Vale stared, eyes wide. For the first time since they had met, since the voice had spoken to him from the darkness, guiding him and protecting him, he was finally seeing his friend.

  Chrome was not what Vale had expected.

  If he was honest with himself, he had imagined a human, perhaps a soldier hardened by endless battles, or a child bound to some cruel experiment, something alive in a way Vale instinctively understood. Instead, he was faced with a machine.

  A towering humanoid construct of unaltered metal stood before him, broad-shouldered and unmistakably powerful. Thin strands of living alloy flowed from its head like hair, shifting subtly as if stirred by unseen currents. Its eyes, lenses rather than pupils, focused with startling gentleness, and its metallic mouth was shaped not to eat, but to speak… to smile.

  Vale didn’t recoil. If anything, he felt relief.

  Remembering how casually Chrome had crushed the mysterious man moments earlier, Vale let out a shaky, nervous smile. 'I never imagined he was a Paragon,' he thought. 'Of all things.'

  Instinct tugged at him. Vale reached out with his senses and touched Chrome’s atum, and staggered back. His breath caught as confusion and awe collided in his chest, his heart pounding violently.

  “No… that’s not right,” he muttered.

  Chrome’s atum density wasn’t Paragon-level. It was far worse. It was the same as Barbatos. The same as Alexandria, it was Archon-level.

  Vale’s hands trembled as the implications settled in. That shouldn’t have been possible. There were no records, none, of a third Archon. Chrome should not have existed.

  And yet, here he stood. Strong, real. A hidden card in a battle that should have already been lost.

  Vale looked up at him, eyes shaking slightly, as the massive humanoid turned and offered a small, almost hesitant smile. Vale returned it, nervous but genuine.

  'We’re going to win,'

  Then something else registered. When Vale had sensed Chrome’s atum, it hadn’t felt singular at all. There were eight distinct signatures, eight separate presences, perfectly synchronized, overlapping and harmonizing into a single unified force, as if Chrome’s true strength only emerged when all eight worked together.

  Vale barely had time to process the revelation before a brilliant blue light flared behind Chrome, slicing through the settling dust like a blade.

  “Thirty percent!”

  the man’s furious voice echoed as a beam of condensed energy tore through the haze. Chrome turned instantly and raised one hand. The beam struck his palm, and vanished.

  Energy poured into Chrome’s arm as if being swallowed whole, and the dust exploded outward as the man burst from it, his eyes burning with unrestrained rage.

  “Forty percent.”

  He drove his foot into Chrome with tremendous force, the impact shattering the ground beneath them. Chrome didn’t move. He didn’t even stagger. Instead, he simply stared at the man with a cold, metallic gaze and spoke, his voice calm, precise, and heavy with recognition.

  “You are Yuki’s clone.”

  The words struck like a blade. The man froze for a fraction of a second before snapping violently. “Don’t compare me to her!”

  With a furious snarl, he seized Chrome by the arm and hurled him toward the ocean with everything he had. Chrome didn’t resist. He allowed himself to be thrown, instinctively knowing their battle had to move away from the students, away from Vale.

  Vale’s eyes widened as he watched both figures streak toward the raging sea. He forced himself to look away and rushed to Ember, who was limping toward him.

  “Hey, hey, it’s okay,” Vale said softly, pressing a hand to the wyvern’s neck. “Just relax.”

  Ember was in terrible shape. His right wing was completely encased in ice, frost crawling across his scales. Vale glanced at his crows and saw that they were already recovering, running toward him on foot with wings stiff and useless from the cold. He crouched to gather them, and the ocean exploded.

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  Two identical lights erupted from the sea, colliding in midair with cataclysmic force. A beam fired instantly, freezing the churning water below into a massive crystalline slab. Vale’s breath hitched.

  Behind him, movement stirred as Eskar groaned and pushed himself upright. Korin followed, chest heaving, and Nym staggered to her feet, eyes locked on the sky. Vale swallowed hard.

  'Which one is Chrome?'

  Their lives, everyone’s lives, depended on the answer.

  Above the frozen ocean, Chrome twisted through the air, dodging beam after beam with precise, efficient motion. His power surged as he closed the distance, slamming into the man mid-flight. He grabbed him by the arm and drove them both deep into the sea, detonating the water outward.

  “How do you know me?!”

  the man roared as he kicked free, his power spiking violently. Chrome rose from the depths as the man froze the ocean around him, ice forming instantly in an attempt to trap the machine. Chrome lifted a hand, and the ice shattered, vanishing as he absorbed it.

