"Commander, what shall we do? It seems like the cradle ship is surrounding the bloom, almost like they're stopping us from getting anywhere near it!" Riku's voice cracked through the bridge, urgency dripping from every word.

From the raised commander's seat, Tenka, Haruka, and Shogo stared at the tactical map, their faces grim. The glowing display pulsed in ominous reds, where the cradle ships were holding position, forming an iron wall around the bloom.

The best case scenario, the only realistic scenario, was to stay back.

Fighting the Supreme Commander wasn't even on the table. Tenka could match raw power with almost anyone, but her endurance… That was her weakness. In a drawn-out fight, she'd lose. And without Serica or Yura backing them up, the odds tilted hard against them.

"But… Kentaro…" Tenka's voice trailed off, almost swallowed by the hum of the ship. She bit her nail, eyes fixed on the bloom like she could somehow will it to open.

Haruka placed a steadying hand on the back of the commander's chair. "Commander, I think we have to trust Kentaro. Our odds of winning right now are close to zero. If we move and lose, then when Kentaro comes out, he'll find nothing but cradle, and no help from us. We hold back for now."

Tenka's shoulders sank. She hated that Haruka was right. Still, the thought of just sitting here gnawed at her.

What if Kentaro came out injured, running, desperate for backup? They wouldn't even be able to get close.

Their only hope now was that he succeeded in bringing Serica back. Then they could regroup and move on to the rescue of Aria.

Her jaw tightened. "Very well. We wait… But Kentaro, if you die on me now, I'll never forgive you."

*

"Sir," a soldier called from the far console, fingers flying across his keyboard, "the cameras can't pick up anything inside the bloom. We've tried drones, every kind of probe, nothing gets through. As soon as they enter, the connection drops completely. Presumably, electronics are just… Shutting down."

Reiden lounged back in his seat, a chair more comfortable than anything a battlefield should have. His sharp eyes were locked on the fractured blue haze on the main monitor.

"Fascinating," he murmured. "A Reverse Bloom. Been a while since I've seen one of those."

Velza, standing at his side, arched a brow. "Reverse bloom?"

Reiden nodded slowly, like he was savouring the explanation. "Unlike a standard Fracture Bloom, which distorts the physical environment, like the plaza incident with Ice-breaker, the reverse type draws everything inward. It traps its target inside a dream-like realm, memories, visions, all tailored to the Alberline inside. But the Alberline won't be in their normal state." His smirk twitched upward. "They'll be locked in their Nightfract form."

Velza's eyes narrowed on the screen. "So right now… Ice-breaker is reversed."

"Exactly."

She crossed her arms. "If we can't get in, what's the plan? Just wait?"

Reiden gave a quiet chuckle. "Better than sitting here for thirty minutes doing absolutely nothing while we wait for Siren's Nightfract to stabilise."

Velza didn't answer, but her silence said she didn't disagree. The only sound in the room was the constant click-click-click of keys, each one feeding futile commands into dead systems.

Then Reiden's finger snapped.

"Ah… Eureka," he said, deliberately slow, almost theatrical.

Velza gave him a sideways glance.

"I want someone inside," he said at last. "If electronics don't work, fine, then we send a human. Fully geared."

Her brow furrowed. "Is that really wise? Could be risky."

Reiden waved a hand, dismissing the concern as if swatting a bug. "Don't worry. Risk is irrelevant… When the one you send isn't significant."

That faint, fox-like smirk crept higher on his face.

Velza studied him for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "Very well. If that's your decision, I won't argue."

On the screen, soldiers moved to prepare the "volunteer."

Reiden leaned forward in his chair, eyes glinting as the preparations played out.

"Kentaro Takamiya…" He murmured, folding his hands together, "…I hope you don't mind the early gift I'm about to send you."

His chuckle was low, light, but sharp enough to cut.

*

"Who are you? State your name."

Serica's voice was calm, but the tension in her knuckles betrayed her. Her fingers tightened on the hilt of her sword, not much, just enough to make the leather creak under her grip. The faint shift in her stance told Kentaro something else: she was growing impatient.

Kentaro froze. Still kneeling in the frost-bitten dirt, every instinct screamed at him not to move. And yet… He wanted to close the gap between them, to reach her. But how? How could she see him now? Why now?

The wind howled, whipped into a frenzy by the sheer force of her presence. It tore at his hair, stung his eyes. His heartbeat thudded so hard it almost drowned out her voice.

"I… I'm K–Kentaro," he stammered. "You… You might not know me now, but please, stop this, Serica! You have to!" His last words were almost lost, ripped away by the roaring gale.

She tilted her head slightly. "Hmph. How impudent. What do you mean, 'not know you'? And that name… Ken-"

Her lips shaped the syllables, and for just a fraction of a second, her eyes widened, like the word had punched through her armour.

Then it was gone.

Her expression hardened. She staggered back a single step, almost as if trying to retreat from whatever pull he had on her.

"What is this? Magic?!" Her voice sharpened, brittle and defensive. "How are you doing this to me?!" Her grip loosened involuntarily, the hilt trembling faintly.

