Cedric and Aki needed no signal. The moment they saw them being taken away, the time for strategy was over.

  "NOW!" Cedric shouted, breaking from cover using his fractal speed.

  He reached the room's door in the blink of an eye and kicked it hard, throwing it wide open. The nearest rebel soldiers turned their weapons, but they were too slow. The black edge of Cedric's sword traced an arc in the air, and two rebels fell before they could even pull the trigger.

  Aki rushed in right behind him, firing his reaction pistol with lethal precision, covering Cedric's flank.

  "Intruders!" Ripto yelled, materializing his gear with his bracelet and drawing his own sword, preparing to charge at Cedric.

  But before the Captain could take two steps, a gloved hand rested heavily on his shoulder, stopping him dead in his tracks.

  Ripto spun around in surprise. The Masked General held him, impassive to the chaos unleashing just meters away.

  The General walked calmly to the front, placing himself between his men and the attackers, as if bullets and swords posed no threat to him. He looked at Cedric, then at Aki, and finally turned his gaze back to Ripto and his company.

  "You men, take care of the hostages," he said with chilling tranquility.

  Valto, who was still holding Mia, released her for a split second upon hearing the order to voice his protest, panic clear in his body language.

  "I'm sorry, sir, but remember I'm your escort!" Valto shrieked, unwilling to leave the safety of the General's side.

  Ripto, more tactical but equally confused by the order, looked at the attackers. His expert eyes evaluated the situation: A Vexillarius, an elite soldier... and something else that his instincts screamed was wrong.

  "It's a disadvantage..." Ripto said, looking at the General and then at the empty space around Cedric. "For you to fight against three. Let the others handle the hostages."

  Three? Aki thought, confused, glancing around while keeping his aim steady. It was only him and Cedric.

  "Who would have thought the Imperial forces would rebel..." a disembodied female voice echoed.

  Upon hearing her, Aki and Cedric immediately shifted their aim. Their new target: one of Cedric's flanks, where there was... nothing.

  "Right, Captain Ripto?" A silhouette began to appear, faint at first.

  Aki and Cedric tensed their bodies.

  "I didn't think they would wake up in time," the Captain replied calmly.

  The female silhouette became fully visible.

  "Forgive my lack of respect," Ripto said upon seeing the person. "Which of the two are you... Opri or Chnina?"

  "You don't need to know." The woman turned her head toward Cedric and Aki.

  The opaque glass of her helmet was just as peculiar as Clifford's. Only, for some strange reason, it seemed less intimidating.

  Cedric proved it by relaxing; it was as if she were someone familiar. The red hood and the emblem of the three wolf heads were his definitive answer: The last branch of the Black and the second of the Empire.

  "Aren't you going to lower your weapons?" the woman asked with a strange cheerfulness.

  Cedric did so immediately.

  "And you?" the woman asked, her tone slightly more serious as she noticed Aki hadn't lowered his. "Aren't you going to?"

  Cedric quickly turned to him after hearing her. He noticed that Aki's body was still tense, seemingly unwilling to comply.

  "I won't." Aki glanced at Cedric out of the corner of his eye. "I don't know who you are, so no."

  "What a pity..." the woman whispered, and her silhouette blurred.

  In the blink of an eye, the space between her and Aki vanished. Before the elite soldier could even tense his finger on the trigger, the barrel of his pistol was already pointing at the ceiling, deflected by a gloved hand. A sharp, precise strike to the back of the neck followed instantly.

  Aki collapsed like a ragdoll, falling at Cedric's feet without making a sound.

  "He wasn't going to be of much help anyway," Fer said with indifference, brushing an imaginary speck of dust off her shoulder, now standing exactly where Aki had been.

  Cedric took a step back, his heart hammering in his throat. Her speed wasn't normal; not even for a Vexillarius.

  The Masked General, who had observed the scene without moving a muscle, broke his silence. His voice, distorted by the mask, sounded calm, almost bored.

  "There is still time..."

  That phrase, spoken so calmly amidst the chaos, made Cedric's blood run cold. Time for what? he thought, feeling a knot in his stomach. It didn't sound like hope, but rather a countdown.

  Suddenly, the woman laughed. A small, sharp, and dangerous laugh.

  "Then you won't mind if I take out the trash," she said.

  The ground beneath her feet cracked. She shot forward like a projectile, ignoring Cedric and Ripto, and launching herself straight at the easiest prey: Valto.

