Lin couldn’t go all-out here; the Abyssal passage was a stone throat. His power wanted to swell him like a storm-fed tree, but the narrow walls became a straitjacket.

He could only flood his limbs with strength, like lightning into roots. Catch Night Frost off guard, end the two Earth Dragons in a blink, and fling Yin Tiancheng and Yin Chen Yue toward the light.

“Save the touching lines for later.” Her voice was frost over embers.

Night Frost drew a Spear from the fire, a blade of dawn pulled from a brazier. She leveled it at Lin, cold as winter water.

If he wouldn’t choose, she would. This was still the Abyss, a grave that grew its own bones; even death could sprout Earth Dragons or the Undead.

She even liked the girl, like a hunter admiring a fawn. If the girl died and rose as her personal Undead, boredom would wither for a time.

The Spear tipped toward Yin Chen Yue, a hawk stooping on a hare. It was about to strike when Lin couldn’t sit still; his power detonated like a thunderhead.

He slammed Night Frost away, a boulder hurled by a river in flood. The runed Spear scraped his shoulder; her true target remained him, a wolf fixing on the stag.

Good. That was the snare he wanted; draw all her gaze like moths to a torch, and a gap would open.

The exit still lay a stretch away, a lantern at the end of a tunnel. The entrance, though, was only a few steps, like a gate just ajar.

The Doctor and the real Night Frost were inside, thunderheads tasting the scent of battle. If they heard, they’d come; no—maybe they were already here.

They needed one opening, a break like sun through cloud. Lin would make it, or burn trying, to haul everyone out of this pit.

Night Frost and Ms Feng watched Lin dive into the passage, shadows sliding like fish. They glanced at Crimson above, winded like a kite in erratic wind.

Crimson had appeared; then Chu Qing would likely descend like rain. Crimson looked frayed, a candle in wind; against Chu Qing, she might only fall.

Lin had been inside a while. The clash of combat had rung like iron, then thinned to silence. The corridor kept closing like a tightening throat, and Lin hadn’t returned.

Ms Feng’s limbs spread into suctioned pads, an octopus on cold stone. She inched to the mouth; her ripe chest pressed the wall; she peered in, careful as a cat.

She saw Lin bound in flaming chains, fire-serpents hissing. Array Patterns bloomed on the ground like frost flowers. A Magic Maiden with ash-white hair ruled the flame.

She wore Night Frost’s face, a mirror on dark water. She wielded Night Frost’s craft, but her strength burned brighter, like noon against dawn.

She was linked to Chu Qing, threads tight as spider silk. She drove Earth Dragons like oxen and gripped Yin Tiancheng and Yin Chen Yue as hostages to leash Lin.

Ms Feng knew Lin’s nature, a river steady under fallen leaves. He joked and drifted, but for Rouge Rabbit and Yin Tiancheng his heart beat true.

He couldn’t choose between them, not with the knife at their throats. He’d choose himself as kindling, and save them with that fire.

As Lin finished speaking and Night Frost leveled the Spear at Yin Chen Yue, Ms Feng knew the thunder would break. At Lin’s first lunge, his glance flicked to her dark corner.

He would go all-out, scoop them from the wolf’s jaws, and toss them to Ms Feng outside. Even if they clashed, he trusted her to carry them through the storm.

Lin burst forward, a dam giving way. He body-checked Night Frost, a bull through reeds; perhaps she hadn’t expected a tide like this.

His claws slapped an Earth Dragon aside, a comet swatting a hill. He scooped Yin Chen Yue, gripped Yin Tiancheng, and hurled them toward the entrance with a whoosh.

“Sorry, boss. Might’ve thrown a bit hard.” His voice was smoke and grin.

Ms Feng dropped her veil; tentacles uncoiled like vines. She caught both clean and leapt down from the mouth, a spider slipping from its web.

Lin laughed, loud as iron on anvils. No hostages, only enemies in this throat of stone; he could finally swing wide and vent the fire on this fake.

“Night Frost” summoned Earth Dragons with a clap like splitting wood. They thundered after Ms Feng, while she herself faced Lin in the tightening vein.

Lin bled, but the beast in him still paced like a caged tiger. The corridor clipped his wings, yet he remained a thorn that drew blood.

His demonic strength wasn’t fully forged, a blade still in quench. Flesh like iron and that eerie smoke beat most foes, but tonight, it wasn’t enough.

Night Frost’s flame was a burr under the skin, still roasting his organs like chestnuts. Without demonic Blood mending him, he’d already be ash.

Her Array Patterns were nettles across the path. He didn’t know their weave; every step snagged like feet in reeds.

“You stayed with her. You know I’m near the same storm,” she said, voice crackling like ice. “Yet you charged. Did you forget how that last blaze burned you?”

Night Frost pressed her palms; Array Patterns crawled over her arms like glowing lichen. She slid back, caught Lin’s strike, and the walls lit with crawling fire script.

