“I’m the happiest person in the world.”
Bai Jin often told herself this.
No matter how hard the wind blew or the rain poured, ‘home’ always kept the scary things safely outside her window.
She was the recipient of her entire family’s affection and favoritism, and unlike the stories she heard from classmates about siblings growing apart, her sister had always been wonderful to her.
No matter how fiercely the wind howled or how torrential the downpour, the fortress she called home always managed to seal away every trace of cold and fear.
She was showered with the family’s unconditional love, had a room overflowing with anime and novels, and a sister who was absolutely perfect.
Unlike the tales her classmates told of siblings who grew distant or even became rivals over their parents’ affection, her sister, Bai Zhi, treated her so exceptionally well that Bai Jin often felt it was a sin to monopolize such tenderness.
Even when their parents unconsciously favored their younger daughter, her sister never showed the slightest hint of discontent.
On the contrary, it was her sister who was always the one to carefully look after her, constantly mindful of her feelings.
Her sister was strong, always standing before her like a knight.
When classmates mocked her for being childish, or even resorted to fists, it was always her sister’s figure that shielded her, warding off all malice.
Her sister’s embrace was an eternal wellspring of warmth and safety, a place she could nestle in all day without ever growing tired of it.
But sometimes, her sister would be unhappy.
She would often sit alone by the window, silently listening to the rain outside, her silhouette tinged with a melancholy Bai Jin couldn’t decipher.
Yet, the moment Bai Jin drew near, that faint sorrow would dissipate like mist in the sun, and a smile would return to her sister’s face.
However, she couldn’t say when it started, but cracks began to appear in their sturdy fortress.
The laughter at the dinner table grew scarce, her parents’ conversations became curt and cold, and the worry etched between her sister’s brows deepened day by day.
Bai Jin grew uneasy.
She tried to ask, but her sister always put her off with clumsy excuses.
She saw her sister enter and leave their parents’ room time and again, emerging each time with a face full of suppressed anger and profound helplessness.
There was nothing she could do but watch.
Finally, the inevitable arrived—her parents were getting a divorce.
The beautiful moments of the past shattered.
The courthouse, their home—they were no longer filled with laughter, but with the grating sounds of arguments and the crash of shattered dishes.
They all seemed desperate to cast off the past, and with it, everything they once treasured, including their two daughters.
She moved out with her sister, taking temporary shelter in a cramped rental unit.
Her sister’s face was etched with exhaustion, yet she still fought to carve out a small piece of sky for her.
Bai Jin watched her sister rush about, toiling away, while she herself felt like a useless vampire, greedily feasting on the kindness her sister provided, unable to shield her from even the slightest breeze.
Then, she awoke one unusually calm morning to find the world had been quietly reset by an invisible hand.
The arguments, the sharp voices, the cold stares… all of it had vanished.
Everything seemed to have returned to its original state, and laughter once again filled their home, as if they had forgotten everything that had happened.
It seemed as though nothing had changed at all.
Until she went looking for Bai Zhi, only to hear a carelessly uttered piece of news from her grandfather—
Her sister was dead.
Died in an accident.
Just a few simple, dismissive words had erased her sister’s entire existence.
It was so sudden, so absurd.
A vast emptiness and a tearing sensation consumed Bai Jin.
She didn’t believe it; she couldn’t accept it.
They had just seen each other the day before, but today… she was gone?
She attended the funeral but couldn’t shed a single tear, standing frozen like a doll.
The things she once loved most, the home that was once her warmest sanctuary, had all become inexplicably cold and grim.
She returned to the rental unit, asking anyone she could, only to find that reality and memory had fractured.
The arguments at home, the days she and Bai Zhi had relied on each other—it all felt like a hallucination.
Just as she was about to suffocate under the immense weight of loss and confusion, a pitch-black cat with deep violet eyes appeared before her in silence.
It was as if it could see through all her helplessness, her regret, and the deep-seated desire to protect that she had failed at time and time again.
“I…”
She faced the black cat, her voice choked with sobs, her vision blurred by tears.
“I was like a vampire, only knowing how to bask in the warmth my sister gave me, but I could never do anything for her…”
A colossal wave of remorse and a fervent wish to reverse everything churned in her chest.
“So… I will become the strongest knight, able to block any harm and cut through any hardship! I will have the power to protect everything!”
A brilliant light engulfed her.
Her wish twisted her form, granting her the extraordinary body of a legendary vampire princess with white hair and red eyes, yet cladding her in the armor of a knight.
****
And now, within the distorted, bizarre nest of the infinite parking garage, she was fighting with all her might to fulfill the vow she had made that day.
Her greatsword danced through the air, its silver-white armor bearing the brunt of the giant rat’s frenzied assaults and the collapsing, fracturing space stirred up by the demon.
Every violent tremor of the ground, every thunderous crash of the ceiling, sent a surge of blood through her veins, and the armor’s radiance dimmed slightly with each heavy blow.
But she couldn’t retreat!
She absolutely could not retreat!
