"Eh, so this trial is just you from the past, here to trash-talk me?" Bundled thick, Edlyn shed her padded coat like winter bark. "So? What can you even say?"

"You're… from the Miter Empire years?" Edlyn frowned, thoughts tangling like reeds in wind.

"Right." Edlyn B blinked, a frost-spark in steel eyes.

"...I can't think of a single line." Edlyn rubbed her temples, headache pressing like storm air.

"Hmm? So?" Edlyn B lifted a shoulder, ash-light and careless.

"...Ugh. I—damn it, back then I didn't have any big problems… I—what do I even do?" Edlyn thumped the wall, knuckles ringing like a bell.

Edlyn B smiled, words gathering like rain ready to fall.

The last Edlyn stepped up and patted B's shoulder, touch light as a sparrow. "Alright, alright. Seeing her means the decisions are already set, doesn’t it?"

Edlyn froze, eyes widening like lanterns. "You… I remember—uh—this should be before the Sacred Rank, when my three selves were tangling, right?"

"Correct. No matter the season, you know your own house best." Edlyn A laughed, bright as morning sun on snow.

Edlyn stared at her radiant smile, puzzled fog curling. "What's with you?"

Edlyn A dipped a playful curtsey, pinching her skirt with swan-fingers. "Mm-hmm. I saw your pupils and hair and knew the choice to come. White hair, mismatched eyes. Does he like it?"

Edlyn blinked, then smiled, warmth flaring like embers. "Yeah. He loves it. I can tell. Relax—if it's me, he loves me."

Edlyn A chuckled. "Sigh, you're boldly confident. If only I had that much spine then."

Edlyn breathed out, a leaf falling in her chest. "Can't help it. Some things feel carved by fate."

"As for her—" Edlyn A pointed at the impatient Edlyn B, gesture sharp as a reed-pen. "Mm… why don't you ask her yourself."

Edlyn B cut her eyes at Edlyn, gaze slanted like a crescent blade. "Right now… I keep troubling him. I mean… uh, I don't like that guy as much as you two, but I'm eating his food and using his stuff, so… let's not make a mess."

Edlyn toyed with a smile, cat-soft. "Oh? I never noticed. So I do have a… gentle side?"

"...Tch. That line’s nauseating." Edlyn B frowned, lips knifed thin.

She reached out to Edlyn A.

Both of them fixed Edlyn with solemn eyes, calm as a still lake. "Hey. Don't waste it."

Edlyn spread her arms with a grin, opening like a flower. "Come on."

In the next blink, both turned into beams of light and folded back into Edlyn.

"Now then, just you two left." Edlyn clapped, the sound crisp as bamboo, and she set her gaze on Janus and Pandora.

"...Woman… you've basically completed the task." Pandora's face stayed cold, a glacier under moonlight.

"I never imagined I'd get this invested in something not about the Demon Race." His voice was gravel under water.

Edlyn waved her hands fast, like shooing sparrows. "Don't talk nonsense. It's still about the demons. The sooner I recover, the more it boosts the Demon Race, alright?"

Pandora gave a thin laugh, like ice cracking. "Suit yourself."

Edlyn's big eyes lit up like stars, and she leaned in, lids half-closed, playful as a fox. "So you've given up resisting? Come on, surrender to big sister's love."

Pandora stared at Edlyn like she was a soft-brained child, gaze flat as slate.

They held that quiet tug-of-war a while, until Edlyn pulled back with an awkward smile, face cooling like tea.

Truth be told—

Cinnabar reddens; ink blackens.

Staying near Eli too long, she'd gone a bit brainless too.

"So, anyway—what do you want?" Edlyn scratched her head, white hair gathered into a ponytail streaming like a comet behind her.

"...Woman. I've no other demands." Pandora's voice dropped, thunder wrapped in cloth. "Fight me. Win, and this psychokinesis is yours. Lose, and you'll never pass this ward in your life."

Edlyn sighed, a tide ebbing. "Fine. If you insist on a fight, then have it your way." She tapped her heel.

The Demon King armor rose again around her, plates blooming like night flowers.

A faint smile tugged Pandora's mouth.

He stamped his foot, and a larger set of Demon King armor clasped his frame, dark as a storm.

"Woman, if you want it quick, draw the sword." Pandora's cold laugh was frost on glass.

Edlyn shrugged. "No need. I don't want you whining about fairness."

"Not this time." Pandora cut her off, voice snapping like a whip. "Draw it."

Edlyn frowned, measuring him with her eyes, gaze weighing like scales.

A bit away, Janus watched and smiled, meaning layered like mist. She turned aside, hand to her lips, muffling a giggle. "Oh my, shy, are we? Hahaha."

"Why? It's my sword. I don't plan to use it. You gonna force me?" Edlyn's beautiful eyes flared, a hawk taking wing.

Pandora narrowed his gaze. "Must I spell it out?"

Edlyn slanted a look. "Mm-hmm, say it. If you don't, how would I know?"

"You—!" Pandora stomped, eyes flashing like sparks.

"Mm-hmm, and?" Edlyn glared right back, lightning meeting lightning.

