The chairman looked exhausted. He was so done with the Ashborns.
So damn done.
Because Alice was registered as the seventh member of Kaiden’s team for the competition, the Awakened Association, which organized and oversaw the event, knew perfectly well who she was.
However, the other partaking guilds, New Dawn included, weren’t privy to this information. To them, she was still a mysterious entity.
The chairman hesitated before opening that feed.
When he did, there was no immediate spectacle. No overwhelming sensory hook. Just motion, fluid, adaptive, wrong in a way that made his instincts itch.
Kaiden shifted between forms without command words, without visible spell casts. One moment, he was striking, raw physical force amplified beyond baseline expectations. Next, he was absorbing impact. Then came magic, sigils, pressure, control, all cast without any incantation, without the telltale lag of system mediation.
The chairman leaned forward slowly.
"He’s not selecting abilities," he realized. "He’s inhabiting them...?"
Pride, Wrath, Gluttony... whatever framework they thought was imposed on this boy was no longer being accessed like before. They were states of being, woven together into a continuous expression of intent.
The chairman closed the feed and leaned back, letting a long, tired breath escape him as he rubbed a hand over his face.
"Inexplicable. Every last one of them."
He looked to Grace then, the weariness no longer fully concealed.
"They will take the world by storm," he said. Not as speculation. As recognition. "Again. Louder than ever before."
Grace was already smiling.
"There’s no stopping it now," she said lightly, almost fondly. "The Sinners seem to have decided they’re done hiding. Before, they were always acting with a sense of mystery, a sense of caution stemming from the knowledge that the world was watching, and that the world was a dangerous place."
She folded her hands on her knee.
"They no longer look afraid of the consequences of revealing what they can do. I don’t know whether they trust Vespera, us, or simply their own strength and defenses. But one thing is clear."
Her smile widened.
"They won’t be holding back anymore."
The chairman closed his eyes for a brief moment.
Then he nodded once.
"Agreed. Put the prearranged motions into place. We can’t have another country or organization kidnap them... Or even charm them over to their side. The Sinners must remain on American soil, and we must understand what’s going on with them."
Grace stood, saluted, then turned to leave.


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