Chapter 20: Birand

"You really did what I didn't foresee." Flades stared at the scene, surprise flickering like dawn, and voiced praise.

"Enough talk. Take your people and get out. Our world doesn't welcome your kind." Edlyn's gaze was cold as winter steel. Her pressure rolled toward Flades like a stormfront.

"Heh. Guardian, calm yourself." He chuckled, voice smooth as oil. "I know your mood is sour. I get it. But don't aim that aura at me."

"Otherwise I might change my mind," he said, smile like a knife. "While you're still weak, I'd seize this universe."

Flades reached behind him into the air, and drew out a cowboy hat like a desert sun. He set it on his head.

Edlyn narrowed her eyes like a cat in the dark. She said nothing, yet her threatening presence ebbed like a retreating tide.

Flades nodded, a hat-tip lazy as wind. "Good. I'll keep my pact with Mr. Eli. For a thousand years, I won't invade your world."

"See that you do," she said, voice cool as ice.

"Naturally," he said, tone smooth as glass. His eyes slid to the bound figures behind Edlyn, wrapped in pitch-black energy like tar. He smiled. "So, will you forsake your old master and follow me?"

The captured outsiders traded looks, silence heavy as stone under rain.

Flades laughed, sunlight cold on his teeth. "In that case, Guardian, kill them all. I'm too lazy to haul this lot home."

"Oh, right," he added, tone mild as tea. "If you're unhappy, use them for vivisection. Unravel my kind's body secrets. How's that?"

"Or dismember them and boil a broth," Flades said, wearing a gentle smile like painted porcelain, eyes hard beneath.

Edlyn arched a brow like a drawn bow, then turned to regard the trembling crowd.

Hearing him, they saw no other path. They bowed their heads like grass in wind and declared submission.

Edlyn let her shadow tendrils loosen like smoke. She tossed them all to Flades with a flick like a whip.

Flades bowed to Edlyn, a theater flourish bright as brass. He turned, tore a rift like a mouth in space, and carried the captives through.

He looked back with a smile sharp as frost. "Guardian, tell Mr. Eli farewell for me. I admire him. If he joins my kind, he'll be welcome."

"Scram." Edlyn's eyes were blades of ice, stabbing at Flades like sleet.

Flades chuckled, slipped into the rift like a fish, and vanished.

"Good work," a voice warm as sunlight said. A hand appeared above Edlyn's head like a breeze, and gently rubbed her hair.

Relief pooled warm in her chest. She leaned back, sinking into a familiar embrace like dusk into water.

"Are you rested?" Edlyn lifted her face, eyes bright as lamps, and searched his features.

Eli smiled, quiet as moonlight. He looked toward the spot where Flades had vanished. A vast sword-cry rang through the universe like thunder.

Moments later, the ringing faded like rain pulling off. Eli lowered his head and said, "All right. It's settled."

Edlyn blinked, a question rising like steam.

Eli suddenly spat blood, red as maple leaves, and went limp. He slumped onto her back and fainted.

Panic flashed through her like lightning. Edlyn scooped him up and flew to a quiet planet, heart beating like drums.

She gathered soft cotton and down, a nest pale as clouds, and knelt beside it. She set Eli's head on her lap like a pillow.

She brushed his fringe aside, fingers light as feathers, and looked at that familiar face like a cherished portrait.

Her spirit probed into him, a river slipping into caverns. What she saw jolted her like a bell.

Eli was injuries inside and out, wounds and bruises layered like storm-scars.

Thankfully, nothing pierced the thread of his life. The core burned steady, like an ember under ash.

Edlyn exhaled, helplessness drifting like mist. "You push too hard," she murmured. "Every time. I could help you."

Eli seemed to hear. A faint smile tugged his lips like a crescent moon.

She focused on knitting his wounds, concentration tight as silk. She didn't notice the smile.

Years later, at the foot of a snowy mountain on the Original Continent, white sweeping like seas.

"By the calendar, it's about time." Eli stood on a balcony in a traveler's coat, eyes skimming snow like swallows, and smiled.

"Probably." Edlyn flopped onto the bed like a cat. She stretched, lazy as sun-warmed fur, and hurled a pillow. "Close the door! It's freezing!"

Eli chuckled, shut the wooden door with a thud like a drum, and walked inside.

"So, what's happening outside?" Edlyn tucked her small frame under the quilt like a hedgehog, peeking a tiny head out. "I went to buy sweets. The air felt weird."

Eli smiled, voice calm as tea. "It's been years since the Demon Race was suppressed. The Hero got chained by the new Demon King, and every nation targets him."

