Chapter Six: Entangled Histories (Middle)

“You’re already a new life. Happy?” Eli slipped free like a fish through water and pushed him away.

Pain throbbed like a drum in his skull. “Why?” Three clutched his head. “I don’t need any of this.”

“I need you to do something else.” Eli smoothed his clothes like pressing down ripples, his face calm as still water. “Every shard of pain I copied onto you, I’ve pulled into myself.”

Confusion rose like fog. Three stared at him, voice shaking. “Why… why would you do that?”

“Because I need you to walk with our parents for whatever time remains.” Eli’s voice was quiet as falling ash. “When I was named Luxiao, I failed as a child. I want to make amends. I saved Jarvis Astor on my own, and let Mother live with him in a mountain village far from war, like two candles hidden from wind. I need you to finish that road for me.”

“And… see if you can save Luxiao’s parents too.” Eli closed his eyes. Grief leaked from him like winter chill.

“I can feel it. If I don’t lay these obsessions to rest, I’ll never climb to the realm of Zero.” Eli’s words were tight as a wound.

“You know it. I don’t have much left to lose. This world can’t touch me anymore.” His tone was dry as dust. “If Edlyn weren’t one of the forces holding this cosmos together, why would I shield it when those things invaded?”

“You’re reckless.” Three let out a razor-thin laugh, like a blade on ice. “Aren’t you afraid I’ll disobey and chase my own days?”

“I’m not.” Eli’s reply fell like a stone in a still pond.

Silence stretched like a drawn bow. Three knew the answer, but he still wanted to hear Eli say it.

“You are me. Not the me of this stage, but me,” Eli said, voice cool as moonlight. “You’re what I’d be if, at my most naive, the universe shoved all its knowledge into my skull and erased Edlyn and Liqianyu from my heart. You won’t defy your own will.”

“Heh. Is that so? It is,” Three said, a thin smile like frost. “But you also know this. After I finish your ‘long-cherished wish,’ I won’t come back.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Eli’s gaze sank like an anchor. “Only by dissolving those obsessions can I be whole. Only then can I…” He paused, shook his head like a branch shedding rain. “No need to say more. Do as you see fit. The task here is done. Leave. Take that Angel and go.”

“…Fine. Don’t regret it.” Three tilted his head, like a bird listening for thunder. “From today on, my name is Luxiao. Your Third clone is dead to the world.”

Luxiao shot him a look sharp as flint and turned to leave.

“Treat that Angel kindly,” Eli breathed out, weariness pooling like shadow around his boots.

Luxiao didn’t look back. He just lifted a hand in a lazy wave, like a leaf riding wind.

That little Angel was among the first warriors Yulia ever forged, a figure carved from the faces she favored. Her looks had a touch of Edward, a trace of Yulia, a hint of Ghoulia—faces One through Nine had paraded past them like masks at a festival.

In truth, that little Angel resembled Edlyn by seven parts out of ten, a mirror blurred by light.

That was why Eli felt twisted looking at his teacher, as if a thorn lay under silk.

He watched Luxiao saunter away, lips parting like a door on unused hinges.

But the words stayed caged like birds in his throat. He only swallowed hard and spoke inwardly, like writing on water. Safe travels, my past.

Luxiao reached the threshold. A gourd flask with a red cord swung from his hand like a small lantern.

He stopped, unsealed the gourd, and drank deep, fire running down like a falling star. Then he turned, eyes cold as winter glass, raking over Eli. He smiled, then sighed. “You know this? You’re getting more disgusting by the day. Without those words, I’d think you’re no different from the gods. Same rot. Same varnished lies.”

“And now?” Eli tilted his head, a shadow bending.

“Still rotten,” Luxiao said, and paused, like a wave gathering. “But if you really pull it off, then it’s not rot. Can you? It sounds like smoke. Since I’m you, I know what you are. You’ve only got a sketch, a dream traced in fog.”

“For it, you’d stake so many lives.”

“They’re necessary implements,” Eli cut in, voice flat as iron. “I’ll bring them back.”

“You can guarantee success?” Luxiao shrugged, light as drifting ash. “That’s why you sicken me. You wear virtue like a mask. Take care of yourself.”

He turned and left, footsteps fading like rain.

Outside, Yulia’s first sun burned like a gold coin in a new sky. In that light, Three—no, Luxiao—took off his mask, scooped the stunned little Angel into his arms, and stepped into a corridor of time like a river of glass.

Sunlight plated him in gold, making him blaze like a god in a story.

Yulia didn’t ask. Surprise fluttered in her eyes like a startled bird.

