The Ascent of Wrath: Parallel Events

Location: Central City

Specific Location: Hidden Hospital – Maximum Security Wing

Time: 02:00 AM (4 hours until dawn)

Inside the white walls of the hospital, the silence was not an absence of sound, but a physical weight that pressed against the lungs.

"...."

The air, saturated with an antiseptic so pungent it felt freezing, vibrated with an electric tension.

"Tsk...!"

At exactly four hours before dawn, the corridor of the hidden wing felt like a crack in reality, a limbo where time stretched unnaturally.

"... Mmmgh."

And in the midst of that electric stillness, three female figures remained gathered, each inhabiting her own abyss of anxiety.

(Sshhhik— Sshhhik— Sshhhik—)

The first figure was a beautiful woman sitting with a stiffness that defied fatigue, remaining as a strange presence in that clinical environment.

"..."

Her maid outfit, impeccable despite the late hour, stood out under the artificial light, while her brown bob-cut hair framed a face of icy beauty.

(Zzip— Shrt— Zzip— Shrt—)

But there was no trace of emotion on her features.

"Ah, damn it, stop knitting for one stupid second, Sara!"

Her eyes, fixed on the fabric she held, were submerged in absolute vacuity, as if her consciousness had moved to a plane where time flowed differently.

"Try to stay calm; you know as well as I do that without Mireya here, she will only mechanically continue with her work."

Her hands moved. It was not a human movement; it was a dance of mechanical precision that defied visual perception.

"... Tch... I already know...!"

The needle went in and out of the fabric at an unimaginable speed, creating a blurred trail of steel and movement.

"...."

Sara did not blink, she did not hesitate. She sewed with a terrifying fluidity, as if she were mending the very fabric of existence while the rest of the city slept, waiting for new orders despite the emotional state of her companions.

"And you—how can you be so calm?!"

On the other hand, just a few meters away from Sara's mechanical serenity, the second figure broke the harmony of the void with a discordant energy.

"Does it look to you like I'm calm?"

She was a woman of an elegant, almost ethereal beauty, whose very presence seemed to claim the surrounding space with an ancestral authority.

"Yes, you seem very calm to me from over here."

Her long, straight silver hair fell like a cascade of mercury over her shoulders, shining with a metallic glow under the fluorescent lights.

"I see that you are blind at the moment if that's the case..."

However, her gestures betrayed any hint of delicacy.

"Tsk... Damn it!"

With a brusqueness that bordered on the wild, she dug her fingers into her own hair, rubbing it with a contained desperation that unraveled any order in her hairstyle.

(Tap— Tap—)

She kept her crimson eyes tightly shut, as if trying to block out physical reality to sink into her own instincts.

(Tap— Tap— Tap— Tap—)

Thus, she plunged into the darkness of her mind, desperately searching for the familiar trace of the life essence she had marked in Mireya's blood.

"Damn it... There’s nothing!"

But despite her attempts to sense her connection to Mireya's blood and track the heartbeat that bound them across the veil of worlds, in the end she only found a dull silence—an impassable abyss that mocked her very nature.

(¡¡Tap— Tap— Tap— Tap—!!)

As a result, her heel struck the linoleum with a frenetic rhythm, like an internal countdown threatening to explode.

(BOOM—!)

Until finally, without opening her eyes, she threw a sharp punch against the immaculate surface of the wall, unleashing a dull, heavy sound as the hospital wall yielded under the impact, leaving a new dent that added to the marks of her impatience.

"... Calm down, Lilith."

She remained there, her fist still buried in the crack and her teeth clenched, breathing with a harsh heaviness as she fought not to reduce the entire medical wing to ashes in her attempt to regain her composure.

"Fuff..."

In that way, after the thunderous impact, the air in the corridor seemed to thicken even further, heavy with the plaster dust floating under the white lights while the silver-haired woman, Lilith, remained for a second with her fist buried in the structure, letting the vibration of the blow travel up her arm like a necessary discharge to avoid losing control.

"... Haaah."

And finally, letting out a long, heavy sigh like an exhalation dragging all the contained fury caused by the impotence of being unable to do anything.

"I'm sorry... I got carried away..."

Thus, she withdrew her hand with a sharp brusqueness and let herself fall into the seat next to Sara.

"..."

"... And you are still knitting."

The contrast between the maid's mechanical rigidity and Lilith's physical ferocity created a surreal image.

"Anyway... I don't understand how you can stay so calm, Susie."

But in the middle of that surreal scene, Lilith leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees and letting her silver hair partially hide her sharp profile, growling with interest at the third figure present alongside them.

"Don't get it twisted, Lilith."

The woman in question, sitting on the other side of Sara, looked up.

"I am not calm at all."

Susie was a woman who overflowed with an innate sensual charm, possessing a figure with attractive curves that even the rigid hospital furniture couldn't manage to hide.

