The Sanctum's core chamber lit up in violent pulses, as if struggling to survive the pressure of the Proto-Ascension unfolding at its center. Sarah felt the floor vibrate with each heartbeat—not her own, but the collective rhythm of the lattice binding her to the women who stood behind her. The energy coursing through her veins no longer behaved like simple power. It was a second consciousness, coiling and uncoiling around her every movement, anticipating her before intention could form.
The three Outer Faction champions recovered from the earlier exchanges, each adjusting their stance with renewed precision. Their auras thickened, expanding outward until the room's reinforced sigils flickered under the strain. The Sanctum felt small now—too small—for the magnitude of forces gathering inside it.
Rias leaned close, her voice low, tactical, unwavering.
"Sarah… your rhythm just spiked. You're slipping."
Sarah didn't respond. She couldn't. The Proto-Ascension pressed against her control like a beast pushing at the bars of a weakening cage. Her fingers trembled—not with fear, but with excessive output she struggled to regulate.
Akeno moved in first, sliding her hand along Sarah's upper arm with precise calibration. The contact rerouted the most unstable vector of the Desire circuit, collapsing a dangerous feedback loop before it detonated inside Sarah's chest.
Rossweisse followed, placing both palms between Sarah's shoulder blades, her voice firm.
"Stabilizing rear channels. Keep breathing. Do not let the Ascension overtake your cognitive layer."
Koneko tightened her grip on Sarah's left hip, grounding her energy spikes. Xenovia linked her forearm to Sarah's again, reinforcing combat posture. Lilith Fragment spiraled downward, her spectral presence binding loose strands of Desire like silk pulled into a focused strand.
For a moment, Sarah felt the equilibrium return.
A thin moment.
A fragile one.
The first champion—Shadow-Crystalline Blade—shifted forward. The attack was silent, but its pressure tore visible lines through the air. The blow landed the instant it formed.
Sarah reacted too fast.
Not instinct.
Not reflex.
A pure Proto-Ascension overdrive.
Her body moved with a precision that frightened even her harem. A single pivot, a wrist movement refined past human optimization, a surge of power that cracked the floor beneath her boots. The champion's blade shattered at the point of contact—as if Sarah had simply decided reality would yield to her.
The champion stumbled back, shock breaking through their stoic veil.
Sarah blinked.
She hadn't meant to hit that hard.
Rias immediately stepped closer, palm pressed firmly against Sarah's lower back.
"Sarah. Control it. Stay with us."
But the lattice surged again, absorbing the physical proximity and interpreting it as an acceleration cue. Sarah inhaled sharply as currents of Desire flooded her pathways.
Akeno felt it instantly.
"She's collapsing into Stage Two! Slow her rhythm—now!"
The second champion seized the opening, propelling forward with liquid-steel fluidity. Their arms elongated into whips of silver energy, slicing through the air. Sarah should have dodged.
Instead, she accelerated.
Her foot sank inches into the stone floor as she launched herself forward, moving faster than her harem could follow. Her fist connected with the champion's torso, sending them crashing into the far wall with a shockwave that fractured half the chamber.
The problem wasn't the hit.
It was the aftermath.
Proto-Ascension chains flared around her like living fire. Her eyes unfocused, her breathing turned shallow, and the lattice began pulling energy indiscriminately—from the environment, from her allies, from the very structure of the Sanctum.
Koneko's voice sharpened.
"She's losing it. Her output is destabilizing the vectors."
Rossweisse swore under her breath.
"We need immediate contact alignment."
They closed in at once.
Rias pressed firmly against Sarah's right side, one hand on her waist, the other stabilizing her pulse vector.
Akeno slid her fingers along Sarah's shoulder and neck, recalibrating the Desire flow in real-time.
Xenovia locked their stances together, anchoring Sarah's forward momentum.
Koneko held her hip again, capturing ground energy through the lattice.
Rossweisse fed her a controlled stream of arcane resonance, regulating the overload.
Lilith Fragment enveloped Sarah in a web of spectral threads, tightening her awareness.