Kentaro's chest rose and fell heavily. He caught that tiny crack in her composure and pushed himself up to his feet.

"Serica, please! I don't know if you remember me yet, but it's me, Kentaro!"

Her scream cut him off, raw and violent. "SILENCE! GET AWAY!"

Her free hand flew to her temple as though trying to crush the headache blooming behind her eyes. Then, without warning, she dragged her blade across her palm, just enough to draw blood. The bright scarlet ran down her wrist, and Kentaro flinched.

The change was instant.

Her breathing steadied. A smirk twisted her lips. "Hah… It seems your trickery won't work on me this time, human."

She readjusted her stance, her fingers curling around the hilt like it was an extension of her will.

Kentaro stopped. His feet felt nailed to the earth. Seeing her like this, the girl who had once laughed in sunlight, who had been so pure, so stubbornly kind, now radiating nothing but cold, empty malice, it was a wound deeper than any blade could give him.

"SERICA, PLEASE!" His voice cracked, but he didn't care. "STOP THIS! YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU WANT!"

His cry echoed across the skeletal trees. Frost glittered in the moonlight as she raised her blade.

"Tch… What would you know about me?" Her voice was low, lethal. "My purpose is to destroy everything, anything, that interferes with me."

The faint white glow along her sword suddenly flared, threads of light swirling and knotting around the steel. It grew, longer, broader, until it towered over her, almost twice her size. Frost spiralled around the blade like a living thing, refracting the moonlight into shards of cold fire.

"Now, Isalhae!"

The tip of the massive weapon pointed directly at Kentaro's face. His breath hitched.

This… This looks like Serica's Glaceria, but bigger.

Cold bit at the tip of his nose as he stood rooted in place, the blade's aura gnawing at the air between them.

"Serica…" His voice was quiet now, his words deliberate. "Remember… The first time you came to live with me?"

Her brow furrowed. "What are you blabbering about, human?"

He smiled faintly, despite the biting wind. "Remember when you tried to make breakfast… And nearly burned my apartment down?"

A flash, just the tiniest twitch at the corner of her eye.

"Shut up! Your blabbering won't work on me! I don't know who you are!" She stepped back, posture tightening as she prepared to strike.

But Kentaro didn't stop. "Remember arguing with Kira? Playing games with Yura? The trips we took… The dates… All of it. Do you really not remember, Serica?"

Her eyes widened, and for a heartbeat, her blade wavered. Somewhere deep inside her, something else was fighting to surface.

"ENOUGH!" Her voice cracked like ice breaking. "I'VE HEARD ENOUGH OF YOUR RAMBLING! TIME TO BE ELIMINATED!"

She kicked back hard, the distance stretching between them. Her boots left the ground entirely. Slowly, she began to rise into the air, her sword levelled downward at him like a judge's gavel.

Kentaro took a step forward, then another, and felt the sudden bite of ice at his ankles.

"You will get nowhere near me," she hissed. "Stay there, and await your demise."

He tried to break free, slamming his fists against the ice, but the frost only bit deeper. Pain shot through his knuckles. Panic tightened his chest.

She was thirty-five feet above him now, suspended in a halo of frost and light. Both hands gripped the hilt as she raised the weapon overhead.

"No-no-no-no-NO!" His voice cracked as his lungs burned. "PLEASE, SERICA! STOP THIS! THIS ISN'T YOU!"

The only response was her smile, thin, cold, merciless.

"Ha… You truly are a weak, worthless human."

Above her, the clouds began to writhe, unnatural, alive, as if the sky itself feared her. They spiralled downward into a vortex, dragged by an unseen gravity that bent the air. A black-and-blue corona of frost and moonlight ignited around her form, painting her in a ghostly, inhuman glow.

Her hair, once gently swaying in the wind, now whipped violently behind her, strands laced with shimmering particles of ice. The whites of her eyes bled away, leaving a haunting luminescent glow, piercing, alien, and fixed entirely on Kentaro.

The sword in her grasp pulsed, the steel groaning under the surge of Alberline energy, forcing itself into form. Crystalline frost raced along its length, jagged shards jutting outward as if the blade itself was growing teeth. It wasn't just a weapon anymore; it was an executioner's verdict given physical shape.

The air thickened, every breath Kentaro took turning to knives in his lungs. The snow beneath his feet trembled, not from the wind, but from the raw, crushing pressure radiating from her.

"NOW DESTROY HIM, ISALHAE!"

Her scream didn't just echo; it ripped through the frozen forest like a bell tolling for the dead. She swung with both hands, the motion almost too fast for the eye to follow.

The blade's light bloomed into a blinding white sun, swallowing the night. The sky shattered into streaks of silver and blue as the attack descended, dragging a hurricane of frost with it.

The instant it touched the ground, the world convulsed. An eruption of light, wind, and ice obliterated everything in its path. Trees exploded into splinters, the earth itself froze solid in jagged waves.

Kentaro's vision went pure white. He couldn't see. Couldn't move. Couldn't even feel the ground beneath him anymore.

The only thing that remained in his mind… Was her face.

Serica…

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