The floor collapsed, scattering rubble and shattered glass across the ruined building. Neon lights from the distant Pleasure District illuminated Eve’s profile.

  Crack—her bare feet crushed glass shards, spilling blood, but she advanced heedlessly, tracking a faint bio-signature.

  Shallow breathing and the metallic rasp of a blade drawn from its sheath… Sounds imperceptible to ordinary ears. Eve snapped into combat mode, leaping from the crumbling platform and unleashing a sharp kick at the black shadow descending upon her.

  Steel clashed with steel, sparks exploding. The shadow—the cleaner—parried her kick, deflecting the blow that could crush steel and using the impact to spin, blocking the silver blade encasing Eve’s arm.

  One strike warped the cleaner’s blade, cracks spiderwebbing across it.

  A second block shattered the blade entirely, Eve’s silver closing in.

  On the third strike, the cleaner’s chest was pierced, and he fell.

  Pathetic. Without their exoskeleton, was this the best an upper-city cleaner could do? Expressionless, Eve approached the body, but as she touched it, she realized the bio-signature hadn’t faded.

  Who was this? There should only be one signature. Her bio-fusion metal blade had undeniably pierced the cleaner’s chest, rupturing his heart. So what was this second signature? Suddenly, a cold blade pressed against her neck, slicing her artery without pain. Blood sprayed, staining the ash-and-soot-covered concrete wall crimson.

  “A decoy, Lady White… or rather, her elder sister,” the cleaner hissed.

  “—!”

  Eve’s blade cut through the air, cleaving the darkness. Its silver arc sought the flickering shadow, but the cleaner, like a phantom without substance, dodged her strikes, shaving her white skin and flesh.

  “I know I can’t kill you, half of the holy angel. First, hear me out. Be still, like a borrowed cat, and listen to my words… your sister’s message,” he said.

  “Shut up,” Eve’s voice was ice-cold. Her wounds, carved deep, sealed shut by Lumina. The bugs responded to her glacial fury, reinforcing her body at the cellular level.

  “…I don’t wish to harm that one’s kin. But if you resist so fiercely, wielding your blade for the black serpent, I have my own plans,” the cleaner said.

  Even as rage clouded her mind, Eve’s eyes locked onto the bullet in the cleaner’s derringer—a blacker-than-night round that seemed to swallow light. She instinctively spun away, putting distance between them.

  “ALB…!” she gasped.

  “As expected of her kin, you know it. Yes, this is the holy bullet entrusted by Lady Canaan for emergencies—should you refuse to listen. You know its danger best,” he said.

  Anti-Lumina Bullet, or ALB. A round that forcibly halted Lumina’s cellular fusion nanomachines, reducing a superhuman to mere mortal. Glaring at it, Eve dove behind a crumbling pillar, gritting her teeth.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  She had to avoid being hit by the ALB at all costs. If it struck, her body could shut down, risking the worst outcome—mission failure and the plan’s collapse. Her silver wings, body-mounted weapons, were aiding Danang’s fight. Recalling them for defense would mean his death.

  The deafening roar of combat echoed in her ears. Disarming, Eve tapped the ground with her toes, stepped from the pillar’s shadow, and faced the cleaner. “What did Canaan say? Spit it out,” she said coldly.

  “Single-winged holy angel, Lady Canaan said this: Stop obsessing over the mission and advancing the plan. There’s not a shred of hope in this world. The tower is humanity’s final sanctuary, its paradise. Do you understand?” he asked.

  “Understand? Don’t be absurd. You think I’d listen to a foolish sister who abandoned the mission and plan?” Eve retorted.

  “But Lady Canaan is our savior, devoted to a new plan. Her choice will save the tower’s people and lead to paradise. Holy angel, if the black serpent has swayed you, I’ll eradicate him. Without my exoskeleton—my shackles and coffin—I can do it. His theft and use of your Lumina cannot be ignored—”

  Ten seconds left… Calculating Code Animus’ duration, Eve caught a glimpse of Danang and Damocles’ fierce battle below.

  “Shut up,” she interrupted. “I don’t know what despair or loss of hope drove Canaan. But if she abandoned the plan and mission, I’ll have to kill my foolish sister. And… this tower won’t reach paradise. It’s a coffin stuffed with death.”

  Kicking the ground, she and the cleaner plummeted through the collapsing floor.

  “Pointless struggling… I’ll take you by force if I must,” he said.

  The half-destroyed, cracked floor was frailer than expected. Eve had tested its strength with her toes, stomping through with deliberate force, causing the building to collapse, rubble cascading like an avalanche.

  The cleaner’s derringer wavered, struggling to aim at Eve through the debris. Firing an ALB and capturing her alive mid-fall, while dodging rubble, was nearly impossible.

  “What’s wrong? Oh, are you just a normal human? Pity. You’ll die if you keep falling, won’t you? Goodbye, Canaan’s dog,” Eve mocked, smirking with fearless bravado.

  The cleaner kicked through falling rubble, extending a blade from a cylindrical weapon on his armor. With refined swordsmanship, he slashed away debris, aiming the derringer at Eve.

  “Not a useless dog—a trained one. I’m Lady Canaan’s loyal hound, an upper-city cleaner. Holy angel, your custody is mine—”

  “…Like the ninja movies Canaan and Dad used to watch. But you’re one… no, five steps too slow,” Eve said.

  A silver flash blocked the fired bullet, reattaching to her back.

  Five silver wings, finished aiding Danang, returned to Eve, lifting her skyward, cloaking her in snow-like particles.

  “You should’ve fired the ALB instead of talking. Listen—there won’t be a next time, but if you want to capture me, aim to kill from the start,” she said.

  “…I see. I’ll do that next time. Thank you for the lesson, holy angel,” he replied.

  “Goodbye.” As she spoke, her silver wings read her thoughts, darting freely through the air. Each blade moved at blinding speed, lunging to pierce the cleaner, aiming to rend bone and flesh. Yet he parried, countered, and swapped cylinders when a blade broke, intercepting her attacks.

  Was he genetically modified or enhanced? No ordinary human could block invisible silver wings with a regenerative sword or leap through falling rubble. Eve’s prismatic eyes scanned his body, revealing a chilling truth.

  No traces of mechanical implants, augmentations, or genetic tampering—a pristine human body. The cleaner wielded superhuman combat skills unaided.

  “Then, next time, I’ll complete my task perfectly. Farewell, holy angel,” he said.

  “Wait—”

  A chaff grenade’s dust clouded Eve’s vision, briefly disrupting her wings. Scanning for the cleaner’s shadow, she heard his final words: “The black serpent will die.” Then his bio-signature vanished.

  “…”

  Hovering in the air, bathed in the Pleasure District’s neon, Eve glanced at the steel sky.

  Canaan was up there. To kill her sister, to seize her code and functions—that was the way to fulfill the mission, the plan.

  Nodding faintly, Eve wrapped the deathly sleeping Danang in her silver wings and left the collapsed ruins behind.