Happy hours pass like morning mist; joy never lingers.
No matter how perfect the last meal, no matter the song like spring rain, the girl still walks toward the scaffold to meet her fate.
“We’ll make it quick. There won’t be any pain.”
“I know.”
The pink‑haired girl glanced at the one leading her and smiled, like a candle steady in wind.
Warmth lingered in her small palm, embers sleeping under snow.
To see the Canary at the end of all things—like a final sunrise—that already satisfied her.
Better to accept the call than chase lost days; rivers don’t run backward. Ailuna, the former, knew even if she lived, nothing would be like before.
So there was only—
“Please be quick... The Evil Deity in me could seize control at any time.”
“Mm!” The blue‑haired girl nodded, eyes clear as lake water. “Normal means can hardly kill a World Tree Maiden. We’ll place you in a special vessel and purify.”
“Huh? A vessel...?”
“Yes. We’ll flood it with source springwater infused with three World Tree Maidens’ energy. The magic’s so strong it can melt almost anything.”
“Okay—ugh!”
She had just agreed when her heart thundered like a war drum.
The world went dark, as if drenched in blood. A nameless urge surged; the sky spun; even the cute blue‑haired girl turned monstrous.
(Live! For yourself and the Canary—live!)
The voice scraped her skull like iron, seeped through her veins, and murmured with every rise of blood.
(Kill her. Don’t go in! Kill her. Don’t go in!)
“Ailuna—what’s wrong...?”
“N‑nothing...”
She clenched her fists, trying to smother the voice. Chaotic beings are life’s eternal foes; if she yielded, her body would be erased and her mind chained.
“P‑please, take me to the vessel. Now!”
“Got it!”
The blue‑haired girl nodded and hurried her toward the chamber.
It was a vast spherical pod, like a space capsule, wrought of mithril, solid as a mountain.
It sat in the Skyship’s hold. Under dim lamps, it seemed like a moon in shadow.
“I just walk in... and that’s it?”
“Yeah.”
“Mm.”
Impatient, the pink‑haired girl dashed in, a swallow darting to its nest.
She feared frost would creep in a heartbeat and regret would bite.
In another heartbeat, she’d bow to the Evil Deity’s whisper, reeds bending in a storm.
“Then I’ll start... Ailuna, thank you for what you give to every life on this star.”
She bowed deep, hands moving like flowing water, and sealed the door.
Clang.
With the door shut, the sphere held only the pink‑haired girl.
Darkness swallowed everything; even her own fingers vanished like ink in night.
Oddly, fear loosened, a tight knot untying.
The Evil Deity still roared, clawing for her reins like a beast against bars.
(You fool! Sanctimonious saint! They’ll erase you and the Canary. Let me out—let me end them...)
Ailuna let a smile blossom and lay on the cold floor, like snow settling.
There was nothing left to worry about. Even if it seized her, it couldn’t run.
She hadn’t shamed the World Tree Maidens.
She’d fulfill the vows of those old companions, lanterns set afloat on a river of night.
“It’s begun...”
Soon the top vents poured in high‑energy liquid, bright rain from a hidden sky.
Source springwater like plasma kissed her skin, cool as dew. An ordinary life would melt under that sorcery; she could endure a little longer.
(Had I known you’re such a sanctimonious saint, I’d have fought then! Damn it! Damn it!)
The Evil Deity shrieked in rage, regrets bubbling like tar.
The angrier it got, the lighter Ailuna felt, wind after storm.
“Let’s go to hell together, Evil Deity.”
She closed her eyes.
Facing death, Ailuna
smiled.
...
...
...
“Phew... I’m so nervous. Will it really work?”
“Little Moon, don’t underestimate former Ailuna. She’s a World Tree Maiden who once beat back chaos.”
“I hope... nothing goes wrong.”
What the pink‑haired girl didn’t know: outside, the world buzzed like a dawn market.
Fluorescent lights flicked on. In the dim hold, bright figures bloomed like flowers.
Yue Dier, Yue Liuyi, Xiang Xiaoyan, San Hua Zhi, Maria, Zero Wei, Breeze, Zaocun, Ailuna, Tisinate, Gray Master, Alisa, Ji Wan, Dark Lolita, Lia... everyone worked their stations, hands quick as sparrows.
Not only girls. Little Pink and Little Black, two sprites, had boarded the ship too, wings glinting.
“All normal. Injecting the separation solution.”
“Copy!”
They wouldn’t simply kill former Ailuna. It was these two sprites, living for over a millennium, who brought the turning point.
“I have a way to split the Evil Deity from the World Tree Maiden!”
Back at the Forest Fortress, Yue Liuyi still frowned when the black sprite fluttered in, wings like ink.
“Huh?”
“To save my devoured friends, I’ve studied the Red Giant Evil God’s composition nonstop!”
The black sprite bobbed, earnest as a night star. Her companions were long dissolved, but with Ailuna still herself, she was sure she could peel the deity away.
“Really? You can do that?”
“First we mix a solution, mainly β‑34...”
After that, Yue Liuyi couldn’t follow a word—odd reagents like tongue‑twisters, deep arcane formulas like constellations. Thankfully, Dixue, the research‑minded Gray Master, and tech‑savvy Maria understood. They met and debated feasibility, sparks of thought flying.
It proved viable. To ensure success, even Dragon Heaven’s research teams joined in. Caught by a small leverage, Princess Shao Rong tasked scholars in the New Land and contacted the Governor to ship materials, a convoy like a steel river.
Since the black sprite bore the Evil Deity’s brand, its magical makeup lay exposed to them, bones shown by lightning.
At last came the final test. While brewing the separation solution, the black sprite insisted on using her own body. As expected, her wings regained a pale yellow, dawn breaking on feathers.
“Wow, I feel great! I can finally wear little dresses again!”
She drifted through the air, happy as a bird. With the chaos curse lifted, she brimmed like spring sap.
“Congrats, congrats!”
Dixue hugged Little Moon, delighted, like a mother cat. To her, the experiment had worked. “Heh... Seems the plan’s workable. But unlike Little Yellow, the demon’s core sits in Ailuna’s body. That could be messy.”
“Huh? LittleSnow, then what do we do?”
“A thousand‑year bond is too deep. We need a peel—make the Evil Deity want to leave Ailuna on its own.”
“Leave on its own? But isn’t it using Ailuna’s body as a shield? Why would it?”
“That’s when we disguise things.”
“Disguise?”
“We stage an execution.”
Dixue ruffled Little Moon’s hair and flashed a sly smile, fox‑bright.
So the vessel wasn’t flooded with dense source springwater at all, but with the separation solution the sprites and girls had labored over, a brew like moonlight in a jar.
To fool the deity and heighten crisis, they added strange devices inside, many from inner‑ring science, cold as stars—enough to make it feel doom.
The real kill lay outside. The pink‑haired girl’s vessel was linked to another, shadows whispering through pipes.
On the surface, the inlet was for source springwater. In truth, it was a gate of death for the Evil Deity, a ghost’s door.
On the brink of death, it would try to flee by any means, and the inlet would tempt it like a false dawn. Once it entered...
It would be annihilated.
“Butterfly Snow President, the indicator lit!”
“The rat’s in the jar?”
“Exactly!”
“Close the valve! Inject the real source springwater!”
“Copy!”
The girls nodded and switched orders fast, blades flashing out of scabbards.
Yue Liuyi took Ailuna’s and Breeze’s hands,
and together they poured their energy into the spring, streams feeding a lake under starlight.
Win or lose, it all came down to this strike.
...
...
...
