“Stop!”
Yun Shi didn’t think. A cold light flashed as she pulled out her Light Saber and drove straight toward the girl like a storm’s first bolt.
It wasn’t like her. Yun Shi was known for caution and clear mind, a winter lake that never ripples. In battle, calm can flip any bad hand.
Today, she tossed that calm into the fire. Her breath burned hot, her pulse hammered like war drums.
Why? Because—
She couldn’t watch her blood brother die.
“Hm? First Vessel Soul…”
Rebecca, poised to strike Yuuya, saw the girl rush in. Her voice drifted out like frost naming a statue.
She smiled, helpless and amused. Yun Shi’s Light Blade stopped ten centimeters from her. Rebecca leaned back at the waist, the blade skimming past her hair like moonlight. One kick flashed. Yun Shi was sent flying like a leaf.
Yun Shi dug in her heels, anger sparking like flint. She lunged again with her Light Blade. Rebecca stopped playing coy. A small dart slid into her fingers, then spun out toward Yun Shi like a hawk.
Yun Shi flicked once. Steel sang. The dart ricocheted away like a pebble off the river.
It curved back, a hungry shadow swooping from behind. It homed for Yun Shi. She had to keep her blade moving, a lantern waltzing against a moth that never tires.
“That’s… a Witch.”
Yuuya pushed up from the ground, vision swimming like rain on glass. The figure saving him wore a black cloak and a mask, moon-dark and faceless. She crossed blades with Rebecca, the Third Vessel Soul Witch.
He couldn’t fathom why a Witch would save him. Witches were his sworn enemies, a trail of graves under his feet. Most Witches should hate him like winter hates blossom.
So why was this one breaking the script?
Shen Ling Zou came back from blackout. His head throbbed like a split bell. He scanned the field.
Across the way, shadow and snow were fighting, black and white like ink against paper. He saw their faces, and everything inside him snapped taut.
“Night Phantom!”
Some names carve into bone. She was the one he’d lost because of himself, the one person who actually shook his heart.
“Night Phantom, I… I’m coming…”
Shen Ling Zou moved like a man possessed. Pain screamed in his wounds, but his will was a blade cutting through ropes.
“Zou! What are you doing? Are you insane?”
Kananin Rin yelled, voice cracking like a whip. She rushed to pin him in place, hands steady though her heart stung.
“Let me go, Rin! Let me go! I have to go!”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Do you have a death wish? You’ll only get beaten down. You aren’t her match!”
“I’m going anyway!”
“I am not letting you near her. How am I supposed to face Yuuya if you die?”
Not far away, Yuuya heard Shen Ling Zou’s wildness. Shock rolled through him like cold tide.
So the Witch he cares about… is her.
Yuuya finally understood the shadow’s identity.
On the other side, Yun Shi was drowning in Rebecca’s fight. She swung her Light Saber, dancing with that aimless dart, a swarm of paths that bent like reed and wind. No rhythm, no mercy. It felt scripted against her.
Bang, bang, bang!
Yun Shi chose clean lines. She drew a pistol and emptied a row of rounds. Under the hail, the dart fell like a bird shot from the sky.
“Sharp eyes.”
Rebecca only smiled, a cat’s curve. Surprise never touched her.
“Who are you?”
Yun Shi steadied her breath. The chill seeped back. She finally asked, voice calm like a blade under velvet.
“My name is Rebecca Ben Lowell. You can call me the Third Vessel Soul.”
!
Yun Shi’s eyes widened, frost cracking. She hadn’t expected the Third so soon. Intelligence said she’d appear. Meeting her now was bitter luck.
“First Vessel Soul—or should I call you Night Phantom.”
“…Call me whatever.”
Yun Shi knew nothing about this enemy. She didn’t dare be careless. Her chest tightened like a drumskin.
Strike first. Or die second.
Boom!
Space tore like silk ripped by lightning. A shockwave roared at Rebecca, sky paling into omen.
Rebecca watched the violent surge, unbothered, lips bending into a strange smile like a mask tilted sideways.
No time to think. Yun Shi threw the raging power down, ripping the air in ribbons. The wave clawed toward Rebecca.
Snap!
Her strongest blow vanished in front of Rebecca, a candle snuffed by a hand no one saw. Yun Shi didn’t even know what happened. Her attack just… wasn’t.
Impossible. Her energy was wild thunder, not something you erase. Block, clash, collide—fine. But vanish? No.
Rebecca savored Yun Shi’s astonishment like a sip of bitter tea. She gave her a dismissive look, light as ash. Yun Shi’s pride scorched. Heat surged up. She twisted space like an iron bar, a quake rolling out.
Snap!
Same result. Gone.
“Impossible!”
How could it be this strange? Why were her attacks all swallowed?
She hauled the scrap of Mystic Power in her body, forging a space-lock like chains of frost. She flung it at Rebecca.
Snap!
“Impossible, impossible!”
Snap!
“How could my attack just vanish!”
Snap!
“I am not weak!”
Snap!
“I’m a Witch. I don’t lose!”
Snap!
Power is everything to her. Take it, and she is a house with no foundation. When her strikes failed, fear bit her throat. Anxiety throbbed. Calm shattered.
Since the beginning, her world was only power. Losing it had cost her what mattered most. Without power, she had to leave the Clan Head’s household. If she lost the strength she was proud of, what was left of her?
“Hah… hah…”
Yun Shi had burned through her thin well of Mystic Power. Exhaustion fell over her like wet snow. She tried to push more. Nothing answered.
“That’s it? I haven’t even had my fun.”
Rebecca’s face was mock-helpless, like a child leaving a festival too soon. She enjoyed “playing” with Yun Shi.
No. There was no strength left. Only a hollow echo.
Yun Shi bowed her head, weight heavy as stone. Powerlessness settled like dusk.
“Farewell, First Vessel Soul.”
To this “kindred,” Rebecca had no intention of taking prisoners. Her hand rose for the killing stroke.
!
Across the way, Yuuya felt ice slide down his spine. He didn’t know why this Witch felt so familiar, so close it hurt. He couldn’t accept her being cut down.
“Stop!”
He ignored his ruined body. Blood Pupil flared like a red moon in winter. He launched forward, all he wanted was to stop death from taking the masked girl.
Snap!
The outcome was clear. Blood Pupil was forcibly canceled. He was flung back like driftwood in a breaker.
“Brother…”
Yun Shi watched Yuuya’s body tumble, shock as soft as rain. No matter the season, her brother never changed.
Two years. To still see him like this—there was comfort in that. Even if he didn’t recognize her at all.
Boom!
A razor bolt of lightning fell. Rebecca raised a hand on instinct, palm cold as stone.
Snap!
She erased the strike, then turned toward the newcomer. A girl stood there. Twin purple tails streamed in the wind. Her thin body looked spent, and her spirit wavered like a candle.
“Sawagawa Moa…”
“You okay, Yun Shi?”
Moa’s voice wobbled, but concern warmed it like spring sun. Despite her own bad state, she pushed herself to reach Yun Shi’s side.
“You ran too fast. Sham and I couldn’t catch up. Good thing we made it.”
Moa’s smile broke through, bright but tired. She wore it for Yun Shi, to steady her heart.
Not far off, Sham arrived late but sure. Her condition was better. She hadn’t fought heavy earlier, and her energy still swirled like a full reservoir.
“Sham…”
“Little Yun, you were too fast. Because of you, I’m almost dead-tired~”
Her words sounded like complaint, but no reproach touched her tone. Only light, only care.
