“I am who I am. I’m Medith,” Medith said, calm as still water.

Manto sighed, his breath like a tired wind. “Hey, you think we don’t know anything? Your skill and knowledge leave this continent in the dust. You from Above?”

“You’ve read too many novels.” Medith’s smile was moonlight behind clouds. “I’m a Sprite. My lifespan outpaces your eighteen generations in minutes. I look like a teen; my true age is a mountain you’ll never climb.”

“Alright, quit padding words. Don’t say it then. I’ve got methods,” Manto waved, a blade of annoyance cutting the air.

“You’re finished.” Medith’s smile was frost on jade. “Reinforcements will breach your walls any moment. You’ll die here. None of you will escape.”

Manto raised his chin like a rooster at dawn. “You lost.”

The crowd lunged for Medith, bodies like a dark tide crashing.

Medith’s lips curved like a blossom opening. She spat a crystal bead, then bit down with all her strength.

“What is that?!” Manto’s face went ash-gray. “Hell—Silence! Silence!!! Fall back—back—back—”

…

[Medith’s Time]

I watched them scatter like startled sparrows. They will never take what’s mine. No matter how my body twists, I will not bow.

Ding—ying— The crystal was far more brittle than I thought. It flared with blinding white fire. I recalled my short life in this other world. From the moment I became a female Sprite, I strangled my old soul and poured myself into this land.

I thought I blended in. I didn’t. The battle-heat and ambition carved into my soul are a river no one can dam.

Sorry, Lahiss, Sais, Milia… and Sis Mei. Everything about you, I’ll remember. Sais… I’m afraid I can’t keep my promise…

Ah, my life… both tragic and brilliant, a storm under a sunset…

“Wei… Wei…”

Xier? In the end, I’m a loser… I couldn’t protect you, or anyone. I… I’m coming…

Whirr—whirr—

Huh? When did that book appear? A heavy Divine Tome stood in windless air, pages flailing like trapped birds…

…

Ding—ying—ying— The Silence Bomb blew inside Medith’s mouth. A white ring blossomed three hundred meters around her. Then—ko—wooo— A pillar of white roared into the sky, sweeping everyone up like leaves into a cyclone.

…

Ko— The quake and blast from the Silence Bomb shook the southern front. Both sides fell back, eyes narrowed, reading the storm.

From where Manto had stood, a sky-splitting white column speared the clouds. At its heart glowed the Western Kingdom’s strange mark: ∞.

“No—Medith—!!” Sais’s grief tore like silk. Her will shattered. She dropped to the ground and cried, voice a winter river breaking.

The women around her stared, thunderstruck. “No… impossible… Medith’s that strong… how… no… I don’t believe it! I don’t!”

Kasda shut her eyes, pain a blade buried deep. It was their fault. If not for them, Medith wouldn’t have been dragged in, wouldn’t have died.

“Looks like, no matter how this war ends, we’ve already lost…” Delaia’s tiger-tears traced twin paths. In a handful of days, Medith’s mischievous courage had etched itself into his soul. He never thought she’d offer her life for Sia City… and for him.

…

[East Gate]

“Ah—ah—ah—!” A man-shaped beast, midnight-black, smashed the gate. Cavalry and soldiers surged in like a flood chasing thunder.

The stray Sage Soldiers on the wall had been swept clean. A white-armored knight, a thin pheasant plume swaying from her helm, stared at the sky-piercing white pillar in the distance. “What is that?! Is it the Silence Bomb the Elvenfolk reported? No… why… Medith? No—”

She shot off like a falling star toward the pillar, so fast the riders behind ate dust and doubt.

…

[Medith]

“Dammit! Ah…” Manto rubbed his glue-thick head, the last blast nearly tearing out his life like a root.

He looked around. Bodies lay scattered, a broken script across the earth. The thousand nearest to Medith had turned to ash, erased as if they’d never been written.

Farther out, armor and heavy shields had shattered into iron confetti. People lived, but staggered, breath like torn cloth.

Manto was no exception. His armor had blown to scrap, leaving his true body bare to the wind.

“A thousand dead in one go?!” His jaw locked, rage grinding like millstones. Eight thousand elites, culled to just over three thousand in a single breath. (He didn’t know Erig’s side lost another thousand-plus… in truth only around fifteen hundred remained…)

“You had a Godrealm artifact. Makes sense—you killed him, after all… But… you’re done too.” Manto’s gaze settled on Medith. Her body was a map of blood, fallen, motionless, lifeless.

…

“Medith—no—no—!” Sais’s green hair whipped in a wind that wasn’t there, madness dancing in the sunset’s warm gold. Memories of Medith flashed through her mind like lightning over black water. Dark Blade had snapped, a jagged break; it had cost her blood to break through.

“Ah—ah—ah—!” Sais stared at Medith’s blood-stained, cruel-beautiful face and howled, grief pouring out like a river in flood.

Wind howled around her, carving sword-marks into the houses. Her green hair whirled and, in a heartbeat, burned into vivid fire-red. Her emerald almond eyes slowly turned scarlet. Clear tears thickened—became blood.

…

“Medith—” The women broke past two attackers, sprinted beyond the southern line, and, seeing that familiar beautiful face, cried out, hearts split like cracked porcelain.

…

[Chaos]

“You shouldn’t be here…”

Am I dead? Why is that voice so familiar, like a bell heard in a dream?

“No… it can’t be… oh… I see… So the game hasn’t even started, has it?”

In the void, a cold voice drifted, unfeeling as winter rain. Where did I hear it?

Oh… when I first died. That so-called god.

“So that’s… it… I used up my whole life, buried my own fate with my own hands, and all I got was a ‘ticket’?”

What is it doing? Who is it talking to? Am I dead?

“Ah… Is this my punishment? The punishment for a coward like me…”

“Medith, you shouldn’t be here. At least, not until you gather the Divine Stones. You still have a mission. Did you forget?

You lost!”

“You lost!” My old enemy leveled a black-gold spear, hatred dripping like pitch.

“You lost!” That damned face again. Manto, in black-gold armor, pronounced my death with his world-ender spear.

I lost?

I lost?

Did I really lose?

No! I still have a mission. I still have wishes. I still have the ones I love!

I didn’t lose!

“As long as I, Medith Waheit, still draw breath, I’ll carry our creed to the end!

Our will endures through the ages. May this world know no slaughter—”

“Good. I believe you. This is the last hope and the final despair. I’m staking everyone’s everything on you. You must gather the Divine Stones. Reach the continent’s far edge. If you want to save your Xier, and Luo Tianfeng and Zhigu…

You must—”

Thum— A white light engulfed me again. A power like a tidal sun poured into my body. It was overwhelming, it was relentless.

It pressed on my chest like a mountain. So I…

…

“!!!” Manto stared like he’d seen a ghost. Medith was suddenly wrapped in white light. Her body flickered. Wounds and clothes mended at a dizzying speed, time’s river surging backward.

“What the hell—did I just see a ghost?” Manto’s judgment shattered like glass. Sage Soldiers around him dropped their weapons, hands trembling like leaves.

Far off, Erig, Sais, and the others all froze, stunned by Medith’s rebirth like dawn breaking over a battlefield.

…

“Regido—” I finally threw my head back and roared, naming the power blazing in my veins.