[02:59]
Lyra disappeared.
Adrian didn’t try to follow her with his eyes. He lowered his body and turned toward the only position from which a spear could reach him without passing through the capsule.
The tip appeared beside his ribs.
He deflected it with his forearm.
The shaft rotated between Lyra’s fingers and struck his jaw.
Adrian lost contact with the floor.
The copy followed him before he could fall. The opposite end of Dawn of Meridian struck his abdomen and changed the direction of his body in midair. Adrian crashed into the barrier separating his soldiers from the trial.
[Starforged Body activated.]
[Received force distribution: 11%.]
[Reinforcement: 1/3.]
The barrier cracked behind him.
Lyra was already in front of him.
The spear moved three times.
Adrian saw one.
The first cut his shoulder. The second struck his knee and forced him down. The third stopped in front of his right eye.
The golden tip never touched him.
A wave of force erupted from it and sent him sliding across the floor.
[02:53]
Adrian stood before he had finished sliding.
"You could’ve started with your name."
Lyra tilted the spear.
"If you need an introduction to survive, you aren’t the one I’m waiting for."
She attacked again.
Adrian avoided the first slash, blocked the second, and took the third against his chest. Starforged Body distributed part of the force into his back and legs, but the impact exceeded the skill’s current resistance.
A rib cracked.
[Minor fracture detected.]
[Reinforcement: 2/3.]
[Starforged Body mastery increased.]
Adrian threw a punch at her face.
Lyra moved her head less than half an inch. His knuckles passed beside the scar on her cheek.
The spear struck his liver.
Pain folded him over.
Lyra turned and struck his back with the shaft. Adrian fell onto both hands. The tip descended toward his neck.
He rolled.
The weapon pierced the floor.
Adrian struck the shaft.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
The vibration entered the replica of Dawn of Meridian.
Lyra felt it.
Her gaze dropped toward the point he had struck, then returned to Adrian.
"Starbreaker."
It was the first time anyone had identified the class without examining his status.
Adrian stood.
"You know it?"
"I knew its creator."
Lyra pulled the spear from the floor.
"He hit harder."
The spearpoint multiplied.
Adrian saw seven attacks and received nine.
One pierced his thigh. Another split the skin beneath his ribs. The last struck the center of his guard and hurled him into the opposite wall.
The Fracture layer applied to the spear disappeared.
It hadn’t lasted even three seconds.
[Superior energy has erased Fracture.]
[01:58]
One minute had passed.
Adrian could barely remain standing.
Lyra’s copy didn’t have a single mark on her.
The medical compound applied by the soldier began losing stability at the same time. The spear wound in his side reopened, and blood seeped through the hardened material.
[Military restoration compound depleted.]
[Previous injuries destabilizing.]
[Current physical condition: Critical.]
Adrian wiped the blood from his mouth.
"Three minutes is starting to seem excessive."
"You can surrender."
"You didn’t seem interested in accepting a surrender."
"I’m not."
Lyra advanced.
The spear crossed the distance between them.
Adrian leaned aside, but the tip changed direction in the middle of the attack and pierced his shoulder. Lyra didn’t withdraw the weapon. She lifted him with it and slammed him into the floor.
Starforged Body dispersed part of the impact.
It could do nothing about the spear still embedded in his flesh.
Adrian seized the shaft with both hands and kicked at Lyra’s knee. She released the weapon, avoided the attack, and recovered it before he could close his fingers around it.
She wasn’t merely stronger.
Every decision Adrian made was already part of her next movement.
The first combination forced him to protect his face. The second punished the direction of his defense. The third used his reaction to place him exactly where Lyra wanted him.
It was the same principle the dead Starbreaker instructor had used.
A cage constructed from attacks.
The difference was that the dead instructor knew only one sequence.
Lyra could build a new one around every movement Adrian made.
The Combat Memory Archive reacted.
[Compatible combat experience detected.]
[Searching organized Starbreaker memories.]
An image tore through Adrian’s mind.
The instructor was much older. He fought a spear-wielding woman beneath a sky covered in fire. Adrian couldn’t see her face, but he could see the movement of the instructor’s feet.
He wasn’t trying to follow the spearpoint.
He was watching the body directing it.
The memory shattered.
[Fragment processing incomplete.]
[Current physical requirements insufficient.]
Adrian didn’t need the rest.
Lyra attacked.
This time, he ignored the spear.
He watched her shoulders.
The right dropped before a direct thrust. The left tightened whenever she intended to alter the trajectory. Her hips remained still during short strikes and rotated when she was about to use the spear’s full reach.
Adrian avoided the first thrust.
The second opened his cheek.
He completely evaded the third.
