“Heh-heh—dragging my favorite Little Moon by a silver ribbon to go save people.”

“Don’t talk about people like pets on a leash, like a puppy!”

With every step, Yue Liuyi’s cheeks flared like coals; she wanted to melt into a crack in the earth. A lavish silver collar circled the blue-haired girl’s neck, cool as dew and easy as silk. Yet a silver chain dangled from it, the other end held in Dixue’s hand, a picture as strange as a swan tugging the moon.

Even the one walking with Dawn Goose bit back a laugh and turned away, like a swallow dodging stormlight.

“Why did a rescue turn into this circus, like lanterns tangled in fishing nets!”

“Because Little Moon is too cute! A kind, cute girl should be protected—that’s justice, bright as sunrise!”

“B-but… protecting me like this is too weird, like parading a cat on a ribbon. Strangers will think LittleSnow and I awakened some bizarre attribute!”

Her blue-haired cheeks reddened all over, ripe as an apple you could pluck and bite under autumn leaves.

“Mm… it is a bit much, like frosting on rice.”

The silver-haired girl shook her head, half-convinced, when—

“Help me!!!”

From nowhere, a girl’s cry cut the air, sharp as a gull over winter sea.

“A survivor?”

“Below!”

Dawn Goose and Dixue traded a glance, quick as sparks, and sank their black longsword into the floor, like a spear pinning a shadow.

Dark-gold light erupted under the purple-haired girl’s feet like a volcano, and the Sky Voyager’s stone deck split into a maze of cracks. Yue Liuyi felt the ground turn feather-light, her body drifting like a leaf in a windless hall.

“Little Moon!”

Dixue swept in and caught the blue-haired girl, her pale feet tapping falling stones like a heron on stepping-stews. Her figure threaded the rubble, and the silver-haired archer landed safe as snow on a pine bough.

This was the Sky Voyager’s B1 dining hall, yet everything had turned to stone, the way frost arrests a pond. Even the tablecloth had frozen mid-pleat, and a potted plant wore stone leaves, like a meticulous art piece set under moonlight.

“Don’t come any closer!!”

The voice rose from a corner. A girl in animal-hide clothes backed away, eyes wide as deer in torchglow.

She had short brown hair and stood small as a sparrow, yet shouldered a warhammer bigger than herself, a surreal sight like a child carrying a bell-tower. The hammer seemed ready to crash at any moment, but her steps were light, as if she had slipped free of gravity’s net.

But the monsters were worse, and uglier, like nightmares carved in pitch. They had no heads; where a head should be, tendrils writhed, barbed and restless, a nest of thorns. Wound-black patterns scored their vast meat-wings like knife-scars, each body horse-sized under a sick moon. Their huge tail-hooks dripped viscous poison, and the stench rolled over even from afar, foul as rot in summer heat.

Worse still, there were three, circling to seal the girl’s retreat like wolves threading a corral.

“Middle.”

“Left.”

“Then… I’ll take right.”

No more words were needed; from Dixue and Dawn Goose’s rhythm, Yue Liuyi understood like a bell answering a bell.

Yue gathered herself, heart steady as a held lantern; magic swelled in her hands like tide under a new moon. At last it was her turn to act, to save an innocent girl with a wave like starlight.

(I’ll show them with strength. I’m not a mascot that needs guarding—I’m a rising moon, not a paper charm!)

“Yah—yah—yah!”

Silver-white radiance surfaced at her palms, cool as frost on bamboo. She cast the move she’d used against Nightmare Rust: Moonfall Over Blue Hills. Its bite and control weren’t as crushing as the Stellar Moon Compass, but the half-moon airwave could shove monsters back like surf, shielding the girl from venom.

But the expected crescent never formed. Instead—a silver-white beam flashed, straight as an arrow through snow.

“Huh?”

She’d never seen this spell; its power felt immense, a blade hidden in moonlight. Yet her control slipped; the beam veered and slammed into the floor, carving stone like a plow in dry earth.

(Huh—huh—huh?!)

A second white beam had no such drift; it lanced true, like lightning clean and merciless.

What spell was that? As the beam struck, Yue Liuyi’s heart flickered with doubt like a moth near fire. The silver-white bolt scythed through one monster, then refused to slow, punching into the beast behind it, a line of winter noon.

Dixue’s arrow—one shot felled two horrors, clean as cutting silk.

The purple-haired girl blurred, a phantom on the wind, and reached the monster’s back, driving her blade in like night seeding frost.

