The door cycled open, revealing the black expanse of space and the drifting labyrinth beyond.

Akiko pushed herself forward, foxfire flaring in a tight burst as she slipped out into the void. The memory of dragonfire flickered at the edges of her thoughts, but she shoved it down. Focus sharpened.

This isn't the same, she told herself. It won't be.

Her boots locked magnetically to the hull. The faint hum of her mana blurred into the ship's deeper vibrations.

Beneath her feet, something shuddered, followed by a sharp tremor, then another. Rhythmic. Deliberate.

Claws on metal.

Her tail flicked uneasily. She moved toward the aft section, foxfire curled faintly around her fingers. That's where she saw it, clinging to the hull like a parasite. The dragonling tore through a cable, sparks curling off its maw. Its coils flexed, limbs taut like a spring.

Akiko's claws extended. She kept low, approaching the creature cautiously, avoiding it's sightline.

"Alright, little guy," she whispered. "Let's see how tough you are."

She lunged. Her claws slashed across its flank, scraping scale. No blood. No break. The impact reverberated through her gloves, dull and jarring.

The dragonling twisted in one smooth motion, releasing the hull. Wings snapped open, and it glided backward like it was swimming through the dark.

Akiko darted after it, foxfire propelling her in tight arcs. She stayed just ahead of its claws, her own lashes aimed at its throat, its joint. Anywhere soft.

Nothing landed.

It moved wrong. No thrust. No reaction mass. Just... flow. Every turn effortless. Every dodge predicted.

Her tail snapped to correct a roll.

How are you doing that?

Then she felt it. A pull. Subtle, invisible, like her center of mass had shifted. She veered off course, struggling against it, foxfire flaring unevenly.

Gravity?

Too late. The force yanked her toward the hull, and she slammed into the Driftknight with a hard, muted thud. Her breath jolted from her lungs. She clutched at the plating, claws scrambling for purchase.

"Gravity manipulation," she gasped. "You cheating little bastard."

The dragonling glided toward her, wings undulating like it rode a current only it could sense. Its eyes locked on hers. Too sharp, too focused.

It was watching her. Thinking.

A flicker of foxfire threw her forward. Her claws raked across the dragonling's armored flank again. No purchase. The beast twisted, gravity lurching in her gut as she was flung into a roll. She caught herself with a burst, grit surging through every tendon.

"Come on," she hissed, scanning her HUD. "Come on, where is it?"

She was expecting it. The ripple. The flicker of System text. Something to suggest that her System was processing the unfamiliar magic.

It didn't come. Not even a hint of mana analysis. No parsing. No prediction.

Just a void where her next step should be.

Her suit gave no answers. Neither did the System.

"…Takuto?" she asked, voice tight.

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"I'm trying," his voice came, low and laced with synthetic static. "But it's not a matter of time or data. Their magic is not an external construct. It's internal. Neurological."

She blinked. "So? I've fought spellcasters before... back home."

"No, Akiko. The Skill Layer can't interpret it because your brain, your structure, is incapable of forming the schema. Even augmented, you lack the neural architecture to comprehend it. Your mind doesn't just misread it. It lacks the dimension to see it at all."

The dragonling roared, gravity slamming downward in a cone from its snout. Akiko barely dove clear in time, spiraling off-axis in the void.

She grit her teeth.

So that was it. She couldn't adapt. Couldn't brute-force it. Couldn't outgrow it.

Unless…

Unless she rewrote the rules.

Then she saw it. A hairline fracture, barely visible, just below the curve of its neck. Where one of her earlier slashes had glanced off.

Takuto whispered, "Structural thinning detected. Subdermal gap. Possible nerve cluster."

Akiko stared. Weighed her odds. Then, "If I get in close… could you link to it?"

The moment stretched before Takuto responded.

"The neural schema is incompatible with human parsing. But if you provide direct access... yes. I can attempt to interface."

