The shopping center lobby.
The alarm had been sounding for several minutes.
What had originally been a regular warning signal had gradually turned into an irritating, continuous wail.
Red warning lights kept flashing.
Bright.
Then dark.
As if even the power supply system had been affected by something.
The air grew heavier by the second.
Irina crouched in front of the contamination source.
Both hands were pressed against the floor.
Phase Transition Dominion continued to operate.
A massive amount of structural information was rapidly flowing through her mind.
The contamination core.
The timing mechanism.
The outer casing.
The energy flow.
She had analyzed it more than a dozen times.
Yet the more she analyzed it, the more abnormal it seemed.
At first.
She had believed this was simply a dangerous device created by a terrorist organization using incomplete information.
But now.
That conclusion was beginning to waver.
Because too many parts were simply too complete.
Far too complete for something a civilian organization could have created.
The location of the timing device.
The design of the release mechanism.
The route of contamination dispersal.
Even the direction in which the contamination would spread after losing control seemed to have been planned in advance.
It was as if someone had deliberately arranged every step.
So that at a certain time.
In a certain place.
It would lose control with maximum efficiency.
Irina's brows drew tighter and tighter.
Beside her.
Lucian stood silently.
He did not interfere.
His black eyes remained fixed on the contamination source.
The increasingly dense gray-white haze in the lobby had already begun spreading outward.
It crawled along the floor.
It spread across the walls.
Like a living creature searching for an exit.
However, whenever it approached within several meters of Lucian.
Its rate of expansion noticeably slowed.
As if it were being suppressed by something.
Azure-blue patterns flickered faintly.
They were not dazzling.
But they never disappeared.
Just then.
Another faint sound came from the surface of the contamination source.
Crack.
A new fracture appeared.
Then another.
Then a third.
In the blink of an eye.
Cracks covered the entire outer casing.
The vibration inside became increasingly violent.
Even the floor of the lobby began to tremble slightly.
Irina's expression changed.
"Something's wrong..."
She immediately reached out and touched the outer casing of the contamination source.
The next second.
Her pupils contracted sharply.
The rate of internal energy growth had suddenly increased several times over.
This was not a natural loss of control.
It was more like some kind of preset program had been activated.
"Get back!"
Irina shouted.
However, the instant her voice left her mouth.
The contamination source had already reached its limit.
BOOM—!
A deafening explosion swept across the entire lobby.
Floor tiles were instantly blasted into the air.
Reinforced concrete shattered into countless fragments and shot in every direction.
The entire wall of floor-to-ceiling glass exploded at once.
Large cracks tore across the ceiling.
The shockwave spread in every direction.
But the truly terrifying thing was not the explosion.
It was the contamination.
A gray-white torrent erupted from the core.
Like dense fog.
Like liquid.
And like some kind of constantly multiplying biological tissue.
It instantly swallowed the center of the lobby.
Irina did not even have time to retreat.
A broken piece of rebar was already flying toward her head.
At that instant.
Azure suddenly blazed to life.
Lucian's eyes were completely covered in Azure.
Countless fragmented lines of light appeared deep within his pupils.
Beneath his feet.
Azure patterns rapidly spread outward.
Not exploding outward.
But covering.
Correcting.
The rebar that had been flying toward Irina suddenly changed direction.
It passed directly beside her ear.
Then slammed into the wall.
A chunk of concrete weighing several tons fell from the ceiling.
Yet it shifted in midair.
It crashed into an unoccupied area.
Cracks continued spreading across the floor.
But once Azure covered the area.
The cracks stopped expanding.
The collapse was forcibly interrupted.
At the center of the lobby.
A load-bearing pillar had already twisted severely.
Most of the internal reinforcement bars had snapped.
Under normal circumstances, it should have collapsed long ago.
Yet now.
The entire pillar emitted a sharp grinding sound.
Creak—
Creak—
It did not return to its original shape.
It remained twisted.
It remained deformed.
But it simply refused to fall any further.
As if some force had forcibly fixed the outcome in place.
Refusing to allow the collapse to continue.
A thin sheen of sweat appeared on Lucian's forehead.
The essence of Azure was not restoration.
It was preservation.
Structures that already existed.
Order that had already been established.
All of it would be forcibly preserved.
