“Wait! Stay your blade!”

“Huh!?”

At the instant Tisinate’s longsword kissed Canary’s throat, a voice swept in like a gust through iron chimes.

Panting like a winded sparrow, Alisa shook her head and drifted to Tisinate’s side like a pale wisp.

“Huff… I’m beat to death.”

“Eh? Senior Alisa.”

“Honestly! When you hit something from a thousand years ago, maybe ask the person who was there, yeah? Another heartbeat and the Evil Deity’s plot would’ve bloomed.”

She shook her head like a willow shedding rain; when the Evil Deity’s thralls ambushed us, screams rose on every front, so Alisa split off as a lone ‘spirit’ like a lantern in fog.

It took no small effort; she snuffed out the human kingdom of Lajins like a candle pinched by two fingers.

She hauled Emily and Tiger Girl from that heavy knight crawling with insects, like pulling kittens from a snake pit.

After that, catching Canary’s scent, Alisa floated for the engine room like a kite chasing its string—and still almost missed the bell.

“Y-you’re… A-A… lisa?”

Of all of them, Canary was the most stunned; the dark elf froze like a deer in torchlight, forgetting struggle, forgetting rage.

“Didn’t you die? How…?”

“Huff… thanks to Toria, I’ve got a temporary lease on life… Canary, dressed like this, you’re not you at all.”

She looked Canary up and down, then eyed Tisinate, and shook her head like a disappointed teacher. “Skin-tight black leather, black thigh-highs, ruby lipstick… that look’s a wilted rose! You’re Elven Queens—how’d your taste fall into a pit?”

“B-but my skin turned black! I can only wear this! A dress would look awful, like mud on moonlight! And it fits my avenger vibe!”

“Since when did little Canary join the Avenger Alliance? We’re not watching movies from some ancient planet; quit the superhero daydream.”

“Not a hero. I’m the villain! The big bad who wipes you and the World Tree Maiden out like a storm fells forests!”

“Huh? That’s called a supervillain, not an Avenger.”

“I said it already! Ailuna betrayed me, so I’m here for revenge! Alisa! Can you stop cutting people off like before and let me finish a sentence?!”

“Oh! So little Canary got bullied by Ailuna again? I see! Then tonight, what’s Canary wearing to cheat with me under the moon?”

“I said—listen till I finish talking!”

…

Watching these two ancient girls spar with words like blades, the onlooking girls fell silent like snow before dawn.

Especially Yue Liuyi; she looked at Alisa, then at LittleSnow, and found the two bow-wielding girls shared a thin red thread.

They both flip fates like a chessboard; when danger peaks, they drop in like thunder, and everything veers into mist.

No wonder when Lia prayed for Dixue to appear, Alisa popped out instead like a fox from a shrine…

But Dixue’s nature is simple, spring-clear; none of Alisa’s shameless laziness. Like now, LittleSnow only hugged her Little Yue from behind like a squirrel clutching a nut, whispering, “See, Little Yue? This is what happens when you flirt without brakes… it turns into a brutal love-war battlefield.”

“A… battlefield?”

“In the end, you don’t just trip yourself; you leave a thousand-year mess for others to sweep—so embarrassing it’s a stain on snow.”

“Mm… b-but I’m a boy! For boys, there are plenty of successful harem cases, like stars across the river.”

“Ah! Forgot Little Yue has that pervy power! Ugh… what do I do, my Little Yue’s a perv! Help, urgent, online!”

Dixue made a show of placing a call, but inside the Rainbow Sanctuary there was no signal, only silence like a sealed well.

“How is turning into a boy pervy?”

“You’ll get it when you transform into a boy while wearing a dress like moonlight silk.”

“Huh!? Ugh…!”

…

While Dixue and Yue Liuyi whispered like mice under eaves, Canary and Alisa’s exchange neared its last note.

“So… you’re mad because Ailuna put you on the shelf too long, like fruit drying on a branch?”

“That’s not neglect play! And it’s not ‘mad’—it’s revenge!”

“Okay, okay, born from love, turned to hate, right? Then let me soothe little Canary’s wounds tonight, heart and body, like balm on frostbite.”

“I said I’m a villain now! A villain, got it? The kind where if I don’t die, the story can’t move, like a jammed gear!”

“Huh? So you truly want to be a villain, little Canary. But not everyone can wear that mantle; it’s a dragon’s skin.”

“Hah?”

“I died early back then, so I don’t know your details, but as the warden of the Abyss Between… if you die, doesn’t the Evil Deity slip its chains like a snake from old skin?”

“Of course… huh?”

“Just as I thought—the Evil Deity’s scheme is slick as oil, same as a thousand years ago. On that alone, you can’t play the villain.”

