Chapter 64: The Price of a Riddlemonger’s Slip

Lilith drifted between Sakunae Mashiro and Eternal Life, the half-draconized Little White Dragon shrouded in Taint that smelled like damp graves. She looked like an angel’s feather fallen into tar, a blessing gnawed by a Demon’s curse.

Sakunae Mashiro sat where she was and watched Lilith, the fox lady’s red glow dimming like embers under ash. The sudden arrival of the Little White Dragon gave her a breath of shelter, because holding that lightning-wreathed state chewed through her stamina like fire through paper. Relief first, then plan—she’d catch her breath now, then find a clean moment to take Eternal Life’s head.

“Miss Mashiro, rest up first. I’ve got it from here.” Lilith felt the exhaustion rolling off the big fox like late-summer heat. The Little White Dragon flashed her a knowing wink, then drew the Ancient Ark and stepped in front of Eternal Life.

“All right. I don’t care what ‘identity’ you’re rambling about. If I beat you till you can’t swing back, I can always ask nicely after.” The Taint on Lilith stirred like a swamp coming alive. Her white wings were swallowed whole, turning into two dark red pinions, slick with Taint. Clotted flesh budded into tentacles, nosing the air like hungry eels, sipping the Moonswallow Mist around them.

“You’ve devoured this much mist already?” Eternal Life watched her like a wolf sizing up a wildfire. Ghost-blue flames licked across Lilith’s body, but that wasn’t proof of control. The Moonswallow Mist that Lilith had eaten was already beyond Eternal Life’s leash; the blue flames were just what mist became when it piled up too thick.

“I don’t know what gorging on this junk does. But it’s your power, right? Less on the board means you’re weaker, yeah?” The Little White Dragon arched a brow, eyes teasing the Reaper Fragment.

“No need to answer.” Lilith didn’t wait. A marble staff bloomed in the White Dragon’s hand like frost from stone, and another blue laser lanced for Eternal Life.

“Tch.” Annoyance first, then motion—Eternal Life’s body blurred, and in the blink after she was already in Lilith’s face.

What greeted her wasn’t Lilith’s chest, but a tentacle of meat and Taint, scything down like a guillotine.

Eternal Life whipped both swords up to sever it. No good. The Taint wasn’t something you cut clean. Her blades bit in and met a wall, like steel striking bedrock; no matter how she worried it, the meat refused to yield.

Bad feeling first, then retreat—she tried to blink again, but this time her teleport dragged like boots in mud. She only slipped away when the tentacle was a hair from her skull, and she fled in a tangle, not a glide.

“Your speed dropped. Why?” The Little White Dragon’s eyes were hawk-sharp. “Lemme guess. Running low on stamina? Or your teleport needs the Moonswallow Mist in the air?”

Eternal Life snapped her head up. Shock flashed, then she met Lilith’s wicked grin.

“Hah. Nailed it!” Lilith planted her fists on her waist, laughter ringing like bells in a storm. “Didn’t think I’d meet someone dumber than me. That means I can hard-counter you, right?”

“Sorry, Miss Mashiro. I’ll need you to put up with this a bit.” A quick apology, then action—Lilith let Taint bleed out around her, turning flesh into a scarlet vapor. The reek spread like a hot wind. It gnawed the mist thin around them, and the Moonswallow Mist in the air wasn’t dense enough anymore for Eternal Life to jump.

Locked out of teleport, Eternal Life clicked her tongue and shifted her gaze. The fox behind Lilith had turned fully white-furred, Sakunae Mashiro in her fox form; Eternal Life aimed to strike her first.

But Lilith had warded that flank already. The Taint had eaten the mist near the fox as well, and Lilith’s claws tore down Eternal Life’s grip on the field. No more easy dominion. No more doing as she pleased.

“How tiresome.” Eternal Life ground her teeth. Last time she’d met Lilith, she’d chalked her up as a regular little dragon. Since when could she handle the power of a Divine Fragment this smoothly? “You—when did you learn to control that power?”

