Arcade and Ray cut across the main garden at a sprint.

The alarm lights painted everything red.

Ancient statues loomed over them from both sides of the path—tall, elegant figures carved in pale stone, their faces worn smooth by centuries. Some had too many eyes. Some had wing-like mantles folded behind their shoulders. One held a crown in both hands like an offering. Another had its mouth open in a silent song.

Arcade slowed just enough to stare up at them.

“Kymara statues,” he muttered. “Brilliant. This place gives me the creeps.”

Ray crunched her lollipop between her teeth and kept moving, Heartbreaker’s charm bouncing against her hip.

“Place screams rich people with no morals.”

“That is a very specific architectural style.”

“It’s everywhere,” Ray said. “Gold trim, old statues, secret labs, probably at least one room where someone says ‘for the future’ before doing war crimes.”

Arcade glanced at her. “That was weirdly accurate.”

“I’ve met nobles.”

A burst of green static crackled beside Arcade’s head.

C.H.I.P. popped back into existence with a sharp little flicker of mana and immediately rotated twice, as if pretending the whole vanishing incident had been intentional.

Arcade skidded to a stop and grabbed him out of the air with both hands.

“Where the hell did you go?”

C.H.I.P.’s optics brightened.

“Awwww,” he said, dripping sarcasm. “DADDY LOVES ME.”

Arcade’s eye twitched. “A, I am not your dad. B, all my data is stored on you.”

“I FEEL SO LOVED RIGHT NOW.”

Ray stopped a few paces ahead and turned back. “Focus.”

Arcade ignored her, shaking C.H.I.P. once. “Why did you despawn? And if you say ‘for shits and giggles’, I will kick your arse.”

“As funny as that would be,” C.H.I.P. said, voice crackling at the edges, “NO. SOMEONE SENT A JAMMING SIGNAL MY WAY. It was designed to block mana-link transmission and smuggle in a little package collector alongside it.”

Arcade’s expression sharpened. “Fishing for your data.”

“AND YOURS. AND THE KNIGHTS’. AND PROBABLY MY DEVASTATINGLY HANDSOME PERSONALITY MATRIX.”

“So you shut down before it landed.”

“I performed a graceful tactical withdrawal.”

“You panicked.”

“I PANICKED STRATEGICALLY.”

Arcade exhaled, then patted the top of C.H.I.P.’s casing. “Good boy.”

C.H.I.P. electrocuted him.

Arcade yelped, spines puffing hard. “Ow! You tiny bastard!”

“I AM NOT A PET.”

“You asked for validation!”

“I REQUESTED REVERENCE.”

Ray pointed toward the far side of the garden with the broken stick of her lollipop. “Are you two done? We’re looking for—”

A voice drifted down from above.

“A bit late, don’t you think?”

Ray went still.

Arcade looked up.

A figure crouched on the edge of the roof above the glass walkway, silhouetted against the flashing red alarm lights. A hyena Mythic, lean and sharp-edged, wearing a patched coat over fitted combat gear. Her mane was shaved on one side, the rest braided back with little bone charms that clicked softly in the wind.

She clapped slowly.

“Well, well,” she said. “You found me. Too late, obviously, but still. Gold star for effort.”

Ray’s eyes narrowed.

“Saff,” she said. “I was wondering when your sorry face would turn up again.”

Saff grinned, all teeth and bad decisions. “Nice to see you too, bitch.”

Ray flicked the lollipop stick aside. “Wish I could say the same.”

Saff’s gaze dragged over Ray’s uniform, then she barked a laugh.

“Cute outfit. What did you get it from? Pound place? J and M’s? Wait—no. Charity shop. Definitely charity shop. Smells like moral compromise and old socks.”

Ray’s smile went thin. “Bold coming from someone dressed like a bin fire learned parkour.”

Arcade’s brows lifted. “That was good.”

“Thanks.”

Saff clicked her tongue. “Ah, I missed you.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.” Saff’s grin widened. “Shame I’ll have to kill you.”

Saff jumped.

Ray moved first, but Saff hit the ground before Heartbreaker fully formed.

Brown-gold mana slammed outward from Saff’s palm, cracking through the paving stones in a jagged wave. The earth bucked under Arcade’s feet and hurled him backwards.

“Arcade!” Ray snapped.

“I’m good!” Arcade shouted, rolling hard and skidding behind a statue. “I hate everything, but I’m good!”

Saff grinned, then plunged her hand straight into the path.

Stone screamed.

The garden floor buckled around her wrist as if the earth itself had become liquid. She wrenched upward, and a massive slab of compressed stone tore free with her hand buried in it. The slab twisted, cracked, and reshaped in mid-air, runes of dirt-brown mana crawling over its surface.

Within seconds, it became a greatsword.

Huge.

Brutal.

Jagged with broken garden granite, pieces of old Kymara paving still embedded along the edge like teeth.

Gravefang Greatsword.

