“Littlesky, leave those two at the Holy Peak to me; I’ll weather them like wind over cliffs—go aid Eastern Moon Aixue.”
Mina’s arrival by Eastern Moon Aixue churned up shadows like a night tide, and her summons—undead and demons at the Holy Peak—made Elyar speak to Yumigawa Nozomi like a bell struck in storm air.
“Mm, I know…” Nozomi’s breath steadied like a leaf in drizzle before her words stepped out.
Before she could finish, a dagger of ghost-blue moonlight bloomed in Di Yue’er’s hand, its edge so cold and keen it made eyes flinch like burned moths.
“Sigh, I’d love to let you pass—one fewer opponent, lighter wind on my shoulders—but orders are iron chains in frost, sorry.”
“Want through? Then fell us first.” Haidi’er’s face stayed stone-smooth as she drew a wand like a bone-white twig from midnight cloth.
“That dagger…” Elyar’s gaze snagged on that blue gleam like a fishhook catching on river ice.
“An ice-type divine artifact—Cold Moon? That magic archer’s bow was an artifact too—since when did artifacts grow like weeds along the road?”
A moment ago two Holy Peak foes were dust on Elyar’s breeze; now the scales tilted, because with a divine artifact in hand, Di Yue’er rose like a storm to a common Divine Realm.
Nozomi’s heart twinged first, annoyance like a pebble in a shoe, then her words stumbled out, “Seriously, what soap-opera line is this? You say that in real life?”
“Correct—Cold Moon it is. Then, Your Majesty the Elf King, forgive the rudeness.” Di Yue’er ghost-stepped like a shadow under moon-snow, and stabbed at an uncanny angle with a sickle of chill light.
At the same beat, Haidi’er swept her wand like a match across oil: “Demonflame Shells!”
Dozens of small arrays flowered like thorny halos before her, and black round shells wreathed in violet fire roared out like comets toward Nozomi.
“Decent speed.” Elyar’s voice was flat as still water; she reached and tugged the air like silk. “Forbidden Gale!”
A viridian hurricane snapped open around Di Yue’er like a carnivorous flower, its pull a hungry sea that almost swallowed her whole.
She had no choice; she fell back dozens of meters like a snowflake skirting a whirlpool.
“My turn. Wind King’s Blade: Rapid Chain Slash!” Elyar drew a sword wrapped in whispering breeze, and loosed hundreds of slashes at eye-blind speed like a rain of invisible reeds.
On Nozomi’s side, the rhythm shifted like cloudbreak. “Aer, shoot those shells down.” She sprang onto the Aerucia Bird’s back as if mounting a moving cloud.
“Kwee!” The Aerucia Bird dipped its proud head, a stallion of sky, then spread huge teal-blue wings that glimmered like lake-light and beat them hard.
Two horizontal tornadoes slammed out like twin river-drakes, swept forward, and gulped the shells down to raw energy like mills drinking grain.
Swollen with stolen power, the twin twisters didn’t pause; they raced for Haidi’er like rushing air-rivers through a canyon.
“Watchman’s Shield!” A half-dome of black-violet dusk sprung up before Haidi’er like a raised obsidian moon, catching the twisters and holding them fast.
…
Back at Elyar and Di Yue’er, praise and steel met like frost on wind. “Worthy of the Wind Elf King—your speed grazes instant movement,” Di Yue’er murmured as she reverse-gripped Cold Moon before her chest like an icicle laid over a heartbeat.
“Ice Sprite Mirage!” Her figure wavered like heat-haze on snow; frost-flowers burst midair, freezing the slashes, and she slid to Elyar’s back like a shadow of sleet.
“Windburst.” Elyar’s mastery ran bone-deep; even with her back bared like an open door, an explosive wreath of air wrapped Di Yue’er like a powder keg of wind.
“Ugh, these winds are such a hassle—no blind spots, nettles everywhere—where do I strike?” Di Yue’er slipped past the blast like a fish through reeds, voice tinged with a laughing complaint.
“Hmph. If you want to touch me, use your full strength and your hole cards—at least Cold Moon and your magical domain aren’t singing yet, are they?” Elyar spoke while fashioning blades and spears from air like grass turning to steel.
“Opening a domain before the Elf King is courting death—like raising an umbrella in a hurricane hall,” Di Yue’er answered with a rueful smile, feet sketching petals on the wind.
Looks like I have to wake Cold Moon, or I’ll be snow underfoot in moments; a sigh drifted through her like white vapor. Lord Blackflame really sent me to stall an Elf King?
Resolve clicked like ice; Di Yue’er poured power into Cold Moon, drawing moon-ice from the blade like water from a frozen well.
Half a minute passed, Elyar’s strikes thickened like winter sleet, and just as dodges thinned to threads, Cold Moon burst with a brighter ghost-blue, like a second moon over a frozen lake.
The temperature plunged around them like a cliff into the sea; ground and air took on a silver rind of hoarfrost in the space of a breath.
“Artifacts are a nuisance—your power just surged like a spring flood,” Elyar said, eyes narrowing like shutters in a gale.
“Yeah, but the cost burns like dry leaves—I can’t afford it, so let’s end this fast.” Di Yue’er froze the incoming assaults with a single sweep like a frost-tide, flashed to Elyar’s front like a falling star, and raised Cold Moon high. “Raging Frost Pierce!”
“What?!”
…
On Nozomi and Haidi’er’s side, heat rose like dawn. “Absolute Empowerment!” While Haidi’er stalled the twisters, Nozomi set a Sacred Realm array spinning like a sunflower of light.
“Aer, ready?” Her eyes caught the array’s glow like fish-scale shimmer and tossed the question upward.
“Kwee!” Aer’s call rang crisp as a silver bell, wings quivering like tightened bows.
“Good. Then—Stormfeather Volley!” Nozomi’s words snapped like a banner in wind.
“Kwee!” Aer flung its teal-blue pinions wide and beat them again, but this time a blizzard of feather-arrows streamed out like a meteor shower, each tip burning with sea-blue flame.
“Go!” At Nozomi’s command, thousands of arrows speared through the array and braided into a storm like a river of wind, racing for Haidi’er.
“That is—no good! Watchman’s Shield won’t hold, and there’s no time for another ward—damn it! Magical Domain—Dark Paradise!” Haidi’er’s voice dropped like a stone into a well as she unfurled a field of bottomless black, cloaking space like tar-dark surf.
The storm of feather-arrows unraveled on that abyss like snow into ink; a Holy Peak domain swallowed Sacred Realm shafts without a ripple, like night eating sparks.
“Then it’s my turn to strike, isn’t it?” Haidi’er’s words drifted up like smoke, and above them a purple orb flowered like a small sun, a violet star humming over the battlefield.
