Lilieth pulled.

  She pulled and pulled, but the blade was set too deeply into the stone platform. Even with her enhanced strength as a Blessed, it simply wouldn’t budge.

  Behind her, the battle raged. The others in the party arrived and immediately began fighting—all in perfect coordination with each other. They chanted their spells, their voices mixing into a chaotic cacophony. Mirena created shields around her allies, Nahia was summoning her familiars to harass and distract the beast, and Titan swung his giant greatsword with ease, overwhelming the creature with his ridiculous strength. The hero’s party—fighting as one.

  All of them except one.

  Lilieth pulled hard, to a point where she could almost feel her muscles tearing. Pain surged through her entire arm, through her shoulder, her stomach, her legs, her heart. Her mind dizzied and her vision blurred as all the blood rushed to her head.

  Someone landed behind her.

  “Lili, what are you doing? You need to get out of this cave!”

  It was Talgerda’s voice.

  “I just ... need to ... pull this out … !” Lilieth replied, her own voice straining. She could hear Talgerda trying to convince her, but eventually, the half-elf needed to return to the battle that grew increasingly hectic. Lilieth was alone again.

  The young mage spared a moment to glance back and saw the hero’s party struggling. She saw them sweating, cursing, bleeding.

  Losing.

  Was that even possible? She’d never seen them lose. Was that strange creature that strong?

  Lilieth turned her focus back to the sword and pulled even harder. She groaned, she screamed. And yet, the sword wasn’t budging.

  The earth trembled. The battle behind her was worsening. Lilieth had to hurry up. She continued to pull.

  “Watch out!”

  Lilieth, growing lightheaded, didn’t know if it was her that Talgerda was calling out to. She turned around, trying to verify if it really was—

  A figure flew overhead and crashed into the wall with a frighteningly painful sound. Yupanai, blood-covered and barely conscious, moved to dislodge himself, only to fall into the water, strength leaving his body.

  Lilieth’s mind froze over.

  “It’s adapting!” Verlaine yelled out to his comrades. “Rodei, fall back!”

  Lilieth could barely keep up with the chaos. The creature attacked Rodei Libra next. He was standing on a transparent hexagonal platform across the water, one created by magic. As he tried to retreat, the ground beneath him broke apart like glass from tendrils bursting forth from under. He jumped. A tendril skewered his leg. Talgerda swooped in and severed as many tendrils as she could, but as a result, she crashed into a much larger one that sent her flying towards a wall.

  She coughed out blood.

  “T-Talger—”

  “LILIETH!”

  Verlaine shouted. In her peripheral vision, Lilieth saw a light. She turned her head, only to see one of the creature’s many own facing her, maw wide open. Light. Light shone from inside its—

  “——! [M-Murus]!”

  She stood up and raised her hands to construct a wall in front of her. In the distance, she could hear Verlaine yelling a chant and creating a large portal between her and the—

  The light erupted—a deafening roar that overpowered Lilieth’s eardrums. Her wall shattered. Although it lasted just a moment, the blast hit Lilieth’s body hard enough to knock her back several paces. When she looked up, she saw Verlaine’s portal absorbing the beast’s attack, sending it off to Gods know where. Yet even with that, the force of the attack was enough to throw everyone off balance.

  When the blast dissipated, Lilieth fell to the ground on her knees, gasping and wheezing. Towards the back, Titan was prone. Rodei, with a bleeding leg, limped near the entrance, hand on the wall. Mirena, who had created the transparent platforms so that the others could have more ground to stand on, was bleeding from the arm and was trying to heal it up. Nahia, Roald, Left, Sevens ... all of them looked exhausted.

  Verlaine stood at the edge of the platform, facing down the beast with numerous cuts decorating his body. His outfit—that glorious attire that gave him the regality of a noble—was bloodied and torn. His breathing was nowhere near steady. On his brow was a deep, upsetting furrow.

  There was no way they could win.

  Lilieth looked down. Her leg was bleeding horribly. She had no idea how bad the injury was. She could only thank her beating heart that her blood was rushing so fast that she couldn’t focus on the pain. She gritted her teeth and crawled her way back to the green-gemmed sword.

  The young mage reached out and grabbed its handle as firmly as her weak arms could manage.

  “Please ...” she whispered, then pulled—a pathetic, graceless pull, lacking any strength whatsoever.

  The sword slid right out.

  “Huh … ?”

  Lilieth looked down at her hands. In them, a beautiful silver blade reflected her face back at her. She was crying. At some point, she had begun crying.

  The cavern rumbled as the hero’s party continued to fight. Talgerda was flying through the air again, though much, much slower and trailing blood behind her as she did. The lake erupted, and Yupanai emerged from beneath the water’s surface, launching another barrage of elemental attacks with terrifying fervor.

  In response to despair, they chose to keep fighting.

  Because they were heroes.

  “—Grgh ...” Lilieth groaned, leaning on the sword as she tried to stand up.

  If she was to be honest with herself, the hero’s party hadn’t exactly treated her well. Verlaine and Talgerda were kind to her, yes, and she didn’t really interact much with Sevens and Nahia, but the rest were strict with her or mean or condescending. Some clearly expected too much of her, and others expected her not to live up to those expectations.

