The Sanctum's inner chamber groaned under the strain. Sigils flickered like dying stars against the walls, and cracks spidered across the floor with a steady, nauseating rhythm. The Proto-Ascension's pressure warped the air around Sarah, bending light into faint halos that rose and fell with each unsteady breath she drew.
She tried to steady her stance, but the tremors running through her legs betrayed the truth: the Proto-Ascension had surpassed the safe threshold.
Rias sensed it instantly. Her hand slid firmly to Sarah's lower back to anchor her pulse vector.
"Your lattice is fragmenting. You're right at the collapse limit."
Akeno's fingertips traced a line along Sarah's spine, trying to contain the excess Desire surges.
"No matter how fast we stabilize her, the overload comes back stronger. She's being pushed toward Stage Three."
Koneko crouched low near Sarah's left hip, grounding the wild fluctuations.
"She won't last another minute like this."
Xenovia locked her stance to Sarah's again.
"Then we make the minute count."
Rossweisse lifted her hands and initiated a high-density rune array. Arcane lines snapped into place around her, forming a partial dome of equations and symbols meant to slow the Proto-Ascension's deterioration.
Lilith Fragment floated behind Sarah's shoulders, spectral threads weaving through the lattice like a surgeon's hands.
"Sarah is resisting transformation beyond her current psychological threshold. This is the source of the instability."
Sarah forced her vision to sharpen.
"I can still fight. Just stabilize me one more time."
But even as she said it, another surge struck her from the inside—violent, unfiltered, primal. She gasped as her knees buckled, her aura bursting outward in a wild arc that forced Rias and Xenovia to brace with their full strength to keep her standing.
The Outer Faction champions moved the instant they sensed weakness.
The shadow-bladed champion vanished, then reappeared at Sarah's flank, blade reformed and aimed directly at her ribs.
The liquid-steel champion shifted their body into a spear of metal, thrusting with brutal precision.
The glyph-caster ignited twenty forbidden sigils at once, creating a storm of cursed projectiles that spun down toward Sarah's position.
Rossweisse shouted:
"Positions—now!"
Rias dragged Sarah backward a fraction of a second before the shadow blade struck.
Akeno unleashed a controlled lightning pulse that staggered the metal-spear champion mid-charge.
Koneko intercepted two cursed projectiles with a forward leap, redirecting them with explosive palm strikes.
Xenovia cut down three rotating glyphs with a single arc of her blade.
Lilith Fragment expanded into a protective veil that diverted the most lethal runes.
But the champions were escalating.
And Sarah felt the Proto-Ascension cracking inside her.
She staggered, collapsing to one knee.
A shockwave tore out of her legs, splitting the floor beneath her with a thunderous crack.
"Sarah!" Rias lunged forward, gripping her shoulders.
"Stay conscious. Look at me."
Sarah swallowed hard. Her voice trembled from force she couldn't contain.
"I… can't keep it inside… not anymore…"
Akeno leaned close, pressing her forehead to Sarah's temple, her voice low and controlled.
"Then release what you can. We will regulate the rest."
But the Proto-Ascension wasn't listening.
It was expanding.
Sarah's stats spiked beyond readable values—her senses flooded with too much input to process. Every breath scorched her lungs. Every beat of her heart shook the entire chamber.
Her abdomen tightened violently as the lattice tore open a second time.
An uncontrolled emotional vector slammed outward, pure raw resonance—powerful enough to crack the entire Sanctum dome.
Rias shouted to the others:
"Hold her! Do not let her fall into Stage Three!"
They converged on her instantly.
Rias at her right side—heart vector control.
Akeno at her spine—Desire modulation.
Koneko at her hip—grounding anchor.
Xenovia pressed against her left shoulder—combat vector alignment.
Rossweisse behind her, hands stabilizing the arcane overflow.
Lilith Fragment enveloped Sarah's upper body, weaving resonance threads into her consciousness.
Their synchronized contact hit her like a shock absorber.
Sarah gasped, the surge slowing just enough to keep her mind from breaking under the pressure.
But the champions were not finished.
The glyph-caster raised both hands, sigils swirling into a monstrous pattern. A forbidden structure—the kind that tore entire dimensions apart.
Rossweisse's voice dropped.
"That spell is designed to collapse the Sanctum."
The metal champion shifted again, body turning into a blade aimed directly at Sarah's exposed flank.
The shadow-crystal warrior moved in perfect unison, blade descending from above.
Three simultaneous lethal vectors.
Sarah forced herself up.
Her vision blurred.
Her hands shook.
Her pulse thundered like something trapped inside her chest.
Rias whispered fiercely:
"Fight it. Don't ascend. Stay with us."
Sarah clenched her teeth.
"I won't ascend."
But she didn't have enough control left.
The champions' combined strike fell toward her.
Lilith Fragment flared suddenly, voice reverberating through every layer of Sarah's consciousness.
"Sarah. Forgive me."
Before Sarah could react, Lilith Fragment forced her essence directly into Sarah's core lattice.
Sarah screamed—though the sound never left her throat. The energy entering her was overwhelming, sharp, and devastatingly intimate. Her body seized, her aura exploding outward in a sphere of white-crimson light.
Rias held on despite the blast.
Akeno grabbed Sarah's shoulders.
Koneko anchored her legs.
Xenovia braced with everything she had.
Rossweisse activated her entire rune array to keep them alive.
The Proto-Ascension compressed.
For a split second, there was silence.
Then—
A catastrophic burst of energy detonated outward, swallowing the entire chamber.
The world turned to blinding light.
The champions were hurled across the Sanctum like ragdolls.
The runes cracked.
Stone collapsed.
Air ignited.
And at the center of the explosion—
Sarah stood.
Barely conscious.
Barely coherent.
Her aura pulsing at a frequency no human body should survive.
Her voice was ragged, but steady enough to carry one message:
"I'm… not done."
Behind her, the harem regained their footing, shaken but alive.
Rias stared at Sarah with something between awe and fear.
"Sarah… what have you become?"
The Proto-Ascension flickered around her—unstable, fractured, but stronger than ever.
Lilith Fragment's voice echoed from inside Sarah's mind, faint but present:
"This… is only the beginning."