She didn’t even know the girl’s name, yet the elf in heavy plate hit like a storm front.
They met, and the armored girl surged forward like a loosed arrow. Her blows were swift despite the iron shell. The metal hung on her like a feathered cloak, weightless in motion, quick as wind through bamboo.
Her lance stretched three full meters, a silver river of steel. The tip painted ribbons through the air, light as a whipping reed—yet the shaft thudded like falling stone. When it smashed down, woodchips flew like startled sparrows.
Even Lingwei’s catball familiar got sent sky-high, like a baseball cleanly homered.
“Fuzzball!”
“Lingwei, watch out!”
Yue Liuyi flung spells like sparks in dry grass, trying to cover Lingwei. The effect was faint, a drizzle on a shield wall.
The blue-haired girl had never met a brute like this. The girl’s hits lacked Sikong Qinhui’s raw lethality and Wan Han’s eerie tricks. But her defense stood peak-high, a cliff against waves.
None of Yue Liuyi’s spells bit. Even the Stellar Moon Compass, once always sure, spun like a lost needle and showed no sway.
“Ugh… I’m getting countered.”
It wasn’t just Yue Liuyi. Even Zaocun and Dixue were bogged down. The silver-haired archer’s arrows skated off that armor like rain off slate. Cherry Blossom Butterfly Speech fell soft as petals, without a cut to show.
Heavy infantry is the bane of archers, a mountain to a reed.
And Zaocun? A ninja can’t trade heads with a samurai. That’s a shadow trying to shove a boulder.
One armored girl blocked everything, a city wall in one body. Storms crashed and broke, yet she didn’t crumble.
“Outsiders, you go no farther.”
“Great… we hit a tough one.”
She was likely a Silverwing Elf commander, another not to be underestimated, like Kashiya.
Yue Liuyi studied the armored girl, eyes cool as night water. Feeling first, a prickle of dread, then thought lined up. That armor had to be a treasure, letting the wearer shrug gravity while keeping brutal mass.
Those etched sigils bent spell trajectories like reeds bending wind. Any straight-cast magic slid off and died.
“Hmm… at a time like this…”
While Yue Liuyi reached for a plan, a cerulean light bloomed behind her, quiet as a pond ripple.
“Reinforcements—for them?”
No. Shock flickered across the blue-haired girl’s face. The light wasn’t aimed at her, or at LittleSnow. It flew for the armored girl.
The blue orb struck true, a thunderclap trapped in glass. Lightning crawled over the plate, weaving cobalt arcs like vines of fire.
“What—”
One hit, and the armored elf girl froze mid-kneel, locked like a statue. Pain rippled on her severe features, a crack in marble.
A familiar figure walked out behind the girls, like a lantern in fog.
Short honey-gold curls. Sleek glasses. A retro Victorian dress. And that mechanical arm, humming with blue light like bottled sea.
“Man, elven prison was dull. TV only, no games… Still, Lingwei, I’ve heard your exploits.”
“Senior Maria?!”
“Lady Maria!!!!”
It was their teammate, Maria.
The girls went wide-eyed. Zero Wei sprinted like a kitten at feeding time and pounced.
Tears bright as dewdrops, Zero Wei burrowed into the lady’s arms, nuzzling Maria’s cheek like any cat, boy or girl, honest as sunlight.
“Alright, alright. Even if you cling, I don’t have a console for you now.”
“Seeing Lady Maria is enough!”
“There, be good…”
“So good!”
Even Ailuna, watching from the side, smiled from the heart, like a bud opening after rain.
But—
The armored elf girl hadn’t fallen.
“You… shall not pass…”
Her limbs trembled with numbness, her mind hazed like mist, yet she would not yield. Duty hammered in her chest. She was Captain of the Royal Guard.
It was her honor. It was her vow.
She charged again.
This time, her rush hit harder. The lightning coiled around her plate turned into her own spear-tip, a storm riding a storm.
“Everyone, careful!”
The lady raised her mechanical arm, loosed a brighter bolt, and stopped that rush with a streak of skyfire.
“Dixue, you all have bigger business, right? Go. Leave this to me.”
Lightning framed Maria’s fine-boned face, all edges and poise.
“Huh? You’re saying the ‘I’ll hold them here’ line on entrance? Careful, you’re flagging a death scene.”
“Dixue, what nonsense. I’m not dying here. This kind of enemy is your hard counter, isn’t it?”
“Ugh… hard to argue…”
“Then it’s time for Maria, Magitek Scholar, to shine.”
