Everyone in the room turned toward Lilith at the sa ti. It wasn’t planned, it just happened.
Lilith frowned, looking around at the eyes suddenly on her. "What?" she asked flatly.
Ann crossed her arms. "Well, you’re the strongest. Naturally, you should take the lead."
Lilith gave her a look that said she wasn’t impressed. "Strength doesn’t always an leadership."
Ann raised a brow. "You’re saying you’re not the best option?"
Lilith sighed quietly, her gaze steady. "I’m saying Vanessa’s smarter. She should lead."
Vanessa looked up from where she’d been thinking, surprised but not by much. "You’re serious?"
Lilith nodded once. "You have better judgnt. I might freeze them all before they speak."
Dickson snorted a laugh under his breath. "Yeah, no argunt there."
Lilith gave him a sharp look and he instantly went quiet.
Vanessa straightened, her usual calm sliding into place. "Alright. Then let’s not waste ti." She looked around the group, her tone quick and focused. "Lilith, you’re with . We’ll approach them and find out what they want."
Ann frowned. "You’re sure that’s smart?"
"No," Vanessa said simply, "but we don’t have another option."
She turned to the others. "Ann, Kelly, Seo Yeon — you three work on finding a way to break that do. Don’t go inside it, no matter what happens."
Kelly nodded. "Got it."
Seo Yeon looked uncertain but determined. "We’ll handle it."
Ann gave a short nod. "We’ll do our best."
Then Dickson raised his hand slightly. "Wait, what about ?"
Vanessa turned toward him. "You?"
"Yeah, . You just gonna leave out of the fun?"
She gave him a look. "You stay put in the car. I’ll tell you what to do when the ti cos."
Dickson blinked, then broke into a grin. "Oh, this is perfect. You’re telling I get to sit back and watch while the rest of you do the dangerous stuff? Beautiful."
Kelly rolled her eyes. "You’re unbelievable."
"Hey, don’t hate the player," he said, chuckling as he leaned back on the couch.
Before anyone could say another word, a burst of light flashed across the room. Vanessa disappeared. A second later, she reappeared beside Lilith, grabbed her wrist, and in another blink, both of them vanished.
The others stood frozen for a mont.
⸻
Back at the site, the air was thick with tension and smoke.
The four n standing in the center of the street were impossible to miss. Cars were overturned, buildings were torn open, and the ground was cracked in long, uneven lines. The energy do shimred faintly overhead, cutting off all escape.
The crowd stayed several ters away, trembling, whispering, holding their phones even though they knew no one outside could help them now. Police cars were useless, their sirens looping quietly in the background like dying alarms.
One of the n — tall, dark hair, and eyes that burned with arrogance — looked up at the hovering cara drone. He grinned slightly, like he knew exactly how many people were watching.
"I don’t think you people understand at all," he said, his voice echoing through the wrecked street. "If Liam doesn’t get here in one hour, I’ll start killing everybody."
The cara zood in as he pointed toward the crowd. "So, tell . Who wants to go first?"
Screams broke out instantly. People pushed backward, tripping over each other, clutching children and bags, desperate to move even an inch farther. But there was nowhere to go. The do lood behind them like a solid wall of light.
For a mont, no one dared to breathe.
Then a single voice cut through the panic.
"How about I go first?"
Gasps filled the air. Heads turned. Even the n in the street froze for a second.
A woman stepped forward through the crowd.
She was tall, graceful, her long blonde hair catching the light as she walked. She wore a simple outfit — dark jeans, a fitted white shirt, and boots that clicked against the cracked pavent. No armor. No weapon. Nothing that looked threatening.
The crowd started whispering in disbelief.
"Who the hell is that?"
"She’s crazy!"
"Get back, lady!"
"What is she doing?"
"Soone grab her!"
A few people tried to reach for her, but it was too late. She was already halfway across the broken road, her steps calm and deliberate.
From inside the car, the others were still watching through the live feed.
Ann’s voice cut through the air. "Lilith? Vanessa? What are you doing?"
No response.
Seo Yeon grabbed the comm on her wrist. "Lilith, co on, talk to . You can’t just walk in like that."
Static.
Kelly frowned. "They’re not responding."
Dickson sat forward in his seat, eyes wide. "Of course they’re not. They’re about to do sothing stupid."
Ann tried again. "Vanessa, answer . What’s happening?"
But nothing ca back. Only the faint sound of the reporter’s voice trembling through the speakers as she struggled to keep her composure.
Back at the scene, the crowd had gone silent again. The woman had reached the center of the street. The four n turned slowly to face her.
