“By the way, is your hometown far, or just over the next ridge?” Liqianyu trailed behind Eli, cane tapping like a lazy woodpecker in afternoon shade.

“Huh? You don’t wanna go? Fine, we won’t, like a stream skirting a stone. Come on, let’s head back and find your big bro.” Eli walked ahead with a blade of grass between his teeth, sun on his shoulders like warm honey.

“No… I was just asking, like a cat poking a leaf… can’t I?” Liqianyu shot him a damp-eyed look, like rain on glass.

“Sure~” Eli shrugged, like a sparrow flicking off drizzle.

“We’re almost there.” Eli pointed ahead with a loose finger, like an arrow aimed at the nearest peak.

“That close? Tch… I thought it was distant as the next sea.” Liqianyu rolled his eyes, a pebble skittering down a slope.

“Mm… how to say… there’s nothing really wrong anywhere,” Eli smiled with a foggy mystery, like a trail half-hidden in morning mist.

“Ah?”

Elsewhere, once Eli brought the news back, the Elf Race struck at the thinner flank, knives sliding for a seam in armor.

The battlefront bent again, like a river taking a strange, wrong turn under a crooked moon.

Beneath the battlefield, the under-earth held no more graceful vistas, no more terrifying elemental surges, like a garden after frost.

There was only a stone cavern, strewn with dead plants like brittle paper, roots curled like spent smoke.

High above, a white sphere hung with lingering warmth, like an ember cupped in snow.

It was clear as a winter sky: every Elemental Spirit lurking here had been wiped out by the revived Fallen Angel.

“Eh… so this much happened?” Lilith sat cross-legged before Era, her sigh drifting like thin wind through bamboo.

“Did we really lose? Even the Demon Race ended up like this?” Lilith glanced at Reni, a darted look like a pin of ice.

Reni glared back, sparks in her eyes like flint. “What. Am I weak? I’m at Sacred Rank, about to condense my Divinity, like a star hardening in the night.”

“Mm, fine, not weak,” Lilith lifted a shoulder like a leaf. “In that state, you could’ve captained the Demon Race’s send-them-to-die squad.”

Reni blinked, mind catching like a wheel in mud. She turned to Era. “What’s a ‘send-them-to-die squad’?”

Era thought a breath, thoughts circling like swallows. “Uh… she means the death-breakout team, like a wedge ramming a siege. On the field, they’re… useful.”

“Really?” Reni frowned, her brows knitting like two dark branches.

Lilith snorted a laugh, a bubble in a kettle. “Oh yes, super useful. Whenever we were encircled and doomed, those guys took the Demonic Lord’s special power and rushed in to drag the local troops to the grave with them, like torches flung into dry brush.”

“That is useful,” Reni said earnestly, as serious as stone.

“Pfft. Is that the Demon Race’s IQ now?” Lilith eyed her solemn face, amusement rippling like light on water. “You don’t know what cannon fodder is?”

Era thought of their lord’s head and sighed, a cloud sagging with rain. “Can’t be helped. Our lord’s brains got lost.”

“Cannon fodder…” Black lines seemed to slide down Reni’s face like ink. She really couldn’t bring herself to like this woman, like oil refusing water.

“Huh? Sis, hold on. You just said our lord’s brains got lost?” Lilith looked blank, like a deer in sudden light.

“Wasn’t the Demonic Lord already… dead?” Lilith asked, confusion curling like smoke.

Era rubbed her hair, fingers combing through tangles like reeds. “Ah. I forgot to say it.”

She pressed her face once with both palms, then looked at Lilith with a grave stillness, like night over a lake. “Sister, the Demonic Lord… has revived. Right now, he’s outside searching for other lost kin of the Demon Race. Soon, the Demon Race will descend upon this world again, like thunder rolling back into the valley.”

“So that means… we still have a chance to overturn the board!” A flash like steel slid through Era’s eyes, calm as a drawn tide.

“Mm… Sis, about that,” Lilith mused for a beat, voice sinking like dusk. “You need to talk with the others in the clan. Some things… aren’t that simple anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Era frowned, a crease like a knife mark. “You were in the Demonic Lord’s Guard. Are you planning to betray him?”

“I don’t mean that. Anyway, come with me to find those old fossils in the clan,” Lilith said, her face heavy as storm clouds.

“Mm.” Era’s brows knit tighter, like two hooks. It seemed she’d been taking too much for granted.

After roughly half a month in Janus’s mental world, Edlyn spent her days sunk in meditation, like a stone steeped in quiet water.

When she surfaced, it was only to check on Angela, like lifting a lamp to a sleeping face.

As she was about to dive back into silence, a small groan drifted from Angela, thin as a thread of wind.

“Mm… I’m so hungry…” Angela rubbed her eyes, sitting up from the bed like a sprout pushing through soil.

Edlyn floated over and stood by the bed, gaze sweeping like a soft lantern. “Angela? How do you feel?”

