"We've saved a lot of time, but there's still an ocean between us and Mount Firmament. Can't you teleport us the rest of the way?"
Rover gazed across the water at the dragon-shaped mountain, impossibly distant on the far shore. The Shorekeeper shook her head, apologetic.
"I'm sorry. I tried, but the area around that mountain is sealed by a strange force. Even with exact coordinates, teleportation fails. It's as though space itself has been frozen solid."
"Over a century ago, Mount Firmament was besieged by a massive Tacet Discord Tide. Sentinel Jué descended from the heavens and drove them back with the power of temporal flow, then raised a barrier of frozen time around the mountain, sealing it from the outside world. Mount Firmament has been an untouched sanctuary ever since."
A composed, elegant voice cut in from nearby the instant the Shorekeeper finished speaking.
A woman approached with unhurried grace. Her hair fell in a long ponytail, a cascade of pink that deepened to crimson at the tips, swaying behind her like the tail feathers of a mythical phoenix. Golden triple-ring ornaments framed either side of her face, and her amber eyes held a warmth that was less expression than invitation, clear and deep all at once.
The moment she drew close to Rover and Jinhsi, warmth rolled off her in waves, banishing the chill of the overcast sky. It radiated from her skin itself, her body temperature high enough to make her a living furnace. Twin streaks of rose flushed permanently across her cheeks, and her complexion glowed warmer and ruddier than any ordinary person's.
"Teacher?!"
Jinhsi's face lit up with surprise and delight. The woman acknowledged her with a graceful nod, then turned to Rover and introduced herself, as though this were something she needed to say to him directly, with her own voice.
"I am Changli. Counselor to the Jinzhou Magistrate. The time has finally come for us to meet. Allow me to guide you on the road ahead."
Stunning was the only word that came to mind. He'd caught a glimpse of her in his past life and thought her beautiful then. In person, standing before him now, she was something beyond that. Like the mythical Changli bird itself, the phoenix given human form.
"Jinhsi's teacher? Why are you here?"
"The situation on Mount Firmament has grown exceedingly complex. I thought you might benefit from a guide, so I came ahead to wait."
She met his gaze directly. After learning from Jinhsi yesterday that the two of them planned to rescue Sentinel Jué from the mountain, she'd combed through every record and document about Mount Firmament in Jinzhou's archives. Then she'd traveled to this crossing, cleared the area of roaming Tacet Discords, and waited.
"I spent my childhood on Mount Firmament. It's been many years since I last returned, but I still remember the paths. I should be able to help you reach the Sentinel as quickly as possible."
She gestured toward a boat she'd already prepared, explaining that the Sentinel's severance of Mount Firmament's space-time from the outside world had turned what should be a short distance into an impassable gulf. Flight was out of the question. The only way in was by water, along a specific route.
"As thorough as always, Teacher."
"...Well, you're already here. Not much point arguing."
"Oh? It seems Rover isn't pleased to see me."
The faint exasperation in his voice didn't escape her. Her expression remained serene, but her fingers curled tighter at her side.
He shook his head and fixed her with a grave look.
"If you know the mountain, then you know the price of entering. The difference in temporal flow means that for every day spent inside, you lose ten days of life when you leave."
One day in. Ten days gone.
He'd known this from the storyline in his past life. The cost was negligible for himself, who commanded the Temporal Mandate, and for Jinhsi as the Sentinel's Resonator. Neither of them would be affected.
But Changli had no such protection. The moment she set foot on Mount Firmament, she'd pay the toll in years when she left.
For most people, it wouldn't matter much. A human life was long enough, and Rover and Jinhsi intended to move fast. Even at ten-to-one, the cost would be manageable.
But Changli's situation was different.
No one else knew. He did.
The woman standing before him was, in a cruel way, the living definition of a life cut short. As a child, she'd overused her Forte to survive, and the price had been carved from her lifespan. For her, the toll wasn't trivial.
Especially now, with the temporal flow on Mount Firmament thrown into chaos. When she left, the cost might be far worse than ten-to-one.
Something flickered across her face. A brow lifted in surprise. The Rover before her seemed to see straight through a secret she'd kept hidden from everyone, a truth she'd never told a soul. Not even Jinhsi.
But the surprise passed, and her quiet smile returned.
"A mere tenfold cost in years. Please don't concern yourself, Rover. To lose ten days, a hundred days, or even more from one's life is nothing, so long as the heart's purpose is fulfilled without regret. And compared to the soldiers still fighting and dying on the battlefield as we speak... if trading some of my remaining years could bring victory even a moment sooner, it would be worth every one."
She stepped onto the boat first and turned back to him, extending her right hand. Her skin seemed to glow with an inner heat, flushed the color of embers.
An invitation.
He sighed, and took it.
Nearby, Jinhsi felt a strange prickle of... something.
