Edlyn led Yiyi by the hand, her gaze flicking between the two like fireflies over a dark pond, because some things had to be nailed down like stakes in earth.

It concerned the future like a fork in a misted road.

She drew a deep breath, like pulling a sail taut in crosswind, reset her mood, and studied Yiyi up and down.

She clicked her tongue, the sound like a pebble in a still lake. “So that’s a thing.”

Eli chuckled, easy as sunlight through leaves. “See? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Then why’d you hide her,” she asked, words sharp as frost on a blade.

“I— she— she just broke into the Sacred Rank, so I was sheltering her,” Eli said, rolling his eyes like a boy caught in summer rain.

“Oh, please,” Edlyn sneered, voice like cold steel against stone. “With how weak the factions are, killing a Sacred Rank would take a mountain taller than the sky.”

“Ah… say what you want,” Eli sighed, his shoulders folding like wilted grass. “I’ll shut up, okay?”

“Oh? Not convinced yet?” Edlyn smiled, the curve like a fox’s tail in brush.

Yiyi hid behind Edlyn’s back, peeking with a wicked grin like a cat behind a curtain, squinting at Eli.

Dammit, she thought, the word like a spark in dry straw. I got locked away forever; now that I’m out, how can I not hassle the culprit?

She figured she couldn’t beat the main body yet, that truth like a stone in her shoe, so she’d borrow the Demonic Lord’s hand to swat him like a fly.

Funny thing, Yiyi had carried a strange feeling like a burr in her sleeve.

Since stepping into the Sacred Rank, her difference from the main body had widened like two rivers parting.

For a stretch of days, their sights and mana drifted apart like clouds on separate winds.

While Eli practiced swordwork, sparks flying like meteors, she secluded herself and broke through like a seed cracking soil.

Maybe it started right there, a split like the first hairline crack in ice.

The old her was another Eli, a mirrored path with near-matching stones.

But after that, Eli’s main body fused Birand’s sword memories, a weight like iron sewn into silk.

That was the big divide, a canyon dug by time and steel.

Missing that memory, missing that killing edge’s tempering, the two of them felt, in some sense, already parted like twin lanterns drifting away.

“You, stay behind,” Edlyn said, brow arched like a bow. “I’ve got to ask your avatar something.”

Eli stared forward with wounded eyes, resentment like rain-soaked ash, while Yiyi nestled in Edlyn’s arms like a warm sparrow.

“Hey… Eli,” Edlyn scratched her head, the gesture like a dog worrying a burr.

“What do you want from me?” Eli shot back, his voice a dull drum.

“Beat it. Not you,” Edlyn snapped, glare sharp as a hawk’s beak, then to Yiyi: “Uh, you’re the avatar, right?”

Yiyi nodded, calm as a lake at dawn. “Yes.”

Edlyn looked at the girl about her height, expression twisting like paper in wind, then cut a glance at Eli.

“You freak,” she said, resignation like rain. “You made an avatar of yourself and switched the sex. You’re a real pervert.”

“What the—! You can’t pin this on me!” Eli sputtered, words tripping like pebbles down a slope. “I—I’m innocent! This was passive! You’re slandering me!”

“Shut up!” they said together, their twin voices like clapped thunder.

Eli shrank to the side, squatting to draw circles on the ground like a sulky child in dust.

“So, avatar?” Edlyn frowned, the crease like a knife-mark.

“Uh, Lady Demonic Lord, you can call me Yiyi,” Yiyi said, smiling like a crescent moon.

Edlyn slid her gaze to Eli, finger stabbing his nose like a twig to a wasp. “Innocent? You even had her name ready, you sick perv! You’d screw yourself if you got worked up!”

“Right— huh?!” Yiyi followed along like a reed in current, then realized the current was mud.

She tugged Edlyn’s sleeve, the pull like a sparrow’s peck. “Um, my Demonic Lord, I haven’t been…”

“Yiyi, don’t talk,” Edlyn said, brow lifting like a drawn curtain. “Let me curse him first.”

“I’m wronged,” Eli muttered, the sound like a bruised drum.

“Did I say you could speak?” Edlyn glared, her eyes like flint.

“Uuu… no justice,” Eli wailed, covering his face like a monk with his cowl.

“Heh… heh,” Yiyi stood aside, a bit stiff, awkwardness like a knot in silk.

Edlyn scolding the main body was also scolding her; pressing her face into that was asking for a slap.

Edlyn bent again and pinched Yiyi’s cheeks, her fingers like cool jade.

“So— Yi— Yiyi. When did you split off from him?”

Yiyi thought, silence like falling snow, then shook her head. “Not sure. The main body showed up looking like this before, so I’m not sure that was me.”

“Didn’t expect it,” Edlyn sneered at Eli, disdain like frost. “Mr. Hero enjoys cross-dressing?”

“Ah! I’m done living!” Eli flopped and headbutted the wall like a desperate woodpecker.

Edlyn studied Yiyi, her frown deepening like a well.

She could tell this was truly Eli’s avatar, yet something was missing like a note dropped from a melody.

Or rather, some part was different, a difference like a shadow that didn’t match the body.

It felt like a second person, not the usual main body and avatar tie.

“Yiyi, where’s your power at now?” Edlyn asked, voice level as a blade on a stone.

“Uh, just stepped into Sacred Rank,” Yiyi said, rubbing her smooth chin like a polished pebble.

