Chapter Seven: The Arrival of Zero

“Celestial God! Your death is at hand!” Edlyn flicked her longsword, moonlight flashing along its edge, then let out a frost-white breath.

“Remarkable, truly remarkable. The Abyss hid this from me and birthed a world this grand.” The Celestial God ignored Edlyn. She turned, eyes sweeping the horizon, a smile sharp as a blade curving her lips.

Edlyn’s brow knit tight, storm-rough. “Looks like you still don’t get where you stand.”

“Don’t get it?” The Celestial God gave a cold laugh, gaze pinning Edlyn like a hawk pinning prey.

“You think this world lets you beat me? Delusion.” She spread her hands, and vast white wings unfurled behind her, feathers like snow burning with light.

One sweep. Wind howled in knives, shoving at Edlyn in harsh, whirling gusts.

“I am a Celestial God! Before you ants were born, I led every thinking life to fight the Abyss that ruled the cosmos. I laid down the rules so your frail kind could cultivate. I made the worlds where you could heal in peace, raise kin, and survive.”

Her fists clenched, thunder in knuckles. “I forged order.”

She paused. The light in her eyes swelled like twin suns. Then, voice low and heavy, “And now you think you’ll defeat me? Reckless.”

Her words fell, and lightning cascaded from the sky of the Inferno, bolts like spears tearing down.

Far above, the Abyss frowned, midair posture like a black mountain. “Not good, Edlyn! She’s eroding the Inferno itself! Stop her, now!”

The intent hit Edlyn like ice. She grasped it in a heartbeat and launched herself forward, wind under wing.

“Die!” Edlyn swept her blade, and a storm of sword-qi roared out, silver rain slashing toward the Celestial God.

White wings beat, cutting cyclones from the air, spirals that blocked Edlyn’s charge like spinning walls.

She laughed, the sound bright and cruel. “Only now you notice? Once I seize this world, you’re just a clown on a stage. And from this little stunt, I finally see it—the Abyss isn’t dead. I’ll grind him to dust after I kill you.”

“Don’t get cocky!” Edlyn snarled, teeth bared. She cleaved through two cyclones, spun on a heel, and with the Inferno’s demon-qi boiling at her back, she thundered toward the Celestial God.

“Blinded by glee!” Edlyn spat the words like iron. She soared above the Celestial God and brought her sword down, a black comet aimed to cleave day from night.

“You think that’s enough to beat me?” The Celestial God bit down, blood blooming at the corner of her mouth like a red plum.

“Elemental Calamity!” She dragged raw elements into her veins, cramming them into power, and fired upward at the fiend raging overhead.

“Dark Extinction!” Edlyn cried. She poured everything in, and Demon Sword Ashill blazed, star-flame flaring along its runes—the strongest force she wielded before she ever touched Law.

“Die!” they roared, voices like colliding bells.

The Abyss, in the sky, dove toward them in the same breath, cloak trailing like a night river.

It wasn’t his cue to appear. His aim now was only to keep them alive. When that other one finally moved, that would be when he’d act.

Where the Abyss had hovered moments before, a young woman appeared. She watched his departing shadow, worry knotted between her brows, then sighed, thin as wind through bamboo.

She’d wanted to help. Her strength was a candle in a storm—too faint.

If she rushed in, the Abyss would spend precious focus to save her. Better to wait. Besides, she believed in his strength like one believes in the tide.

She smiled, soft as peach blossom, raised a small hand, and whispered, “Jiayou.”

The powers of the Celestial God and the Demon King were twin poles—one bright, one dark.

Here in the Inferno, the clash favored the Demon King’s shade. His force smothered hers, yet he’d not stepped past that final threshold. The body lagged where the will surged.

He couldn’t weather fury like this for long.

So the Abyss wrapped most of his strength around Edlyn, a midnight mantle.

He would withdraw the instant the forces canceled.

But then it happened—an abrupt change that froze him in place. He fired a silent signal in Eli’s direction, then dropped into feigned death, still as stone, not daring a twitch.

…

“Eli! Eli!”

Eli crouched, calm as a lake before dawn, index finger pressed to the Third Prince’s brow. From the Jade Seal Sword on his back came two women’s voices, crisp and urgent.

Eli lifted an eyebrow, a spark of surprise. “Liqianyu finished that fast?”

He loosened the seal, suspicion a thin thread in his chest.

Yiyi burst from the sword’s inner world, fist like a meteor, and clocked him square in the face.

Eli flew back, tumbled, and landed on his feet. He grinned at Yiyi, easy and warm. “Hah. Little imp—did you manage to become a full-grown woman yet?”

Yiyi’s face shone with smug sunshine. Eli scratched his head. “Huh? What’s with the mood? You look awfully pleased.”

“Tch. Zip it. Hey, main body, selling me out? I’ll make you pay in a minute.” Yiyi swaggered, chin tipped up.