"That sword—I want to see it." Pandora flushed, the color rising like dawn. "That's all."

Edlyn arched a brow. "Say it earlier and we'd be fine, right? Heh-heh."

"You vicious woman. Draw it now!" Magic surged off Pandora, a black storm breaking loose.

He entered battle-state in an instant, body braced like a drawn bow.

Edlyn tilted her head. Her right hand closed on empty air. A black blade flickered into being before the three, shadow solid as iron.

"Ready?" Edlyn smiled, voice a bell in fog.

Pandora fixed his gaze on Ashir for a long breath, then exhaled, settling like dust. "...A pity. He doesn't belong to me. But… that's only for now."

Edlyn shrugged. "Mm-hmm. Once you can accept yourself, he’ll acknowledge you and appear. He's forged from my blood and the branches of the World Tree. He answers the self that's confident at the moment. Got it?"

"...Good. Very good." Pandora licked his lips, hunger flickering like flame.

"Shaluo Ascend!" Pandora gripped his trident, and vast magic gushed from him like a black geyser.

It wrapped his slim frame completely, a cocoon of shadow.

Then that mass moved like a tamed beast—

It twisted into a giant ghostly hand and lunged at Edlyn's spot, thunder-palm crashing down.

Edlyn sealed her helm.

She swept Ashir in a horizontal arc, slicing away part of the magic, then spun off, body light as smoke.

The giant hand arrived and crushed the bluestone dais where she'd stood, stone cracking like dry earth.

The magic faded. Pandora dropped to one knee, chest heaving like a forge.

Edlyn hovered in midair, eyes cold as winter water.

"Come!" Pandora snapped his head up and clenched toward her, fist closing like a snare.

Magic wrapped Edlyn at once, binding her like rope made of night.

Edlyn inhaled deep, then blew hard; a black breath poured from her lips, acid-dark, and corroded Pandora's binding.

"Demon Decree!"

Taking that opening, Pandora traced three runes in his hands—symbols packed with brutal power—then slapped them into his forehead.

The sigils stamped onto his brow like burning brands.

Black swam over his eyes; his body swelled and swelled, like a storm-cloud fattening. Inside, his magic spiked, a tide in flood.

Edlyn stayed in the air. The bluestone slabs lay shattered by these monsters, terrain ruined like a battlefield after rain.

She used Ashir as a brush, magic as ink, and scribed sigils in the air, strokes neat as calligraphy.

In the next heartbeat, Pandora flashed beside her, his enlarged claws sweeping at her like scythes.

Edlyn set Ashir against the palm of that giant claw, and her small body shot backward in the opposite vector, swift as a swallow.

She pinched the finished sigil with two fingers, then drew Ashir across her own hand.

Blood slicked the rune; she pressed it to Ashir’s blade, the red soaking in like dye to silk.

She stepped on a broken stone slab and lunged toward Pandora, her charge a straight line of moonlight.

Pandora laughed as she came, mirth rough as gravel.

Ashir sank into his body like a needle into tar.

Two hands of magic sprouted from Pandora’s back and snatched Edlyn’s small frame, clutch cold as iron.

Edlyn watched, eyes flat as a mirror.

No one expected it: behind Pandora, another Edlyn appeared, Ashir in hand, stabbing from the rear, strike clean as snowfall.

"How is that possible!" Pandora growled, confusion breaking like surf.

Then on his left and right, two more Edlyns sprang in, Ashir pointed, thrusts swift as twin comets.

Four magic blades sank into Pandora’s vast body.

Each Edlyn gripped the hilt with her left hand.

In quiet tandem, they turned, then drew the blades out from four directions, motion smooth as a dance.

Whoosh!

Steel parted flesh.

Centered on Pandora, his body split from four angles at once, cuts clean as paper-tears.

In the end, his form broke into several sections and scattered across the bluestone, pieces thudding like rain.

The black runes on his brow slowly unraveled, soot drifting off like smoke. He looked at Edlyn with a thirsty gaze.

Edlyn withdrew the magic sword and eyed him. "Picked it up not long ago. How's the skill?"

"...Interesting… hahaha. You can even do that? Hahaha." Pandora let his head settle on the stone, relaxing like a man at rest. "...That's that."

As the words fell, he turned into light and returned into Edlyn.

Edlyn smiled, then turned her gaze to Janus.

"Hey, future. You're the last."

Janus shrugged, a ripple across calm water. "Alright, I've had my fun. The rest's yours."

She stepped in and gave Edlyn a light hug, a touch warm as silk.

Then she too became light and merged into Edlyn's body.

Edlyn looked around, exhaled, and sat on the stone, tiredness pooling like dusk.

In the air, ripples appeared without warning, spreading like rings on a pond.

The silhouette of the Abyss surfaced before her, shadow rising like a mountain.

Edlyn let out a breath. "Father. Anything else?"

The Abyss looked her over with satisfied eyes, a nod slow as falling leaves. Then he closed his eyes, drifting into quiet.

Edlyn blinked, surprise flaring. "He's… gone to sleep again?"