Jiang Bailu just stood there, like a lone reed in still water.

Ivaris ferried Harrison away from the fighting, while Yekase stayed on the grand hall plaza to face her, mist clinging like wet cloth.

…The air felt wrong, like thunder that never comes.

No joy of reunion, not even a hostile edge. She just stood there, empty-eyed, like a puppet with its strings cut.

From Ivaris’s intel via “that girl,” the culprit behind the mist likely preyed on Bailu’s weakness, slipped in, and seized her mind, like smoke through cracked glass. She looked eighty percent fallen.

But why hasn’t she summoned Coffee Moon?

If she’s mind-controlled to guard this spot, the strike should be coming now, like a storm on schedule.

“Been looking for you.”

Seeing no response, Yekase tried to talk to her, voice steady over the hush.

“…”

“I’m here, Bailu.”

“Doctor…”

Bailu’s voice came hoarse. She shuffled closer, like a sleepwalker in a graveyard dawn.

What state is this? Why does it feel zombie-level? Panic pricked Yekase’s throat. “If you’re awake, come back with me.”

Then a pair of blood-wings unfurled behind Bailu, silent as knives. The Mark of Crimson ignited without a sound.

“Mm. Knew it…”

Expected?

Of course.

Answering a comrade’s call with a shadowed face and a drawn blade—thought we’d dodge that melodrama. Guess not, Jiang Bailu.

If a TV mic asked, “So what is suspect Jiang like off-camera?” Yekase would swear: “I saw it early. That venomous hound was bound to go rogue.”

“Bat.”

“…Steam, Blood.”

[Mist Match!]

What now? Something she learned in Labyrinth City, or a blackened-only bug skill? Either way, it needed respect.

No more chatter. Yekase drew Dawn of Eden and shouldered it, like a sunrise hefted against night.

“Hurry up. If you’ve played enough, let’s go home.”

Her rounds had only one Mind Energy left. She flooded the Gunblade with Flash Energy and met Bailu head-on, sparks chasing the clash.

Ten stretched black nails met the blade, bright as struck glass. Then a flurry—cross after cross—turned the air around them into a no-go zone.

Looks like the mist gave her no bonus. Once Evolution’s chain-sword stacks speed, we can take her easy—

But then what?

Yekase had only experience and will against mind control. Whether Nightlight Torch could purge a sustained brainwash was unknown. Minds are wild terrain. She didn’t dare ‘try and see,’ afraid a mistimed skill would make Bailu a fool.

So she couldn’t fight. Couldn’t flee. Stuck like a moth between lamps.

Speaking of, where’s Ivaris?

Does escorting Harrison to safety take this long, like a parade on a bad route?

Late to it, Yekase glanced back toward the palace gate they’d come from.

She saw Ivaris riding the Polaris Staff, stiff smile plastered on, flying her way—

A twin-headed stone giant chased right behind, heavy as thunder.

…

……

“—What are you doing?!”

“Hit a trap on the way back! Like stepping a loose tile in the rain. Totally not my fault!”

“Give me a break…”

Yekase’s split-second distraction was enough. Bailu pounced, slammed her down, and bit her neck, cold as winter steel.

Ivaris’s only attack—pure energy—was hard-countered by an anti-magic stone giant, and this one had an extra head; over here, Yekase couldn’t strike or run. Numbness washed her bones. She curled, rabbit-kicked the eagle, tore free, and vaulted high.

“High” by body-sense only; in truth she dropped closer to Soville City’s real ground, mist peeling like gauze.

She started to think…

In a shounen script, you’d call her back with feelings, break the brainwash, and the three of you would face the twin-headed golem together… too ideal.

How do we fight?

“—Doctor, I’ll help!”

A voice cut through, like a bell in fog.

“You go break the mech! Sister Bailu’s mine!”

“Sister Bailu”… she called Bailu “sis.” Bailu’s an only child. No sister.

Yekase frowned. A spark struck—she was the girl buried by Reverse Meme.

She looked up. A silver-armored figure knifed through the mist, closing fast, as clean as a gull’s dive.

Impossible to mistake. That was her Blade Armor.

No need for memory. No need for logic. In that instant, will outran consciousness.

She has the Flashblade System.

That means absolute trust.

“She’s yours!”

Ling Yi skimmed past Yekase. Their palms met mid-flight. Yekase arrowed for Ivaris; Ling Yi tuned to inverted gravity and dropped like Iron Man, cutting off Bailu’s chase path.

Twice now, Ling Yi had watched Bailu leave, powerless. She’d been farming ghosts to bait a special boss, climbing close to the gate, when the thin edge of mist revealed Yekase’s trio breaking the slowdown belt.

