"What is it?"
Ning Xue asked, voice tight with anxiety.
Yuriko's eyes widened in genuine confusion.
"...Nothing," she muttered, surprised. "There's nothing wrong... but..."
"??"
"Your body... it's becoming weaker. Almost like a mortal's."
"!!" Ning Xue's face changed. "How? My powers feel even stronger lately..."
To prove it, she flicked her wrist, turning the damp alley air into swirling golden dust that shimmered like captured starlight.
Yuriko's face darkened with conflict. She hesitated, not wanting to crush her. Ning Xue wasn't just any god-born, she carried the evolved bloodline of beings like Aurora. Her very anatomy should have been fundamentally superior, built to command aether and psychokinesis with effortless dominance.
Yet now... it was normal.
Fragile.
The kind of fragile that, in the brutal, crushing pressure of the Netherworld, could get a person killed in seconds.
