The motorcycle came to a stop.
No one spoke. No one hesitated.
They moved.
Camille Dreyer activated the amulet immediately. Light surged outward as its form expanded, restructuring midair before settling into her grasp as the massive hammer once more. Its weight grounded instantly, energy humming along its edges.
She held it steady, ready.
Beside her, Dr. Lucian Harrow did not reach for the relic he had been given.
His hand moved to his tie.
It activated instantly.
The fabric unraveled and wrapped around his hands, tightening into fitted gloves as fire spread outward from them. Lakes of heat extended from his hands, vast and controlled, circling once around him before settling into place. They hovered in suspension, contained but ready to move at his will.
Selene Veyra and Serena Veylan drew their stinger swords in one smooth motion. The blades caught the light as they took position, their stance aligned and precise.
Cassandra Riel activated her ring.
Light condensed into a paintbrush in her grasp, its form extending at both ends for balance and control. With a single motion, she drew across the air. The space ahead distorted as layers of illusion settled into place, bending perception, misdirecting depth, and shaping the battlefield into something deceptive and controlled.
Isolde Farren flicked her wrist.
Her bracelet expanded and restructured into a cello. She did not remain grounded. Her aura lifted her upward, positioning her above the others as she stilled, observing from a vantage point that allowed immediate response.
Vivienne Carrow activated her hidden item.
Weapons formed around her in controlled formation, each one drawn from designs she had studied and mastered. She selected without hesitation.
A Soviet KPV heavy machine gun formed in her grasp, with an anti-material rifle positioned within reach.
Both were loaded.
She preferred real rounds.
Aura flowed into them, reinforcing each shot and amplifying their impact far beyond standard limits.
Lena Corviss did not draw a weapon.
She used the environment.
Her aura spread across the shattered glass scattered along the ground. The fragments lifted, reshaping and expanding into blades, hammers, and piercing constructs of varying forms. Dozens of weapons hovered in place, all directed toward the intruder, each one designed with a distinct purpose, from barbed edges to dense crushing weight to needle-thin precision.
They remained still, waiting for the moment to strike.
Angel Piao and Angela Piao did not move.
They watched.
Angela tilted her head toward her sister, silently asking why she had not joined.
Angel shrugged lightly. "They don't need me to step in. This is already overkill. Too many people going after one person."
The moment she finished speaking, Camille Dreyer moved.
She raised her hammer in a single, fluid motion and brought it down with speed that felt almost instantaneous, the strike aimed cleanly at the back of the rider's head. At that velocity, if it had connected, the result would not have been subtle. A normal person's head would have detached outright, launched forward with the same effortless distance as a perfect strike, like hitting a ball clean across an open field and landing it exactly where it needed to go. There would have been no resistance, no recovery. Just impact, and then absence.
But before it could land, the hammer met a barrier.
The barrier shattered on impact. It did not stop the strike, but it slowed it, if only by a fraction of a second.
That was enough.
The rider moved.
They dismounted in a single motion, flipping backward off the motorcycle and clearing the strike entirely. The attack, executed in less than a thirtieth of a second, missed.
The moment Camille's strike passed, the others moved to follow.
Then—
Crack.
The helmet split cleanly down the center and fell away in pieces.
The aftershock of Camille's strike lingered, fracturing anything not reinforced with aura as the pressure carried forward through the air.
They were already closing in.
Then they saw her.
Jessie.
Everything stopped.
Cassandra dropped her illusion immediately.
Isolde, who had been mid-performance, redirected her attack. The piece she had been playing targeted internal systems, designed to rupture hearing and destabilize the body from within. The moment she recognized Jessie, she turned the effect toward the wall instead. The sound struck it, but with nothing internal to disrupt, the impact dispersed without consequence.
Lucian cut his flames at once. The lakes of fire surrounding him stilled, then vanished with a thought, leaving only residual heat behind.
Lena had already set her ambush.
The ground beneath Jessie erupted with spikes aimed to impale. Jessie avoided them just in time, forcing Lena to react instantly, withdrawing the secondary weapons she had suspended above. Had Lena not pulled them back in that moment, Jessie's upward movement would have resulted in her being impaled midair by those very weapons. That outcome vanished just as quickly as it had formed.
Vivienne had already fired.
Her Soviet KPV heavy machine gun released multiple rounds, each one reinforced with aura and accelerated beyond standard limits. The others had moved in coordination at first, clearing her line of fire.
But the moment they recognized Jessie, they froze.
It was instinct.
And it was dangerous.
The rounds did not stop.
Vivienne cut the aura input immediately, but the bullets continued forward, lethal and unrelenting.
There was no time to warn anyone.
Angel moved.
One moment, she stood beside Angela.
The next, she was gone.
She intercepted every round mid-flight, her hands moving faster than the eye could follow. Each bullet was caught, its force absorbed and crushed within her grip.
One by one, the rounds collapsed.
By the time they hit the ground, they had already turned to fine ash.
Her hand remained uninjured.
The entire exchange had taken only seconds.
Silence followed.
The room settled, tension lingering as the weight of what had nearly happened sank in.
Jessie broke it.
"You guys have gotten good," she said, laughing lightly, as if she had not just come within inches of being eliminated.
She glanced around.
"How was the event?"
Her gaze shifted to Camille.
"By the way, the weapon you used is quite intricate. I haven't seen it before. Was it a gift, or something you acquired yourself?"
Camille's expression darkened.
She opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Instead of answering, she looked toward Angel, her displeasure unmistakable.
"Jessie," Angel said.
"Why did you come through the window?"
Jessie blinked.
"…Didn't you tell me to come immediately? It was time to present the gift. The Piao family was supposed to go right away."
Angel exhaled slowly, bringing her hands together briefly before lowering them again.
"There is a door," she said, pointing toward it. "A perfectly functional one. Why didn't you use it?"
Jessie shrugged.
"Your orders come first," she said simply. "If there's a faster way to carry them out, I'll take it. You wanted it done quickly, so I did it quickly."
A pause.
Angel held her gaze for a moment longer, then let out a quiet breath.
"…Present the gift," she said, resignation slipping into her tone.