[Silent Threshold — Combat Zone — 4:09 PM]
The frenzy collapsed at second sixteen of minute four.
Not gradually. All at once — all four Fragments at one hundred percent simultaneously without shared direction, the Harvester's attire dissolving into two versions fighting for visual space, Alex on the ground before he decided to fall.
The angel saw him.
It advanced.
---
Seraph interposed at zero HP.
She received the strike. She stayed at zero HP, stayed standing.
Raven positioned 28 units between the angel and Alex. The angel destroyed six. Raven at 9,800 HP. The remaining units held the line.
And then Raven's left hand on her abdomen.
Deliberate.
Not from pain. For another reason.
---
F7 responded.
Not as requested information — not as the cycle 42 image delivered in response to a direct question. As something the seventh Fragment had been waiting to deliver since the fight began. Waiting for the moment when the channel was completely open.
