Riva and Luigi blurred into motion again—bullets folding through portals, fists thrown, space cut and stitched in the span of a breath.
Then Luigi changed it.
He slid back, fingers reaching toward his gear. A low hum filled the air.
Jonas's eyes widened. "That's not a regular rifle."
The shotgun gleamed like polished obsidian, a faint blue glow humming around the chamber. Luigi fed something into it—capsules, round and charged.
"Compressed kinetic chambers," Milo whispered. "That'll level the field."
A few of the rounds Luigi had fired before hand changed trajectory and was heading for the students, Riva was forced to focus her attention on them.
Luigi fired.
A burst like thunder cracked the sky.
Riva spun, sweat flicking from her brow, her arms outstretched. She forced the portal open without her hands.
It opened above the cliff, and dropped the round straight down.
The impact crater swallowed the battlefield in dust.
Silence.
Then coughing.
Then applause.
Jonas, of all people, started clapping from behind cover. "Yo! Portal Queen! She cooked that man!"
Riva let her shoulders fall, breathing heavy. "Still got it."
She turned, dusting her sleeves. "Everyone okay?"
Jonas: "Yup."
Huey: "Fine."
Luan: "That was—wait. Behind you."
Riva froze.
Luigi stepped out of the haze like a ghost, both hands raised—holding twin pistols.
Pop pop pop—
Not bullets. Dummy rounds. Charged with kinetic energy.
They slammed into Riva's side, one after the other, too fast for a portal, too blunt for evasion.
She collapsed.
Luigi strode over. Reached into her coat, fished out the encrypted Arcana ID chip.
"You've gotten sloppy," he murmured. "You always did like to gloat too early."
"I should kill you here and now for betraying Kaiser, but You always did know how I liked my pasta"
He turned to the students.
They stared, frozen.
He raised one pistol lazily. "Nothing personal."
But he paused.
Looked right. Then left.
He felt it.
The pressure.
Standing at the back, eyes half-lidded, blue irises glowing faintly under the shadow of his hood.
Something… wrong about him.
The way his presence twisted the air.
Luigi stared, not smiling anymore.
"…Hmph."
He lowered the gun.
"Didn't come to kill children anyway."
He turned and vanished into the red haze.
Luan let out a breath. "What the hell was that?"
After a few minutes.
Riva's body twitched.
She groaned.
"…You all okay?"
Jonas frowned. "Yeah."
But his voice was tight.
Huey just stared, unreadable.
Riva stirred, groaning as she dragged herself into a seated position, back against a crumbled slab of concrete. The metallic ring of silence around the students buzzed, thick with the aftershock of violence.
Her gaze swept across them — wide-eyed, breathless, and unmoving.
"You sure you're all alright?" she asked again hoarsely.
They didn't answer.
Jonas stepped forward first, a hand resting protectively on the still-unconscious Marlo. His lips pressed into a thin, unreadable line. Khadija's eyes narrowed. Milo's gaze never left her hands, clenched at her sides. Even Huey — cold, calculating, Huey — wasn't hiding the way his jaw flexed, eyes locked on the spot where Luigi had vanished.
Riva frowned.
"…What's wrong?"
It was Luan who said it. Soft, but enough.
"He told us everything."
Riva flinched — not at the words, but at the certainty behind them.
There was no "what did he say?"
No "what are you talking about?"
Just stillness.
Then… she laughed. Bitter. Choked.
"Of course he did."
She buried her face in her hands, nails digging into her cheeks. "I knew it would catch up. I just didn't know it'd be this soon."
The students watched her unravel in real time.
"You think it's easy?" she snapped suddenly, eyes red. "Getting here? Becoming someone? I had nothing. Do you know what it's like to grow up watching everyone else get ahead because they had crests that mattered — names that mattered?"
Huey's gaze darkened, just slightly.
"You think I got into Arcana Divisione because I'm talented? No. I sold them data. I fed them little things. Nothing dangerous. Nothing that would hurt anyone. Not at first. I just needed— I just needed traction. A seat at the damn table."
"You gave them a seat at ours," Khadija murmured coldly.
"Don't act like I betrayed you," Riva shot back, unhinged. "I protected you. Every damn time. I taught you more in two days than Arcana would have in two years."
"And what about now?" Jonas growled. "You still protecting us?"
Riva didn't respond.
She looked down.
Then laughed again — not bitter this time, but broken. "Funny. I don't even know how that chip got into my jacket. It wasn't there this morning. I swear it."
"You're lying," Milo said flatly.
"No. No! I'm not—" Riva stood up shakily, her voice rising. "You think this was easy for me? You think I wanted this?"
Her pupils shrank, and something unhinged sparked behind her words.
"I tried to do good. I tried. But now… now you all know too much."
Huey's fists clenched.
Jonas backed up, pulling Marlo with him.
Khadija cursed. "She's about to—"
"I could almost shed a tear," Riva whispered, her hand sparking with portal light. "But it's too late now."
She raised her hand—
—and vanished backwards in a burst of wind and dust, her body slamming into a boulder with a crunch.
The students turned.
Atop a small ridge, wind swirling at her boots, stood a tall girl in all-black crest ops attire. Her silver-braided hair whipped around her sharp, dark features, and her pupils glowed with a soft air-lit shimmer.
Huey groaned. Loudly.
"Oh no."
Jonas blinked. "Who…?"
Luan's jaw dropped. "Wait— That's—!"
Huey didn't move.
"Hailee cross."
Hailee Cross stepped off the ledge, her boots making almost no sound against the dust as she landed.
Jonas blinked, muttering under his breath.
"damn, that face card is literally to die for."