"Skyeye is in position. Begin scanning Ninghai City?"

In Su Xinhua’s guest room, Tang Coco watched the light-screen like a still pond, listening to the system’s voice ripple through the air.

"Begin the scan."

Her voice was cool, a blade laid flat on snow.

"Copy. Skyeye program initiating."

In low orbit, a white Mech hung like a pale gull over the clouds. A huge chest camera pulsed blue, a lighthouse beam falling toward Ninghai City.

Skyeye swept fast, a cold wind combing grain. Ten minutes later, the report returned like pebbles in a bowl.

"Scan complete. Within range, forty-four Anomalous Energy signatures detected. Six are S-class or above."

"Six…"

The word fell heavy. Behind Coco’s eyes, thoughts rose like mist.

In Ninghai, the S-class Abnormals she knew were Gu Xin, Meng Yuting, and the “secretary” she fought last night. SS-class were Marilyn and Li Muyan. The scan excluded her. That meant one more blade in the grass—an S or SS—was hidden in Ninghai.

"Can you lock their positions?"

"Skyeye’s functions were damaged in the last operation. Detailed targeting is unavailable. Retrieval and repair required."

Disappointment pricked like cold rain.

"Then bring Skyeye home at two a.m. tonight. Avoid national detection—slip like a shadow."

"Copy."

A little after eleven, Su Xinhua returned to her apartment, the door opening like dawn.

"Handled?"

Coco asked as her mother slipped off her heels, the click like beads.

"Mm. Just a small thing."

Su Xinhua smiled, slid into house slippers, then looked up to find her daughter on the sofa, gaze steady as a lantern.

"Hm? Why’re you staring at me?"

"Didn’t expect my mom to be this badass—running a company that big alone. That’s a mountain on one back."

"Of course—your mom’s something else."

Praise warmed her like tea.

"Alright, sweet girl, sit tight. I’m getting something."

She ruffled Coco’s hair, a breeze through willows, and went to the bedroom.

Knock knock knock.

She hadn’t been gone long when the door sounded again, quick as sparrows.

"Su-jie, I brought them in."

The door swung, and Tiantian stepped in in a sharp office outfit, a paper-cut of lines and black. Behind her came Gu Xin, Meng Yuting, and Marilyn.

"Xin, Yuting."

Coco stood, voice soft as dusk.

"Coco!"

Gu Xin called, worry fluttering like a moth despite knowing Coco was safe.

"How are you? Really."

"I’m fine—really."

Coco smiled, light breaking through cloud.

"I’ve got work, so I’m heading out."

Tiantian, still at the door, waved off like a leaf on the wind. Her job was just to bring them.

"Where’s your mom?"

Gu Xin glanced at the empty living room, brow lifting like a bowstring.

"No clue. She went to fetch something."

Coco jerked her chin toward the bedroom, a cat pointing with its tail.

"Oh—and look, I dressed extra nice today, to leave our mom a great first impression."

Meng Yuting twirled, her new black-red dress flaring like a flame-tipped lotus.

"Pff…"

"You slide into the part fast, huh."

Coco laughed, helpless as a cloud caught on a branch.

"You’re here."

The bedroom door opened with a sigh. Su Xinhua came out hugging a silver combination case, moonlight in her arms.

"Yes, Su-jie…"

Seeing her, Meng Yuting shrank half a step, brave words melting like sugar.

"Hm? I seem to have heard a lot of ‘our mom’ just now. You two still calling me sister?"

Su Xinhua’s smile was a fox print in snow.

"Uh…"

Heat bloomed on their cheeks with a pop, two peaches ripening at once.

"Mom! Be serious!"

Coco, flushed to the ears, blurted, her voice a pebble skipping water.

"Hee-hee—alright, don’t call me that yet, or I’ll feel ancient."

Laughing like bells, Su Xinhua set the case on the coffee table and gestured for them to sit.

"Come on, sit."

They settled, waves calming on a shore.

"This little cutie is Lulu, right?"

She smiled at Marilyn, words as warm as lamplight.

"Mm."

Marilyn nodded, a quiet star.

"I need a favor. I want the room filled with I-particles. Coco’s Anomaly Power hasn’t fully recovered. Can I ask you?"

"Hm? Why flood it with I-particles?"

Coco’s curiosity stirred like reeds.

"You’ll know in a moment."

She winked at her daughter, a moon behind clouds.

"Okay. I’ll do it."

Lulu stood. She closed her eyes, and I-particles rose like blue fireflies. More and more gathered, a soft monsoon of light thickening until their sight shortened like fog at dawn.

"That’s enough, Lulu."

Su Xinhua lifted a hand, and Marilyn stilled the glow, a hand closing on rain.