“Scum… don’t you dare get near her!!”
She clenched her jaw, her blood roiling as if it might spontaneously combust.
Her red eyes blazed with a nearly obsessive resolve as she carved out a small, relatively stable area for her sister to draw her bow and prepare her attack.
More than half of her mana was already gone, and a numbness was creeping into her limbs.
Her ears were filled with the sound of her own ragged breaths and the monstrous roars echoing through the vast chamber.
A heavy sense of powerlessness, like a cold tide, threatened to drown her once more.
Even with this power, she still felt so small in the face of true despair.
Once stamina was depleted, mana would burn at an accelerated rate.
And when mana ran out, all that remained were life and will.
A weakness akin to anemia spread through her body, and her skin grew as pale as if it had been drained of blood.
The dim golden light on her armor suddenly flared, so bright that her own skin began to smoke and turn to ash, like a vampire exposed to the sun.
She raised her greatsword and moved to the side of the unsuspecting Bai Zhi, preparing to kick her out of the cavern opening before making her final stand.
But at that very moment, the light at the nest’s twisted entrance warped violently.
Two figures suddenly burst in—one with a look of urgency, the other appearing calm.
One wore a blue skirt, her spear and a floating orb of musical notes sweeping through the rat swarm with a crisp, clean energy.
The other, dressed in a dark, gothic-style dress, brandished a longsword wreathed in ominous purple flames that cut through the darkness as she shot forward like an arrow.
“Xi, that little girl looks like she’s about to go berserk. Stop her first.”
With those words, Qi Yue’an charged to the front without hesitation, her longsword instantly swelling to the height of a person before she plunged it into the ground.
“Screee—!”
Purple flames spread in all directions, instantly igniting the fur of the surrounding giant rats.
The creatures, which had shown no fear even when sliced in two, suddenly began to shriek in agony.
The flames seemed to have sprung from the depths of hell itself, capable of burning the soul directly.
Some tore at their own forelimbs while others gnawed at their companions.
The physical flames hadn’t even burned through their hides before their consciousness was completely extinguished.
This was a new skill she had mastered.
After her transformation was complete, the purple flames of envy were no longer confined to her weapon; they could now spread to any surface her sword directly touched.
And the most common and effective medium for that, of course, was the earth itself.
“Aaaah—it hurts, it hurts so much—!”
The silent plastic demon suddenly let out a piercing scream.
Its attacks grew more frantic and unrestrained as its massive body tried to rise from the giant rock it sat on, only to tumble to the ground.
The surrounding ceiling and walls began to crumble.
Qi Yue’an dodged the falling debris, but due to her lack of combat experience, a large chunk was about to fall directly on her head.
“Watch out!”
A massive arrow flew past, piercing and shattering the boulder before splitting into countless smaller arrows that pulverized the fragments into harmless dust.
Qi Yue’an followed the trajectory back to its source.
The flaxen-haired archer stood there weakly, having collapsed to the ground from physical and magical exhaustion.
As she looked toward Xiyin, the tension on her face seemed to slacken slightly.
“An’an, let’s go! This cave is about to collapse.”
Xiyin, holding Bai Jin, was already nimbly dodging her way toward the entrance of the “mall” with its flashing colored lights, preparing to return to the parking garage area.
“Thank you… but I don’t think I have any strength left… *cough*… Take care of Jin, let me…”
“What are you talking about?”
Bai Zhi suddenly felt her body become weightless, and her perspective shifted to mid-air.
Qi Yue’an had one arm wrapped around her waist and held her sword in the other, pouring power into it.
In an instant, the blade grew to one and a half times her height.
She swung it with one hand, and a massive boulder fell from the cavern entrance, instantly pinning the demon’s outstretched, plastic-like hand.
Fueled by the new material, the purple flames she had released earlier now burned even more fiercely.
“I came to save people, not to run away on my own.”
Her face, so close to Bai Zhi’s, was expressionless, yet it was imprinted deep in her pupils like a hero from a movie.
The embrace of this girl, who was practically a child compared to her, felt extraordinarily reliable.
It was as if beneath this delicate exterior was not a fragile girl, but a strong and dependable “Brave One,” forged in blood and sorrow.
Qi Yue’an, however, wasn’t thinking about any of that.
She was simply focused on what to do next.
To be honest, this plastic doll of a demon was far weaker than the monster surrounded by three giant whales she and Xiyin had faced before.
Back then, if Lin Xiao hadn’t launched a surprise attack from behind, she and Xiyin would have likely been defeated within three minutes.
But now, her transformation was complete, and she might have even awakened her first “Trait.”
Compared to the life-or-death crises of her previous two battles…
“Xi, and you… uh… miss, you two take care of the injured and provide some fire support. I’ll handle this demon.”
She once again sliced off the demon’s slender, outstretched “hand,” charged out of the cavern into the parking garage, and placed the stunned Bai Zhi next to Xiyin.
Then, she turned to face the demon as it clawed its way out from under the boulder, gripping her sword tightly.