"You sure you can pin me down?"

Qianchun stepped forward with Night Frost in her arms; wind pooled in her palm, sharp as needles of ice. At her waist the shattered Magic Stone flickered, bleeding its last warmth.

"Maybe I only get one swing. You die; I bleed."

Night Frost tapped Qianchun’s shoulder, a snowflake-soft signal to set her down. She pinched the Magic Stone the Eye Orb had given her and walked toward the “unconscious” Dawnlight, a sun rising in her palm.

Zhao Qingsnow, trying to slip past the Azureblood Octopus to reach Dawnlight, couldn’t sit still. Mana snapped from her fingertip like a bullet at Night Frost’s brow. Night Frost’s flame ate most of it; her skin’s Magic Layer and a body near Cantata Two kept it from the kill.

She flicked Magic Stone powder to the ground. Blood-slick, Night Frost grabbed Dawnlight by the collar, rough as a storm, and shoved her behind Qianchun.

Zhao Qingsnow, mind boiling, took one step. The Azureblood Octopus sprang from the floor like a sprung trap. Two tentacles hung charred and dead, but the rest still cracked like whips.

It flipped Zhao Qingsnow aside and loomed to feast on the unconscious First Symphony Magic Maiden. With Lu Shi on site, Zhao Qingsnow could only pivot and wrestle the beast like a netted shark.

Chaos flooded the field again, exactly the storm Night Frost craved.

Zhao Qingsnow was fox-cunning. The Mana she forced on Qianchun was only enough to crack the ward. She meant to borrow the octopus, wiping the witness clean.

Then she shifted. She didn’t need the octopus at all. While Qianchun moved for the barrier, she coiled Mana like a drawn bow, ready to lance the spent girl.

But luck bucked. Night Frost and Dawnlight, trapped by the octopus, struck in the same breath Qianchun tore the veil. Inside and out hammered together, and the barrier shattered like ice.

So Qianchun wasn’t drained dry. Even with the Magic Stone broken, she dipped the remaining Mana and met Lu Shi eye to eye.

Dawnlight, though, was empty. Even a twitch cost her mountains. Pride first, she scraped every spark to keep her Magic Armor like frost clinging to glass.

Zhao Qingsnow hated the Azureblood Octopus to the bone. Its hulking body plugged the one path to Dawnlight like a fallen boulder. It wasn’t dead, only stunned by twin shocks, a blink-long daze.

She had planned to pull Dawnlight out without stirring the octopus or the others. Night Frost, hanging on one last breath of Mana, beat her to it, seizing the only coin for escape.

"You were a step late..."

Night Frost drew a deep breath, spine iron-straight. She pressed to Qianchun’s back and held Dawnlight before her like a winter moon.

"Alright, here’s the deal… we walk. One twitch from you, and she dies. Sisters, you don’t want your comrade bleeding out here, do you? I swear, let us go and we won’t touch her."

"I won’t stop you."

With that, Lu Shi circled past them and moved to aid Zhao Qingsnow. Lu Shi wasn’t going to bar their way—but Lu Jin would.

Lu Shi signaled Lu Jin on a distant rooftop. Track the fleeing trio, report every step, and bring Dawnlight back breathing.

Prone on the roof, Lu Jin drew back her Rosefire Pistol from the octopus’s brow. She swung the sight to the fast-moving Night Frost crew, her scope a hawk’s eye on their every twitch.

"Stay sharp," Night Frost said, voice low as frost. "We met that Magic Maiden before. There should be another with a gun, around Cantata Two, watching us from the dark."

They hardly needed the warning. If Lu Shi was in play, Lu Jin would nest nearby. The Eye Orb mapped the towers and marked three sniper roosts, perfect lines of fire.

"I’ve got a decent hide. We slip out of roof-girl’s sight, then find a corner to drop this burden."

The burden was Dawnlight on Qianchun’s back. Her Magic Armor failed, melting into grains of light that drifted away like fireflies.

Sunset bled toward dusk. The last light smeared the sky red. Evening glow washed the city, a dull saffron veil over concrete.

Rush hour swelled like a tide. Office workers packed the rail, flowing toward warm apartments like fish to reef.

By Night Frost’s plan, they would dump Dawnlight on a glaringly visible street near the subway. Stir a little chaos, slip into an alley, and vanish down Qianchun’s underground route.