  The former escort's eyes widened in panic, paralyzed, watching death approach at a speed his brain couldn't process. The woman's fist was aimed straight at his stomach, carrying enough force to punch right through him.

  "Sir!" Valto shrieked.

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  BOOM!

  The impact generated a shockwave of air that ruffled Cedric's hair. But Valto was still alive. There was no blood.

  In front of him, the Masked General had raised a hand. With insulting ease, he had caught the woman's fist in mid-air, stopping a charge dead in its tracks that would have shattered a steel wall.

  The silence that followed was absolute.

  Cedric watched the scene in disbelief. The woman's speed had been hard to track with the naked eye, but the General's reaction... had been instantaneous. Not only had he seen her; he had stopped her without giving a single millimeter of ground.

  The woman, with her hand still trapped, tilted her head. She didn't seem scared, but rather fascinated. With a sharp tug, she broke free from his grip and jumped back, putting distance between them.

  "Well... what an annoying amount of strength," she said, shaking her aching hand and looking at him with curiosity.

  The General slowly lowered his arm, smoothing the sleeve of his white coat.

  "Do not touch my escort," he replied, fixing his hidden eyes on her.

  The tension in the room skyrocketed, becoming dense, almost unbreathable. Cedric, feeling small between two titans, gripped the hilt of his sword until his knuckles turned white and finally took a fighting stance.

  Everyone in the room wore a serious, tense expression, bracing for the massacre. Everyone, except the woman, who looked physically relaxed, and the General, whose mask reflected an empty, terrifying void.

  "Ready to fight?" the woman asked, without taking her eyes off the man in front of her.

  "Let's do this," Cedric said, furrowing his brow.

  The woman scoffed at hearing him.

  "If you need help, yell... Fer!" she shouted, launching herself into the attack before even finishing the sentence.

  The combat erupted on two simultaneous fronts.

  Cedric charged with the force of a freight train. Ripto intercepted the downward slash with his sword, but his knees buckled under the unnatural weight of the blow. The physical superiority of a fractal was overwhelming; every clash of metal forced the captain another step back.

  "Valto, shoot!" Ripto roared in desperation.

  The escort, trembling, unholstered his pistol.

  Cedric had to break his rhythm, spinning on his heel and deploying his energy shield just in time for the plasma rounds to bounce off it in a shower of blue sparks. That split second of distraction cost him dearly; Ripto took advantage of the opening to deliver a thrust that tore through the side of his armor, drawing blood.

  On the other side, Fer was a blur of motion. She ignored the General and tried to eliminate Valto to cut off Ripto's support. Her fist aimed straight for the soldier's throat.

  But once again, a white-gloved hand intervened. The General deflected the lethal blow with a flick of his wrist, saving his escort for the second time.

  "Don't waste your time with him..." the General said, his deep voice resonating behind the mask.

  Fer landed with agility, shaking her wrist again out of pain. She had barely managed to dirty her opponent's immaculate white coat with the dust of combat.

  "To be honest..." Fer smiled, though she was struggling to breathe. "You possess a strength superior to mine. But that doesn't mean I can't win."

  The battle raged on for a few more brutal, lightning-fast seconds. Cedric, ignoring the burning sensation in his side, attacked with fury.

  With a precise strike, he disarmed Ripto, sending his sword flying, and with a backhand, broke his nose, leaving him dazed on the floor.

  Valto, seeing his captain fall, tried to aim again. Cedric spun around, his eyes bloodshot with adrenaline, and went in for the kill. His sword sought Valto's chest.

  RUMBLE!

  A violent tremor shook the ship's structure, nearly knocking them all off their feet.

  The Masked General glanced upwards for a moment, as if listening to an invisible clock. Then, he looked at Fer.

  "It seems time is up."

  It was instantaneous.

  The General disappeared. He didn't run; he simply ceased to be in one spot and appeared right in front of Fer. His fist sank into the woman's stomach with a dull, terrible sound.

  Fer didn't even scream. The air escaped her lungs in an agonizing exhale; her eyes rolled back, and she fell to her knees, collapsing in on herself.

  Before her body even hit the floor, the General had already moved again.

  Cedric, who was barely a meter away from skewering Valto, felt a devastating impact to his abdomen. It was like being hit by a battering ram. He was sent flying backward, dropping his sword and landing hard on his back, gasping for air, unable to move.

