“Where did you vanish to, all this time? I remember the Abyss like a fog-laced dream.” Edlyn slipped from Eli’s arms and perched on a chair, legs crossed like a drawn bow.

Eli’s eyes skimmed her now almost fully grown body, and he swallowed like a man at a dry well. By his count, Edlyn’s flesh had aged to nearly twenty, like a tree reaching spring. Still flat as a quiet lake… but at least ripe enough to taste like a peach.

Edlyn felt his impure gaze like ants crawling, and she crossed her arms over her chest like a shield. She watched him with wary eyes sharp as knives. “What are you looking at?”

“Ahem… nothing.” Eli rubbed his nose like brushing off dust, his eyes drifting like a stray cloud.

Edlyn arched a brow like a drawn arrow, snatched a stone, and flung it—thunk—at him like a sparrow shot from a sling. “Hey! What are you doing? I asked you a question!”

“Uh. Mm… ah. Right.” His words stumbled like pebbles in a stream. “Your old man lied, said your soul was somewhere else, told me to find it. I dragged my daughters across the map for three years like a caravan in desert.” He sighed, a long wind through reeds. “Tell me, is your dad just mean, or is his brain full of bubbles?”

Edlyn froze like a deer in brush, then rose and stepped closer like a tide creeping in. She lifted her chin, her gaze climbing him like ivy.

Eli looked down at her, blinking like a startled owl. Huh? She seemed taller, like bamboo after rain. He pressed a palm to the top of her head like weighing fruit, measured against himself, then stroked his chin like a thoughtful monk. “Hmm… seems you’ve grown,” he mused, words hanging like smoke.

“Annoying!” Edlyn’s brow flicked like a whip, and she kicked his groin like a hammer to a bell.

Eli snapped his legs together like closing gates and stared bitterly at the Demonic Lord like a dog in rain. “E-Edlyn, you know… kick me like that, and your happiness for the second half of life goes down the drain like autumn leaves.”

Edlyn smiled, hands lifting, fingers cracking—ka-pa, ka-pa—like twigs underfoot right before his eyes. “So playful lately?” Her voice turned “kind” like silk hiding thorns. “Want me to resurrect you again to make you happy?”

“Don’t—my bad.” Eli drew a deep breath like a man surfacing. “Long live the Demonic Lord. Order me as you will.”

Edlyn sighed, a small storm in a teacup, and fixed him with a steady stare like still water. Eli wiped the cold sweat on his brow like dew and forced a sheepish smile. “W-what’s wrong?”

“Eh~ you said you were roaming with your daughters…” Her tone cast a line like a fisherman.

“Yeah, right… uh!” Eli scratched his head like a puzzled bear, then realization bit him like ice.

“So, the daughters—where did you leave them?” Edlyn asked, voice sweet as honey with a blade behind it.

“Uh… I’ll go fetch them now.” Eli’s laugh was a cracked pot, and he shot out of the Abyss like an arrow.

Edlyn clicked her tongue like tapping porcelain, watched his shrinking figure like a kite cutting the sky, and smiled before a soft sigh drifted like mist. Still the same—this is you, she thought, the words fluttering like moths. But… hmm.

She rubbed her head like smoothing bristles; though Eli had tanked most blows in the fight with Birand, his shield had let some rain through. Birand’s energy carried a strange corrosion, an invasive bite like salt in the sea. At first it was nothing, a silent ember, but over time it felt like a flame planted in her body like a seed. It gnawed at her inner energy like rust, and it chewed her life-breath like frost on grass.

In their last exchange, she and that man slammed energy against energy like storm against cliff. When she pulled back her demonic aura like a retreating tide, a thread of Birand’s uncanny power clung like burrs. She had shoved Eli out like closing a gate, so she could expel it in quiet like midnight rain. Otherwise he’d stand there nagging like a temple bell, blaming himself for not guarding her, drowning in sad fog. He’d wait for her to comfort him, then toss out odd requests like fishhooks.

Edlyn paused, then tapped her own forehead like knocking on wood. Foolishness is contagious, she thought, a cough shared in a crowded room. Stay with him long enough, and your head fills with clutter like leaves in a gutter.

She drew in a deep breath like a whale, her demonic aura surging like black tide, isolating a crimson knot of energy like a coiled snake. She pushed it toward the body’s edge like sweeping dust, slowly herding it toward her right pinky like ants to a corner. “Get out,” she whispered, the word a blade of wind. Her aura pressed harder like grinding millstones, squeezing the alien power from her flesh like juice from a pomegranate.

A crimson, mist-like energy drifted free like smoke, rising and circling in the air like a hawk. It hovered as if searching, like a dog sniffing tracks, but as its fuel ran dry like oil in a lamp, it found nothing. It faded slowly like twilight and vanished like breath on glass.

Edlyn blinked, surprise freezing her like frost. No—that power should have flown along Birand’s trail like a river to the sea, chasing him until he scattered. Why this? Her doubt fluttered like sparrows.

Could Birand be in trouble? Did he fail to escape in that last moment? She frowned like a gathering cloud, then cast the thought aside like a tossed stone. Impossible. If he died that easily, I wouldn’t need such tangled plans like vines to deal with him.

