Chapter 3: Itching for a Fight

“Damn it! A mere succubus!” The Celestial God stared at the void where her arm should be. Rage bloomed like wildfire in her mind, strange and scorching. She shouldn’t be capable of swings like this now. So she pinned every anomaly on the Succubus Demonic Lord before her.

Edlyn clawed out of the earth, soil clinging like wet ink. She looked mostly intact, only dusted and ruffled. She turned, eyed the crater she’d been punched into, a wound in the land like a fallen star. She shook her head, helpless amusement in her voice. “You can’t keep doing this. How am I supposed to grow? You want me as a pretty ornament?”

Another figure pulled free of the dirt—Eli, draped in torn rags like wind-tattered flags. He rubbed his back and grinned. “There’re a dozen ways to help you grow. But I can’t just watch you get hit and do nothing.”

“Busybody.” Edlyn shot him a glare, then looked away. The smile pinched at her lips betrayed how bright her mood was, sunlight behind thin cloud.

Eli drew a clean outfit from his storage, changed with the ease of wind rippling a lake, then ruffled her hair. “Spent that much power. You cooled off yet?”

“Nope. It’s not that easy.” Edlyn puffed her cheeks, flicked his hand away.

“So you still want a one-on-one with her?” Eli’s brows knit, a storm line on calm sea.

Sensing his mood, Edlyn laughed, rose on tiptoe, and brushed a kiss against his cheek, light as a dragonfly on water. “Relax! Who am I? I’m the Demonic Lord.”

Eli’s gaze slid, lingering on her chest like a mischievous shadow. He nodded. “Mm. I get it.”

Edlyn arched a brow and punched him in the face, crisp as a bell. “What’s with that look! You courting death?”

The Celestial God watched, face dark as thunderheads. Then she snapped her hand. A gale howled at them like a pack of knives.

The Jade Seal Sword on Eli’s back trembled like a plucked string. Within it, Liqianyu sat calmly in the sword’s inner space, her body faint and translucent, a soul adrift. She looked at the couple and shook her head. “It appears—their shameless face-to-face PDA tactic!”

Eli lifted a hand and scattered the gale like dandelion fluff. He laced his fingers through Edlyn’s smaller hand. “Be careful.”

Edlyn slipped free, voice steady as a lake at dawn. “Relax. Watch me put on a show. Let me have the spotlight, will you?”

“Right, right. Our Demonic Lord is the best.” Eli tilted aside, letting the Celestial God’s beam hiss past like lightning. He smiled.

The Celestial God stopped attacking. She stood wary and still, a blade sheathing its edge. The missing hands sprouted back by degrees like budding branches. She finally understood: the man was the true threat. She couldn’t see his depth—only the abyssal dark of it.

Eli raised his head. Divine might rolled off him, a tide meeting another tide. It smashed into the Celestial God’s pressure midair.

She grunted and stumbled back two, three steps, pebbles skittering like rain.

Eli shuddered hard and backed off five steps, boots tracing shallow furrows.

He shook his head with a rueful smile. “There’s still a tiny gap.”

The Celestial God’s face stayed cold, thoughts hidden like fish in deep water.

Eli lifted a hand. A vast barrier bloomed like a glass dome, caging Edlyn and the Celestial God inside. He drifted back and out, quiet as a retreating tide.

Truth be told, after those exchanges, even with faith in Edlyn, winning was a mountain. She hadn’t crossed that threshold; she likely couldn’t beat a Celestial God. But she believed—so he’d back her to the horizon.

If not, he’d play every card and cut the Celestial God down in a heartbeat. At that thought, his gaze sharpened like frost along a blade.

He turned away. For now, there were other things he had to do.

…

Whoosh.

Far from the battlefield, by the sea, Eli strolled the shore. Waves glittered like scattered coins. The Jade Seal Sword quivered, and a blue silhouette rose, floating on salt wind.

Liqianyu drifted here and there, a kite on an invisible string. She looped back, smiled. “Miss me?”

Eli smiled up at her. “Lazybones, you finally woke.”

“Tch. And who do you think I did it for?” Liqianyu arched a brow, a sly crescent.

Eli just chuckled and walked on, footprints filling with silver tide.

“Hey, Eli, when are we going to see Yiyi? I miss her.” Liqianyu hugged her head, floating, her sigh a sea breeze.

“Mm… in a bit. I sent Yiyi on another task.” Eli’s smile tilted, mild as dusk.

“Ugh.” Liqianyu shrugged. “Yiyi’s too obedient. You say jump, she’s already in the sky.”

“Well, she is my avatar.” Eli laughed.

“So what are you doing now?” Liqianyu blinked, quick as a sparrow.

“Can you not hop topics that fast?” Eli’s helplessness was a wave breaking soft.

“Hehe.” Liqianyu scratched her head, sheepish as a cat caught stealing fish.

