The Queen's sigil still pulsed faintly in my palm as I left her chamber. Its warmth wasn't soothing—it was a warning. A tether of authority, one I couldn't ignore.
Lala rushed toward me the moment she saw me in the corridor. Her arms wrapped around me without hesitation, relief spilling from her heartbeat into mine."You're okay…" she whispered, as if she had doubted it.
I brushed a hand against her cheek. "Always."
But inside, something else stirred.
[System Alert: Foreign signal detected.][Source: Unknown. Location: Upper atmosphere.]
The words came with a tremor in the hivemind. Haruna gasped faintly at her desk, far away. Yami froze mid-step on the academy's roof. Even Tearju, who had grown accustomed to my presence, felt the ripple.
A soundless vibration swept through every host and seeded link, low and insistent.
Lala clutched my arm. "What was that?"
I stared upward, vision piercing through walls, beyond the clouds, into the void above.
The fleet orbiting Deviluke was shifting. Ships turned in formation, weapons primed—but not at the royal palace.
Something else hung there. A distortion. A silhouette half-phased into this reality, its shape shifting like smoke trapped in glass.
The system whispered with unease:[Entity Classification: WATCHER][Status: Observing. Testing Boundaries.]
Sephie's words from earlier burned in my memory: If you fail, you won't be the only one who suffers.
"Scourge?" Haruna's voice trembled through the bond.
"I see it," I answered grimly.
The Watcher's presence pressed against me like a cold hand on the back of my neck. It didn't attack. It didn't speak. It simply watched.
Until, with a sudden pulse, the distortion lashed out—an invisible strike tearing through three Devilukean warships as if they were paper. The explosions painted the sky in brief fire before the silence returned.
[System Alert: Threat Level—Catastrophic.]
Lala's grip tightened on me. "We have to stop it!"
"No…" I said, my voice hardening. "We don't fight it here. Not yet."
Because I understood what it was doing.
Testing me.
The Queen's mandate wasn't a warning. It was a prophecy.
The Watchers had arrived.
And they weren't just here for Deviluke.
They were here for me.