  He met the man’s gaze, refusing to answer the question. “I would say you deserve a second chance,” Chrome said calmly as he raised his palm. “But you are too far gone.”

  For the first time, Chrome attacked.

  Orange energy erupted from Chrome’s hand, vaporizing every drop of water it touched. The blast struck the man before he could react, tearing his arm clean off in a violent spray of steam and debris.

  The man snarled as metal rapidly reformed, hatred dripping from every word he spoke.

  “Seventy percent.”

  The ocean around him began to freeze passively, the temperature plummeting under the sheer weight of his power.

  Chrome narrowed his eyes and surged forward, fully committing to the fight.

  His metallic body cut through the black depths of the ocean like a living missile. He caught the man by the waist mid-descent, twisted his own frame with brutal precision, and violently ripped their trajectory upward. The sea detonated beneath them as they burst back into open sky, water erupting into a towering column before collapsing in on itself.

  Chrome rotated midair and hurled the man away.

  Before the distance could even fully open between them, Chrome raised his arm and fired. Three concentrated beams of energy tore through the air in perfect alignment, screaming toward their target.

  The man laughed.

  He answered in kind, releasing three beams of his own.

  The attacks collided, and the sky fractured with thunderous explosions as the beams met and annihilated one another. Shockwaves ripped clouds apart, scattering vapor and debris in every direction. Without hesitation, Chrome charged straight through the detonations, his frame glowing faintly as fragments of energy scraped against his armor and dispersed harmlessly away.

  'I have to end this now,' Chrome calculated.

  He was not drawing on the power of his cores, not yet. Without them, he was operating far below his true capacity, and at this rate, attrition would favor the man.

  The man sensed the intent in Chrome’s movement and surged forward as well.

  Chrome struck first.

  His fist slammed into the man’s torso before the clone could complete his attack, sending him flying violently through the air. Black blood sprayed from the man’s mouth as his body spun out of control.

  Chrome followed instantly.

  He closed the distance in a heartbeat and drove a brutal kick into the man’s side, then another, and another, each impact landing before the last had finished reverberating. He refused to give the man even a moment to recover, battering him across the sky like a ragdoll.

  Seconds blurred together in relentless violence.

  Then the man began to glow.

  Energy erupted from his body in violent waves, forcing Chrome to brace as a sudden shockwave slammed into him and hurled him backward.

  “Eighty percent.”

  The man’s voice dripped with wicked satisfaction as he surged forward again, faster now, heavier, more oppressive, his presence crushing the air itself.

  Chrome steadied himself.

  And met him head-on.

  The man struck first, his blow landing with enough force to tear a sonic boom through the air. Chrome grunted as he absorbed the impact, but he caught the man mid-strike, metal fingers locking around his arm before driving a devastating punch into his torso.

  The impact thundered across the sky.

  They exchanged blows in rapid succession, fist against fist and strike against counterstrike, their movements blurring together in a brutal rhythm. Chrome held a slight edge in durability, his reinforced frame absorbed impacts that would have shattered any organic body, while the man’s form was forced to regenerate again and again under the relentless strain.

  Then, for a fraction of a second, Chrome stopped.

  He caught the man’s fist mid-swing and held it there, his grip unyielding as he spoke in a low, controlled voice.

  “How many?”

  The man blinked, caught off guard.

  “What?” he asked, confusion flickering across his face.

  Chrome tightened his grip, metal creaking as pressure mounted.

  “How many have you killed?”

  The confusion melted away, replaced by delight.

  A slow, grotesque grin spread across the man’s face, the kind that belonged to something truly monstrous.

  “Adults,” he said casually, tilting his head, “or children?”

  Chrome’s lenses narrowed.

  “Both.”

  The man’s grin widened further, pride dripping from every word.

  “Three million children,” he replied, almost cheerfully. “And a million adults.”

  Something inside Chrome shifted.

  His gaze flickered, not with calculation, but with raw, rising fury as memories surfaced unbidden, eight stolen souls, butchered and reduced to fuel. Children who had never been given a chance to live.

  Chrome’s voice dropped, dangerously calm.

  “How old,” he asked, “was the host of your core when the New Order murdered them?”

  The man didn’t hesitate.

  “Oh,” he said lightly, almost fondly, “I believe he was five.”

  Chrome’s eyes ignited.

  The air around him began to vibrate as suppressed power surged violently against its restraints. Every core within his chest pulsed in furious unison, their energies resonating with his rage.

  In that moment, Chrome made his decision.

  This man would not be contained.

  He would not be spared.

  He would not be allowed to exist.

  Chrome released the man’s arm.

  And prepared to kill him.