The battlefield had fragmented into utter chaos in a matter of seconds.
Lana tumbled through the air as the fundamental laws of nature warped around her. Gravity wasn't pulling her down—it was yanking her sideways! She reached out frantically, trying to grab onto a window ledge, a pole, or anything to stop her momentum, but her fingers found no grip.
CRASH!
She slammed violently against the brick wall of a nearby house. The impact was so severe that blood welled up in her throat, spilling past her lips as she gasped for air.
Before she could regain her senses, the direction of gravity shifted again.
Suddenly, she was falling upward—toward the endless, empty sky!
Lana's stomach dropped into her throat as the ground receded rapidly below her. Panic seized her mind as she realized Nine's twisted plan: she was pulling Lana high into the atmosphere so the fall would crush her, leaving her eyes perfectly intact for the taking.
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the gravitational pull snapped.
Lana began plunging back toward the earth at terminal velocity! Wind whipped violently past her ears, her mind paralyzed with terror. I'm going to die—!
Just feet before she hit the hard stone road, her body abruptly stopped. She floated gently in mid-air, suspended by an invisible tether.
Footsteps echoed through the sky above her. Nine was casually walking through the air as if stepping on an invisible staircase. She looked down at Lana, tilting her head with genuine confusion.
"Why are you still alive?" Nine asked softly.
Lana wobbled, trying to stabilize her posture while floating in mid-air. "W-What... what do you mean by that?!"
"It means... die," Nine said flatly, her voice dripping with terrifying indifference. "So I can take your beautiful, irresistible eyes and gift them to James's collection."
Lana shuddered. Another obsessed, yandere psycho?! This is the second time I've had to deal with one of these freaks!
"Collection?!" Lana stammered, backing away in mid-air. "What do you mean 'collection'? How many does he have?!"
Nine's eyes sparkled. "283."
Lana went pale as a sheet. "T-Two hundred and eighty-three?!" She raised her hands in panic, forcing an awkward, terrified laugh. "H-Hehe... look, violence isn't the answer! Can't we... can't we solve this problem with a nice conversation?"
Nine fell completely silent. The eerie quiet stretched between them.
"W-What happened?" Lana asked nervously.
"You said... you wanted to meet James," Nine whispered, her expression softening into a disturbing smile. "I will grant your wish before you die."
Nine reached down to the sheath tied at her waist and unsheathed a sleek, ornate dagger. She held it close to her face, stroking the blade gently.
"James... this girl says she wants to meet you," Nine cooed to the weapon, her voice dropping into a loving murmur. "What? You don't want her? But look at her eyes, aren't they beautiful? Hmm... mm-hmm... Okay, fine..."
Lana stared at her in total disbelief. She's talking to a knife?!
Nine brought the flat of the blade to her lips, pressing a deep, passionate kiss against the cold steel. "Ah... James, you are so handsome, so charming... but you're all mine."
Lana's fear suddenly gave way to pure, unadulterated outrage. "Are you CRAZY?!" she screamed, her voice echoing down the street. "You want to tear my eyes out—and 283 other people lost their eyes—for a KNIFE?! FOR A JUST A KNIFE?!"
The words "JUST A KNIFE" hit Nine like a physical blow. Her eyes went completely hollow.
"I thought... you were different," Nine growled, her voice trembling with sudden, dark rage.
She hurled the dagger directly at Lana's heart!
The blade flew through the air, but the moment it touched the edge of Lana's floating space, it froze, hovering harmlessly in place.
Tears of rage welled in Nine's eyes as she hovered in the sky. "No one cares about my feelings! Everyone judges me from the outside! No one sees what I want, or what I feel! When you said you wanted to meet James, I thought you were special... but I was wrong! You're just like the rest of them!"
Lana reached out, her fingers catching the floating hilt of the dagger. "Wait—Nine, I'm sorry! I didn't mean—"
"YOU ARE JUST LIKE THE OTHERS!" Nine shrieked.
BOOM!
The dagger in Lana's hand suddenly became as heavy as a mountain. The sheer weight dragged Lana straight out of the sky, crashing hard back onto the ground!
Before Nine could capitalize on her move, the sharp, deafening sound of a gunshot echoed across the district.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield...
When Eleven had jumped on Null, he didn't give him a second to breathe. He rained down brutal, devastating punches straight onto Null's face. "You're going nowhere!"
Null crossed his arms over his head to guard, but the sheer force behind Eleven's strikes was terrifying—like heavy iron mallets meant to crush his skull into powder.
Suddenly, Eleven stopped.
"AGHHHHHH!"
Eleven let out a blood-curdling scream of agony, clutching his right shoulder. The relentless barrage ended instantly as Eleven collapsed onto his knees, desperately crawling backward away from Null toward Twelve.
Null lowered his guard, panting heavily as he wiped blood from his mouth, trying to stabilize his posture.
"Twelve! Help me! AHGH!" Eleven cried out, his face contorted in pain.
Twelve looked down at him, letting out a disappointed sigh. "If you knew the consequences of doing that within his range, why did you do it on purpose?"
"I'm sorry! It... it became muscle memory!" Eleven whimpered. "Just help me, ahhh!"
Twelve sighed again, closing his eyes to resume his prayers.
Eleven's ability was called Forward Countdown. As a battle progressed, his strength, speed, stamina, and muscle mass would continuously scale upward, storing power into his body to make him larger and bulkier.
However, because Eleven was punching Null, he was operating directly within the strict boundaries of Axiom.
Real-world biology and physics dictated that a human cannot instantly expand muscle mass and density out of nowhere simply by swinging a fist. Axiom forcefully rejected that supernatural process—and as a direct result, Eleven's rapidly swelling shoulder muscles suffered a catastrophic, agonizing tear!
Null's sharp eyes instantly locked onto Twelve.
He noticed the man closing his eyes and joining his hands again—a deeply unusual sight in the middle of a deadly assassination mission. Sensing danger, Null snatched a heavy brick from the ruined road and hurled it straight at Twelve's head!
SWOOSH!
Without breaking his prayer, Twelve didn't move an inch. But at the last second, Eleven lunged forward, taking the heavy brick straight to his own head to protect his healer!