Edlyn’s eyes skittered like startled sparrows. “What? We… we don’t get it.”

“Look at me, Edlyn.” Eli’s focus drew sharp like a blade. “When you left, your mana was at best a fifth-tier mage. You had no demonic aura at all.”

He chuckled, light as spring rain. “In barely a year, you’ve… you’ve already surpassed me?”

Silence pooled like ink. Edlyn turned back, a playful smile curling like a cat’s tail. “Ara-ara, Hero-san, are you—because we overtook you—feeling all sore?”

“…Ahem.” His cough rasped like dry leaves.

“Ah! Knew it!” Her voice popped like a firecracker.

“Not at all. I’m worried about you—why stir trouble?” Eli pinched her cheek, fingers wind-light on peach-soft skin.

“Tch.” Her pout hung like a rain cloud.

“Alright, serious now—tell me what’s going on.” Eli drew Edlyn into his arms, her warmth settling like sunrise against his chest.

Edlyn shrugged, shoulders rippling like reeds. “Mm, probably like your merged memories. We woke our past-life soul lineage. Our Demon Race is born strong. Our blood’s purer than the Supreme Demon Ruler’s. If one awakening couldn’t lift me to the Sacred Rank, that’d be strange.”

Eli gave a wry smile, thin as frost. “That’s rough on the ego.”

Edlyn settled on Eli’s lap, her pretty legs swinging like willow branches. “Mm, don’t be so down. We’re scary, sure, but you’re no slouch—our fated enemy, after all.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Eli grinned, easy as summer wind.

She rode a high, pride fluttering like a bright kite. Then Eli’s words snagged something. Edlyn looked down, taking stock of them like reading a map.

She sat cradled in Eli’s lap. His arms circled her small frame, his palm resting above her belly like a seal on a scroll. Look up, and there was his fine-boned face.

Sensing her gaze, Eli looked down, a smile blooming like a lantern. “What’s wrong?”

Her throat tightened like a knot; she swallowed. Inside, a whisper drifted like smoke. “...Mortal enemy… huh.”

Weariness washed in like a gray tide. She rolled her eyes, let her thoughts go slack, and leaned on Eli’s chest. “Ah. Being alive is exhausting.”

Concern flickered like a candle. Eli touched her head. “Mm? You feeling off?”

Her voice steadied like iron under silk. “It’s nothing. We just learned this world brims with malice.”

His syllable popped like a sparrow’s chirp. “Oh-ho.”

A teasing gleam slid in like moonlight. “By the way, Demonic Lord, when did you start loving skirts? And those pure white stockings…” Eli’s gaze lingered on her white dress, hungry as a wolf.

“…Huh?” Her lip twitched like a snagged thread. “Era and the others taught us to wear this. We… it wasn’t our choice. Not our fault, not our fault, not our fault.”

“Mm—cough, cough.” Over there, Raphael struggled up like a storm-tossed leaf. Eli set Edlyn down and walked over. “Yo, elf—awake?”

“Mm.” Raphael rubbed his forehead and stood, steadying like a rooted tree.

“Now you can finally take me to the Tree of Life, right?” His words dropped like pebbles in a pond.

Raphael gave a bitter smile, crooked as a crescent. “You really want to go there?”

Eli’s smile was calm as still water. “You think I’d joke about this? I wouldn’t.”

“Fine. In that case, follow me.” Raphael shook his head, resignation draping like dusk. That place thrums with the Elf Race’s high council; taking you in is lambs to tigers.

If fear of the elders’ wrath hadn’t gnawed like mice, he wouldn’t have sprung those traps.

After all, only a handful—stars you can count—know the Tree of Life.

These two, iron-for-iron with him, all sitting at the Sacred Rank.

Meet those old monsters, and they’ll be swallowed like river stones in minutes.

So Raphael let his bowstring slack.

Defiance flickered like foxfire. “Old geezers, don’t blame me for leaks. I just can’t beat these two spooks. When bullies step on the Elf Race’s head, you ancients can’t just watch, right?”

“At least help us save face—throw our banner back into the wind.”

“Otherwise, where does the Elf Race hang its pride?” Raphael walked ahead, a thin, sly smile curling like smoke.

Eli carried Edlyn and followed, their steps threading like needles. Under Raphael’s lead, they quickly passed through the poison-vine forest.

Eli rolled his eyes, exasperation splashing like cold water. So they’d been walking the wrong way, completely.

Dread pricked like nettles. He wiped a bead of cold sweat. No way could he tell the little ancestor on his back. He’d sworn they weren’t lost and argued her down. Now… she’d probably string him up and beat him.

