Damn my crow-tongued mouth—every word I spit calls bad luck like black wings.

Magic pressed in from outside, thick as storm-cloud breath. Rage spiked; Nana Toki almost headbutted the cave wall. Whatever I dread, arrives. Is this plane’s Heaven’s Dao out for my blood?

Why so targeted?

System: “...” You keep ruining other people’s plans. The plane cranking its difficulty to max is what you deserve.

Nana Toki: “...” Whose side are you on, System—mine or Heaven’s Dao’s?

The mountain’s foot had already been ringed by rebels from the Marl Kingdom. From the cave mouth, Nana looked down on a black tide of armor.

Their blood-red Demon Hands hung bare to the air, reeking of an eerie god-and-ghost aura. She tallied fast—less than the force in Dragonbreak City, but still several thousand strong.

And most had been infected by those Demon Hands. Overall strength? Several tiers above Dragonbreak City.

Figures—an extremist martial nation. For “power,” they’ll use any poison under the sun.

In the crowd, she spotted mages who’d defected from the Hedon Kingdom. They clustered in circles, chanting a spell she didn’t recognize. Mana thickened around them like stormglass.

A grim chill rose. Even if she could resist that spell, she’d be gutted by it.

No points left for an amp potion this time.

And she doubted her current cover could weather those side effects again.

“How is it, Rock Candy?”

Back in the cave, Ling’er Long caught Nana’s heavy look and edged closer, worry shadowing her brows. “They’re here, aren’t they?”

“Yeah.”

Nana swept a quick glance at Lorin and Yu Ang, then nodded. “Marl Kingdom’s troops sit below us. Ebolun knows our position down to the breath. If we stay, they’ll be on us fast.”

“Kurus, help me up. I’ll go knock them back. Hss—” Leaning on stone, Yu Ang tried to rise. Pain caught him like a tide and tore through every corner of his body.

“What fight? With those wounds, you’d sprint out just to donate your head.” Nana cut him a glare sharp as ice. “Don’t add to the mess, you cripple. I woke you so you wouldn’t run off and die. Spare me the bravado.”

He got railroaded by Heaven’s Dao’s plot-kill and lost his brain, huh? So eager to die.

“Princess...” Lorin murmured, a gentle check on her words. Nana didn’t care.

“Instead of fussing, think how you can lighten our load later.”

“...”

Predictable. Nana’s blunt, barbed words pinned Yu Ang into silence. She wasn’t wrong. Right now, he was a burden. Let him thrash and they’d all be buried with him.

Boom—!

The cave shook; a blast rolled from outside. Nana’s hand shot to steady Ling’er Long’s shoulder. Magic pressure pounded the mountain like a drum.

Lorin and Kurus clamped Yu Ang by both shoulders, keeping him safe.

“If we keep dragging, they’ll bury us alive in this hole.” Ling’er Long slipped out of Nana’s arms, feigning calm. “We should leave now.”

“Mm.”

“But we’re ringed by troops. Leaving together is unlikely. You go first. I’ll delay them.” Lorin rose, a chipped broken sword in hand, watching Nana weave a slender blood-red ice blade.

“Are you up to it?”

Nana eyed his tattered state with a frown. “Honestly, with that gear, I doubt you could tank a single spell from their mages.”

Lorin: “...” Do you have to drag me like that? I’m still a Hero, you know!

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. I’m strong now. Even wounded, I can stall those soldiers and cover your retreat.” He flicked the broken blade, showing he’d caught his breath. “And right now, the Princess and the Dragon Princess can’t blow their identities. That leaves the job to me.”

“Listen to yourself. What, Kurus doesn’t count as a person? You looking down on civil officials?” Nana tossed.

Lorin: “...” Does the Princess itch if she doesn’t argue?

Kurus, hit by strays: “...”

“Enough, Rock Candy, quit the snark. Lorin’s not wrong. Yu Ang’s badly hurt. Our identities shouldn’t surface yet. He’s the only one who can go.”

It was pure necessity. If Yu Ang weren’t so wrecked, Ling’er Long could maybe pull everyone out whole. But with him failing and pursuit this heavy, having Lorin hold the rear was forced.

Boom—!

Before Ling’er finished, another blast rattled the cave. Dust fell like ashen rain.

“Cough, cough—no more stalling. Princess, be ready. I’ll go draw the rebels’ eyes.”

He lifted the broken blade and bolted from the cave, charging down toward the Marl Kingdom lines.

“Flowlight Chain Slash!”

Thud—!

He shot from the cave like a fired shell and slammed into their ranks, kicking up a high pall of dust that veiled the cave mouth.

“Hah!”

A heartbeat later, several rebels hadn’t even reacted. A few streaks of broken-blade light flashed by. Their throats burned; their bodies locked; they toppled like felled logs, lifeless.

“Go!”

Seeing Lorin plunge forward without looking back, Nana grabbed Ling’er Long’s hand and sprinted the other way, out a second exit.

She wasn’t worried Lorin would die to common rebels. With a true protagonist’s plot armor and luck, he rarely dies. At worst, he’d lose an arm or leg. His life would hold.

What haunted her was this move leaving only Lorin to cover—would the Four Heavenly Kings strike from the dark?

Lorin said her and Ling’er Long’s identities weren’t exposed. Nana didn’t buy it. Back in the Marl capital, the air had stunk of wrongness. Think it through—Jade Ring Long likely made some pact with the Four Heavenly Kings. How else would they know their every move?

She led Ling’er Long, Kurus, and Yu Ang through the rear slopes into the border forest. There, she stopped. She turned to Yu Ang and asked a question that cut sideways:

“Do you still want to fight?”

“What?”

Breathing hard, leaning on Kurus, Yu Ang stared at Nana, confused. Fight?

Who—me?

“How does a cripple with ruined limbs fight?”

He panted just from walking out of the cave. What fight could he talk about? His martial path—his whole life—had been ended by the enemy with a bitter period.

“I asked if you want to. Not for excuses.” Nana, irritable, drew an Amber Talisman from her pocket and slapped it onto a nearby tree. “So what’s your answer? Want it or not?”

“I want it.”

Of course Yu Ang wanted it.

But—

“My martial path’s hit its limit.”

He couldn’t even move fists or feet now. How was he different from what people call a waste?

“At its limit? Who told you that?” Anger stiff on her face, Nana’s mouth curved into a smile. “Does that ‘limit’ even exist? Or is it a shackle you nailed onto yourself?”

“What do you warriors seek in your ‘steel and peak’? Why grind shoulders and legs every day?”

“If every warrior loses their will because they lost hands and feet, the world’s warriors are pathetic indeed.”

Her words struck like bronze chimes, cutting Yu Ang’s martial path down to scraps.

“...”

“Fine, I’ll rephrase. Do you want to break your limit?”

The forest was quiet as a sleeping beast. Only far-off blasts of magic rolled now and then. No other souls in sight.

Nana’s voice lured like a witch’s whisper in a lost wood.

“W-what do you mean?”

Yu Ang swallowed. His heartbeat hammered. Every eye—Ling’er Long’s and Kurus’s included—fixed on Nana.

“Exactly what I said. Break your limit. Climb to the peak.”

Nana took out a clear glass vial. Inside, a single drop of some unknown creature’s blood gleamed like a ruby tear.

“I think you’re worth using this for a little experiment.”