“Oh? What’ll you do?” Eli laughed, stepped in, and squeezed her cheeks, fingers like wandering cats.

“You’re in for it,” Yiyi sang, grin sly as a fox.

He reached out and tapped her head, a fond thump. If she wouldn’t say, he wouldn’t push.

“Brava.” He sighed, half helpless, half amused.

“Eli.” Liqianyu drifted out behind him, expression a crescent between smile and smirk.

Eli cocked his head. “You too? What’s with that face?”

Then he saw the little girl in Liqianyu’s arms. He blinked slow. “Wait… you… got a kid already? No, hold up—lilies don’t make babies. Yiyi, did you slip back to being male behind my back?”

“Damn, if I could, I would.” Yiyi flipped him the bird, middle finger sharp as a dagger.

“…Then who’s…?” Eli tilted his head at the sleeping girl, confusion fluttering like a moth.

“Probably your daughter,” Yiyi said, suddenly grave.

“Hah? Don’t joke about this. Joke on this, and we’re in deep.” Eli vaulted upright, finger thrust toward the little girl, shock sparking in his eyes. In that instant, he finally knew why Yiyi had been grinning like a thief at dawn.

The girl stirred at his voice. She rubbed her eyes, lids cloud-thin, and looked around like a fawn seeking the herd. Her gaze found Eli, then she beamed, arms wide as the sea. “Daddy~”

“It wasn’t me! I didn’t—!”

…

“…You fought it to this pitch?” A man hovered in the air, hands pressing down like a lid on a boiling pot. Every surge of power below vanished in a breath, snuffed like candles in rain. He glanced at the scene and smiled. “Oh? Still alive?”

Below, Edlyn was drenched in blood, crimson slicking her horns—one snapped clean. She braced her left hand on her right arm. In her right, Ashir hung heavy, and her armor was tattered like torn clouds.

“Ungh… you’re…” Edlyn tried to speak. She coughed blood, a bitter bloom, and fell from the sky, teeth clenched, body a broken star.

Zero chuckled, light and casual, and ignored her. He crooked a finger toward the fainted Celestial God. A vast, unseen current lifted from her body, felt like a tide shaping shore, and poured into him.

Zero flexed his hand, knuckles cracking like ice. “As I thought—this Authority governs a far wider domain.”

Not far off, the Abyss stood locked where he’d frozen, dead calm—no breath, no ripple.

Zero eyed him, frown nibbling at his mouth. He stroked his chin, puzzled. “My mistake? Hm… do I make mistakes?”

He smiled and walked that way, footfalls quiet as falling ash.

Cold sweat beaded on the Abyss’s brow. He felt his Authority slip, drawn like iron to a lodestone, flowing toward Zero against his will.

He swallowed hard. Pupils tightened to pinpricks. As Zero came close, he readied his strongest strike, coiling darkness like a bowstring.

Zero approached with a pleasant curve of lips. In the next moment, clouds surged and packed the sky, ink flooding paper. Below, the Celestial God gasped, finger shaking as she pointed at him. “You… you’re—!”

Zero turned his head at her voice. “Yulia—you’re awake? How do you feel?”

Her divine aura seeped away, tide going out. She stared at herself in shock, then whispered, “Father. Why are you here?”

“I came to reclaim what’s mine.” Zero smiled. “I found the path to the true summit.”

“W-what?” Yulia’s voice broke, bafflement raw as an open wound.

“Make the entire universe into pure energy. Refine it all into me. Then I’m the true God.” Zero looked up, smile soft and terrifying. “Yulia, you’ve been bound by Authority for ages. Now that I’ve taken it back, your emotions and memories will return. You’ll need time to digest them.”

“I won’t be keeping you company.” Zero lifted his gaze, then walked away like a breeze departing the pines.

His words dropped, and Yulia froze, rooted like a statue.

What he spoke of—the things she’d lost—rustled back into her mind.

Countless years. Love and hate knotted around the Abyss, threads of memory rushing in like a river in flood.

Yulia’s body convulsed, tears slipping in steady lines. With a voice heavy with shame and pain, she breathed, “Edward. I’m sorry.”

There were too many memories. Her mind couldn’t hold the deluge. She crumpled into faintness.

Edlyn lay prostrate, nerves singing with pain like plucked wires. Eyes squeezed shut, she murmured, breath thin. “Eli… I won. Eli.”

When Zero truly left, the Abyss moved, drifting down to the two. In each hand, he held a different energy, twin lights—one cool, one warm—and gently poured them into Edlyn and Yulia.

After a moment, he brushed Edlyn’s hair, touch like night rain. “Daughter. I can’t take you from here yet. I’ll leave you to that kid. I trust him. I’m satisfied with him. Be happy.”

He sighed, gathered Yulia in his arms, and left the Inferno.

Only Edlyn remained amid the scars, sprawled and silent, lost to the dark of sleep.