“I’m going to clean up the Abyss’s mess,” Eli said with a sigh, shoulders drooping like wet sails.

“Ew, gross.”

“Hey, what are you picturing?” Eli couldn’t help raising his voice, like a gull’s sharp cry.

“Ehehe. Kidding, kidding. Don’t take it seriously.” Liqianyu grinned, moonlight on water.

“Sigh.” Eli cupped his face. “To think I’ve achieved sainthood. How embarrassing. How embarrassing.”

“Huh? What was that?”

“Nothing!”

…

“All right. The meddler’s gone. It’s just us now.” Edlyn stood tall, her gaze a drawn bow aimed at the Celestial God.

“Without him, you think you can beat me?” The Celestial God’s laugh was ice on stone.

“Don’t flatter yourself. This is all you are.” Edlyn smiled, a blade in a flower.

“Arrogant fool.” The Celestial God flickered and appeared before her, a lightning step.

Edlyn’s kick snapped up, cruel as a trapped spring, slamming into the Celestial God’s groin and booting her skyward. Edlyn’s sword flashed as she gave chase, a comet tailing its star.

In the hidden heights, above the void, the Abyss watched, lips twitching like a cracked faultline. In his heart, a whisper circled: Girl… ease up… that’s your mother…

They flew through open sky. Edlyn’s small foot hammered the Celestial God’s back, again and again, demonic qi raking the air like iron mauls. Each impact rang down her spine. The Celestial God’s hands blurred, deflecting, warding, palms flowering like white lotuses.

Edlyn slipped past a palm and spun, a flying kick punting the Celestial God away. Then she hurled the Demon Sword Ashill, point screaming for the goddess’s face, and surged after her blade like a black tide.

The Celestial God pressed her palms together. A white-glowing barrier unfolded, calm as a moonlit lake. Edlyn’s strikes sank in, vanishing like stones into deep water.

“Just a succubus,” the Celestial God sneered.

Her hand whipped out for a slap. Edlyn tilted aside, but the wind riding that strike slammed her like a cannon. She pinwheeled, then cratered into a mountain, stone coughing dust.

“Cough.” Edlyn dragged herself free, spat blood gilded with thin gold. She forced a lopsided smile. “So… that hit an organ?”

The Celestial God watched coldly, a glacier’s gaze. Why did a demon bleed something so holy? Not the time to care. She traced a circle, left hand combing air. White light flashed. Runes rose like fireflies.

She frowned, a crack in marble. “Damn it. The Abyss’s influence runs too deep. I’m still not recovered.”

“Whew.” Edlyn steadied her breath, eyes locking on her foe, hawk to rabbit.

In the next beat, demonic qi erupted from her like a dark volcano. The brawl was over. It was time to truly fight.

Qi coiled around her, a black dragon stitching flesh, mending wounds as it circled.

Edlyn smiled and rushed in again.

“With you? You can’t even get close,” the Celestial God scoffed.

She snapped her fingers. The world turned. The leveled mountains vanished. The sea unfurled underfoot, a rolling mirror of blue.

Edlyn flinched at the change, left foot tripping right. She pitched into the water with a splash, salt swallowing her like a hungry mouth. She burst up, but walls of waves reared and crashed down, one after another.

Hands behind her back, the Celestial God spoke, voice as distant as winter. “I created every living kind and every climate. Every element and space bends to me. Little succubus, what do you fight me with? If not for the Abyss wounding me, do you think you could have touched me earlier? Foolish.”

“Wah!” Edlyn broke the surface again, only for a higher wave to bury her, cold weight like a mountain.

“Trying to finish me like this? Not… that easy, bastard.” She thrashed in the sea. The water pressed on her like a thousand catties, a millstone grinding her strength.

Teeth clenched, she clasped her hands. Demonic qi roiled, a boiling cauldron. Four more Edlyns bloomed beside her like dark petals. They kicked her up and out of the waves, legs snapping like bows.

The Demon Sword Ashill leapt back to her grip. Black light flashed. The ocean split for a heartbeat, a trench opening like a wound. The clones darted clear.

The Celestial God raised both hands and smiled, cold as starlight. “Useless.”

“Not necessarily!” Another Edlyn unfolded behind her, a shadow blooming at noon.

“The one up there is fake too?” The Celestial God blinked, then scoffed. “So what? You still can’t touch me.”

Ashill crashed against the barrier. A hairline crack crept across it like frost.

Edlyn laughed. “I thought it was unbreakable. So that’s all it is!”

She swung again.

“You think that’s all?” The Celestial God’s eyes flashed.

The barrier thickened, hardening like tempered jade. The Demon Sword struck and bounced away, ringing like a bell.

Edlyn’s hands shook. She bit the words through her teeth. “What a tough turtle shell.”