The Royal Chapel's vaulted arches loomed like the ribs of some ancient, forgotten beast, their stained-glass saints gazing down in silent judgment. Princess Alessia slammed the ornate doors behind her, the boom echoing like a death knell through the incense-heavy air. Her chest heaved, emerald gown torn and dust-streaked, fairy-bloodline pulsing with a frantic glow that lit the altar in ethereal flickers. Outside, the barrier's groan was a constant dirge—cracking under the weight of ten thousand S-rank demons and their shadowed overlord, the Controlled Beast whose Beyonder aura clawed at reality like talons on glass.
This isn't a siege. It's annihilation. Alessia's knees buckled, slamming marble-cold stone as she crawled to the altar. Her hands clawed at the embroidered cloth, nails splintering on gold thread. The prayer tore from her throat, not regal incantation but a ragged, human sob—echoes of those cave-screams, when Sarah's System had glitched a cave-in into salvation and Kenta's blades had bought them breath.
"Empress... Eos... anyone," she gasped, voice fracturing like the barrier outside. "We've clawed through abysses before—goblins, gods' rejects, our own damn fears. But this? That thing in the sky... it's Orion's fist, wrapped in Nox's corpse. My army's brave, but they're shattering. Send us a miracle—not some simpering deity weaker than a stiff breeze. Send him. Kanji Naein, Demon of Battle, Ruler of Flames... you meddled once, in those shadowed trials. Why not now? For the kids who laughed in your face down there? For the stars we swore to chase?"
Silence swallowed her words, thick as void. No celestial rumble, no flicker of divine ire. Just the chapel's candles guttering in a draft that smelled of ozone and despair. Alessia's forehead met the altar, tears carving hot paths through grime. "Please... Kenta's broken. Sarah's out there alone. Don't let our cave-oath end like this. We're not done fighting."
A faint tremor shook the floor—not an answer, but the world's indifferent shrug. Alessia rose, wiping fury from her cheeks, steel rekindling in her spine. If the gods won't stir... we'll toll the bell ourselves.
---
Half a league away, in the inn's gutted shell, Sarah Yamazaki gripped the windowsill like a lifeline, the System's quest a blue inferno searing her retinas. Pain lanced her veins—Auto-Battle's hangover, a forge-fire remaking her from the inside—but it sharpened now, honing rage to a razor's edge. Nox's twisted form wheeled above, a phoenix-puppet of despair, her starlit eye a prison-window to stolen screams. The demon horde below seethed like living ink, battering the barrier with miasma that screamed back at the city.
One girl against an apocalypse. Yeah, that's my brand. Sarah's lips curled in a feral grin, Kenta's lessons echoing: Feel the mana, firecracker. It's not chains—it's wings. "Air Magic: Customization," she commanded, the words a mental whip-crack. Mana stirred, invisible currents coiling around her throat like a conspirator's whisper. Her voice amplified—not a shout, but a thunderclap woven into wind, a sonic lance piercing the battlefield to every fang-lined maw and the tormented spark within Nox's shell.
"HEY, YOU FEATHERED FREAK SHOW UP THERE!" Sarah's roar boomed, laced with contempt sharp as shattered glass, carrying over the din like a war-god's decree. "AND YOU LOT—ORION'S LAPDOGS SNARLING AT SHADOWS! YOUR BOSS HIDES BEHIND PUPPETS 'CAUSE HE KNOWS ONE GLANCE AT ME WOULD MAKE HIM BOLT! SCARED, HUH? AFTER I ALREADY CRACKED YOUR PRETTY DEVIL'S MASK? COME ON—ONE INJURED GIRL, STILL REELING FROM ROUND ONE! THAT ALL YOU GOT? OR IS THE SHADOW EMPEROR TOO BUSY POLISHING HIS LEASH TO FIGHT FAIR?"
The horde erupted. A unified shriek split the air—ten thousand voices in dissonant fury, eyes snapping from the castle to the inn's defiant silhouette. Claws flexed, miasma surged like a tidal hate. High above, in the Beast's shadowed mask, Nox's captive eye flared—a tear etching acidic fire down obsidian, her puppeted form twitching as if strings caught on memory's hook. A faint, ethereal echo rippled outward, not words but a fractured whisper on the wind: ...free... girl... strings... burn...
Sarah's gut twisted—pity? Nah, just fuel. "Yeah, I hear you in there, Nox. Hang tight. I'll cut you loose... or drag you down trying."
