Meanwhile… in the Heart of the Nation
At the top of the central tower of the Hunter Association—an angular spire of white steel and mirrored glass stretching above the city skyline—a red alarm sliced through the air like a siren in a war zone.
Inside the Operations Center, the atmosphere had shifted from routine monitoring to full-scale crisis.
Walls of holo-screens lit up in rapid succession, each showing different angles of the ARES Guild building. Flames danced in wide drone shots. Street-level cams showed fleeing civilians, ruptured pavement, and magical aftershocks burning through parked cars. The feed from traffic surveillance was pure chaos—blurs of light, collapsing facades, explosions.
At the center of the room, framed by a circular array of consoles and trembling junior analysts, stood Grandmaster Saria Velstein, Director of National Guild Affairs. Tall, stern, composed like carved granite beneath pressure.
