"Damn it!"

Gu Xin ground her teeth, panic stinging like frost. She forced her Anomaly Power to surge, breaking Avril’s lock. A shield of hoarfrost bloomed before her, like a winter lotus.

The first wave of golden blossoms slammed into the ice shield. It held, glittering like a frozen moon. Then the second, then the third. Her Anomalous Energy flickered unstable; cracks webbed across the ice.

"Damn!"

Meng Yuting cried out from the side, breath tight like thorn-vines. She’d fought Avril up close just now, inhaling more perfume. She couldn’t use her Anomaly Power.

"Miss! Emergency! She—ah!!"

A man’s shout burst from Avril’s earpiece, then cut like a snapped string.

"Hey! What happened!?"

No answer. Only silence, cold and smooth as glass.

Crack!

Gu Xin’s shield shattered like brittle winter creek ice. The next wave of golden blossoms streamed for her, a glittering storm.

"Xin!"

Meng Yuting couldn’t call up power, but she ran anyway, heart pounding like drums. She wouldn’t make it in time.

Is this how it ends… Tang Ke…

Whoosh—

Pale-blue particles unfurled around Gu Xin and Meng Yuting, like fireflies in dusk. They knit into a pale-blue energy dome, a quiet moonlit shell.

Bang, bang, bang!

Golden blossoms hammered the dome, but the shield didn’t ripple. It stood like calm water under a night sky.

"What is that…"

Avril’s smile folded away, her face set like stone. She watched the blue motes swirl.

"Th-this…"

Gu Xin collapsed to the floor, hand over her mouth. The protective light was a miracle—tears welled in her eyes like rain on lotus leaves.

"Yuting… this is…"

"Mm… it’s him. Look."

Meng Yuting lifted the ring Tang Ke had given her. It was shedding pale-blue light, like starlight caught in silver.

Gu Xin glanced at the bracelet on her wrist. Same glow. Same silent promise.

"Where is he?"

Back in the lobby, on the stage, Avril had half-kneeled to offer Tang Coco a bouquet of roses. As Tang Coco took them, her system flagged a surge of Anomalous Energy. The alarm hadn’t finished when the roses burst.

A lush, special fragrance flooded her senses, sweet like spring yet sharp as knives. It washed her mind clean. Tang Coco fell into darkness.

Avril’s perfume in the hall numbed reflexes without being noticed. Petals drifted like decoys. Hidden handlers were already in place. They whisked Tang Coco away with quiet speed.

They carried her to a secret room on the hotel’s top floor. Three people in white coats waited inside. They laid her on a single bed, locked her limbs with steel cuffs, cold as shackles on a river god. Then they began.

They drew her blood for analysis, seeking to parse this SS-class Anomalous Energy. They planned to tamper with her, to make her their piece on the board.

The plan flowed smooth as silk. Needles tied to instruments slid into her arm. Blood began to run.

"Warning: host body under threat…"

"Host has lost consciousness. Emergency protocol… initiating…"

"Emergency protocol initiated…"

Suddenly the instrument stopped drawing. The white coats checked connections, fingers jittering like kicked ants.

A red light burst from Tang Coco’s body, blinding as dawn over a battlefield. For more than ten seconds, they couldn’t open their eyes.

When the glare dimmed, they looked—and froze.

The frail, black-haired woman was gone. In her place, a red-haired girl half-crouched on the bed, wrapped in mechanical Armor that pulsed with crimson light. Her long red hair spilled down her back like a burning waterfall. Her eyes were scarlet, two blood moons fixed on them.

"Th-this is…"

"Miss! Emergency! She—"

The call barely formed. A red stroke lanced across the room. The red-haired girl’s long blade had already pierced his heart, swift as lightning.

She pulled the blade free, spun once, and the others fell like cut wheat. They hadn’t even begun to react.

"Emergency program engaged. Anomaly Power to host match: one hundred percent."

"Conditions met for forced protocol. System taking over the sea of Anomalous Energy. Maintaining current state."

On the rooftop, Gu Xin and Meng Yuting stared, thrilled, at the circling blue particles. Hope rose like a tide. Tang Ke had to be close.

Then the blue turned, shade by shade, into scarlet. Like dusk slipping into a blood-red night.

"What’s… happening…?"

"Hey! Answer me! What’s going on!"

Avril called into the void. No answer—until one came. Not a man’s voice, but a woman’s, sweet as bells and cold as winter.

"Thou… hast disturbed My rest…"