“Hey, don’t let it get to you. She’s a runaway train of a mouth, all smoke and sparks.”

In a velvet-shadowed booth at Valhalla, Ling Yi dredged up every sharp thorn she knew to skewer the Flame Lady. Lu Yao listened like driftwood in slow water, squeezing a pint of dark beer and drinking like it was rain.

“I’m not taking it to heart.”

“You’re lying. Your vibe’s off. Normally you’re… uh…”

Right—Lu Yao was usually a cool lake too.

“…Anyway, this is off.”

It felt like the first time they’d met—an icehouse mood, like she could tear every organization apart with bare hands.

“Fang Tang, help me out here,” Ling Yi turned to the young bartender behind the counter, reaching for a lifeline like a hand to a lantern in fog.

“Uh…” Fang Tang didn’t know Lu Yao at all, and his shy nature clammed up like a turtle in its shell.

“Sounds like the Official Heroes already started their media push. The Flame Lady probably had a recorder on her. Your three-way talk will go public soon.”

From the next booth, Liu RuoYuan’s voice floated over like a breeze slipping between blinds.

“Right… Wait—Teacher, when did you get here?”

Liu RuoYuan’s presence was so natural it felt like a spy melting out of the wallpaper. Ling Yi jolted in her seat like a cat off a hot tile.

“Your Yekase-sis is on a trip. I had nothing to do at home,” Liu RuoYuan said, calm as a lake at dawn.

Ling Yi rose and peeked. Lesson plans and homework sprawled across Liu RuoYuan’s table like fallen leaves. She was clearly mid-work.

She gave Ling Yi a small smile. Her right hand moved on its own like a sewing machine, grading papers, while her voice laid things out like stepping stones in a brook. “I’ve watched your recent fights. Ling Yi, you’re fine. Lu Yao and Yekase cut through combatants like tall grass in wind. That’s not wrong. Combatants do carry the risk of death. But if you say it out loud, some won’t accept it—families with combatants at home.”

“As stakeholders, they’ll rally under ‘the law can’t punish the crowd,’ flying the banner of ‘a fighter’s life is a life too,’ and slide, in practice, to the harmless side of the Official Heroes—like rain seeking the lowest ground.”

“...!” Ling Yi bit her lip, a rose-thorn pressed to skin.

“I don’t care what they think,” Lu Yao said, her voice a stone.

“Care a little. A public base is the soil for any change,” Liu RuoYuan smiled, helpless as a teacher holding a squirming sparrow. “You don’t want to fight the Sinister Organization while the onlookers chant ‘Let the combatants win,’ right?”

“When I fight, who dares stand around and watch?”

“…Fair. No one.”

So stubborn. A cliff-face against waves.

Liu RuoYuan and Ling Yi traded a look and shrugged together, two reeds in the same wind.

Good thing Yekase would be back tomorrow. They’d ask her plan when the sun turned. Still uneasy, Liu RuoYuan sent a message, fingers tapping like rain on glass.

[Shengru Guiliu: Are you flying back to Huaxia after tomorrow’s meeting? The Official Heroes started moving.]

[Worldbreaker: Uh, I need to stay a few more days.]

[Shengru Guiliu: What happened? Don’t tell me you attacked religion and got chased by Templar knights.]

[Worldbreaker: Took out a squad on day one. No evidence left. Not that issue.]

[Shengru Guiliu: Oh, good.]

[Shengru Guiliu: Wait, what?]

[Worldbreaker: There’s that independent Italian city-state, the Labyrinth City. The city lord’s close with my master. Invited me to visit for two days after the conference.]

[Shengru Guiliu: …]

Where even to start? Liu RuoYuan’s complaints tangled like vines.

Here they were fretting over the future of hero work, and there she was, touring Europe like a migratory bird.

[Worldbreaker: Labyrinth City’s the main producer of Alchemical Sky-Islands. They can replace the mechanical ones. If I close my order, I should bring an island back.]

[Shengru Guiliu: ?]

[Worldbreaker: 250 square meters of surface. Full ownership. Comes with a natural-soil nursery, a hangar, a warp beacon, a hemispherical sky-dome, and a P2 lab. Can mod to P3, but no need.]

[Shengru Guiliu: ??]

[Worldbreaker: Sis, we’ve got ourselves an island.]

That jump was a canyon.

An island?

A floating island?

Liu RuoYuan pictured a Western fantasy sky-isle, hanging like a moonlit boulder, home to secretive mages and impossible cliffs—and they were about to own one?

Two hundred fifty square meters… that’s a full detached villa’s footprint, not counting floors or a basement. The number glinted like glass in sunlight.

Her brain blue-screened for a beat.

She’d always known: if her big brother wanted, she could climb to the peak of the Sinister Organization’s research pyramid in no time. The “desk job” joke only worked because she refused to feed the beast her tech.

But once she took orders—big orders—money earned by knowledge would turn into a token, a number drifting like a bubble.

Liu RuoYuan steadied her breath, typed slow as a brush across rice paper, and sent:

[Shengru Guiliu: Bro, don’t let it swallow you.]

