[DUNGEON SYSTEM ALERT]
[Participant 2 — Serah: power limiter compromised]
[Cause: primordial emotional response — critical level]
[System attempting to reinstate power limit]
[System is failing]
[System is failing]
[POWER LIMITER: OFFLINE]
---
[GarcíaFTW: THE DUNGEON SYSTEM FAILED]
[NocheEterna99: SERAH BROKE THE LIMITER WITH JEALOUSY]
[StreamerHunter: WITH JEALOUSY. SHE BROKE AN SSS DUNGEON POWER SYSTEM WITH JEALOUSY.]
[xSorinx: the fire mage just realized what kind of trouble he's in]
---
Serah turned toward the blue line.
The android was still looking at Kai with that three-degree tilt.
Serah's markings flared with an intensity that dropped the air temperature around her by ten degrees in a second.
"Hey," Serah said, in a perfectly normal voice.
The android turned.
The jet of primordial ice that shot from Serah's hand crossed the blue dividing line — which shattered into light particles on contact — and reached the android in 0.4 seconds.
Kai leaped backward.
The android activated all her runes simultaneously in defensive mode.
The ice struck the force field and drove it back ten feet before the field gave way.
---
[CRITICAL ALERT]
[Dividing line compromised]
[Event modified by participant interference]
[System evaluating options]
---
On the fire mage's side, something had changed too.
He was looking at Serah with an expression that wasn't the tactical assessment from before.
It was something more personal.
"She attacked your opponent, and she's important to me," he said, watching the android trying to stabilize herself.
"Yes," said Kai, still tracking everyone's position in the room.
The mage looked at the android. Then at the ice still solidifying on the floor where she'd been standing.
"That attack was meant to kill her. Because of you," he said, voice low.
Kai looked at him.
The mage had an expression Kai hadn't seen on anyone since arriving in Aethon.
It was the same expression Serah had worn when the evolved wolf had gotten close to Kai's arm back in Chapter 8.
"They're a couple," Kai said. It wasn't a question.
The mage didn't answer.
The fire marks on his hands — scars from intense use, years of practice — glowed a deeper red.
"I'm going to do the same thing she did," the mage said.
"Figured," said Kai.
---
[CRITICAL ALERT — MAXIMUM LEVEL]
[Both opponents have broken established combat parameters]
[Cause: emotional response — cross-interference between participants and opponents]
[System activating Extermination Protocol]
[Objective: neutralize threats to dungeon system]
[Opponents will be upgraded to extermination parameters]
---
The android changed.
Not gradually — all at once.
The runes on her forearms spread upward, toward her neck, toward her face. Her amber eyes shifted to red.
Her posture changed from technical combat to something more direct, more aggressive, less calculated.
More dangerous.
On the mage's side, the fire in his hands shifted from orange to blue — metal-melting temperature, not wood-burning.
The ancient marks on his hands glowed as if shining through his skin.
"EXTERMINATION PROTOCOL ACTIVE! Opponents have received combat enhancement! Participants have approximately thirty seconds before attacks become lethal! The announcer is not responsible for the decisions that led to this situation!"
---
[NocheEterna99: EXTERMINATION PROTOCOL]
[GarcíaFTW: "the announcer is not responsible" — HE SAID IT]
[StreamerHunter: viewers: 780,000.]
[xSorinx: Kai is looking at an upgraded android and a mage with blue fire and has a face like "okay, this is more interesting"]
[Deral_Bleattler: SOMEBODY CALL SOMEBODY]
---
Kai assessed the entire room in two seconds.
Upgraded android to his right — runes extended, combat parameters altered, no longer operating on predictable logic.
Fire mage to his left — blue fire, lethal temperature, active emotional motivation making attacks less calculated but more intense.
Serah twenty feet away — primordial powers fully unlocked, markings blazing at maximum intensity, watching the android with the specific focus of a wolf that has identified something as a threat.
Good.
Serah can handle the android.
Which means the fire mage with blue fire and personal reasons to attack me is entirely my problem.
Kai exhaled.
