Emma blinked slowly, her eyes catching faint snowflakes that melted almost instantly against the warmth of her skin. She looked briefly toward Dan, still silent in the center of the path, before turning back to Liz. Her expression carried both awe and the frustration of not fully grasping the scale of what Liz spoke of.

  Liz’s gaze softened, but her words continued. “As for the second question, and also the second answer for your first one... Dan’s Lime-state is different. It isn’t like the usual Lime-state, which exists mainly for omnipresence. His is… more unique to him.” She paused deliberately, her eyes catching Emma’s as if to tie the thought more tightly.

  “Just like your Ash of Creation,” Liz added quietly.

  Emma’s lips parted slightly, the words sinking into her with the weight of recognition.

  Liz lowered her voice now, almost reverent, but edged with a kind of unease. “The reason his Lime-state is dangerous is because when he activates it, something else comes alive with it. That uniqueness…” She paused again, her emerald eyes flicking briefly toward Dan. “It’s what we call Collapse.”

  Emma’s brows drew together faintly, her head tilting, the curiosity in her gaze deepening. Liz, watching her reaction, raised her chin slightly and explained.

  “Collapse isn’t a force. It’s… the collapse of force’s necessity.” Her hand brushed across her coat as if grounding herself, and her words carried a strange finality. “It’s a passive inviolable aura, one that sustains itself around him only when he’s in the Lime-state, and whatever it touches, it collapses.”

  “Before harm can reach him, it collapses. Before a threat can coalesce, layer, or even be named, it collapses. Before concepts, hierarchies, before anything, even the absence itself can carve their dominion upon him… they collapse.”

  The wind rose, scattering flakes across their coats as Liz’s eyes narrowed faintly. “Even casualties, absolutes or narrative-level attacks collapse before they can ever reach him. Nothing unnecessary is allowed to exist around him when Collapse breathes.”

  The words sank into Emma like a weight pressing into her chest. Her lips stilled, no reply escaping, as her unique white eyes stayed fixed on Liz.

  Liz let the silence sit for a moment, her own breath slowing. Finally, she straightened, her hands folding across the front of her coat. “That is why he doesn’t like using it.”

  Emma glanced back at Dan, still frozen in the snowstorm of his own silence, as though the entire world had narrowed down to whatever decision he wrestled with internally. Her thoughts stilled as Liz’s explanation settled deep, a quiet pause stretching between them all.

  And then, Emma finally opened her mouth again, the words spilling carefully, as though weighing whether they should even be spoken.

  “Sorry if this doesn’t come out straight, but…” she paused for a moment, her hands brushing briefly against her sleeves, “since Dan’s Lime-state operates this way, then… wouldn’t he be able to collapse something like omnipresence negation?”

  Liz didn’t need long to answer. She shook her head gently, her twin buns shifting with the motion. “He can, theoretically,” she said. “But at the same time, he cannot. If he tried… it would cause a deadlock between his Collapse and the omnipresence negation. A tug-of-war neither side could truly resolve.”

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  Her emerald gaze softened, though her voice stayed steady. “And remember, he doesn’t have full control to the Collapse destruction. That’s why it’s dangerous.”

  She exhaled slowly, a faint cloud escaping her lips, before she looked toward the horizon, the snow stretching pale and endless. “Besides… we didn’t come here to fight. That was never the reason.” She glanced back at Emma with a smile that seemed like a weary resolve. “We came to learn. To understand how to use our powers rightly.”

  Her eyes shifted again toward Dan. He still hadn’t moved, his long black coat stark against the white world, his sea-blue eyes hidden in unreadable thought as if deciding what to do....

  Liz tilted her head slightly as she saw this, her emerald eyes narrowing as the corner of her lips tugged upward. A mischievous glimmer flickered across her face, A thought of teasing him a little flashed down her mind and before she could second-guess it, her voice carried out, loud and sharp against the snowy air.

  “Hey, Dan! Are you still standing there or what?”

  Her tone bounced across the frozen path, a teasing call wrapped in amusement.

  Dan didn’t turn. He didn’t even shift. The only reply was his right hand lifting faintly, fingers curling lazily upward, a quiet signal that he had heard. Yet beneath that gesture, his lips moved soundlessly, murmuring words that none of them could catch.

  Emma’s white eyes watched the exchange, a small smile tugging gently at her lips, she found it almost funny, the way Liz bossy energy clashed against Dan’s unruly behavior.

  And in that moment.

  Duuuuum!!!

  The ground shuddered. A low vibration thundered across the snow as though the very marrow of reality trembled.

  A crushing pressure poured down upon them, unseen yet unbearable, folding the space around them like existence itself was moments from breaking apart. Snowflakes that had drifted so gently moments before shattered into thin mist before they even touched the snow.

  Jett’s pale-gray eyes widened faintly, because of the suddenness of the pressure, her long coat rustling against her legs as her breath tight in her chest. Ron’s fists clenched by his sides, his shoulders stiffening inside the heavy beast-pelt he wore. Liz’s emerald eyes narrowed, her playful smirk calmly receded away, now replaced with calm focus as she steadied her footing.

  Emma alone stayed unnervingly still for the moment, her eyes fixed forward. She stared at Dan, unmoving, silent, his gaze lifted to the snowy sky. He didn’t lower his head. He didn’t acknowledge them. He simply stared upward into the vast white blur where snow and mist swallowed the heavens, as though something hidden behind that curtain had called him.

  The collapse was everywhere.

  Emma looked down at her small hands, pale fingers trembling as the vibration coursed through her bones. Even her breath seemed to shiver under the weight of it. Her thoughts swirled in quiet wonder.

  So this is the Lime-state… He doesn’t even need to move, yet he already exists simultaneously. And this Collapse, it isn’t just collapsing… it’s shaking even my existence.

  Her eyes widened in surprise , as the words slipped almost unconsciously past her lips.

  “What a unique Lime-state…”

  The pressure pressed deeper for a moment, the icy air rippling with invisible force, before it suddenly fell away. The silence returned, heavy and brittle, as though the world itself exhaled relief.

  Dan shifted at last. Slowly, he lowered his hand, turning his head over his shoulder. His sea-blue eyes, dark as the depths, caught theirs briefly. His voice broke the silence, low and steady.

  “It isn’t in the fruit,” he said simply. His gaze turned back toward the manmade path ahead, his coat brushing the frost as he stepped forward. “Let’s keep going.”

  The path, stretched ahead, winding in carved lines of stone, manmade but long consumed by layers of snow. The marks of tools and hands still lingered faintly beneath the frost, guiding them forward into the cold veil. Beyond, the mist rose thicker, hiding the distance in its pale grip.

  To Xin Region.

  Emma adjusted her skirt against the wind, Ron pulled his collar higher, and Jett brushed snow from her sleeves. Liz gave a small sigh before falling in line.

  And together, they followed.

  Once more.

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