"And what happens to me while you do that?"

"Suit systems will reroute to isolate neural traffic. Your connection will be suspended. No augmentation. No oxygen."

"So I'll be dying while you're learning."

"Temporarily."

A long silence passed between them, filled only by the scrape of the dragonling's claws against hull plating.

She had one option. Her Harmonic Barrier spellform, learned from the entity back on its station. It was expensive, and wasn't designed for retaining oxygen in a vacuum, but… maybe. If she tightened the containment runes, focused everything around her face.

It wouldn't be pretty. Wouldn't last. But maybe it'd buy her enough time for Takuto to work his magic.

Her lips thinned. "If this works, what's the risk?"

"Cognitive backlash. System failure. Neurological strain. Irreversible burnout. Bodily collapse."

"So... bad."

"Correct."

No safety net. No backup. If she did this, she'd be trusting that she could keep a barrier spell solid while her lungs screamed and her thoughts frayed at the edges.

She barked a humorless laugh. "Gods, you're bad at pep talks."

She reached for the foxfire, and it came slow. Tired, ragged. But it came. She funneled it into her claws, driving the energy to a point.

A single strike. One chance.

She surged forward.

The dragonling snapped toward her, maw widening, space bending around its snout.

Gravity clenched like a fist.

She flared her foxfire behind her, cut sideways, and tumbled under its chin. Slammed her claw straight into that fracture.

The foxfire punched through. A gout of steam burst from the wound. The dragonling shrieked in soundless fury.

"Now, Takuto!"

She ripped the neural link from her nape and jammed it into the opening.

The oxygen veil buckled. Mana roared through her veins, spiking, unstable. She gritted her teeth, focused everything into the barrier.

Held it. For three seconds. Four. The shimmer around her face pulsed. Cracked. On five, it shattered.

Her breath froze in her lungs. Air exploded from her mouth in a silent, involuntary gasp. The pressure drop punched her chest like a hammer, like being crushed and hollowed all at once.

Her skin burned with cold so sudden it felt like heat. Ice crystals bloomed along her lashes. Blood vessels burst in her eyes. She staggered.

She couldn't hear her own scream, couldn't even feel it, but her mouth was open and her lungs tried to draw air that didn't exist.

Light thinned to strands. Colors drained from her sight.

She floated. Not in space, but somewhere smaller. Closer. Inside.

A flicker of warmth. Foxfire? No. Distant. Unreachable.

Then, a silhouette stepped into the edges of her unraveling vision.

Her own face. Reflected in perfect symmetry, pale and calm and wrong.

The entity. A shape in the void, pacing her, watching with calm contempt.

And it smiled. That same awful, knowing smile.

"You always break so easily," it whispered, voice like silk.

It drifted near, unhurried and inevitable, and raised a hand as if to cradle her unraveling soul.

Its fingers were cold as they brushed her cheek. Colder than the vacuum. Colder than space.

"I made you strong," it murmured. "But you're still so human. So fragile."

Akiko's lips parted, but no air came.

"You think this is sacrifice? That dying buys meaning?" The entity tilted its head. "You misunderstand. Your purpose isn't to fall."

Its hand slid down to her chest, where her mana core should be, and pressed against it.

"You were meant to rise."

A pulse shuddered through her. Not from her body. From the shape of her soul.

"No—" Her lips moved, but there was no air.

The world trembled.

Her sense of self coalesced in a single point. A spark.

Raya's voice, distant but anchored, somewhere in the dark:

"Akiko, come back—"

And then her own name, steady and mechanical:

"Akiko. Wake."

Akiko's eyes snapped open.

Her hands found the airlock controls, trembling and blind. Her vision dimmed as the override chirped and the chamber cycled.

Pressure returned in a thunderclap of pain. She collapsed to her knees, coughing blood, vision swimming, every nerve raw, the neural link clutched desperately in her hand like a lifeline.

But she was alive.

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