In three days, Edlyn arrived like a cold front sweeping the ridge, carrying all she owned, and slid into Era’s command seat like a blade into a sheath.

“As you said, we aim to net the Third Prince, right?” Edlyn’s voice rang like a bell over ice.

“Of course,” Era answered, face set like stone under snowfall. “By our investigation, the old king likely faked his death—eight in ten odds. His trail scatters like smoke. Human factions weave a tangled web, and any move could stir hornets.”

“Got any hard intel?” Edlyn asked, eyes narrowing like a crescent moon over steel.

“Yes, Demonic Lord,” Era said, thoughts churning like storm clouds. “The Snow Empire shows twenty-eight Sacred Rank on the surface, all apex figures of their legions. Beneath the ice, not counting the public list, at least fifty-three more lurk.”

“Outside the Mitte royal house, there are nearly a thousand Sacred Rank,” Era continued, each word heavy like falling hail. “For the Demon Race now, that’s a mountain wall in our path.”

“We start with the side holding the biggest piece,” she added, voice tight like a bowstring. “If we alarm the Holy Court Church rabble, that wasp nest will swarm.”

Era lifted the wall map with a whisper like parchment wind, then tapped the church-kingdom of Holy Paris at the continent’s heart, finger steady as a compass. “That church rode the Hero’s old thunder like a borrowed storm and grew fat on it,” she said, brow creasing like a folded fan.

“It’s not that easy,” Edlyn replied, a chill flicker in her eyes like frost on glass. “Pope Ernest was a sly one. Even at my peak, I had little certainty of killing that lecher outright. Calling him a fox with three dens fits like a glove.”

Edlyn frowned, her tone as sharp as sleet. “With the Hero’s pea-brained valor, anyone could see he got played. Used as a net to haul power, fine. I just fear he’d sell them and make them count his coins.”

She shrugged, shoulders lifting like willow leaves in wind. “A man earning that result deserves it. No need to spit poison when we can read the game.”

“Yes,” Era said coolly, the word dropping like a pebble in a well. A dead man meant less than ash to her.

“By the way, Era—your Black Demons. How many are still usable?” Edlyn’s gaze thinned like a blade edge.

“Uh… several thousand,” Era answered, weighing the number like stones in hand.

“Mm,” Edlyn murmured, eyes narrowing like dusk light. “I heard your Black Demons copy Demon Race physiology as a frame. If you can command them, does that mean—”

Era waved frantically, hands fluttering like startled birds. “Never, Demonic Lord. I only embedded my will at construction. That’s why I can control them. I don’t harbor that ambition.”

Edlyn nodded, the motion clean like a cut. “Best that way. Fine. We start now. We seize control of the Snow Empire.”

“Um, Demonic Lord, may I ask a question?” Era’s voice tiptoed like a cat on ice.

Edlyn’s brow knit, her words dropping cold as sleet. “Fallen Angel, what else do you want to know?”

“It’s… why don’t you return to the Abyss and rebuild a demon army?” Era asked, careful as stepping stones across a stream.

Edlyn looked at her, curiosity flickering like a lantern. “We’ve noticed—you know a lot.”

“I served in your personal guard, Demonic Lord,” Era answered quickly, chest tight like a drum. “The old chancellor talked, and I listened. So I know.”

Edlyn scanned her up and down like a hawk measuring prey. “Impossible. You just gained a Divinity shard. With that level, you wouldn’t enter my guard.”

“Sigh, my lord, it’s a long story,” Era said, helpless as a leaf in rain.

“Oh?” Edlyn’s confusion rose like mist.

“After the Hero beat you, he strangled our lifelines,” Era said, voice low as thunder in cloud. “He sealed the Abyss outright. Most of the Demon Race lost power like a river dammed.”

Edlyn frowned, the realization cutting like a shard of ice. No wonder every call to the Abyss fell into silence—it was the Hero’s lock.

“Our eight outer clans suffered tethered sealing too,” Era continued, words heavy as wet snow. “We mixed too long with the Demon Race and got dragged under.”

She wiped at her eyes, grief glinting like dew. “He struck at those of us with Divinity, smashed our Divinities like glass, then sealed them one by one like jars under wax.”

Edlyn’s eyes lit like sparks in tinder. “Mm? Sealed?”

“Yes. Sealed,” Era said, the word flat as a stamp.

“So… there’s a chance to unseal?” Edlyn’s excitement flared like dawn breaking.

“Uh… in theory… that’s how it should be,” Era murmured, uneasy as shifting sand.

“Alright. We trust you,” Edlyn said with a smile, warm as embers.

“Then, my lord… my question?” Era ventured, voice as thin as thread.

Edlyn thought, then put on a stern face like a mask. “The Abyss shifted location, drifting far from us like a whale in deep water. With this land as our source, we have time to reach it. That’s the plan.”

“…Fine,” Era sighed, shoulders drooping like wilted leaves. “Demonic Lord, we can probe with the First Prince’s and Fourth Prince’s forces. Maybe even rope in the Second Prince’s support. But we must swallow the Third Prince, Kait, whole.”

“The old king handed most power and command to the Third Prince,” Era went on, voice grave like a church bell. “He hasn’t handled affairs in days. Kait runs the grindstone. If we take him, victory is within arm’s reach like fruit on a low branch.”

