“This time back, I’ll cut into the Sacred Rank like a blade into ice. Not a heartbeat more.” Eli vaulted through the trees, his sigh a wisp of mist.

The choke of shackled power would soon be smoke on the wind. At that thought, he hugged the bundle in his arms tighter, as if armor over a pounding drum.

In his arms, Yiyi stirred like a bird in a storm and opened her eyes, displeasure flickering like frost on glass. She glanced around and hummed.

Eli dipped his head, voice like a pebble skipping water. “Uh… hey, little avatar, you’re awake?”

Yiyi studied his face like a mirror with a crack and gave a wary “Mm.”

Eli squinted, lids heavy as a dusk sky. “So… avatar, how do you feel now?”

Yiyi tilted her head like a sapling in wind. “Just… off. A grit under the skin. Hard to name. Hey, main body… what is this weird mismatch?”

“Huh?” His confusion hung like fog in a ravine.

“Twisted in every sense,” Yiyi said, face pinched like winter pomegranate. “And… cold. Bone-cold, like river water.”

“It’s fine. Once we’re back, you can taste it slow,” Eli said, smile like a lantern, tucking her in tighter as if the coat were a nest.

“Hey, don’t talk like you’ve already won,” Yiyi pouted, eyes spinning like marbles. “Right—what trait did you pick to split avatar and body?”

Eli’s gaze slid aside like rain off eaves. “Uh. The part of me that comes out… when I’m cross-dressing. Yeah.”

“Figures. No wonder it felt so damn weird—ah!”

Her tiny hand flicked up like a swallow, and a Holy Light bolt sprang from her palm like dawn and smacked Eli in the face.

Eli froze, thunder cracking behind his eyes. Damn. That spell had the heft of a storm, barely beneath mine.

Sure enough, this avatar skill was a miracle seed sprouting knives.

“Main body, you’re not planning to press down my personality for kicks, right?” Yiyi sighed, breath like a frosted pane. “Because of your damned choice, this split soul isn’t the same as before.”

“Oh?” Eli leaned in, curiosity a cat on a ledge.

Yiyi stared at his—her—own big face filling her sky, and an urge to slap it rose like a wave. She shoved him back with a palm like a snowflake. “It’s like… I’m a bit more feminine.”

“Oh.” Eli narrowed his eyes, thoughts unspooling like silk. According to Birand’s latest memories, the soul poured into an avatar was like a newborn under first dawn.

Its source matched his, but body and incoming signals were two rivers, so the shoreline formed different. There had been avatars turned demon once, blades turned back, that used shared soul source to stab Birand.

Eli looked at Yiyi in his arms and shook his head in the shadows. This one might become a blade pointed at my ribs. Birand tossed me a ticking ember.

Albert stood rooted for a long while, a stone in rain, then sighed. “Still a master at running the river backward.”

Energy surged back to his body like floodwater, swallowing creeks and leaves.

“Damn it. The crystal’s gone too. Trouble’s a thunderhead now, and those idiots won’t know which way to swing,” Albert muttered, his figure thinning like smoke, then fading.

Half-dozing in the carriage, Liqianyu felt a step on the roof like a paw on snow and snapped awake like a cat.

Battle Aura swelled with her breath like wildfire, flooding her hands. She drove an uppercut up like a geyser. “Rising Dragon!”

Boom.

Red, dragon-shaped Battle Aura tore through the carriage like a spear through kindling. Planks burst into shrapnel, and the red dragon head shot upward like a comet.

A dragon’s roar rolled long, a bell over fields, and the horses screamed, hauling the wreckage like ghosts fleeing fire.

Seeing Liqianyu hurtle at him like a storm front, Eli hugged Yiyi and retreated, steps like brush strokes.

Her momentum didn’t dim, a landslide still falling, and his gut twisted like rope.

“Son of—” He spat, words like sparks.

Eli flung himself back, sprang off three ricochet arrays that bloomed underfoot like ripples, and launched skyward.

The mama T-rex didn’t pull her fist, just arrowed at him like a hawk. Eli’s brow arched, blade-cool. “You blind? Look who it is before you swing.”

“I can’t stop, so eat it like a man!” Liqianyu yelled, her grin blazing like a bonfire, which killed any plea.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” they both snapped, voices clapping like thunder twins.

Crazy woman only knows to fight, Eli’s temper rose like steam.

“Crazy woman, be kind,” he warned, words like cold iron.

“I’m super kind, and gorgeous,” Liqianyu roared, pride like a banner.

“Yeah, and super dumb,” they answered together, barbs like thrown pebbles.

Eli let Yiyi go; both drifted into the air like leaves, hands painting sigils like tides. “Secret Art: Flood Tide!”

Two rivers poured from their arrays like cataracts, silver bands crashing downward.

“Sh—!” Liqianyu blinked, a heartbeat of still water.

The current hit her head-on like a battering wave.

“I—%$#@!” Her curse tumbled like a box of nails.

…

In the inn room, Eli sat by the hearth, fire purring like a red cat. He tipped a kettle slow as rain and filled a cup.