  But even then, she admired them—all of them. Lilieth grew up hearing stories about heroes from ages past to those of the modern day like every other child had. Of course, she would admire them.

  And she wanted to stand by their side.

  Lilieth lifted the longsword—a sword whose weight pushed on her wounds and threatened to crush her. She raised it high above her head.

  She didn’t know how or why, but she knew exactly what to do next.

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  “Everyone, get down!” she yelled out.

  The sword began to glow and vibrate with power. The balls of light that Verlaine casted flickered then seemingly pooled into the blade, like a vortex engulfing it all. Lilieth could feel her mana being ripped away from her body, answering the blade’s call.

  Everyone heeded her warning. The heroes felt something was coming and moved. Most of them dove into the water while others hid behind piles of rubble. The beast took notice, turned itself towards Lilieth ...

  ... And simply stood still.

  Her mind, rattled as it was, couldn’t comprehend why it didn’t attack, but she had no time to think. She could feel the blade's eagerness. It was full, and it was ready.

  Answering its prayer, Lilieth swung down.

  A flood of light shot towards the beast, and blinding white filled the room. The young mage was blown back by the sheer force of the blast, dropping the sword in the process. The lake made towering waves; the earth rumbled. It was like the entire world was falling apart.

  When the chaos ceased, Lilieth saw the damage. The creature was writhing, missing most of its heads, its gelatinous skin scorched and melting. The monster had crashed into the wall flailing as if it could actually feel pain. Instead of retaliating, however, it changed its form. Its body morphed into something like a river, rushing through the air. It traveled around, spiraling, until it found the exit to the outside world and left.

  And soon, calm returned to the cavern.

  Lilieth took a moment to breathe, but that was a mistake. The pain rushed over her, and she folded in half, clutching her leg and groaning.

  The others eventually resurfaced, still vigilant but relieved. Talgerda was the first to approach, and her face contorted when she saw Lilieth’s leg.

  “Shit, that looks bad. Alice!”

  “Alice is here; stop shouting.”

  They turned to the nearby rock that Alice was leaning against. Her head was bleeding, but she was mostly okay.

  “She needs healing, Alice.”

  “Yes, Alice can see that,” the shorter mage replied, seemingly annoyed.

  Talgerda realized. “You’re out of mana too?”

  “We all are,” Yupanai said, approaching. His wounds were severe, so much more severe than Lilieth’s own, but he still stood and walked as if it were natural to do so. He was always good at ignoring pain. His gaze briefly hovered over the swords impaled on the ground.

  Somehow, despite all that chaos, the eleven remaining blades were still fixed in place. The platform itself suffered very little damage. Strange.

  Talgerda wrapped Lilieth’s leg with bandages in lieu of Healing magic. Alice did the same for the other members. After a while, everyone had resurfaced, and they all stood on the platform—everyone except Verlaine. He idled by the exit, gazing outwards, towards the narrow cave passage through which the creature had escaped.

  “Sir?” Mirena called out.

  After a moment, Verlaine turned around and walked towards the group, his strides ever confident and reliable. “Is everyone alright?”

  “We’re all still kickin’ if that’s what yer askin’, though a bit low in the mana department,” Rodei Libra responded. He was sitting down on one of the larger pieces of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling. “But what in the hells was that thing? I ain’t ever seen the like ...”

  “It could be some subspecies of slime,” Mirena said. “A mutation of sorts.”

  “A slime that powerful?” Left scoffed. “No, it has to be something else. Blackbeast, maybe?”

  Verlaine waved his hand. “No matter. Right now, we have more important things to focus on.”

  “Yeah, what was up with that?” Left turned to Lilieth, curiosity in his catlike eyes. “Were you hiding your level from us or something?”

  She shook her head. “N-no, it wasn’t me. It was this ...”

  Lilieth crawled over, grabbed the sword that she’d dropped, and held it up in front of them.

  Naturally, after seeing what the sword could do for a First tier like Lilieth, their gazes were pulled in the direction of the others on the platform. Each was of a different design but was equally magnificent.

  “... So, you’re telling me it was real?” Roald spoke. There was a tinge of unpleasantness in his voice. “That ... delusion of yours?”

  “It wasn’t a delusion" she replied. “They’re right there.”

  The heroes gathered around the blades, inspecting them, marveling at their beauty. All of them found the swords as mesmerizing as Lilieth did. Even Sevens got closer, and although her expression was as blank as it always was, the tilt of her head meant that she was deeply inspecting them. It was always strange to see her focusing on something since she was supposedly blind. She had no vision problems in daily life nor combat. Her Divination magic was so powerful that it offset her lack of vision, and her mannerisms made Lilieth doubt if she really was blind.

  Verlaine stayed where he was, though he was very much looking at the swords. There was an unreadable expression on his face that made Lilieth feel uneasy.

  “Sir?” Mirena called out, noticing Verlaine’s odd behavior. “Is something the matter?”

  “... The fight isn’t done. Nahia.”