Sarah exhaled sharply as their synchronized contact forced her spiraling energy into a stable channel. Her vision cleared, but the Proto-Ascension thrashed violently beneath the imposed control.
"Stay with us," Rias said, voice steady. "We're not letting you fall."
A tremor ran through Sarah. Her muscles tensed, her heartbeat accelerated past combat thresholds. She clenched her jaw.
"I… I can't hold it…"
Lilith Fragment's voice resonated directly through Sarah's mind.
"You are not meant to hold it alone."
The third champion activated their forbidden glyph arrays.
Runes ignited in concentric spirals around them, each glyph reacting to Sarah's unstable aura. The air tore open as the champion unleashed a barrage of glyph-fused projectiles—thousands of them—moving with speed beyond conventional magic.
Rossweisse reacted first, her palms sliding across Sarah's back in rapid patterns.
"Rotate the lattice—now!"
Sarah absorbed the instruction before she consciously processed it. Her body twisted, Rias supporting the movement to maintain vector alignment. Xenovia mirrored her stance. Akeno pulsed an energy spike along Sarah's spine. Koneko grounded the surge. Lilith Fragment tightened the mental net.
A vortex of Proto-Ascension energy spun out of Sarah's body, intercepting every incoming projectile and redirecting them into the barrier.
The entire chamber shook from the collision.
Cracks spider-webbed across the floor.
Smoke filled the air.
The champions regrouped, recognizing for the first time that the battle had shifted beyond standard metrics.
Sarah staggered.
The sudden stillness after so much power felt wrong. Her body demanded more. Her pulse hammered violently. Her vision blurred into streaks of crimson and white.
"Rias…" she whispered.
Rias cupped Sarah's jaw, her tone firm.
"No. Do not ascend further. We'll lose you."
But the Proto-Ascension didn't listen.
It surged.
A wave of uncontrolled Desire burst outward from Sarah, strong enough to push her entire harem back several steps. Lilith Fragment flared bright, fighting to contain the explosion of emotional resonance.
Akeno gasped as her own energy circuits destabilized from the shock.
Koneko braced against the ground, struggling to stay upright.
Rossweisse forced her magic into shield mode.
Xenovia anchored herself with brute physical strength.
Rias's crimson aura expanded, cutting through the overload, reaching for Sarah again.
The champions sensed the destabilization. One lifted their arm, shadow-crystal reconstructing along their palm.
"They're preparing a finishing strike," Rossweisse warned.
Sarah fell to one knee, breathing ragged.
The Proto-Ascension pushed for Stage Three—full release.
A point of no return.
A form she wasn't ready to control.
"No…" Sarah forced out. "Not yet…"
But her body vibrated with imminent transformation.
Lilith Fragment's form flickered.
"I will intervene."
Sarah shook her head violently.
"No—you'll disappear."
"It is necessary."
Before Sarah could answer, the champions attacked in unison.
Three lethal vectors.
Three coordinated killing strikes.
Rias leapt forward, arms wrapping around Sarah's shoulders, channeling power directly into her heart vector.
Akeno pressed against her back, sending calibrated sparks through her spine.
Koneko anchored her entire weight to Sarah's left side.
Xenovia locked their stances together once more.
Rossweisse stabilized the arcane output around them.
Lilith Fragment descended, weaving into Sarah's core like a tightening halo.
Together, they forced the Proto-Ascension into a controlled burst.
The clash was instantaneous.
A dome of raw power expanded from Sarah's body, intercepting all three champion strikes with a blinding flash. Shockwaves tore through the chamber, hurling debris across the Sanctum.
When the light finally faded—
Sarah remained standing.
Barely.
Her harem holding her upright.
And the champions were staggered for the first time.
Sarah panted, sweat streaking her skin, eyes glowing with unstable luminescence.
"We… we're not done," she whispered.
Rias tightened her hold.
"No. But if you lose control again… Stage Three will consume you."
Sarah closed her eyes.
"I won't fall."
But the tremor in her hands betrayed the truth.
The Proto-Ascension was winning.
And the next clash would determine whether she ascended—
—or collapsed.