The drill winked out; the three shot past the speed bump, one breath from Arcadia hanging overhead like a turned-over sky.

—Huh?

Up front, Ivaris let out a sharp gasp, like a bird startled from a branch.

What’s wrong? Something up?

Yekase craned from the back, found nothing odd at first. But as their three-person shuttle slid on, she felt Ivaris’s shock bloom in her chest.

Once they crossed a certain line, the whole gravity field flipped like a turning tide.

They went from flying toward Arcadia to falling into it. Looking up, Soville City, wrapped in fog like damp gauze, now felt like a mirage drifting away.

So this was a floating city’s gravity magic—an unseen hand rotating the world.

As they drifted closer, Yekase had studied Arcadia’s style and layout. A classic ancient city: a lavish palace at the heart, rings of homes and trade alternating like ripples. Everything was marble, time-buried for centuries then bared to daylight, white bones hazy and holy like a heaven.

They settled onto a small circular plaza, a moon-disc of stone.

This plaza… looks familiar.

Right, right! Harrison shouted, legs still trembling like reeds in wind. This plaza’s style matches Mysidia’s Krasus Platform exactly… no, it should be the other way!

—Mysidia’s air dock?

That clicked; a puzzle piece slid into place for Yekase.

Wood houses dominate Mysidia, yet it has that lone stone flight platform. Before seeing this with her own eyes, it was only a small itch of doubt.

Harrison was more excited than ever, voice bright as paper catching flame. After Arcadia vanished, the Church burned every record; witch hunts blew like winter squalls for decades. By the time Mysidia was founded, anyone who’d seen this city was long gone. No one could know its plazas. Unless—

—Unless a Longlifer from Arcadia secretly kept their homeland’s scenes alive, no matter what. Even if it’s just a corner-shadow after a few centuries, Ivaris finished, words soft as ash.

And put it somewhere they could see just by lifting their eyes, Yekase murmured, a thought rising like mist.

She swept her gaze around, a quiet wind over ruins.

People must’ve relaxed, talked, and played here. Now not a trace remains, only a silent, empty plaza like a drained lake.

Mysidia and Arcadia—two words that seemed apart—were stitched across centuries by a single Longlifer, a thread through time.

A name pushed up in her mind like a surfacing fish.

—Alicia Alicia.

Why would an Englishwoman settle in Mysidia yet serve a French court? Why be a century younger than Sandryon yet match her in magic and lore? Why is her sharpest craft runes older than Ancient Alchemy?

Because she wasn’t a “four-hundred-year-old English Longlifer” at all.

She was a wisp from the vanished city of glory.

And that casual “four hundred”—isn’t that exactly how long since Mysidia was built?

…No. That doesn’t sit right.

If that’s true, another place sprouts a thorn of contradiction.

[Every resident of Mysidia swore a blood oath not to harm a single leaf or twig of the World Tree.]

Yekase had always thought Alice took that oath when she was still weak—forced into it. Bound by that limit, she couldn’t act herself, so she worked absurdly hard—brainwashing, compromising—to drag Yekase in.

But if she had design authority when Mysidia was founded—maybe a founding elder—this wouldn’t stand.

Why? Because the blood oath is a classic rune. To her, that’s child’s play; it sticking would be a joke. Before, you could say “she wasn’t this strong yet.” Now what?

She could seize the Golden Apple solo, yet still invited Yekase to assist?

Her attitude was awful, but her actions paid heavy. She handed out the Inverted Tree grand rune—an unshared secret—as advance pay before any promise was inked. Four at once, a full two-fifths of the set.

The more Yekase dug into Alice’s hidden layers, the less the woman made sense, a fog that thickened as you walked.

In the end, she chalked it up to this: she’d made huge cross-field strides between Infinite Power and Alchemy while still young, and a tsundere dollmaker had secretly recognized it.

Charisma bending the impossible into possible—what can you do. She’s a genius, after all.

Yekase talked herself down and snapped her focus back like a rubber band.

Just saw you smile. What were you thinking?

Harrison was busy with photos and rubbing reliefs, dust on his fingers like chalk. Ivaris left him to it and stepped beside Yekase.

