The metallic horizon was no longer stable.
It pulsed.
Not with light, nor with energy—but with the unmistakable tremor of a system entering terminal overdrive. Fractures spread across the plains like glowing veins, illuminating the entire Origin Layer with a harsh, white-violet radiance that vibrated through the air like distant machinery struggling against its own limits.
Sarah stood at the center of it all, her body still echoing with the aftershock of the Core Nexus's partial overload. Her breath was steady, but her aura flickered with a volatility she had not yet mastered—arcs of raw conceptual force peeling away from her spine like wings half-formed and half-broken.
Lilith Fragment hovered at her side, expression sharpened into cold calculation.
"It begins," she said quietly. "The Architect has invoked Emergency Override Protocol Astra-Null. The entire plane is shifting into its final configuration."
Rias approached, her palm resting firmly on Sarah's shoulder, grounding her.
"Your pulse is unstable," she said. "You absorbed too much. Even for you."
Sarah exhaled slowly, letting the power settle without truly releasing it.
"It was either that or let its avatar pierce the Nexus."
Xenovia scanned the surroundings, blade held in a reverse grip. "The landscape is rearranging itself. This isn't random. It's forming something."
Rossweisse's eyes widened as the luminous fractures aligned into converging glyph-lines. "No. It's building a corridor. A guided path to the Architect's true position."
Akeno smirked, though her voice carried none of her usual playfulness. "How courteous. It wants us to come to it."
"Not courtesy," Lilith corrected. "Containment. It wants Sarah in a controlled kill-zone."
Koneko cracked her knuckles. "Then we break the zone."
The ground trembled again—this time with precision. Massive plates of metallic strata rotated, interlocked, and transformed the vast plains into a single, colossal geometric tunnel stretching beyond the horizon. The walls pulsed with synchronized white light, as though alive.
Sarah felt the pull immediately.
A directive. A summons. A challenge.
Lilith Fragment's tone hardened. "Your powers are resonating with its call. If you step into that corridor, Phase 3 integration will begin automatically."
Rias moved to stand in front of Sarah, face serious. "Is she stable enough for that level?"
Silence.
Even Lilith hesitated.
Sarah answered for herself. "I didn't come this far to hesitate now."
The words rang with a conviction so focused it cut through the plane's trembling.
Rias nodded once. "Then we proceed. Together."
Xenovia grinned. "And we destroy anything that gets between us and that thing."
Rossweisse traced a quick containment glyph. "I will monitor your vital architecture. If your cognitive frame starts to distort, I will intervene immediately."
Akeno stepped to Sarah's other side. "And if anything dares touch our queen, I will erase it."
Koneko simply took Sarah's hand. "Go."
Sarah looked at them—at her harem, her pillars, her center of gravity—and felt the power within her respond with a clarity that cut through the instability.
Her ascent was never meant to be solitary.
"Formation Omega-Zero," she ordered softly.
The six women aligned around her, synchronizing their resonance fields.
And together, they stepped into the corridor.
---
The Corridor of Evaluation
The moment they entered, the plane sealed behind them with a thunderous echo. The corridor's walls lit up, revealing shifting runic equations—blueprints, memories, and failed Ascension attempts scrolling like a history written in pure logic.
Lilith Fragment muttered: "These are records of previous vessels. All terminated during Phase 3."
Rias frowned. "How many?"
"Millions."
A cold silence settled.
Sarah's jaw tightened. "What killed them?"
The corridor answered.
A pulse of white-violet light shot down its length, condensing into a humanoid figure composed entirely of geometric shards.
Xenovia raised her sword instantly. "New construct type."
Rossweisse analyzed in a heartbeat. "No physical core. It's conceptual. A thought turned into a weapon."
Akeno tilted her head. "Then let's unthink it."
The figure struck.
Not with physical movement—but by collapsing space around Sarah, attempting to compress her conceptual architecture into a single point.
Lilith shouted: "Counter now!"
Sarah's aura erupted outward, shattering the compression field. The construct flickered in response but did not fall; instead it split into two, each forming razor-thin limbs like blades of pure logic.
Koneko intercepted the first, crushing its arm with raw density.
Xenovia cut through the second with a single vertical slash.
The constructs dissolved—but not into pieces.
Into equations.
Rossweisse's eyes widened. "They're rewriting themselves—"
The equations snapped back together and formed a new figure, more refined, faster, deadlier.