"So fast?" Edlyn stared, thoughts drifting like snow. "We've reached that point already?"

"Mm." Eli's expression went complex, shadows like clouds. "Next should be Birand's wife, the elven lord Icarina, offered in sacrifice."

It was his past. He wasn't crazed like Birand, yet regret lay in his chest like a buried stone.

"Heeey, the Hero's lovely wife," Edlyn sang, tone sharp as vinegar. "What a pretty title."

"Ahem. My little Demon King is jealous?" Eli grinned, awkward as a schoolboy.

"Gross name. Get lost." Edlyn grabbed another pillow and flung it like a comet.

Eli caught it with a snap like wings, then dove onto the bed. He wrapped her and the quilt in his arms like a net.

He aimed his wicked hands toward her cheek, fingers creeping like naughty spiders.

Edlyn froze, then reacted in a flash like lightning. She tucked herself wholly under the quilt, vanishing.

Eli's hands halted midair, his eyes rolling like marbles. That speed was absurd.

After the scuffle, Edlyn curled in Eli's arms like a warm leaf and sighed. "Icarina isn't an easy soul."

"She marched south and north with you," she said, voice soft as rain. "Now she offers the life she worships to the world. Truly..."

"Mm." Eli rested his chin on her head, quiet as a resting blade.

"Forget it. How's your recovery?" Edlyn studied him, gaze steady as a lantern.

Eli shook his head, smile faint as smoke. "Not yet. Above Transcender, below the divine seat."

"What hit you so hard?" Edlyn tilted her head, curiosity fluttering like a sparrow.

"Mostly ordinary wounds from those invaders," Eli said, the memory rough as gravel. "One was special. Brutal strength. He hurt me with raw force."

"What broke the purity of my power was..." His words trailed like a fading line.

"What was it?" Edlyn asked, eyes bright as stars.

Eli's mouth opened, then the sword on his back shivered like a waking fish. He closed his mouth and sighed. "Give it time. I'll tell you later."

"Tch. Tell that to a ghost." Edlyn pouted, pulling the quilt over her head like a shell. "Years, and still the same."

Eli smiled and slid under the covers, stealthy as a cat.

"What are you doing!"

"Wife, food and desire are nature," he purred, teasing like wine.

"Get out! You won't tell me, yet you dare sweet-talk. Dream on." Edlyn's cheeks flushed pink as cherry petals. She glared.

Eli's hands misbehaved, squeezing her head gently, a rub like warm silk. "I'll truly tell you in a while. All right?"

"Mm—where are your hands!"

At the gate of the Celestial Realm, Eli held a blade of grass between his teeth. He folded his hands behind his head and leaned on the door like a lazy pine.

"Not here yet?" He sighed, the sound hollow as wind. "Waiting hurts."

The gate linking the Celestial Realm and the ground opened slowly, like a flower at dusk. Eli slipped out a butterfly mask and covered his face.

He tucked himself into a corner like a shadow, breath quiet as dust.

A man came forward, drenched in blood like rain, step by heavy step. His left hand dragged a corpse. His right raised a shining longsword.

Birand wiped the blood off his face, motions calm as iron. His eyes had turned into crimson energy, glowing like coals.

He lifted his head toward the sealed gate of the Celestial Realm. He gave a cold smile like winter moonlight.

From hiding, Eli measured Birand's state, gaze clinical as ice.

His body and power were only lower divine-seat level. Yet strange energies clung to him like burrs, making him a walking bomb.

If a fuse sparked and his power slipped out of balance, he'd blow apart like dry tinder.

Birand kicked the shut gate open, a crash like thunder, then strolled into the Celestial Realm.

As he walked, grime and blood rinsed away like rain. His smiling face said the Hero had returned to his old polish.

Eli leaned on the wall and shook his head, motion spare as a reed.

Next would be slaughter, raw as a blade. To vent his fury, most Celestial Realm residents would die.

Better not to watch. Eyes spared, heart spared, like closing a curtain.

"What about you?" Eli whistled, a note like a bird. "Aren't you going in?"

He looked at the space beside him, vision steady as stone.

An old man emerged from the clouds, drifting like fog, and stood there.

Eli smiled, calm as moonlight. "Drop the old-man mask. I know you." His words were light as tea steam.

"You know me, young man?" The elder smiled kindly, warmth like sunlight on ice.

"I said skip the tricks, Abyss," Eli replied, a mild smile like dusk. "Besides you, no one can reach this place."