Edlyn perched on the treetop, the bamboo flute Eli had given her resting like a fresh reed in her palms; her gaze combed the horizon.

“Can this thing even sing?” Her brows knit; this strange instrument was a foreign bird to her.

Maybe Eli was just teasing—whittled a stick of bamboo into this curious toy, then drifted off like mist.

She set her lips to it and blew; a few stray notes fluttered out like lost moths.

Edlyn arched a brow. Joke’s on you—I’m the Demon King.

Shame pricked first. She dropped from the tree in a clean arc and landed, but her white, jade-like feet quivered like leaves. Tsk. I’m so weak now.

Her demonic aura had long bled away, like ink draining from a brush. Maybe it was this place; even her flesh felt like wood weathering in salt air.

She kept it tucked under a smile, never telling Eli.

She felt boxed-in first, then spoke in her head: Need a way off this island. If I linger, who knows what shape I’ll warp into.

Her small face tightened, knotting like a tangled ribbon.

Divinity bled from her eyes like pale fire. Inside, a pull rose, a storm vortex, clawing at nearby energies like demonic qi—the same tide hoarded below.

But her cyclone was a toy beside the undertow beneath the island. The current she caught skimmed through her body like water through fingers, then dove back down.

She nudged a stone with her toe, sour mood heavy as rain, and drifted to the lake. The calm surface lay like a mirror; she stared until thoughts went blank.

On a whim, as if a ghost tapped her shoulder, she lifted the flute again. Teeth worried at her lip; her mismatched eyes fluttered shut. She listened to the unseen—energies skimming past her skin, river-bodies rushing through space with a wind’s howl.

Eli wandered among the stars like a lone boat on a dark sea; around him, bright streams of color slid past.

He lifted his face; energy and radiation from the great blast poured into him like scorching rain. He didn’t raise a shield; his expression stayed still, and he let those unfamiliar tides speak.

He and Edlyn were chasing the same wind.

Yet he hadn’t come here just to net strange currents.

Once his body learned to seal away the burn of radiation and the grit of particles, he set his stride toward the most secret place.

At the blast’s heart, a red glow the size of half a person swam inside a mass of black like ink.

From far off, Eli watched it and let a small smile cut his mouth. Thanks, Abyss.

He let his body ring with the same frequency as the power under the island. The field around him lunged, a stampede of light, and he drank it down unfiltered.

His frame ballooned and stretched, like a shadow cast by rising sun.

He only lifted a brow, unbothered. At roughly six times his usual size, he moved again; countless currents shouldered him toward the core.

The surrounding energy cut like knives, slicing at him, while the riot within stitched him back with molten thread.

Pain and mending grappled like locked beasts.

The nearer he drew to the red light, the more fuel he burned.

He never slowed; he flew on with a steady, patient pace.

At last he reached the red glow’s side. The field no longer shoved him away, and his body folded back to its normal shape.

Breath rough, Eli reached out and clamped his hand around the light’s core.

In a heartbeat he nearly loosened—pain lanced like plunging mortal hands into magma, heat and sear flooding his skull.

Strangely, his skin showed no blister. He grit his teeth; cold sweat beaded and ran like rain.

In his mind, the Abyss’s words rose like echoes from a deep cave.

“She’s a special lifeform shaped by the World Tree’s leaves woven with my own factor. If you want her to reach the world’s extreme, to gain eternal life and unyielding power, something far beyond her rank must guide her.”

“How’s that even possible?” His voice sounded small, like a candle in wind.

“Of course it’s possible. Far away, in the spacetime I’ll send you to, in the universe before the outside was born, such things lie everywhere.

“At the first moment of the universe’s explosion, the highest grade of energy bodies is born. What will you do?”

“If I can, I’ll bring one back,” Eli said, voice flat as stone.

“Then I’ll tell you one more thing.” The Abyss looked dim, like dusk over water. “Hear it, then decide.”

“Eli, she isn’t like you. You are a life-form, a representative born when the world’s Law crystallized. Once you reach your limit, stepping into eternity is easy.