"It's just that, given the circumstances, I'm better at pretending the world isn't falling to pieces."

Her long red hair fell in perfect waves, like tongues of fire resting upon her shoulders.

"And taking it out on the walls won't bring back his trail any faster."

Unlike Sara's empty gaze or Lilith's rage, her expression was of a crystalline, almost imperturbable tranquility that hid a deep internal darkness.

"....."

After that, Susie let a brief silence settle between them before responding, while her lips curved into a soft line, devoid of joy but full of a forced, serene maturity.

(Sshhhik— Sshhhik—)

In that environment, the only sound that echoed was Sara's stitching, which continued imperturbably, marking the rhythm of a wait that felt eternal.

(... Tick... Tock...)

In that place, the three women—each a pillar of power and beauty in her own way—formed a triptych of helplessness in the hidden wing of the Central City hospital on the other side of the "veil," waiting for the conclusion of a long and tense labor that had lasted all night.

(... Tock... Tick... Tock... Tick...)

They were three unbreakable wills reduced to mere observation, forced spectators of a clock ticking toward dawn while, in an unreachable corner of existence, Mireya's fate continued to be written far beyond their reach.

"Once Trashia's labor is over, there will be no reason to linger in this place any longer."

But finally, letting out a slow sigh, Susie interlaced her fingers over her lap with an elegance that contrasted with the crack Lilith had left in the wall, trying to bring order to fill Equidna's absence in the group.

"We will just have to call Rima."

Her eyes, deep and burdened with a profound obsession, had lost all trace of light as she briefly focused her attention on the operating room door.

"She will transport us back home in a blink. And immediately after, we will focus all our attention on retrieving Mireya. With Rima's transport ability, there won't be a corner in this or any other world where..."

But at that moment, the sentence hung suspended in the air, fragmented by a phenomenon that caused the hallway's antiseptic to turn ice-cold all of a sudden.

(Vooom—!)

In front of the three of them, space itself began to behave like the surface of a lake struck by an invisible stone.

"There's trouble!"

And from the air that rippled in concentric circles—distorting the fluorescent lights and creating a visual aberration that made Lilith spring to her feet, her crimson eyes burning with wild alertness—emerged a small figure with an appearance so fragile it gave the impression of being made of blown glass.

"The straw dolls...!"

Her skin possessed an almost translucent pallor, and her messy hair framing her small face revealed the mental state she was in, having lost all composure upon arrival.

"N-no... It's not just them... Dragnir... Kylie...!!"

Rima stumbled out of the distortion, her small hands trembling violently and her breath coming in an erratic whistle of pure panic.

"Even Lysandra!!"

In her state of panic, Rima's small body collapsed forward, her legs buckling as if gravity itself had become an unbearable burden.

"Rima! Speak, for damn's sake! What the hell is happening!?"

However, before her knees could hit the cold linoleum, Lilith moved with a blur of supernatural speed, catching her by the shoulders with a force that, although intended to be protective, turned out to be brusque and desperate.

"Something... something happened! Everyone has gone into a frenzy!"

In response, Rima—on the verge of an emotional collapse and with both eyes filled with tears sliding down her pale cheeks—tried to catch her breath, but her chest rose and fell in spasms of pure panic while her voice came out in a broken, high-pitched scream that echoed against the white hospital walls.

"What are you...?!"

At that precise moment, as if Rima's scream had torn an invisible veil, the air around Lilith changed.

"!!¿?!!"

The silver-haired woman suddenly snapped her head up, her crimson pupils dilating until they almost devoured her irises in absolute shock.

(Badum—!!)

A heartbeat. A vibrant and violent echo struck her chest from the depths of her being...

"Grrr...!"

In that moment, the bond with Mireya, which just minutes ago was an abyss of silence, returned like a tide of boiling blood, charged with an essence she did not immediately recognize.

(This is bad!!)

Lilith Grit her teeth with such force that the sound of enamel cracking was audible.

"Susie... stop this! Damn it, do it now before I lose control!!"

Her lips pulled back, revealing elongated, sharp fangs that glistened under the white light.

"¡¡!!"

Through the restored bond, that which invaded Lilith's consciousness was... an overwhelming fury.

"{Status Suspension: Mental Anchor}"

Without wasting a moment, Susie made direct contact with a fluid movement, activating her ability and placing the feeling of fury into stasis before it was too late.

"Haaaah... Haaa... Haa...!!"

Thanks to that, Lilith exhaled the boiling air from her system, keeping her fangs exposed but regaining the focus in her gaze.

"What happened?!"

Control had returned, but it was a precarious balance held together solely by Susie's ability, while the bond with Mireya continued to vibrate with an intensity that foretold an irreversible change in the fate of everyone.

"... Bad news."