After a long moment, their lips parted. Both were breathless, but Brynhildr’s mouth curled into an eerie smile.

In a blink, the Valkyrie went slack, as if her mind fell away. Brynhildr gathered her into an embrace, like catching a falling willow. The Crimson Flame stripped itself from the Crystal Blossoms, like a petal torn by wind. It didn’t return to the Valkyrie’s hand; it circled in Brynhildr’s palm like a red snake.

“What did you do to Master?!”

Seeing the Valkyrie collapse, Aphelia’s eyes burned like coals. She lunged by instinct, but the Crimson Flame met her head-on. It slammed her onto the pure white Aether, like a meteor into fresh snow.

The brutal shock dragged her toward blackout, pain roaring like winter surf. With her power stripped, she was brittle as sun-baked porcelain. Brynhildr’s casual flick made her whole body feel like it came apart.

“Easy. I won’t harm her. It’s better she doesn’t see what comes next.”

Brynhildr laid the Valkyrie gently aside, like setting down moonlight on silk. Arms folded, she smiled with a victor’s ease while Aphelia lay bound.

“Do you still think you can resist? Feel inward—do you have any remnant of power? If I cut your link to Aether now, you won’t even know how you died.”

At that, Aphelia probed within, heart knocking like a trapped bird. Her sea of thought, once vast, had gone silent like a drained tide. She held the stance of power, but nothing answered from the depths.

“How do I know you’re not bluffing…?”

“Then guess. How did you crystallize? Want me to spell it out like frost biting stone?”

Her words stilled Aphelia, silence falling like ash. Faced with the question, she found no anchor for a retort.

“Heh… if you’d had more patience, you’d have tricked me into giving my body willingly.” Aphelia bit down on pain, her voice a blade wrapped in cloth. Her bloodless face drew a similar smile, pale as moon on water. Two figures, one high, one low, like mirror halves, yet slightly askew.

“I’d have liked that too. Too bad Mist Bloom is impatient, a storm that won’t wait. If she hadn’t barged in, I’d have fed you more secrets like slow tea. She won’t wait, and she won’t let you know more. Besides, not everything I told you was smoke.”

Brynhildr looked at the sleeping Valkyrie and sighed, breath like a fading ember. Nostalgia and tenderness flooded her eyes, soft as rain on old stone. It wasn’t the composed pride she showed Aphelia; it was a lover’s gaze.

That warmth differed from the smile she wore before Aphelia, clear as dawn. Anyone could see it was real, a thread spun from the heart. The more it showed, the more Aphelia felt lost, like fog in a gorge. Brynhildr was a mountain veiled in mist, unreadable to her eyes.

“Let this wretched fate fall to me, Aphelia.”

Brynhildr spoke with her back turned, voice low, like talking to wind and reeds.

The Crimson Flame felt her mood dip and gentled, like a tamed fox. It circled her palm, seeking favor like a warm cat around a wrist.

“It’s a bit troublesome, but once I reclaim the body, none of this matters. Now it’s just you. Will I torture you to death, or will you hand your body over? Ah, torture isn’t my wish. It’s a necessary tool, like bitter medicine; I’ve no choice.”

She sounded almost apologetic, as if afraid Aphelia would misread her. But that unfading smile made Aphelia distrust every syllable like thorned vines.

“Torture?”

Hearing the word, Aphelia’s mouth bent into a bitter smile, dry as dust. She shook her head, face wearing pity or regret like a thin veil.

Pain of flesh, she had borne enough to fill a winter’s ledger. What cut deeper than the fate forced onto her bones? Titles and edicts nailed to her life had gnawed at twenty short years.

“So, have you decided? Surrender yourself, or let me be the one to hurt you?”

Brynhildr sounded almost respectful, like a judge under a quiet sky.

The shape of things was plain as a blade on the block. She held the knife; Aphelia was the fish on the board. What choice remained for a bound deer? Leaving early might be release, a soft snow over a grave. Yet a thread of hope clung, thin as mist and out of reach.

“You’ve suffered enough; why cling so hard? Poor child, may you break soon and find rest.”

