Two more days passed.

  Saliya and Ana maintained their grueling pace: resting when the sun rose, and advancing when the stars took their pce. Though they hadn't encountered the golden-eyed hybrid again, the reprieve brought little comfort. During her shifts as sentinel, Saliya continued her internal training, practicing the meditation techniques Kouichirou had taught her.

  On the third day, the sisters hid within an abandoned underground conduit. Just past noon, Ana woke naturally. The first thing she saw was Saliya, kneeling nearby. Her sister’s eyes were closed, her breathing rhythmic and calm. Saliya’s hands were partially open before her, fingers moving with the grace of a pianist performing a silent, invisible melody.

  Resting across her p was a halberd forged entirely of solidified shadow.

  Unlike the crude, company-issue gear Ana had destroyed previously, this weapon was slender and elegant. It possessed a delicate quality that almost gave the illusion that it might snap easily—but Ana felt its truth. It wasn't fragile. It was the physical manifestation of her sister’s will to live.

  Saliya’s expression was peaceful, devoid of agitation or the hunger of the bloodlust. Her very presence felt like a gathering storm held in perfect check.

  Ana held her breath, fearing that even the slightest sound would shatter this hard-won tranquility. She sat up quietly, watching the obsidian weapon. To Ana’s senses, that internal aura was tougher and deeper than any alloy gear the Company could produce. This was no longer a tool of steel held merely to complete a mission; it was an extension of Saliya’s own body, born to protect their bond and carve a path through the dark.

  Saliya remained still, her fingertips twitching in the air as if fine-tuning the flow of energy within the shadows. The stench of decay in the tunnels and the damp, cold air seemed isoted by her calm power. Though the road ahead remained uncertain, her sister had finally found her own "way to protect what mattered."

  Night fell completely as the sisters reached a desote wastend.

  On the far horizon, the electronic fence marking the border pulsed with a faint, rhythmic blue light. As they passed an unmanned facility beled on their map as an "Automated Meteorological Station"—

  BOOM!

  A sudden explosion tore through the silence of the pins. Reinforced gss shattered, and a fsh of fire flickered through the dark. The scent of cordite drifted on the wind, carrying a distinct aura of violence.

  “Sister, something’s happening,” Ana said, her voice low and calm. This wasn't a mechanical failure or the movement of a wild beast. This was the sound of humans fighting for their lives.

  Two days ago, they would have bypassed this without a second thought. But now, staring at the burning building, Saliya felt a surge of unease she couldn't ignore. She remained silent for a heartbeat.

  “Let’s go see,” she whispered. There was no hesitation.

  The two shadows dropped low, approaching the smoke-shrouded facility like nocturnal bats.

  Outside the derelict station, the cold border wind scattered the smoke. Saliya and Ana chose a vantage point with a clear view that was difficult to scout. They quickly identified the source of the commotion.

  Familiar uniforms, tactical maneuvers, and that specific insignia... one Saliya had seen thousands of times from up close. Her fingers tightened into a fist.

  “...It’s the Company,” she said, her voice heavy with certainty.

  “Your former employer?” Ana had already surmised as much.

  “Yes.” Saliya narrowed her eyes, analyzing their deployment. “But I’ve never heard of them operating across the border.”

  Her gaze drifted past the Company troops to the perimeter, where a significant number of "The Lost"—the tragic results of forced hybridization—were swarming. However, there was no sign of the gold-eyed hybrid.

  “Since they aren't here for us, let’s leave,” Ana suggested.

  “Alright—”

  Saliya’s response died in her throat as her eyes locked onto a specific figure. That reed-thin silhouette was one of the few humans who had ever treated her with kindness.

  “—Is that Kouichirou Yamamoto?” Ana saw him too. Saliya was briefly surprised Ana knew his name, then remembered the Blood Memory. “He was one of the ones who saw you as 'human,' wasn't he?” It wasn't really a question.

  Saliya remained silent for a second before giving a sharp nod.

  In that moment, she noticed another shadow. The hybrid woman they had met days ago was closing in on the Company’s fnk. Her angle of attack pointed directly at the rear of the squad.

  Right toward Kouichirou.