“She is different. Her true body is part of the world. Do you understand? Like the Netherworld or the Celestial God, she is a wheel in the world’s machinery. Once we carry power that keeps the world turning, the world presses our emotions down.”

“You’ve met the Celestial God, yes? If you manage to seize a power of that grade, Edlyn will fall into sleep. When she wakes, she’ll be the second Celestial God, and without jurisdiction to dampen her—she will burst with perfect combat strength.” The Abyss closed his eyes like a tide withdrawing.

“You know all that so clearly?” Eli laughed, like a knife drawn.

“Mm.” The Abyss paused, then sighed.

“I understand.” Eli’s face went cold enough to cut. “You stole the Netherworld’s authority and energy, didn’t you?”

“...” The Abyss was silent, which said enough.

“You said, ‘like the Netherworld or the Celestial God.’ So you aren’t part of the world’s machinery? But Edlyn is?” Eli suddenly laughed, and tears slid from the corner of his eyes like dew.

“I am Zero’s direct bloodline. Do you get it? I am the first life born under the Law.” The Abyss laughed bitterly, like iron on tongue.

“I love her. I love her more than breath.” His voice turned ashen. “For lives like hers, self-consciousness lasts a thousand years. If in a thousand years they fail to reach the world’s extreme or claim jurisdiction, the Law in their bodies will wash their soul-mark clean.

“They vanish. Their energy and pure soul source return to the world, and the next anomalous life is born.

“But that won’t be the same person. Do you understand?”

“What about the Netherworld?” Eli asked. “He’s still alive.”

“Because I took him when he was already at the world’s extreme. Of course he continues to exist,” the Abyss said, voice plain as frost.

“The Celestial God back then couldn’t possibly reach it within that span. I had to choose: let her spend the remaining decades with me, or give her one shot at eternity.” The Abyss’s smile twisted.

“What would you choose, Eli? If it were you?”

Eli breathed out a long sigh. “Do I even have a choice?”

“...” The Abyss shook his head with a bitter curve.

Eli didn’t look at him. He kept going. “How long did you spend making her?”

“Four hundred thirty years,” the Abyss exhaled.

“And she became the Demon King, and in my past life I cut her down, five hundred twenty-five years ago.” Eli lifted his chin toward an unseen sky. “I’m like you. I have no choice. Even knowing—more than you did then—that she’ll forget me, I’ll still do it.”

“Even if she later treats you the way the Celestial God treated me—if she must kill you, if she hates you to the bone?” the Abyss asked, lost as fog.

“Abyss, do you regret it?” Eli turned, showed white teeth like a flash of moon. “Hear me. I won’t.”

...

“Obey me,” Eli whispered, smoothing the red energy core like calming a wild bird. He smiled, and used the nearby black crystals to pin the red energy in place.

He shaped the black crystal into a ring with painstaking care; the red energy compacted, became a small red gem set where a diamond would sit.

He nested the ring in a box as exquisite as lacquered wood, tucked the box to his chest, and left that blazing grave.

The Abyss stepped into the spot Eli had vacated. He watched Eli’s retreating back and sighed; his heart tangled like roots—should he tell Edlyn all of it?

He couldn’t bear to watch this story unfold again.

After long thought, the Abyss finally nodded, expression layered like storm clouds.

He would tell Edlyn, but only after he had taken her away from Eli.

Eli returned to the old place. Sight met him: a girl in a long dress, eyes closed, on a river-stone, flute at her lips, leaves drifting around her like boats.

It had poetry carved into it.

Except the flute’s sound was chaos, like birds arguing.

“Ah? You’re back?” Edlyn blinked. She hopped off the stone in a light arc. Eli moved fast and caught her mid-fall, pulling her into his arms like gathering silk.

He chuckled and set her back on the rock.

She looked at him, puzzled, eyes like twin lakes. “What are you doing?”

Eli pressed a finger to her lips. “Give me a moment.”

He stepped aside and put himself in order—tied his long black hair with a neat tail, trimmed the extra length like pruning a branch.

He slipped into a suit, then walked back to Edlyn.

He smiled at the girl, dropped to one knee, and drew the box from his heart. “Edlyn. Will you marry me?”

!!!