The aura flared crimson around Aria, faint at first, then pulsing brighter in time with her heartbeat. It wrapped her like a second skin, shimmering red against her long twin-buns of hair. Her eyes hardened as she stared at the slobbering man-monster that had nearly broken Serica in two.

"Enough was enough," Aria said to herself as she looked at the deranged man.

"I won't let you hurt them anymore!" Her voice shook the alley walls. She raised her guitar, fingers trembling for only a heartbeat before confidence surged. "Echo Requiem!"

The first strum rippled through the air like a shockwave, vibrating against the stone. Notes poured outward, warm yet sharp, wrapping around Serica's body. Her veins lit blue-white, her muscles thrumming with new life. The ice sword in her grip shimmered, brighter and colder.

Serica staggered, blinking at the sudden flood of strength. She turned her head just enough to glimpse Aria, her timid friend now strumming with every ounce of passion she'd hidden for so long. Serica's chest tightened.

"Aria…" She softly said, smiling. "I'm glad you're overcoming your fear."

Aria nodded, sweat glistening along her temples, her fingers working the strings with urgent rhythm. "You've got this, Serica! I'm right behind you!"

Serica's lips parted into a smile. She pivoted back toward the beast, tightened her grip on Glaceria, and shoved him backwards with one mighty surge. Frost cracked beneath her shoe as she exhaled hard, exhilaration mixing with exhaustion.

"Aria, your ability is so cool. You're truly amazing."

The man who was more monster than human at this point fell onto his back with a guttural roar, his belly jiggling with the impact. He flailed for a moment, then writhed, struggling upright again. But the pause gave Serica her chance, a chance to strike back. She lifted her sword, eyes narrowed.

"Time to finish this." She muttered, grabbing with extra force on the hilt of her blade.

"Serica! Aria!!" Broke through Serica's concentration, a voice that sounded very familiar.

The cry tore through the night, familiar enough to freeze both girls in place. They glanced past the staggering monster. Two silhouettes sprinted from the mouth of the alley, shadow stretched by flickering lamps.

"Aria! Serica!!"

The voice again, clearer this time. Their hearts clenched as they finally recognised the voice.

Kentaro.

"Stay back, Kentaro!" Serica shouted with all the force she had left. "Don't come any closer! It's not safe!"

Kentaro had already leapt forward, but her tone, desperate, commanding, hit him like a wall. He skidded to a halt, boots scraping the pavement. Tenka, unable to stop in time, bumped into his back.

"Ow, what the hell, Kentaro? Why'd you stop? I know she said don't go, but if we don't..." She rubbed her forehead, glaring.

"I… Don't know. The way Serica said it… It was different. We should listen."

Tenka followed his gaze forward. Her sharp eyes widened. The monster rose again, drool running down his chin, arms twitching with broken rhythm, bones snapping as if they weren't his own. His grotesque body was still moving.

"What the hell is that…" Tenka muttered.

Kentaro's earpiece crackled. Haruka's voice chimed in, calm but tense: "I'm his body now" She said the sound of keyboards being pressed in the background was barely audible thanks to the monster's roars. Then Haruka's voice came this time, a bit more shaky. "H-his whole body is radiating Alberline energy."

Tenka's head whipped toward the monster as it struggled to move. "What?! You're saying he's an Alberline! That makes no sense!?"

"No." Haruka's voice sharpened. "Not exactly. He's not one of them. But… from what I can see, it's not like he's a naturally born one, but it's like something's been given to him. Or worse, something's controlling him." Her fingers tapped rapidly against a keyboard in the background. "The best way I can describe it to you right now is like whatever this thing or person is that's controlling him, it's like a parasite or something like a tether."

Kentaro clenched his fists. Though he didn't want to, Kentaro's mind instantly went to her, the only person he thought could be behind this. "T-then could it be that it was Shaula who was behind this?"

Neither Tenka nor Haruka answered, because they didn't know it.

"It could be, but since we don't know due to her power being unknown to us, we can't make any assumptions or speculations right now", Tenka muttered.

The man lunged forward at Serica, each blow cracking through the alley, bones shattering in his arms, only to reset without pain. The crunch of cartilage echoed. Kentaro's jaw tightened as he watched helplessly on the sidelines as Serica staggered beneath the onslaught.

