"Who are you?" Braham asked, his eyes narrowing as he leapt back, parrying the latest attack with a loud clash of steel.
He shouldn't have had to ask.
That presence.
It has to be Roda. He was sure of it. And yet…
Something felt wrong.
It had been a while since he'd last seen her—years, maybe—but the sheer power she now radiated made his skin crawl. That wasn't the Roda he remembered. This version of her moved like someone far beyond her years. The way her blows landed, how precisely she dodged—she wasn't just fighting; she was reading him, reacting before he even moved.
And her strength. It was terrifying.
"Ninth Ascension…" Braham muttered under his breath, disbelief flickering in his eyes. That level of power? At seventeen?
No. That shouldn't be possible. Not even the greatest prodigies had reached that state so young. He'd seen monsters rise through the ranks before, but this… this was different.
But there was something else.
He noticed it.
