Admiral Ru's eyes locked onto Su Jiyai's. His smile twisted into something colder, sharper, deadly.
"You know too much," he muttered, voice eerily calm. "You die today."
Su Jiyai's eyes narrowed. That tone… it wasn't fear. It wasn't a defeat. It was final.
Her instincts screamed.
She moved backward, fast as lightning, throwing up a flame shield around her just as a strange glow began to pulse from his chest.
And then—BOOM.
A violent explosion rocked the room.
The blast hurled metal, dust, and searing heat across the chamber like a storm. Flames licked the ceiling. The shockwave shattered every nearby panel.
Su Jiyai landed hard against a far wall, coughing through smoke.
Her flame shield flickered out. Her arms were scraped, her clothes slightly charred, but she was alive.
Her expression, though, turned grim.
"That… wasn't him," she muttered, standing slowly, brushing off dust. "That was a clone. A damned decoy."
.....
