“Heh. Still surprised, huh?” Birand flipped back his hood, his smile thin as a blade catching cold light.

Eli stared at the mask that still clung to him, at the left half of Birand’s face marred like scorched earth; his heart tightened like ice clamping shut.

“What’s your deal right now?” The heat in Eli’s chest spiked, then cooled as Birand’s fighting intent ebbed like a tide; Eli lowered his ready hands, folded his arms, and watched.

“As you can see. It’s a very, very strange state.” Birand shrugged, the motion loose, like wind shifting a tattered banner.

Eli frowned, feeling the calm inside Birand’s body spread like warm water through stone.

“Weren’t you the embodiment of vengeance? So what gives?” His brows knit, doubts drifting like fog.

Birand touched the cracks on his face, then smiled. “Right now, I’m not that different from your wife.”

“Huh?” Eli’s brows pinched; Edlyn on his tongue felt out of place, like a sparrow in a storm.

Birand lifted his right hand threaded with shards, and let out a weary sigh. “There are things I can’t say. The one thing I can put on the table… you and I are both caught in one more turn of the same wheel.”

“Wait—hold up. I don’t get it.” Eli’s confusion rattled like pebbles in a gourd.

“The moment I found the core of the Netherworld without meaning to, I understood. All of this was written.” Birand’s smile thinned; his head tipped, like a reed in a bitter wind.

“I should also tell you. The future does not bend.” He looked at Eli, breathed out slow, and the sadness in his eyes fell like dusk.

“…So that’s how it is.” Eli rolled a shoulder, a shrug tossed like a stone into a dark pond.

“Mm? What did you figure out?” Birand’s eyes narrowed, puzzled.

Eli smiled at him. “I’m guessing that thing called the Only duped you, didn’t it? He showed you a fake Netherworld. I don’t know what you saw, but looking at you now, it wasn’t pretty.”

Eli’s laugh turned cold; his nod was a hammer. “Called it. The itch to change the future never escapes the Only’s gaze, huh?”

Birand only shook his head with a rueful smile, like someone tasting ash.

“Trust me. If you do, maybe the future has a seam we can pry open. Drop this urge to burn everything down. Take Edlyn and leave the battlefield. Pick anywhere. Outer space works. Just go. Maybe then, the future shifts.” Birand’s smile stayed bitter, like tea brewed too long.

“Why should I trust you? We were at each other’s throats a minute ago, and now you show up pulling this stunt. If you were me, would you buy it?” Eli’s voice bit like winter wind.

“…That’s why I say it doesn’t bend. The Only is just panicking. He lost authority. The Only’s wisdom isn’t whole; his strength is cut like a river split by stone.” Birand’s tone was flat, calm as night water.

He took off his mask and bared his face to Eli.

Eli saw empty sockets like dark wells, and cracks glowing faint blue like frost veins across his body. Silence held him a heartbeat; then his brows tugged down. “You running an illusion?”

“What do you think? If I were, would you be standing here this steady?” Birand shrugged, loose as a cat. “You know me. I’m not that bored.”

“But your state right now… it’s trouble.” Eli’s caution beat on his ribs like a drum, loud and relentless.

The man before him could threaten his life.

Not the life of this avatar, but of his true body; even that might not last five breaths in front of Birand.

Birand paused, then spoke slow. “I… fused with the Netherworld.”

“???? How is that even possible?” Eli’s face was a storm of question marks. He stared, disbelief stark as daylight. “You swallowed the Netherworld? No—how could you even… damn it. What the hell happened?”

Birand watched Eli’s fraying nerves with a flicker of grim satisfaction, like seeing a bell finally ring true.

Good. That’s the note he needed—only then does this guy feel the weight of it.

“How did you find the Netherworld?” Eli stepped in and grabbed Birand’s collar, panic snapping like a trapped hawk.

Fear crept in, or maybe it was despair. If Birand was telling the truth, then… then wasn’t he… wasn’t he fated to—

“…Breathe first.”

“How the hell do I calm down? You drop a bomb this big and expect me to be chill? What are you thinking, man? Swear on your own balls and tell me—could you stay calm? Bastard! Spit it out!”

Eli ground his teeth; the words shredded out of him like glass from a broken mouth.

