Chapter Eleven: At Last, We Meet.

Eli reached the forest’s edge, where the trees rolled like a green tide.

One day this soil would crown the Holy Paris Empire, a citadel rising from loam.

For now, only wild tribes breathed here, smoke threading up like pale serpents.

Primitive clans hacked over food and ground, bone and stone clashing like dry thunder.

Eli slipped away like dusk’s shadow, his silence a shawl of mist.

No way that silly girl’s here, he thought, laughter rustling like a leaf.

So where would that silly girl be?

He sifted answers like sand through a cold hand, thought glinting like moonlight.

At last the obvious star rose; it was the only place that fit.

Only that place could call her steps before they walked to him.

He smiled, shook his head like a ringing bell, and went for the Abyss’s gate.

...

“Found you.” Eli stepped in, smile soft as spring rain, and drew the white‑haired girl into his arms.

“Shh.” She raised a finger like a silver reed, then rubbed his cheek like a kitten.

“What’s wrong?” He took her hand, brought it to his lips, and kissed like a feather on snow.

Edlyn lifted her face—the face that haunted him like starlight—and smiled sweetly. “Look. I was born.”

Eli followed her pointing finger through leaves like green curtains and saw only thick forest.

He stilled, and his blue eyes lit like twin stars, a sight that felt able to lance stone and sky.

Edlyn flashed a small look of surprise, then smiled; he’d never let her down, like dawn never fails the east.

She leaned back against him, light as a swaying reed on a riverbank.

Eli gathered the restless little cat into his arms and let his power unfurl like a rising tide.

Even he was surprised at the swell of it, a sea beyond his old horizon.

Jade Seal Sword’s no joke, he thought, grinning as he touched the blue blade on his back; it shivered like a string replying.

Edlyn tipped her chin at him. “Hey, eyes front. What are you doing?”

“Oh. Right.” Eli nodded, sheepish as a boy caught stealing plums, and looked ahead.

Guilt pricked him like frost; it felt like betraying Edlyn.

The light from his eyes speared a vast curtain, and beyond it flowed a river of thick black miasma, source and mouth unknown.

At the river’s heart stood a giant black tree, rooted on the water like night’s spine.

A glowing black egg rose and fell as if breathing, a heart inside midnight.

Eli’s mouth fell open; he glanced down at the tiny girl in his arms. “This… this is—”

Edlyn winked, fox‑bright. “I’m about to be born. The Demon Race will soon emerge, replace the Fiends, and rule like a new storm.”

“Then I’ll unify the Demon Race,” she said, pride bright as steel, “and name the branch heavy with Father’s blood the Supreme Demon Ruler.”

Eli laughed softly and ruffled her long white hair, fingers combing moonlit silk.

“Only now does your human civilization reach the empire stage,” Edlyn said, anger flaring like a coal. “If I’d struck now, your people would already march under my banner.”

Eli dipped and pecked her soft cheek, a sparrow’s kiss. “If you had, you might never have met me.”

“Mmh. That is a problem.” She pouted, storm cloud small and stubborn.

“What mischief’s brewing, my Demonic Lord?” Eli lifted her, nuzzling her crown like a cat to sun‑warmed stone.

“Tch. Whatever. It’s too late for speeches. We’re already like this.” She tilted her head, proud little nose raised. “I hate it, but yeah—I fell for you.”

Eli sat and gathered her close, arms tightening like a winter cloak as a slow smile thawed his face.

A visage hammered cold by ages warmed again, like frost meeting spring.

“Edlyn, seeing you this time… you’ve changed,” Eli murmured, eyes puzzled as rain on glass.

She was stronger, yes, power coiled like a dragon—but brighter too, light slipping through her words.

Her gaze flickered, a bird’s wing, then steadied. “Eli. I love you. It’s been so long. I won’t play coy. I love you.”

He felt the wobble in her, noted it like a plucked string, then only sighed and kissed that stubborn mouth.

Edlyn rose to meet him, clumsy as first snow yet warm as hearthfire.

He’d missed the most important thing, a thorn in a rose.

Edlyn’s soul‑flame was guttering, the wick shortening like twilight.

If he didn’t pierce that paper‑thin veil and claim his Authority, the woman in his arms would fade like breath on glass.

Edlyn clearly knew it. By the purity and core of her power, she’d long met the mark, a blade already tempered.