  Even from a distance, Saliya could feel the bloodlust radiating from the hybrid.

  “If the humans aren't looking for her,” Ana said coldly, “then they have severely underestimated her.”

  Saliya stood up. “I can’t let Mr. Yamamoto die.” Her voice was soft but unshakable. “At the very least... I have to make sure she doesn't hurt him.”

  “Sister,” Ana warned, “these are your former masters. If you are exposed, you know the consequences.”

  “I abandoned J once,” Saliya looked at her, her eyes calm and resolute. “I won’t abandon Mr. Yamamoto too.”

  “Ana, I’ll go alone—”

  “No.” Ana cut her off. She stepped onto the railing, her tone matter-of-fact. “You stop the hybrid. I’ll handle Yamamoto’s safety.”

  Saliya was momentarily speechless.

  “If it weren't for him, I might never have seen you again,” Ana said with a wry smile. “He isn't just your benefactor—he’s one of the reasons we can even stand here today.” She pointed toward the hybrid’s position. “Don’t argue with me. You know her strength. The closer she gets, the more danger he’s in.”

  Before the st word fell, Ana leaped down. “I’ll clear away the things that shouldn't be near him.”

  “Dammit.” This was the countless time Kouichirou Yamamoto had cursed under his breath.

  Because of the cowardice and shortsightedness of the Elders, Saliya—their Ace—had been driven away, and Division Zero had been mothballed. It was effectively dissolved. Yet the Company continued to put up a front. When the neighboring country’s hunters refused to risk their men in these ruins, the Company’s leadership took the contract for the sake of prestige and future leverage. And he, under semi-coercion, had been dragged along as the medical and research lead.

  The fools who once treated Saliya like an object were finally realizing their mistake. They didn't know the enemy numbers or their exact positions. In the past, they would have just waited outside while she handled everything alone. She had never disappointed them.

  If only she hadn't been driven out— Kouichirou shook his head, casting the shameful thought aside. If she had stayed, she would have had no future. Her fate would have been to die in a b or on a mission.

  A few days ago, J—the final Chief of Division Zero—had shared a secret before leaving the city. The news that moved Kouichirou the most was that Saliya could speak. Every time he remembered that, he was more certain that helping her escape was the right choice.

  “...Maybe after this job, I should consider a career change,” he muttered to himself, unaware that shadows were closing in on his blind spot.

  The desote wind whistled through the ruined steel, kicking up fine grit. In the shadows of the Company’s perimeter, another figure crept along the ground. Her steps were silent, her movements unhesitating. This was not the probe of a scout, but the approach of an apex predator.

  The gold-eyed hybrid girl scanned the battlefield. Messy formation, overly conservative firepower, and that familiar scent—human fear mixed with the arrogance of the ignorant.

  “...A bunch of fools eager for death.”

  She hadn't pnned on a total massacre. The Lost were just obstacles to be swatted away. She possessed too much rationality to blend in with those who became rabid dogs when the hunger hit. She didn't want to be like them. But the humans didn't care; they hunted her indiscriminately.

  The first person she noticed was a man standing on the fnk, clearly not a combatant. He was thin, appearing as though he might break in a stiff breeze, yet he forced himself to stay. A sacrificial mb, she thought.

  A human.

  The hybrid girl’s eyes turned cold. Experience told her that his non-combatant appearance was usually a lie. Beneath his coat, there was likely a silver-loaded pistol or a pouch of garlic, waiting for her to hesitate. She had seen it too many times.

  If that was the case, ending him before he even knew she was there wasn't cruel—it was a mercy. She adjusted her direction, preparing to strike from the rear.

  But as she took her next step, a familiar and loathsome presence cut into her perception. Not human. Not quite kin. The hybrid’s movements snapped to a halt.

  She spun around.

  In the moonless night, a figure stood directly in her path, as if she had been waiting there all along. Golden eyes, mirroring her own, stared back with an intimidating intensity. Saliya’s silver-ced hair was striking even in the gloom. She wasn't hiding; she was making sure she was seen.

  This wasn't an escape or an ambush. It was an interception.

  The hybrid’s pupils contracted. “...You?”