  Nahia nodded and shut her eyes closed as if she was concentrating on something. “It’s trying to eat everything it can find. A-and it’s growing rapidly ...”

  “What are you talking about?” Talgerda asked. “Growing? What’s growing?”

  “The beast,” Verlaine said. “That sword’s attack dealt significant damage, but it didn’t kill it. Now, it’s escaped to the surface. I had Nahia leave behind some scout familiars at the surface just in case someone tried to enter while we were in here. Thankfully, connecting one’s senses to a familiars’ doesn’t use mana.”

  “It’s eating all the trees and animals in the forest ... I think to restore the damage it took,” Nahia continued. Then, her face paled. “I-it’s now double its ... ah. Triple. Triple its size compared to before. A-and it’s heading for Zusa ...”

  “Are you kiddin’ me?” Rodei exclaimed, his voice echoing through the cavern. “We have to fight that thing again? And it’s stronger now?!”

  “Argh, Alice can’t do this anymore! That thing was disgusting to look at!”

  Left scratched his ear. “That’s your problem?”

  “Enough,” Verlaine interjected. “We have a solution on our hands.”

  Of course, it didn’t need to be said. Twelve superpowered swords were right there for them to take.

  “Right,” Mirena said. “If we use these, then we can destroy that monster.”

  “From what I could tell, Lilieth’s attack earlier absorbed every single speck of mana nearby and released it all into a single attack. That’s why we all ran out of mana.”

  “Then, we need those swords,” Yupanai added. “Even if we go out there, we’d be sitting ducks against that thing without our mana. Since those swords can absorb it from the atmosphere, the lack of it won’t be a problem. This region is dense with mana.”

  “That’s right,” Verlaine said. “Everyone, take one blade each, then—”

  “I’m afraid it won’t be that simple.”

  Sevens stopped him. She’d just finished “staring” at the swords.

  “What do you mean?” the hero asked.

  “I used Divination magic on them and found something rather troubling.”

  “Wait—hold on,” Left said, surprise clear in his tone. “You still have mana left?”

  Sevens shrugged. “When Lilieth used the sword, I got a gut feeling, so I ran as far as I could towards the edge of the cavern. I was barely out of range ... and while I didn’t get far enough to leave the sword’s reach, I have a little bit of mana left right now.”

  “What did you find, Sevens?” Verlaine continued.

  Instead of replying, Sevens reached for one of the swords. Her hand was instantly repelled by a powerful pulse of energy. Almost everyone took a step back in shock. “See?”

  The party members exchanged looks of bewilderment.

  “Lilieth, hold that sword’s handle out,” Talgerda said. Lilieth did as told, offering her green-gemmed sword to the Skymage. Just like with Sevens, when Talgerda reached out to grab the handle, she was repelled. The strength of the blast travelled down the silver blade, its vibrations causing Lilieth to drop the sword. It clanged on the ground.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Mirena asked. “The girl can carry it just fine!”

  “That’s because it’s bound to her,” Sevens explained. “All twelve swords are bound only to her. She’s the only person who can so much as touch these swords.”

  “But why? How?”

  Sevens shrugged. “Wish I knew. Whoever made these swords placed some powerful anti-Divination countermeasures on them. Even I can’t break through them all. I can only get bits and pieces.”

  “That’s bull!” Rodei exclaimed. “How’s the kid supposed to use twelve swords at once? This ain’t fair!”

  Roald Isenholt concurred. “It doesn’t make sense. How did they bind themselves to Lasvenn and for what purpose?”

  Lilieth agreed as well. It didn’t feel fair for her to have ownership over all the swords. The green-gemmed one was enough for her. If she could, she would gladly give the other blades to the rest of the heroes.

  Verlaine finally stepped closer to the group. “Sevens, is there any way to transfer the blades’ ownerships?”

  She turned to him. “... Only one.”

  All the others began bombarding Sevens with questions prying into how it would be possible and what they needed to do. Sevens was quiet, however. She kept her hidden gaze pointed at Verlaine—like ... there was a sort of silent dialogue going on between them.

  “It can still be read, Verlaine,” Sevens finally said, her voice almost a whisper. “Regardless of the ink used. You said so yourself.”

  “... I did, didn’t I?”

  A brief exchange. Lilieth didn’t know what they were talking about. Verlaine turned to the young mage. His eyes gazed into hers—such powerful, passionate eyes.

  He took more steps forward.

  “Lilieth Lasvenn,” he said. “Are you a vessel for your God’s will?”

  “Lord Verlaine?” Lilieth asked, confused.

  “Answer.” His voice was so firm and intense that Lilieth’s shoulders stiffened. It was a command.

  “Yes,” Lilieth replied, like a soldier to their general.

  “Do you believe your Goddess to have led you here for a purpose?” he continued.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you willing to fulfill that purpose no matter the personal cost?”

  “Yes.”

  “Are you ready to be a hero?”

  “... Yes.”

  A tense silence filled the air before Verlaine took a deep breath and readied his sword. The quiet felt like it lasted for an eternity to the young mage.

  “Lilieth Lasvenn, I hereby order you to die.”

  —Olivier Verlaine gave his very first command to her as a member of his party.