The breach did not reopen with violence.
It reopened with intent.
A slow tear of space, deliberate and precise, spreading outward like ink on fragile parchment. Not a storm. Not a wave. A scalpel. The Sanctum's crimson circuits shuddered as the fabric of the Veil thinned once more, the stone trembling beneath Sarah's feet.
Every heartbeat across the lattice tightened.
The air thickened around them, charged, metallic, tasting of an imminent threat woven with malice and certainty.
Rias stepped forward, hand sliding against Sarah's ribs in a stabilizing touch. "This isn't another probe. They're done testing us."
"No more scouts," Akeno murmured, brushing her fingertips along Sarah's shoulder. "This is where they show their real hand."
Koneko, Xenovia, Rossweisse, and Lilith Fragment arrayed themselves around Sarah in a tightening circle—each connection igniting discrete pulses through Lust Engine. The Proto-Ascension simmered beneath Sarah's skin, heat and pressure coiled like a steadily rising tide.
Sarah PV: 420 / Lv: 53 / Force: 290 / Desire: 3700 / Intelligence: 65 / Agility: 178
(Proto-Ascension active: +200 Force, +450 Desire, +100 Agility)
The breach crackled.
Then three silhouettes stepped through.
Not shadows. Not distorted fragments. Champions.
The Sanctum's defenses strained as their auras spread outward, constricting the air until every breath felt like pushing through static.
The first champion—towering, armored in shifting dark-crimson plates—raised a massive cleaver forged from raw spatial fractures. His presence was brute annihilation; his aura bent gravity around him.
The second—cloaked in veils of flickering spectral energy—moved without footsteps, her motions leaving trails of phantasmal echoes. A conceptual assassin. She was built for killing without form or witness.
And the third—calm, unassuming, silver-eyed—felt like a singularity of intent. No armor, no weapon, no flare of aura. Yet Sarah's instincts screamed that he was the most dangerous.
The Outer Faction's elite.
The champions sent to break them.
A hush fell across the chamber.
Then the silver-eyed champion spoke, voice soft, almost courteous.
"Sarah. You have evolved faster than predicted. Admirable. But the Era Veil cannot permit your ascent."
Rias shifted closer, hand tightening along Sarah's waist. "He talks a lot for someone about to lose."
The champion smiled faintly. "Confidence is a beautiful delusion. Let us dispel it."
The armored giant charged.
The Sanctum floor ruptured under the impact of his first step. Spatial cleaver raised, aura compressing gravity so violently the air itself bent around him. Sarah's body reacted instantly—Proto-Ascension flooding her limbs, heightening perception, sharpening intent.
Akeno brushed her lips near Sarah's ear, whisper-soft. "Let it guide you."
The touch triggered a surge.
Skill Triggered: Proto-Ascension Overdrive – First Deployment
Effect: Emotional vectors manifest physically; Desire shapes micro-trajectories; lattice reflexes exceed measurable thresholds.
Bonuses: +250 Desire, +120 Agility, +100 Force.
Sarah moved.
She didn't dodge—she flowed, body weaving through collapsing gravitational arcs with micro-adjustments that felt instinctive, intuitive. Xenovia aligned her forearm with Sarah's, amplifying precision. Koneko stabilized kinetic flow. Rossweisse reinforced structural patterns. Rias and Akeno fueled the resonance. Lilith bound it all into a single vector.
Their synergy struck first.
Sarah's strike landed in a flash of crimson, hitting the giant's armored chest. The impact didn't push him back—but it cracked his gravitational veil. A hairline fissure. Enough to make him reel.
The assassin reacted immediately.
She dissolved into spectral strands, phasing through the shadows behind Sarah with a dagger shaped from conceptual void. A silent kill strike.
Lilith Fragment surged forward, spectral filaments intercepting the dagger's path. Rias slid a hand along Sarah's thigh, triggering Charm Domain's inner layers.
Skill Activated: Charm Domain – Subjugation Pulse
Effect: Emotional dominance overloads hostile conceptual abilities.
Bonus: Enemy spectral precision reduced by 40%.
The assassin's form faltered—just long enough.
Xenovia pivoted beside Sarah, blade arcing in perfect synchrony with the lattice. Their motion fused into a single dual-vector attack that forced the assassin back through a cascade of phantasmal fractures.
Akeno laughed, a low electric sound. "One down. Two annoyed."
But the silver-eyed champion had not moved.
He simply watched.
Calculating.
"Impressive coordination," he said. "But you are still incomplete."
He raised one hand.
Space folded.
Not shattered—folded, like fabric pinched between two fingers. A compression field surged outward.
Rossweisse's voice snapped like a command. "Brace!"
Sarah stepped forward, meeting the distortion with Proto-Ascension's rising hum. The field slammed into the lattice, distorting physical space into a twisting corridor of pressure. Yet where her harem buckled—
Sarah did not.
Not fully.
The pressure was immense, crushing, world-bending. But Proto-Ascension expanded in response, recognizing the threat, adapting.
Rias's hand slid to Sarah's heartbeat. "Push. Sarah, push it back."
Sarah exhaled—slow, steady, focused.
Skill Triggered: Proto-Ascension – Desire Field Emergence
Effect: A thin barrier of Desire crystallizes around Sarah, transforming emotions into physical counterforce.
Bonus: Compression nullification + partial inversion.
The distortion cracked.
The silver-eyed champion tilted his head slightly, intrigued. "You can already resist concept-folding. Remarkable. But premature. Incomplete."
He gestured again.
The armored giant and the assassin repositioned instantly, aura synchronizing with his command.
A formation.
The real fight began.
Sarah set her stance, Proto-Ascension burning through her veins like incarnate heat. Her harem aligned around her in disciplined arcs—touches sliding into place, breaths syncing, pulses tightening into a single war rhythm.
Koneko whispered, calm and steady. "We're with you."
Akeno's hand brushed Sarah's lower back. "Pulse for pulse."
Rias locked her gaze into Sarah's. "Level up. Break through. Right here."
The breach pulsed behind the champions.
The Sanctum vibrated under the incoming storm.
Sarah took one step forward.
"Then let's see," she said quietly, "what my incomplete power can do."
The battle erupted like an eruption of light and shadow.
Proto-Ascension unleashed.
And the champions answered in kind.