Qianchun stripped off her black cloak and wrapped the naked Dawnlight tight, inside and out, leaving only her head. She set her down in the most obvious spot on the street. A crowd pooled around like rain in a pothole.

Shouldering through, Lu Jin lost Night Frost’s group in the crush. Helpless, she reported up the chain, then lifted Mana-drained, unconscious Dawnlight and carried her back to the branch.

"Their escape was careful," Lu Jin reported to Blade. "They hugged cover along the street. I could break the cover, but I couldn’t cripple them while they kept moving."

Just then, Zhao Qingsnow and Lu Shi staggered back to the branch, battered as driftwood.

"Report. Azureblood Octopus contained, thanks to Moon Owl. Otherwise, that hulk wasn’t something two half-cripples like us could handle…"

Blade’s face stayed stone, and Lu Shi snapped her mouth shut.

"You’re all real impressive, huh? I feel like this branch feeds a flock of freeloaders. Lu Shi has an excuse, but Zhao Qingsnow, you don’t! You let them open a barrier under your nose and stroll off?"

"You’re a senior, but think hard. Why are you in the Order Keeper? If it’s only to shield your niece, staying here means nothing."

Even for Zhao Qingsnow, Blade hadn’t blown up like this since she took command. Shame bit like winter air, but this had been for Dawnlight. Her heart already knew the answer.

"Fine. Back on topic. Lu Jin, continue."

Blade huffed into her chair, fingers drumming the keys, pulling files from the archive like cards from a deck. Screens bloomed like cold moons.

"See if it’s one of these three."

"Wind magic. First Symphony. Judging by height and frame…"

Lu Jin’s finger froze over the screen.

"Qin Qianchun? The Magic Maiden who killed her father and fled. A pity—she should’ve been one of us. Old case… Pull her last portrait. Post a wanted notice. Someone will spot them."

Blade paused, sipped tea, and exhaled a fog through painted lips. Calm settling like dew, she looked to Lu Shi.

"Also, Lu Shi stays. Fill me in on the details of your last clash with Night Frost."

"Understood!"

Night Frost’s crew hijacked a taxi and holed up in a hidden sewer, one of the underground routes from Qianchun’s former organization. It had long been abandoned, a half-year construction that birthed only shoddy bones, forcing their old leader to give it up.

Qianchun slapped dust from a metal plate and pulled it open; a clotted stench rushed out like swamp breath. A crawlspace lay behind, ending in a small room with scattered gear.

A bed, a med kit, a table and chairs—everything toppled like tired soldiers. The drawers held no useful files. Their former leader guarded records far better than the Eye Orb, who liked to fling documents everywhere.

Night Frost reached the cot and finally buckled. Her dress, soaked in viscous fluid, unraveled into black particles. Her dim gold eyes shut, and her heart fluttered weakly like a trapped bird.

Thump—

Naked, Lingchen Yao crashed onto the boards and sank into sleep.

Today he’d leaned on the Magic Stone at his waist, forcing Mana and Abyssal Aura to hold his Magic Armor. It broke his body’s limits. He’d been pierced by the Holy Lance, then took several of Zhao Qingsnow’s ice spikes.

Honestly, if any Cantata Two lived through what he did today, it would already be a miracle.

"So this is… your power…"

Face flushed, Qianchun lifted him onto the bed. She used the clothes the Eye Orb had handed her to dress him. Say what you will—Lingchen Yao had a solid, masculine presence.

Done, Qianchun went to the steadied table. She unfastened the shattered Magic Stone at her waist and set it down, the thing dull as cooled ash.

"You… can’t store Mana anymore," she murmured, voice soft as night rain. "Without a Magic Stone, you’ll stay at First Symphony—no, as you are now, maybe not even that. You’re a human beyond humans, but still human."

The Eye Orb lay by the Stone, which still held a faint trace, a lingering thread of Zhao Qingsnow’s Mana.

"By rights, a Magic Stone is sturdy. If you’d vented her Mana in time, it would’ve stayed whole. You didn’t disperse it. You stacked her Mana and forced your Stone on top of it…"

"A Stone drained of most Mana turns brittle. Two currents collided, and your Stone shattered."

Qianchun slumped onto the table, tired to the bone. Before sleep pulled her under, she whispered, a smile like spring wind:

"Told you, he’s worth it."