Chapter Fourteen: A Brief Clash

“You crash into someone else’s universe like a winter squall, no apology, no courtesy, blades in your eyes—why would we welcome you?” Eli shrugged, all sea-breeze nonchalance.

Edlyn turned and tapped Eli’s ribs with her sword’s pommel like a chiding sparrow. “Hey, give them a little face. How are they supposed to respond?”

Eli bobbed his head in a quick bow, a willow bending. “Oh, oh—my bad, my bad. I’ll watch it next time.”

Seven humanoids in strange purple garb hovered before them, eyes like dusk owls measuring prey.

The tallest drifted a pace forward, saluted with a gesture from his culture, and spoke in Chinese. “Hello, Guardian.”

“Oh?” Eli’s brow rose like a drawn bow. The cadence was off, but the tongue was his homeland’s rain on old tiles.

“How do you know that language?” He tilted his head, smile light as lantern glow.

The man gave a thin smile and bowed, like reeds in a quiet pond. “Please be calm, Guardian. I know your sword is terrifying. We didn’t come only to invade. We came to negotiate.”

“Oh? An invader with a lot to say?” Eli’s hand slid from his weapon like a tide receding. He smiled, chill and easy.

“Heh. We should talk. Neither side wants a river of dead, right? It’s hard to raise elites who cross universes and keep their edge.”

“My name is Zhan Guotao,” he said, voice flat as gravel. “Yes, I was from that world. Just a small office worker.”

“Oh. Then we’re kind of alike.” Eli lifted a shoulder, a casual cloud drift.

“Where were you from?” Zhan tilted his head, smile thin as paper.

“Take a guess. If you nail it, I’ll tell you.” Eli lifted a middle finger like a lone pine on a cliff.

Silence weighed a moment. Zhan shook his head like shaking rain from a coat. “Forget it. If you won’t say, I won’t pry. Our past selves are gone. We’ve been reborn.”

“You forgot your roots?” Eli’s head angled, his smile a knife in silk.

“And you didn’t?”

“Guess.” Eli’s tone was a pebble dropped in a well.

“...Guardian, you don’t look like you want a proper talk.” His face darkened, a storm rim at sea.

Eli laughed softly and planted hands on hips, a mountain at ease. “I never wanted to talk. Invaders get uprooted. That’s the only task on my plate.”

“So there’s no deal?” Zhan’s smile cut cold as sleet.

“Warning you—this isn’t meme hour. Think about what you’re doing. What’s the point of invading? It’s not even your native universe. What’s your gain?” Eli shook his head, wind through bare branches.

“What is this, terminal edgelord?” He scanned Zhan up and down, gaze like a whetstone. “Tragic.”

“Heh. You’re shoving this world toward the Abyss and you don’t even see it. A third-tier civilization can’t stop us. Radiance will swallow everything. Submit, and fewer die.”

“I almost wanted to be friends. Turns out you’re worse than an edgelord.” Eli’s eyes frosted over; killing intent rose like midwinter rain turned knives.

“Nothing to say to your kind.” Hands still on his hips, his sword-qi surged, a storm of blades ringing like starlight on ice.

In open space, countless swordlights bloomed like cold flowers and slashed toward all seven.

Zhan snorted, lifted a hand, and brushed everything aside, casual as flicking ash from a sleeve.

“Didn’t you forget your roots too? Otherwise, how’d you become this universe’s Guardian?” His tone needled like sand in a wound.

“Heh. Say whatever.” Eli shook his head, indifference calm as a lake.

He glanced at Edlyn. “Edlyn-chan, take one. Leave the rest to me.”

“Eh? Don’t you dare underestimate me. All seven together can’t touch me.” Edlyn raised a small fist, a kitten promising to be a tiger.

The seven traded looks, laughter twitching like moths at a lamp.

A girl who looked barely adult, against seven?

Eli ruffled her hair, hand warm as sun on snow. “Be good. Better you don’t move yet. I’m giving you one to stretch your legs. Be content, brat.”

“Tch. Who wants your charity.” Edlyn pouted away; Ashir in her grip flared with dazzling black light, a starless comet.

She lunged. In a single rush she peeled away the strongest of the seven, barring the leader.

Two figures flickered and vanished from the field like sparks swallowed by night.

