"Senior Bai Ling."
Back in camp, the moment his body finally relaxed, all the exhaustion he'd been holding back surged up at once. His eyelids grew unbearably heavy, and with Eyldera calling him so gently, Bai Ling felt like he could pass out in the very next second.
"…Did Senior Eyjafjalla leave?"
"Mm. She went back first."
As he spoke, Bai Ling felt his mind sink deeper and deeper. In the last sliver of wakefulness, just like those days staying in the hub zone, he let his head rest lightly against the girl's shoulder—and slowly drifted into sleep.
When Bai Ling's body began to go slack, Eyldera shifted slightly and caught him with practiced ease. She carefully lowered his head onto her lap, arranging him into a comfortable side-lying position so he could rest.
Along the way, even without directly joining the fighting, Bai Ling had done everything he needed to do.
Commanding. Guiding. Scouting. Supplying.
Everything except the battles themselves—he had covered.
He was almost frighteningly suited for command. In the haze of her memories, Eyldera couldn't help thinking of someone whose resemblance to Bai Ling felt… uncomfortably high.
They wouldn't have much time to rest, but even a short break like this was still worth giving him.
Through the window glass, the sky outside remained unchanged: that bizarre trans-domain rift still hung high overhead, radiating an ominous, wrongness that made the skin crawl.
She wondered how things were going on the Administrator's side.
Eyldera sat on the bed, lowered her gaze to Bai Ling's sleeping face, and—almost unconsciously—reached out to poke his cheek twice.
Her own cheeks reddened instead.
As a Re-Traveler, if she hadn't met Eyjafjalla, she might have needed a very, very long time to understand what it meant—why she was a Re-Traveler at all.
In her memories, Eyjafjalla had always been gentle, confident, and unbreakably resilient.
And Eyldera had never believed she surpassed Eyjafjalla in any way. So the only thing she could do was keep pushing forward.
But Senior Bai Ling's presence had turned that blurry, half-dreamlike memory into something real.
Senior Eyjafjalla had acknowledged Eyldera—accepted that she was her future, yet also a new individual.
And Eyldera could still remember it clearly.
Before she and Bai Ling departed from the hub center, Eyjafjalla's last words to her:
"…Your knowledge is already no less than mine. Your ability is not inferior to mine either. Whether you are the future me, or the 'me' who inherited me—then I shouldn't be you. You should be you, Eyldera."
Just as gentle as she'd always been…
And then there were Bai Ling's words, after she first met Eyjafjalla on the Dijiang:
"You're definitely fine, because your name is Eyldera. And I've always thought you were Eyldera—never Eyjafjalla."
Coming back from her thoughts, Eyldera whispered softly.
"Senior… get some good rest. After this… there may be a lot to deal with…"
She said it lightly—half to herself, half to Bai Ling, who had no awareness at all.
As if that still wasn't enough, she added another sentence, even quieter.
"…We'll do it together."
Lowering her head, Eyldera pressed her forehead to Bai Ling's, close enough to look almost intimate.
Bai Ling's temperature had been a little abnormal earlier. She was just checking.
Yes. That's all.
"…Ahahaha… there are so many Earthsplitters on this route!"
The road was genuinely brutal—almost every stretch demanded another fight.
"My god… so this is what Teacher Bai Ling was dealing with the whole way here?!"
Watching Tatta detect one corruption core after another, Chen Qianyu felt her grip on her blades go weak.
Tatta might have upgraded hardware, but it was still a fragile prototype at heart. Under high-intensity scanning, its battery dropped dangerously fast—so fast it started to look outright risky.
"Mr. Bai Ling's command and exploration ability is even stronger than I expected."
Even Perlica couldn't help admiring him now.
She'd weathered plenty of storms, but the earlier route had been too smooth—almost unnaturally smooth. Now that everything required hands-on work, even she felt the fatigue creeping in.
The little penguin didn't speak much on the way. She simply moved, silently cutting down monsters and threats whenever they appeared.
Back in the Cradle of Generations, when the primordial sapling reappeared, she'd felt a force flow back into her through it.
It was part of the power the giant Angel had absorbed—refined to the purest form. No adaptation needed. Pick it up and it worked. Use it and it helped.
"Hang in there a bit longer—up ahead is the power station. Once we cross it, we'll reach the trans-domain proving ground soon."
Right then, Perlica's communicator was forcibly cut in. A weary, weathered middle-aged man's voice burst through—tense, ragged, and urgent.
"Tch. So the dumb method works after all. Hey—can you hear me?"
"…Endfield people, leave now. This isn't a threat, it's a warning! If you're any later, it'll be too late!"
"I don't know how those two girls and that kid got out of the Power Highlands before, but you have to leave!"
He sounded frantic—too frantic. His worry over Endfield's arrival felt abnormal, almost panicked.
Perlica didn't get led by the nose. Her reply was calm and sharp.
"I'm Perlica. You're not using the Guild's identity."
"Perlica? You're Perlica?! Is the Administrator with you?!"
His voice tightened—yet it also carried a flicker of hope.
"Before we continue, we need to know who you are."
"Max Crow. You can verify my information!"
Perlica knew that name. He was the current person in charge of the Power Highlands.
"…Emergency channel… won't… hold… come to the power station…"
Before he could finish, the communication was forcibly shut down by some special-frequency sonic interference.
And when everyone turned—
They saw it.
Right beside them, a Bonegrinder-clan Earthsplitter had already raised its cleaver.
"Deal with these things first!!!" Chen Qianyu snapped, lifting both blades.
For the first time in a while, she genuinely wished Bai Ling were here.
If he was, she wouldn't have to rack her brain looking for weak points at all.
....
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