Lyra’s golden eyes displayed their first reaction since the trial began.
Not surprise.
Attention.
Adrian began to find the rhythm.
He couldn’t match her speed, but every attack possessed a point of origin. A movement of the shoulder. A shift in weight. A breath so slight that someone without his enhanced attributes wouldn’t have perceived it.
He survived five seconds without receiving a direct hit.
Then seven.
Lyra changed her stance.
The next strike came without any movement from her shoulders.
Adrian raised both arms. Dawn of Meridian pierced his guard, struck his chest, and launched him into the capsule.
The glass didn’t break.
The spear stopped before continuing into Lyra’s real body.
Adrian noticed.
The copy retreated and attacked from another angle.
None of her strikes had been directed toward the capsule.
Even within a trial, Lyra protected her true body.
[01:21]
Adrian positioned himself in front of the glass again.
The copy changed direction to avoid attacking in a straight line.
There was the first limitation he could exploit.
He needed to reach the capsule again.
Lyra understood his intention and blocked his path.
The distance was fifty-two feet.
Under those conditions, it might as well have been a mile.
Adrian opened the Unit Archive.
All five spaces were locked.
[Registered units excluded by external trial.]
He attempted to withdraw the shield bearer from behind the barrier.
[Command rejected.]
"They’re my units."
[External trial requires individual verification.]
Lyra didn’t wait for him to finish arguing with the system. She advanced and thrust toward his uninjured leg.
Adrian jumped over the tip and tried to step on the shaft.
She released one hand, rotated the spear with the other, and struck him in midair.
Adrian landed on his injured shoulder.
A red line crossed his vision.
[Severe injury detected.]
[Left arm motor function reduced.]
[00:59]
Less than a minute remained.
Lyra walked toward him.
She showed no signs of exhaustion. Her breathing remained as slow as it had been at the beginning, and the spear stayed steady between her hands.
Adrian attempted to deploy the shield bearer again.
[Command rejected.]
"Infinite Sovereign registered those units as part of my authority. They aren’t external assistance."
The Class Archive and Unit Archive opened simultaneously.
Infinite Sovereign’s crown appeared above Adrian.
[Authority conflict detected.]
[Analyzing verification parameters.]
[Trial purpose: Evaluate candidate’s complete combat and command potential.]
[Registered units classified as extensions of sovereign authority.]
[External restriction challenged.]
The barrier separating the soldiers flickered.
Lyra looked at the crown.
Then she smiled.
It was a minimal movement, but it made Adrian more suspicious than all her previous attacks combined.
"So that’s what you are."
[Restriction partially overridden.]
[Registered units authorized.]
[Unit deployment limit: One simultaneous formation.]
The shield bearer appeared in front of Adrian.
Lyra struck immediately.
Dawn of Meridian collided with the shield. The future metal bent, and the soldier was hurled away, but the impact interrupted the sequence Lyra had prepared.
Adrian ran toward the capsule.
The spearswoman appeared on his right and attacked.
Lyra deflected the tip without looking. The end of her weapon struck the soldier’s helmet and spun her around, but Adrian gained another two steps.
The swordsman deployed on the left.
Both riflemen appeared behind them.
All five soldiers completed their formation around Adrian.
[Unit coordination active.]
[00:43]
"Advance."
The riflemen fired at different intervals.
Lyra blocked the first projectile with the tip of her spear. She avoided the second, pivoted around the third, and cut the fourth in half.
The spearswoman and swordsman attacked while she was surrounded.
Neither managed to touch her.
Lyra intercepted both weapons, used one against the other, and struck the soldiers with enough force to lift their armored bodies from the floor.
However, her rhythm had changed.
Adrian was no longer the only target.
Every appearance, shot, and attack forced Lyra to insert new movements into her combinations. She still dominated them, but she could no longer construct the entire sequence around one person’s reactions.
Adrian advanced behind the shield bearer.
Lyra pierced the shield.
The tip passed through the soldier’s chest as well.
Adrian recalled him into the Unit Archive before the weapon could complete the damage.
[Unit 01 recalled.]
The spear lost its anchor.
Adrian entered Lyra’s guard.
His first strike targeted her ribs.
She blocked it with her palm.
[Fracture: 1/4.]
The layer formed across her arm.
It disappeared before Adrian could throw his second punch.
Lyra drove her knee into his chest.
[Starforged Body activated.]
[Reinforcement: 3/3.]
[Received force distribution: 31%.]
Adrian retreated but remained standing.
[00:28]
The riflemen discharged the final projectiles from their weapons.
Lyra rotated Dawn of Meridian. A golden circle destroyed the shots and struck both soldiers.
Adrian recalled them before they fell.
The spearswoman attacked from behind.
