Chapter Four: Mit, Sealed in Dust

"Where are we?" The man rubbed his aching head, pain blooming like a bruise, then got up and glanced around like a lost gull over gray surf.

Eli stood with his hands behind his back, facing the sea, watching the sun sink like a gold coin swallowed by dark water.

The man spotted Eli, frowned in thought, then stepped up and bowed. "Hero, is it over? Did we win?"

Eli turned, his face cold as winter spray. "Yeah, it's over. But we haven't won. Giant Squid, I still need your forces."

He didn't refute the title; he just let the words settle like dew on stone.

"What? The Celestial God isn't dead?" Giant Squid froze, confusion rippling like a startled shoal.

"Mm. You don't need the details. Just listen and follow my lead," Eli said, voice flat as a blade.

"Forgive me. I don't think my people have any reason to obey you." Giant Squid sighed, the sound hollow as a shell. "I suspect you're lying about the Celestial God. If she lived, after the Abyss drained us, we couldn't have resisted at all."

Respect fell off him like wet scales. He stood, gaze cold as a deep trench. "Yet I'm still standing here."

Eli didn't answer. He turned his head, pupils cutting over Giant Squid like a sweeping searchlight.

A lethal warning surged into Giant Squid's mind like ice water. Instinct flared. He unleashed everything and, in a blink, returned to his true form, a storm of writhing limbs.

Eli tipped his chin. The Jade Seal Sword trembled at his back, but didn't move, a silent bell refusing the striker.

Eli blinked and crooked his mouth. Big sis, don't leave me hanging now.

Inside the sword, Liqianyu shrugged like a cat in sun. Not my cue yet. Let that one act.

Eli paused. Then golden light cracked like lightning from behind him, scorching the air as it slammed into Giant Squid. In the next heartbeat, every tentacle was sheared clean, writhing like cut vines.

The golden longsword flashed once and settled on Eli's back again, a sunbeam tucked into shadow.

Eli stared, then smiled at the blade, still veined with faint cracks. "You, huh. Finally willing to come back?"

Holy Sword Tias flickered with a playful glow, like a child tugging a sleeve.

Eli looked at the sword in quiet surprise. Tias had been shattered by Birand soon after becoming an artifact. He'd thought no spirit could bloom in that soil. Yet now, a soul bud seemed ready to open.

Giant Squid, left with a squid's head in a man's ruin, shifted back to human. He lay there pale as salt, gasping like a fish beached on stone.

The severed tentacles around him kept twisting, like dying snakes under fading light.

Eli turned, voice cold again, wind off a glacier. "Your choice. I end you here, or you lead your Seafolk and help me for now."

"Only... temporarily?" Giant Squid panted, words scraping like sand.

"Mm. I promise." Eli looked away, eyes on the tide.

"I... understand." He bit down pain and pride, then nodded, submission falling like an anchor.

"Now go wake the others who are out cold. Forget it, just wake the high-end forces." Eli rubbed his chin, thoughtful as dusk. "What comes next decides your life and death."

Giant Squid said nothing, coughed blood like rust, and rose to obey.

Eli clapped once. From the sea, threads of white light rose like foam and flew into Giant Squid, stitching wounds like quick needles.

Giant Squid shot him a startled look, then quickened his steps, duty snapping taut like a rope.

After all that, Eli laced his hands behind his back again and watched the sunset burn down like a brazier. The next one to wake would probably need a beating too, to learn where the cliffs were.

But his pose now... of course it's only...

Damn, putting on airs feels so freaking good, he crowed inside, heart bright as a hidden ember.

Eli's barrier still holds, which means he just turned land to ocean, not shifted space, Edlyn thought, sweat running down her brow like rain, breath hot as forge air.

"What's wrong? That all?" The Celestial God sneered, confidence glittering like ice. "Demon King? That's it? Even the Abyss couldn't beat me, much less you."

To beat her, I can't rely on pure energy, Edlyn felt the pressure like a mountain, then forced stillness. She's backed by a whole world; I can't reach that crest yet.

She watched the wounds on the Celestial God knit, shrinking like frost under sunlight. If this dragged on, death would come quiet as snow.

If I drag her to another world, maybe the fight won't be so steep... Hm? Wait.

Edlyn blinked, pupils like needles.

Up in the sky, the Abyss cradled a cup like a moon, smiling down as if watching a play.

He hadn't left the Inferno back then for show alone. He'd planted a door in the smoke.

"What tea?" a familiar voice breathed at his ear, a wind in tall grass.

"From another world. Longjing. Not bad. Want a sip?" The Abyss didn't look back, smile lazy as a cat.