  Valto, pale as a ghost and pressed flat against the wall, stared at the tip of Cedric's sword lying at his feet. He had seen his own death inches away.

  The General shook his hand, impassive.

  "Grab Ripto and take him to the corvette," he ordered, pointing at the captain's unconscious body.

  Valto nodded frantically, driven by pure terror. He dragged Ripto as best as he could and followed the General, who walked out of the room at a leisurely pace, leaving the two elite warriors writhing on the floor behind him.

  Cedric tried to get up, coughing, but the pain kept him pinned down. A few meters away, Fer was making the same effort, trembling.

  "I'm sorry, Cedric..." she said, her voice weak and genuinely concerned. "I have to take care of something..."

  Her silhouette flickered and vanished into thin air. She activated her cloaking and disappeared, leaving him alone.

  Cedric used his sword as a crutch to force himself to his feet, even though his legs were failing him. His mind, dazed by the pain, clung to a single detail.

  "So it's true..." he panted. "The Oprichnina knows everything... even my name."

  "Cedric!"

  The familiar shout made him turn around. Two figures came running down the hallway. Selene was visibly limping, and Lyana's face was distorted with panic.

  "Cedric!" Lyana didn't stop. She crashed into him in a desperate embrace, burying her face in his chest, not caring about the blood or the dirt.

  Cedric felt her tears soaking his armor. The pain from the General's strike seemed to recede slightly against her warmth. He then awkwardly stroked her hair.

  Selene arrived a second later, leaning against the doorframe to keep from falling. Her gaze swept the room looking for threats, and stopped on the body lying on the floor.

  "Is he... okay?" she asked, pointing at Aki, immediately walking toward him.

  Cedric looked at the sergeant, who was still unconscious where Fer had left him.

  "Yeah..." Cedric replied, returning Lyana's hug with one arm. "He's a lucky guy."

  As if the mention had summoned him, Aki let out a groan and opened his eyes. He sat up abruptly, disoriented. The first thing he saw was Selene's hand reaching out to him.

  "What... what happened?" Aki asked, rubbing the back of his neck and accepting the help to get up. He looked around in confusion. "And my fiancée?"

  Cedric exchanged a quick look with him.

  "You just dozed off before the fight started, Aki," Cedric lied, giving a small, tired laugh.

  Aki visibly turned red with embarrassment all the way to his ears.

  "Seriously?... What a disgrace."

  "This is no time to relax," Lyana interrupted, pulling away from Cedric, though she stayed close to him. Her voice trembled, but her eyes were firm. "We have to go find Lunaria and Krzytof...!"

  The mention of the other two wiped the small smile off Cedric's face. Matsumoto's message echoed in his head: "The ones still left standing."

  Selene adjusted her glove, hiding the tremor in her hand.

  "Then we need to move," she declared. "There's no time."

  "This is where we part ways," Aki said suddenly.

  The three Foxes looked at him blankly.

  "You're coming with us." Cedric grabbed his shoulder.

  Aki instantly furrowed his brow, his eyes trembling and welling up heavily.

  I can't, he thought.

  "It's easy for you to take things lightly...!" he exclaimed softly and clenched his fists. "Your comrades were raised in the Black, and you came out of the White by becoming a fractal. Or so they say."

  Lyana and Selene's faces turned indifferent upon hearing him. His way of speaking was disrespectful to them in its own way.

  "We have teammates who are in potential trouble," Selene said, somewhat seriously. "Besides, we are your superiors, so take it as an order."

  Aki sighed.

  "I don't care..." He swallowed hard. "I have to go get her."

  Doubt now painted the women's faces.

  "Don't worry, Aki. I told you," Cedric said, removing his hand from him. "I'll help you rescue your fiancée... but I can't do it alone."

  Selene's face quickly flushed slightly. She tensed up as she realized her own insensitivity. Damn it, she thought.

  "To be honest, I know I won't be able to do it alone," Aki looked up at the ceiling. "Much less if I don't even know where they took her. So, alright."

  He looked back at them, glancing sideways at Selene, making her uncomfortable.

  "I'm sorry for being inconsiderate," she said, embarrassed, but quickly regaining her firmness. "We have to go to Sector C if we want to rescue her."

  Aki nodded, and without another word, the battered and exhausted group set off toward Sector C.