Lyra tilted her head and trapped the weapon beneath her arm. The swordsman brought his blade down toward her shoulder.
She turned.
The stolen spear blocked the sword while Dawn of Meridian pierced the swordsman’s armor.
Adrian recalled them both.
All five spaces in the Unit Archive displayed severe damage.
He no longer had a formation.
He had gained thirty-six feet.
The capsule was sixteen feet away.
[00:17]
Lyra appeared in front of him.
"You’re out of soldiers."
Adrian breathed heavily.
"I only needed them to change the rhythm."
He attacked.
Lyra avoided the punch and drove her spear toward his heart. Adrian rotated his torso. The tip entered beneath his collarbone and emerged from his back.
The pain erased everything else.
Lyra tried to lift him.
Adrian closed both hands around the shaft.
He couldn’t overpower her.
He didn’t try.
He propelled himself forward along the spear piercing his body.
Lyra released the weapon before he could reach her.
Adrian fell to his knees.
[00:09]
The capsule was behind her.
He stood.
Lyra kicked him in the chest. Starforged Body distributed the force, but two ribs broke. Adrian retreated one step instead of falling.
She struck again.
Adrian caught her ankle.
Lyra rotated in the air, and her other foot struck his face.
His vision went black.
He didn’t let go.
He used Lyra’s rotation to throw her away from the capsule.
She landed on one hand.
[00:05]
Adrian ran.
Ten feet.
Lyra recalled Dawn of Meridian with a movement of her hand.
Six feet.
The spear tore itself from Adrian’s body and flew toward her. The open wound sprayed blood across the floor.
Three feet.
Lyra caught the weapon and thrust.
Adrian pressed his palm against the capsule’s glass.
The spearpoint stopped against his throat.
[00:01]
Lyra could pierce him.
She didn’t.
The capsule was directly behind Adrian. Any force sufficient to destroy his projection would also strike the glass.
[00:00]
[Trial time completed.]
The weapon remained beside his neck.
Adrian breathed with difficulty.
"Do you always greet the men who come to wake you like this?"
"The weak don’t make it here alive."
"Then we already have something in common. Neither of us seems interested in the weak."
Lyra’s golden eyes moved toward the spaces in the Unit Archive. All five soldiers remained registered despite the damage they had suffered. Then she looked at Adrian’s hand resting against the capsule.
"You didn’t try to defeat me."
"It took me about ten seconds to rule out that possibility."
"You used your soldiers as shields."
"I recalled them before I lost them."
"And you positioned yourself in front of my body because you knew I wouldn’t attack it."
"It worked."
"In a real battle, I would’ve destroyed the capsule along with you."
Adrian looked at the sleeping woman behind the glass.
"I don’t believe you."
The copy fell silent.
Dawn of Meridian disappeared from her hands.
"Why?"
"You could’ve allowed yourself to die nine thousand years ago. Instead, you created a trial, preserved your body, and waited for someone capable of reaching this place. You wouldn’t protect this capsule for that long only to destroy it when that person finally appeared."
Lyra studied him for several seconds.
"You’re arrogant."
"I hear that often."
"Your body is weak. Your class is incomplete. Your soldiers barely deserve the name, and you wouldn’t survive ten seconds against my true power."
"I survived three minutes against the amount you chose to use."
The copy smiled again.
This time, she didn’t try to hide it.
"Sufficient."
[Trial completed.]
[Combat verification successful.]
[Recognition of Lyra Voss obtained.]
[General candidate has acknowledged the sovereign.]
[Preservation chamber release authorized.]
The copy began disintegrating into golden particles.
Before disappearing, she approached Adrian. Her face stopped only inches from his.
"If you decide to wake me, try to remain alive until I can kill you personally."
Adrian looked at the spear that was no longer in her hand.
"The second conversation is usually more pleasant."
"There won’t be a third if you speak to me like that again."
"Then we’ll have to make the most of the second."
The copy disappeared.
The barriers fell.
All five soldiers automatically deployed around Adrian. The spearswoman caught him before his legs gave out and applied the remaining medical compound to the wound in his chest.
The capsule began to glow.
[Release sequence available.]
[General Registration available upon awakening.]
[Awaken Lyra Voss?]
Adrian selected the option.
The chamber’s energy dropped to zero.
[Warning.]
[Preservation system lacks sufficient energy to restore the subject.]
[Equivalent foundation required.]
[Infinite Sovereign may convert one registered class into awakening energy.]
Adrian looked at Lyra behind the glass.
One final window appeared.
[Required cost: One registered class.]
[Available registered classes: 1.]
[Starbreaker.]
[Sacrifice Starbreaker to awaken Lyra Voss?]