"Yeah, it's good. Not in the mood, though," the figure said, a shadow folding into cloud.

"Luxiao, how long will you tail me? I'm not even doing anything," the Abyss sighed, as if brushing dust off old books.

"Oh? If I weren't sitting here, wouldn't you be whispering to Edlyn?" Luxiao laughed, light as a knife. "Old man, sit tight. I won't act. If the current True Body senses me, I'm toast."

"I thought you'd turned into time itself. Turns out you're like me—just a passerby," the Abyss scoffed, a rock skipping on dark water.

"Tch. My authority outranks yours. That's enough, isn't it?" Luxiao leaned back, smirk sharp as a crescent.

"Hahaha. You're not wrong." The Abyss laughed, careless as wind. "Luxiao, do your job."

"...Old thing, I'm starting to hate you," Luxiao said with a helpless grin, like a man under cold rain.

"Hahaha. Plenty hate me. One more drop in the sea. By the way, are the pieces set? Don't let it all break at that node," the Abyss said, words like pebbles tossed into a well.

"Naturally. To face Zero, how much have we paid?" Luxiao's smile chilled, eyes lifting toward a distant star. "We're fighting the Truth itself."

Below, Edlyn flickered close to the Celestial God again, blades singing like swallows. The goddess's barrier barely rippled, and she even yawned, bored as a queen.

"That all? Go back to sleep," the Celestial God taunted, voice soft as poison.

The reinforced barrier knocked Edlyn's sword flying again with a clang, but this time Edlyn smiled, sly as a fox under a hedge.

The Celestial God's eyes narrowed. She sensed the turn, but the river had already bent.

Another Edlyn bloomed in the sky, holding the Demon Sword Ashill, and fell like a black meteor.

The Edlyn in front dropped into a crouch, palms pressed, as black sigils crawled over her skin like inked serpents.

At the same moment, Ashill's black light slid through the barrier like shadow through water, arrowing for the Celestial God's flesh.

She twisted aside, swift as a kite, but not cleanly. The blade scored her back, blood blooming like a red flower.

"Damn it!" the Celestial God snarled, voice a thundercrack.

Seated Edlyn rose again, steady as a pillar. Eli's barrier had netted all the demonic miasma from her wild swings, a web gathering night.

Edlyn raised a hand. A faint sigil floated on her palm like a moth. She slapped it onto the Celestial God's chest.

"Idiot. Who goes all-out from the start against someone like you?" Edlyn grinned, teeth catching firelight.

Space lurched for the Celestial God, the world tipping like a ship. In the next breath, she stood somewhere unknown, heart tightening like a fist.

She looked around, startled as a deer. "Where is...?"

Six stone statues, caked in blood, loomed by a colossal river. The river roared with blood, and iron hung in the air like fog. The sky lay draped in smoldering orange, and from nowhere came beastly roars, or the wild howl of a storm.

Edlyn stood on a statue's shoulder, the world a red stage beneath. She let out a long breath, leveled the Demon Sword, its tip at the goddess's face like a drawn thorn. "Welcome to the Inferno, Celestial God."

Alfred Great Snow Mountain. Before an ice-sealed gate, a dozen powerhouses stood, each at least a Transcender, like pines in a blizzard.

Eli took the front and studied the mountain, gaze probing like a drill.

After a pause, he spoke, voice sure as a hammer. "Here. Dig."

"You want us to use our hands?" Giant Squid glared, words sharp as sleet.

Eli looked back at him. "Any objections?"

"This place is covered by countless wards. You want us to dig by hand? How?" a Beastkin leader roared, his temper a furnace.

Beside him, a purple-haired Beastkin loli bit her lip like a petal in frost. "Hero, you're not joking, right?"

"Why would I lie to you? Dig," Eli said, flicking his hand, impatience a ripple across calm water.

They traded looks, faces tight as bowstrings. Forced by the weight of his power, they stepped up and clawed at the earth, fingers scraping frost and stone.

Eli watched them, rubbing his chin, doubt drifting like mist. "Is it really this side..."

Truth was, he didn't know. He'd sealed Mit here and never checked back. In deep snow mountains, every ridge was the same white wall. And he was, damn it, path-blind as a moth in smoke.

So what? Let them probe the snow, like moles in a field.

He couldn't waste a shred of mind power. If he slipped later, the whole board would flip.

"Hero. Here. Your chains. We can't dig farther," the purple-haired loli said, tugging his sleeve like a timid sparrow.

Eli lowered his head and patted her hair, soft as winter grass. She nuzzled in, warm as a small stove. Eli sighed. Times had shifted like dunes. The debts Birand left, he couldn't shoulder. He could only have this little one keep the Beastkin in line.