Daimendo lowered his on with a fident smirk on his face. “They’ve beeroyed. There’s no way they survived that.”

  [System Message]

  Lifeforce: 25%

  Roselle y encased in ice, her body stiff and cold. The wounds she had suffered from Daimendo’s relentless attacks had left her in a perilous state. She was barely scious.

  Runebelle, unharmed but visibly shaken, stood over her sister. “Why did you do that, Roselle?”

  A fshback flickered in Runebelle’s mind, repying the events that led to this moment.

  Roselle had stood in front of Runebelle. She didn’t answer her sister. Instead, she took a deep breath and pushed her magical power to its limit, surging past her normal capacity. Her red lightning crackled and danced around her, creating a fearsome aura of electriergy.

  “Thundercp, Surge!” she shouted. In that instant, a powerful burst of lightning arced outward from Roselle, f a rapidly spinning fan of crag electricity. The fan honed in on Daimendo’s attack. She manage disperse some of the impad reduce the damage, but the strain of using 200% of her magical power took a devastating toll on Roselle. Her body trembled uhe immense pressure and she was engulfed by what remained of Daimendo’s attack.

  The fshbaded, and Runebelle’s heart ached. She k beside Roselle, gently pg a hand on her sister’s icy shoulder. “You didn’t have to protect me like that,” she murmured.

  Roselle’s eyes fluttered open, her voice a faint whisper. “I... I know. I just—” Her senterailed off as her strength ebbed away.

  Runebelle’s heart ched with sorrow. “I’ll heal you, Roselle. Just hold on,” she said urgently.

  But before Runebelle could act, Daimendo’s voice cut through the tension. “Will you get the ce to heal her?” he taunted, his tone dripping with malice.

  Daimendo’s on began to hum with energy once more, preparing to unleash another devastating assault. The ground trembled with the icy vacuum reappearing with renewed iy. The force was so great that it made it nearly impossible for Runebelle to bance her healing shots accurately. Each attempt tet Roselle was met with the threat of Daimendo’s relentless onsught.

  Frustration and desperation surged within Runebelle. In a frantic bid to create a defense, she summoned her elemental powers. Ice, fire, ah pilrs erupted around her, f a chaotic wall of elemental defenses.

  The pilrs twisted and shifted, creating a strong pilr between Daimendo and Roselle. The wall of elements groaned uhe pressure of Daimendo’s icy vacuum, but it held for the moment. Runebelle eled her healing magic through the turbulent barriers, aiming to patch up Roselle’s injuries despite the obstacles. ‘Roselle, I ’t let you down now.... I have to get your wounds healed no matter what,’ she thought.

  Daimendo’s on fired another powerful shot, Runebelle swiftly reacted, surrounding herself and Roselle with the protective bination of her magic pilrs. The pilrs provided a shield against the ining attack. With skill and finesse, she used the iergy to form skates along the icy floor, mirr Daimendo’s movements.

  The bst from Daimendo’s on collided with Runebelle’s protective pilrs, creating a cataclysmic. When the smoke and debris settled, Runebelle and Roselle were still standing, protected by the resilient barrier.

  Daimendo’s eyes widened. “You’re more resilient than I gave you credit for.”

  But his face quickly hardened into one of ess. “I’ve been pying around, but names. Prepare yourselves for the real onsught.”

  Daimendo invoked his ability with the and. “Gun Magic level 2: Frigid Duo.” His enormous on split into two pistols, and he began firing shots at an incredible pace. Each shot carried the same freezing properties that had proven so dangerous.

  Runebelle, using her speed advatempted to ter Daimendo’s shots with rapid shots from her on. She mao deflee of the ining projectiles, but focus wavered, causio be hit by a few shots.

  Roselle thought to herself, ‘There’s no other way. Roselle o be healed quickly, and I ’t do that with Daimendo’s stant attacks. The Project Ruransformation is our best shot at turning this around. I have to be strong for both of us, and this is the only way to do it…’

  Roselle, weak and covered in ice, mao grip her hand. She sensed what Runebelle was pting, ae her dire dition, she shook her head weakly.

  With a trembling voice, Roselle said, “Runebelle, remember what happehe st time you activated that transformation? You were shut down for 24 hours wheimer ran out. We ’t afford that now! We need you to stay active and help me through this. There must be another way...”

  While Roselle and Runebelle faced the formidable Daimendo, Kintovar was encased in ice. However, when the ice barrier shattered, it revealed peared to be Kintovar, it turned out to be nothing more than a remarkably lifelike blow-up doll in her likeness. The real Kintovar had mao outsmart her captors.

  Kintovar, the mastermind behind this operation, moved stealthily around the eructure, using silenced ons to take out guards and maintain her cover as the fake encased ice figure. Her steps were calcuted and soundless as she strategically eliminated any threats that crossed her path. With each silent shot, she brought herself closer to her ultimate goal, all while maintaining the illusion of her supposed impriso.

  She weaved her way through the byrinthine corridors of the facility, ing ever closer to her final destination.

  Kintovar muttered to herself, “While that idiot Daimendo is busy battling my creations, I o deal with this problem. A barrier of this caliber, nearly iructible, has to have some type of off switch, obviously. It doesn’t matter who created it. There’s always a way to manipute it or disable it. I just o find the source of its power or the trol meism. That’s my ticket to freeing Haras and Mystimona aing out of here.”

  She tio shrough the facility. Kintovar carefully examihe pathways and the various hidden doors she had discovered, leading to secret stairways within the facility. While moving through the passages, she he advaeology and the intricate yout.

  “This pce is advanced, but its size isirely huge,” Kintovar mused to herself. “They might have put all their secrets in cleverly cealed locations. With close examination, I figure out their little secrets and hopefully find a way to access the barrier’s trols.”

