With “Cross-Flash” ignited, Ling Yi and Mira met blade to blade, a storm’s eye locked in place.

A slender red edge collided with a rugged black greatsword; shockwaves tumbled the gravel like a frying pan tossing stones, yet neither gave an inch, attack and defense hammering like rain on iron.

“This pace…”

[Keep this up and you’ll lose. Mira doesn’t have a five-minute cap.]

Yekase’s voice stayed cool, a winter lake without ripples—like the crisis didn’t exist, like she trusted Ling Yi would carve out a flawless win in the three minutes left.

[Ling Yi, it’s your fight right now.]

“…”

Ling Yi had no breath to spare for words, like a beast bristling behind fangs. Yekase kept talking, steady as a metronome.

[You know the flow and the forecast better than we do. “Win it alone” is great—but remember this: you’re combat personnel. You’re entitled to logistics.]

[So. What do you need?]

“Doctor…”

Ling Yi panted, a low growl threading her breath like a cub ready to pounce.

“Robots… roll the robots out—!”

[Copy.]

B-666 “Luciferin—Eden Zero-Type,” move to the front!

Thirty thousand meters up, a hangar doorway flashed—one mech dissolved into particles like frost blown from steel.

On the ground inside the sword-duel base, a silver curtain bloomed behind Ling Yi like moonlight split open.

She shed one clash and sprang skyward, a red spark flying.

Luciferin burst through the screen, flipped its frame, opened the cockpit; metal petals closed and wrapped her like a steel chrysalis.

Last time against Mira—Mobile Warrior ZX got carved to scrap. But now Ling Yi felt the weight shift; she’d punch through the mismatch in size.

“Another mech? Second Construct—”

The very move that forced ZX to retreat last time.

But this time, the angle flipped.

Eden Zero-Type reached out in Yekase’s signature snatch, conjured a size-matched Sky Striker from thin air like pulling a blade from a river, and slashed opposite Mira’s arc.

—K-chak!

Edges locked again, teeth on bone. Mira was driven to one knee, her balance skidding like a sled on glass.

She’d climbed the awakening ladder, tinting her Mind Energy with color; but compared to Xiaoyuan’s mastery—seasoned in an iron wok, crisp and complete—she hadn’t had the time to simmer.

Ling Yi, with Eden Zero-Type’s circuit backing, rose to the same height of realm, two peaks facing in the same snow.

Equal realm means the duel rests on Infinite Power—its grain and its flood.

Mira, no matter how strong as a single fighter, lacked Yekase’s oily, veteran tricks tailor-made to gut mechs. In raw strength she slipped behind, threads pulling tight, sleeves coming up short.

Less than a minute left.

“Final strike! Light it—‘Hundred Nights Un—’”

“—Nah. I fold!”

Mira jammed her beloved black blade into the floor and flopped on her back like a cat sunning itself.

…

……

“Huh?” Ling Yi blinked, surprise like a splash of cold water.

“Eh?” Jiang Bailu stared, shock crackling like static.

[I knew it.]

“I keep my word. Not fighting.” Mira repeated, chin up like a flag. “Tired, hungry, bored. I’m heading back to play Smash with Carol!”

“…”

Jiang Bailu glided in through the window like a white gull: “What about your warranty contract?”

“Can’t win—what do you want me to do? Even Shadow Curtain International wouldn’t call it breach!” Mira rolled her eyes, pitch-black humor in motion.

The “Cross-Flash” timer burned out. Eden Zero-Type shimmered to particles and returned to the Ambition Divine Ship’s hangar. Ling Yi touched down, light on her feet like ash settling.

A portal lit beside her. Yekase walked out wearing the Mechbreaker mask, night for a face.

“So this wraps, yeah? We’ll hold Roze in our custody. That cool?”

“Take it, take it! I’m sick of looking at it!”

“Right—about why Unrecognized Consortium X suddenly dumped their best armored robots on the market… I’ve got a small guess.”

With the split confirmed, Yekase’s tone veered like a turn signal flashing.

Jiang Bailu, who’d been standing by her side, stiffened. She turned to leave, steps feather-light but fast.

“Bailu, get back here.”

“…!”

Jiang Bailu edged back, nerves thrumming like a taut wire, then kneeled by Mira and lowered her head, a confession without words.

Yekase turned toward the front gate. Lu Yao came in steady as a winter wind, one hand on someone’s shoulder, guiding her forward. A gentle push, and the girl sat beside Mira, face painted in awkwardness.

…Shen Shanshan.

“Found her among the fleeing fighters. A friend of yours, right?” Lu Yao sounded unflappable, a cliff that doesn’t crumble.

“Heh…”

Yekase felt a headache bloom; she pinched her temple, slow circles against a drumbeat of trouble.

She looked at the three—one sprawled, two kneeling—drew a breath deep as a cavern—

Pointed at Shen Shanshan,

“One whoring.”

Pointed at Jiang Bailu,

“One gambling.”

Finally pointed at Mira:

“One doing both.”

Mira finally looked a shade embarrassed—or maybe she’d swapped in Tōdō Moka to take the scolding. Either way, she sat up, head bowed, a cloud shading her sun.