Edlyn’s eyes turned, mischief rising like smoke from kindling. “Aha. Tell me, are your memories almost the same as his?”

Yiyi nodded without thinking, light as a bobbing leaf. “Yeah.”

“Then when you entered the Sacred Rank, what did you see?” Edlyn asked. “Did you meet the self, the id, and the superego, like mirrors in a hall?”

“I did,” Yiyi said, scratching her head like a puzzled pup. “Isn’t that normal?”

“What!” Edlyn jolted, shock like lightning across a clear sky.

Eli nodded beside them, calm as an old tree. “Yeah. That’s how you break through the Sacred Rank.”

Seeing Eli play dull like a boar, Edlyn’s temper sparked like flint, and she pulled him aside, steps quick as a swallow.

Her face hardened, stone under frost. “Hey, you really don’t get how serious this is?”

Eli’s mask slipped, and the calm returned like a still lake at noon. “Of course I do.”

“So you were acting,” Edlyn said, lips quirking like a cut thread.

“Mm,” Eli smiled, small as a candle flame. “I didn’t want her thinking she’s a monster and growing a knot in her heart. The old me would have.”

“How do you—” Edlyn began, confusion like fog that wouldn’t lift.

Since that inexplicable girl appeared, she’d been lost in mist a long while.

“When Yiyi stopped sharing a soul with me, I fused a portion of Birand’s soul,” Eli said, eyes narrowing like shutters at dusk. “My soul is whole now.”

“Huh?” The word fell like a bead from a broken string.

“You’ve seen this avatar art,” Eli went on, voice steady as a riverbed. “You build it with soul power, splitting your soul and placing it in another body.

That hurts the soul, like carving from living wood.”

“And memory sharing was me reclaiming her soul into the missing part of mine,” he said, tone even as rain. “Then we could share.”

“Right. So you’ve got your conclusion,” Edlyn said, grave as a sealed tomb.

“Mm.” Eli smiled, thin as a blade of grass. “If I’m not wrong, after I fused Birand’s sword memories, they filled my soul’s missing piece like gold in a crack.

That means I can’t use memory sharing on Yiyi anymore.”

“And your source soul can’t reclaim her,” Edlyn said, eyes narrowing like a hunter’s. “You can guess why.”

“Yes,” Eli sighed, the sound like wind in pines. “Because I’m no longer just Eli.

Birand’s soul shard fused with the missing chunk of my main soul, so the pure me—now Yiyi—rejects me like oil rejects water.”

“You know that, so why keep hunting Birand’s Memory Crystals?” Edlyn flared, anger rising like wildfire.

“You can guess the cause, the process, the end. You know it’s the start of Birand swallowing your soul. Why chase his memories?”

“Ed-chan,” Eli breathed, the name like a leaf on tongue. “I need the truth.”

“What truth?” Edlyn snapped, voice cracking like ice. “Keep this up and Eli Aestor will be gone! You’re walking into a grave with your eyes open!”

“It’s my obsession,” Eli said, stubborn as a winter root.

“When your life will be gone, when your soul gets taken, what’s the point of your obsession?” Edlyn shook, grief pooling like rain in a hollow.

She didn’t even know why; she just knew his aloof look clawed at her like briars, and her chest hurt like bruise.

“…Sigh.” Eli exhaled, the breath like mist fading, and said nothing more.

“Fine,” Edlyn muttered, swatting the air like flies. “Go die then. Do whatever you want.”

“I—” Eli bit his lip, the sting like salt, her hate-iron-not-steel look cutting him like a thin knife.

He caught Edlyn’s arm, his grip like someone clinging to a cliff root. “Edlyn. If— if I had my own Holy Sword, my odds would rise a lot.”

She didn’t turn, but her step halted like a bird mid-flight at a crosswind.

“I had no hope before,” Eli said, voice low as embers. “Without him, there’s no me, so I didn’t care.

But now… you… sigh. Since there’s a Holy Sword, I’m confident I can defeat Birand.”

His face set, a whetstone’s edge in dusk.

“Really?” Edlyn wiped her eyes, the motion swift as a swallow’s tail, and turned back.

“Really,” Eli sighed, the word a steady drum.

“Hey, you two,” Yiyi called, sprawled against the silencing barrier like a cat on a window. “You gonna loop me in or what?”

Eli let go of Edlyn’s hand; she dispelled the barrier, the shimmer breaking like dew.

Then she took Yiyi’s hand and walked forward like a pair of lanterns down a night lane.

“You won’t lie to me, right?” she asked, voice soft as moss.

“When have I ever lied to you?” Eli smiled, light as dawn.

Yiyi eyed them both, doubt like a moth at a lamp.

With her limited knowledge, she couldn’t guess what game they were playing.

“Let’s go,” Edlyn said, pointing at Raphael still sprawled like felled timber. “Drag that guy. Make him find us the tree’s seed.”

“You’re cruel,” Eli chuckled, his grin like a fox in moonlight. “But I like it. Heh.”

Up in the treetop, Anna watched, her smile like sunlight through needles. “Yeah, go find it—the seed that holds hope.

Dad, that’s your only chance to flip the board.”

She checked the time like a shadow across a sundial and frowned. “Tch, looks like that’s it for today.”

A white light flared, bright as a struck match in a dark room, and Anna vanished like a dropped feather.

Only a crystal sphere hung in the air, cradling the Elf Race’s Ancestor like a firefly trapped in glass.