[Boat — Deck — 5:00 AM — Day 46]

Seraph on deck before dawn with F2’s scythe active.

Raven to her right with F3’s green eyes glowing and her spectral scythe in hand.

Jessica to her left with her notebook closed — because this morning the notebook stayed closed.

"Jessica is going to attack me?" said Alex, looking at the formation.

"Yes," said Seraph.

"Jessica doesn’t fight."

"Jessica has F6." Seraph. "And today you’ll learn that Entropy in open field affects the Fragments’ threshold if the bearer doesn’t actively sustain the synchronization."

Alex looked at Jessica.

Jessica looked back with her usual expression.

"It will be interesting," said Jessica.

"For you," said Alex.

"For both of us." Jessica. "But mostly for me."

---

"The rules are simple," said Seraph. "You activate all three Fragments at thirty percent. You sustain them for forty minutes. The three of us attack you during those forty minutes with progressive intensity — the first ten minutes light, the second ten stronger, the third ten at maximum, the last ten without pause."

"And if corruption rises?"

"You tell me. I don’t stop the training — I tell you where the exact threshold is, and you decide whether to stay or yield." Seraph. "If you yield, we start from zero."

"How many times have we started from zero?"

"Zero today." Seraph. "Because today we’re not starting from zero."

---

Alex activated all three Fragments.

[F1 — 30% — active]

[F4 — 30% — active]

[F5 — 30% — active]

The familiar pain in three distinct points of his chest. The three lights on his chest igniting — crimson, violet, gold.

Seraph looked at him.

"Clock," said Seraph.

And attacked.

---

**[MINUTES 1 — 10]**

F2’s scythe in contained mode — not at maximum, the level calculated to generate pressure without generating crisis. The kind of attack that required active response without consuming too many resources in responding.

Alex responded with F1’s scythe — blocking, deflecting, using the minimum necessary to keep F2 from reaching the Fragments’ channel.

The first four minutes were relatively manageable.

F5 started at minute five.

Not because Seraph changed the intensity — F5 responded to combat pressure differently from F1 and F4. While F1 pushed upward steadily and F4 amplified with damage taken, F5 responded to urgency. And combat generated urgency.

[F5 — 30% → 30.4%]

"F5 rose four tenths," said Alex between blocks.

"I know." Seraph without stopping. "Bring it down."

Alex brought it down. It cost him half a second of divided attention.

In that half second, Raven attacked.

---

Raven’s first attack wasn’t with the scythe.

It was with Army of Bones — two marine skeletons emerging from the water on the boat’s right flank, reaching the deck from angles Alex couldn’t cover without exposing the flank where Seraph was still pressing.

Alex oriented F4 toward the two skeletons — the violet plane opening at the point of contact, dissolving F3 in the units enough for the skeletons to lose coherence.

[Army of Bones — 2 units — F4 applied — coherence reduced]

The two skeletons gave way.

F4 had risen to thirty‑two during the application.

[F4 — 30% → 32% → dropping]

Alex brought it back down while Seraph arrived with the scythe’s second arc.

Eight minutes. Still in the first ten.

---

**[MINUTES 10 — 20]**

Seraph increased intensity at exactly minute ten.

Not gradually — all at once. F2’s scythe at sixty percent, the spiritual‑plane cut around Alex deeper, each block costing more Fragment energy than the last.

[F1 — 30% → 31.2%]

"F1," said Alex.

"I see it. Hold it at thirty‑one if you can." Seraph. "Don’t bring it down to thirty if F5 rises at the same time."

"Why not?"

"Because if you bring F1 down while F5 rises, F4 loses the balance between the two and rises on its own." Seraph blocking Alex’s response and attacking back. "Hold F1 at thirty‑one until F5 drops to twenty‑nine. Then bring both down together."

Alex processed that while blocking.

He applied the instruction.

[F1 — 31.2% — held]

[F5 — 30.2% → 29.8%]

[F1 + F5 — dropping together]

[F4 — 30% — stable]

It worked.

---

Raven escalated at minute twelve.

The skeletons from the first ten minutes had been a test — now eight arrived, from four different angles, the mixed skeletons Raven had built in San Corvo operating in water and on deck simultaneously.

Alex with F4 oriented toward the four on deck.

F5 responding to the pressure of the four in the water — the Dominion Fragment trying to extend toward Raven’s units to suppress them, which would have raised F5’s percentage to thirty‑five in seconds.

"F5 wants to suppress Raven’s skeletons," said Alex.

"Don’t let it." Seraph. "F5 at thirty‑five in this context will drag F1 with it."

"I know. But the skeletons in the water—"

"Raven has them for that." Seraph. "Trust the team. You handle the three Fragments. Not the tactical situation."

Alex processed that.

He reoriented F5 back to the internal threshold — not toward the skeletons, toward the channel between the three Fragments where the synchronization lived.

Raven handled the skeletons in the water without F5’s interference.

And Raven handled them alone.

---

Jessica at minute fifteen.

Alex had been expecting Jessica’s attack since Seraph announced the formation. What he hadn’t anticipated was the form.

Jessica didn’t attack with F6 directly.

She activated Entropy in passive field — not oriented toward Alex, toward the area around Alex. The deck planks aging slightly under his feet, F1’s spectral scythe edge losing a point of coherence from environmental degradation, the spiritual plane of the immediate area with additional resistance that made keeping the Fragments active cost microscopically more than normal.

No visible damage.

Constant friction.

[Passive Entropy — 5m area around Alex — active]

[Additional cost per active Fragment: +3% energy/minute]

Alex felt it at minute sixteen — all three Fragments requiring slightly more effort to stay at the same point. Like holding something that suddenly weighs a little more without having changed size.

"Jessica is in passive field," said Alex.

"I know." Seraph. "How much does it cost?"

"Approximately three percent additional per minute."

"Can you sustain it?"

Alex evaluated honestly.

"Yes. But in the last ten minutes it’s going to be different."

"That’s what the last ten minutes are for."

---

**[MINUTES 20 — 30]**

The worst stretch.

Seraph at seventy percent of F2. Raven with twelve skeletons in constant rotation — not all attacking at the same time, some retreating while others arrived so Alex could never calculate exactly how many were in his immediate radius. And Jessica with the passive Entropy field making everything microscopically more difficult constantly.

F1 pushed to thirty‑two at minute twenty‑one.

Alex brought it down.

F5 reached thirty‑one at minute twenty‑three.

Alex brought it down. While he was bringing it down, F1 took advantage and reached thirty‑two again.

*They’re coordinating,* Alex thought. *Not the Fragments. Seraph, Raven, and Jessica.*

*Seraph presses when F5 is rising. Raven escalates when F1 is dropping. Jessica is the constant background that makes everything cost more.*

*It’s not combat. It’s a system to force the bearer to constantly choose which Fragment to prioritize.*

Seraph’s instruction from minute twelve came back: don’t bring one down without the other also coming down.

Alex applied the same logic to F1 and F5, which pushed alternately.