"DOMAIN!" Yura screamed as the next wave of bullets hissed through the air. The purple lattice of her barrier snapped outward just in time, shots bent, curved, and dissolved against it like pebbles skittering across glass. In the next heartbeat, the Spire soldiers blinked, confused, as half their ranks switched places with Yura's group.

The trick bought them ground, but not safety. Kentaro's stomach dropped; they were in the middle now. Twenty soldiers surrounded them in a tight ring, rifles lowered but longswords raised. Gunfire was useless this close; the steel gleamed in the dim corridor light, and every blade pointed inward like the teeth of a trap.

Kentaro froze in the huddle, watching his friends form a living wall all around him. Yura slumped slightly, chest heaving, cooldown. No domain for at least a minute. The elevators were wrecked thanks to Yumi and Shogo's earlier chaos. That left one option.

They had no other choice but to fight.

"Kentaro, can you hear me?" Tenka's voice crackled in his ear.

"I hear you," he muttered, eyes locked on the soldiers inching closer. "But this has just gone from bad to worse."

"I know." A sigh, then a spark of wry humour. "Still, trust Shogo. Full-time dumbass, part-time badass. You've seen it yourself. Try not to worry and trust in him and Yumi"

Kentaro almost smiled despite the sweat running into his eyes. "Yeah… You're right."

"Hoho, Commander giving me a compliment," Shogo's voice drawled over comms. "Am I finally turning over a new leaf? Can I get a special dose of Commanders-"

"Zip it and focus," Yumi snapped, cutting Shogo off from his usual antics.

The soldiers who were surrounding the Halycon crew hadn't lunged yet. They tightened the circle, boots thumping closer, closer, until Kentaro could feel their breath now. He raised his fists.

Then Shogo shrieked. "AHHH MY LEG!"

Kentaro's heart seized. He spun around. Shogo was on the floor, clutching his thigh, rolling and screaming like he'd been gutted.

"What the hell, Shogo?!" Kentaro dropped to a knee, panic flaring, blood roaring in his ears.

Even the soldiers froze, confused, blades wavering.

"What the hell? Did anyone even touch him?" One of the soldiers whispered.

Shogo's scream cut off. His body twisted. In one absurd, whip-crack motion, he spun his legs like helicopter blades, sweeping outward. Five soldiers went airborne, smashing into the walls with gasps and thuds. Kentaro himself nearly got clipped.

"HE WAS FAKING?!" Kentaro shouted, stumbling back.

"That dumbass," Yumi and Tenka said in unison.

The trap had sprung, and it worked. Yumi fired bursts into the staggered formation. Serica's Glaciera sang free, ice vapour curling from its edge as she cut down the nearest blades. Yura pressed tight to Kentaro, her eyes darting for openings while she caught her breath.

"DOMAIN!" She screamed again, purple light flaring a second lattice. This one blinked them farther, swapping places with a soldier stationed by the far doors.

"Switch!"

The group didn't hesitate. The doors burst open under their momentum, Yumi and Shogo laying down suppressing fire to cover their backs.

The hallway beyond was narrower, tighter, a steel throat. Kentaro's lungs burned as they sprinted. The echoes of boots behind them told him Yumi and Shogo were buying space, but not for long.

At an intersection, Kentaro skidded to a stop, chest heaving. Left, right, straight. Three paths, one chance. He turned. "Tenka?"

"Already tracking," came her voice. "The signal from the Alberline is one floor down. Head straight from where you are, and you're almost there."

Kentaro nodded. "Okay." He pushed forward.

The corridor stretched like a nightmare, steel doors on each side, no sound except their ragged breathing and the distant rattle of gunfire fading behind them. Every step scraped against the metal floor. The silence pressed heavier than bullets.

At the end: a massive round chamber. The doors creaked open with a groan. Darkness swallowed them.

Kentaro stepped forward, using the light from the hall to guide him.

A scrape above.

He snapped his head up. Silhouettes, dozens of them, clung to the ceiling like carrion birds. Then eyes met his, cold and white.

"There above us!" Kentaro bellowed as they dropped.

Shogo and Serica surged forward, blades flashing, but the soldiers fell like rain. Twenty, maybe more, piling down into the chamber. The tight corridor forced them into a funnel, an advantage. Yumi's pistol barked, lightning flashes through the dark, cutting them down to single digits. Serica's sword followed, ice and fury shredding the last five. The room fell silent but for panting.

