Here, the melody runs cold.

For some reason, Ye Weibai didn’t look at the little girl’s face. He opened his eyes, blank as a winter lake, and his gaze slid to her neck. He stared—such a very, very beautiful neck. Her skin was born fine, white as first snow, and under that soft sheen you could almost see glassy veins. Bright blood flowed inside like pomegranate juice in sun, so vivid, so lovely, as if—it might taste good.

Crack, squelch—

“—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Mmmf, mmmf—”

Chew, chew, chew, chew.

Ye Weibai shook blood from his knuckles, then walked toward Owen. “Even in my human shape—”

Tap.

He looked down at the barely breathing Owen and smiled. “I can kill you with ease.”

“No—no way… how could it be… Ye Weibai.” Autumn murmured, her voice a leaf trembling in wind. “No, impossible. The World is so big… must be the same name.” She forced herself to believe “Ye Weibai” wasn’t the one she feared, to quiet her heart. Yet the Deity’s peculiar intuition kept whispering—without a doubt, that “Ye Weibai” was that Ye Weibai. Her—

Ye Weibai hadn’t lied. He did have a sister, though not named Ye Fei. Her name was Ye Qiu. He liked to call her Little Qiu, or Qiuzi, like a pet name tucked in his sleeve.

As yesterday, the sky outside piled with dark clouds like a heavy lid. The light was smothered, storm-breath gathering. Even the air thickened, pressing on the lungs like wet wool.

There were no lights inside. By thin moonwash on the floor, she could barely sketch the room in her mind. Mm… a bed, a wardrobe, a desk. Just three quiet shapes in the tide of shadow—nothing special at a glance.

“Brother Bai, are you okay…” A timid voice at the door cut through Ye Weibai’s bitter memories like a reed flute in mist. He looked up and saw a girl of eight or nine standing at the threshold. She was small, in a cotton-white shirt and a pale yellow skirt falling below her knees, short ash-blond hair, and cheeks round as apples. Right now, her dusk-dark eyes watched him with worry. “It’s Aya.”

“Brother Bai!” Just then, the wooden door pushed open, and a little girl with chestnut short hair came in, breaking his thoughts like a pebble on still water. “Dinner time!” Daisy tilted her head and smiled, bright as a lantern.

“Ordinary Monstrosities, if their hearts shatter or their heads fall, will slowly die without help,” Ye Weibai said, voice calm as snow. “But with Hyper-Regeneration, I’m different—only if you smash my Demon Core will I die.” He handed the little girl a sharp stone he’d found who-knows-where. “Don’t worry. A Demon Core is fragile. Most Monstrosities hide it deep, but once it’s outside— It’s no harder than glass. One stone is enough to crush it—enough to kill me.”

Suddenly, the headless corpse surged up, murder coiling around it like cold smoke. Purple claws stabbed for the woman’s skull like thorned lances. No one could have imagined it. Even a Monstrosity can’t live without a head. If it were a normal person—even an Exorcist with shallow experience—they’d die with no grave.

Owen trembled as he pulled a red Demon Core from his breast. Its scent matched Ye Weibai’s, only smaller, as if Ye Weibai’s original core had been split in two. He strangled the urge to swallow it, then carefully pressed it into the gaping hole in the girl’s chest like setting a jewel into ice.

Remember.

Purple fingers scraped lines on the ground like twigs scoring frost.

If you want to cry but can’t, take out the “gift” I put in your pocket.

Once it’s out,

just stab it in.

Like this—aim for the red fruit at your back and drive it through.

Huh? You ask why?

Maybe because—

people can only save themselves.

As when he came, Ye Weibai moved through the cosmos, a lone boat on a black sea. This time, with experience, he didn’t drift in the absolute stillness and dark. He was thinking. Now that I think about it—the Time rewind didn’t happen only three times. Those memories were too brutal, so I “chose” to forget them.

“This world is so boring, so boring, so boring, so boring, so boring, so boring, so boring!” “Eh, forget it.” “I won’t wait.” “I’ll break it.” Boom—!!!

“Why? Why did you kill Little Ash… and maybe Time as well.”

“You should know.”

“Just to get close to me? If that’s it, you didn’t have to kill them.”

“What’s done is done.”

“True. What’s done is done.”

“...Sorry.”

“Sorry for what? If you don’t say it, I won’t get it.”

“Sorry. I ruined both the Alpha and the Beta lines. Next time—next time I’ll be careful. I won’t be so hasty.”

“Next time?”

“The Alpha-1 line.”

“Before I answer you,” Time paused, a clockhand catching on dust. “Even if I tell you, you won’t hear it.”

“...Won’t hear it?”

“Yes. As a human, you can’t hear that thing’s name.”

Ye Weibai pressed his lips, the way dawn holds back its first light, then nodded. “I want to try.”

“As you wish—”

“...”

…

…

After a long while with no sound, Ye Weibai frowned. “So who is it?”

“...”

Time’s voice was cold as rain on stone. “Since we started, I’ve already said its name thirteen times.”