were down, but as David examined the cell door, his expression darkened.

"Mithril," he muttered, running his fingers along the silvery metal that comprised the door's core structure. "Someone really didn't want them getting out."

Even with the magical suppression disabled, the doors themselves were built to contain beings far beyond normal prisoners. The metal gleamed with an inner light that spoke of both incredible expense and paranoid security measures.

David nodded to Vespera, who approached the door with predatory grace. She leaned forward and blew gently on the mithril surface, her breath carrying the essence of absolute winter. Ice crystals spread instantly across the metal, frost patterns racing through microscopic imperfections as the door's molecular structure became brittle under supernatural cold.

"Luna," David called, extending his hand.

She flowed from his shadow like liquid darkness, merging with his form and wrapping around his body like living armor. Her presence augmented his strength, their bond amplifying his suppressed power.

Dark aura erupted around David's fist as he struck the frozen door. The mithril shattered like glass, fragments of priceless metal scattering across the stone floor with musical chimes.

Beyond the destroyed barrier, Salomonis looked haggard, magical restraint artifacts still binding his wrists despite the disabled suppression field. Bruises marred his face, clear signs of recent interrogation.

"Hey there, scholar," David said, examining the artifact locks. "Fancy seeing you in a place like this."

Relief flooded the mage researcher's features. "David! Thank the ancestors. I was beginning to think... How much do you know about what's really happening here?"

"Enough to get you out," David replied, applying Solomon's knowledge to disable the restraints. "Though I suspect there's more to the story."

Aria Stormweaver practically bounced with excitement despite her weakened state. "Finally! I was ready to storm my way out of here myself. They were torturing Salomonis for information about..."

"The Archon," Kairos Vale interrupted, leaning heavily against his cell wall. The Shadow of the Ninth House looked drained, dark circles under his eyes. "I've been sharing my mana with Salomonis to keep him conscious. Had to... maintain our escape planning."

David freed the last of the restraints, each removal restoring some strength to the prisoners. "Right, well, good news is we're getting you all out of here. Bad news is we need to move fast."

"What about the guards?" Aria asked, testing her renewed magical abilities with small sparks of electricity.

"Handled," David said simply. "Follow me."

****

Veylith's puppet maid led them through narrow servant passages, her movements carrying that peculiar precision David had noticed before. When three palace guards rounded a corner ahead, the maid moved without hesitation.

David blinked, and the guards were unconscious.

It wasn't violence, it was efficiency. The maid's strikes were too fast, too perfect, landing with mechanical accuracy on precise pressure points. Each guard dropped in sequence, their bodies carefully positioned to avoid injury.

"Damn," David muttered, genuinely impressed. "Remind me never to piss off your boss, puppet."

Salomonis frowned, watching the maid glide ahead like a trained shadow. "David, she's moving like she's read the patrols off a prophecy scroll. Is she clairvoyant or just unnervingly good?"