The leader tilted his head, studying her. She looked too calm for soone who had just volunteered to die.
"Who the fuck are you?" he asked, his voice carrying across the empty space.
The cara caught the mont perfectly — the woman standing tall, the sunlight bouncing off the do behind her, her expression unreadable.
Lilith looked up at him, her golden eyes steady.
They all watched her. For a second Lilith’s face was the cold mask everyone knew, and then it changed. She smiled. It was a smile that did not belong to the mont. It was light and sharp at the sa ti.
"So," she said, voice easy, "you said you wanted to see my man."
Blake’s jaw tightened. He looked at her like she had lost her mind. "I asked for Liam, not his woman," he snapped. "This is not so romantic request, lady. Get the hell out of here before I ruin that pretty face of yours."
Lilith clicked her tongue as if annoyed by a fly. She took a step forward. Her tone lost the smile and got colder by a fraction. "You are getting on my nerves. I am trying to be nice here."
Blake’s eyes flashed. He looked to the man beside him and gave a short nod. "Get rid of her," he said.
A big man stepped forward with slow confidence. He flexed his hands and the air seed to change around him. The ground answered. Pillars of earth rose up from the cracked asphalt like two great iron columns. Dirt and stone tore free and lifted, twisting into tall, jagged spears aid straight at Lilith.
"Move out of the way," soone scread from the crowd.
"Oh my god," a woman cried. "They are going to kill her."
"Sobody do sothing," another shouted. "She is not moving."
Phones were out. People fild with shaking hands. The live feed caught every second. At ho, people watching the broadcast leaned forward. Comnts scrolled across the stream like a river of panic. Callers pressed numbers into phones while their hands trembled.
"Lilith, get down," Ann’s voice snapped over a two way. "Vanessa, Lilith, are you seeing this? Move!"
"Lilith, for God’s sake, answer ," Seo Yeon shouted into her headset, fingers white around the device. "Do sothing. Don’t stand there."
Kelly grabbed Dickson’s sleeve. "Tell them to pull back. Tell them to pull her back now."
Dickson was more relaxed than the others. "Chill, it’s Lilith. Nothing can hurt her!"
The woman in the middle of the street did not flinch. The pillars of earth cut through the air toward her. People scread again, louder. The sound was full of fear and that sharp, helpless edge that cos when you know you can do nothing to stop what is coming.
Lilith looked at the columns as if they were an inconvenience. She did not scan for cover. She did not plan to duck. She shook her head, as if the noise behind her was rely background.
"I tried to do this the easy way," she said, voice flat and steady.
Then she rose. The motion was sudden enough to make heads turn. One second she was standing on the pavent. The next second she was airborne. She gathered herself and leapt toward the nearest pillar. Her fist aid straight at the raw, rising stone.
People around her started yelling again, but the words blurred. They sounded small and thin against the thud of the air.
"Is she crazy?" soone scread.
"What the hell is she doing?" soone else said.
"She is going to et that thing with her fist!"
"You are out of your mind, woman!"
"If she dies, I will not pity her!" a caller shouted into a live stream, the words ugly with adrenaline.
Lilith’s fist connected. It hit the first pillar with a sound like a gunshot. Stone t flesh, and for a fraction of a second everything held.
Then there was a sound that swallowed the world. It started as a rumble and beca a single, massive boom that rolled across the broken street and into the watching crowd. The shockwave hit like a wall. Dirt and fragnts of stone exploded outward. The pillars she had struck detonated as if so pressure built inside them had finally broken.
Dust moved first, a wall of brown and gray that rose up between the four n and the crowd. It filled the air with a choking, blinding cloud. The cara feed jerked, pixelated, then spluttered under the assault of grit. Screams changed into coughing and muffled shouts. People stumbled backward trying to find a clear line of sight.
On the screen the reporter’s face disappeared behind the ash. The sound went thin and because of the noise it was hard to tell what was happening in the middle. Phones recorded white explosions of dust. Hands slapped at faces. Soone dropped a child. Soone else hit the pavent and kept crawling away, pushing through the grit.
The live feed was a blur now. No one could see anything in the center. No one could tell who was down and who was standing. No one could tell if the pillars had fallen or if the man who raised them had been thrown back.
"Can you see them?" Ann asked, her voice relaxed this ti too, Lilith was a freak. Worrying over her will do her no good.
"No," Seo Yeon said. Her fingers shook as she tapped the screen. "It’s all dust. I can’t see."
Outside, the crowd shoved and stumbled. The do continued to shimr, trapping everyone in that small slice of city. The four n stood at the edge of the dust cloud, their silhouettes huge.
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