“Hmph. Not telling.” Lilith kept the secret close, not because she’d grown cunning, but because she couldn’t truly master the Taint at all. In small sips, the filth obeyed like a leashed hound. In swells like this, it felt like it had its own will—like the Demon King she’d slain refused to pass on, trying to claw out of the underworld through the bloody Taint. It made her skin crawl, like cold water down the spine.

“Damn it. That guy actually gave up so easily.” Eternal Life muttered something the Little White Dragon didn’t understand, voice bristling like a cat with its fur up, wronged and furious.

Lilith didn’t get it. Riddlemongers never explained. Fine. If riddles wouldn’t talk, her sword would send every last one to heaven to chat with the Demon King.

“Go tell your riddles to the Demon King!” The Little White Dragon hefted the Ancient Ark. She chopped at Eternal Life. Tens of meters between them shrank to a single breath, distance folding like paper.

The Void Command Seat roared to full resonance. Wings beat like drums, and power poured in. Built for speed, the Little White Dragon flashed in front of Eternal Life. One clean stroke, and there was no time left to dodge.

The Reaper Fragment raised her twin ghost-blue swords to block. The instant they kissed Lilith’s Taint-slicked blade, half their power bled away like water from a broken jug. What had been keen enough to cut through Sakunae Mashiro’s defense snapped brittle, turning into two cheap ice pops in summer heat—half the blades shaved clean off.

“Damn.” Block failed. Eternal Life bent back in a wild, acrobatic lean, letting Lilith’s slash skim past like a scythe through tall grass. Then she drove her left heel into Lilith’s gut. The Little White Dragon’s body jolted, breath punched out of her, and Eternal Life seized that heartbeat to pull space between them.

She scraped up what little Moonswallow Mist remained and blinked again. Distance opened. This time she didn’t pick twin blades. She spun a longbow out of blue light, clearly shifting to fight from range.

“You can still teleport next to me? How low a mist concentration do you need?” Lilith groused, eyes rolling like a thundercloud. “I’ve basically sucked this place dry.”

“Useless. The Moonswallow Mist is part of my body. As a fellow Divine Fragment, how do you not know that?” Eternal Life wiped sweat from her brow. The pressure rolling off the Little White Dragon was a storm tide, and fear cracked her tongue loose. One slip, and she let a bomb of a sentence drop.

“Fellow Divine Fragment?” Lilith froze for a beat. The words didn’t fit. She knew she had ties to a god—well, to several—but a Divine Fragment wasn’t a bloodline thing. Dragons were beloved by gods, yes, but even the White Dragon, closest to divinity, never counted as a fragment themselves.

What did Eternal Life mean?

“Damn… you didn’t know? That’s bad.” Realizing she’d misspoken, Eternal Life clapped a hand over her mouth, afraid the next breath would gift her foe another clue. She wasn’t bright, but she wasn’t about to hand over firewood in a blizzard.

“Divine Fragment… Me, tied to which fragment? Divine Fragments come with calamities… the Taint…” Threads braided fast in Lilith’s head. She remembered Eternal Life once saying she and the Demon King were old acquaintances. The Demon King was a catastrophe left by a god, the flesh of Taint. Every natural disaster on this continent had a corresponding Divine Fragment. Then the Taint’s fragment would be… the Demon King?

“So I killed the Demon King. He cursed me as he died. The Taint sank into my bones. Now I’m the Reaper Fragment that represents Taint.” Lilith pointed at herself, dazed, like someone hearing thunder indoors. “Which means I can, in theory, use the Taint in me the way you use the Moonswallow Mist?”

Eternal Life said nothing. She’d just realized how badly her loose tongue had burned her.

“Forget it. It’s not that simple.” Lilith shelved the question. Her gut said the truth was knottier than that. The urgent thing was to end Eternal Life in front of her.

“Awooo!” Sakunae Mashiro padded up beside Lilith. Rested, the white-furred fox was ready to flip the switch again—lightning skin, thunder heart. The Little White Dragon caught her intent, nodded once, and tightened her grip on the blade.

Mashiro loosed another long howl. Red lightning spooled out, sweeping the air clean, driving back death and Taint like wind chases fog. Silence fell like snow over dragon, fox, and reaper.

Eternal Life let the bow fall from her hand. She’d need a new way to break the Little White Dragon and Sakunae Mashiro both.