She tried flying again and found the unseen wall gone like it never existed. She rose smooth, free as a kite in clear wind.

“Sun’s on your backside already. Time to get up.”

“…”

Bailu’s brows and gaze were steeped in ghostly gloom, like her soul had moved out.

With no reply, Ling Yi slowly lifted the Sky Striker, red steel like a vein of dawn.

That edge-less red blade had been her partner for nearly a year. Tempered daily in Mind Energy and Flash Energy, it felt like both hands grown into steel.

They accelerated almost together, lines crossing like swallows.

Ling Yi didn’t start cross-flash mode. She probed first with the basic ZEROS form, steady as first stance.

“….”

Bailu murmured under her breath.

Ling Yi knew at once. Between the clean, dry blue-white tiles, from literally all directions, eight thin blood arrows exploded out, no dead angles, like thorny rain.

Eight-Directions Sword Array—blood magic edition!

“—Hindrance Ripples!”

They slammed the sapphire shield. Ripples bloomed. Blood fog veiled the air. Ten meters of stench turned iron-thick.

“Gauntlet!”

Ling Yi’s counter arrived at once.

She even skipped the form switch. Two huge yellow-form mechanical claws sprouted from her rear shoulders. Differential thrust bit. Her body vaulted, spun, and drew over Bailu like a hawk stooping.

Claws clenched. One punch drove her into the ground, a meteor of steel.

—Boom!!

Earth burst. Flash Energy cracked like ice on river skin.

The claws pounded like mortar pestles, hammering the woman at the center of radiating fissures. The back-blow lifted the heavy armor, held it aloft, trembling.

“…”

Treated like a sandbag, torn to rags in heartbeats, Bailu still murmured on, voice a drifting ember.

…It didn’t sound like a spell-chant.

Ling Yi halted, listening. Maybe she was a little awake, like a window unstuck.

“…I…”

I? Awake? How am I here?

“I have always… hated… you…”

“—?!”

Bailu spoke—unexpected and barbed, words steeped in malice like old tea gone bitter.

A distant memory, yet familiar like a scar.

In high school, talking before thinking and misreading distance, Ling Yi had only one friend.

She thought the others just kept their distance—some people don’t mesh. Until the bathroom whispers reached her.

“That Ling Yi is way too chummy, right?”

“She put her mouth on someone else’s cup! Couldn’t she hear ‘sure’ was politeness? She really drank it. Gross. I threw the cup away.”

That feeling then was close to now, cold and thin.

People she thought could leave each other alone, even friends and comrades, held malice in secret, like knives behind smiles.

“Why…”

Ling Yi’s blows paused, arm heavy as wet cloth.

In the pit, Bailu spoke in broken lines:

“I was… first… I was… always sharing… hardship… But why did you… become her hero… Why… are you the one… she trusts…”

“Sister Bailu, you…”

Those scarlet eyes, no longer black, didn’t look at Ling Yi, or anyone, or anything alive.

She stared only at a slice of time, a sealed jar of days.

“If I could… go back then… when it was just me and her… then, if I…”

So that’s it—Ling Yi understood, like a knot finally seen in the rope.

What Bailu sought—she should have known sooner.

The past won’t return. The living must keep walking. Will drifts, feelings blur, memory gets lost or found. The mist can’t answer such a small, sad wish, so it makes time itself wander.

What Bailu clung to was simply “the time with Yekase in R&D.”

Fixation twisted her more and more. Jealousy of Ling Yi sank deep and finally broke the surface, like driftwood after storm.

Even so.

“Even so… I’ll save you. You’re my—our—comrade.”

Ling Yi grabbed Bailu’s collar, dragged the blood-soaked woman up, pulled her right fist back, ready to throw the plainest wake-up punches under heaven.

Ling Yi had no other means. Just steel and stubborn heart.

Come on, miracle… show up fast…

After losing, she’d turn back into Jiang Bailu. She’d wake and say:

“Ling Yi, thank you for saving me. I finally came back. My body’s been controlled by the mist all this time. Thank you, Ling Yi.”

Then they would hug—breath warm against damp armor—

…

“…Hm?”

A puzzled hum slipped from the lowered face, soft as a moth’s brush.

“Hm?” Ling Yi’s clenched fist eased, knuckles whitening then loosening.

“…Where… is this? Did I come back?”

Bailu lifted her head.

Her eyes, clear again, met Ling Yi—then skittered away like a spooked deer. Awkward, she said:

“Just now, I think I… said some things I shouldn’t have…”

“…”

“Um… yeah. I apologize.”