A normal creature would’ve died, cold as ash. But this was no simple life; it was a warped thing born of bad dreams. A mortal wound didn’t halt it. The monster struggled off the dark edge, its meat-wings beat like storm flags, ready to claw for the sky.

“Run! You can’t kill these things!”

The brown-haired girl shouted, her voice urgent as drumbeats, but it came too late, like rain after fire.

“Xiaoyan, danger!”

The beast ripped free of the blade, and even the two struck by white light lurched back up, stubborn as weeds through stone. Three tail-hooks thrust at the purple-haired girl, a push so heavy it could punch the earth like a spear in flood.

Yet all three barbs met a black longsword and stopped cold, sparks like fireflies bursting in the gloom.

“Ha…”

Facing light that pressed like noon, Dawn Goose smirked, a crescent of ice. The purple in her hair darkened from the tips, becoming ink-deep, spreading like night over snow.

Black skirt, black top, black stockings, black boots, black hair, black sword, black irises—Xiang Xiaoyan stood like a black reaper, her aura spilling a chill that felt like twilight on a battlefield.

Before, Dawn Goose had been crisp and commanding, neat as a drawn line. Now she was a blade—sharp and merciless, a shadow that could swallow lamps.

“Try to skewer your grandaunt? You’re a century too early!”

She laughed, the edge of death waking old memories like thunder waking mountains—duels with Dixue, days when they called her Murder Fiend, a name coiled like smoke.

“Trash—die for me!”

Yue Liuyi couldn’t count how many times the sword carved the air—so many strokes it felt like rain shattered into knives. But she knew that, a second later, all three monsters burst like glass under a hammer.

The horrors fell to pieces, shards of flesh scattered like broken tiles. No matter how stubborn, they couldn’t rise now; the storm had passed and left stillness.

(So… so amazing…)

The black-haired swordswoman stood proud amid the ruins, a pine amid snow, not a fleck of black blood staining her.

“Ah, this is bad!”

Seeing her partner win, Dixue’s eyes pinched into > <, a cartoon grimace like a cat face, trouble curling like smoke.

“Huh? What’s wrong, LittleSnow?”

Dixue hesitated, words snagging like silk on thorns, as if facing a nuisance with teeth.

“Um…”

“You two, quit the fussy whispering! You’re lovey-dovey all day—showing off feels like sticky syrup! If you love showing off, take it to a bed! You won’t even push her down—Dixue, you blustering coward!”

Xiang Xiaoyan hefted her sword and glared at Dixue and Yue Liuyi, displeasure sharp as sleet.

“Wow, Xiaoyan, how can you say that! I had to gather courage like picking fireflies to be with Little Moon. Pushing her down is too lewd—too spicy for me!”

“So you’re useless! Yue Liuyi too—throwing a random spell and missing. Just put on a frilly skirt and be a squealing doll, a porcelain thing for cuddles!”

“Ugh—doll!”

Her words were a blade, slipped straight into Yue Liuyi’s heart, cold as winter steel. Yue had been too useless, a feather that helped no one.

(And… doll… ngh… I can’t even refute it. Lately, I’ve been like a doll on a shelf…)

“Xiaoyan, you’re not allowed to bully Little Moon!”

Dixue hugged Yue Liuyi tight as a shawl, and whispered into her ear like wind through reeds: “When Xiaoyan unlocks all her power, her personality gets weird. Poison-tongued, maybe tsundere—like the old her. Her words sting like nettles.”

“Hey, what are you two muttering about, like sparrows in the eaves? Looking for trouble?”

“Xiaoyan, fair warning! You can spit poison at me; I won’t flinch. But you can’t spit poison at Little Moon. If you make her cry, I’ll teach you a lesson, even if it’s you.”

Dixue straightened her chest like a shield and hugged Little Moon tighter, a fortress around a candle.

“Hmph… then I’ll say it!” The black-haired girl pointed her sword, flame-dark gathering along the edge like coal. “The one in your arms is a child’s doll! Always a burden, always tripping others! In a pinch, she’s useless! Her cutesy whining is sickening, not even mascot-tier!”

“Don’t you say that about Xiaoyan!!!”

Dixue gripped her longbow, and green eyes burned like twin lamps in a gale.

“Interesting. You want to shoot me, Dixue? I’ll oblige—anytime.”

Xiaoyan’s hair flared and flowed like storm banners, and black fire coiled on her blade, hungry as night.

…

“We came to rescue people—don’t start fighting now!!!”

Watching the two edge to the clash, Yue Liuyi shouted with all her strength, her voice a bell rung at dawn.