"Man, these places are downright shabby." Birand stretched like a lazy cat basking at noon.

Ascaraun drew breath to speak, and Birand clapped a hand over his mouth like dropping a curtain.

A crooked smile tugged at him. He glanced back, then crooking a finger like a hook cast into shadows. "Yo, you tailed me all the way. Must be tired. Come on out—what do you want with me?"

Liqianyu stepped from behind a boulder, her shadow peeling off the stone like bark off a tree.

"Well, if it isn’t Miss Li. What’s up? Looking for me?" Birand clasped his hands behind his back, a cat-and-mouse smile smoothing his face.

"As expected." Her voice was a cool blade. "I can’t even imagine how strong you really are now."

"That soul pressure—and you’re not even complete. When you draw it all in, how strong, how terrifying will you be?"

"Oh? Miss Li’s got an eye." His smile was a knife in silk. "Not gonna lie, my homeland and my subordinate’s are a bit like yours. Truly yi jian ru gu."

Ascaraun blinked at him, then exhaled, tension slipping off him like steam off hot iron.

Maybe the ban on our native tongues is a rule he wrote, he thought, smoke-thin. It just doesn’t stick to him.

Liqianyu frowned, her brow knotting like twined cords. "Emmm... honestly, I don’t get what you’re saying."

Birand eyed her pressed palms and shrugged, water off a duck’s back. "Nothing. Guess your schooling’s shallow."

"No, I’m not saying I don’t get ‘yi jian ru gu,’ I just—"

"Ha-ha, you’re really explaining it? You’re kind of fun." Birand laughed, pebbles skittering downhill, and patted Ascaraun’s shoulder.

He kept that smile while his eyes narrowed to blades, watching the energy gather in her hands. "So the leftovers after Thias shattered got eaten by you."

"If not for you, the Far East secret realm might never have touched your world." Her hands opened; crimson welled from her heart like hot spring lava.

The surge strained to erupt like a geyser, but an ancient array rose around her like a circle of iron chains and pinned it close.

Her golden shine took on a strange red tint, dawn catching blood on snow.

"Thought so. You’re a walking, living battery." Birand smiled. The next heartbeat, he slapped Ascaraun away like a moth and blinked out, a shadow flick.

Fire bloomed where he’d stood, a furnace swallowing stone. Heat licked the ground till it slumped and ran like wax.

He squinted, voice dry as ash. "Right. Power’s safer in my hands. Drop it to an enemy by accident, that’d be my rotten luck."

"Tell me who sealed you and hid you back then, and I’ll give you this power. Deal?" Liqianyu’s fingers wove seals; talismans whirled like paper swallows. She watched him like a hawk over a field.

"Oh? Interesting." His head tilted, interest sparking like tinder catching. "How long has it been since anyone... dared to bargain with me!"

His tone dropped, and a wail like beasts thrashing in the Netherworld’s Inferno scraped at her ears.

"Tch. You still underestimate me." Pride drew tight like a bowstring.

Gold flared, a small sun punching through mist. The energy she pulled from Angela bloomed wide.

A vast golden sphere wrapped her like a lantern in storm rain. She rose and slipped past his blast like a swallow in crosswind.

A talisman darted at Birand, a white blade of paper. He hardly blinked; it shattered like frost underfoot.

He raised his chin to the sky. "Hand that power over first. Then I’ll tell you who. How about it?"

Her brow knotted. "So we can’t talk this out?"

"Yeah," he sang, lazy as a cat’s yawn, "guess not."

"Fine."

"Oldest way, then—let the bigger fist write the law."

"Die!" Her aura surged like a tidal bore, and she charged like thunder rolling downhill.

He stepped to meet her, smiling, eyes cold as winter stars. "Kid, you’re too young. Charge blind and you’ll hit a wall."

She bared her teeth, white as a knife. "Close-quarters with someone from the Far East? You’re insane."

Her fist flew for his face, bare, no glow, no crackle. Birand laughed inside, mirth bubbling like oil.

Energy dry? A joke? Even a rookie could see this punch was theater.

Like an unarmed elder ramming a forty-ton truck. We all know that ending.

Crimson flooded his palm, same as hers, a hungry tide. He reached to seize her; one touch and the faithless power would run home.

"Don’t underestimate me! Trade blows up close with a Far East fighter, and you’ll bleed!" Her fist blurred, vanishing like a stone into a river.