“At the root, it’s you, and it’s the Only.” Birand shoved Eli back, eyes narrowing, his voice drifting like slow rain.

…

Eli smiled. “Zero. I’m willing to cooperate.”

Zero inclined his head, and the anger in him thinned like smoke in wind. “Good. If you stray, I’ll move.”

Eli nodded, unbothered; his smile stayed. “So, Zero. What do I do now?”

“Find the World Tree. There, you must grasp your path—how your strength should be used. After that, stop worrying. Time will correct the weave.” Zero’s words fell steady, like rings in old wood.

Hidden in the void, the Netherworld pricked up its senses.

He unfurled his mind like an ink net, scouting for that strange scent.

That voice stamped into his skull, familiar as a scar.

His divine sense stretched north like a cold current; on the way, it brushed Birand.

Birand felt it too. He walked the desert, rage clawing his face like red dust.

He only glanced up at the sky, then did nothing more.

Right now, pressing down the bloodlust in his belly was his only anchor; everything else was driftwood.

The Netherworld saw, and eased a breath; then he pushed harder.

He didn’t know why, but it felt like touching that thing would return every strip of his former authority, let him crush this world spun from a Celestial God’s hand—

Make himself the true Creator.

Inside Eli’s mindscape—

Zero nodded. “You can go back. Remember—bring everything to the origin. If not, I’ll step into the struggles of your kind.”

Eli watched him in silence.

Annoyance flickered through Zero like static; he reached out and shoved Eli’s soul back.

He stayed alone in the void.

He gazed toward the Netherworld’s quarter, a smirk cutting his mouth like a thin blade, then smoothed it away.

He knew that once he had emotions, he wasn’t a supreme god anymore. Now he had greed, he had the itch for power; who knows what rot might sprout later.

He had to learn to bind it. Otherwise, when those ancient lives who worship him sniff it out and turn away, he’d lose more than face.

He stood there, waiting, quiet as starlight.

Over there, the Netherworld felt this mind pull in, turning full attention back along the stream to search him.

Catching that, the Netherworld’s heart clenched.

Is this one also a holder of authority? Is he trying to take the last scrap I clutch to stay alive?

The thought sprouted, and retreat grew like frost.

Zero felt him stop expanding his sense, and frowned. He had planned to reel the Netherworld in; now annoyance pricked like thorns.

So timid, this thing.

Zero’s patience snapped; a vast force rolled out like a mountain and pressed toward the Netherworld.

If I can’t catch you, I’ll grind you.

The Netherworld was still dithering like a bird on a thin branch when a colossal, nameless pressure tore his mind-net to shreds.

Already skittish, he couldn’t tank that hit; he yanked back his greed like a hand from fire and fled hard.

On the way, he crossed Birand again.

Birand was locked deep in meditation, and shouldn’t have seen him.

The Netherworld exhaled, then bolted for home.

Energy spilled in his wake like leaking light, and he didn’t bother to gather it.

It drifted down and Birand absorbed it by chance.

With those leftovers as threads, Birand slowly traced the Netherworld’s trail.

The rest, you can guess.

While the Netherworld was still knitting himself back together, he saw Birand. He saw no resistance, and reached to devour him.

And that’s when it went wrong.

…

“You make it sound easy. Tell me—how did you swallow him? A being like that has a soul like a sea; weren’t you afraid you’d burst?” Eli’s laugh was cold, sharp as sleet.

He still didn’t buy it.

Birand rubbed his brow and sighed. “Even I don’t know why it went so smooth. I’ve got guesses, sure, but I didn’t expect it to be this easy—so I say this.”

He paused, looked Eli up and down, then went on. “You can’t change the future. It was set.”

“Whether you or me, we’re programs locked inside a colossal gear. In the end, we move along that track—inch by inch—toward the true direction.”

“…I don’t buy it. You’re spinning mystic nonsense I can’t believe; what do you expect me to think?” Eli kept his face like iron, unyielding as a cliff.

“I want to break that gear. So I want your help.” Birand thought for a beat, then spoke slow, each word like a nail driven in.

“As for your questions—maybe, after a while, you’ll see.”

“All that lofty talk just to pitch me this lousy partnership?” Eli frowned, irritation flaring like sparks from flint.