Eli smiled toward where she’d gone, a lantern of quiet encouragement. He closed his eyes, and his vast spirit swept over the remaining six like a tide over stones.

—

“Heh. Wrong pick, dead girl. You chose me.” The short one sneered, voice like rust.

“I’ll bring your head out and show that cocky man. He’ll love our gift. Ah—my six friends are carving him already. Maybe he’s chopped to stew by the time I return.”

Edlyn stared at him, more bored than angry, a cat watching a beetle. “Your language class was a wash. You butcher our culture. Want this Demon King to tutor you?”

“De…mon King?” He blinked at her, understanding like fog.

Edlyn sighed, long as a winter night. “Where do you people get that kind of confidence?”

“Otherworlder, you don’t seem scared.” He couldn’t follow her words. His reply stumbled like a drunk in rain.

“Sorry for talking to an illiterate.” Edlyn rubbed her temple, exasperation a small thundercloud. “Have I gone dumb hanging around Eli? Why waste breath on this?”

“Heh. Draw, little girl. This ends quick.” He pulled a bizarre weapon, like the spine of some beast, and leveled it like a snake ready to strike.

“Eli, don’t worry,” Edlyn muttered, pride and gloom braided like smoke. “Their side ends faster than mine.”

How strong was Eli now? Her guesses fell like arrows in mist.

Those earlier blades—just misdirection for me and them, right?

What a menace. Won’t even tell me how strong he is.

“Die!” He lunged at her, a boar charge in a narrow ravine.

Edlyn raised her sword and caught the strike, steel ringing like frost-bells. Her other hand shot out like lightning and clamped over his face.

He felt his inner energy surge toward her palm, a river changing course.

Edlyn frowned, cool as rain. “As expected, off-world energy. Cracking it takes work.”

“You—you’re draining me!” He tore free, eyes brimming panic like cracked dams.

“Welp. Buddy, you ready to die?” Edlyn’s smile was a crescent moon, cold and bright.

—

“Leaving yourself here against six was your worst move,” Zhan told Eli, a fox grin under stormlight.

“Heh. How so?” Eli flexed his fingers; joints clicked like hailstones.

“We’ll kill you in a blink, then handle your—little girl. She’s your daughter, right? Guardian, you’ll learn cruelty soon.”

“I’ll toss her into the colosseum,” he went on, voice oily as tar. “With giant engines. Her genes look fine. We’ll breed excellent stock.”

Eli’s smile faded like a lamp in wind. Ancient ice seeped from him, a glacier inching across a plain.

“You’re asking to die,” he said, voice flat as a blade’s spine.

“Oh? Angry at last? Finally wiped that hateful smile off?” Zhan’s shoulders rolled, a hyena’s amusement.

“Don’t worry. In those engines, you find everything. Tentacles, trolls, xeno-bugs—monsters you can’t even imagine. Your sweet daughter will enjoy it.”

Eli didn’t hear him. He looked down at his hands, twilight cold on his knuckles. “I’ll give you ten moves,” he said. “Show me what you’ve got.”

“One.” His voice tolled like the Abyss, a deep bell under black water.

“Two.” The number slid through them like winter wind through cracks.

“Damn you, what the hell are you posturing for!” Zhan roared. Their assault quickened, strikes like sleet on slate.

“Three.”

…

“Skyfall, Earthsplit!” Their energies braided into one beam, a mountain torrent crashing for Eli.

Eli stared at it, blank as stone. He lifted his left hand and swatted, like chasing a fly from rice. The beam guttered out.

“Ten. All right. Ten moves are up. My turn.” His eyes held killing intent like a night river holding stars. “Die informed. My soul belongs to the original world. I am Luxiao. My body belongs to this world. I am Eli Aestor.”

He flickered. In one breath he passed through them, then stood at their backs, still as a pine after lightning.

In his hands, six organs pulsed, grotesque and rhythmic, like heart-drums beaten in a bone temple.

He turned. His gaze fell on them like a decree. “Also, she’s not my daughter. She’s my lover. For that alone, you die without a grave.”

His left hand clenched. Six hearts burst like overripe plums.

Purple blood sprayed in arcs, cold rain across the void.

Behind Eli lay five bewildered corpses and one severed head, eyes locked in terror like ice marbles.