Chapter 3: The Outer Cosmos

“You okay? Are you hurt?” Yulia stepped forward, nerves taut as a bowstring, eyes flicking to Eli standing like a spear in the wind.

Eli shook his head, gaze fixed on the strange figure beaten into drifting mist, a knife-edge wariness coiled tight in his chest.

Behind him, the Jade Seal Sword hummed like a thunderhead brewing, its power climbing toward a peak that would drown the purple haze in a killing tide.

“Still not showing yourself?” Eli’s shout rolled like a bronze bell in a storm, divine weight crashing down toward the purple mist below.

From the violet fog came another muffled groan, then a streak of purple blood turned sword and shot into the distance like a wounded comet.

Eli reached out. His left hand gripped the hilt. His right formed a sword-seal over his heart. He drew from his back and slashed toward the fleeing light. “Don’t move!”

Astral energy flared from Eli like a rising star, ran down the blade, and stretched into pale-blue sword-light that chased and carved like a cold river.

“Ah!” The purple figure screamed. His body surfaced in the void like a fish from black water, eyes venomous as he glared at Eli, then ripped a wound in space and dove through.

Eli let out a thin, cold laugh, a flake of ice on still water, and made no move to follow.

“Mr. One, he’s getting away,” Yulia blurted, panic fluttering like sparrows in her chest.

Eli shook his head, slid the Jade Seal Sword back into its scabbard with a night-breeze hush, and spoke with a voice as calm as an old well. “No need. He’s already dead. But… something does bother me.”

He snapped his fingers. A figure identical in paint and poise bloomed from shadow beside him—a long black cloak like a moonless night, a butterfly mask veiling the eyes, a hood pouring darkness over his face.

“Two. Go see where that man came from,” Eli said, the words flat as frost.

Two nodded once. “Don’t worry.” He tore a seam in the air like ripping silk and slipped through after the vanishing echo.

“Mr. Eli, who was that?” Yulia stared, curiosity bright as a lantern.

Eli tugged at the corner of his mouth, a ripple under ice. “My brother. Two.”

“Uh… that name’s not very pretty.” Yulia shook her head, helpless as a leaf in light rain.

Eli nodded and touched his mask, as if a smile wanted to bloom yet froze like dew at dawn.

All thanks to that stele, he thought, a stone set like a star in his mind. Once Yulia sees it and confirms One to Nine can guard the cosmos, her trust in me will soar like a hawk.

He rubbed his head, thoughts drifting like smoke.

Two? There is no Two. It’s just the splitting art I’m learning now, he mused, a shard of moonlight cut from the full disc.

Not a simple clone, but a split soul. It carries far more of the body’s bite, though it scrapes the spirit like sand on jade.

For me right now, that’s a drizzle on armor, not a storm at sea.

“Mr. One, I can’t see through you anymore. Your power… it’s terrifying,” Yulia breathed, awe blooming like dawn on frost.

“You don’t know many things yet,” Eli said, turning to her, the attempt at a smile hovering like a swallow at the eaves. “I’ll help you grow.”

“Uh… mm! Of course.” Yulia’s grin flickered like a small flame in wind.

The simple Celestial God felt a sour ache rise like tide. This man carried the mission Zero set on his shoulders; when it ended, he would die like a lamp snuffed at dusk.

He had transcendent strength and the bearing of a true god, yet only a thousand years of life, all spent fighting for a mission laid on him by others. It felt unfair, like rain on a funeral fire.

She bit her lip, heart setting a vow like a seal on warm wax. She would treat him well from now on.

If Eli knew what the little Celestial God was thinking, he would have laughed like a bell on a clear day.

The culprit is you, after all.

Eli kept his face smooth as a winter lake and walked ahead at an unhurried pace. Yulia followed, eyes on his tall back like a mountain at dusk, her pity rising like mist.

The stronger, steadier, and more mysterious he showed himself, the more her heart ached like an old bruise.

Meanwhile, Eli’s thoughts flowed elsewhere, dark water under starlight. On the stele left in the Abyss, One seemed the strongest and the coldest—much like how he now performed.

But… there was a problem.

He frowned, and a long-buried impish spark bubbled up like a spring through old ash.

One… is a woman.

He stroked his chin, caging the stray thought like a bird in the hand, and returned his heart to a sea without ripples.

So I need to switch to women’s robes? he mused, a crooked idea like a bent reed. It’s to match the stele… mm…

Maybe… the Abyss is messing with me?

The thought flashed like heat lightning. Along with it came the Abyss’s smirking face, sly as a fox.

He pressed a palm to his brow, a quiet thud like rain on a rooftop.

