His vision was nothing but white.

Not just white, blinding. Like the sun had been dragged down from the heavens and pressed right against his face, his eyelids slammed shut instinctively, but even then the light burned crimson shapes into his sight. His ears rang with a low, suffocating muffle, as if someone had dropped him into the depths of an ocean.

This is it, he thought.

The girl he'd cherished more than anyone… The one he swore to protect had ended his life.

The cold conclusion sank into him like ice:

No more arguments with Tenka. No more quiet moments with Yura. No more laughter with the Halcyon crew. No more Serica, at least, not the one he knew. All that was left was this blinding finale, the afterimage of her face lingering as the darkness crept in to take him.

…Or was it?

The light began to fade, not all at once, but in slow, cautious shivers of dimness. Kentaro dared to open his eyes a fraction, squinting against the glare. And that's when he saw it, just barely, through the haze, a faint blue aura surrounding him.

Not just a glow. A dome.

"…What the…" Kentaro whispered, breath catching.

The light dwindled enough for him to see clearly at last. His heartbeat lurched.

Floating in front of him, solid and unmoving, was not a wall of ice, not rubble, but a shield, her shield.

Veil.

He'd forgotten it in the chaos, but now the memory came rushing back. Glaciera, her sword, had always been her offence, the weapon she wielded to carve through enemies. But Veil… Veil was different, the opposite of offence. Her defence. Her fortress. A shield that could reflect any attack and send it back doubled.

It hovered there, as if she herself were still standing between him and death.

"You're…" He breathed, words failing him.

The aura slowly faded, dispersing into the air like mist, and the shield tilted just enough for him to see the handle, shining, pristine, glimmering like it had been waiting for his hand.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Serica's voice cracked across the air like a whip. "HOW, HOW ARE YOU USING MY SUBLIMATION?! VEIL! HOW COULD YOU?!" She was screaming at the shield as if it were alive.

Kentaro just stared, mind blank, before slowly reaching out. His fingers closed around the grip. It fit. Perfectly. Like it had always been meant for him.

Her fury grew sharp enough to cut the air.

"HOW CAN YOU HOLD IT? JUST WHO ARE YOU?!"

He blinked at her, glancing at the shield, then back at her twisted, enraged face. "What do you mean? It's… Pretty light, actually. I've seen you use it before; it looked heavy. Or…" He flexed an arm, smirking faintly, "Maybe I've just put on a lot of muscle."

Her breath hitched into a snarl. "HOW DARE YOU MOCK MY STRENGTH?! ONLY THE WIELDER CAN TOUCH MY SWORD AND SHIELD! FOR AN OUTSIDER LIKE YOU, IT SHOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE!"

Kentaro let the smirk stay, even though his pulse was racing. "Heh. Guess you underestimated me, Serica. Though the other you wouldn't have.

Maybe you've got a lot to learn from her."

That was a mistake.

Her rage ignited into something feral. "You think you're funny? I'll show you funny when you're on the FLOOR!"

She kicked off the air, Glaciera shrinking down to its original size, meant for close-range slaughter, and closed the gap between them in a blink. But Kentaro was no longer frozen in place, and the Veil pulsed in his grip with power.

He readied himself to meet her head-on.

Then.

A single gunshot cracked through the air, slicing a strand of Serica's dark hair as she twisted away.

"Who DARES interrupt?!" She roared.

Both she and Kentaro turned as fifteen armed Spire soldiers surged into the clearing, rifles and longswords at the ready.

"Target located!" Their commander barked. "Eliminate Icebreaker, then Kentaro Takamiya!"

Kentaro's brows knitted. "How the hell did they even get in here? And why now

The squad opened fire. Bullets tore the air in a deadly swarm, streaking toward Serica with enough force to pulp a normal target. But she was no normal target.

She twisted through the sky like a streak of silver, Glaciera flashing arcs of blue light that split each round mid-flight. Every deflection shattered into sprays of glittering frost that rained down in icy sparks, embedding into trees and freezing the bark solid.

The soldiers adjusted their aim, shouting, but she was already gone, reappearing above them in a single wingbeat, the snow swirling violently in her wake. Kentaro's eyes tracked her, breath shallow. Even now, every movement she made left a phantom trail in the air, like her speed was bending the cold around her.

One ricocheted bullet whipped past her and came screaming toward Kentaro. He spun aside.

And froze.

His boot scuffed the edge of something that shouldn't exist.

Behind him stretched a wound in the world itself.

A trench. Not a line, not a crack, a yawning chasm carved clean into the earth, wide enough to swallow houses whole. The ground had been sheared away in a perfect arc that began where he'd been standing and ran straight through the ruins of Serica's home, cutting the landscape open for what had to be over three hundred meters. At its deepest, the slash dropped forty feet, jagged ice spikes jutting from its edges like teeth. Frost steamed off the impact scar, the sheer cold warping the air above it into a shimmering haze.

It was as if a glacier had fallen from the sky and sliced the land in two.

Kentaro's throat tightened. She'd done this… With a single swing. And she'd barely broken stride.

Up above, Serica blurred between volleys of gunfire, spinning, feinting, her blade a comet's tail of frost. But Kentaro could see it now, the slight delay in her parries, the faint hitch in her breath each time she banked away from a bullet. The ultimate strike she'd unleashed earlier had cost her. Her wings flickered as she narrowly avoided a shot to the chest, twisting in midair to impale a soldier below in a spear of ice that exploded outward in a cloud of snow.

Still, she kept going, darting, weaving, punishing every misstep, until the last of them fell.

When her boots finally touched the earth, her shoulders dropped. The frost swirling around her legs was slower now, heavier. Her breathing rasped in the winter air.

This was his chance.

