The canyon still smoked.
Juvy knelt beside the wounded.
Hands glowing.
Blood turning to crystal.
Souls stitched back into bodies.
Every heal burned her.
Not pain.
Cost.
She swayed.
A man caught her arm.
"Don't fall, Bright Sister."
She looked at him.
"I'm not… a sister."
He smiled weakly.
"You're all we got."
That scared her more than Cain.
Three kilometers away…
Maxruell felt it.
A tug in his chest.
Not the stone.
Her.
He stood on the roof of Dustfall's tallest ruin.
Wind pulled his coat like a warning.
"She's close," he whispered.
A scout ran up.
"Red King! Government elites moving through the salt flats. Heavy gear."
Maxruell's shadow moved.
"Toward me?"
"Toward the canyon refugees."
Maxruell turned.
Too fast.
The hunters wore white armor with black veins.
No insignia.
No mercy.
They walked through the canyon like gods.
One raised a rifle.
A refugee's head vanished.
Juvy screamed.
Crystal walls slammed up.
Bullets carved into them.
She launched fire.
They walked through it.
One spoke through a speaker:
"Target: Bright Sister.
Civilian casualties acceptable."
Juvy's breathing went wrong.
"No…"
She raised both hands.
Elements screamed.
Air crushed.
Earth folded.
Lightning tore.
Two hunters died.
One stood.
He fired again.
A child fell.
Juvy saw red.
Not blood.
Everything went quiet.
She lifted him.
Not his body.
His soul.
It screamed as it left.
She crushed it.
The world felt colder.
She dropped to her knees.
"I… I killed his soul…"
Serah's voice whispered from nowhere:
"Congratulations.
Now you're like him."
Maxruell arrived as shadows.
The last hunter turned.
Maxruell didn't wait.
Darkness hit him like a wall.
Armor collapsed inward.
Blood sprayed the canyon walls.
Juvy looked up.
They stood twenty meters apart.
Brother.
Sister.
Smoke between them.
"Move," Maxruell said.
"Don't," Juvy said.
"Get out of here."
"They're hunting me now."
"They're hunting us."
Silence.
"I felt you kill," Maxruell said.
Juvy whispered, "I didn't mean to."
He saw her shaking.
For one second…
He almost stepped forward.
A drone screamed overhead.
Missile locked.
Maxruell raised his hand.
Juvy raised hers too.
Shadows and crystal collided.
The blast split the canyon.
Rock flew.
They were thrown apart.
Dust filled the sky.
When it cleared—
Maxruell stood alone.
Juvy and the refugees were gone.
Only burned stone remained.
He slammed his fist into the ground.
"She was right there…"
The red stone pulsed.
Next time, don't hesitate.
Juvy ran until her lungs bled.
Refugees followed.
She collapsed by nightfall.
Hands stained with soul light.
"I crossed a line," she whispered.
A girl hugged her.
"You saved us."
Juvy shook.
"Not all of them."
She looked at the stars.
At Dustfall's direction.
"Max… please don't become me."
Mother Cain watched the satellite feed.
"Good," she said.
"First blood between ideals."
She turned to Serah.
"Prepare the city of glass."
Serah bowed.
"They'll meet again?"
Cain smiled.
"Oh yes.
And next time…"
She traced two dots on the map.
"They won't miss."