Celeste was sent spiraling sideways through the air, colliding with a fractured cathedral spire and breaking through it entirely.

Kael froze midair.

“…She HIT her.”

Seraphina’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“…She’s disrupting her control. Look at the sky, its fracturing further.”

Below, Lilith was already moving again.

Not chasing for victory.

Chasing for space.

Celeste emerged from the rubble a moment later—

and Lilith was already there.

Another strike.

BOOM—

Celeste was forced backward again, this time across open air above the city.

The stabilization field flickered slightly.

Not breaking.

But stuttering.

Seraphina noticed immediately.

“…That’s our window.”

Kael looked at her. “Window for WHAT?!”

Seraphina tightened her grip on Elysia.

“…Relocation.”

Above them—

Lilith drove Celeste back again with a final heavy strike that sent her skidding through the air, momentum breaking just long enough to create distance.

Celeste stabilized midair—

but Lilith didn’t wait for recovery.

She turned immediately and shot upward.

Fast.

Direct.

Toward Seraphina.

Celeste reacted instantly.

BOOOOOM—

She surged after her.

But the delay was there now.

Fractions of a second.

Enough.

Lilith reached Seraphina midair.

Grabbed Kael by the arm without hesitation.

“MOVE.”

Kael yelped. “HEY—!”

Lilith shoved both of them upward with a burst of reinforcement, propelling them farther into the sky and widening the gap between Celeste and Elysia.

Celeste arrived a moment later—

but the distance had already changed.

For the first time since stabilization—

she paused.

Not stopping.

Recalculating.

Below them, Lilith hovered alone for a brief moment in the fractured air.

Looking up.

At Seraphina.

At Elysia.

At Kael.

“…Don’t slow down,” she said quietly.

Kael stared down at her.

“Lilith—”

“GO.”

Celeste began to move again.

But now—

she had to close distance first.

And that fraction of delay—

was everything.

Lilith turned back toward her.

And met her head-on again in the open sky above Caelrith.

Celeste moved.

Not forward.

Not predictably.

She vanished upward through the fractured sky like a break in continuity itself, leaving only a collapsing ripple of violet distortion behind her path.

Lilith’s eyes widened instantly.

“…No—!”

BOOOOOM—

She launched after her immediately, tearing through the air in pursuit, forcing reinforcement through every limb just to keep pace.

But Celeste wasn’t running.

She was repositioning.

Above them—

Seraphina was still mid-ascent, Elysia held tightly against her chest, Kael just behind her struggling to maintain altitude through the unstable air currents.

Seraphina glanced back once.

Just once.

Checking Lilith.

Checking distance.

That was the mistake.

“SERAPHINA—LOOK OUT!”

Lilith’s voice cut through the sky like a rupture.

Seraphina snapped her head fully around—

“…What—”

Celeste was already there.

Directly in front of her.

No travel.

No transition.

Just arrival.

Seraphina’s breath caught instantly.

Her remaining eye locked straight into Celeste’s gaze at point-blank range.

The galaxies within Celeste’s eyes rotated once.

Cold.

Perfect.

Directive complete proximity achieved.

Seraphina barely had time to register Lilith still screaming behind them—

“MOVE—!”

But it was too late.

Celeste raised both hands.

Fingers locking forward like structural clamps.

Then—

she drove them down.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM—

The impact obliterated the air beneath Seraphina.

Space compressed violently as she was slammed downward through the sky, Elysia still held tightly against her chest as the world blurred into fractured light.

Kael shouted her name mid-fall—

“SERA!”

But she was already gone.

Celeste followed immediately after, descending with controlled force, carrying Seraphina straight through broken altitude layers until—

BOOOOOM—

She crashed into the field outside Caelrith.

Earth erupted outward in a massive shockwave as Seraphina was driven deep into the ground, a crater forming instantly beneath the impact point.

Dust and shattered stone exploded into the air.

Silence followed for half a second.

Then Celeste landed above the crater.

Still composed.

Still focused.

Her gaze locked downward.

Elysia’s position now fully confirmed again.

Above, far in the sky—

Lilith froze mid-flight.

For the first time since the battle began—

her movement hesitated.

“…Seraphina.”

Kael’s voice broke.

“…No way…”

Celeste tilted her head slightly.

And began descending into the crater.

The crater outside Caelrith still burned with fractured light and collapsing dust.

Seraphina lay half-submerged in broken earth, motionless for a fraction too long.

Elysia still in her arms.

Celeste above her.

Descending.

Silent.

Absolute.

Kael saw it from the sky.

Something in him snapped.

“…No.”

Lilith’s head whipped toward him instantly.

“Kael—don’t—!”

But he was already moving.

He dropped through the air in a controlled dive, faster than he had ever moved before, eyes locked on Lilith’s grip.

Dahu.

Lilith barely reacted before his hand seized the weapon mid-descent.

“HEY—!”

