Do you believe in time?

The moment you nudge the clock hands, everything rewinds, and everything begins again.

“Happy birthday, Little Glass.”

Near midnight, Moon Owl finally came home. Guilt pricked her; she’d forgotten Illusory Glass’s birthday.

It would pass at any moment. The little birthday girl looked storm-dark and hurt.

In pajamas, she sulked at the door. One arm hugged a plush toy.

The other was held by Moon Owl’s grandma. You could tell Illusory Glass had waited long.

“This is your present!”

Moon Owl tucked a deluxe fairy-tale book into her arms.

She didn’t catch a smile. What answered was autumn-water welling in bright eyes.

“There was… a mission.”

Illusory Glass wouldn’t forgive her soon. She’d stayed up to eat cake with Moon Owl.

Only Grandma’s soft voice could ease the ache in her small heart.

All three sat before the bright candles. Illusory Glass blew out the flames.

Dim embers glowed. Her wish floated with sparks into the void, another year added.

At the stroke of twelve, she drifted asleep to Grandma’s story.

Humid wind whooshed the curtain. Silver moonlight poured through the glass.

Outside her door, Moon Owl’s heart twisted sharp. She clenched her fists.

Her eyes reddened. Her knuckles tapped the wall, helpless. That night, she ran.

Deep in the night, Illusory Glass jolted awake. Darkness pressed in, lightless.

Fear flooded first. She clutched her primer and called for her sister.

“Little Glass is scared…”

She curled tight. Her nose stung. Tears trembled on her pale cheeks.

“Don’t be afraid…”

A blood-red hexagram slowly wove itself. A figure stepped out of the floor’s reflection.

Silver-gray hair cascaded. Blood-red eyes glowed dim in the dark. Black wings unfurled, settling against Illusory Glass’s back, drawing the trembling girl into a sheltering embrace.

“Will you sign a contract with me? I’ll protect you… I’ll take you to find… your sister.”

Her whisper brushed Illusory Glass’s ear, like a devil’s hush, stirring buried longing.

“Can you really take me to her? I miss her. I miss her so much.

It’s been… more than a year. She didn’t come back.”

It was a temptation she couldn’t refuse. The blood-red hexagram veiled Illusory Glass and the crimson-eyed maiden.

A black sigil formed at Illusory Glass’s brow, hidden beneath her lovely silver hair.

Silver Mana burst from her fragile body. A crest burned into the book in her hands.

The maiden’s beautiful gaze flickered. Those bloodthirsty eyes held a thread of sorrow, barely there.

She didn’t understand why sorrow had come.

In the silver river suspended in the cosmos, humanity lived generation to generation under a beautiful unknown sky.

Until the unknown took it. The black night lost its stars. A long purple fissure split the entire sky.

The people of the Twelfth District had faced fear before, but never this.

Terror raced to the borders. Monsters surged like a tide. Grotesque shapes hunted the stragglers and chewed them to pulp.

Warriors of the Twelfth District, all Magic Maidens, lifted their weapons and fought back.

Their Blood and the Monsters’ Blood flowed together into streams, merging into the river that ran to the sea. Walls of flesh and bone held as the border braced wave after wave.

On the field, Moon Owl broke through Chapter Three. She and Yuan Dai battled the Chapter Three Monsters in the Abyssal Rift.

The creature had scythe-sharp forelimbs, a heavy maw, iron shell. Only Moon Owl’s spatial Mana could wound its core.

She’d pushed her body to save her students. During the breakthrough, it pierced her.

She was down to her last arrow. So she burned her Mana. She burned the unknown within, unstopping seal after seal—

She stamped, and the void cracked. With a flick of jade-green fingers, the insectile monster snapped in half.

Yuan Dai seized the chance. His pure white greatsword hacked off one of its legs.

But the monster thrashed, swinging the other scything limb.

It struck Moon Owl, whose body had reached its limit, too slow to dodge. The blade drilled in and churned her heart to shreds.

At the edge of death, Moon Owl gathered her will.

She shattered the space around them both, dragging the creature with her. They vanished into raging void currents.

Illusory Glass, among the crowd in the shelter, watched the battle through cameras and the huge screen.

A great scythe pierced Moon Owl’s body. Space splintered like glass. In that instant, Grandma’s hands clamped Illusory Glass’s shoulders, pulling her close, covering her eyes.

Children who’ve tasted parting grow faster. Illusory Glass didn’t understand it all, but she knew.

Moon Owl, like her sister, wasn’t coming back.

