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The arm, caught in the inferno, had charred to black ash from the elbow down, crumbling away into the wind. I didn’t feel the pain yet. Zetalylia, a Holy Maiden, couldn’t quite grasp what had happened to her body.
On the twilight sea, the glowing eyes of a monster held her in their gaze. This nameless beast, a “Beast-Devil” that had emerged without warning from the ocean, was immune to conventional steel. Only Zetalylia, a girl of noble birth who had awakened to the “Revelation”—a miraculous power to move objects with her mind—could stand against it.
The world would not let a girl with such power remain in peace. Clad in the title of “Savior” and handed four sacred blades, she was given no choice but to fight.
“This is a sign from the gods,” the leader of her nation had whispered, clutching her hand with a terrifying gentleness. “Only you can save us.” She had believed him then, failing to notice the cowardice hiding deep within his eyes.
Now, on the brink of death, Zetalylia had no regrets. Justice without power is hollow—that was the creed of the Goddess she adored. She believed she had been born for this moment.
She soared through the air, parrying fangs and claws with her mental pulse. She pushed back the dragon-fire by warping the very atmosphere around her. Piece by piece, she carved into the monster’s flesh with her four floating blades.
Victory was within reach—until the beast unleashed a point-blank burst of heat exceeding a thousand degrees. It was too fast to deflect. Her right arm vanished into charcoal.
Shock rippled through her, but a Maiden needs no limbs to wield her mind. Ignoring the stump of her arm, she pressed the attack, discovering a weakness in the beast’s throat where the scales were thin.
She dove. She struck. Three blades sank deep into its gullet.
The beast shrieked, a sound that tore the sky asunder. But even with its throat shredded, it did not die. It lunged, crushing her legs and her remaining left arm in its massive, tree-like grip.
“Aaaaaaaaagh!!!”
Her bones shattered. Pain, sharp and absolute, finally claimed her. As the monster opened its maw to deliver the final, incinerating blow, Zetalylia found a chilling clarity.
So, this is where I die.
She had no limbs left to move. No way to escape. Unless…
In the heartbeat before the fire erupted, Zetalylia used her own psychic blades to sever her mangled legs and left arm. Freeing herself from the beast’s grip by shedding her own flesh, she dove beneath the pillar of fire, right into the monster’s open wound.
With the last of her strength, she hacked at its throat from the inside out. When the head was nearly severed, the colossal body finally toppled back into the sea.
Zetalylia fell with it, her power spent, her mission complete. I did it, she thought, a small, quiet sense of peace filling her chest as she closed her eyes and sank into the dark.
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