  Kintovar stumbled upon a trol room that seemed to be the key to her mission. She approached the door, and with a twist of the handle, she ehe room.

  But what she found inside left her both astonished and amused. The trol panel she had been searg for was right before her, and there, hanging on the door handle of the trol room, was a sign that read, “Out to Lunch.”

  A wry smile crossed Kintovar’s face.“Just my luck. It seems like they’ve taken an ued lunch break. Well, I suppose I’ll make the most of this fortuurn of events and take trol of that barrier.”

  She stepped into the room, ready to work her teological magid gain trol over the nearly iructible barrier that had posed such a formidable challenge.

  Kintovar’s fingers danced across the trols in the room. She sed the array of buttons, switches, and ss. She had been searg for this elusive trol panel, and now, in a moment of triumph, she had found it. With a swift twirl of her fingers, she activated the panel.

  Kintovar let out a triumphant “Aha!” under her breath. She whispered. “Finally, the heart of this imperable barrier is at my fiips. Let’s see what kind of secrets you hold, my little trol panel.”

  Kintovar turned on the s and a Tetris s suddenly appeared on the trol panel, apanied by the iic music. Her jaw dropped to the ground at the dispy.

  She couldn’t believe her eyes. After all the secred security surrounding this barrier, a game of Tetris was the st thing she had expected to enter.“Are they serious? A firewall that’s actually a game of Tetris? This is beyond bizarre...”

  heless, Kintovar khat she had to figure out the rules of this peculiar “firewall” if she wao make any progress.

  Kintovar, despite her initial surprise, took hold of the trols and began to py the Tetris game that stood in her way. She skillfully maneuvered them into pce, clearing lines and making progress through this unventional “firewall.”

  With each successful move, Kintovar felt a sense of aplishment, even though the situation was highly unusual. Despite Kintovar making an impressive victory iris game, the firewall decred her efforts a failure, dispying a daunting “1/3”.

  Kintovar’s initial shock at the Tetris game was quickly repced by uanding. “Aha,” she said to herself with a wry smile f on her lips. “So, the game of Tetris isn’t just a game. It’s a clever trick to disguise the true nature of this firewall.”

  Her fingers hovered over the trols. “These bastards have made this more plicated than I thought.”

  Kintovar took a deep breath and started to analyze the situation. “The firewall is set up in a way that requires more than just clearing lihere must be specific patterns or sequehat o be pleted.”

  She began to calcute the probabilities and patterns she had observed. “If I’m right, the game’s yers are tied to the security meisms. Each line I clear or piece I pce might be adjusting the firewall’s settings or unlog differeions.”

  Kintovar adjusted her strategy, carefully maneuvering the Tetris pieces into specififigurations, aiming to uhe hidden meisms behind the firewall.

  “Let’s see if I find the right bination,” she murmured. Kintovar’s mind was in overdrive. She took a look at the shapes and muttered to herself, “The order of these shapes... it’s like a key. What if I o spell out a word or code using the shapes as letters?”

  With this insight, Kintovar decided to focus ing the falling shapes in a way that spelled out a signifit word or bination. Kintovar successfully spelled out the word ‘K.E.Y’ with the Tetris shapes, and the firewall abruptly disappeared, not even attempting to tihe game. She was now fronted with a s dispying information about an old woman named Juliana Kintovar, with striking simirities to her oearance.

  Kintovar muttered to herself, “Who is Juliana Kintovar? Why is her name associated with mine?” She noticed that this woman had been transferred to the Western Jancito Prison, and her execution date was set for 12 days from now.

  Rather than delving deeper into the details, Kintovar decided to take swift a. She plugged in her fsh drive, determio steal the information she needed while simultaneously w on disabling the barrier.

  While hag away at the trol panel, Kintovar’s thoughts raced. “Who else could design a top-notch system like this for the police?” she mused. “It had to be stists. But sidering the plexity of this system, and the ability to teract even my creations... it seems illogical unless another ‘Kintovar’ was involved.”

  She recalled the advaeology and the sophisticated barrier. The intricacy of the firewall, coupled with the seemingly personal e to the name “Kintovar,” suggested that someoh a deep uanding of her methods—and possibly even her own mind—had orchestrated this setup. “If another Kintovar was involved, it would expin how this system was desigo handle and even thwart my creations. But who could it be?”

  Kintovar had successfully shut down the barrier surrounding the area where the prisoners were held.

  She oised to rescue Mystimona and Haras, but just as she was about to make her move, the door smmed open, revealing an irate employee with medium-length pink hair, dressed in the CPU uniform and a hat. Her sleeves were too long for her small frame, and a pair of e teeth peeked from beh her upper lip. Her eyes narrowed in irritation while pointing acg fi Kintovar.

  “You! What in the world do you think you’re doing? You’re not supposed to be here!”

  Kintovar quickly assessed the situation. She needed a pusible cover to avoid frontation. “I’m the janitor,” she said smoothly, putting on her most ving tone of nonce.

  The girl tilted her head in fusion, her eyes narrowing further. “The janitor? How could a janitor bypass the firewall?”

  Uh oh. She saw all of that. Kintovar’s deception became even more crucial. She had to think on her feet here.

  “Easy,” Kintovar said with a shrug. “I’m a janitor with a knack for fixing things. Sometimes, I deal with more than just spilled drinks and broken equipment. What I’m saying is, I’m also a part-time meic.”

  The furious employee couldn’t accept Kintovar’s expnation. She shook her head relentlessly with angry shouts, “You’re lying! You’re lying! You’re lying! You’re lying! You’re lying!”

  She reached for a mace hanging from her belt. With a dangerous glint in her eyes, she threatened Kintovar, “You’ve crossed the line, and I won’t let you get away with breaking through my firewall. You’ll pay for this, intruder!”