Saff rested it over one shoulder like it weighed nothing.

Ray summoned Heartbreaker in a burst of phoenix heat.

The hammer hit her hand like a promise.

Saff whistled. “Council gave you a toy.”

Ray spun Heartbreaker once. “Nah. Earned it.”

“By licking boots?”

“By saving people.”

“Same thing now.”

Saff lunged.

Ray met her head-on.

Hammer and stone blade clashed with a crack that shook dust from the statues. Saff laughed in Ray’s face and twisted low, dragging Gravefang across the ground hard enough to rip up sparks and chunks of stone. Ray vaulted over the sweep, brought Heartbreaker down, and smashed the sword clean in half.

The upper blade shattered.

Rock fragments exploded across the path.

Ray landed, breathing hard. “That all you’ve got?”

Saff looked at the broken hilt in her hand.

Then smiled.

“Oh, sweetheart.”

She plunged her hand into the ground again.

Another slab of stone tore free—this one darker, veined with old black ward-glass from beneath the garden tiles. It compacted and stretched, reshaping into a fresh Gravefang Greatsword with a sharper, glassy edge.

Ray’s expression flattened.

“Right. Hate that.”

Saff charged again.

This time, Ray planted both feet.

Phoenix fire surged up her arms, flooding into Heartbreaker until the hammer’s head burned gold-orange and white-hot at the seams. She lifted it with both hands.

“Arcade!” she shouted. “Brace!”

Arcade ducked behind a statue. “I never like when people say that!”

Ray slammed Heartbreaker into the ground.

Hammer Pulse.

A radial burst of phoenix mana exploded outward from the impact, rippling through the garden in a blazing circle. Fire crawled over the paving stones, igniting the nearest candy zombies in brilliant orange flames. Their syrupy limbs blackened and burst as the pulse rolled through them.

The wave hit Arcade and C.H.I.P. next—

not burning.

Boosting.

Green sparks flared brighter around Arcade’s bracer. C.H.I.P.’s optics flashed.

“ATTACK POWER INCREASED,” C.H.I.P. announced. “I FEEL VIOLENTLY MOTIVATED.”

Arcade flexed his fingers as electricity snapped between them. “Oh, that’s nice.”

Ray dragged Heartbreaker free of the cracked ground, eyes locked on Saff. “Still think I’m on a leash?”

Saff staggered back, coat smoking at the edges, one side of her face lit by phoenix flame.

Then she laughed.

“Yeah,” she said. “But at least they taught you tricks.”

Ray’s jaw tightened.

Saff lunged again, Gravefang crashing down with enough force to split the path where Ray had stood. Ray sidestepped, swung Heartbreaker into the blade, and shattered it a second time.

Before the pieces had finished falling, Saff’s hand was already buried in the earth.

A third sword ripped free.

This one was paler, made from crushed statue stone, its edge lined with fragments of ancient carved wings.

Arcade stared. “How many of those can she make?”

Saff grinned over the new blade. “How much ground you got?”

Ray bared her teeth.

“Fine,” she said. “Then I’ll break every damn one.”

Hammer and stone-blade clashed with a crack that shook dust from the statues. Saff laughed in Ray’s face and twisted low, hooking the blade toward her legs. Ray vaulted over it, brought Heartbreaker down, and smashed a crater into the path where Saff had been a heartbeat before.

Saff rolled, sprang up, and hurled a spray of stone shards.

Ray batted them aside with the hammer’s head, sparks and phoenix embers bursting from the impacts.

Arcade popped out from cover, bracer glowing. “Voltage Claw!”

Green lightning snapped across the garden.

Saff stamped.

A wall of earth punched up between them, taking the blast and exploding into dirt and rune-dust.

“Cute,” Saff called. “The hedgehog brought party tricks.”

Arcade scowled. “I brought several.”

C.H.I.P. spun beside him. “AND A SUPERIOR ATTITUDE.”

Ray drove forward again.

Saff met her with the rock blade, their weapons locking. For a second, they stood nose to nose, both snarling, both breathing hard.

“Look at you,” Saff said. “Ray Tanllwyth. Council lackey. Bet the nobles love having a phoenix on a leash.”

Ray shoved her back. “And you? What are you now? Graveyard mascot?”

Saff’s eyes flashed. “I chose a side that doesn’t pretend to care.”

“You betrayed the Mythics.”

“The Mythics betrayed themselves years ago.” Saff spat into the grass. “Sitting in circles, whining about old wrongs, waiting for permission from Purebloods who’d rather see us starve.”

“So you ran away?”

“I ran to winners.”

Ray swung.

Saff ducked, laughing. “Oh, there she is. Still angry. Still pretending it’s justice.”

Ray’s next blow clipped Saff’s shoulder and sent her staggering into a statue base hard enough to crack it.

“Better than pretending spite is a personality.”

Saff wiped blood from the corner of her mouth.

Then smiled.

“You want spite?”

She pulled a small device from inside her coat and thumbed it on.