"Fighting him normally won't stop him; in fact, the only way to stop him normally would be to kill him." She voiced.

"There's no way we can kill him. There has to be another way!" Kentaro responded.

"There is another way, but," Haruka continued, "it is to either stop the caster, or sever whatever's controlling him. Find the source, and cut it."

Tenka narrowed her eyes. Her brain worked fast, tracing options. "We can't find the caster, at least not in time before the man gives out and dies... So if I wanted to hide a control tether in a person… Where would I put it?" She studied his movements, every grotesque twitch, every shudder. Then she saw it. The faint shimmer atop his head.

Her lips curled. "I think I know."

"Where?!" Kentaro demanded.

"On top of his head. But I'll need to get close to find out."

Kentaro stepped forward. "If you're going to check, should I help Serica distract him?"

"No," Tenka snapped, her tone slicing the air. "Stay here. If you jump in, she'll worry more about protecting you than fighting. She glared at Kentaro before her eyes fixated on the man, "It'll only lead to the plan failing. Let me handle this." She said with confidence.

"Tenka, wait!" Kentaro tried to stop her.

But before he could get his words out, it was too late. She was already gone.

She sprinted toward the alley wall, boots hammering stone, and then, gravity broke. She kicked off the vertical surface, flipping into the air. The world tilted as she twisted mid-spin, her body arcing above the monster. The faint glow atop hisskull confirmed it: a pulsing, unnatural light.

"There you are," Tenka breathed, smirking.

She landed smoothly beside Aria, who gasped in relief.

"Tenka!"

Tenka brushed dirt from her clothes, eyes flicking to the glowing guitar in Aria's hands. Her stern face softened. "Good job, holding him back."

Aria flushed with pride, nodding quickly.

Then Tenka faced Serica again, her gaze sharp. "Aria. To win this, we need Serica to pin him down. Keep playing, feed her more power. Just enough to hold him for a second. There is a light on his head that I think is the thing controlling him."

Aria's face wavered. "Light? On his head?"

"Don't question it, we don't have time. Just trust me, please."

Aria bit her lip, then strummed harder. The notes grew faster, louder, red waves of sound wrapping around Serica.

"W-whoa…" Serica whispered as strength surged through her limbs.

Tenka's voice rang out: "Serica, freeze him in place. Just hold him still."

Serica nodded before she exhaled hard, jumping back from the clash. Her ice sword pulsed with blinding light before she lifted it high, then slammed it into the ground. "Glaceria, Frost Bound!"

Cracks split the pavement, ice racing outward in jagged veins. The frost surged up the monster's legs, encasing his calves, his knees, his feet in thick frozen chains. He howled, thrashing, but his legs were locked.

Aria's eyes widened. "Incredible…"

From a distance, Kentaro muttered, "That's new."

Haruka's voice hummed through the comms. "It seems the more she uses her power, the more she's evolving her Sublimation. Learning new forms under pressure. Remarkable…"

Kentaro frowned. "But she's used Glaceria for what? Since the day she got her powers? Why wouldn't she know this already?"

"Not sure," Haruka admitted. "But one thing's clear, she's still growing. Still changing."

Before Kentaro could respond, Tenka bolted. She launched up the wall again, this time soaring higher. The air rippled around her boots as if she had invisible footholds.

"Skywalk," Tenka whispered.

Her foot pressed down on nothingness, yet the air detonated beneath her like a cannon, a white burst exploding into a cloud-ring. She rocketed higher, each step leaving a shockwave that cracked like thunder in the dead alley.

The monster snarled below, smashing chunks of ice, the ground trembling with every strike.

Tenka twisted midair, body coiling, aura flaring crimson. She hung suspended for a heartbeat, like a blade poised before the killing stroke.

"Got you." "Now, again, Sky Walk," she muttered.

Then she dropped, flying down at rapid speed, creating a mini shockwave as her boots pushed off the air, heading straight for the light

"DO IT!!!" Everyone shouted in anticipation.

Tenka's heel cut through the sky with the weight of an avalanche, wind screaming around her as if the world itself was splitting. The target was clear: that grotesque, pulsing light crowning his head.

The monster broke free in the final instant, ice exploding outward, but too late. He couldn't dodge. With a guttural roar, he snapped his arms up, mangled hands locking over his skull as Tenka's descending kick came crashing down.

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