Golden flame surged from both sides, a tidal blaze in a canyon. The corridor became a furnace, breath narrowed to sparks.

Lin didn’t back off; he was a boar driving into brambles. His claws punched through the Array Pattern on her forearm, into her skin, carving a long, narrow line of red.

Black blood spilled out, ink poured on coals. It flared into Black Flame and began to burn everything in this Abyssal vein.

The walls had squeezed to a one-person width, a coffin stood on end. There was no avoiding the Black Flame; it crawled like night itself.

Night Frost’s body was smaller, a swift bird in a slot canyon. She could still sprint, while the fight’s end loomed like dusk.

Crimson dropped from the sky, landing like a leaf in crosswind. Even with foreign pressure damping it, her mind still rang with tempting whispers.

Night Frost moved like lightning over water. By the time Crimson touched ground, she’d reached her, breath steady as frost.

“You okay?” The words were a hand on a shoulder.

Crimson looked at Night Frost—the girl who had steadied her, a lantern in fog. Those words had planted her feet again, roots gripping rock.

She shook her head. Even if pain gnawed like winter, she’d call it nothing. In this Abyss, she was their strongest torch; others could gutter, she must not.

“Thanks for earlier.” Gratitude warmed like tea.

Crimson liked Night Frost; the girl carried rare metal, a vein of leadership. In her stance, Crimson saw her old comrades’ shadows.

She might become an excellent Magic Maiden, a banner in storm-wind.

“Mm. I just felt you were that kind,” Night Frost said, a smile like thin sun on snow.

“How did you recognize me?” Curiosity pricked like rain.

Crimson hadn’t fought in years; her style had shifted like riverbeds. Yet Night Frost had named her.

“At first I didn’t,” Night Frost said, honest as clear water. “Then I recalled a film… and a back view I’d seen. It felt familiar. Turns out it was.”

They talked as they moved, seeking a safer corner like birds finding a lee.

“I see… You watched my first film,” Crimson said, nostalgia like incense. “We cut in real footage, but I still NG’d a ton. The director roasted me.”

It was their last operation together, a sunset on their ridge. After that, the squad split; each walked toward their own horizon.

“This Abyss is high-tier, hard as granite,” Crimson said. “We’ll need to watch each other. Re-intro: I’m Crimson, Chapter Three, body-boost magic.”

“I’m Ling Shuang. They call me Night Frost; you can too,” she said. “I’m good with flame… I barely know proper spells. Not a formal Magic Maiden.”

“Right now I’m First Symphony,” she added, lifting a torn bracelet like a shackle. “If you break this, I’m Cantata Two.”

Crimson eyed the broken bracelet and nodded, a smith weighing iron. It was the band that dimmed Night Frost’s fire; with a little Mana, she could crack it.

“Give me your hand. I’ll break this—”

Before the words landed, Crimson yanked Night Frost close, sharp as a hawk’s stoop. The Magic Stone on her wrist blossomed a crimson barrier and wrapped Night Frost.

But the barrier couldn’t stop the behind-born beam, a sun-spear through mist. A golden pillar, the three-element Magic Cannon, punched straight through.

Crimson twisted with a hiss of air, holding Night Frost as they slipped the strike. Behind them, the metal wall took the storm.

The golden light melted the plate to iron-water, a river of glow. Night Frost’s heart kicked; a heartbeat slower and tomorrow’s sun would be a stranger.

“So strong,” she breathed, words like frost vapor.

They looked up. A figure hovered, a queen in a storm. Who else but Chu Qing?

She was stronger than before, wings armored in golden scales beating like war drums. Vertical pupils shone with sovereign weight, and three elements braided in her hands.

They gathered into a brutal Magic Cannon, a comet in her palms. Power rolled off her like a tide.

Crimson found this Chu Qing thorny as bramble and just as deep. For Crimson, that mixed cannon demanded a miracle; for Chu Qing, her three elements linked themselves.

What took a team, she flicked out like a pebble across a pond. Their gap was a cliff, sheer and slick.

Short of breaking her own seals, Crimson saw no way to topple that mountain. Now she lacked the power, and Night Frost couldn’t hold that gale.

The best choice was to run, leaves before a storm. Live and circle back.

Ms Feng’s voice crackled over the radio, a moth’s wing in static. She had Yin Tiancheng and Yin Chen Yue, both hurt; Lin was tied down.

Chu Qing was hard as iron, and new foes kept crawling from the wood. If they didn’t retreat, they’d be swallowed whole.

“I’m heading to the office. It’s safer ground,” Ms Feng said, steady as a drum. “Shake Chu Qing, then meet me there.”

“Got it. Treat Yin Tiancheng and Yin Chen Yue first,” Night Frost replied. “Move careful, like stepping on frost.”

She glanced back at Chu Qing pursuing like a hawk’s shadow and laid out the plan and the weather.

“Spirits of shadow, twisted into shade,” she whispered, voice a thin blade. “Cloak my form. Concealment.”