“Ahem.” The cough scraped the air like gravel on glass. The powerhouses who’d made it back into the city leaned on each other, storm-bent trees holding one another up. Their mood sank like silt. The enemy was just one person, a lone figure under the sky. Yet they’d thrown in forces by the dozen, and he crushed them like a falling cliff. Anyone at the ninth tier carries pride like a sword at the hip. This loss snapped that sword like brittle ice. Ninth-tier experts were toyed with like monkeys on a string; they couldn’t even step into his shadow. The eighth tier barely hacked through blood thralls, like swimmers fighting reeds. Worse, that Vampire’s own followers struck like iron hail. Most eighth-tier adventurers and teachers were held off by him alone, moths pinned under glass.

The central plaza of Starfate City was vast, a stone lake under a gray sky. The duel earlier had been public; most residents had watched, faces like a field of wheat. The City Lord chose not to hide it; truth spreads like smoke anyway. The plaza was packed shoulder to shoulder, a tide of bodies. A muffled gloom hung over everyone like low clouds.

“Make way, please—make way.” The Holy Maiden and Yanfengle wove through the wounded like swallows through rain, spreading healing light.

Ever since they barely slipped back inside, they’d been on the edge of collapse, breath like winter steam. Yanfengle swore this was the most exhausting run of his life, more brutal than any fifty-meter sprint. The blast behind them had boomed like thunder, and he finally understood why real men don’t look back at explosions. After they returned, they rushed to report at the City Lord’s manor, hearts pounding like war drums. A Holy Maiden going out to pick mushrooms almost got assassinated—too exciting by half. Then the report rolled in like a second thunderclap: someone was attacking the city.

The poor Holy Maiden and the Church’s Holy Son almost became cannon fodder, like paper lanterns in a gale.

Even now, they and the church members worked to knit flesh and spirit, hands moving like flowing water. At a time like this, healing magic showed its weight, solid as bedrock.

No wonder she was the Holy Maiden—her radiance poured like spring rain. Several gravely wounded were dragged back from the brink, like drowning men hauled onto a boat. In this plaza steeped in despair, only the Holy Maiden could coax out a few smiles, faint as dawn.

“…What do we do next?” Voices wavered like candle flames.

“I don’t know… even the City Lord lost. Are we just waiting to die?” The words fell like cold ash.

“That underground space the City Lord mentioned… is it really safe?” Doubt curled like fog.

“Why would even an international city like Starfate get assaulted head-on? My luck’s cursed.” Complaints buzzed like summer cicadas.

Students from Heavenly Melody Academy started to boil over, a pot rattling on the fire. If their own teachers had fallen, what could students do?

“Enough. Quiet, all of you!” The City Lord’s voice cracked like a whip in the air.

Silence pooled like dark water.

“Everyone, Starfate City faces a great crisis—you’ve seen the storm clouds.” He stood like a pillar in wind. “The enemy is still battering the walls, tide after tide. I will fight with our soldiers and teachers to the last breath. But… we still have a path that may break this snare.”

“Starfate City has always kept a reserve of energy, a coal of fire under the hearth. It’s meant to power the last-defense measures—namely, the underground city beneath the City Lord’s manor. As long as the reserve holds, that place is one of the safest in the world.”

“But we also have one last gamble.” His gaze cut like a blade. “In the earlier battle, we found a gap in their barrier, a torn seam. If someone can slip a message through that seam to Kerlinveil Xuewei, who left Starfate City, then we have a chance to live.”

“With that reserve, we can mount a short, large-scale engagement, a flare to pull their army’s eyes. In that window, we send a team to push the message beyond the barrier. After that, we only need the reserve to hold our backs for half a day. Kerlinveil Xuewei will arrive.”

For Xuewei, that distance could be shorter still. So the plan held water.

“So, we have to make our final choice…”

I stopped listening to the City Lord’s speech; the words turned into wind. I headed toward one corner of the city, because I’d just seen which way she went.

At the corner, a long-haired girl with cotton-candy pink hair stood with her chin up, staring at the unscalable gate like a sheer cliff. Behind her, a pair of huge, translucent black wings shimmered in and out, like ink on water.

“Well, Qianya, planning to run off alone?” I dropped onto a nearby rooftop, tiles warm under me, and watched her reach for the wall.

Qianya didn’t look back. She kept her eyes on the sky, blue as a blade. “…Tangxue, this started because of me, so I want to end it myself. The Vampire outside—their target is me.”

“If I leave, that Vampire will follow. Everyone else… will be safe.” Her voice was steady, like ice.

“…Qianya, you’re actually Blood Clan—”

“You figured it out.” Qianya’s smile cut at herself, thin as a paper knife. “You guessed right. I’m the Queen of the Blood who vanished a few months ago.”

“Ah… I always thought you were the Vampire Queen’s daughter.” My heart hiccuped like a startled sparrow.

“No.” Qianya turned to face me, eyes like deep wells. “I don’t have a daughter.”

“…”

“I don’t want this city ruined mainly because the few relatives I have live here, tucked under these eaves.” The words fell soft as snow.

“Tangxue, say goodbye to me—and to everyone.” The request hung like a bell note.

“If you’re going, go yourself. I’m not playing messenger.” I folded my arms, heat prickling like nettles.

“If you really can’t bear it, then let’s go beat that Vampire flat. It’s not like we don’t have a shot.” My grin flashed like a drawn knife.

“If I didn’t have his blood in me, I’d kill him without blinking.” Qianya’s lineage spilled like a quiet confession. Her forebear was a common member of the Blood Clan—descended from Blood Elf and Vampire. The vampire strain in her blood is thin, like ink washed by rain. But it’s there. And it’s the chain that shackles her growth the most.

“…” The truth hit me like cold water.

“Either way, you can’t just leave without a word!” My chest burned like a forge, and I rushed forward to wrap Qianya in a hug. I pinned her wings before they could unfurl.

“I didn’t leave without a word.” Qianya looked down at Qingsheng Tangxue clinging to her and sighed, a wind through pines.

“Then come with me and say goodbye to everyone. Why won’t you lean on us to deal with that bastard Vampire?” My voice burned like a coal.

“…Tangxue, that Vampire King isn’t as simple as you think.” Her gaze clouded like storm glass.

“I know. But our people aren’t simple either.” I winked, light as a firefly.

“…” Besides you and me, most are just kids—her thought flickered like a shadow.

“We’re friends, right? When a friend’s in danger, shouldn’t the other show up, blade in hand?” My words rang like steel.

“That’s what you think… this goes beyond friendship.” A faint bloom touched her cheeks, like peach petals.

“Hehe—so have we gone beyond friendship?” I leaned in, teasing like a cat.

“No.” She popped the word like a pebble into a pond.

“Eh—what?!” My squawk flew off like a startled bird.

“But it’s not the same as before, is it? Tangxue, let’s go.” Her hand reached for mine, warm as sunlight.

“Ah—are we sneaking out to fight the Vampire?” Hope sprang in me like a green shoot.

“No. What are you even saying… I meant, let’s go say goodbye to everyone.” Her voice brought me back down like a tugged kite.

“Oh, so not that…” A thin ribbon of disappointment curled in my chest like smoke.

I’d hoped to go smash that annoying Vampire. We could win—clear as a bright moon. But the guards shoved me back, and bile rose like fire. It’s enough to make me choke.