“Had a little hiccup… it’s fixed. Let’s continue.” His tone clicked like unpausing a game, a casual tap on Start in a field of blood and dust.

Irritation surged first, hot as a coal under the ribs, before Lian moved at all. Being toyed with stung like salt in a cut.

That clown’s weaker than me, yet he struts like an untouchable war god. It makes my palm itch to slap him into the dirt.

Dio didn’t seem to notice Lian’s anger, his voice all smug edges and smirks. “What? Not coming? First move’s got the advantage, y’know.”

As you wish.

“One-Way Transit!”

A white flash wrapped Lian like a cocoon, then burst; he bloomed behind Dio like a shadow after lightning, Darkness Sword humming with cold light.

“Noxian Guillotine!”

The Darkness Sword fell straight as a plumb line, an ancient executioner’s blade seeking the pale column of Dio’s neck.

“One-Way Stair…”

The whisper left Dio’s lips; a bottomless stairwell yawned under his feet like a black gullet. He dropped away, the mouth snapped shut, and the blade bit only air.

“Tsk.” The sound clicked like a pebble. He ran again. His Stand’s space rank outclassed Lian’s instant space spells, so escape couldn’t be canceled, only watched like rain behind glass.

“Forty Knives Volley.”

The voice knifed up from behind. Lian’s heart punched once; instinct flared, and he blinked a short distance, skimming aside like a leaf on a gust.

He whipped toward the source, but only a closing seam in space remained, a silver eyelid sliding shut.

No doubt—that was Dio. He’s grinding me like I’m a raid boss: hit, hide, no greedy swings, textbook high-level discipline. But going for a no-hit clear? You looking down on me?

If you’re looking down on me, then behold a loli’s wrath.

She lifted that small foot; golden sparks gathered at the toe like fireflies, and a heavy aura pressed outward like a storm front. Only a foot-fetishist could ignore that pressure.

Too bad Dio isn’t one; he’s a full-on JoJo freak. A bad omen crawled up his spine from that neat little foot, and he tore open dozens of space windows around Lian like iris flowers.

He cast his knives; a flood of steel geysered through the portals, a silver rain far denser than before.

It didn’t matter. Two heartbeats passed; mana packed tight at the toe, buzzing like a hive.

“War Stomp—Overclocked!”

She cried the name, proud and bright, and her glowing toe kissed the ground like a stamp of thunder.

Thoom.

Wind rippled out from Lian as center, a widening ring on dark water. Every knife within a hand’s span flicked away like straw before a gale.

Then the ground stayed smooth, while the air itself grew hairline cracks, wrong as frost on summer glass.

Crack.

The cracks spidered, then the air shattered like a mirror. And no—this wasn’t just air. The thing breaking was space.

Light couldn’t cross the fractures; a ten-meter sphere around Lian sank into night, a void with breath and heartbeat. She could still see; if a skill blinded you, what was the point?

Mana sense sketched Dio clear in her mind, a man-shaped smear of blood. Space-break had chewed him up; without a body as tempered as hers, you don’t tank the void.

Whoosh…

Under ten seconds, the broken space knit itself, threads pulled taut by the world’s own correcting hands.

Pain from the rupture ebbed, and Dio finally drew breath. Aer’s voice brushed his mind like a cold finger.

“Enough… begin. Do it exactly as we planned.”

On any other day he’d balk. Now he lit up like he’d hit the jackpot; pain slid off, and a winner’s curve tugged at his mouth.

“Yes.” The reply was a feather-soft murmur only he could hear.

Under Lian’s puzzled gaze, Dio pushed up his ruined frame, fished out two pink daggers, and slit the air. Four portals irised open on the field like black lilies.

Two yawned in front of him. Flow showed one mouth led straight to Alicia’s heart, and the other opened toward Aer’s head, cold as a blade on the nape.

He hurled both pink knives into the twin doors. The one aimed at Aer flashed—something on it caught light, a glint like a wink from doom.

Lian understood in a blink. Before, she’d have saved Alicia without a pause, knowing that trick couldn’t harm Aer. But now? Aer is sealed.

Alicia or Aer—what kind of question is that?

Her body went full burn. Speed, strength, dynamic vision—every trait spiked to a peak, and the world around her slowed like a drop of amber. She pivoted toward Aer.

Yet her feet wouldn’t move, as if roots speared the earth through her soles.

“Damn it! Why are you stopping me?!”