Just as the blinding light faded from his eyes, Kentaro stumbled forward, blinking rapidly as his surroundings slowly took shape.
Cold air. Metal flooring. Monitors flickering with green light.
For a moment, he thought he'd woken up back on the Halcyon, until he realized… it wasn't quite the same.
The room looked like Halcyon's central command room, but smaller. Tighter. Harsher, almost like a compressed warzone tucked into the sky. He stood on a small elevated teleporter pad, blinking under the harsh ceiling lights.
Footsteps echoed.
He looked up.
Tenka, Haruka, Yumi, Shogo, and Drone were all standing by a large central projector.
They turned toward him one by one. Their faces were tense.
"Where… where are we?" Kentaro asked, his voice shaky with confusion.
Tenka folded her arms, cool and composed as always.
"We're 10,000 feet in the air. Directly above the location from which Serica emerged from."
Kentaro's eyes widened.
"Wait, really? This place, looks like Halcyon's command center."
Shogo smirked and clapped him on the back.
"Inspired by it. This one's the ship version, just tighter, sleeker, and way more touchy-touchy."
He wiggled his fingers suggestively.
Haruka sighed and smacked the back of his head. "Shut it, Shogo."
Then she looked at Drone and gave a short nod.
Drone nodded back, silently tapping his console. A soft mechanical hum filled the room.
The lights dimmed. The central projector flickered, then flared to life.
What they saw next made Kentaro freeze.
The image on the screen sharpened. Trees were split. Ground coated in frost. The hilltop, where the facility used to be, is now a crater of ice and ruin.
And at its centre…
"SERICA!" Kentaro's voice cracked. He slammed both hands on the console as if trying to reach through the screen.
She was standing in the middle of the chaos, barely recognizable.
Her body was wreathed in silver and blue, an elegant, haunting armor of jagged frost. It pulsed with soft, deadly light. Every step she took froze the ground beneath her.
Her eyes… were no longer hers.
Emotionless. Cold. Flickering with a faint, ghostly glow.
"She's gone into her Sublimation Frame…" Shogo whispered, stunned. "That's her true form."
"Sublima–what?" Kentaro asked, trying to breathe.
Tenka clicked her tongue before answering.
"It's the armor every Alberline is born with. A perfect defense system designed for total annihilation. It adapts to their power type; Serica's is an ice type, so it manifested as an ice-style Armour.
She stepped closer to the screen, arms crossed.
"This is the first time we've seen hers… and this isn't just a normal activation. She's in corruption. They broke the bond with you, Ken."
Kentaro stared in horror as Serica floated just inches above the ground, crystalline veins glowing faintly across her limbs. The ruins behind her were filled with frozen bodies, Spire soldiers, twisted mid-scream.
"What the hell do we do?" he whispered. "She's not even-"
Drone leaned over his tablet and tapped a button.
Suddenly, soft static filled the room. Then.
"…Ken…"
A faint, broken whisper.
They all went silent.
It was her voice.
Serica's mouth was barely moving, her lips trembling beneath her corrupted mask. But even in her broken state, she was crying. A single tear slid down her cheek, freezing mid-drop and drifting into the wind like snow dust.
"Drone's picking up audio… she's saying your name," Tenka said, her voice gentler now.
Shogo stepped forward.
"From what we know, when an Alberline enters corruption, there's no coming back… unless something inside them remembers. Something personal. Deep."
He turned to Kentaro.
"That's you."
There was a long pause. Shogo broke the silence first.
"You're her only hope right now," he said, voice stripped of its usual sarcasm. "Without you, none of us have a shot at bringing her back."
His tone turned grave.
"And you know what happens when we can't save an Alberline."
Kentaro's breath caught in his throat.
He did know. He'd seen the simulations. The records. The aftermath.
Either they're put down… or they destroy everything.
Tenka sighed, stepping forward beside Shogo.
"Since we're far off the mainland, Cradle reinforcements won't arrive in time. And from what our sensors show, most of the Spire agents down there are either frozen… or dead. So we don't have to worry about them interfering."
She turned her eyes toward the live feed of Serica, zooming in on her pale, tear-streaked face.
"Kentaro," she said, locking eyes with him. "You need to understand—this version of her… isn't the Serica you grew to like. This is the version you met on Day One. Dangerous. Unstable. Lethal."
Her voice softened, but only slightly. "If you get reckless, she'll kill you."
Kentaro nodded slowly, his gaze falling to the floor, where his anchor was still on the side of his head. His fingers brushed the metal surface, remembering the feel of her hand wrapped around his wrist on their final date.
"This isn't the Serica I know…" he murmured. "But pretending we're strangers again? Like none of it ever happened?"
He shook his head.
"That doesn't feel right either."
Haruka, arms crossed, stepped in.
"Your feelings are valid, Kentaro. But emotions won't shield you. Her Sublimation Frame is active. That means her abilities are amplified, beyond what you've seen. If she attacked you now, she wouldn't hold back. She couldn't."
Kentaro clenched his fists. "Then I'll just have to reach her before the Serica I know disappears completely."
Without another word, he stepped back toward the centre of the room, onto the teleporter pad.
Silence.
They all watched him.
The room didn't move. No mechanical hum. No countdown.
Kentaro blinked and looked over his shoulder. "…Guys?"
Tenka raised an eyebrow. "Ken, what are you doing?"
He frowned. "Uh. Waiting to be teleported down?"
Tenka exchanged a look with Haruka. Then, without breaking eye contact, she tilted her head and gestured to the side.
"Yeah… about that," she said. "Come here. Just for a second."
Kentaro hesitated. Her tone was too casual.
But he walked. Slowly. One step after another, unease creeping up his spine.
She motioned for him to stop. Right at the center of what looked like a solid metal ring embedded in the floor, though now that he was standing on it, the ground beneath his boots felt… different. Hollow.
"Tenka… what are you planning?" Kentaro narrowed his eyes.
Tenka smiled. Innocent. Too innocent.
She clapped her hands.
From the back of the room, Shogo walked up, carrying a compact black pack.
He threw it over Kentaro's shoulders and tightened the straps with military precision.
Kentaro's eyes widened. "Wait, wait, wait, Shogo?! What the hell is this?!"
"Parachute," Shogo replied casually.
Kentaro turned to Tenka. "TENKA?!"
She didn't answer.
She just winked.
"Go save her, playboy."
Then she pressed the red button on her wristband.
The floor beneath Kentaro vanished.
A mechanical shriek.
Then the wind.
Pressure.
Freefall.
Kentaro dropped like a missile.
"WHHAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT THEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
His scream was swallowed by the roaring gale. His hair whipped wildly, his vision blurred from tears and wind, his limbs flailing as the landscape of the island spun beneath him.
Somewhere down there, through the clouds, beyond the haze, was Serica.
In armour. In pain. In corruption.
He was falling toward a girl who might kill him before she remembered his name.
He didn't know how many enemies waited down there.
He didn't know if she would listen.
But none of that mattered now.
Because he was falling.
And she was calling his name.