He eyed the person cocooned in quilts on the other side, sneezing like a startled sparrow, and sighed. “Why’d you do that?”

“Mind your own, will you? Ah—ah—achoo!” Liqianyu shrank into the blanket like a hedgehog. “Who hits people with rivers in winter, huh?”

“This tea smells like a mountain after rain,” Eli said, steam curling like dragon whiskers, and let her grumble float past.

Liqianyu rolled her eyes like marbles and sipped ginger soup, heat blooming like dawn.

“So, what’s with the little girl outside who looks exactly like you in drag?” She pointed toward the window, where a bundled loli swept frozen shards from the earlier flood like a snowplow and sipped coffee with a warm smile.

“That’s my avatar. Also male, alright?” Eli rubbed his neck, embarrassment a red leaf.

“You even put your avatar in skirts? Pervert,” Liqianyu said, middle finger popping up like a flag.

“Can you just listen?” Eli ground his teeth, headache pounding like drums, then began the long story like a winter river.

Because it started at the beginning, the thread stretched like old silk, and Liqianyu’s patience frayed like twine.

“So, bottom line, your chuunibyou birthed her?” she said, shrug a drifting feather.

“Huh? No—hey! I was the real great Hero,” he shot back, pride like a banner in wind.

“Mm. The Demon King’s invasion centuries ago? Sorry, the Far East was too far. We didn’t get hit,” Liqianyu said, shoulders rising like hills.

“…Fine. If you say so,” Eli sighed, breath cooling like ash.

Liqianyu patted his shoulder like a friendly raindrop. “Alright, alright, I believe you, okay? Ah—achoo.”

Eli stared, silent as a snowfield.

“Boss! Boss!” The shout rang like bells.

Eli wiped spit from his cheek and looked at Yiyi running in like a small gust. His brows knit like reeds. “What is it?”

“Main body! Big problem!” Yiyi clutched her groin like guarding a secret, eyes darting like minnows.

Eli frowned at the odd pose, patience thinning like ice. “Spit it out.”

“I discovered—” Yiyi’s hands left that spot like leaves lifting.

“You discovered?” Eli’s voice was a taut string.

“I don’t have a little buddy,” Yiyi said, face solemn as stone.

“…What?”

“I mean… I don’t… have… you know, the little XX,” Yiyi said, nerves skittering like ants.

Eli stared, silence heavy as snow.

Liqianyu choked on her drink, a spray like mist, then collapsed laughing, rolling like a log.

Eli eyed Yiyi. “Kid, you sure you’re not messing with me?”

“Swear on your own chest—am I the type to self-delude?” Yiyi slapped the table like thunder, anger flaring like sparks.

Eli frowned, lines deep as furrows.

He remembered, like a thorn under skin, Birand’s smug, sly smile at the end. He sifted that memory like sand through fingers.

Finally, his face went dark as stormwood. “Yeah. Looks like that’s… a thing.”

Liqianyu laughed until she almost suffocated, gasping like a fish. “Told you—she’s a girl.”

Eli looked at Yiyi; Yiyi looked at Eli; panic fluttered between them like moths. “What now? There’s nothing to… attach back.”

Yiyi arched a brow like a twig. “Gross.”

Eli arched one too, twin branches. “I’m doing this for you.”

“For me, my ass.”

“How’s it for me?”

“I’m you, aren’t I?”

“You’re not my mom.”

Liqianyu lay on the floor, watching two similar faces glare like cats, then burst into laughter again, breathless as windbells.

Eli sighed, a flag going slack. “Forget it. Girl then.”

“What’s that tone? Want to swap bodies?” Yiyi’s eyes flashed like knives.

“Ahem. Avatar, keep it up and I’ll suppress your personality,” Eli warned, voice a cold stream.

“Heh,” Yiyi snorted, scorn like frost.

Eli thought of that, of slipping into that body, and his ears burned like embers. He scratched his head and steered away like a boat. “Anyway.”

“Mm?” Yiyi looked over, gaze a sideways crescent moon.

“Serious now. Avatar—no, let’s stick with Yiyi. Yiyi, everything out there is yours to handle from now. Can you carry it?” Eli’s words set like stones.

Yiyi shrugged, a sparrow shaking rain. “Sure. That was the plan anyway.”

“I’m just… worried,” Eli said, worry a fine rain.

“Worried my foot. I’ve got, what, eighty percent of your power?” Yiyi shrugged again, a carefree leaf.

“Good. Then I’m stepping to the rear,” Eli smiled, calm like a lake.

Liqianyu sat up, confusion a cloud. “Huh? What’s going on?”

Eli turned and smiled, dawn-bright. “I’ve touched the threshold of the Sacred Rank. I just need to step across.”

“So, while the main body breaks through, I run the web outside,” Yiyi added, voice weaving like thread.

“From now on, don’t ask me—the body,” Eli said, a finger like a compass. “Ask the avatar—her.”

“Got it?” Yiyi said, voice ringing like a bell.

“Got it?” Eli echoed, twin bell over water.

Liqianyu rolled her eyes, the gesture a slow wave. “Great. Stereo double-act.”