"Hey, little lass, who taught you all that," his voice skipped like a pebble across a pond.

"...Hey. Yeah. Who did teach me?" Edlyn blinked, then bowed her head like a drooping blossom.

Behind Eli, the Jade Seal Sword trembled, a dragonfly wing rippling in still water.

Eli understood in a flash, a sour ache blooming like green plums in his chest. "Then, Ai-chan, do you still remember Liqianyu?"

"Liqianyu? Who's that? Some woman you picked up outside?" Edlyn's eyes narrowed, sharp as a cat’s in the dusk.

Eli waved both hands fast, like batting at gnats. "N-no. Then do you remember Li Gongxuan?"

"Sure. Why ask? Isn't he your buddy?" Edlyn's brows drew together like knitting clouds.

Eli fell silent, sadness pooling like rain in a well. Edlyn felt the weather of his mood, and tugged his sleeve like a child clinging to a kite string. "Did I make you mad? Did I drag up something bad?"

"...Ai-chan. I have to tell you something. It's heavy, like a mountain."

"Eh?"

"When I finish, evolve your memories once with the Universe Source. You might remember things about her, like stars surfacing after fog."

"???"

After he laid out the past in full, like unrolling a scroll, he asked softly, "What do you think," his eyes skimming her face like a cautious tide.

The little imp’s face turned sour as unripe fruit; her brows knotted tight as a sailor’s rope. She chewed on something unsaid like a thorn.

"Then... what can I even say. She... she's like that. I..." Edlyn bit her lip, her look a tangle of vines. "I... what else can I say."

Eli sighed and pulled her in, arms steady as a sheltering tree, fingers stroking her hair like smoothing ruffled feathers.

Edlyn rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes misting like rain over a lake. Words lodged in her chest like a pebble in a reed pipe.

Thinking of Liqianyu without a body, her very existence washed away like ink in water, she went quiet as snow.

They held each other a long while, like two lanterns in the wind, then eased apart. Edlyn dabbed her eyes, lifted her chin, and pouted up at Eli. "Can I... see her?"

"Mm. Of course." Eli drew the long sword, the motion clean as a drawn line, and offered it like a gift of moonlight.

Edlyn traced the blue blade with a small palm, light as a moth's wing. The sword jolted hard, like a startled fish. She chuckled. "What, I'm not rejecting you. What are you scared of," her tone warm as a hearth.

At once, the blade stilled, a pond gone calm after ripples.

Edlyn rolled her eyes, exasperation flicking like a fan. "Tsk. Figures. You old perv—ah! You didn’t corrupt my sister, did you! Angela stuck to you for ages like a shadow!"

The sword shivered again; its pale blue glow dimmed like a guttering lamp.

Edlyn’s mouth twitched, a line pulled taut like silk. "Alright. I’m mentally prepared."

She handed the sword back, palms steady as a ritual.

"Since she’s done so much already, I’ve got no grudges left, like dust wiped clean. But you—no bringing home random mess ever again, got it!" Edlyn sprang up, glare sharp as winter, cheeks puffed like steamed buns.

Eli scratched his head, sheepish as a boy in rain. "Yeah, yeah. Of course, of course. You know what I’m like."

"Heh. Turns out I was too naive. No—you need a proper punishment," Edlyn huffed, eyes like flint.

"Er... Ai-chan, how are you going to punish me?" Eli scooped her up, cheek to cheek like two peaches touching.

"Ew, get off! I’m still mad!" She pushed his face away like shutting a door.

"Alright then. Say it. Whatever the punishment is, I’ll take it," Eli sat cross-legged, solid as a stone, and looked up at the girl.

Edlyn tapped her chin, thoughts turning like windmills, then lifted a brow with a sly smile, sweet as honey. "Hey~ Eli~ hey~ I’m your absolute favorite, right~"

Goosebumps sprang up on Eli like quills on a hedgehog. He nodded, stiff as a board. "Y-yeah. So what?"

"No matter what I’m like, you still love me, right," she purred, bending close like a willow, hooking his chin with a finger to make his eyes meet hers. Her tail curled in the air like a question mark and waved with wicked mirth.

"Uh... yeah," Eli said, the corner of his mouth twitching like a tugged thread.

A strange mood crept over him, like ants crawling under skin.

Edlyn smiled and pinched his chin, leaning in, voice soft as incense smoke. "Kiss me~"

Her breath brushed his face like warm milk and sugar, dizzying as summer heat. Eli dropped the weird premonition and leaned in for the kiss like a moth to a lantern.