Brynhildr let out a long sigh and walked forward, steps light as falling leaves. She looked at Aphelia like at a child, black eyes liquid and gentle. If not for her deeds, that face would be peerless, a jade under sun.

“Heh. Do it. Why waste so many words?”

Aphelia shut her eyes in one clean motion, a lamb offered at the altar.

Outside the pure white Aether, Lilo stared at the bound Merlin, face heavy as stone. Aether’s blazing flame gathered around her into red crystals like coals. She shattered them, letting thick Aether pool and stand guard like a moat.

“Hey, girl of the Crimson Dragon Clan— No, now I should call you the next clan head, right?”

Merlin had been beaten until his power scattered, and the Valkyrie caged him in Crimson Fire. Yet his thief’s heart lived, and he called to Lilo beyond the flames.

“Master Merlin, forget it. I won’t let you out. You’re famous for tricks; you’ve got more than enough up your sleeves, don’t you?”

Lilo shot him a look and sneered, smile sharp as a hooked blade. Merlin’s brow creased like thunderheads. She ignored him after that and focused on the red Aether at her side.

She had been a True God for only days, barely tasting the depths, like first rain. Facing a fossil like Merlin, she dared not slacken a breath.

If he wanted to rattle her, she’d simply refuse to hear, shelling up like a turtle. Without any True God airs, Lilo let silence be her shield.

Then the Valkyrie at the Aether’s edge swayed, body blurring like a candle in wind. Blood threaded from the corner of her mouth, bright as a poppy. The Crimson Fire binding Merlin flickered, unstable as a wavering lantern. Lilo startled and rushed to guard the Valkyrie, wings tight as tents.

What had stirred inside that pure Aether to shake a Valkyrie’s Aether so hard?

More troubling was Merlin within the Crimson Fire. Even with most of his power crushed, such Aether shifts were clear to any eye.

“Heh heh… Mist Bloom, pride has ruined you. Crimson Dragon girl, won’t you consider releasing me? If I break free, it won’t be simple anymore. The one you guard is near death. Think of your clan. Even if you flee, will they?”

Merlin wore a handsome youth’s face, but he laughed like a damp old fiend.

His words didn’t shake Lilo; instead, she burst out laughing like bells.

“Clan? Do whatever you want with the Crimson Dragon Clan; what’s that to me? I only know if I let you out, I’ll die ugly. If you want to break free, try it.”

Lilo let a cold laugh slip and unfurled vast dragon wings, night-sails above stone. Her golden eyes birthed raw beastlight, primal and pure as dawn. She drove the red Aether to ring behind Merlin like a hunting pack. Outside the Valkyrie’s Crimson Fire, she etched a subtle array like frost.

Red dragon scales crept over her arms, each plate glinting like embers. Curled horns uncoiled from her temples, moon-silver and sharp. She looked more like a man-shaped dragon than a woman in war. Red Aether bowed at her feet like courtiers.

As the Crimson Fire grew unstable, Lilo’s etching quickened like rain on eaves. Merlin’s face darkened, storm gathering behind his eyes. He tried to stir power, but the Crimson Fire broke his focus like snapping reeds.

“I’ve never even opened my Domain. Master Merlin, it seems you don’t dare let me.”

Struck true, Merlin fell silent and glared at Lilo like a ghoul from hell. His gaze was venom, green as rot.

But fate chose to cross Lilo. Her array remained unfinished, and the Crimson Fire cracked like thin ice. Merlin tore free and became silver-white radiance, a spear of winter moonlight. He lunged for the Valkyrie’s back with killing speed.

He moved so fast even Lilo failed to react, heart dropping like a stone. Her hand reached out, but the light slipped past her fingertips like rain. With a brazen grin, it streaked toward the Valkyrie like a comet.

“Casket, Unseal!!”

A clear shout fell from high above, crisp as a blade on glass. At that perilous instant, a massive shadow tore up from the ground like a rising whale. It planted itself between the silver-white light and the Valkyrie, unyielding as granite. It smashed Merlin’s charge back without mercy, like surf against cliff.

Even Lilo flinched at the sudden black shape, heart fluttering like a startled bird. When she looked closely, her face turned complicated, words knotting like twine. Because the thing that blocked Merlin was a gigantic coffin.