No time for mercy. She vaulted the sill, boots kissing air before cratering into the street below—a plume of dust and defiance. Infinity Calculation wasn't a tool anymore; it was her—a ceaseless torrent of data, fusing Earth's arsenal into instinct: Krav Maga's vicious grapples, Aikido's fluid redirects, Muay Thai's knee-shattering elbows, Karate's pinpoint pierces. Every breath a simulation, every twitch a trillion-branch forecast.
The first wave crashed—S-rank demons, hulking voids with fangs like scythes. One lunged, claws whistling; Sarah's forearm snapped up, System-reinforced bone turning the strike aside like water off stone. "Too slow, ugly!" she snarled, spear-hand thrusting—fingers a blur, piercing shadow-flesh with a wet crunch. Black ichor sprayed as it crumpled.
Another flanked, jaws unhinging; she dropped low, Savate sweep shattering knees in a crack of thunder. "Missed me!" Mid-spin, Capoeira's ginga flipped her airborne, heel hammering skull in a descending axe—boom, brains as midnight mist. A third raked her ribs, fire blooming hot and wet; she hissed through gritted teeth—"That all?"—trapping the limb in a Jiu-Jitsu lock, hurling the beast into its kin like a ragdoll wrecking ball. Bodies piled, a grotesque cairn, as she flowed through the melee—a girl-shaped storm, optimal lethality in every arc.
From the battlements, Alessia's breath caught, fists white-knuckled on stone. "Sarah... you glorious, glitchy maniac." Then, thunder in her voice: "MAGES! BARRIER BE DAMNED—REDIRECT EVERYTHING TO HER! HEALING WEAVES, REINFORCEMENT SHIELDS—NOW, OR WE'RE ALL SHADOW-FODDER!"
The air ignited with cries. Lyra, silver braids whipping, barked back: "Highness, the dome'll crack in minutes—"
"Let it crack!" Alessia roared, eyes locked on Sarah's whirlwind. "That's our cave-sister down there—the one who turned goblin swarms into piñatas! Channel it all—green for flesh, gold for fire in her veins!"
Finn, the burly earth-mage, grunted mid-gesture, palms erupting emerald lances. "On it! But if she burns brighter than a star, we're out of juice fast—"
"Juice? Give her the damn sun!" A young apprentice, voice cracking with awe, chimed in: "Look at her go—it's like the System's dancing with demons!"
Beams lanced down—green mending gashes mid-swing, gold igniting Sarah's strikes with holy fury, blue veils damping blows to whispers. Alessia thrust her hands skyward, fairy-glow erupting in a corona. "High Holy Magic: Altaria's Eternal Covenant! For the girl who pulled me from the dark—burn eternal!"
A pillar of pristine white engulfed Sarah, wounds sealing in luminous stitches, stamina flooding like cave-rivers after drought. She laughed—wild, unbroken—as a demon's tail whipped; the light turned it to vapor. "Keep it coming, Alessia! Feels like old times—minus the goblin stink!"
The horde faltered, a ripple of doubt in their shriek. Nox's wings spasmed overhead, that ethereal echo strengthening: ...cut... free... Sarah carved deeper, a beacon in the black—defiance incarnate, the bell that wouldn't crack.
STATUS WINDOW - OVERLAY ACTIVE
NAME: Sarah Yamazaki
TITLE:The Unbroken Bell
STRENGTH: LR | SPEED: LR | ENDURANCE: LR | INTELLIGENCE: SSR+ [Buffed]
POTENTIAL:??? (SYSTEM EVOLUTION IN PROGRESS)
RANK:LR+[Buffed]
ACTIVE BUFFS
·Altaria's Eternal Covenant (High-Level Regeneration & Stamina Sustain - "Cave-sister's fire; won't let you fade.")
·Multi-Mage Reinforcement (Damage Reduction + Stat Amplification - "Mages on your six—hold the line!")
CORE ABILITIES
·Infinity Calculation (Passive - Always Active: "Trillions of paths; pick the one that bleeds them dry.")
·Unified Combat Protocol (Mastery of All Earthly Martial Arts - Instinctual: "Not skills—you. Flow and shatter.")
·Auto-Battle Mode (Locked - System Cooldown: "Resting the storm; next wave's yours raw.")
·System Interface (Active: "Evolving. Query: Taunt efficiency - 92%. Push harder?")
OBJECTIVE
·Eliminate Target: [Nox - Subordinate of Emperor Orion] ("Strings snap tonight. For the free ones.")
Sarah's grin flashed amid the fray, System chime a sly accomplice in her ear: Voice Emulation: Affirmative. Ally synergy: +47%. Query: Trash-talk volume?
"Crank it," she spat, elbow-crushing a lunging fiend. "Let's make Orion hear his puppets break."
The bell tolled on—unbroken, unrelenting. The tide turned not on gods, but on a girl's unbreakable roar.