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Alyna would have a short nod, but little else. For the time, Iden was focused too much on the work at hand. Why he was heading to this site, above all others, he did not know. If he had to guess, it would be a dummy lead...but even so, it was worth checking.

The hardest part would be the insertion. They would need to be quick, quiet, and efficient. There was no chance of dropping straight into Edo Castle...they'd be deposited some distance away, where a helicopter wouldn't illicit quite so swift and harsh a reaction. Then it was a long trek through the city, made with the utmost need to remain unseen and unknown. Stolen vehicles were in order, but even then, the going was painfully slow.

The closer they got to the shrine, the more anxious Iden would be. He had no love for the daemon they rushed to find. And as they finally pushed into the small tunnel that would take them from open sky to the dark recesses of the shrine, he found he was almost hesitant to continue.

Yet continue he would...he needed to. And once they were inside, he would leave his men and his second at the entrance. The only standing order was simple: Time until enacting Valkyrie was one hour. Before then, they would hold position and wait until confirmation.

Once again, only a nod. He did not speak as he turned and ventured into the dark.

The passage was, in a word, creepy. Iden never had taken to the decor favored by these ancient evils. More noticeable than that, however, was the stink; blood, stale and dried, littered the passage. It inflamed his senses and set him on edge. With the familiar cackle in the back of his head driving a spike of ice into the pit of his stomach, Iden pushed deeper into the pit.

He was forcing himself NOT to think about what fate met those other poor bastards to venture in. But that there was chanting made for an ill omen...Iden was not liking the situation. It meant pushing in was a certainty; he could not stop now.

What the...

The thought was all that ran through his head. People, in the shrine? He could not sense the daemon as one would expect...were these thralls, then, trying to free him? If that were the case, then it could not be allowed to stand.

Then, the nature of the ritual was brought to light. A human sacrifice. That did it...the handgun was in Iden's grip before one could so much as blink. The bark of a single shot was titanic in the enclosed space. He would blow that brazier to hell if he had to...the way these indigo-eyed individuals stared at him, he expected a cleaning of house to come anyways.

Alright, kids. Lets hear it. Who's running this circle jerk?

His finger tensed on the trigger at the words. Instinct screamed to shoot first, ask later...but that would not do. Particularly when the mob moved inward, and slaughtered the sacrificial victim. It was disturbing, though by now the young DeSeer was jaded against such sights. He kept his stone-faced demeanor, and never once lowered his firearm.

Iden DeSeer. And you are?

The situation reeked. It screamed for him to clean house and be gone. But he needed answers...

No.

If the single crack had been loud, the rolling thunder of the ensuing torrent of ammunition was deafening. The large three could do all the wished in bulking up, it would not save them from the volume of fire they suffered. Fifty rounds of high caliber hollow point ammunition tore flesh and splintered bone with repeated impacts. They were dead before they could act.

The quick ones were the ones that warranted worry. Iden lacked the ammunition in his favored weapons to deal with them all. He did not try to reload; instead, he dropped both guns and ducked in forward. The initial rush saw his shoulder crushing a clawed one's sternum. Two strokes of his arms saw the creature dismembered. It bled pitifully on the ground, even as Iden parried slashes from the other two.

THe flurry of movement was best described as a violent melee. One claw was captured under Iden's arm. He wrenched it to the side, forcing the creature off balance. It took the claws of one of the less nimble beasts even as the lean fighter planted his boot through the other one's cranium. Blood splattered across the floor, mingled with fragments of bone as the sickening crunch marked its demise. A sharp tug saw the captured creature's arm torn free. The offending limb was swung like a club, slapping one of the stealthed monsters into the stone wall. It crumpled from the impact, leaving the other to ponder just how Iden knew where to throw his next punch. For all its invisibility, it still gave off heat...heat with was hurled like a cudgel to crush what resistance was left.

All of this happened within scant seconds. A final twisting kick crushed the screeching cultist, and drowned the click of the ROMAN's safety as Iden snapped it into his grasp. Whoever the leader was, they were at gunpoint...and Iden was not amused.

Succeed this, ******** the finger began to tense...

The grip was met with a blast of raw noise. The offending limb WOULD be removed, and much of the man's words were drowned out. All Iden heard was the vague omen...and it was not a good one.

With a sneer, Iden gathered his arms and reloaded. The place was a mess of gore slicked stone, all of which smelled fetid and terrible. He could not feed here, not when so much was wrong with the place as a whole. With no further due to be paid, he turned and ascended back to his team.

Seal the entrance. I want this place buried.

Iden oversaw the demolition of the passage personally. He would tolerate nothing less than a total blockage, given what had happened. It was not until they were on their way back that he spoke, keeping mostly to Alyna for the time being.

I hate complications...now we have no answers, and some dumb s**t cult sprouting up. I swear....

For all he flicked and wiped the blood from him, the stink remained. It made Iden a grumpy man the whole way back to the chopper. It showed, and while he would confide in Alyna whatever answers she wished...he was not pleased.

Thirty men boarded their craft for deployment the next night. The Pentex building in Harbin was the target. Iden was moving with all haste to prepare for the raid. Unlike the previous assault, this was to be a methodical capture of the facility. The recon team was in position already; they would cut the power and all communication with the outside world. With that done, teams would insert from the roof and ground, and secure all personnel inside.

Secure was a very loosely defined term...every man present knew the weapons free was an unspoken from the very beginning. With both active choppers incapable of staying on station for emergency evac, the platoon would need to hold their own once they hit the ground. Given the patron behind Pentex as a whole...that may get tricky.

Despite this, Iden remained confident. He kept his rifle close, and waited for the touchdown. Just like last time, he and Alyna would venture down, though this time the recon squad would provide support. The other two teams would loot all possible value from the building in the meantime, especially electronically stored information. Such was the whole point of the job. It was just a matter of getting in, and getting things done.

"Two minutes to target!"

With the call from the cockpit, each man ran over their gear one last time. Not long now...at fifteen seconds, the recon team would kick start things by cutting the building off. Then the platoon would touch down, and break in. A simple plan.