Eli set his palm on the broken sword’s hilt, a still moon resting on stone.

He didn’t draw. He watched the onrushing arrow with pupils like winter ponds.

Then the impossible opened like a tear in silk.

He had done nothing but hold the hilt, yet Raphael’s arrow split clean at the spine.

The two halves, borne by stubborn inertia, drifted toward Eli’s face like dead leaves. Countless sword-lights blossomed in that instant, white as plum petals.

Slash!

At Eli’s cry, Raphael’s gold-green shaft parted, a spring branch snapped by frost.

The halves powdered into dust, then vanished like mist.

This... how is this possible! Raphael choked on the words, like ice cracking.

Eyes went slack all around, stunned as if thunder rolled through a temple.

Eli sprang in place, a scoff riding his breath. Can’t fly? I can still jump. Look at you.

Sever the Void!

He still didn’t draw. His body turned once midair, a pale white eye cutting across like a crescent.

That white, pupil-less eye carried a piercing gaze, cold as moonlight on steel.

When it swept Raphael, his soul felt pressed under a mountain.

Great slashes opened across him. Blood fountained; his wail cracked like a reed.

Gravity took him. He toppled like a felled tree.

Then the Tree of Life flashed a blade of green, and wrapped Raphael in spring-light.

His wounds knit at once, healing like grass after rain.

The turn shocked everyone present, even Raphael, cradled by sap and leaf.

He’d never heard the Tree of Life held such power, not even in the whispering groves.

While minds stalled, a branch shot up through the floor with a whoosh, fast as lightning.

In a blink it bound Eli, Yiyi, and Edlyn together, coils like constrictor vines.

Eli narrowed his eyes; a ripple of invisible sword-qi rang out like a bell.

It shattered the branch shell around him, bark popping like brittle ice.

He moved at once, leaping clear like a spring uncoiling.

Edlyn looked down at the great trunk cinched around her belly, one brow arched like a blade.

The branch hugging her began to rot, dark as burned wood, then thumped to the floor.

She twitched a finger. The fallen wood stirred, took root, and sprang back to life.

It grew madly and wrestled the incoming vines, green against green like snakes knotted.

Edlyn let out a mocking laugh, a thorny rose of a smile. Heh. You dare let plants touch the Demon Race. I’m the Demon King. Bold.

As she preened, a fresh vine grew barbs like thorns, and flicked her cheek.

She froze, body stiff as marble.

Dam... it... there’s... poison... filthy Hero... careful. A paralytic toxin.

She forced the words through a twitching mouth, lips jerking like hooked fish.

Several branches crushed the demonized wood to mulch, then bound Edlyn again.

They snared her arms and hoisted her up, bound her legs, wrapped her body, leaving only a nose to breathe.

They hung her from the air like a cocoon.

Yiyi fought for a while, then a stray nick slipped in, light as a paper cut.

She was trussed up the same, suspended beside Edlyn.

My liege, careful! Her cry cut the air like a bird’s call.

Behind Eli, from a blind angle, a branch slid out, slick with venom, reaching for his skin.

It meant to inject, then bind, the way it had before.

Eli cut it on the spot, like he had eyes in his back.

He frowned, sword-qi shielding him like a wind wall, and faced the central Tree of Life.

Raphael’s wounds had closed; he meant to press the advantage.

Suddenly the branches wrapped him too, and hung him in the air, swaying like trapped prey.

Eli’s brow stayed tight. What in the world is this tree? The question hung like fog.

Birand sat on a dirt slope, eyes flickering like embers.

Abyss, tell me—if you reach a certain strength yet have no true friends, how sad is that?

Abyss chuckled, his voice old as deep stone.

You’re already at that height. What do you want?

You stand unmatched, with no one to bare your heart to. Then what’s left?

Birand paused, then shook his head, helpless. I still have... them.

Then what should you do now? Take everyone’s salutes? Their courtesies?

Abyss smiled, and memory poured back like a cold tide.

He had once hunted complete power, crossed a thousand perils, climbed to the world’s edge.

A trap sprang. Blades bared between best friends.

At the pinnacle, what waited was a seal, and a solitude that lasted ages.

This boy was too much like him.

What should I do now? Birand watched the sky, murmuring.

Hero, your answer sits in your heart. You don’t ask yourself; you ask me?

Abyss smiled. You wield a force beyond your own imagination.

Birand sighed. I’ve heard this kind of sloppy platitude too many times back home.

If it helps, it helps, no matter how often you’ve heard it.

Alright. I can’t out-argue you.

Abyss, when did you know I was the Hero?

Abyss laughed. Even a crusty old man knows the thing called pressure.

After battles soaked in death, a man leaks killing intent. You can’t hide it.

The only recent great war was with the Demon Race.

You clearly aren’t a common soldier.

And who but the Hero would claim to be unmatched, then ask what to do next?

Heh. I was dumb, asking nonsense. Birand smiled.

You’re the elder; I’m the junior. As a junior, I ask: what should I do?

Tell me your worries. I’ll listen, Abyss said, eyes curved like sickles.

I’ve long stopped wanting to be a Hero.

Unmatched—so what?

I’ve been far from home too long. I miss my parents, family, friends.

I don’t want that after-the-hunt discard, the bow shelved once the birds are gone.

Back in my world, I wasn’t some spotless saint.

Then the title Hero stuck to me, for this long. I’m tired.

At first, everything new thrilled me.

When it all ended, I truly didn’t know where to go.

Then why not go back? Abyss asked, head tilted like a raven.

My strength is great, but far from the summit.

I can’t crack open a door to another world.

No way. Really no way.

Since there’s no way, cherish the now.

You said you still have... them.

A little light returned to Birand’s eyes.

If you’re weary of this life and the scheming of the high, then leave those circles, those people.

Go far. Find a place no one can touch.

Live with the women you love. Protect them.

Abyss drew a long breath.

He felt a sorrow rise, one he’d forgotten for ages.

Ancient memory stirred like dust in a sunbeam.

Just know: to you, they are your only world.

Do you dare give up all your earned merit for them?

Everyone knows trees have spirits, yet what you’re doing now isn’t right.

Eli looked to the crown, eyes like calm knives.

There, the girl named Anna appeared again.

They met eyes. Anna winced. This isn’t on me.

Eli shrugged. I always found it strange.

In the sacred land of the Elf Race, there were almost no guardians.

That’s absolutely impossible. Yet here the fact stands.

Trees have spirit. The Tree of Life most of all.

So why is it binding even the native elves?

Eli smiled, winter-cool. My special power is Focus. It can do anything.

From the Tree of Life I felt a terror, the fear of being unprotected.

Then I received the tree’s request. Help wake the elves.

You say your true body isn’t much stronger than mine.

I’m curious. How did you make the Elf Race’s leaders all submit?

Anna looked down at Eli, vexed, a line between her brows. Damn. Is Father really this annoying?

Girl, mind talking? Eli shrugged, words drifting like smoke.

About you calling me “Dad” earlier—I mind that, a little, a thorn under the skin.

So, how can you fly so freely in a no-fly field?

Anna blinked, at a loss, like a deer at the riverbank.