“Alright… then Lingwei stays to back Maria up.”
“Eh!? I can?!”
“Yeah. You two haven’t met in a while. You’ve got a lot to say, right?”
“Absolutely!”
Lingwei nodded fast, fired up like kindling.
“Then this elf girl’s yours.”
“You… must not advance…”
No matter how many times she was knocked down, the armored girl rose again, like a spring that refused to break.
“Your opponent’s me.”
Maria struck at the girl still lunging, a hawk meeting a spear.
Steel and thunder danced. Lightning and a lance braided in the air.
…
…
They left the Retrograde-Roots District. Four girls walked the road toward the Elven Royal Palace, a path like a silver thread through leaves.
“Wow! Not just the big sisters—your teammates are monsters too!”
Ailuna still glowed from the scene, clueless about the how, thrilled by Maria’s entrance, bright as a lantern.
Watching the girl’s excitement, Yue Liuyi felt a warm sting of nostalgia. A month ago, facing the Murder Fiend, she had been just like Ailuna—wide-eyed, heart drumming like rain.
“Mm. Ailuna, our seniors are strong and solid.”
“Hehe, yep! And Ailuna, Little Yue used to be so cute. When she watched her sister fight, she wore this adoring face. Super moe!”
“Eh? Yue Liuyi-chan was like that?”
“Ugh! LittleSnow, why would— I didn’t make that face!”
“Little Yue’s lying again~”
“Zaocun supports Sister Dixue’s view.”
“You two… don’t tease me out of nowhere!”
“Hehe. Daily tease Little Yue (1/1) complete.”
“Ugh…”
Either way, they pushed on and finally stood before the Elven Royal Palace.
It was carved from crystal. Sunlight filtered through leaves and broke on its planes. Even by day, it gleamed like rainbowed glass, breathtaking as frost on a dawn window.
“Why is no one here… and how do we open this door…”
Yue Liuyi peered at the entrance, a mirror of ice and light.
She’d braced for a fiercer battle. Yet the vast palace had not a single Elven Guard. The crystal gate looked frozen under winter’s grip. It wouldn’t budge.
“Mm… so annoying.”
Dixue stepped up. Her white palm brushed the ice, like snow touching snow.
“LittleSnow… this is…”
“A high-cost seal. You’d need a flood of mana to crack it, same as at the Elven Parliament.”
“Eh? High as in… how high?”
“For normal folks? A whole mage unit’s worth. For your Sister Dixue? Enough to strip me of combat power, clean.”
“Uh? That’s bad!”
“Ugh… Zaocun can’t do magic either!”
Zaocun scrambled up the gate like a kitten on glass. Big eyes studied the frost. No lock meant no trick. Even a cat-burglar couldn’t pick a frozen sky.
They’d reached the Elven Royal Palace at last, but this twist chilled the bones—Tisinate had shut her gates tight.
“If only we had pegasi… Silverwing Elves can fly out anytime, and we’re stuck like fish in a dry pond.”
“Yeah… even rainbow hawk-beasts would help. Should we ask Xiao Bai?”
“Little Yue, normal rainbow hawk-beasts won’t work. They’re instinctively awed by the World Tree’s core. They hate arrows too. If only we had something tougher to ride—”
Dixue was mid-sigh when a very familiar voice crackled from somewhere above, like a shout through a tin can.
“Dixue!!! Get over here and pilot your thing!!! It’s gonna sink!!!”
“Eh?”
They looked up. In the thick crown of the World Tree, something was flying their way, a glint in green surf.
“T-That voice…”
Whooosh—splash of leaves.
A silver-white ship burst from the canopy, sleek as a whale and bright as frost. Yue Liuyi knew that hull like a childhood lullaby.
Dixue’s “mount”—the Skyship.
But the black-haired girl in the cockpit didn’t know her rudder. The whale swam drunk in the sky, wobbling toward them like a kite in a gale.
“It’s gonna sink!!!!!”
“Dawn Goose, don’t steer it here!!!!”
The Skyship was barreling straight at them. The silver-haired girl blanched, snatching up Yue Liuyi. Zaocun grabbed Ailuna, both diving aside like squirrels from a falling branch.
“It’s not responding!!”
Sweat beaded on Dawn Goose’s brow. Her hands scrambled over the wheel like sparrows in a storm.
“Help!!”
“Yaaaahhhh!”
K-THOOM!
The Skyship,
under Dawn Goose’s brave, terrible hands,
smashed straight into the ice-crystal gate.