Smooth, too smooth.

The next corridor was shorter. Another elevator gleamed at the end. But before they could reach it.

BAM!

Doors to the left slammed open. A squad rushed out, rifles up.

The first shot rang.

Kentaro felt the hot punch in his leg before he even heard himself scream. "AHHH!"

He collapsed, blood soaking his trousers, crimson spilling down to his boot.

"KENTARO!" Yura was on him instantly, ripping her sleeve, pressing it against the wound.

Serica's eyes went sharp. Her frame flared, a silver-blue flicker crawling across her skin. With impossible speed, she blurred forward, and in less than a heartbeat, every soldier in the hall lay cut, steel echoing against steel.

Kentaro bit down on a groan, fists shaking as Yura tied the makeshift bandage.

"Commander!" Yumi's voice spiked through the comms.

"It's fine," Haruka cut in calmly, her voice cool water against the panic. "The bleeding's contained. He'll live."

"Yeah, but still…" Yumi's whisper was tight, guilty.

Shogo dropped to one knee beside Kentaro. "Commander. By the sounds of it, more soldiers are inbound. We need to move him now!"

And already, boots thundered in the distance.

The next squad turned the corner, ten rifles aimed, ready. But the hall was empty.

"Strange…" Their commander muttered. "They couldn't have gone down that fast."

An explosion rumbled back down the corridor. Smoke. Screams.

"They doubled back! After them!"

The squad thundered off in the wrong direction.

Back in the shadows, Kentaro's group stood frozen, Emi's cloaking suits shimmering faintly around their bodies.

"That was close," Yura whispered, unclenching as her body flickered visible again. "I almost thought Emi's toys weren't good for anything after Yumi's 'wise choices.'"

"Heh. Don't forget Serica's distraction bought us the time," Shogo said.

Kentaro tested his leg, standing shakily. Pain throbbed like fire, but he could move. Barely. "But. I still don't like letting her go alone."

"It's fine," Tenka said firmly. "We've got her location on a graph. If anything happens, we'll know. You'd be silly to underestimate an Alberline power, you should know that first hand."

Kentaro clenched his fist and nodded. "Right."

Shogo cracked a grin. "Then let's go. If Serica's clearing ahead, she'll be done before we even arrive."

"RIGHT!" they shouted in unison, piling into the second elevator.

The final descent began, toward Level 4: the Alberline Containment Floor.

*

The night sky was chaos incarnate. Null and Spire soldiers shrieked as they collided with the Rin legion, violet blades flashing like lightning as twenty Alberline bodies tore through the enemy ranks with synchronised cruelty. To call it a "handful" would've been insulting; the battlefield belonged to Rin. Yet for all the carnage, her eyes never strayed far from the one figure who remained motionless, arms folded, floating above the burning cityscape.

Velza.

Her presence was like a spear lodged in Rin's chest, an unmoving reminder of their last clash, how one slip, one moment of carelessness, had left Rin humiliated. She told herself it was a fluke. A cheap shot. Nothing more.

This time, she would prove it.

Rin broke away from the slaughter, her main body carving a brutal path through the Null. As her doppelgängers split apart to cover her flanks, she shot upward, blade angled low, her breath sharp with anticipation.

But the closer she drew, the heavier the air felt.

Velza hadn't moved a muscle, hadn't even acknowledged the massacre of her soldiers. Only when Rin's shadow fell across her did her head tilt, a faint look of disdain ghosting her face.

Rin slowed, teeth flashing in a grin.

"Heh. I thought since our friends are keeping busy, you and I could settle things properly."

Velza exhaled, a single sharp breath, like she was sighing away an insect. "You should have stayed in the swarm where you belong. This time, I'll finish you."

Her hand shifted, a single motion so precise it felt inevitable. The long sword slid free, gleaming in the starlight, and her aura darkened until even the nearby Null kept their distance.

Rin chuckled, but there was an edge to it, half excitement, half madness. "Fine by me. But don't think it'll go down like last time!"

Her voice snapped like thunder. The air exploded as she lunged, spear first, all her Alberline clones moving in unison like a flock of predatory birds.

Velza raised her sword. No words. No expression.

Only the promise of steel meeting steel.

And the battle began....

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