For the first time—

Lilith lost possession.

Kael didn’t even look at her.

He twisted midair, blade now in his hands, and something in the air shifted immediately.

The moment Dahu accepted him—

the weight changed.

The field reacted.

Kael’s breathing hitched.

“…I can feel it…”

Lilith was already diving after him.

“KAEL NO!”

But he didn’t stop.

He was already falling toward the crater.

Toward Celeste.

Toward Seraphina.

His voice broke as he lowered the blade.

“…For if my foe is unmovable…”

The air around Dahu began to distort.

Like reality resisting what he was about to invoke.

“…then taking a cut should be impossible.”

The sword ignited.

Not with fire.

With layered compression light—Circles folding into one another in unstable succession.

Kael’s hands immediately began to burn.

He screamed through clenched teeth.

“AHH—!”

Lilith’s eyes widened in horror.

“…That’s not possible.”

Kael forced his grip tighter.

Blood ran down his fingers.

“…No being can resist a cut from the heavens…”

The blade’s resonance spiked violently.

The air above Caelrith cracked again, deeper this time, like something above the world itself was reacting.

Kael’s descent accelerated.

“…Don’t be dead, Sera…”

His voice broke on the last word.

And then—

“FIFTH CIRCLE SWORD ASSIMILATION—”

The spell detonated through Dahu’s structure.

The blade became incandescent.

Like a collapsing star forced into steel.

Lilith shouted behind him.

“KAEL STOP—THAT’S TOO MUCH OUTPUT FOR YOU!”

But he was already gone.

“…FALL OF NOCTHYR!”

He descended like a falling judgment.

Celeste looked up.

For the first time—

she adjusted.

Just slightly.

Yamui rose.

Not defensive.

Acknowledging impact probability.

Kael hit.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM—

The strike detonated on contact.

Light exploded outward across the crater in a blinding vertical rupture.

Dahu pierced through Celeste’s upper chest near the shoulder line, driving her backward through the broken earth.

The impact carved a trench through the field.

Blood traced down Celeste’s mouth.

Not much.

But visible.

Kael screamed as he pushed deeper.

“RAGH—!”

He twisted the blade violently in the wound.

The sky above Caelrith fractured again—this time with audible collapse-like resonance.

Celeste slid backward through the crater wall, stone erupting behind her as the force drove her further across the broken terrain.

Her gaze remained fixed on him.

Still calm.

Still processing.

But now—

for the first time—

not untouched.

Kael trembled as he held the blade in.

“…How is she still—”

Behind him, Lilith landed hard on the crater edge.

Eyes wide.

“…That output…”

Seraphina, barely conscious in the rubble below, whispered faintly:

“…That’s not Fifth Circle control…”

Celeste slowly lifted her hand toward the blade in her chest.

And the air around her began to change again.

The crater outside Caelrith had become unrecognizable.

Stone had melted into glass around the impact zone. The fractured sky above poured violet light downward in violent streams while dust and burning debris spiraled around the battlefield like collapsing stars.

And in the center of it—

Kael still stood.

Barely.

Dahu remained buried deep in Celeste’s upper chest near her shoulder, the glowing blade trembling violently from unstable Fifth Circle output.

Kael’s body looked destroyed.

Blood ran from his mouth.

From his nose.

From beneath his eyes.

His burned hands were nearly unrecognizable now, skin splitting apart under the strain of Sword Assimilation.

Yet somehow—

he was still conscious.

Still holding the blade.

Still forcing it deeper.

Celeste looked down at him silently.

Blood trailed from the corner of her mouth as Refraction struggled to stabilize around the wound.

Kael’s breathing shook violently.

“…Go…” he whispered weakly.

Lilith landed beside the crater immediately.

“Kael—”

“Go grab her…” he coughed, more blood spilling down his chin.

“…and leave…”

Lilith’s eyes widened slightly.

Behind him, Seraphina was forcing herself upright from the shattered ground, still clutching Elysia tightly against her chest despite the damage from the impact.

Lilith immediately moved toward her, helping stabilize her footing.

Seraphina looked toward Kael.

Then toward Celeste.

“…Absolutely not.”

Celeste’s hand suddenly moved.

WHAM—

Her palm smashed directly into Kael’s chest.

The impact should have killed him instantly.

Instead—

Kael screamed and forced himself upright again.

Blood exploded from both his mouth and Celeste’s wound as he shoved Dahu deeper with trembling arms.

“RAGHHHH—!”

The sky above Caelrith cracked again.

Lilith’s expression broke instantly.

“KAEL STOP!”

Kael’s vision blurred violently.

His body was already failing.

But his hands refused to release the blade.

Celeste stared down at him.

Then struck again.

BOOOOOOM—

This time the force completely broke him.

Kael was ripped away from Dahu and slammed violently into the earth beneath Celeste hard enough to form another crater under his body.

He didn’t move afterward.

“KAEL!”