"Step back." Henry said quietly but the tension in his voice made all three of them obey instantly.
The fractured ceiling above the altar darkened as if ink were being poured into the air. The floating debris halted mid-drift.
Even the faint hum of the cathedral's residual energy lowered into a suffocating silence.
From within the shadow, something moved.
A single heel touched empty space.
She descended as though the darkness itself were a staircase. A feathered hat cast a sharp silhouette across her face, its black plumes edged faintly in crimson light.
Her gown flowed around her in layered scarlet silk, untouched by gravity, trailing like a controlled spill of blood against the pale ruins.
In her left hand hovered a small, angular shield shaped in the outline of a Lambda symbol. Its surface was matte black with slight red circuitry threading across it.
Agripha smiled.
The cathedral seemed to recognize her.
"Well," she said smoothly, "You broke my prototype."
Cagaro stiffened. Blyke instinctively shifted his stance despite the bandage on his head.
Arcee stepped forward instead.
"You built that thing?" she asked evenly.
Agripha's gaze drifted over them one by one, amused. "Built is such a crude word. Your world is messy."
"You did experimented on civilians." Arcee replied, "That is not law. That is cruelty disguised as order."
Agripha tilted her head slightly. "They are safer where they are than in the chaos you four embody."
Henry's eyes narrowed. "Pocket Dimension Sector-3?"
A faint flicker of approval crossed her face. "Ah. So you found the ledger."
Blyke clenched his fists. "Let them out."
Agripha laughed softly. "You could barely handle an incomplete infant model and you wish to negotiate for thousands?"
Arcee's voice lowered, steady and cutting. "You hid behind a baby because you were afraid to deploy something finished. That says more about you than us."
The smile thinned.
"You mistake caution for fear, dear." Agripha replied calmly. "Adultery of logic is still adultery, my dear. You twist conclusions to flatter your courage."
"And you twist ethics to flatter your ego."
Arcee answered without raising her voice.
The air tightened between them.
Henry stepped slightly forward.
Above, the shadows deepened again.
Agripha's Lambda shield rotated slowly at her side as she regarded them with cool interest.
"You are persistent," she admitted. "Let us see if you are also sufficient."
Blyke's eyes narrowed despite the blood drying at his temple.
"Hold up," he said slowly. "Did she just say us?"
The word lingered in the air like a crack in glass.
Agripha did not answer.
Instead, the shadows behind her thickened again but this time they did not descend from above.
They spread outward from her back, stretching across the fractured cathedral walls like oil creeping over water. The temperature dropped perceptibly.
Then it tore open.
Something stepped out, not gracefully like Agripha, but with weight. With sheer presence.
A tall silhouette formed first, broad-shouldered, unnatural in proportion, its outline jagged as if carved from broken night.
Faint crimson fissures traced across its body like cracks in cooling magma.
Two eyes ignited within the shadow.
Arcee shifted her footing. Blyke's jaw tightened.
Henry did not move.
"I know him." Henry said quietly.
The name felt very suspensed.
CAIUS
The monstrous figure tilted its head slightly, recognizing the voice.
Henry's gaze hardened. "At the pedway... So you survived the fall."
The air between them vibrated with restrained violence.
Agripha's smile returned, thinner this time.
"Reunions?" she murmured. "How sentimental."
Caius did not waste words.
The marble beneath his feet exploded outward as he crossed the distance in a single violent burst.
He wore no armor, no mask this time... just a tight black shirt stretched over a powerful frame and dark trousers streaked with dust.
His messy hair fell across his forehead and without the wolf mask he had worn in the pedway, his face was fully visible.
"Split!" Henry ordered instantly.
Caius's fist came down like a falling hammer where all four had stood a second earlier.
The impact shattered the floor and sent a shockwave ripping across the cathedral.
Henry pivoted left. Cagaro followed without hesitation.
Arcee grabbed Blyke's arm and rolled the opposite direction just as a second strike carved through the air between them.
Agripha did not chase Henry.
She drifted instead toward Arcee and Blyke, her scarlet gown trailing like controlled flame, Lambda shield rotating lazily at her side.
"Round two." she said softly.
Behind them, Caius turned toward Henry.
Their eyes met.
Henry studied him carefully.
"Seems like you removed the mask." Henry observed.
Caius's lips curved slightest it could, but there was no madness in it. "It was unnecessary... I... think..."
Last time, in the pedway district, he had fought like a feral beast.
"You are different this time." Cagaro muttered.
Caius lunged again, faster than before.
Henry barely tilted aside as Caius's elbow smashed through a floating column behind him, pulverizing stone as though it were brittle chalk.
Henry's migraine pulsed sharply as he blocked it with Astra, sparks scattering at the point of contact. Caius did not snarl or roar.
On the other side of the cathedral, Agripha's laughter resounded lightly as her shield flickered to life against Arcee's counter.
The teams were split.
Agripha's Lambda shield shimmered into full activation.
It hovered before her like a small, black sun, the angular Lambda lines glowing faintly in red. Every time Blyke swung his fists or Arcee lunged, the shield met their strikes.
Each push they attempted was converted into sharp, spinning bursts that she could use almost instantaneously, shifting them back, slashing around her or sending them ricocheting harmlessly into the broken cathedral floor.
"Damn it." Blyke muttered under his breath, leaping back after a failed overhead swing.
Every strike he tried to land either missed entirely or glided along the shield, leaving him winded and increasingly frustrated.
The Lambda's reaction force made her unpredictable, impossible to pin down.
She floated, spinning slightly, shield angled, almost taunting them silently with her effortless control.
Arcee noticed his hesitation and scowled. "Stop forcing yourself." she snapped. "You are hurt. Don't try to overpower her when she's feeding off your energy. Work smarter."
Blyke gritted his teeth, glancing at her. "Smarter… not easier." He flexed his arms, letting his mind run over the problem rapidly.
Agripha's shield didn't absorb attacks like normal armor. It didn't block. It redirected. That meant she relied on predicting the strikes, on momentum and trajectory.
If he could manipulate that input... make it think a force was coming from one direction while actually delivering it from another... he could bypass the shield.
He crouched slightly, breathing evenly despite the pain in his head, scarlet energy flaring faintly around him. "Alright," he muttered. "I just need to trick it. Make it work against itself."
Arcee circled, moving lightly. "Then don't waste your strength on brute force. Work with me. Let her shield do the guessing."
Blyke's eyes narrowed. The scarlet lines on his body flared brighter. Sweat dripped down his temple.
The Lambda shield rotated again,
responding instinctively to their movement.