So why stay as she was, a butterfly refusing its wings?

He tightened his embrace like an oath, and his kiss deepened like a tide.

Edlyn whimpered, a soft pain like a petal crushed in rain.

A tear slid from the corner of his eye, salt slipping between their joined lips like a falling star.

Her body jolted, a struck string, yet she didn’t stop; she surged like a wave against a cliff.

After a long while, they parted, breath like mist.

“I’m sorry.” Edlyn, astride his lap, raised her small hands to wipe his tear, fingers light as wind.

“Promise me. Reach that stage,” Eli said, holding both her hands, breathing in their scent like spring blossoms, sorrow heavy as lead.

“I… I know.” She turned aside, afraid to meet his eyes, a shy moon behind cloud.

He dipped and nuzzled her proud little nose like a playful breeze.

“I love you, Edlyn—more than words. I’d give you everything. Even across the river of time, I can’t discard this feeling. It’s still the balm on my soul.”

“Thank you… thank you.” She smiled sweetly as tears fell like pearls.

Eli bent and pressed her down, shadow and light folding like wings.

“I love you.”

(Content omitted~~~~~~)

...

“Hey. You… did it inside again, didn’t you.” Edlyn glared, teeth flashing like a tiny wolf.

Eli lowered his head and kissed her, quiet as rain on moss.

“Silly girl, forget what your true body is now? I did it for you,” he said with a wicked smile, drawing her close like a thief with treasure.

“Tch.” Edlyn huffed and burrowed into his chest like a dormouse, found a soft spot, and closed her eyes.

“Edlyn?” Eli toyed with her cheek, a thumb tracing silk.

She swatted his hand away. “Don’t bug me. I’m napping. Stupid Eli—why’re you so full of energy?”

“Heh.” He rubbed his head, sheepish as a scolded pup, and only held her tighter.

He sat on the ground cradling the sleeping little sprite, worry shading his face like a late cloud.

Abyss drifted over in a Far East robe, sleeves like slow waves, and sat beside him, gaze flowing to the nascent Demon Race below.

He chuckled and shook his head, as if watching seedlings push stone.

“Is this what you wanted, Abyss?” Eli asked, voice cool as a blade.

“You…?” Abyss studied him, then nodded, understanding falling like a coin.

“You broke the seal on your own. You’re closer to that thing,” Abyss sighed, sitting down. “You even undid my seal passively.”

“Since it’s broken, good. We can talk,” he said, smile thin as a line on water.

“What will you do next?” Eli’s eyes slid to him, slow as a turning moon.

“What, kid? My daughter finally thawed your ten‑thousand‑year ice face back to a boy’s, and that’s how you greet your father‑in‑law?” Abyss mocked, grin dark as an abyssal joke.

“Alright, alright. Tell me.” Eli shook his head, a tired bell.

“Zero sensed me,” Abyss said, voice flat as stone.

“You mean…?”

“Yeah. Me in the Sea of Time,” Abyss replied, helplessness like a knot he couldn’t cut.

“Will you live?”

“Don’t know.”

“…”

“I’ve got backhands, but who knows if they’ll work. Polluted or not, he’s still my father, still this universe’s master. How do you even name that?” His smile stayed pasted on, a mask in candlelight.

“Good luck?” Eli turned to look at him, eyes clear as winter water.

“Luck won’t help. Fate’s a net you can’t see,” Abyss said, shrugging like a man under rain.

“From here on, it’s on you all. I may vanish for a while. If it goes well, you’ll see me later. If not…”

“I know.”

They traded a smile and a wordless nod, two stones sharing rain.

“These are your last easy days. Enjoy them. Once the Demon Race invades, you won’t breeze through,” Abyss said, voice like a distant drum.

“Don’t underestimate me.”

“I’m planning for the worst. You get that?”

“I do.”

“Enough riddles. Tell me straight—what’s coming?”

“The outer cosmos invades soon.”

“Oh?”

“They’ll use the breach left when your true body got summoned out of your world. Outsiders will seize that crack,” Abyss said, a glance sharp as a hook.

“If you can, trick your past god into unleashing Annihilation Dawn and the Chains of Extinction. That gives the beings here the longest spring to grow strong enough for the outer cosmos.”

“So that’s how it is.” Eli shook his head with a rueful smile, like wind through chimes.