Seeing him bite the hook, she flashed a triumphant smile, and light flared like a camera flash.

Her body shifted back to the form of Pandora—height nearly Eli's, men’s formalwear crisp as frost, that perfect figure framed like a painting, and a smile sharp as a blade.

"Go on, darling, kiss," Edlyn said, her voice now Pandora’s, smooth as velvet.

Eli’s expression locked up, the heat in his blood snuffed like a drenched torch. He froze in place like a statue struck by a spell.

"Hahahahaha! What is that face—hahaha!" Edlyn doubled over, one hand clutching her belly like guarding a drum, the other slapping the floor like rain.

Eli arched a brow and let a laugh spark like flint. "Funny, huh?"

"Pff—if you’d seen your face—hah!" She glanced up and cracked again, writhing like a hooked fish.

Eli forced a grin, words dragged like a net. "Of course I dare. Didn’t I say it before, Demonic Lord? You’ve got a face prettier than most women. What’s there to fear."

"Oh? Then come," Edlyn stood and brushed her tux, movements neat as lacquer.

Eli grimaced, eyes skimming Pandora’s exterior like measuring a blade. He blinked, and a wicked idea bloomed like a poisonous flower.

He snapped his fingers, sound sharp as ice.

His frame shrank, lines softening like wax near flame.

Another flash washed the room clean as dawn.

Now Eli stood about one-seventy, softer and slimmer like spring reeds, in a pleated skirt and women’s boots, smiling at Edlyn like a summer lily.

Edlyn stared, mouth opening and closing like a fish at the surface, eyes blinking like shutters.

Behind him, the Jade Seal Sword rattled, high and fine like cicadas in heat.

This is what Yiyi will look like grown up!!!

Edlyn snorted a laugh and strolled in, an arm hooking his waist like a ribbon, bowing to gaze down at him. "Oh—you really do have ideas."

"Ahem. Who knows what cobwebs my brain spins," Eli said, rolling his eyes like turning beads.

"Heh." Edlyn chuckled and dipped, pressing her lips to his like a petal falling.

"Tsk. Even like this, why do you still have that thing," she muttered, a glance dropping like a stone.

"A man can’t lose his lifeline. You’re Demon Race and sexless, nothing down there like smooth stone."

"Tsk. Want me to conjure one?" Her smile curled like smoke.

"Don’t. Wife, don’t. I get it, I was wrong. Change back. I can’t take this; it’s so damn embarrassing, like wearing a banner in public."

"Hahaha. That’s the whole point."

"Ah. Time’s up." Edlyn blinked, and her form folded back like a fan to her own shape.

Eli had already switched back at the first chance, though the memory of that skirt stung the eyes like chili.

He grinned at her, light as a breeze. "Had your fun?"

"Tch. Boring. I thought I could bully you longer like a cat with yarn."

"Alright, I’ve got work. A big army’s about to roll in like a tide." Eli ruffled Edlyn’s small head, touch soft as moss.

"Yeah, yeah." She waved him off like shooing sparrows, flopped onto the bed, and set her power to flow like a moonlit current.

"Mm." Eli rose with a smile, tore open space like silk, and stepped into the inner layer, a vault brimming with his divine might like a stormy sea.

He lifted his head, face cold as frost, and felt the powers he’d abandoned here, heavy as chained thunder. He reached out. Above, giant locks forged from the Jade Seal Sword’s force shackled the energies like iron vines.

Eli closed his eyes and stepped forward to unseal them, a key turning like dawn.

"When I see that person again, I’ll receive the true authority template. Sooner or later..." His voice drifted like smoke.

"I’ll stand at the apex of all anomalous power... only, it’s not time yet." Elsewhere, Zero’s consciousness shifted like glaciers under starlight.

No other life breathed here; the place was a blank winter plain, empty as a white page.

Which meant no life from the outer cosmos could touch Zero, like islands cut off by fog.

He opened his eyes; the ageless wisdom inside unraveled like mist, leaving a thread of pain like a thorn.

He raised his head. "You left me first. Why? Why can’t I be the end of the universe," his words fell like stones in a well.

"Must the Origin God meet the bleakest fate? No. I don’t believe it." His face stopped being fixed; it rippled, a thousand human masks flickering like lanterns in wind.

He clutched his skull with white-knuckled fists and howled, a storm-beast tearing itself on iron bars.

"Ahhh! It won’t end like this. I won’t walk the old road. Never!"