We finally reached the heart of the Naraku Abyss, the still eye of a storm wrapped in ink-black night.

Thrusters flared like fireflies; the Skyship drifted down to the rim of a colossal clockface.

The hatch sighed open. The girls filed out, nerves tight as bowstrings, blades catching the dim like frost.

Contrary to every omen, the place was quiet—so quiet their breaths sounded like oars in a dead lake.

The space felt grave-cold and lifeless. No wind, no monsters, no enemies—no scrape of anything that moves, only a hush like snow.

Even the pointer underfoot had stopped. On the dial spanning thousands of meters, magic no longer surged, and the runes for the twelve Rainbow Fortresses—nine were already dark.

“Are we late? What is this?”

Unease first—Dawn Goose tightened her grip on her longsword, eyes sweeping the void like a hawk over winter fields.

They had braced for a brutal fight here. The Red Giant Evil God—half unsealed—was no foe to take lightly.

Yet no Red Giant Evil God appeared. Not even its apostles or thralls showed their shadows.

“Stick to the plan for now. Circle up—protect the World Tree Maidens.”

Dixue squeezed Yue Liuyi’s hand. The others took their places, backs to backs, like lanterns set around a shrine.

The scene was strange, but comrades at their shoulders steadied their hearts like warm tea in cold hands.

And they had a captive—someone who knew this place like her own shadow.

“What’s going on? Your Highness Canary, do you know?”

“Uh—I’m the villain who’s supposed to erase the World Tree Maidens. Why would I answer you?”

A breath to soften the edge—“Lady Alisa, could I ask you to make her talk?”

“No problem. I know all of little Canary’s weak spots…”

“What are you—mmph!”

As the saying goes, each beast has its bane. If Yue Liuyi was Dixue’s ultimate trump, then Alisa was Canary’s perfect nemesis.

Before the spirit maiden even moved, Canary shivered and blurted it all out. “I don’t know either! I may manage the Naraku Abyss, but I can’t undo the seal. Only when all twelve Rainbow Fortresses fall will the Evil Deity be released.”

Dixue’s gaze cooled like moonlight. “So normally, as long as you’re alive and the twelve still stand, the Evil Deity won’t manifest in its true body?”

“Y-yes…”

“As I thought. Then how did the apostles and the enslaved appear? And who ordered your strike on the Skyship?”

“The Lord Evil Deity—um, the Red Giant Evil God—told us through mind-whispers.”

Canary corrected the title, shrinking like a lamb ringed by lions. “It spoke to us alone. Under its command and power, we shaped one Evil Deity construct after another. So I don’t know about Wan Han. He acted alone.”

“Once an elven heroine, and now this. A fall all the way to the roots…”

“That’s all because of the previous Ailuna! She deceived me! And I didn’t target anyone else. My only enemies are the World Tree Maidens!”

Fear in her chest, iron in her voice—her resolve struck like a bell.

“In that case… let’s go see the truth together.”

“Eh? LittleSnow, where do we look?”

“The center of the dial, of course. Records say the previous Ailuna’s body rests there.”

…

…

The previous Ailuna’s body still lay there, ringed in ghost-blue light—the only flicker in a sea of stillness.

Dead for many years, the pink-haired girl looked merely asleep, her flawless face sacred and unassailable, like a moon behind thin cloud.

“Truly… she’s exactly like Ailuna.”

Tisinate glanced from the Ailuna floating midair to the Ailuna whose hand she held. Dazed, she shook her head; after living day and night with Ailuna, knowing every inch of her skin, she nearly mixed the two.

“Whoa! So that’s the previous Ailuna? She feels amazing!”

Ailuna’s eyes shone like a child meeting her idol on a mountain at dawn.

Across the way, Canary felt sick. Her fist tightened, wanting to strike, but the girls’ restraints held her like iron vines.

And even if she were free, the ghost-blue fire guarding Ailuna would smother every attack, as it had countless times across the centuries—every attempt ending in frost and failure.

“So there was a place like this…”

“This material… it’s unreal…”

They wandered like explorers in a secret realm, marveling. The dial’s heart was odd: the pointer’s axis beneath their feet, mirror-stone all around etched with layered arrays like frost-ferns.

But those arrays were dim as ashes. A scholar among them—the Gray Master—studied briefly, then told Dixue, “Butterfly Snow President, these arrays are at the end of their lifespan. The seal will loosen violently soon.”

“So we came just in time? Then no delays. Let’s assist the Evil Deity and break the seal.”

At Dixue’s order, heads nodded. They moved with the calm rhythm of a practiced drill.

It was the plan all along—release the Evil Deity from its seal, then drag it into the starry void and end it there for good.

“Huh!?”

No one was more shocked than Canary. The poor dark elf had thought they came to reinforce the seal. Who could guess their goal mirrored her own—to break it?

“Are you insane? That’s the Evil Deity! Why would you break the seal!”

“Relax, we won’t kill you. The Rangers Lodge doesn’t execute prisoners.”

“I’m not afraid of death! Aren’t you righteous? Why help the Evil Deity?”

“Long story, Your Highness. Just watch.”

Under Canary’s wide-eyed stare, Dixue slipped a small mirror from her skirt.

A gift from Ailuna, a wondrous relic that still worked even in the Naraku Abyss.

“Hey, hey! Maria, you there?”

“More or less! This is Maria’s assistant, Zero Wei!”

A cat-eared girl beamed from the glass like sunlight through leaves.

“Hi, Zero Wei. Tell Maria to shut down the wards of the Light Fortress, the Forest Fortress, and the Gold Fortress.”

“Right now? Zero Wei—received!”

Under Wan Han’s rampage, most fortresses in the Rainbow Sanctuary already lay in ruins.

Only the ones they controlled remained: the Light Fortress, the Forest Fortress, and the Gold Fortress.

If these seals fell too, the twelve Rainbow Fortresses’ sealing system would fail completely. Then, even with Canary alive, stopping the Evil Deity would be near impossible.

Maria went to shut the fortresses down, while the girls used the moment to ready for the Evil Deity.

Like priming the Skyship’s antigrav engines, so they’d lift like a feather at a snap.

Like setting shields and battle formations, to bind the foe the instant it appeared.

Like feeding Ailuna little cookies, sweet as festival offerings.

Like giving Breeze some golden fertilizer pellets, a hearty meal for green strength.

Like teasing Little Moon, just to warm the air before the storm.

“I don’t need teasing. My mana’s full now!” Yue Liuyi squeaked, dodging as Yue Dier moved in for a hug.

“Eh? Little Moon’s being tsundere again!”

“I am not!”

“But your face is so red. Totally tsundere!”

“No I’m not! No I’m not!!”

…

…

As they wished, with the girls’ help, every seal broke.

The last sigil for the Rainbow Fortress went dark. The entire dial dimmed like a sunken lantern.

The ground trembled. The pointer that had stopped spun madly, like a compass caught in lightning.

The ghost-blue fire around the previous Ailuna thinned, wavering like a candle at dawn.

“It’s coming! It’s coming!”

Ailuna bounced on her toes like a kid climbing to watch the sunrise.

Breeze stood motionless, unreadable as a stone guardian.

Fear first, then a spark of curiosity—Yue Liuyi wondered if the Evil Deity would match the bestiary’s sketches. A being of pure elements?

Or a human shape, a shabby old man?

Or ugly as its apostles, warped and foul?

No matter how she guessed, she didn’t touch the truth.

“Long time no see… Canary.”

Right before Yue Liuyi’s eyes,

the pink-haired girl who had long been dead

slowly stood up.