The Rebel Army tore through the room, searching every corner with urgency.

"Check everywhere!"

"Don’t let them escape!"

Boots slammed against the floor as soldiers overturned furniture, scanned walls, and even fired at suspicious-looking panels. The silver-haired woman walked calmly through the chaos, her sharp eyes observing every detail.

"There are no holes..." she muttered. "No vents large enough. No emergency exits either."

Her expression darkened.

One of the rebels grabbed a trembling Capital employee by the collar.

"Speak. Where are they?" he demanded.

"W-We don’t know!" the woman cried in panic. "We locked them up! We didn’t expect them to escape!"

The rebel threw her aside in disgust.

Meanwhile, amid the confusion, three rebel soldiers quietly moved toward the exit.

They didn’t run.

They didn’t panic.

They simply walked away naturally, blending into the flow of soldiers entering and leaving the area.

No one stopped them.

No one even looked twice.

After exiting the building, the three figures climbed into a rugged gypsy-style SUV parked nearby. The engine rumbled softly before the vehicle slowly drove away from the facility.

Only after they had traveled far enough did the illusion dissolve.

The rebel masks peeled away into flowing metallic particles, revealing the real faces beneath.

Tyler.

Tansy.

Rose.

Rose let out a long breath in relief. "I thought we were dead..."

"How did we even pull that off?" Tansy muttered.

Tyler kept driving while answering calmly.

"The EMP blast destroyed most of my nanobots," he explained. "But not all of them."

Tansy blinked. "You hid them there?"

Tyler nodded. "Lucky."

Tyler didn’t elaborate.

Back then, immediately after the EMP wave hit, all of them were destroyed. But except the one inside the Copper pot.

Tyler then rushed into the bathroom carrying the surviving nanobots. While the guards focused on securing the room, he rapidly replicated more units.

At the same time, he instructed Rose to alter her appearance.

"Cover your height somehow," he had told her.

Then he noticed rebel soldiers gathering outside the room, preparing to storm in.

That gave him the idea.

Using the newly replicated nanobots, Tyler formed disguises that perfectly copied the rebel uniforms. Tyler, Tansy and Rose wore it.

"Don’t go farther from me. I am controlling all our suits." Tyler warned and they hid.

The moment the rebels breached the room—

Tyler, Tansy, and Rose simply joined the chaos and walked out with them.

Back in the present—

Rose pulled off the strange oversized footwear she had been wearing and tossed it aside.

The shoes looked ridiculous—long, elevated, and oddly shaped.

"They were from the Captial probably." Rose explained awkwardly. "I used them to look taller."

She took them from the room.

Tansy almost laughed despite the situation.

"Now what?" she asked.

"We run," Tyler replied immediately. "Both the Capital and the Rebels are hunting you two now."

His expression remained cold.

"The Capital is definitely worse. As for the Rebels... we don’t know enough yet."

He pulled out a communication device.

"So we negotiate first."

"Oh, great. That’s exactly how you should think."

A sudden voice interrupted them.

The SUV abruptly slowed.

Tansy instantly drew her bow, nocking an arrow toward the source of the voice.

Sitting casually in the backseat—

Was the silver-haired woman from earlier.

Tansy’s eyes widened. "Who are you?! How did you get in here?"

The woman leaned back comfortably.

"I’m Ariel," she said with a grin. "Well... former squad captain in the Rebel Army."

She brushed aside her silver hair dramatically.

"Got demoted because the people under me were crybabies."

Despite the arrow aimed at her throat, Ariel showed absolutely no fear.

Instead, she casually pointed ahead.

"Don’t stop driving," she warned. "You’ll get caught."

Tyler silently continued driving.

"Check her for trackers," he told Rose calmly.

Rose immediately moved beside Ariel and began searching her.

Ariel simply raised both hands lazily.

"I already threw away anything traceable," she said. "Though you should probably destroy the navigation system in this car."

Tyler glanced at the dashboard.

Tiny nanobots flowed from his sleeve like invisible dust. Within seconds, sparks burst from the control panel.

The navigation system fried instantly.

Ariel whistled and leaned forward.

"Cool. You really do have nanobots."

"Don’t get close to him," Rose warned coldly while gripping Ariel’s gun tightly.

Ariel chuckled and raised her hands higher.

"Relax. I’m married," she said. "My husband hates fighting."

A softer smile appeared on her face.

"But I love him very much."

Then her expression shifted as she pointed toward the distant road ahead.

"If you keep going straight, you’ll eventually reach the border."

She leaned toward the window excitedly.

"Hey... do you want to peek outside?"

Tansy and Rose immediately frowned.

"You’re scheming," Tansy said cautiously. "How can the outside world possibly be beautiful?"

The sector had taught everyone the same thing since childhood.