It reappeared as impact, a meteor slamming his face.

"What!"

"Stop looking down on people!" she growled, teeth grinding like locked gears, and poured in weight.

He felt his shield split, a long crack like lightning in glass. The fracture webbed and caved.

The bare-looking fist hammered his left cheek. His face warped like clay under a smith’s mallet.

"What the—"

"Die!" she roared, sending him pinwheeling like a comet through boulders.

Stones burst one after another like loaves splitting in an oven. He skidded to a stop at last, dust fogging like smoke.

He touched his numb, swelling cheek, wiped blood from his lip, and let out a disbelieving chuckle. "Heh... heh-heh... not bad."

"It’s not over." Liqianyu set her stance, a mountain before the wind, and beckoned with two fingers.

"As you are now, you still can’t beat me."

"Alright, alright." He rolled his shoulders, pain prickling like nettles. "Girl wants to play. I said no and I slacked off. My bad."

"You are interesting." He crossed both fists before his chest, an X like crossed roads. Crimson poured over his knuckles like spilled wine.

He ripped his arms wide. Energy braided into two long whips, red snakes hissing.

One lazy flick, and the nearby buildings sliced open like tofu.

Liqianyu narrowed her eyes. Power cloaked her again, a coat of light. "Not a heartbeat to relax."

..............................................................

"Big sis? Big sis."

Where am I?

Edlyn looked around. Darkness pooled like ink, not a single pinprick of light.

She stretched both hands, but her eyes caught nothing, a blind swimmer in midnight water.

"Ah! The legendary can’t-see-your-own-hand darkness!"

She froze, then blurted it out, words popping like a bubble.

"Big sis? Big sis!"

She squinted, trying to take in the void. She couldn’t; she just turned her head at random, a compass with no north.

"Where is this? Why am I here?"

"Sister, wake up!"

Edlyn frowned, a crease like a knife mark. Is someone calling me?

"Sister! Sister!!"

Ugh... my head feels heavy, like a stone tied to a kite.

"Ah. I remember. Birand one-shot me. Then Eli had to save me. I’m still this useless." Her voice dimmed like a guttering lamp.

"Good child, absorb the Source. I left you a way to turn the board there."

While she drifted lost, the Abyss whispered at her ear, a tide moving under ice.

"Eh? Father! Is that you?" Edlyn shouted, hope leaping like a spark.

No answer came, silence heavy as snow.

"Am I hallucinating? Is this heaven or the Inferno? Nah. No way I’m going to heaven. But I’ve been to the Inferno too... Oh. Then this must be the fabled Netherworld. Figures—nothing here, just loneliness and fear." She muttered, voice small as a candle flame.

"Sis! Wake up!!!!!!"

"Bwuh?!" Yiyi’s roar ripped the stillness like a thunderclap, and Edlyn snapped back into her soul like a cord pulled taut.

"Um... where am I now?" Edlyn blinked at the room, eyes wide as moons.

"Thank goodness." Angela hugged Edlyn’s neck and hung on like a koala clinging to a tree.

Edlyn froze, then lifted a hand and rubbed Angela’s little head, gentle as rain. "Sorry, Angela. Where is this?"

"You don’t remember?" Angela stared, fear bright as ice.

Edlyn smiled. "Relax. It’s not something I’d forget."

"Then you—"

"I’m fine. We’ve still got a shot." Edlyn clenched her fist, her face hardening like steel from the quench.

..............................................................

"Ugh!" A small lapse, a spark out of place. Liqianyu failed to catch the whip.

It snapped her away like a branch torn by floodwater.

Just then, Birand felt a snag in his soul, a fishhook catching meat.

He tasted that thread and smirked. "Earlier, you broke the memory seal out of rage because I kicked Edlyn. You dragged her back into your thoughts. Fine."

"But who’s this other one to you? She can stick her hand in too?"

"Forget it. It barely matters now." He sighed and rubbed his temple, a man brushing off gnats.

Then Liqianyu seized the beat and planted another heavy fist, a drum thundering.

"Gan lin niang!"

"Hah... hah..." Liqianyu stood her ground and sucked air, chest rising like bellows.

Birand got blasted again, then clawed back up, wrecked and dusty.

Clothes hung in tatters like flags after a storm. His face swelled left and right, a frog’s puffed cheeks.