He studied Raphael a long moment, gaze steady as moonlight. Certain the elf wasn’t plotting another deathtrap, Eli let the glow of the spell circle fade, leaving a basic array etched on his hand like frost.

Of course, beyond his sight, at their destination—around the Elf Race’s Tree of Life—things were gathering like storm clouds, and they knew nothing.

“Girl, you must know you’re offending the entire Elf Race.” An elder with a beard drooping near his chest, clad in pale green, stood by a branch and watched the girl, eyes cool as winter streams.

The girl laughed, bright as bells. “Don’t be so petty. I’m only nudging your people into deeper sleep. It’s not killing them. Why panic?”

“Do you know if foreigners invade now, the Elf Race’s defenses will be at their thinnest?” The elder’s brows knit like tangled roots.

Her method felt familiar, like a scent carried on rain, but he couldn’t place it.

“Aiya, it’s fine, it’s fine—nothing will happen.” She waved, smile sunny as a field. “And when they wake, their power and insight might jump a whole realm!”

She wore a black dress; her white hair tied at the neck in a single ponytail. Her face, Angel-bright, held a youthful, vivid smile.

Confidence spilled from her like sunlight, vitality thrummed like spring sap.

“Girl, could you tell this old man your name?” The elder couldn’t peg that sudden magic; uncertainty buzzed like bees, so he asked.

“Ah? You want to guess my lineage?” Her laugh danced like windchimes.

“Could you tell this old one?” His brows drew tight like bowstrings.

“Alright, alright.” She smiled, words drifting like petals. “Even if I say it, you probably won’t know.”

“…Speak.” His voice lay flat as slate.

“My name… I’m Anna Ostol.” She blinked, playful as a fox. “Can you guess which house I’m from?”

“My experience is shallow.” The elder gave a bitter smile, dry as bark. “I can’t place it.”

“Tsk, tsk.” Anna shrugged, helpless as a drifting leaf, then hid a smile. “Dad, you’re really not doing great in this timeline.”

“Girl, wake them. At this moment, I don’t want to harm the innocent.” He sighed, then the aura unique to a Transcender burst out like a storm.

Anna was flung, tossed like a leaf in gale.

She staggered, then planted herself beside the central giant tree—blue, transparent, crystal-clear as frozen water.

Truth is, she was only Sacred Rank; that force battered her like waves on a skiff.

If not for a special tool gifted by someone in the future, she couldn’t have netted stronger folks in sleep across such a wide field.

Anna pulled an egg-like device from her carry-space, lips pouting like cherries. “I wanted to save this. Rotten dad, why time it so perfectly? Wouldn’t even give me two more.”

The elven elder drifted closer, voice cool as mist. “Girl, did you hear me?”

“Heh-heh, I heard.” Anna smiled, then gently tossed the egg-sized transparent sphere, like casting a seed.

“Here. Hold this, and they’ll wake.”

The elder’s brows creased like ripples. “You’re sure?”

“Of course. Why would I lie?” Anna’s grin shone like polished jade.

That smile mirrored someone else’s, twin as moon and reflection.

He believed, reached for the clear egg. A flash covered him like sudden noon, and he found himself sealed inside the sphere.

Anna exhaled, relief settling like rain. She picked up the egg with the elder inside. “Mm, Ostol-made—quality you can trust!”

She glanced around, eyes tracking like swallows, then fished out a watch from her pocket. “Mm, the timeline checks out. Now we just wait for them.”

“From the outside, the elves’ castle is pretty grand.” Edlyn lay on Eli’s back, while he stood on a treetop, gazing at the Elven City hanging in the air like a floating island.

“Mm. This city was shaped by architects across countless generations.” Raphael’s pride curled like smoke.

Edlyn snorted, sharp as flint. “Meh. It’s miles behind the Overlord City.”

Raphael bristled, words brimming like a river. “Impossible! The Overlord City is just a bigger dirt fort. It can’t match our glorious Elven City.”

Edlyn shrugged, casual as falling leaves. “Hey, Hero, smack him.”

Eli nodded, quick as a sparrow. “Got it!”

“Wait, wait—my bad, my bad!” Raphael clutched his head and bolted like a mouse.

They climbed down from the treetop, bodies moving like shadows.

Edlyn drawled, mockery cool as a breeze. “Don’t tell me you dragged us up just to peek at your so-called Elven City?”

Raphael waved it off, gesture loose as water. “Of course not. I needed to check the passage’s position. I haven’t been to the Elven City in a long time.”

Eli frowned at him, gaze tightening like a knot, then let it go like a loosened thread.

“Hasn’t returned in a long time… to the Elven City? This guy…” His thoughts trailed off like mist.