Set his stance.
"Ready?" he asked the mage.
The mage launched a column of blue fire six feet in diameter as his answer.
Kai dropped to the ground, let the column pass over him, rose in the same motion with momentum from his palms, and closed the fifteen feet between them in the time it took the mage to prepare the second attack.
The second attack never came.
Kai was too close for the blue fire to be safe for the mage himself.
Area magic needs distance. At this range, I'm his problem.
The mage tried to create distance — step back, separation.
Kai went with him. Strike to the elbow of the casting arm — not to damage, to disrupt channeling.
The blue fire scattered into sparks.
The mage growled. Tried the left arm.
Kai blocked with his forearm, pivoted, and applied the same hold he'd used on the android — channeling neutralization at the wrist angle.
The blue fire died out.
"Fire needs continuous channeling," Kai said.
"If I interrupt the channeling, there's no fire."
The mage looked at him from the control position.
"That's correct," he said, voice tight from speaking in an awkward hold.
"Then the problem isn't the fire," Kai said. "The problem is you."
---
On the other side, Serah and the upgraded android.
The android in extermination mode was different — attacks no longer precise and calculated.
They were faster, broader, with force fields operating in saturation mode instead of precision.
Serah met them with primordial ice.
Not dodging. Blocking.
Force field against primordial ice — and the ice won three out of every four exchanges, gave way on the fourth, and Serah advanced three feet with each cycle.
The android retreated.
Her runes flickered — the extermination system operating at capacity against something it hadn't been designed to face.
Serah reached contact range.
The android activated all runes in maximum defensive mode.
The force field expanded six feet in all directions.
Serah reached her hand through the field.
The field resisted.
Serah added the temperature of her primordial aura to the contact.
The field gave way.
Serah's hand reached the android's shoulder — no violence, no strike. Just contact. Contact with the primordial aura of an SSS entity fully unlocked.
The android's runes shut down one by one.
The android went still.
[OPPONENT 1 — NEUTRALIZED]
Serah looked at her for a second from up close.
"Don't get near my man again," she said, in a completely normal voice.
The android, with runes offline and extermination system deactivated, tilted her head three degrees.
"Understood," she said.
---
[GarcíaFTW: SERAH SHUT DOWN THE ANDROID'S RUNES WITH HER AURA]
[NocheEterna99: "don't get near him" — she neutralized an upgraded android and the first thing she said was that]
[StreamerHunter: the android said "understood" like it was the most reasonable response in the world]
[xSorinx: on the other side Kai still has the mage in a hold. They're waiting for the other to finish.]
---
[OPPONENT 2 — NEUTRALIZED]
The dungeon system processed both results simultaneously.
"...ROOM FOUR COMPLETED!!! The participants have neutralized both opponents including the Extermination version!! This outcome was not in the design parameters!! The announcer needs a moment!!"
Four seconds of silence.
"The announcer is okay!! Reward: extended break and access to recovery room!! The dungeon system also requires emergency maintenance!!"
---
Kai released the mage.
The mage got up, shook out his wrist, and looked toward where the android stood with her runes offline.
Then at Serah.
"Did you hurt her?" he asked, with a voice that no longer had anything tactical in it.
"Regrettably, no," Serah said.
The mage exhaled.
"Good."
Kai looked at the two of them. Then at Serah.
Serah was still watching the android with the expression of someone who has solved a problem but still has one pending.
The android tilted her head three degrees toward Kai.
"That was an interesting fight," she said.
Serah's markings flared.
"Yes," Kai said, without looking at the android. "It was."
---
[NocheEterna99: KAI ANSWERED WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE ANDROID]
[GarcíaFTW: HE LEARNED]
[StreamerHunter: viewers: 1,000,000. The stream also broke Protocols.]
[xSorinx: the mage and the android are a couple. Both broke their parameters out of jealousy. Kai and Serah broke the dungeon system. The announcer needs a moment. Everything is fine.]
[Deral_Bleattler: this is the best day of my life]
[Current viewers: 1,000,001]
---