Fine. The truth seems clear as day.

That guy is pranking me.

…

“Almost there… finally close.” The purple-robed man drifted through the cosmos like a sleepwalker, eyes dull as ash, words trailing like smoke. “I have to deliver this guardian’s news and power to the main body.”

Not far ahead lay his destination, a dark eye in the heavens.

A vortex hovered in the void, purple-brown energies swirling like muddy currents, holding the tunnel’s walls steady as a dam.

He saw it and surged forward, heartbeat quick as drumbeats, because once he reached his own universe, even if he faded, the message would fly back to the core.

Guardian of this universe… I’ll make you pay, he thought, a smile like a knife.

He raised his hand and watched pale-blue astral light fight the purple-brown shell in his palm, two currents gnawing at each other like wolves.

Two arrived first, a shadow sinking beside the vast whirlpool.

He studied the vortex, eyes cool as frost, then nodded in quiet understanding and turned to the stunned figure painted in purple-brown.

“Don’t think you’re the only one who knows splits,” Two said, grin sharp as a crescent blade. “Classmate, your mission ends here.”

“Wha—uh—” Disbelief cracked across the man’s face like ice on a river. A fissure split from crown to chin, and his body fell in halves.

Blue flame rose like ghostfire and ate the remains midair, spark by hungry spark.

Two nodded once. He lifted a hand and wiped the vortex away like chalk from slate.

He sat cross-legged where the whirlpool had spun, calm as a monk under pines, and let astral energy flow from him like a quiet stream to stitch the rent.

“Didn’t expect someone to punch through two universal rifts and pry open a mouth this wide,” he murmured, brows knitting like storm clouds. “Did something from beyond slip in, gnawing at Zero’s mind?”

The universe is vast as an ocean, with thin spots everywhere like hidden shoals.

I can’t find every seam, not in a thousand nights.

The situation isn’t pretty, a sky heavy with rain.

But the Jade Seal Sword’s power… it beat my expectations hollow, a thunder strike ringing through my bones.

That surge felt like my body amplified tenfold, a river bursting a dam, and it was glorious.

It means that even if this cosmos is still a sapling, I can still stand as its windbreak and block the outer storm.

Let the Abyss grow fast, he thought, a wish cast like a coin into deep water.

Edward right now is just a child, a spoiled heir who thinks eating and playing will win him a crown over the stars.

Eli felt a knot of puzzlement twist like smoke. What happened to change Abyss so much, bone and marrow?

He saw again Edward’s first, overbearing glare, and then the future Abyss, serene and vast, who played history like a game of stones. It felt unreal, like a dream after snow.

“Time has flowed a long while,” Eli sighed, breath fading like mist. “What happened between is beyond me for now.”

He bent to the work and focused on mending the rift, each strand of power a thread in torn sky.

…

“So it’s inside the Netherworld’s territory?” Eli touched his chin, a shadow sliding over his face like cloud over moon.

Yulia felt the air around them sink a few degrees like frost settling, and she clicked her tongue in uneasy awe.

She had felt this kind of chill only from the Netherworld, like grave-cold wind.

But that was the chill of the dead. She cast Eli another mournful look, like rain on a paper lantern.

So he even grasps the Netherworld’s power. He’s terrifying, like a mountain at night.

But only a thousand years to live… so cruel, she thought, throat tight as if swallowing a pebble.

In a breath, Eli drew back that terrible aura like a tide retreating, shoreline quiet again.

“That’s their family matter. Not my place,” he said, voice dry as old parchment. “But… I can use it to push Edward to ally with Yulia early. Maybe we wake that wise Abyss ahead of time.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Eli felt the odd gaze prick his back like a thorn and turned, eyes cool as dew.

“N-no,” Yulia blurted, eyes skittering like minnows. “I just think the weather’s nice.”

Eli looked up. Stars carpeted the sky like frost. There wasn’t even a sun.

How did she get ‘nice weather’ out of that? he thought, a sigh like wind in pine needles. Does she even know what weather means? Too many gripes; not worth the breath.

After a moment’s thought, Eli stepped closer. “Yulia, can you bring out the Abyss for a bit?”

“Abyss?”

“I mean Edward.” Eli smacked his own forehead, a small thud, and corrected himself.

“Sure… but why?” Yulia fretted, words tumbling like beads. “You’re not getting revenge, right? He’s actually nice, just clueless sometimes. Like last time, he was rude to you. I—”

“Stop, stop.” Eli waved a hand, cutting her babble like a fan through smoke. “I’m not looking for trouble. I need to discuss something with him.”

“Oh… okay then.”