What is this feeling?
She couldn't put her finger on it, but a sudden certainty nagged at the silver-haired Magistrate: her teacher and this Rover now shared a secret she wasn't part of.
She'd known both of them first. Both of them.
After that, the three of them set out across the water toward Mount Firmament, navigating around streams of temporal distortion that bled from the mountain like invisible currents. The effects were visible beneath the surface. Countless fish hung frozen in the water, suspended mid-swim as though caught in amber, unable to twitch so much as a fin.
Changli used the journey to share what she'd gathered.
"Mount Firmament is where the Sentinel first appeared. Legend holds that deep within the mountain lies a hidden realm called the Dragon's Repose, the place where Sentinel Jué retreats to slumber. Her hibernation chamber. It's said that an organization called the Court of Savantae once conducted research there, studying both the Sentinel and her chamber. They partnered with a mysterious figure, a black-haired individual with golden eyes, in an attempt to treat the Sentinel's wounds. Oh, and Jinhsi, you were actually born on Mount Firmament. You were taken to Jinzhou City Hall to be raised as the future Magistrate when you were very young, so you likely don't remember."
Her research was thorough. Most of it Rover already knew, but hearing Changli lay it out in order untangled threads that had grown muddled precisely because he knew too much. Clarity settled over him like a window wiped clean.
Then something slammed into the hull.
Crack. Crack. CRACK.
A clawed limb punched through the bottom of the boat. Rover's hand moved on instinct. The Emerald of Genesis cleared its sheath and severed the limb in one stroke, then he drove the blade down through the hull and skewered the Tacet Discord beneath from crown to tail.
But the danger didn't stop there. Artillery roared ahead of them.
The shipping lane was crawling with Fractsidus Followers.
"Jinzhou scum! You're not getting through! We'll blast you to pieces!"
"Echo, resonate with me!!"
Rover triggered his time-stop without hesitation. His power had grown. He could hold time frozen for ten seconds now.
Within that window, every missile the Followers had launched hung motionless in the air, robbed of all momentum. He started to flick the sword forward to destroy them, then paused.
A better idea.
The teleportation gate he and his other half had claimed from Scar, recolored to their own black, bloomed open before him. He positioned the entrance between himself, Changli, and Jinhsi. The exit faced the Followers.
"You threw it. You catch it."
Time resumed.
A swarm of missiles vanished into the portal and reappeared screaming back the way they'd come. The grins on the Followers' faces froze.
"No, don't...!!"
"AAAAAH!!"
"That's... isn't that Lord Scar's power?!"
The ambushers' screams dissolved into the blast of their own ordnance.
On the other side of the boat, Jinhsi and Changli had begun their own counterattack. Red flame and golden lightning swept across the water, incinerating the Tacet Discords drifting on the surface like flotsam.
"These Discords were summoned by the Retroact Rain! Ovathrax's influence reaches this far?!"
"And these Fractsidus Followers were lying in wait. They weren't here for us specifically. Their mission is to eliminate anyone approaching Mount Firmament. To prevent the Sentinel's rescue!"
Jinhsi's expression hardened as she watched the Followers scatter. Fractsidus here, guarding the approach. More proof that the Sentinel's imprisonment was their handiwork.
"They're the enemy regardless, and the hull won't hold much longer. We need to abandon ship. In that case..."
Rover pulled an Echo from his Pangu Terminal. He'd given every other Echo to the female Rover for the battlefield, leaving only this one, a beast that had originally wandered out of Mount Firmament on its own.
A thunderous roar shook the air. Not a roar. A tiger's war cry.
The Lightcrusher materialized, massive and resplendent.
Rover grabbed Changli and Jinhsi by the hand and swung them onto its back.
"Lucky, clean up the rest!"
The great teal tiger launched forward in a blaze of golden light.
"ROAAAR!!"
Light condensed beneath its paws with every stride. Scores of golden projectiles coalesced around it and tore outward in all directions, shredding everything hostile in their path. In the space of a breath, every Tacet Discord in the water and every remaining Follower ahead of them ceased to exist.
Rover scratched Lucky behind the ears, satisfied. The Elite Class rating felt more insulting by the day. His Lightcrusher had long outgrown it.
Then the tiger lifted its head, surveyed the waters around them, and seemed to recognize something. Without any guidance, it found a route that threaded through the temporal distortions and began carrying the three of them toward Mount Firmament at full speed.
"Right. Lucky escaped from Mount Firmament in the first place. It knows the way home."
"A Lightcrusher. The pinnacle of Elite Class Echoes." Changli's voice carried genuine admiration. "I didn't expect you to have such a bond, Rover. It seems your connection to Mount Firmament runs deeper than I thought."
Jinhsi sat in front of him on the tiger's back, Changli behind. Without a trace of self-consciousness, the Counselor wrapped her arms around his waist.