Another week passed. With most prep done, Qianya led Xuewei and Tangxue onto the far-north plateau, wind like knives over a sea of ice.

Tangxue watched Qianya stride ahead to a cliff, her thoughts drifting like snow; only when Qianya turned back did she snap awake.

“Tangxue? You spaced out.” Qianya’s voice cut like a crisp bell in frost.

“Mm… Qianya, Xuewei, do you think we can win?” Her worry hung like a low cloud.

“Why are you fretting over that?” Qianya’s glance was a blade’s edge.

“I—I just…” Tangxue lowered her head, a willow bowed under winter, her mind frayed these days.

“Tangxue, are you doubting yourself?” Qianya asked soft as evening rain.

“I am.” Her voice thinned like a reed by frozen water, and the thought stung: maybe she wasn’t so important.

Qianya’s smile blazed like sunlight on ice; she turned, back to Tangxue. “Do you know what keeps me walking this road?”

“I…?” Tangxue pointed at herself, a bird unsure to perch.

“I never planned to save the world. Honestly, I envied those who ran off with a handful to survive, like sparrows under someone’s eaves. After I met you, I changed.”

“…?” Tangxue’s confusion drifted like mist.

“I’m not noble, not even now. I stand with the world because it makes me happy, plain as a clear sky. I want to live with you in a better world. A life under someone else’s eaves doesn’t fit me.”

“Qianya…” Warmth rose like a small flame.

“I still don’t understand.” Tangxue shook her head, a leaf trembling.

“Phew. If you don’t get it, get to know me more. We’ve got time, wide as horizons. One day you’ll understand. If you don’t… I’ll make sure you do.”

Tangxue’s heart jolted like a sparrow in brush; she stepped back, a ripple in snow.

“Haha, okay, I’m kidding. Xuewei, do you remember our days at the Heavenly Deity Academy?”

“I don’t. What?” Xuewei scowled, hands on hips, thunder under her brow.

Qianya smiled and let the small storm pass. “Top-tier deities are fathomless, deep as an ocean. Since you chose to fight with us, once we enter the dream, push your power hard, before it senses you.”

“As if we need you to say it…”

“I’m saying it for Tangxue. We’re stepping into her mental world.”

“Guh…” The sound bobbed like a bubble under ice.

“No limit?” Tangxue’s gaze held doubt, a moon behind cloud.

“Right. I beat that guy by luck back then. But I believe in you, Tangxue. If I did it, you can too.”

“Please don’t pressure me…” Her breath fogged like a pale veil.

“Then as agreed, let’s start.”

“Already?!”

Qianya snapped her fingers—snap—and dizziness rolled like a wave; the next heartbeat, they were on an icy-blue clearing under a glassy sky.

“What’s going on??” Xuewei’s voice cracked like frozen ground.

“I told you. Tangxue and I share a mind-link.” Qianya patted her wrinkled collar, steady as a mountain. Beside her, a faint figure appeared, moonlight woven into a woman.

“!?” The other two flinched, guards up like raised shields. Qianya waved them down, a calm tide.

“We meet again, Yueyu.”

“Mm.” The blue-haired woman nodded and opened her eyes, her features a mirror of Tangxue’s, a twin under the same moon.

“You…” Tangxue’s words caught like silk on thorns.

“Do you still go by Qingsheng Tangxue?” Rain Moon Willow spoke first, her voice clear as rain on stone.

“Mm.” Tangxue nodded, small and steady.

“Good.” Yueyu’s approval fell like a soft bell; then she held her silence, snow settling.

“Don’t stand there, Tangxue. Remember our plan?”

“Mm!” Tangxue nodded hard, a drum under snow, then closed her eyes. She began crafting undead as Qianya taught, cold lights rising like fireflies in frost.

Xuewei moved with her, drawing in the undead like tides pulling lanterns. They dovetailed, each feeding the other, power layering like ice sheets.

“Next, you’ll face Vecna?” Yueyu’s calm was a still lake.

“Of course.” Qianya’s smile was sharp as a crescent blade.

“We only count as one person…”

“But with Tangxue and Xuewei, it’s enough.” Qianya’s certainty was a planted flag.

“Is it.” Yueyu watched them from afar, her gaze a quiet moon.

“Yueyu, I’m truly glad we can meet again.” Qianya’s voice softened, a hand over a small flame.

“Only in her mental world can we meet, right?” Yueyu closed her eyes, sensing. A terrible will moved closer, like a storm crawling over the plain.

“It’s coming.”

“I’ve been ready.”

“Begin.”

Yueyu and Qianya moved together, mirrored like twin swans. An ice-blue transparent barrier spread, crystal panes over the land. It would buy a heartbeat or two—enough.

“Heh, we meet again, little one.” Vecna’s phantom swelled, filling the sky like a devouring cloud; from ground, its shape was unknowable.

“Vecna…” Yueyu’s pupils narrowed, anger sparking like flint.

“Well now, you’re still here? I thought you’d handed off every scrap of your legacy.” The voice was dry and amused, sand over glass. “You weren’t even qualified for that war. Later I heard you became the gatekeeper of Hell’s Abyss, even chose to ruin your world. And now you clean up for those wastes. What a joke.”

“What’s so funny about that?” Qianya looked up, a flat stone in a stream.

“Jokes? Save them for Hell.” Rain Moon Willow’s eyes blazed, a storm breaking. She raised her hand, and ice-blue lances stitched the sky. Vecna’s phantom tore to tatters, then knitted back together, cold as dusk.

“Don’t rush. We’ve got all the time to play.” The neutral voice giggled, slick and nauseating, like oil on water.

Not yet. Qianya’s glance flicked to Tangxue and Xuewei, hidden like seeds under snow.

“I told you, no matter your tricks, you’ll face me. You can’t run—hahaha!”

Vecna struck; gray-white bled from sky to earth, a rot creeping across every inch.

“Flashy nonsense!” Qianya’s blood-red eyes burned; ice-blue light surged under her boots, halting the gray spread like winter sealing a stream.

“Move, Yueyu! I can’t hold it!”

“We should’ve moved already!”

Attack is the best shield. Even if they couldn’t fell Vecna, time was their harvest.

“Two idiots! You think I napped for years? With scraps like yours, you dare fight me!?”

Gray gloom slammed Qianya from air to ground, a hammer blow; Yueyu fell too, wings clipped.

“Our power feels scattered, Qianya.” Yueyu’s breath was mist.

“No, Yueyu. This is Tangxue’s mental space. Your power stands apart from mine.”

“!”

“Again…!”

Their eyes met, a spark bridging. They shifted, their forces braided like two rivers, and they tore a rift through the gray-white expanse, a seam in the storm.

“Two idiots!” Vecna growled. Divine mana condensed into a thousand light-arrows that screamed in from all sides like a deadly rain.

Qianya and Yueyu moved as one, shields of flowing light turning the storm. An ice-blue bolt thrust up, split the gray sky, and speared Vecna’s head like winter’s needle.

“I don’t care if you slept or not. How does a flunky beaten by the pantheon get to mock me!?”

Yueyu roared; her right hand clenched, and Vecna’s shadow burst into mist, a phantom blown apart.