The first thread of the tale is simple, straight as a blade skimming water.

A girl sailed, storm in her chest, to avenge her father, and slew the Demon King.

On a lone island, in a silence like salt, she found no trace of him.

Then truth fell like a cold bell: the Demon King she had slain was her father.

In crashing despair, she wished upon a tear-shaped diamond dropped from the sky.

She wished: destroy the World, or destroy me.

That diamond was the Misfortune Diamond, a tear that hears, a pebble that bends rivers.

It heard her, and nudged the World by subtle tides and unseen winds.

Without Ye Weibai stepping into the story, the air around Hero King and Demon King would twist.

Humanity would harden against It, like frost against a window.

Misfortune would pile like snow on a cornice, until the World avalanched and broke.

Ye Weibai arrived like a lantern in fog, and changed the path.

He solved the Cycle, and borrowed Its force.

He crossed the layer behind the Z World, to the hidden isle.

Heart heavy, he killed the girl.

He fulfilled her wish, took the tear, and saved the World.

The second thread is narrower, yet tangled, like roots under a stone.

It is the struggle between It and those who refuse the chains of fate.

Aerin is a cage, iron under silk.

The last Hero King forged the cage, hammer ringing on dusk.

Ye Weibai added locks and hidden gears, like night sewing a trap.

He also led It toward that cage, step by step, like crumbs on a path.

Emperor, Saintess, Augustine—each was a hand in the plan, a star in the pattern.

They knew only their own fragment, like blind men reading rain.

They did not know who else moved, nor how vast the plan, like walls without doors.

The Swordsman was the same.

He simply swung at It, following his heart, like wind obeying a ridge.

Only by such scattering could the plan slip past Its gaze.

As for Crimson Blossom, Silver, Stardust, and Lustrous—

They were outside the plan, wild flowers in a field of lines.

They were unlucky girls, stained by Misfortune, like ink in clear water.

After meeting Ye Weibai, he folded them in as companions, and laid pieces anew.

A note worth saying: Stardust—the gray-haired, gray-eyed little girl—is a shard of the island girl.

Her purpose was a search, a moth seeking flame.

She sought someone strong enough to break the World, thunder for a mountain.

Why did the child wear the “vanishing Misfortune” like mist?

It was the World’s self-defense, instinct like a beast guarding its den.

The World sensed the source of ruin in Stardust, yet could not strike her directly.

So it wrapped her with that force, erasing Misfortune around her, like tide washing footprints.

“Xiaobai, did you know?”

“What?”

“They say love can hit like a heart attack.”