Three knelt in a tidy line before Yekase, absorbing the lecture like rice soaking sauce.

“But, but…” Mira’s voice softened, delicate as a teacup—now Yekase was sure Tōdō was out front. “Carol used to be a rich heiress. When she spends, she burns cash like firewood…”

“Tell her not to! Credit cards have limits. You gonna worship her like an ancestor?”

“Eep…”

She shrank her neck and shut up, a turtle into its shell.

Yekase took a long breath. Punishing Tōdō for Mira’s sins felt a bit much; then she thought, if Tōdō knows Carol, their two personas aren’t that far apart. Odds are they did the mischief together.

She took three more breaths, each one a pebble sinking in a pond.

“I’ve told you a thousand times about these nasty hobbies… This talk needs an end—”

Her phone rang.

“Sorry. Taking this.”

Yekase stepped back into the portal and checked the caller: Fang Tang.

“Hey, what’s up?”

[Doctor… Doctor!]

Fang Tang’s voice crackled with panic, wind in bare branches.

…?

A cold prickle flooded Yekase’s spine, a winter rain down the back.

“What happened—”

[—The quarry… our base… Shadow Curtain International attacked!!]

……

“Eh?”

…The quarry?

Shadow Curtain International?

Why?

Right now?

[Crimson Field… and Lin Yuqing… they were beaten and taken…! Doctor… help us…!]

Yekase jolted awake. “Where are you now?! Are you still at the base?!”

[Ling Ya forced a breakout with me… we ported back to Valhalla…]

“Good. You two rest. We’re heading there—”

……

—No. Wrong.

Ling Yi just disassembled Cross-Flash. She’s spent, no fight left in the gauge.

Yekase herself is blood-drained—stuck in seven-year-old mode, stats chopped like a nerf bat.

Jiang Bailu won’t even defy her boss—no way she’ll stand up to Shadow Curtain International.

That leaves… only Lu Yao?

A wave of vertigo rolled her, ground tilting like a deck in a storm.

They’d left tonight thinking their small team had margin to spare. At the worst moment, only one could fight?

“I’m going now.”

Lu Yao’s voice rose behind her, flint on steel.

Yekase clenched through the dizziness and turned. Lu Yao stood there, face as cool as ever.

But her eyes burned like coals ready to spit flame.

“…We go.”

“You can fight like this?”

“If I can’t, I still will.”

“Okay.”

Lu Yao answered only that, summoned Part 3, vaulted the sky-island rail, and dove like a hawk leaving the cliff.

Yekase mounted the Polaris Staff, rattled off five flight spells before she remembered she hadn’t toggled Celestial Speech. She slapped on every affix she knew, then vanished on the spot, a spark swallowed by air.

……

……

Dozens of kilometers away, on the outskirts of Liudong City.

The quarry, quiet by habit, blazed with lights like a festival; battle cries rolled like thunder over stone.

Beast King Squadron had six bodies at full count, yet Shadow Curtain International sent a whole battalion of fighters and over five officer-tier cadres, sealing the quarry tight as a jar.

Professor F stood in the command room, eyes on banks of screens—camera feeds flickering like moths.

More than half the hidden cameras were found and smashed; intel shrank like a puddle under sun, static snow eating chunks of the big board.

Second-gen Beast King Squadron… would they, tonight, retrace the first generation’s fate—gone without warning, a candle snuffed?

—No, not without warning.

Unlike the first gen’s mystery-swathed end, Professor F knew why Shadow Curtain came knocking.

The “Silver Star System.”

The alchemy engine Yekase brought back from Cloudlong City.

Shadow Curtain had agents in that rally race, or so the rumor went. Maybe her report mentioned the engine. Maybe the top brass took a real interest.

And that interest fermented into this—

[Professor! Crimson Field dived in to save Yuqing! He’s deep in their crowd!]

“Have Ling Ya take Fang Tang back inside the base, then hop the transporter to Valhalla and shelter. You fall back too, go with them. I can warp away on the Observer—don’t worry about me.”

[I can’t! Leaving comrades, leaving the base… I can’t! Professor, you’re staying to die with them, aren’t you?! Then I’ll stay too!]

“Crimson Field and Yuqing aren’t dead, only captured.” Professor F kept his tone flat, a calm river. “For a normal hero, capture means an injection to lower Infinite Power affinity and about half a year locked up. Your job now is to preserve strength.”

[Then what about you? If you’re caught—what happens?]

“Organizing sustained violent action—at the top they’ll call it sedition, maybe death penalty.” Professor F smiled, a thin edge of moonlight.

[…!]

“We haven’t failed. Nothing’s failed yet.”

[Professor…]

Wang Zhewei, seeing Professor F’s resolve set like cured steel, thought a moment; then he swung his blade and wrecked the Valhalla transporter, sparks falling like fireflies.

[If I run too, no one will destroy the transporter. They could follow us… Professor, let’s witness it together. Witness whether our Squadron crawls to live or breaks to ash…]

The last camera died.

Fighters poured into the base, a flood taking walls.

Professor F stood with hands in his pockets, a lone figure in a storm,

and watched the screens go to snow.