Luxiao turned his head. “Forgive me, Celestial God. I’ll take my leave first. My task here is done, and I want quiet years like autumn fields. I’m taking this girl. No objections, right?”

“Uh… uh… n-no objections.” She glanced back, reflex like a sparrow’s, toward Eli.

Eli stood under the shadow of a boulder like a hooded cairn. The cowl hid his face; cold seeped from him like fog, a stark counterpoint to Luxiao’s sunlight. The Celestial God stared, stunned, caught between day and night.

Eli looked drained, as if every step cost a mountain. He shook his head. “Let him go.”

“Er… then… Mr. Three, safe journey.”

“Of course.” Luxiao smiled, bowed to the Celestial God like a priest in a temple, then strolled into the time rift with the little Angel in his arms.

“E-eh, Lord Three, where are you taking me?” her voice chimed like a bell.

“Where? On our honeymoon,” he said, eyes bright as stars.

“Eh? Then… the war? Aren’t we fighting?” The little Angel blinked, confusion like dew.

“No. And even if there is, you’re not joining. I can’t bear that.”

“Mm… you’re so good to me.” Her voice warmed like tea.

“Of course.”

“So… what are we actually going to do?”

“Mm… little girl, marry me. I’ve chased you for over two centuries, like a comet chasing a moon. Don’t say you didn’t know.”

“Uh. I… I…”

“All right, silence counts as yes. Heh-heh.” His laugh flicked like a match.

“Mm.”

The passage closed, doors of light folding like petals.

At the last heartbeat, Luxiao lifted his head and looked toward Eli, mouth opening like a whisper to the wind.

In that instant, it felt like only the two of them existed in the void, two lamps in a long night.

“Goodbye, true body. Don’t betray everyone’s hope.”

“I… understand.”

“You’re still the interface. Don’t shoulder too much weight. This isn’t on you. Trust Edlyn. You sealed away everything in yourself to wait for her. So give her your faith.”

“Mm. I understand.”

As the time fissure sealed like a healed wound, the boulders in Eli’s chest finally tumbled down. He smiled, relief like dawn, and clenched his fists.

“Edlyn. Wait for me.”

…

“Edlyn… don’t keep going.” Abyss raised a hand like a dark curtain and broke her ascent in divinity, sighing like wind through pines. “Stop here, if you still want to see him.”

Edlyn sat in midair like a white lotus, an X of golden energy burning at her brow.

She opened her eyes. Struggle flickered there like lightning behind clouds.

Abyss stood aside in silence, a mountain that offered no hand.

He knew. If even this weight of godhood could snuff her feelings, their ending would be grimmer than his own, like winter without spring.

Soon Edlyn exhaled. She blinked, and the godlight drained from her gaze like ebbing tide. The holy radiance faded from her skin, leaving a girl in a white dress, bright as snow.

Edlyn frowned. “Father, why is all my demonic qi purified? What is this strange power?” She lifted a hand, and a rainbow arced there like a bridge, then thinned to mist.

Abyss smiled faintly, like moonlight on a well. “It’s not purification. Your demonic qi evolved to its most perfect state, a force to stand against stellar energy.”

“Is it really that mystical?” Edlyn eyed the glow like a wary fox. “It looks like holy aura. It feels… off.”

“The breath hasn’t changed, silly girl. Feel it with your heart, like listening for a river.” Abyss chuckled.

“…I guess so.” Edlyn furrowed her brows, thoughts turning like cogs.

“This is only the beginning,” Abyss said, voice warm as embers. “Once you master it, the power will stain itself in the color of demonic qi again.”

“Mm. Then I’m relieved.” Edlyn patted her small chest like a drum.

“You’re relieved? About what?” Abyss looked puzzled, like a king hearing a riddle.

Edlyn laughed. “I was afraid that fool would think I’d been purified and turned into a Celestial God. That would be so awkward.”

Abyss only smiled, a lonely curve like a crescent moon, and flicked her forehead. “A daughter married is water poured out.”

“Ehe.” Edlyn grinned sweetly like sunshine. Then she noticed her father’s face dim, like a cloud over the sun.

She thought a moment, gears clicking. Right. The Celestial God was her mother. Her words had been a sideways jab, like a pebble thrown at a shrine.

She tensed, eyes lifting to Abyss like a deer to thunder. “Um, Father, are you okay?”

“Hm? What is it?”

“Uh… did I say something wrong?” Edlyn asked, uneasy as a leaf in wind.

“Ha… it’s not you, silly girl.” Abyss waved it off like smoke. “Master this power, and soon you’ll see him. But I’ll warn you. The man he is now will open your eyes.”

“Eh…”