After everyone had left, only the pale light of the crystals and the increasingly thick scent of Blood Mist remained in the cavern.
Lin Yi stood motionless.
Footsteps came from behind him.
They were soft, but especially clear in the silence.
Lin Yi didn't turn around. He knew who it was.
Edith came to stand beside him, shoulder to shoulder.
She didn't look at the Crystal Core on the ground. Her gaze rested on the Blood Mist roiling outside the cavern.
The two of them were silent for a moment.
"What are you thinking about?" Edith asked first.
Lin Yi was silent for a few seconds, then said slowly, "I'm thinking about what happens if I fail."
He said it quite calmly.
"Then you fail," Edith said. "The worst that could happen is that we all die here together. But if we just follow the usual course, that outcome is inevitable anyway. At least now we've taken a gamble. Even if we lose, it's not a bad deal."
She said it so casually, as if discussing what to eat tomorrow.
Lin Yi turned to look at her.
Edith turned to him as well, her green eyes perfectly calm.
"Captain, do you know an old saying from the Spirit Race?"
"What?"
"It's better to die charging forward than to starve to death in a corner."
She paused. "The context isn't quite right, but the meaning is similar."
Lin Yi was speechless.
"Besides," Edith continued, "I don't think you'll lose."
"Why?"
"Because I've seen the records of your battles at the Central God Mountain."
Edith said, "I didn't just watch them. I analyzed them seventy-three times, from your first move to the final blow. Every choice you made seemed to follow a path you'd calculated in advance—precise, efficient, without a single unnecessary