Alisa turned, solemn as a priestess in rain, and faced Dixue and Tisinate. “Can I ask you both not to kill Canary? If she dies, the seal of the Abyss Between cracks like ice. She’s the Evil Deity’s chosen now, but she can be redeemed, washed clean.”

“Washed… clean?”

“Mm… what’s Alisa’s method?”

“Physical method, of course.”

Alisa glanced at the dark elf trussed like a zongzi, then nodded with bright confidence. “Even with heavy melanin, I’m sure my family’s secret salve can flush it out like spring water.”

“I don’t want to be whitened! That salve itches like ants under the skin!”

Canary still thrashed like a netted mare, refusing to bow, like a captive knight glaring at a devil’s rack with chin held high.

Sadly, she faced not one devil but two—silver-white and gold—so Canary’s fate was a leaf in another’s current.

“Mm, I agree. Little Yue and I just need the Eternal Tear; everything else’s negotiable. You can even keep her in a gilded cage; I don’t care.”

“I’m fine with that. For me, destroying the Evil Deity and protecting Ailuna are the key stones.”

Tisinate and Dixue both nodded like cranes; their purpose was always to cut the Evil Deity’s root and salt the earth.

On the other side, a pink-haired girl leaned in like a curious kitten, baffled by the talk.

“Um, I don’t know what’s going on… but are you big sisters putting this black big sister in the washing machine? If it’s Ailuna’s fault, Ailuna can go in instead.”

“Ailuna-chan, ‘whitewash’ doesn’t mean that.”

“Huh!? It doesn’t? But rolling round and round sounds fun, like a festival drum!”

“Fun… Ailuna, have you tried it?”

“Yes, when I was bored I climbed in! Ah! Ailuna doesn’t want to play again! Ailuna just wants to take responsibility like a big girl.”

And so, the defense of the Skyship ended like rain leaving clean stones.

The girls took no grave wounds, and they captured the Elven Queen, Canary—victory blooming like a peony.

But elsewhere, the air curdled like milk…

…

…

The moment Dixue appeared, Wan Han slipped away like a shadow thinning at dawn.

He’d boarded the Skyship by bending a black hole like a door, so fleeing for him was a sparrow’s hop.

Even so, the raid was a wreck, a shattered gourd.

They failed their first aim—capture the World Tree Maiden; they failed their second—kill Canary; both goals fell like arrows in mud.

What pinched Wan Han’s brow further was this—there were three World Tree Maidens, like three moons.

The blue, a bit dopey, called Yue Liuyi; he’d met her in the Lost City, yet never sensed the World Tree’s sap in her veins.

The green, cold as moss, was Breeze; he knew her power, and her thorniness—if she wills it, even the Red Giant Evil God turns to stone like a statue in frost.

The pink, soft as dawn, was the planet’s own World Tree Maiden, Ailuna; she looks fragile, yet her soul-speech is a bell that rings through bones.

Wan Han’s target was only Ailuna; seize her, and the Evil Deity breaks free, then swells to full tide.

“Husband…”

A pink-haired girl reached out; her cool, smooth palm pressed to Wan Han’s back like porcelain warmed by breath. The face wasn’t hers, but he knew—inside, it was his wife’s soul.

“What is it, Xiao Chu?”

“Are we… wrong?”

She lowered her head like a drooping lily; long lashes trembled, and on the World Tree Maiden’s features, the beauty was blade-sharp.

“How could we be wrong? Those people will never let us live under the same sky, never!”

He said it like iron, but in his chest, doubt spread like ink in water.

All because of one line from Breeze.

“If her soul’s preserved, I can help her return.”

“So… can you stop your revenge?”

A World Tree Maiden’s mercy was wider than he’d ever imagined, like an ocean beyond the map.

Because of that one sentence, Wan Han’s hand slipped during the raid; Canary had to step out early, and he pulled himself from the fight like a hook tearing free.

…

“Han…”

“Xiao Chu, I’m fine, just…”

Cradled by his wife’s warmth like a winter fire, Wan Han sank into thought.

His past taught him this: only power keeps the sky from falling, like pillars in a hall.

So he became a Murder Fiend, burned everything to temper himself, even took the Evil Deity’s favor like poison as medicine, all to trade for his wife’s return.

But that still had a premise.

Destroy the Evil Deity.

If not, he and Xiao Chu would live under another’s strings, the old tragedy looping like a broken music box.

He’d planned to use a World Tree Maiden’s power to cut that knot; the failed expedition to the Light Fortress snapped that thread.

Now he’d sunk into the Evil Deity’s tool, a blade in another’s sheath, with no strength left to slay the master.

Unless… there was another path.

He was damned beyond return like ash on wind, but Xiao Chu could still have a hearth and a morning.

He lifted his gaze to the distance like a wolf scenting dawn and made his choice.

He didn’t expect—

“Han, run!”

“What!”

The killing edge came from behind, quick as moonlight and cold as winter steel.