Outside the borders—

Is Ruins, Death and desolate.

Ariel laughed quietly.

"Hehehe... You really shouldn’t believe every lie the Capital feeds you."

She looked outside the vehicle with nostalgic eyes.

"Is the outside dangerous? Yes."

"But ugly?" She shook her head. "Definitely not."

Her tone became quieter.

"Do you know what happens in a world without insects?"

Nobody answered.

"Plants die."

She continued.

"And a world without plants?"

"Animals die."

"A world without fish?"

"Ecosystems collapse."

Then Ariel looked directly at them.

"But a world without humans..."

A bitter smile formed on her lips.

"...might actually become prosperous."

The vehicle fell silent.

Even Tyler’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Ariel leaned back again.

"Anyway," she said casually, though her smile had faded this time, "while you’re peeking outside the border... we can negotiate."

Her eyes turned cold.

"We only want one thing."

A brief pause followed.

Then she said quietly—

"We want the King dead."

┉┈ ◈ ◉ ◈ ┈┉

"Ariel... can you make the Rebels—" Tyler started.

"It’s Embers," Ariel interrupted immediately, crossing her arms with mock annoyance.

Tyler sighed. "Sorry. Can you make the Embers listen to you? Do you actually have the authority to negotiate for them?"

Ariel leaned back comfortably in her seat and grinned.

"Don’t worry. My husband has power," she said proudly. "And more importantly—he listens to me."

She smirked as if that was the greater achievement.

Then, without warning, her curious expression exploded into excitement again.

"But seriously, what are you two?" she asked, leaning closer toward Rose and Tansy. "How did you do those things? Can you make clones? Can you hypnotize people? Are you secretly witches from old fiction stories?"

Questions fired out of her mouth nonstop like bullets.

Both sisters sighed at the same time.

"We really don’t know," Tansy admitted. "It just... activated."

Rose nodded. "Everything happened too suddenly."

Ariel stared at them with sparkling eyes.

"Can you do it again?"

Rose glanced sideways mischievously.

Then suddenly—

Ariel’s eyes turned bright pink, heart-shaped symbols spinning inside them.

Her expression went blank.

Then her eyes instantly returned to normal.

Ariel froze.

Her entire body stiffened in horror as realization hit her.

Because Ariel already leaned forward and planted a kiss on Tyler’s cheek.

When she returned normal her lips were kissing Tyler’s cheek.

"I-I kissed him?!" she shouted, immediately jumping backward in the seat. "W-What just happened?!"

Rose covered her mouth, trying—and failing—not to laugh.

Tansy bonked Rose lightly on the head.

"Stop messing around with your powers!"

Ariel touched her lips in disbelief.

"I didn’t even notice..." she muttered. "That’s terrifying."

Rose only smirked proudly while looking away innocently.

Meanwhile, Tansy decided to focus on her own ability.

She closed her eyes and concentrated deeply.

For a moment, the air beside her distorted faintly.

Then—

Another Tansy appeared next to her.

The duplicate blinked once, perfectly identical in every detail.

But almost immediately, Tansy’s face paled.

She grabbed her head painfully and shut her eyes.

The clone vanished.

"Tansy?" Rose quickly moved closer. "What happened? Are you okay, sis?"

Tansy breathed heavily and rubbed her forehead.

"Yeah... I’m okay," she muttered. "But when the clone appeared, I started seeing multiple overlapping images at the same time."

She frowned deeply.

"It felt like my brain was splitting apart."

Tyler nodded thoughtfully from the driver’s seat.

"It’s overlapping vision feedback," he explained calmly. "You were processing two separate fields of vision simultaneously."

Tansy blinked.

"You mean... I was seeing through both bodies?"

"Exactly," Tyler replied. "Your mind isn’t adapted to handling two perspectives at once yet. If you want to properly use that ability, you’ll need practice."

Ariel’s eyes sparkled again.

"Wow..." she whispered dramatically. "Magic is actually real."

She immediately turned toward Tyler.

"What about you?" she asked suspiciously. "Do you have magic too?"

Tyler shook his head without hesitation.

"No."

Before the conversation could continue—

Tyler’s expression changed.

"We’re here," he said quietly.

Everyone looked forward.

And froze.

Far ahead of them stood an enormous structure stretching endlessly across the horizon.

It resembled a gigantic metallic honeycomb wall, towering into the sky like something built by gods rather than humans. Hexagonal patterns layered over each other endlessly, glowing faintly with streams of energy flowing through the massive framework.

The Border.

The final barrier separating the Capital’s controlled world from the unknown outside.

Even from a distance, its scale felt overwhelming.

Tansy unconsciously tightened her grip on her bow.

Rose stared silently.

Ariel smiled faintly while watching their reactions.

"Beautiful, isn’t it?" she said softly.