Pure silver Mana overflowed despite restraint. A half-foot-tall silver-haired vampire slipped from Illusory Glass’s pocket.

It barely forced that newborn surge back down.

Illusory Glass slumped, strength drained. Tears pooled and wouldn’t obey.

She wiped at them with her forearm, but the wet kept returning.

After that birthday, everything became farewell.

With the death of the Chapter Three Monster, the horde broke ranks.

Blade, administrator of the Twelfth District, rallied every resource to clear the roaming Monsters in the city.

Just when people thought the disaster was over, tragedy came silent as mist.

A black fox lanced through Chen Xiaoyin’s body. Hot Blood sprayed over Night Frost.

She struggled, weak, begging for a miracle to return.

She woke in an unknown space and signed a pact with a dragon.

She killed every Monster near Chen Xiaoyin’s corpse. Rage and regret flooded her. The dragon’s will collided with her own, grinding away.

In the end, she went mad. Her heart craved battle and slaughter.

It ruled her fractured thoughts.

She killed Yuan Dai. The sky keened for the fallen Chapter Three.

Blood-red rain drizzled over the broken bones of the Twelfth District.

Then the heavens opened. A torrent hid Night Frost’s form.

Pouring rain swallowed her howl, until the white Holy Lance tore the black curtain and speared into her near-draconic body.

Night Frost’s heart was crushed by the Holy Lance.

Her life ended there.

Moon Owl fell. Yuan Dai was slain by Night Frost.

Order handed down judgment. Night Frost, partly dragonized, turned to ash.

The war between humans and Monsters ended.

The price was the entire Twelfth District.

Thankfully, survivors from underground rose up.

Alongside the Cantata Two, they spent nearly a year rebuilding their home.

Funerals for Moon Owl, Yuan Dai, and the Magic Maidens who died guarding the Twelfth District were held days after the rebuild.

Night Frost, without question, was among them.

Illusory Glass stood in rain. A black umbrella shaded her head.

Behind the girl in black gothic dress, Grandma closed her eyes. The bell tolled through the rain, then was swallowed by silence and solitude.

Illusory Glass decided. She’d become an Order Keeper.

Under headquarters training, she surged into Cantata Two, hailed as one-in-ten-thousand genius.

“Did you see, Sister? Moon Owl? I got stronger… strong like you.

Even so, I want to go back. I miss you.”

“Grandma left too. Her body had been failing for a long time.

One night while I wasn’t there, she followed after you. I hope you’re all well on the other side.”

Cradling a bouquet, Illusory Glass paused. She’d grown taller than a year and a half ago.

Some childhood softness had faded from her face.

“I stepped into Cantata Two last week, but I still don’t understand my ability.

Heaven didn’t grant me a Magic Stone. It gave me a pact with a Monster. I signed it after that birthday. Sorry… I didn’t get to tell you.”

In the cemetery, pure white daisies lay before Moon Owl’s stone.

Illusory Glass’s eyes shimmered. She knelt and gently wiped dust from the name.

“She’s my friend and my teacher. Her eyes are like rubies.

Her hair is white as moonlight.”

“It seems our contract touched my hair, or maybe it’s my Mana.

My hair changed color.”

“Her head is full of knowledge, of craft. With her help, I grew so fast.

I keep wanting to do something for her, but I don’t know what she likes, or what fills her mind.”

“Still, I think her kindness to me is true.

She came today, said she had things to do. Next time, I’ll introduce you.”

“Last month, I killed my first Monster. It was from the lake, sly as a fox.

My teammate got hurt, only just returned to her post. My first mission scared me, but with more, I accepted…”

Illusory Glass rose and brushed tears from her lashes.

The wind puffed her skirt. She pressed it down with a gentle hand.

“That’s all for now. I’ll come again next month.”

She took a step, and a familiar voice dropped into her ear.

Illusory Glass turned. The silver-haired girl with scarlet eyes landed a playful tap on her head.

“Hold on, you haven’t introduced me yet～”

In that instant, deep-purple fissures ripped open before and behind Illusory Glass.

Blood-forged spikes thrust through her, front and back. Hot Blood scattered, dyeing pure daisies red, spattering Moon Owl’s name.

“What a pity. Playtime’s over… Next comes the hunt～”

The half-foot figure swelled, growing tall. The deep-purple rift behind her swallowed the entire cemetery.

Scarlet spikes liquefied into Blood and merged into the Blood Clan body. Illusory Glass collapsed, helpless, into the crimson pool.

At the edge of life, that glow that had lodged in her primer when she awakened burned brighter and brighter…