Oh, I was thinking. The black-clad youth we nabbed on the train had a bounty and a name. Cash it, and we can add a second portal to the Ambition Divine Ship.

You were absolutely not thinking that.

What makes you say that?

Because your freeloading-just-succeeded smile pinches your lips. Not this teeth-showing one. This one shows when someone praises you.

Don’t analyze stuff like that!

That comeback is what you use to stall when you don’t know how to answer.

Yeah, yeah…

So what were you thinking?

Say I could earn fine on my own, yet I cling and beg a stranger to earn with me. What mindset is that?

Love at first sight?

No, no, no. That’s the one thing off the table!

Centuries-old Longlifers suddenly falling for a barely familiar youngling? This isn’t a toilet-paper-tier light novel. Honestly, Longlifers even dating already breaks character: written as mature and mighty, acting like brats—jealous, yandere—experience from age as paper-only stats, like a tokusatsu chart listing punches in tons. That’s pure comedy.

Someone might argue, you’ve never met Longlifers, how would you know they don’t date. On this, Yekase has standing. She’s met several. Compared to romance, they’re more into orgies.

Then I can’t think of another motive. Since she hasn’t harmed you yet, how about we keep watching?

…That’s all we can do.

That grandpa in the surveillance room, do something, will you… Right, their personal concepts have rune shielding… then we really can’t.

Faced with a problem like a game choking resources to stall your build—forced to stare, unable to fix it—Yekase hugged her staff and sighed, a reed bending in wind.

By the way, dear.

No matter how many times she heard it, she couldn’t get used to that address. No—she was embarrassed to; warmth pricked like sunlight.

…What?

I prefer big boobs. Could you evolve yours for me?

So sudden!

You can do it, right?

I can, sure, but why…

Because I like them. Aim for Azur Lane tier.

That’s not a human size anymore! And you’ve got a Flash Energy body yourself. Evolve your own, why don’t you?

Big boobs are better on someone else.

Go back to Horizon and watch as many as you want.

Not yours, no deal! So can you grant my tiny wish?

No. We’re in a place where anything could pop off. If we get forced into melee, then what? My build’s mobility-first.

You’ll fight swinging a huge pair.

Wow, can’t believe you said that…

Temporary’s fine! Let me squish them~

Don’t act cute for this—

A tremor drummed through the stone.

Yekase’s voice cut off.

…The ground. It was vibrating, a low growl underfoot.

They both fell silent, felt it again. It was real, not a trick of nerves.

Harrison—what’s Harrison doing?!

Their gazes split and hunted the plaza. Yekase spotted him first—the unclely man, grinning with eight white teeth, waving as he ran, like Ultraman’s human host sprinting for cover.

Chasing him came the culprit behind the tremors—

A stone giant, forty to fifty meters tall, a walking cliff with marble skin.

Harrison shouted, breath chopping like a metronome. I just pressed a red button, and it triggered a guardian mechanism!

Don’t touch the thing that screams suspicious to begin with!

Snark aside, Yekase and Ivaris met eyes and moved, water and fire snapping into formation.

Yekase drew Dawn of Eden and cut into the field to secure the civilian. Ivaris raised a hand and flung a line of nano dronettes so tiny the lasers looked born from air.

Magical Girls had drilled this teamwork countless times. Yekase hadn’t served on the Year-of-War frontline; she was a bona fide office worker—no joke. But she knew the moves from watching enough battles.

Yekase closed fast, freed Harrison from the “holy crap the colossus is still chasing me” mess, and faced the giant head-on.

Her Gunblade, flooded with Flash Energy, slashed. It left a pale streak across the giant’s toes—carved like open-toe sandals.

…?

The hardness is off!

No kidding, it’s got magic buffs! The laser arrived after, sizzling like a welder, sparks spitting along stone. It only carved a gutter-deep groove, not even slowing it.

This… Ivaris froze too, surprise cold as rain.

No kidding, it’s got magic buffs!

Yekase hurried to echo, humor a quick shield.

Arcadia’s ruin guardian… Even if it’s not metal, a self-governing mech of this age and scale makes her itch to crack it open and peek at its guts, like a clock begging a key.

Then let’s do it for old times’ sake—the Mechbreaker’s trade!