The chime of the elevator was polite. It was a soft, cheerful sound that seemed absurdly out of place in a room smelling of ozone, crushed stone, and imminent violence.

The heavy brushed steel doors slid open. Inside stood Anastasia Aurelia.

She was the Princess of the Empire and the Special Admission Rank 3. She did not look like she had spent the last twelve hours climbing a lethal industrial spire.

Her white military uniform was pristine. There was no soot on her cuffs. There was no blood on her collar. Her golden hair was pinned up in a perfect, intricate braid that exposed the elegant line of her neck.

She stepped out of the elevator. The metal grating of the floor was covered in grease and rust, but as her boot descended, a ripple of golden light pulsed outward. The filth vanished instantly, scoured away by a passive wave of purification. She did not walk on the grime. She walked on a carpet of clean, sterilized steel that she created with every step.

She held a rapier in her right hand. It was not a heavy weapon of war like Ashe's broadsword or a blunt instrument of mass destruction like Magnus's hammer. It was a slender, ornate needle of star metal with a basket hilt made of woven gold.

It looked like jewelry. In her hand, it felt like a law of physics.

"You are late, Princess," Ashe called out. The Warlord was perched on a twisted support beam, her sword resting casually on her shoulder. Her crimson aura flared, agitated by the arrival of a rival predator. "We started the party without you."

Anastasia did not look up. She adjusted her white glove, tightening the fabric over her wrist.

"A Queen is never late," Anastasia said. Her voice was not loud, yet it carried through the cavernous Turbine Hall with perfect clarity, resonating in the ears of everyone present. "The performance simply waits for the lead to arrive."

She looked at Valerica. The Titan was standing in the center of a gravity well that had crushed the surrounding machinery into a flat, dense disk.

"Valerica Sol," Anastasia acknowledged with a polite nod. "And Ashe Razar. The brute and the brawler. I suppose I should be grateful you left the building standing."

"You talk too much," Ashe grinned. The Warlord dropped from the beam. She did not land softly. She accelerated downward, turning gravity into a weapon. "Let's see if you bleed gold too."

Ashe moved. It was the same supersonic engage that had nearly killed Vane. She vanished, reappearing instantly in front of Anastasia, her heavy sword swinging in a decapitation arc that broke the sound barrier.

Vane, watching from behind the turbine housing, flinched. He knew the weight of that swing. It crushed bone. It shattered defenses.

Anastasia did not dodge. She did not raise a shield.

She simply stepped forward.

Her rapier flicked up. It moved with a speed that defied the eye, not because of muscle, but because the air itself moved out of its way.

Cling.

It was a delicate, chiming sound.

Ashe's massive sword was not blocked. It was redirected. Anastasia had struck the flat of the blade at the exact moment of impact, detonating a micro burst of kinetic mana at the point of contact.

The heavy blade slid harmlessly over Anastasia's shoulder, missing her by an inch.

Ashe stumbled, her momentum carried forward by her own force. Anastasia did not waste movement. She pivoted, her left hand tracing a complex sigil in the air in less than a heartbeat.

"Blast," she whispered.

A focused beam of concussive force, no wider than a coin, fired from her fingertips into Ashe's exposed ribs.

Bang.

Ashe was launched sideways. She slammed into a support pillar, denting the steel.

"Sloppy," Anastasia critiqued, lowering her hand. "You waste so much energy, Warlord. You scream when you should whisper."

"My turn," Valerica stated.

The Titan did not run. She simply clenched her fist. The air in the room grew heavy. The gravity around Anastasia multiplied by twenty. The floor plates groaned and buckled. Dust was dragged down from the air.

Vane felt his stomach lurch just from the proximity. Valerica was trying to crush the Princess into a diamond.

Anastasia sighed. She looked up at the invisible weight pressing down on her.

"Crude," she murmured.

She raised her rapier. The blade began to glow, not with fire or lightning, but with a pure, white light. It was the color of raw mana.

She wasn't generating power. She was calling it. The ambient mana in the room, the thick industrial smog of Sector 4, rushed toward her. It loved her. It wanted to be used by her.

She slashed the air above her head.

Riiip.

The sound was like silk tearing. Anastasia didn't cut the gravity. She cut the spell matrix holding it together. She saw the structure of Valerica's will and severed the anchor points with surgical precision.

The gravity well collapsed instantly. The pressure vanished.

Anastasia stood in the center of the broken floor, untouched. Her hair hadn't even been ruffled.

"Is that it?" Anastasia asked, looking between the two monsters. "I climbed twelve flights of stairs for this? I expected a challenge. I found children throwing tantrums."

Ashe pulled herself out of the dented pillar. She spat blood, her grin widening into something feral.

"Oh, I like her," Ashe laughed. Her horns flared with crimson light. "I really want to break her."

Valerica cracked her knuckles, her golden eyes narrowing. The air around her began to warp again, this time vibrating with the heat of a star.

"Agreed," Valerica rumbled. "She is arrogant. Let us flatten her."

The two of them moved at once. Ashe from the left, a blur of speed. Valerica from the right, a juggernaut of unstoppable mass.

Anastasia smiled. It wasn't the polite smile of a diplomat. It was the sharp, dangerous smile of a duelist who had just realized the game might actually be fun.

"Better," she said.

She flourished her rapier, the blade humming as it became coated in a layer of condensed, liquid mana that was sharp enough to cut concepts.

"Come then," Anastasia commanded, assuming a perfect fencing stance. "Let me show you the difference between a brawler and a sovereign."

The three forces collided. The world turned white.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.