…

…

On the last day of the Sovell Conference, the attendees painted the future of Infinite-Power mecha and probed the deep seams of Mind Energy.

This, finally, felt like a normal conference—clear air after a storm. To keep minds sharp as knives, this top-tier annual meet capped daily sessions at four hours. Earlier days had carved out a whole hour just to run Yekase through a crash course—something that had happened only twice since the conference began.

The first time was when the French researcher Montblanc Trenin found Soul Power. Before him, Soul Power was fog—assumed a by-product of Sorcery or Mind Energy, never held up to the sun on its own.

The second time was when the Japanese-American Simmons Rosenberg discovered Spiral Force. Although discovered early and widely deemed Infinite Power, its production remains a riddle in smoke. Researchers are fewer than for Flash Energy, so it never made the official Six Infinite Powers.

The third time was Yekase.

She wasn’t a first discoverer. That first strand of Flash Energy mainly rode on her dad’s wind. Not much gold in that ore. Getting the same treatment as the first two felt like starlight she hadn’t expected.

Today covered what was supposed to be days four and five, all stacked like plates after a feast.

First, the outlook for Infinite-Power mecha.

Standard-issue mecha hadn’t broken ground in ages. Most “new models” were patchwork quilts—fixes for small snags, smoother user feel, specialization like pruning one branch.

Researchers with a hand in mecha tossed their thoughts like paper planes. Some said the field needed storm clouds to crack it open—preferably not real ones. Some said the future was custom builds, carved like tailored suits. Some said the whole design logic needed to break and be reborn, a wildfire to seed a forest.

Yekase agreed with the second. Standard frames rarely channel more than one Infinite Power—some still burn oil or sip electricity. Strong fighters aren’t one-trick rivers. Then mecha turns into shackles, iron on the ankle.

She knew that in her bones. She wasn’t a top-tier fighter, just had lots of pretty tricks—fireflies in a jar.

After the Flash Energy topic flowed past, Yekase got no special favors. Her opinions went into the minutes with everyone else’s, lined up like equal stones along a path. That made her quietly happy.

The simple joy of research—clear water in a clay cup. No other worries. The last time felt like when she and Professor F designed Luciferin.

She did owe Mira for this.

Don’t know how she snagged a slot, then gave it away for the price of a chat-handle change, and even meant to show her a good time—though the “fun” was unacceptable. Maybe that was Todo Moka—Aura—her hidden kindness, a lantern under a sleeve.

Yekase was, well, being gently co-opted. A little. Like ice melting at the edge.

An elbow nudged her. The American researcher leaned in, classmates whispering behind a hand.

“Ms. Yekase, any thoughts on Mind Energy?”

“Not really. It’s not my main field. You?”

“Aw, I thought folks from the East all carried Mind Energy, splitting hills and stones.”

“America doesn’t have shootings every day, right?”

“…Fair.”

Yekase looked at him, a steady gaze.

He looked back, a bit sheepish.

“…All right. Hope I see you next year.”

After that, Mr. Burns wrapped with a neat bow. This year’s Sovell Conference ended like a sunset over clean silhouettes.

They all filed into a small garden and took a group photo before Fae’s statue, stone cool as moonlight. Yekase couldn’t help a grin when she saw it, beaming like a seven-year-old, because she looked like one in the frame.

When the crowd scattered like birds, Yekase spotted the pickup waiting under the budget hotel’s eaves.

A white-haired maid in a black-and-white uniform—like snow trimmed in ink.

…Huh? Why?

A little too anime, like a poster stepped off the wall.

“I’m Arianna! The Master sent me to bring our guest to Labyrinth City!”

Anime anime anime, her brain chanted like cicadas.

Wait—she was speaking Italian, Yekase’s earpiece translated into Chinese, yet the voice in her mind sounded… Japanese. It had to be the anime aura, like a pink filter.

“Do you need help with luggage? Arianna can help!”

“Ah, no. Packed last night…”

Truth was, she’d come in such a rush she had nothing but air and pockets.

Where was Mira? Hopefully not dead on someone’s belly somewhere. Yekase shot her a message, then nodded to Arianna. Time to go, like stepping onto a cloud bridge.

“Okay! Celestial Speech, Batwing Spell.”

With a soft pop, a pair of tiny pink bat wings sprouted on Arianna’s back, fluttering like sakura petals.

Yekase swallowed her quip, drew the Polaris Staff, clamped it between her thighs, and chanted Celestial Speech and the Flight Spell, words like wind-bells.

“Feels like you’re more of a mage,” Arianna pouted, playfully bruised, like a kitten pawed the air.

Yekase pointed at the wizard hat on her head. “Toy shop special.”

“Mm.”

She pointed at the blanket on her shoulder. “Street-bought throw.”

“Mm.”

She pointed at the sailor uniform. “A Flash Energy construct.”

“Mm.”

She pointed at the iron staff under her butt. “This one’s the only mage-like thing, and it’s an iron build. It can mech-transform too.”

“Mm.”

“So how do I look like a mage?”

“Very much so. Extremely so.”

…There was no talking with her. The wind carried the rest away.