  She couldn't mistake that scent. The one who had crossed paths with her in the ruins days ago, causing her to falter for a split second. The "Silver-haired Halberd-user." Yet, there was no bloodlust. Only a disturbing, profound calm.

  “Move,” the hybrid said, her voice icy and devoid of emotion.

  Saliya didn't answer immediately. She stood there, her hair fluttering in the wind, her gaze shifting past the hybrid to confirm the distant battlefield.

  Mr. Yamamoto is still alive.

  She brought her focus back to the woman before her. “Your target is the humans over there, isn't it?” Saliya’s voice was low but firm.

  The hybrid’s brow quirked. “What of it?”

  The tension in the air skyrocketed.

  “He is not on your list,” Saliya said, stepping forward. “This operation isn't directed at you.”

  “...Ha.” The hybrid let out a short, cold ugh. “So you want me to believe that humans are worth saving? Get out of my way, Halberd-user. I’ll deal with you after.”

  The hybrid began to shift her footing—not for a negotiation, but for a breakthrough. Saliya took a deep breath.

  “I cannot let you pass.”

  The hybrid’s face contorted into a savage grin. “And you have the nerve to say you aren't a dog kept by humans anymore—”

  “—I’m not here to help them,” Saliya said, her voice remaining steady. “I just can't let you through right now.”

  Those words ignited the hybrid’s true fury. She’s here to stop me? The girl let out a low chuckle, her aura spiking for the first time.

  “Then you’ve chosen the wrong side.”

  The hybrid’s attacks began to carry true weight. Not full power, but lethal nonetheless. Cws and fists blurred in a symphony of speed and force, testing Saliya’s reactions to the limit.

  And Saliya... never once struck at a vital point.

  Her movements were disciplined. This wasn't simple defense; it was a deliberate kiting maneuver. The hybrid realized it quickly.

  She’s controlling the distance. She’s leading me away from the humans!

  “...You’re protecting them?” The hybrid’s voice carried a note of uncertainty for the first time.

  Saliya’s breathing grew heavier, but her eyes never wavered. “I am protecting one man.”

  The answer caused the hybrid’s onsught to stall for a fraction of a second.

  A human?

  Ana had already slipped into the fnk. The Company troops were focused entirely on the front; no one noticed the presence in the shadows that didn't belong to the night.

  Her objective was clear: anyone—human or hybrid—who threatened Yamamoto or obstructed her sister.

  A "Lost" was lying in wait around a corner. Ana was upon it before it could even sense her. No wasted motion. She cmped one hand over its mouth and drew a fingernail across its jugur. The head fell away, but not a single drop of blood touched her. The body hit the ground without a sound.

  Ana looked up, her golden pupils scanning for the next threat.

  Gunfire echoed intermittently around the meteorological station. Kouichirou knelt behind a colpsed concrete barricade, stemming the bleeding of a wounded soldier. The thud of "The Lost" being taken down rumbled in the distance, mixed with the chaotic orders and curses on the comms.

  This operation had been wrong from the start.

  The moment he looked up to check his surroundings, a figure blurred past the edge of his vision.

  Too fast.

  It wasn't a Company operative. She wore no gear; in fact, she seemed to be wearing a long skirt entirely unsuitable for combat. The figure moved like a shadow, low and steady, as if she had calcuted every lighting blind spot and line of fire. She paused briefly behind a shattered wall before vanishing into the darkness on the other side.

  Kouichirou’s eyes followed her instinctively.

  Bck hair. Not just bck, but a deep, light-drinking void. As she passed a patch of burning wreckage, the fmes fred. The light caught the edge of her hair, and through the filter of his night-vision goggles, it stretched into a microscopic, nearly non-existent—

  Silver afterimage.

  His heart smmed against his ribs.

  No, it was impossible.

  The figure was slender, moving with a calm that suggested she had already made her choice. It was too familiar. It made him forget to breathe.

  “...”

  Kouichirou took an instinctive step forward, only to be forced down by the shockwave of a Company grenade. Dust and debris filled the air, obscuring his vision. When he looked up again, the figure was gone. Only the wind remained.