"Now, what you’re about to see… is a secret you won’t easily imagine—or accept."

She opened the case. Inside lay two identical watches, twins asleep. She took one in each hand, rose, and tossed them gently. They didn’t fall; they hovered, leaves caught in a held breath.

"Coco, deploy that Armor. Your current reserves should last a bit."

Coco understood which one she meant. Doubt pricked, but answers were a step ahead.

"Okay."

She stood, a reed straightening.

"System, deploy Asura Armor."

"Confirm directive. No immediate danger detected."

"Confirm deployment."

"Copy. Asura Armor, deploying."

Red particles surged around Coco like sparks in a gale. Gu Xin and Meng Yuting stared—not at the Armor they had seen before, but at Coco’s hair, shifting from snowy white to flame-red from the roots, a maple igniting uphill.

Red swarmed and set, becoming Armor. Facets lined clean and sharp. Crimson light pulsed in the seams, a heartbeat under steel. Massive mechanical wings half-spread on her back, venting red particles like embers. In both hands, she gripped two slender mechanical blades, river-cold and lethal. A pale-blue visor veiled her eyes like thin ice.

"Wait—this space…"

Gu Xin sensed it first, a seam in the air.

"Yes. You noticed. This ‘room’ is larger than my living room. Right now we’re inside a virtual space the Fate Clock created."

Su Xinhua’s voice was a calm shore against a strange sea.

Coco opened her eyes. Her pupils, red as fresh lacquer, were cold, with a thread of savagery curling like smoke.

"What’s wrong with Coco?"

Seeing that gaze, Gu Xin and Meng Yuting tightened inside, strings drawn taut.

"Sigh. Her other soul is stirring again. But it’s okay. I exist for this."

Su Xinhua exhaled, breath like frost.

"For this? You? You’re not Su Xinhua?"

Meng Yuting blurted, words tripping like stones.

"No… I am Su Xinhua. But like Coco, there’s another soul in me. When the two watches meet, I awaken—to tell you why."

Her tone was even, a knife laid on velvet.

"So…"

"Time for me to bring something out."

"System, activate… Spacetime Armor."

Gold particles flowered around her like dawn on water. A gold Armor formed, the mirror-twin to Coco’s Asura Armor. In her left, a golden greatsword, sun-bright. In her right, a platinum shield, moon-pale.

"Judgment One—First Heart!"

Her shout rang like a temple bell. The Mech flared, gold energy washing over Coco in a shining tide. In the particle storm, her hair faded back to white, snow reclaiming a field.

"There. Your original mind is back, right?"

"Where is my mother?"

Coco’s face was still water; her stare fixed on Su Xinhua like a pin.

"Don’t worry. Your mother is safe, in the sea of consciousness within me. She sees everything here. I had no choice. Only I can explain this."

Helplessness flickered across her face, a cloud across the sun.

"Then what do you need me to do?"

"The secret of the Fate Clock must not be peered at by grasping hands. To truly learn it, you need its approval. Our energies are the key to open its guard. Inject your current energy into the two watches, and it will open."

She spoke, then fed gold energy into one watch, light pooling like molten metal.

"…"

Coco considered, then followed, red energy threading into the other watch like fire into wick.

Red and gold sank into the watches. Their dials spun madly, clock-hands like blades. They drifted closer, magnetized by fate. As the gap closed, power swelled like thunderheads. When they finally touched, energy burst like a sun behind eyelids, and the world went black.

But the mysterious energy didn’t knock them out. It lifted them and set them elsewhere, a door shunting to another sky.

"This is…"

Gu Xin opened her eyes and caught the strangeness like a scent. She looked down. An unfamiliar blue Armor wrapped her, a calm sea made steel.

"Huh? This…"

Beside her, Meng Yuting’s voice wavered. A black Armor clothed her, night distilled and edged.

Across from them, Marilyn stood in her own Armor, a star with its crown back on.

"Looks like I was right. The Fate Clock has accepted you."

Su Xinhua’s gaze swept them, a judge with a gentle pen.

"What’s going on?"

Coco asked, words steady as stakes.

"This space is the Fate Clock’s core. Only those it accepts can enter—and receive its strengthening. Those it rejects would faint and be ejected."

"I see…"

Understanding bloomed like dawn in their minds.

"Then tell us the truth now—mysterious squatter inside my mother."

Coco’s eyes held on Su Xinhua, two nails in wood.

"Hahaha. Alright. You’ve earned the right. But the one who’ll explain isn’t me. It’s it—the Fate Clock."

She pointed into the surrounding void, a finger writing on mist. The world shifted again, scenery turning like pages in a wind.