“…?” Daiya (?) turned back slow as drifting ash, confusion misting her eyes. “If not like this, how else do I take you out of this world?”

“You’ve watched this world rise and fall like tides, and you still don’t see its rot?”

She meant the God of Heart Realm spoke of collapse, a cliff crumbling into the sea. Hualuo Jingqing knew, like frost knowing winter’s edge. But she had her own way, a lantern she’d guard from foreign winds.

“I do know!” Heat spiked first, then her voice cracked like dry bark. “We have our own will. We don’t need you deciding for us!”

“…Boring.” Daiya (?) shook her head like a bell with no chime and turned away, hands still moving like blades of cold rain, but her strikes no longer fell on the Elves.

If they refused goodwill, so be it, she thought like stone under moss. She didn’t care about the Elf Clan.

Suddenly, the Beastkin shaman who’d kept his mouth shut spoke up, bowing with wind-bent pine respect toward the God of Heart Realm. “My lord God of Heart Realm, the Elf Clan and the Beastkin have forged an alliance…”

“…Have they?” Silence pooled like a deep well as the God of Heart Realm faltered, then her gaze hardened like ice set under moonlight, and she looked back at Hualuo Jingqing.

“Seems you lied.”

“?” Hualuo Jingqing hadn’t yet grasped the turn, when a death-scented beam lanced for her brow like a winter spear.

As it was about to pierce through, an ice wall blossomed out of thin air like a lake freezing mid-breath, and the beam ricocheted away.

“!”

Skirting the edge of death, Hualuo Jingqing felt every hair bristle like grass in a gale. Her right hand gripped the armrest as she panted, sweat cold as rain; her face went ashen like paper ash.

‘What was that… a beam of light? If it hit, I’d be dead already… right?’

“Old fossil… your reaction time’s way too slow, huh?” Qingsheng Tangxue sighed with a wry smile, her petite shadow landing beside her like a falling petal no one noticed.

“You may be ancient, but don’t hunch, okay? If you die here, I’ll cry like a summer squall!” Tangxue patted her back, coolness flowing like spring water through her limbs, and the heat of panic melted like snow in sun.

“You little brat…” Hualuo Jingqing looked at Tangxue, her gaze a tangle like vines on a wall. She wanted to ask for help, words crowding like birds under eaves. But even with Qingsheng Tangxue’s demigod power, she knew they couldn’t beat the God of Heart Realm, so the storm of words thinned to a single thread.

“Run.”

“Aww, elders shouldn’t do such heavy workouts,” Tangxue muffled a laugh behind her hand like silk hiding a blade. “With that strength, you won’t budge me.”

Tangxue felt strange today, like bamboo after rain—taller, and a temper with jokes threaded like lantern light.

“Leave the rest to me. Just a two-bit shaman… easy pickings~”

She clapped once, bright as flint, stretched like a cat greeting dawn, then turned toward the God of Heart Realm below. “Yo—long time no see, huh?”

“…,” Daiya (?) went rigid as ice when that familiar aura rolled over her like a tide. Her eyes locked on the girl above, pink lips pressed shut like a sealed seal.

[Miracle—Crimson Verity]

[Miracle—Azure Dawnlight]

“Miracles aren’t your monopoly,” Tangxue chuckled, a little spark of tease like fireflies at dusk. “Opening with your big gun—getting anxious, are we?”

You can’t cancel a Miracle with mana; an egg won’t crack a boulder under a waterfall. Only a Miracle erases a Miracle, like thunder swallowing thunder.

[Miracle—Red Briar that Scorches All Wickedness]

[Miracle—Celeste Skyglow’s Hymn]

Tangxue’s mouth twitched, amusement like a blade’s glint. “Enough already. How many more can that half-baked body cast? Hm? Wanna keep going? Great. I’m in to the end.”

[Miracle—Withered Vine of Deep-Blue Nocturne], [Miracle—All-Hallow Azure, Shadowless Vanish]!

“!”

[Miracle—True Meaning of Myriad Forms]

After a flurry of Miracles like storm waves, the God of Heart Realm fell behind, retreating a step like a wary wolf, eyes sharp on Tangxue.

“So it is you.”

“?”

“If you want a fight, I’ll oblige.” The God of Heart Realm exhaled like bellows, and her eyes opened slow as dawn.

[Heart of Verity, True Form of Blazing Fire]

“Idiot,” Tangxue (?) sneered, her scorn a cold blade. “Even if you drain this world dry, so what? Can you draw a tenth of your own divinity? Hah.”

True-crimson fire kindled on Daiya (?) like a crown at eclipse, and the fox-girl’s gaze turned draconic, solemn as a mountain. Her body shifted, dreadful as a volcano waking; her aura surged like a rising sea. Scarlet fire swirled around her, weaving a god-cloak, and she stood like a god no mortal could meet eye to eye.

“Tangxue…” Hualuo Jingqing watched her with bitter eyes, salt-sharp as sea wind.

“Why’re you staring?” Tangxue (?) smiled faintly, cool as shade. “I don’t do second-stage transformations. Sorry to disappoint.”

But for this one, she didn’t need to change forms, like a hawk needing no storm to kill.

“You still dare tap your patron’s power? Not scared I’ll skewer your mangy head in one thrust?” Tangxue (?) thrust out her right hand, feeling along unseen currents like a fisher reading tide.

A long spear ripped through the clouds like a falling star, too fast for the eye, and came to rest at her side with a hush like held breath.

Seeing her old weapon, the girl’s smile bloomed like sunrise. She stroked the haft, whispering, “Long time no see… you doing okay?”

“I know what happened back then. I came for that, this time.”

Tangxue (?) let the smile fade like ebbing light, and she looked at the God of Heart Realm. “I still have a Divine Artifact. Think you’ve got odds now?”

[Limit Release]

The Sea God Trident wasn’t born a trident, like a river not born with bridges; it changed so later hands could wield it.

Now, it was time to free its first strength, like a dam breaking to the old riverbed.

The three prongs folded, and the long-hafted weapon shed its trident shell, becoming a giant lance, its head intricate as frost, etched with sigils like constellations, a shape that looked like a heavy halberd.

“Come on then! Let’s see how long that crippled state lasts in my hands!”

The God of Heart Realm held her tongue like a cliff holds moss, still dragging more mana to mend herself like stitching torn silk.

Tangxue (?) flashed forward like lightning over black water, swinging the pale-blue heavy halberd and locking onto the other’s breath like a hawk pinning prey.

Once divine sense locks you, no one escapes, like fish in ice. The God of Heart Realm knew it, so she didn’t even try to dodge.

Sadly, she hadn’t brought her Divine Artifact into this world, like a sailor without a keel. She could never match the God of Azure Seas no matter the storm, but being baited again after years cracked her calm like thin ice.

[Layered Flame, Soul-Eater]

Layered Flame, famed for defense, couldn’t stop the pale-blue heavy halberd; a casual swing like a wave of steel pressed the entire space until it groaned like a ship in squall.

“Heh.” Tangxue (?) cold-smiled, flicked the halberd, and sent her flying skyward like a leaf in an updraft.

Her weapon commanded the very source of water, like a moon tugging the tide.