Sarah stepped forward, Proto-Ascension flaring around her like a rising storm.
"No more rewrites."
She struck once.
The blow wasn't physical.
It was a command.
Cease.
The construct imploded, its algorithm overwritten by Sarah's authority.
Lilith whispered: "That was not Phase 2. That was the first spark of Phase 3."
Rias shot her a concerned glance. "How quickly will her body destabilize?"
"Depends. If she continues using conceptual override techniques… minutes."
Akeno grimaced. "Then we keep the pressure off her unless absolutely necessary."
Sarah remained silent.
Her vision was sharpening beyond normal perception—threads of meaning, logic, and intention weaving together into structures only a Phase 3 vessel could interpret.
The corridor shifted again.
This time, the walls opened into a vast amphitheater-like space. Floating platforms hovered in concentric circles around a central void.
In that void, suspended like a heart made of starlight and blades—
—was a crystalline structure pulsing with measured beats of impossible clarity.
Lilith gasped. "The Architect's Memory Core. The Source Vault."
Rias whispered: "This is where it keeps its identity."
Koneko frowned. "Then why show it to us?"
The answer came as a voice—neither spoken nor projected, but carved directly into thought.
"Evaluation: accelerated. Vessel integrity: unstable. Emotional entanglement: excessive. Proceed to final filtration."
A blinding light erupted.
---
The Filtration Gauntlet
Platforms shot upward at deadly speed, rotating into a labyrinth of shifting arenas. The Vault pulsed, sending waves of pressure that altered gravity, spatial orientation, and even time perception.
Sarah felt her bones vibrate.
Her harem braced around her.
Xenovia shouted: "Enemies incoming!"
Constructs emerged—smaller, faster, built for lethal precision. They launched into coordinated attacks timed with gravitational whiplashes and spatial jumps.
Rossweisse cast stabilizing runes. "Gravity field normalized!"
Akeno unleashed a sweeping arc of black lightning. "Clear the left side!"
Koneko launched into the air. "Three incoming above!"
Xenovia countered a flash-step assault. "Keep them off Sarah!"
Rias anchored the formation. "Sarah—focus. You need to read the Vault's patterns. This gauntlet isn't random."
Sarah's gaze locked onto the Vault.
The beats.
The pulses.
The intervals.
Patterns emerged—symmetries hidden within chaos, commands buried in the distortions.
"It's shaping us," Sarah whispered. "Forcing us into a specific rhythm."
Lilith responded sharply: "Break the rhythm or it will overwrite you."
Another pressure wave struck.
A construct nearly pierced Sarah's flank—but Akeno intercepted, unleashing a burst that shattered it.
"Stay focused," Akeno snapped. "We won't let anything touch you."
Sarah clenched her fists.
Her aura surged.
And this time, she didn't suppress the instability.
She rode it.
Her perception sharpened until she could see through the gauntlet's layered dimensional cycles. The constructs' movements slowed. The gravitational shifts aligned into predictable motions. The Vault's pulses revealed their intent.
"It's testing my identity structure," Sarah said. "It wants to know what I am… without them."
Koneko hissed: "But that's impossible."
Rias answered: "No. That's the Architect's goal. Strip her down to pure function."
Lilith added: "And if she fails the filtration, it deletes everything except the Seed."
Sarah stepped forward.
Her voice rang with iron conviction.
"It can test anything it wants. But it doesn't define me."
Her aura expanded, stabilizing as her emotional field synchronized with her harem again. The constructs froze mid-attack, as though stunned by the sudden spike in conceptual pressure.
Rossweisse gasped: "Her architecture… it's rejecting the filtration!"
Xenovia grinned. "Then we push."
A final wave of constructs descended.
The gauntlet erupted with lethal intensity.
And the group fought through it with ruthless precision—every movement precise, every strike decisive, every synergy perfect.
Until the gauntlet collapsed.
Until the Vault dimmed.
Until only silence remained.
Sarah breathed slowly, lowering her hands.
Lilith spoke with rare softness. "You resisted Phase 3 filtration. That means only one thing."
Sarah looked toward the now-open path leading deeper into the Origin Layer.
Rias finished the sentence.
"The Architect will face you personally."
Sarah nodded once.
"Good."
Her power steadied.
"We end this."