  He stood there, stunned. The name he had personally sent away from this world surfaced in his mind. But logic quickly caught up.

  Impossible. The direction was wrong. The time was wrong. The location was impossible. J had taken her south. And even if she were alive, she had no reason to risk coming to the northwest border.

  He let out a long breath, exhaling the ridiculous thought. “...Just seeing things,” he whispered to himself. The goggles, the fire, the fatigue, and his own lingering obsession—that was the expnation.

  He closed his eyes, took a breath, and reopened his comms. “Medical team, report casualty status.”

  His voice was steady again. The figure was categorized as an impossible hallucination. He took one st look at the dark. There was nothing there. He turned back to the chaos, the brief glimpse of that back unrecorded, unreported, and unconfirmed.

  It left only a phantom image in his heart—as if someone long gone had silently brushed past him from the other side of the world.

  Ana was no longer in her original position. The moment Saliya engaged the hybrid, Ana had glided into the shadows. She didn't need to look back at her sister or reconfirm Yamamoto’s location. She had "smelled" it. Not a scent, but a rhythm of metal, anxiety, and suppressed killing intent.

  The presence of a human sniper.

  Ana stayed low, moving at high speed around the facility. Her skirt’s inner shadows clung to her like a second skin.

  Distance: 300 meters. Elevation advantage. Wind correction complete. He’s waiting.

  Ana stopped beneath a fallen iron pilr and looked up. High above, a silhouette was fused with an antenna. “...Found you.”

  She vanished. Not a dash, but a disappearance into the void.

  The sniper was focused on the clearing. His crosshairs were locked on the moving hybrid, calcuting her path retive to the Company troops. Then, the wind shifted. Not a natural wind.

  As the sniper’s brow furrowed, a cold hand cmped over his mouth. There was no time to struggle. Ana’s movements were clinical. A sharp twist, and the cervical vertebrae snapped with a dry crack. The sniper’s body went limp as she dragged him silently into the shadows.

  She didn't stop. After confirming the kill, she disassembled the rifle, tossing the bolt and magazine into different sections of the dark. It wasn't extra work; it was habit. She allowed no "what-ifs."

  As she prepared to move, a stray reflection caught her eye. More than one.

  “...Of course.” Her eyes turned cold.

  A second sniper. And his sights had moved. He wasn't aiming at the hybrid.

  He was aiming at her sister.

  Ana frowned and vanished into the shadows once more.

  The second sniper was perched in the wreckage of a communication tower. He adjusted his breathing, his finger resting lightly on the trigger. His target: the silver-haired woman confronting the hybrid. He wasn't sure who she was, but he knew she was too big a threat to leave standing.

  “Die, vampire,” he whispered in his heart.

  The expected recoil never happened. A pitch-bck "crack" appeared soundlessly beneath his barrel.

  Squelch.

  It wasn't the sound of metal breaking. Something impossibly sharp and solid had sliced through the rifle’s bipod and his gas mask in one motion.

  “—!?”

  The sniper tried to recoil in terror, but his throat was already locked in a cold, slender, immovable grip. In the corner of his eye, he saw a familiar face.

  Saliya—the Ace who was supposed to be missing. It was impossible. The Saliya he knew had hollow, soul-less eyes. But the golden pupils before him held no mercy, only an abyssal coldness.

  “You saw something you shouldn't have,” Ana whispered. Her voice carried a chill that could freeze a soul.

  Power erupted from her fingertips. Another sharp crack of bone echoed in the night. Ana tossed the body aside like trash. She leaned down to pick up the operative's headset.

  “Squad One? Squad One, report!” a frantic voice called.

  Ana’s fingers tightened. Crackle. The sound of crushing electronics ended the conversation.

  She looked toward her sister and the hybrid, still locked in their stalemate. She would kill every "small fry" who threatened Yamamoto or "looked too closely" at the chaos.

  The edges of her shadow began to expand like liquid.

  “No one carries word of this back,” Ana whispered.

  Her long skirt billowed in the wind like a bck funerary shroud. To the humans, this was a disaster. To Ana, it was a silent baptism. She would use these lives as the currency to buy her sister’s fragile peace beneath the moon.