Edlyn nodded, agreement settling like snow. “You’re right…” She scratched her head, sheepish as a lost sparrow. “We’ll hand military command to you for now. We barely know the ropes.”

Reni and Era traded a look, then both shook their heads like reeds in wind. Their leader currently had less bite than a paper tiger.

“Alright! All units, listen up!” Edlyn’s voice cracked like a drum. “The Demon Race’s march is a tide they can’t stop!”

“Yes,” Reni and Era answered, faint as fading smoke.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“At this pace, rough guess, we reach the capital by tomorrow at dusk,” Eli said, folding the map like quiet wings by the fire.

Karlo pouted, lips pushed out like a goldfish. “Hey, Li Gongxuan, aren’t you gonna tell your bro what I proposed?”

Li Gongxuan shrugged, casual as drifting ash. “Already told him. He just hasn’t told the others.”

Karlo hunched like a cat ready to pounce. “Should we bring it up again?”

Li Gongxuan closed his eyes and tapped her head with the scabbard, soft as rain. “Why stick your nose there? Go do what you should.”

Karlo clutched her head, annoyance flaring like a spark. “You’re discriminating against opinions! That’s dictatorship! No benefits for me!”

Li Gongxuan’s patience thinned like ice under sun. “Why so many words? Is your skin itching?”

Karlo hunched her neck like a turtle, fear fluttering like a trapped sparrow. “Kinda… my hands itch.”

Li Gongxuan stared, the look solid as a wall, then pulled an iron ball from his pocket like a magician. “Here, kid. Grip it.”

“Huh? What for?!” Karlo blinked, confusion blooming like fog, then took the ball. It shifted in a flash like hot metal, blooming into a meteor hammer, spikes biting her palm like thorns. She yelped and flung the black ball away.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” Karlo flared, anger crackling like dry twigs.

“You said your hands itch,” Li Gongxuan shrugged, casual as breeze.

“You—!”

Eli watched their bickering, heartspring warming like tea, then that peach-blossom dream stirred red on his cheeks like sunset. He coughed. “Ahem, stop fooling around.”

They ignored him like waves ignoring a pebble.

Eli grumbled and walked off, boots crunching snow like bone. He needed air.

He opened his mind-space like a door into starlight. Little Yiyi was still at the knife-edge moment of stepping into Sacred Rank, a bud pushing through frost. Liqianyu had gone quiet, sealed like a shut box, no jokes in days. Hilriad had stopped acting cute, now just ate and slept like a lazy cat in sunlight.

Boredom gnawed at him like mice in grain.

“Ah,” Eli sighed, breath drifting like smoke.

Maybe it was Edlyn admitting she’s the Demon King. Even if he only believed a sliver, that shadow tilted his compass like a magnet under the map.

Who doesn’t love a clingy little loli, sweet as sugar plums? But this loli might be his past life’s mortal enemy, the Demon Race’s doom-bell.

If she really is the Demon King, what should he do? The thought circled like a hawk over a field.

It sounds easy to bind her to his side and bar her from evil, a silk ribbon on a tiger. Reality never stays that simple. For now, she shows no awareness, a lake with no ripples, but in the end, he killed her last life.

Would she ever forgive him? The question hung like a blade over water.

Just then, a flute’s clear notes flowed into his ear like spring water.

Eli paused, then followed the sound, brows knitting like twine.

Under a dead tree, a man in a butterfly mask held a flute, snow dusting his shoulders like powdered sugar, and watched Eli approach.

Eli smiled, voice gentle as lantern light. “Excuse me—was that your flute?”

Zero nodded, hands clasped behind his back like a scholar, then sat on a stone like a perched crane. “Young man, got something weighing your heart?”

Eli smiled and shook his head, then dropped beside him like a leaf. “Yeah, uncle. Are you a fortune-teller?”

“Huh?…” Zero chuckled, laughter warm as coals.

“Fortune-tellers love that opening,” Eli said, shrugging like reeds in wind.

“Fair point,” Zero said, the word glinting like a coin.

“Right! Super fair,” Eli grinned, teeth flashing like a white crescent.

Zero fell silent, like a lake under moon.

Eli squinted. “Uncle, have we met somewhere?” His tone floated like a feather.

Zero laughed. “Oh? Using that tired pickup line on a guy? You must be starving,” he teased, words dancing like fireflies.

“Please,” Eli said, rolling his eyes like marbles. “Spare me.”

Zero laughed hard, the sound ringing like bells. “I’ve been on the road forever. I stopped to breathe, that’s all.”

Eli shrugged and leaned back on the rock, eyes drifting to the star-pricked night like boats on a dark sea.

He felt no strength from the man, like fog with no shape. Either he was too weak to sense him, or the mask hid a normal soul. But what normal man walks into deep snowy mountains to play the flute, like a mad poet in winter?

So the answer was obvious, a deer track in fresh snow.

“Alright,” Zero said, smile soft as dawn. “Back to it. Young man, what troubles you?”

Eli sighed, the sound thin as paper. “Let me put it this way. I’ve fallen for an enemy. To be honest, it’s the last generation’s feud, old blood like rust. But I’m still her enemy. Our stances face off like two spears.”

“So you’re stuck on whether to be with her,” Zero said, a spark lighting his eyes like candle flame.

“Yes, uncle,” Eli answered, breath heavy as rain.

“Heh, that’s interesting,” Zero said, holding back laughter that trembled like a bowstring. “So this is the face boys wear at times like these.”