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"Everyone, be careful!"
Stelle quickly swung her baseball bat, intercepting Kenta's strike with a heavy horizontal arc. The impact was thunderous, and despite her Path of Preservation powers, she was sent sliding back across the ice.
"Kenta! Wake up!" Seele shouted, her scythe humming as she dashed forward. she parried a flurry of blows, her eyes darting toward the former Guardian. "Cocolia! How did you handle him when he lost control before?!"
Seele quantumized into a blur, narrowly dodging a sudden surge of Black Flame that turned the snow into steam. Behind her, Dan Heng joined the fray with his spear, while Bronya and March 7th provided cover fire.
"We just had to hold him off until the flames burned themselves out!" Cocolia cried out, her voice strained.
The group instantly synchronized, planning to swarm him and pin him down. But Kenta in this state was a force of nature. The fact that he could swat away a Preservation-boosted Stelle with a single elbow spoke volumes. His raw strength was already at the top of their bracket, and with the team holding back to avoid actually hurting him, they were quickly losing ground.
"Stupid Kenta! You weren't this fierce when we were sparring!" March 7th yelled, diving away from a black fireburst.
Kenta didn't respond with words. Instead, he reached out, caught one of March's arrows mid-flight, and snapped the frost-coated shaft in his bare hand.
"Hmph! Then taste this girl's real power!" March leaped into the air, her compound bow glowing with a brilliant, translucent light. An arrow of Six-Phase Ice condensed in her grip.
As she released the string, the arrow shattered in mid-air, transforming into dozens of crystalline ice rabbits that hurtled toward Kenta. Kenta instinctively summoned a wall of Black Flame. Normally, neither bullets nor arrows could pierce that scorching barrier, but this time was different.
Sizzle—
The moment the Six-Phase Ice hit the black fire, there was a violent hiss of steam. To everyone's shock, the intensity of the flames visibly flickered and dimmed.
"!!!"
Dan Heng's eyes sharpened. "March! Try again! It's working! Your ice is neutralizing the corruption!"
March 7th didn't waste a heartbeat. She nocked another Six-Phase Ice arrow. "Yay! I don't know why, but my ice is the perfect fire extinguisher!"
The team moved to coordinate a full suppression, but even unconscious, Kenta's combat instincts were predatory. He ignored the others, using a Black Flame Teleportation to bypass the front line and reappear directly in front of March.
"!!!"
March gasped, frantically trying to aim.
Clang!
Before she could nock an arrow, Kenta's sheath slammed into her bow, sending it spinning into the snow.
"Oh no!" March thought, her heart plummeting. She looked up just as the broken blade descended toward her. In that terrifying second, her life flashed before her eyes like a revolving lantern.
She remembered the first time he'd appeared, beating up Sampo without a word—she'd thought he was a total freak. Then, the jokes in the Underworld, the accidental touch of her foot that made her think he was a "bad guy." Then the protection, the teasing, and the night she'd broken Stelle's key because she felt like his "best buddy." Finally, the memory of that accidental kiss lingered—warm, confusing, and vivid.
"No... Kenta..." March murmured, her eyes filling with fear and a deep reluctance to let it end like this.
Suddenly, a blue light erupted. Subconsciously, she had pushed her Six-Phase Ice to form a localized barrier. The broken blade hit the shield and was repelled by the recoil.
March didn't retreat. She gritted her teeth, deactivated her shield, and lunged forward. She crashed into Kenta's chest, wrapping her arms around his waist in a desperate, bone-crushing hug.
"Stupid Kenta! Wake up! I haven't even forgiven you for the workshop yet!"
She screamed at the top of her lungs. A dazzling, brilliant blue light—vibrant as a rising sun—exploded from her body. She was pushing her Six-Phase Ice to its absolute limit, using herself as a cooling medium.
The heat of the Black Flames stung her skin, but she refused to let go. The blue radiance enveloped them both, and the surrounding Black Flames sputtered and died. Kenta's struggling limbs went still. He slowly lowered his head, his eyes gradually clearing of the abyssal black until they returned to their natural crimson.
"March..." Kenta's voice was hoarse, barely a whisper.
The light faded. The group rushed over, finding them still locked in an embrace on the scorched hilltop.
"You're finally awake, you idiot," March said, her eyes red as she gave his chest a weak, tearful punch.
"I..." Kenta started to speak, but the world suddenly tilted.
"Kenta?!"
March felt his weight shift—his body went limp, his head falling onto her shoulder.
"Kenta! Say something! Don't you dare die now!" March panicked, her voice cracking into a sob.
"Calm down, March," Dan Heng said, checking Kenta's pulse with practiced calm. "He's just exhausted. He's fallen asleep."
The collective sigh of relief was loud enough to be heard over the wind.
The Express trio sat with Serval, recounting the harrowing events of the summit.
"Wow, it was that intense? Damn it, it's all Kenta's fault for making me miss the finale!" Serval complained, though she looked relieved.
March 7th tried to play it cool. "Well, you can't blame him. Being pregnant requires a lot of rest, after all." She forced a bright smile, though inwardly, her chest felt like it was made of lead.
Serval froze for a second, then burst into uncontrollable laughter. "Hahahaha! Oh, man... I'm sorry... hahahaha!"
The Trailblazers looked at her, baffled. "What's so funny, Serval?" Stelle asked.
Serval wiped tears from her eyes. "That was a total lie Kenta cooked up to trick Gepard! I'm not pregnant! Kenta and I are just old friends. You guys actually believed that?"
The reactions were immediate.
Dan Heng remained stoic, but the tension in his shoulders vanished. He was genuinely relieved Kenta wasn't tied down to this planet by a family. Stelle's eyes lit up with a predatory gleam: Great! The field is still open!
But March 7th was the most vocal. "That... that jerk! He tricked me too!" She shouted it with indignation, but her eyes were sparkling with a joy she couldn't hide. The gloomy weight in her chest vanished instantly.
Meanwhile, Seele sat with Bronya, helping her draft the first decrees for the reunification of the city.
"Seele? Seele? Are you even listening?" Bronya asked, waving a hand.
"Oh! Sorry, I was just... spacing out." Seele shook her head, but deep down, a small knot of melancholy remained. She still didn't know the "pregnancy" was a lie, and the thought of it made the future feel a little colder than the snow outside.
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