Holy Spirit Institution

  The city was quiet for once. After sealing off the Celestial Union's final anomalies, Heart Aino leaned back on the rooftop of the Holy Spirit Institution. She watched a bird glide by and giggled.

  "I guess…we actually saved the world, huh?"

  Not far below, Saki Tsuzura and Petra Johanna Lagerkvist inspected the sealed rift core, while Weiss, no longer possesse, —stood silently with Mildred Avallone, the once-hostile Drexler leader now working with the Spirit Regulation force. It was peaceful. Too peaceful.

  *BOOM!*

  Without warning, an explosion resulted from a jagged crack that split the sky, bled pink light like an open wound across reality. Everyone stopped. From the rift echoed a synthetic, chilling voice: [Keystone fragment not detected. Initiating sweep. Targets of dimensional influence prioritized for containment.]

  Weiss turned first. "...That voice. It’s not from the Arcana."

  Mildred’s eyes widened. "It’s not from this dimension at all."

  Dozens of black-and-gold machines poured from the crack—Nox Nyctores doppelbots—and behind them, hungry Shadows, Voids, and Grimm slithered down like oil.

  Petra summoned her rifle, firing at the nearest invader. "Tch. They're not from Drexler. They don’t belong anywhere."

  Weiss fought them off with cursed energy. "Whatever they are, they’re hunting something."

  The ground beneath Mildred and Weiss ruptured. Chains of light—the same ones that once held Arcana captive—shot from the sky and dragged both of them upward, despite their resistance.

  "—No! Not again!!" Heart shouted, leaping after them.

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  Saki reached out. "Heart, wait—!"

  But it was too late. As the chain-bound leaders vanished into the crack, another tear opened beneath Heart, swallowing her in a swirl of radiant pink and chaotic static. Then she was gone. The rift closed, leaving silence and scorched air in its wake, much to Saki's dismay.

  "HEART!"

  Darkness flickers. Then, starlight. Heart floats through an endless sky, her fists clenched as if mid-battle. Her Arcana, Partinias, glows faintly at her side—but says nothing. The world is silent, as though waiting to exhale.

  "I’ve been here before… haven’t I? This doesn’t feel like Arcana anymore. It feels…" She pauses, floating past disjointed fragments of landscapes—cityscapes, shrines, ruined laboratories. "...like the dream of those girls I met. The ones from that other world!"

  The sky warps. Suddenly, Ein appears, slashing wildly at pixelated shadows that flicker in and out of existence. Homura kneels, bloodied, trying to reload a musket that melts in her hands. Ouka steps forward, cutting through phantoms—only for her blade to vanish.

  "Ein! Homura! Ouka! Wait!"

  They don’t hear her. Their eyes are hollow, reflections of memories that don’t belong. The battlefield distorts. Sonico’s voice echoes faintly, her song distant and drowned in static. The sky darkens further.

  "This isn’t real. That fight… it already ended. We won, didn’t we?"

  From above, something massive begins to crack. A pink keystone, glowing with ancient energy, looms over the entire scene, then fractures, scattering pieces across the dreamscape like meteors.

  "Heart...Aino..."

  A voice rang out, much to Heart's confusion, "What the-A voice!?"

  "You remember crossing worlds, you remember standing against the chaos, but you were only a spark."

  "Who’s there?! Show yourself!"

  The stars blink out. The voices stop. Partinias flares defensively as a black portal forms beneath her feet, swallowing the sky.

  The dream collapses into whispers. "The war never ended. The keystone has shattered. Find the others… before they’re consumed."

  Heart’s eyes snap open—she’s mid-jump, mid-attack—only to see that she's not at the Holy Spirit Institution anymore. She's falling through a pink portal and sees corrupted Arcanas, Nox robots, Voids, and more falling with her. A single piece of glowing debris—faintly resembling a pink rhombus—plummets past her as the invasion begins. She doesn’t have time to react before an end portal forms underneath her, ejecting everything that entered through it into another world.

  Heart thinks, "So that wasn't a dream. It's really déjà vu all over again, huh? Okay then. Round two—let’s go!" She dives toward the stone and leaves the portal.