Then what… The question hung like a lantern.

“Ai-chan~ I’m back.” Eli’s voice kicked in like footsteps in gravel. He walked toward her with two girls in grass skirts like island breezes, one on each hand like twin moons. Edlyn’s face darkened with black lines like ink running. What on earth is this? The question buzzed like bees.

“Uh.” Eli read her glare like storm clouds and rolled his eyes like marbles. “Anna said she wanted to play outside, didn’t want to come back. It’s messy, like tangled thread. I dragged her back. That’s it.”

Edlyn looked at the other girl, head tilted like a bird. This must be the other daughter, the thought blooming like a flower.

Alice met Edlyn’s gaze and clutched her skirt hem like a lifeline, biting her lip like a petal. “It—it was Anna’s idea,” she said, voice small as rain.

Anna’s mouth twitched like a pulled string, and she waved her hands like fluttering wings. “I—I thought Dad didn’t care about you, so I didn’t want to return to the Abyss… I made excuses like weeds… I’m sorry… I was wrong.”

Eli sighed, the sound heavy as a wet cloak. This girl still thinks like that, he thought, the line tracing like chalk.

Edlyn smiled and stepped up, palm mussing Anna’s hair like wind in wheat. “Relax. Ask your dad who sits most important in his heart,” she said, words sweet as warm tea.

Anna’s eyes lit up like stars and locked on her father like magnets. Eli coughed twice, his old face reddening like sunset. “Why say that? Seriously. Have some shame,” he muttered like a shy cat.

“Say it,” Anna pouted, lips round as cherries. She loved it when Mom and Dad sprinkled sugar like powdered snow—so sweet, so full of love.

Edlyn smiled with a touch of helplessness like a tilted moon, then set her gaze on Alice like a lantern. From Anna, she could feel the Demon Race bloodline flowing like a river. But Alice… the thread was faint like mist. She glanced at Eli, a thought pricking like a thorn—this guy better not cause trouble. Eli shrugged like a drifting leaf, not getting it.

Forget it, not now, Edlyn told herself, sweeping the mess aside like dust. She patted her cheeks like tapping drums and told the two girls, “Go play. I have words with your father.” Her lips bit the word “father” like fruit, and color warmed her cheeks like dawn.

Anna opened her mouth like a hatch, but Alice tugged her sleeve like a guiding tide. “Okay, Mom.” Once they left, Anna grumbled like thunder under a blanket. “Hey, why stop me? Mom finally revived for real. I need to say hi properly.”

Alice tapped Anna’s forehead with a finger like a dragonfly. “Dummy. Didn’t you notice Mom sounded rushed? Something’s up. Don’t butt in like a goat. We’ll greet her later like polite rain.”

“…Fine,” Anna muttered, palm to forehead like shade, and sighed like wind.

Edlyn explained her suspicions about Birand to Eli, her words flowing like ink. Eli rubbed his brow like kneading dough and frowned like a storm line. “Impossible. He and I are same root, same source. If he died, I’d feel it like a broken string.”

“Then?” Edlyn asked, confusion buzzing like cicadas. “What’s your take?”

“Ahem—drop that outdated catchphrase,” Eli said, palm brushing her head like a calming breeze.

“Tsk, talk business!” Edlyn pinched the flesh at his waist like tweezers and twisted like wringing cloth.

“Okay, okay—my lady, I’ll stop,” Eli pleaded, hands up like flags. “In short, hard to say,” he murmured, thoughts drifting like fog. “How are the Demon Race outside? I was out for three years and heard a lot of rumors. After taking the Miter Empire, you’ve done plenty under the table like shadows. What are you hiding from me?”

Edlyn blinked like a cat, thought for a moment like counting beads, then slapped her forehead like thunder. “Now that you mention it, I remember. I sent two generals out, and we still have no word like a silent forest.”

Eli stared at his Demonic Lord, his face lined like ink, helpless as a boat in current. “Huh? You sent them out and never contacted them for years?”

“Well… lots of reasons…” she muttered like a drifting reed. “Then I fell asleep… how could I think of everything then?”

“Can you reach them now?” Eli asked, his voice steady as stone.

Edlyn thought, then nodded like a pecking bird. With her future self’s strength, a sensor that survives years is easy like a lantern that won’t dim. She closed her eyes like folding wings, her soul unfurling along a branded mark like silk.

Reni seemed to sense it, and she blinked awake like dawn, seeing herself bound hand and foot like a tied bundle. She recognized her state like a mirror, fear twisting her body like a hooked fish. “Reni! Where are you now?” Edlyn asked, her voice stretching like a silver thread.

Reni didn’t seem to hear, only squirmed, her panic flaring like brushfire. Edlyn frowned like a creased page. Was the distance too far, like mountains between?

Then, through Reni’s eyes, she saw the one they were just discussing—or rather his aura—like a shadow. A gray-robed man stood at the center of Fallen Angels like a black sun, words spilling cruelly like cold rain.

Edlyn froze like ice, then carried the news to Eli at once like a courier hawk.