Shadows thickened, pooling like ink beneath Night Frost’s feet. They knit into two pitch-black hands that clamped her fast and dragged her toward the window.

A scarlet round bloomed midair. Perfect rose petals flashed into flame and vanished. The hardened core fused under fire, scraped the sill with sparks, and drove for her brow.

Panic spiked before thought. She thrashed, but the shadow hands held like forged iron. Firelight couldn’t thin them. With her power now, breaking free in time was impossible.

On the rooftop, the Rosefire Pistol pointed straight at her brow. Flames licked across her skin, and death breathed a cold scent into her nostrils.

If that shot landed, she’d die. Her strength couldn’t stop that bullet. The only path was to shatter the bind within seconds. The Magic Stone’s chant? No time. That spell was long, showy, and ridiculous; no enemy waits for your monologue.

“Καύση στη φυλακή!”

Time stilled in a single heartbeat. The burning rose, the shadow hands, Lu Shi in the dark, Lu Jin on the far high-rise—all snapped into crystalline focus.

The cramped room echoed that line everywhere at once, repeating like a hidden chorus. The voice felt like it rose from the deepest chamber of her heart.

Its cadence matched Lu Shi’s final line when she chanted a Magic Spell.

“You want me to chant this?”

The air around Night Frost warped and shivered. The hands dragged her in a slow grind. Beyond the frame, the rose bullet pressed toward her brow.

Resolve settled like frost. “Got it… I don’t get a choice, do I?”

“Grant flame to the dragon, grant fire to my hands. Tear the shackles of life; let all be burned; the strike shall kill. Let Inferno consume here… Καύση στη φυλακή!”

With each note she spoke, frozen time bled away. When the last tone left her lips, the rose bullet sat centimeters deep in her skin. A heartbeat later and it would have drilled into her brain and made her a cold corpse.

It felt like someone else pulled every string.

The Magic Spell’s notes landed. The chant ended. Her heart went wild, clenching and swelling, and her hot blood surged hotter, turning to fire that burst from her small frame.

Pain roared through her body, fierce and bright. She felt flame scouring her vessels, her skin, her every nerve. Calamity, fear, and curse crawled from her heart’s abyss, then slid back to the innermost chamber and fell silent.

Crimson fire flooded every shadowed corner of the room, lighting the dark like dawn. Lu Shi’s shape revealed without doubt. She stared at the girl wreathed in flame, and a scent of threat and fear pricked her nose. Her dagger rose. The black Magic Stone in its hilt flickered—Lu Shi was spending everything to hold those shadow hands.

But the blaze was too blinding. Shadow power thinned. Hold out a little longer, and Lu Jin’s bullet would pierce the condensed flame and bury in that brow.

Lu Jin was hurting now. Her Mana ceiling was low. It was hard to keep a kill shot at peak. If she failed to kill in an instant and her Mana dipped, the Rosefire round’s power would crash.

Lu Jin clenched a Magic Stone taken from Abyssal Monsters and drew from it hard. Official processing kept Abyssal Aura out. It wouldn’t stack or crack open an Abyssal Rift.

Night Frost’s fire burned like a forge. She felt the shadows binding her melt fast. The Rosefire bullet seemed held outside by the solid flame, its power slackening. If its power hadn’t dropped, that fire layer wouldn’t stop it, and she’d still die.

Her heart kept surging, squeezing out flame. She felt her body change. The pain thinned. Her control sharpened, fingers on an inner blaze. And the change wasn’t done.

Crimson fire shrank, ember-tight. To Lu Shi, it looked like Night Frost’s Mana was spent. She drew the dagger and, with the bullet, struck at the “weak” girl.

The bullet sank into Night Frost’s temple. The dagger kissed her neck. Scarlet blood welled under pale skin. In that instant, all fire slipped under her skin. In the same breath, Black Flame wrapped her body and exploded outward.

The Black Flame swallowed the bullet and dagger, then hurled them out on a violent gust. In a few breaths, Black Flame cocooned the abandoned floor. Every light inside was drowned and devoured by dark.

Lu Shi knew she couldn’t win here. She dove into shadow and fled the building. Lu Jin leapt from the rooftop, dodging Black Flame tossed by the gust.

