The sirens wailed, flooding the chamber in red. Jane's breath came ragged, the console's warning beeps screaming at her to act. Shadows poured through the doorway, shifters clawing across the floor while guards fell one after another.
Levi's voice echoed inside the capsule, steady, commanding.
"The switch, little witch. Now."
Jane's pulse hammered in her ears. If she opened it, she'd be defying every order she'd been given. But if she didn't… she'd die here.
She ran.
Her boots slammed against the steel floor as she sprinted toward the console. The nearest shifter lunged, but she dove past it, shoulder slamming against the panel. Her hand stretched toward the release lever—
And the air split with a roar of steel.
A massive figure stepped from the smoke of the ruined doorway, faster than her eyes could follow. The gleam of violet eyes met hers for an instant before the blade flashed downward.
Blood poured down from Jane's hand.
Pain unlike anything she had ever known exploded through her body.
Jane screamed. Her vision blurred as she stumbled forward, staring in shock at the stump where her right hand had been. Blood poured down her arm in hot, relentless streams, spattering the console.
Her knees buckled. Darkness pulled at the edges of her vision.
But the lever was right there. Inches away.
Through the haze of agony, she slammed her left hand down, pulling it with everything she had left.
CLANG.
The chamber locks released. Steam hissed violently as the glass door slid open.
The room went still for a heartbeat. Then Levi stepped out.
Her black hair rippled in the air, bleeding into crimson as her power surged awake. Gold eyes blazed into red, horns curving from her skull like obsidian crowns. Shadows recoiled as heat radiated from her body, warping the very air.
Jane collapsed against the console, clutching her bleeding stump. Sparks of healing magic flickered desperately across her skin, but it wasn't enough. She could close scratches, burns, gashes—but not this. Not a severed hand. Her glasses slid down her nose, cracked, her vision swimming.
She looked up through the haze, meeting Levi's burning gaze.
Levi's expression was unreadable for a moment—then her lips curved, slow and deadly.
"You touched what is mine," she growled.
The nearest shifter shrieked as black fire engulfed it, burning it from the inside out. The others faltered, snarling but hesitating.
And then the tall figure with violet eyes stepped forward—the one who had cut Jane down. His blade gleamed with Jane's blood.
General Shax.
His presence filled the chamber like thunder, violet aura clashing against Levi's crimson.
"You should have stayed buried, Demon Queen," Shax said, voice low and heavy with memory.
Levi tilted her head, crimson eyes narrowing. Her power swelled, making the walls quake. "And you should have stayed dead, Dragon."
Their auras collided, black and violet light twisting together, tearing at the room around them.
Jane lay crumpled by the console, fighting to stay conscious, her blood pooling beneath her. Her healing sparks flickered weakly, but she couldn't stop the darkness closing in.
The last thing she saw before the black took her was Levi stepping forward, hair blazing red, eyes burning like hellfire, the room trembling as if the world itself remembered her name.
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