Angela rubbed her eyes again. “Eh? Sis? Sister?” Her voice fluttered like a startled sparrow.

Just then, a golden rhombus bloomed at Angela’s brow, a sigil shining like dawn caught in crystal.

The gold faded slowly, like sunlight sliding down a wall.

With each shade paled, her hair turned whiter, strand by strand, like frost creeping over night grass.

When the mark vanished entirely, Angela’s long hair had become the mirror of Edlyn’s, white as hush.

Edlyn paused, then smiled and murmured, soft as falling snow. “Much obliged, Akenachel.”

Angela waved a hand before Edlyn’s face, fingers fluttering like moth wings. “Sis? Is it really you?”

“Eh… my hair?” Angela stared at the pale strand drifting before her eyes, dazed as if waking from a dream stuffed with stray feathers. Maybe… it was fine.

Edlyn stepped in and ruffled her hair, palm warm as a hearth. “After so long without seeing me, got anything you want to say?”

“I… what should I say…” Angela looked up, eyes glossy like wet amber. “You ditched me and ran off to play. What do you want me to say, hm?”

Edlyn couldn’t help a crooked smile. “Honestly. Alright, don’t move. Let me check where your energy’s at,” she said, voice even as rain.

She placed one palm lightly on Angela’s head, then set the other on her own, a bridge of warmth like two candles sharing flame.

“Why… I’m not sick…” Angela muttered, cheeks puffing like buns.

Edlyn pinched that soft cheek, a petal between fingers. “Don’t squirm. Be good and stay.”

“Okaaaay…”

Edlyn shut her eyes and felt along Angela’s inner tides, sense flowing like a river under ice.

Even here, in Janus’s mental world, the interference was heavy as fog, and even with both hands at Angela’s crown, the resistance was thick as wool.

“The body’s directly inherited Akenachel’s Angel physique… The soul’s much stronger, like tempered steel. Internal energy’s around Level Seven… compressed this tight? Not bad at all,” she murmured, thoughts ticking like beads.

“Leaning toward Battle Aura… Magic reserves are low, like a small lamp. Elemental affinity’s higher than mine… Mm. Good, very good.”

Edlyn withdrew her hands, satisfaction glinting like a clean blade.

“Angela, want your sister to take you out to play?” Her smile curved like a crescent moon.

“Still treating me like a kid,” Angela pouted, lips a cherry bow.

Edlyn cocked a brow, then flicked her forehead, a crisp snap like a pebble on a pond. “Your sis is a kid too. Got a problem?”

“No… Long live Big Sister, mighty as thunder…” Angela squatted, clutching her head like a hedgehog.

Edlyn laughed, bright as chimes. “I didn’t teach you enough before. From now on, I’ll be strict about how you fight.”

“Eh…”

“Long time no see, Era.” The middle-aged man’s eyes were cold as winter stone as he looked at her.

“Elder…” Era bit her lip, a red leaf caught by teeth.

A mature woman drifted down from the sky, landing like a feather, her gaze sweeping Era up and down like a measuring ribbon.

“Eh, your power’s slipped a lot. Come on, I’ll take you to meet the high-ups who’re still breathing,” the woman said with a smile warm as late sun, then took Era’s hand, firm as silk rope.

“And you are?” Era blinked, confusion like mist.

The woman only smiled. “Hilda.”

Era blinked again. “You’re Hilda? You’re that super board‑flat one?” Her words tumbled like marbles, then froze.

Hilda tilted her head, a cat eyeing a mouse. “Mhm. Little Era, think hard about what you’re saying. You can’t beat me right now.”

“Uh… heh.” Era laughed, awkward as a creaking door.

“What’s the situation now?”

“The message you passed to Lilith, we’ve discussed it,” Hilda sighed, breath like steam fading. “But… only a small half will keep following the Demonic Lord.”

“A small half? How much?” Era’s brows drew tight, two strokes of ink.

“About thirty percent,” Hilda said, another sigh like a leaf falling.

“That few?” Era’s frustration rasped like sand.

“Mm. The Demon Race’s failed once. If we go again… the result’s a coin in a storm. And right now, the Demon Race is too weak, like seedlings in frost. We can’t stake everything,” Hilda said, eyes on the distance like a falcon’s line.

“Besides, we’re Angels. Even if we stand aside, nothing touches us, like rain on a lotus leaf. Back then, it was only under the Demon Race’s coercion that we…” Her voice trailed like smoke.

“Hilda. Sounds like you don’t want to aid the Demon Race. You’re with the other seventy percent?” Era asked, gaze steady as a spear.

Hilda breathed out and nodded. “Yes, Era. Times aren’t what they were, like a river that’s changed its bed.”

“…” Era paused, at a loss, like a ship in fog without a star.

“Last time, we trusted the Demon Race completely, and what came was defeat and centuries of imprisonment, like iron sunk in the sea. This time, their revival is so feeble… we really can’t…” Hilda’s words faltered, a candle guttering in wind.