The garden speakers hissed.

A pulse of warped mana rolled through the perimeter.

Arcade’s bracer screamed.

“Oh, that is bad.”

Ray turned.

Beyond the hedges, shapes began to move.

Candy zombies poured through the service arch—glazed bodies, cracked sugar skulls, syrup jaws stretching wide. More dropped from the walls where the lowered fence had given them entry. Their limbs clicked and dragged across the polished garden stone.

Saff spread her arms.

“Surprise.”

Ray stared at the approaching dead.

Then back at Saff.

Her face changed.

For once, the anger didn’t come first.

Devastation did.

“You’re working with them,” she said.

Saff shrugged. “Zombie generals pay better attention than priests.”

“They’ll turn you.”

“Maybe.”

“They’ll hollow you out and wear you like a coat.”

“Still better than kneeling for the Council.”

Ray stepped closer, voice cracking hard around the edges. “Saff. Listen to me.”

Saff’s grin faltered.

Just slightly.

Ray lowered Heartbreaker a fraction.

“Don’t do this. You can still walk away.”

Arcade glanced sharply at her. “Ray—”

She ignored him.

Her eyes stayed on Saff.

“They will turn you eventually. You know that. You’ve seen what happens. You won’t walk back from that.” Ray swallowed. “Please. Come back to us. I won’t arrest you. I won’t even tell the others I saw you. Just walk away.”

Saff stared at her.

The zombies dragged closer behind her, sugar claws scraping stone.

Ray held her ground.

For a moment, something old moved across Saff’s face.

Not softness exactly.

Memory.

A campfire. A younger Ray. A hyena girl laughing with her mouth full. Shared bruises. Stolen food. Being angry at the same world before they learned how many directions anger could point.

Saff lowered the stone blade.

“Alright,” she said quietly.

Ray breathed out.

Arcade’s eyes widened. “Ray, don’t—”

Saff took a step forward.

Then another.

Her face softened into something almost tired.

“Yeah,” she said. “Alright. Maybe I’m done.”

Ray’s grip loosened around Heartbreaker.

Saff reached her.

For one reckless second, Ray believed her.

Saff leaned in like she was going to hug her.

Then drove a blade into Ray’s side.

Ray gasped.

Not screamed.

Gasped, tiny and shocked, like the air had been stolen out of her.

Heartbreaker flickered.

Saff’s mouth brushed near her ear.

“That cat has made you too soft.”

Ray’s knees buckled.

Heartbreaker vanished before it hit the ground.

Arcade shouted her name.

Ray collapsed onto the path, one hand pressed to the wound, phoenix heat sputtering weakly between her fingers.

She looked up at Saff.

For one terrible second, she looked almost young.

“Why?” she whimpered.

Saff said nothing.

No joke.

No insult.

No answer.

She raised the stone blade.

C.H.I.P.’s voice boomed across the garden.

“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”

Green light exploded.

C.H.I.P. expanded mid-air, plates unfolding, limbs snapping into place, optics blazing white-green.

BIG MODE.

Saff barely had time to turn before C.H.I.P.’s fist slammed into her.

The impact punched her clean through the nearest glass wall.

The window shattered outward in a glittering spray, and Saff disappeared into the building beyond with a furious, distant crash.

Arcade sprinted to Ray’s side, bracer blazing.

“Sparkshot!”

A burst of green energy snapped from a injection.

A zombie shambled closer but arcade sent out a burt of static from his quills blasting back the nearest candy zombie before it could reach them.

Ray groaned and pushed herself up on one elbow.

“Stay down,” Arcade snapped.

“Piss off.”

“Medical advice.”

“Rejected.”

She tried to stand, failed, then tried again out of spite and succeeded badly.

Arcade caught her before she fell.

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Ray stared at the broken window where Saff had vanished.

Her face twisted—not with pain now.

With fury.

And something worse underneath it.

For one stupid, awful heartbeat, she had acted like Celeste.

Offered a hand.

Hoped for the better version of someone.

Believed kindness could catch them before the fall.

And Saff had answered with a knife.

Arcade looked at her, quieter than usual.

“You did good there.”

Ray’s glare snapped to him.

“Don’t tell anyone.”

He lifted both hands. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

C.H.I.P., still in Big Mode, punched a zombie into a flowerbed with unnecessary force.

Ray gripped Arcade’s shoulder, dragged herself fully upright, and summoned phoenix fire back into her palm. Heartbreaker flickered once, weakly, then reformed in a burst of angry heat.

Her eyes locked on the shattered window.

“I’m gonna kill that bitch.” 

Arcade sighed.

C.H.I.P. rotated his massive shoulders.

Ray charged toward the broken glass.

Arcade ran after her, firing Sparkshots over her shoulder.

“Brilliant,” he muttered. “We’ve upgraded from emotionally compromised to medically reckless.”

C.H.I.P. thundered behind them.

“FAMILY OUTING.”