Or rather...
"A girl...?" The smoke clears, revealing the girl.
She's young, no older than me.
She has long, light grey hair styled with two side spikes and medium side locks. Two darker grey streaks run through the front of her hair, while the tips in the back are a darker shade.
There are these two weird antennas on her head.
Her eyes are red, but they don't have that familiar hunger. They're blank, hollow.
It's almost like...
(That girl... She's in pain...)
Pain? What do you mean?
(Her soul... it's screaming.)
Six objects come from the wall, and begin floating around her.
Knives? They look like knives, but I've never seen knives like that before.
(...Those knives are crafted from divine material.)
Divine…
I tighten my grip on the sword.
"Who are you?" I ask, pointing the azure sword at her.
The girl doesn't respond.
(You must free her.)
Free her? How? She's an enemy. She's trying to kill us.
(Sever the connection.)
I frown, trying to make sense of the voice's words. Sever the connection? What connection? And how am I supposed to do that? I don't even know who this girl is.
(...The azure flames.....They can sever the threads that bind her. But you must be precise. One wrong move, and you will destroy her.)
I grit my teeth, trying to focus past the throbbing in my head. This is too much. Too fast. One minute, I'm lying on the ground, helpless, and the next, I'm wielding a power I don't understand, facing an enemy I can't comprehend.
But I can't hesitate. Kotori is hurt. And this girl… whatever she is… she's a threat. I have to act.
I take a deep breath, and the azure flames on the sword roar brighter.
"Kotori is my prey," I tell her.
"If you want her, you'll have to go through me."
The girl doesn't respond. She just stares at me with those empty eyes.
Then, without warning, the knives around her launch forward. My eyes widen. They're fast. Faster than anything I've ever faced.
But for some reason, it's like time slows down.
I see the knives coming. I can sense their intent, their cold, precise purpose.
I can't dodge them all.
But I don't have to.
I raise the azure sword, and deflect the first knife.
The second knife comes, and I deflect it as well.
The third, the fourth, the fifth—I move with a speed and precision I didn't know I possessed.
(You must be careful. Those knives are dangerous—they are not of this world.)
I know. I can feel it. The knives are infused with a power that is both alluring and terrifying. It's a twisted version of the Divine Ki.
I dodge and deflect, but the knives keep coming.
I can't keep this up forever.
Kotori is also behind me, making it impossible to move back.
I'm already starting to feel the strain.
The power coursing through me is immense, but it's also… unstable.
(...Find an opening. You must get close enough to sever the connection.)
I clench my jaw.
Is there a way to close the distance?
The knives are relentless, giving me no room to breathe. I can't get close to her. Not like this.
Wait... There's a form that can help me.
...Can I even use that?
Master Lenah makes the second form look so easy, but I've never been able to master it. It requires a level of precision and control that I just don't possess. But I have to try. I have no choice.
(...I believe in you.)
I take a deep breath, trying to calm my racing heart. I need to focus. I need to clear my mind. I need to become one with the sword.
I close my eyes, and try to remember Lenah's instructions.
Breath. Stillness. Focus.
Feel the energy flowing through you, connecting you to the sword. Let it guide your movements. Let it become a part of you. I open my eyes, and the world shifts. The knives are still coming, but now, I see them differently. I see the patterns, the rhythms, the spaces between.
It's not just about speed. It's about control. About precision. About knowing where to be, and when.
I step forward, firing a thread of Azure Ki from my wrist. It hits an approaching knife, pinning it against the crater wall.
Then, I fire another thread, and another, until they are all pinned.
It's now or never.
I let the sword fall into a lower stance, and I take a deep breath. The world goes silent.
Second form—
In a single breath, I grab the sword handle with both hands and dash forward.
With a desperate twist, she frees a knife and brings it up to block my linear strike.
However—
I instantly redirect my momentum, shifting my position directly behind her.
(Sever the connection!)
"Hidden - Reversal Sonido!"
I unleash a second, immediate linear slash to her back.
The azure blade cuts through the air, not aiming for flesh, but for the invisible threads of control that bind her.
There is no sound of steel on bone, no spray of blood. Just a soft, almost inaudible *snip*.
The five knives I had pinned with my azure threads go dark. Their evil energy fades away, and the one she tried to block my strike with clatters uselessly to the ground.
Then, the sound of the collapse comes from behind me.
I turn around, panting.
"I-I did it?"
The azure flames on the sword begin fading, and the warmth within me starts to recede.
Time is almost up.
(...You have freed her. But there's an extra source of corruption that must be dealt with.)
Extra? I look down at the girl, then back at the sword.
"What are you talking about?"
(...The source of her pain. It's still here. Connected to her. You must sever it, or she will fall back into its grasp.)
The azure flames are almost gone. I don't have much time.
"Where is it?" I ask, my voice urgent.
(...That girl... Kotori... The one you protected... She can help you.)
The voice is beginning to fade, becoming distant once more.
And at the same time,
My vision blurs, and the world starts to spin.
"Huh?"
I stumble, my body swaying helplessly. The sword in my hand feels heavy, too heavy.
>Status: [PROXY_TAIL_FLAME_PROTOCOL] Reached Maximum Duration.
>System Feedback: Critical.
>Conduit Integrity: Compromised.
>Forcing shutdown.
I drop the sword, and it breaks into a thousand azure shards that vanish into the air.
My legs give out, and I collapse, but instead of the cold ground, it's... warm?
Soft, almost like—
(Good night... My little savior...)
And the last thing I feel is the gentle touch of a hand on my cheek, before everything goes black.
...