The explosion's echo faded slowly, swallowed by the Sanctum's collapsing structure. Dust drifted in weightless spirals through the smoking air. Energy crackled faintly across the fissured walls. The entire chamber seemed to bow inward around Sarah, as if her presence alone distorted the geometry of the room.
She stood at the center of the impact crater—breath ragged, aura unstable, body trembling from strain her muscles could no longer hide.
The partial merging with Lilith Fragment still pulsed inside her. Not violent. Not gentle. Something in-between, threading through her bloodstream like a sentient current.
Rias reached her first, eyes sharp, controlled but burning with concern. Her hand pressed firmly to Sarah's waist, her thumb brushing a point just above her hip to stabilize her pulse.
"Talk to me. What do you feel?"
Sarah inhaled deeply, fighting for clarity.
"Everything. Too much. It's… loud. All of it."
Her voice carried a low undertone—not entirely hers. Not entirely Lilith's. A resonance caught between two wills.
Akeno approached next, placing a steady hand along Sarah's spine. The contact triggered a shiver of electricity across the lattice—deliberate, subtle. Enough to test, not enough to push.
Akeno murmured:
"Your aura is layered. Two frequencies… but they're trying to sync. If they align, you'll trigger a forced ascendancy."
Koneko crouched close to Sarah's thigh, grounding the tremors running across her legs.
"You're overheating on the emotional plane. If we don't regulate you, you'll collapse."
Rossweisse knelt behind Sarah, runes floating around her wrists.
"I can momentarily stabilize the external overload, but… the internal state is yours alone."
Xenovia planted her blade in the cracked ground. Her forearm brushed against Sarah's as she leaned closer.
"Don't force anything. We hold the line with you."
Lilith Fragment's voice echoed directly through Sarah's consciousness—clearer now, closer, nearly touching her thoughts.
"We are incomplete. Not fused… not separate. This instability is expected."
Sarah fought the instinctive recoil.
"Why intervene? Why force a merge?"
"Because the champions' next phase would have killed you."
Before Sarah could answer, the air warped ahead.
A low hum. A vibration. A shift in pressure.
The three Outer Faction champions rose from the rubble—injured, but far from defeated.
Cracks ran across their armor. Their auras flickered. Their breathing was ragged.
But their eyes…
Their eyes burned with intent.
The shadow-crystal champion lifted their blade, its fractured edges glowing with a dangerous violet glimmer.
The metal-fluid champion reassembled their form, molecular pieces snapping together like weapons being chambered.
The glyph-caster floated upward, their remaining sigils orbiting in unstable spirals.
Rias stepped closer to Sarah, voice controlled and sharp.
"They're activating their true forms."
Akeno's tone dropped.
"We're about to see what they've been hiding."
The champions spoke in unison—three voices merging into a single, inhuman resonance:
"Phase Two: Rift Synchronization."
A shockwave tore through the air.
Behind them, a vertical crack opened—not in the wall.
In reality itself.
A narrow Rift, swirling with black-violet energy, pulsed once… then stabilized.
Rossweisse's breath hitched.
"That's not a portal. That's a dimensional siphon."
Xenovia's grip tightened on her blade.
"Their objective wasn't to defeat us. It was to anchor that Rift."
Koneko's eyes sharpened.
"They're trying to pull something through."
Lilith Fragment whispered within Sarah:
"This is the danger I anticipated. That Rift leads to the Outer Faction's core vault… and to the being they serve."
Sarah steadied her stance despite the turbulence inside her.
"How long until it fully opens?"
"…minutes."
Too fast. Too synchronized. Too calculated.
Rias leaned in, forehead nearly touching Sarah's temple, grounding her for a heartbeat.
"You can't hold Proto-Ascension at this level much longer."
Sarah answered softly.
"I know."
A tremor ran through her legs—Koneko's hands immediately stabilized the vector.
A heat spike ran up her spine—Akeno diffused it with a controlled brush of her fingertips.
A pulse of emotional overload surged through her—Rias anchored it instantly against her own breath.
But the partial Lilith merge resisted stabilizing.
Her aura flickered again—violent, uneven.
Akeno murmured:
"She's slipping."
Rossweisse tightened her rune array.
"If she falls into Ascension Stage Three now, the chamber will collapse."
Xenovia pressed her forearm harder against Sarah's.
"Stay here. Stay with us."
Sarah's heartbeat thundered—then synced with Lilith Fragment's pulse for one terrifying second.
Her vision blurred. Her breath caught. Her knees nearly gave out.
Rias held her upright with both hands.
"Sarah! Look at me!"
A flicker of crimson-lilac light spiraled through Sarah's irises.
Akeno inhaled sharply.
"She's close to losing herself."
The champions advanced—slow, steady, confident.
Glyphs ignited around them.
Shadows deepened.
Metal liquefied into weaponized shapes.
The Rift widened another inch.
Sarah whispered:
"If I fall… everything ends."
Rias's voice dropped to a low command.
"Then you don't fall."
Sarah's entire body tensed as another surge tore through the Proto-Ascension. It felt like a second heartbeat forcing its way into her chest.
Lilith Fragment's voice pressed against her consciousness.
"Sarah… I can help you. But it will cost part of your identity."
Sarah froze.
Rias sensed the hesitation instantly.
"What did she say?"
Sarah didn't answer.
Not yet.
Not with the champions preparing to unleash their ultimate forms.
Not with the Rift widening.
Not with the harem holding her together by force of will.
The shadow-champion raised its shattered blade.
The glyph-caster's sigils aligned in a lethal spiral.
The metal one extended spear-like limbs aimed directly at Sarah's chest.
Rias whispered in her ear—steady, resolute:
"We hold the line. You decide the next move."
And Sarah—trembling, fractured, but still standing—lifted her gaze toward the Rift.
Her voice was steady enough to carry:
"We end this before it opens."
The champions lunged.
Sarah surged.
Proto-Ascension ignited—
And the chamber plunged into chaos.