Even if the price was maintaining a pillar that could break at any moment in a critical state.
Irina looked up at her surroundings.
For the first time.
She truly understood this ability.
It was not an attack.
It was not a defense.
It was order itself.
Just then.
The torrent of contamination slammed into the area covered by Azure.
The gray-white haze churned violently.
It expanded furiously.
Yet its rate of expansion had clearly slowed.
As if it had crashed into an invisible dam.
It did not disappear.
It was not purified.
But it could no longer continue its erosion.
Lucian noticed this as well.
Azure could not eliminate the contamination.
But the contamination could not easily break through Azure either.
The two forces entered a stalemate.
The lobby began shaking violently.
At the same time.
Outside the shopping center.
The monitoring equipment suddenly emitted a piercing alarm.
Every red warning light lit up.
The staff's faces instantly turned pale.
"Contamination index rising rapidly!"
"Level Three alert breached!"
"Level Four alert breached!"
"It's still rising!"
The entire command area descended into chaos.
The person in charge abruptly stood up.
"Expand the lockdown perimeter immediately!"
"All personnel fall back!"
The orders were quickly transmitted.
The police stationed around the perimeter began moving.
The containment line that had originally surrounded the shopping center was expanded outward once again.
The broadcast repeatedly echoed through the streets.
"All personnel, evacuate immediately!"
"Stay away from the contaminated area!"
"Repeat!"
"Stay away from the contaminated area!"
On the streets.
Residents turned around one after another.
Then their faces went pale.
Because they could see large gray-white patterns spreading across the exterior walls of the shopping center.
As if the entire building were being swallowed by something.
Some people immediately turned and left.
Others quickened their pace.
Elderly people pulled their children along.
Stores hurriedly closed their doors.
Vehicles continued driving away into the distance.
People in the Northveil Directorate understood the meaning of contamination better than anyone.
It was not an accident.
It was a disaster.
Farther away.
An old man stopped walking.
He stared at the expanding gray mist in the distance.
He remained silent for a long time.
Then he removed his hat.
He had experienced a contamination incident before.
He knew what might happen next.
The young man beside him could not help asking,
"Grandpa?"
The old man spoke quietly.
"Keep moving back."
"Don't stop."
"The farther away you are, the better."
The young man immediately followed his instructions.
He did not ask any more questions.
Because in the Northveil Directorate.
When it came to contamination.
The words of the elderly were often more convincing than official warnings.
Meanwhile.
At the Administrative Center.
First Director Oksana Volkov stood before the monitoring screens.
The entire conference room was frighteningly quiet.
The contamination index continued to rise.
Yet the monitoring data showed something strange.
In the core area of the lobby.
The rate of expansion was far below the theoretical value.
The technicians repeatedly checked the data.
Eventually.
They confirmed that there were no errors.
It was as if some kind of force was forcibly preventing the contamination from spreading further.
Oksana stared at the screen.
She said nothing.
But she knew.
That had to be Lucian's ability.
Inside the lobby.
Lucian continued maintaining Azure.
The pressure grew heavier and heavier.
The contamination continued accumulating.
The building continued shaking.
If this continued.
It would eventually break through the limit.
And just then.
Irina finally reached a conclusion.
She stood up.
Her eyes swept across the contamination churning around them.
"Continuing to block it is meaningless."
Lucian looked at her.
"What do you need?"
"Containment canisters."
Irina answered.
"The contamination has exceeded the processing capacity of a single unit."
"We have to divert it."
"Otherwise, it will keep increasing."
Lucian nodded.
He immediately activated his communicator.
"This is Lucian Jace."
"Deploy contamination containment canisters."
The communications operator immediately responded.
"How many?"
Lucian looked at the contamination that had nearly covered the entire lobby.
He remained silent for two seconds.
"All of them."
There was an obvious pause on the other end.
"All of them?"
"Yes."
"Send everything you can find."
The communication ended.
Irina crouched down again.
Both hands pressed against the floor.
Phase Transition Dominion fully expanded.
Nearby metal structures began to vibrate.
In the distance.
The transportation system had already been activated.
And at the center of the lobby.
The gray-white contamination continued to churn.
Azure continued to hold.
The two forces remained locked in a stalemate.
The containment operation that would truly determine the outcome.
Was only just beginning.