Night Frost broke free of shadow’s bind. She marked Lu Shi’s retreat and vaulted from the opposite window. Eye Orb had been waiting. The moment that furnace-flame roared to life, he sensed danger and slipped into a nearby thicket.

Night Frost brushed Black Flame from her skirt and slid into a side alley. She undid her transformation, took two pieces of clothing from Eye Orb, pulled them on, and drew on Mana to scrub away lingering Abyssal Aura.

Lingchen Yao touched the wound beside his temple. He didn’t know when it had knit, but faint marks and blood stains remained. Soon it would vanish. His heart gave him that fierce vitality.

When the Abyssal Aura was mostly gone, Lingchen Yao finally dared head for home.

Lu Jin and Lu Shi stood before the burning building, waiting quietly for the Black Flame to ebb. They’d burned too much Mana. They could still move, but pursuit would be risky. Better to plan long.

The Abyssal Rift wasn’t sealed. They wouldn’t leave on their own. If Monsters spilled out and harmed residents, that would be their failure.

“My dagger left a Mana mark on her neck. It won’t clear soon. Shame she’s too far, and she isn’t someone we can handle now. Otherwise I’d hunt her to the ends of the earth.”

“I already reported to HQ. You didn’t get hurt, right? Enough Mana left?”

Lu Shi patted Lu Jin’s head, a storm meeting a breeze.

“I’m not a kid! I’m fine. Not fainting. But you—your dagger got a chunk burned off, right? That flame is nasty. Normal means won’t put it out fast, and it burns Mana.”

Lu Shi weighed the dagger with its missing bite. The break’s edge was ringed in char.

“I’ll go to the Order Keeper branch and transplant the Magic Stone from the dagger. It wastes time, but it’s time to update gear. Oh—your new rounds arrived. After we finish here, we’ll pick them up.”

They worked till midnight. Only then did Lu Shi and Lu Jin leave the Order Keeper branch. Night Frost and the Abyssal Rift needed a full write-up. Without doubt, that Magic Maiden was their enemy.

They found no sign of the mysterious Monsters on patrol. Those things felt like they’d never been here.

Lu Shi handed over her broken dagger and Magic Stone to the branch. She couldn’t fight with Magic Stone power for a while. A week off dropped into her lap. Lu Jin wasn’t so lucky. She lugged a big box of ammunition, grinning too hard to notice she got no vacation.

Lingchen Yao dragged a tired body back to the rental. Qianchun had already washed away her blood stains. She wore a wide sleep shirt and hid her head in the blankets like a burrowing rabbit. Lingchen Yao gave her the paper bag. Inside were two girlish jackets and one pair of jeans.

Qianchun didn’t spend on clothes. Most of her money went to debt. Only a thin slice fed daily meals.

Since her parents died, how many years had it been since someone cared for her? Living underground, clawing through shadowed alleys, she couldn’t tell. She only knew the boy in front of her—weak-looking, about her age—was someone she could trust.

Her wound still throbbed faintly. But if he asked for action, Qianchun would move without a second thought.

“Thank you…”

Eye Orb saw Qianchun’s cheeks flush and gave a long sigh. He muttered under his breath, dry as dust.

“A naive girl in spring, tricked by that old fox Lingchen Yao. Beauty handed to a boar.”

Lingchen Yao caught a dangerous keyword and came out of the shared kitchen with a cleaver. He grabbed Eye Orb by the tail. They stared each other down.

“Did you just call me a pig?”

“Wouldn’t dare. I only remembered I used to love pork.”

Eye Orb didn’t blink as he explained.

Lingchen Yao got nothing out of him and tossed him onto the bed.

“You’d better not have. Or tonight’s going to hurt.”

He turned, set down the cleaver, and looked at Qianchun.

“Sleep early. We’ve got work tomorrow. I’ll explain after I finish this midnight snack. Oh—do you eat green peppers?”

“You’re playing favorites!!! Boo-hoo!”

She banged the floor, fake-crying like a bad anime skit.

“Zip it! That synthetic voice is loud!”

Qianchun bit back a smile and nodded to Lingchen Yao. She didn’t mind green peppers.

Sizzle filled the pan, and fragrance drifted down the corridor like a warm breeze.

Of course, midnight cooking woke the landlady. She stormed out with bedhead and scolded Lingchen Yao until the hallway felt colder than night.