Kentaro's boots crunched over broken frost and scorched earth as he pushed forward. Shards of ice still jutted from the ground like jagged teeth, steam curling off them in the cold air. A dying Spire soldier tried to grab his ankle, Kentaro's heel came down hard, and the hand slipped away.

Ahead, Serica stood with her back to him, sword low but still ready, scanning the treeline for the next threat. Her breathing was sharp, every exhale visible in the freezing mist. Even drained, she carried herself like someone expecting another fight.

Perfect.

Kentaro darted between two frozen trunks, cutting the distance. She didn't hear him over the crunch of settling ice.

Then.

His hands landed on her shoulders. Firm. Warm through the cold.

Her entire body stiffened instantly. For a split second, she thought another enemy had gotten the drop on her… Until his voice slid into her ear.

"Hey, Serica. You tired?"

She jerked her head back, eyes flashing, but he'd already let go.

Why? Why would he just release her? Letting an armed enemy walk away in the middle of a fight… Was he insane?

Her body acted before her mind finished the thought; she leapt forward to regain space.

That's when a wounded Spire soldier lunged from behind a tree, sword raised in both hands.

"YOU'RE MINE, ICEBREAKER!" he roared, bringing the blade down with all his remaining strength.

CLANG!

The sound tore through the air, metal smashing against metal with a force that rattled Serica's bones. Her eyes snapped open, her breath shaky and uneven, and there he was.

The man she had just tried to kill.

"K–You!" she cried, her voice trembling, disbelief lacing every syllable.

Kentaro stood before her, teeth grit, muscles straining as he held off the enemy's blade. His whole body shook from exhaustion, but still, he didn't let the strike through.

Without hesitation, he wrenched her sword from her limp hands and, in one swift motion, slammed the flat of the blade into the Spire soldier's head. The man crumpled to the ice like a broken doll.

Serica just stared.

He had wielded Veil, a divine shield only she should be able to touch and now, as if mocking the very rules of her existence, he was swinging Glaciera with the same ease she did.

"J–Just… What are you?" she whispered, barely finding her voice.

Kentaro, panting, turned to her. For a heartbeat, his eyes lingered on her face, the fear, the confusion, and then drifted to the weapons in his grip. He looked back at her once more and, without a word, let both sword and shield fall to the frost.

Her confusion deepened. "D–Disarming yourself in front of an opponent… Are you mad?" She shouted, but there was a faint, unsteady waver in her tone.

He ignored the outburst. Instead, a small smile touched his lips as he stepped toward her, slow and deliberate, until the space between them seemed to shrink into nothing.

"Because I, Kentaro… Am stupid. Stupidly hopeless without you, Serica."

Her eyes widened.

"K–Kentaro…"

The name echoed in her mind like a half-forgotten melody. She knew it, somewhere deep inside, yet it was tangled in the haze of Alberline's curse. Why did this name make her chest tighten?

His hand, warm but chilled from the air, came to rest gently on the back of her head. His forehead pressed to hers, his other hand against her heart.

Click.

The anchor's connection was set. And then, something she never could have predicted.

His lips touched hers.

Her eyes flew open in shock. "K–Kissing the enemy in the middle of a fight? How much of a pervert is he-" But the thought melted almost instantly.

The warmth… It felt right.

Her eyelids grew heavy, her mind drifting to that same feeling before, in another time, another life. The name pulsed louder in her head.

Kentaro… Kentaro… Kentaro!

Light flared around her as her flowing dress began to unravel into sparkling motes. Alberline's power peeled away with every heartbeat, the cursed strength collapsing.

"It's you… Kentaro! I've missed you!" she breathed, and this time, her arms wrapped tightly around him. "How could I ever forget you, dear Kentaro?"

Their lips parted. She smiled, radiant, relieved, barely aware that the last of her clothing had dissolved into nothing. Kentaro, however, definitely noticed. His entire face flushed crimson, and he whipped his head away.

But before he could speak, she hugged him from behind, pressing her bare chest against his back, her warmth searing through him.

"U–Um… Serica! Y–Your chest!" he stammered, voice almost breaking.

She didn't care. "Kentaro… thank you. I'm so happy… so happy to live life with you again," she said, tears glistening as they streaked down her cheeks.

His shoulders relaxed. "…Yeah. I've missed you, too, Serica."

And then.

The world shook.

A sharp CRACK rang out, deep and resonant, like a massive pane of glass fracturing. Around them, the perfect bloom-dome shimmered violently. Fissures of light split across the curved sky, branching like lightning. Each crack let out a deafening, echoing groan, as if the air itself were straining under the pressure.

"K–Kentaro! What's going on?!" Serica clung to him as the ground beneath them quivered, frost fracturing and breaking away into glowing shards that floated briefly before fading into nothing.

He glanced up. The blue aura that sealed this dream world was flickering, its edges warping like ripples in a dying flame. "Crap… The bloom's collapsing! If it folds in on itself while we're still inside-"

A thunderous boom split the air. Above them, a section of the dome shattered completely, chunks of shimmering light raining down like glass, vanishing before they hit the ground. The curvature of the dream sky bent inward, curling and twisting, pulling everything toward the edges.

Kentaro stripped off his shirt and tossed it over her, tightening it around her frame in one smooth motion. "We need to run! Now!"

They sprinted, each step jarring against the trembling earth. The cracks widened, black voids yawning beneath the fractured surface, gusts of cold wind pulling at their clothes and hair. In the distance, the end of the bloom's circle was visible, but it was shrinking, the exit collapsing like an iris closing.

The tremors grew violent, throwing them off balance. The sound was deafening, like a thousand mirrors breaking at once, mixed with the hollow howl of a collapsing cavern. Still, they pushed forward, racing time itself.

And the bloom… Was almost gone.

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