The air was heavy with a stench so vile it made her nostrils curl as one waft after another hit her face, while a flurry of sparks was blurring her sight. Celia stopped, then jumped and ran before stopping again; stopping only to pick up the blade and slash any enemy who was unlucky enough to end up in her way.

Her heart was beating fast, and despite her efforts, since she was not cutting, her arm was shaking. In fact, in spite of all the training she had gone through over the past year, she felt the urge to cry and it made her swallow hard.

Another quick breath, blood spilling onto her cheek, and she twisted, trying to avoid more of it, losing her footing. Crashing hard to the ground, her speed not helping to soften her fall, she used a dodge roll maneuver to get back on her feet in one swift motion.

It hurt, she wasn't ready for any of this, but she would have to be. After all, she was the secondary damage dealer. Their primary damage dealer was out of commission, and they were so close to winning. And then, as expected, chaos ensued.

Chains spewing embers shot out of the ground, one catching Celia's small wrist as the child flew across the floor and landed with her feet on the back of one of their enemies - a Visitor this time, not one of their traitorous fellow humans.

Her Mana was already spread out, so she circled and reabsorbed it, trying to feel the air current around her, though the Mana of her only friend did not help her distinguish it. Of course, that spell was also nearing its end, making things easier - yet that fact was what made it all worse.

Finding its weak spot in a heartbeat, she slashed at it without remorse. A brief sound of her effort was all that could be heard, drowned out by the screeching noises that echoed through the dead and empty old field.

'Pan,' she reached out, struggling to concentrate, 'I don't know what to do.'

'You can't reach her,' the one she could only hear in her head replied, 'it is futile. Your life is more important.'

What did she expect from him? Her heart flooded her system with anger, keeping her going. There was no way she was going to stop trying!

All the brown-haired girl wanted to do was to reach the center of their forces. She tried to close in on the monsters flashing their teeth behind their support; the heart of their unit.

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"Erin!" Celia yelled, her communicator broken long ago.

The girl with the long blonde hair sat on her magic circle, head down, shoulders hunched. Her breathing was shallow as she began losing her senses, and her skin was burning hypersensitively. Every part of her body felt raw, fighting against the cold night air.

"No, don't try to save me," she said, barely turning around, "promise me you won't." Her voice grew quieter with each word, it almost sounded like she was starting to cry at the end.

But she couldn't be crying, for beads of molten silver and liquid ivory were streaming from her pupils, staining her blue eyes with their color and preventing the Executor from shedding a single salty tear of her own. Right behind her, an angel hovered just above the ground as golden dust seemed to evaporate all over their Battlefield.

With its eyes sewn shut, the figure was not quite flying with those large white wings, scanning the platoon as they fought the enemy to the best of their ability. "Too slow. They won't make it in time." Sorrow was audible in the outlandishly beautiful voice.

They had done so much and got so far, but in the end... it didn't even matter. None of it mattered when Celia's sword sliced through an enemy's core and she felt every single muscle in her body bend and struggle not to snap at the impact.

One of Celia's blades was broken, half her platoon was already dead, and the teenage girl trying to hold the fort had no Mana left to fuel their fighting spirit. Especially since she was fighting for the other girl, even younger than herself, who would now be all alone. Wasn't it sad?

She couldn't say, because she hardly felt anything anymore. The clock on her arm was ticking, counting down the last seconds of her life. A beeping sound told her it was over, and suddenly pain flooded her head, her eyes burning as if gauged out by fire as the broken contract slowly reduced them to ashes.

With her ability gone in an instant, her Mana dissipated into the ground, leaving only a memory of it behind, as enemies ready to spoil her blessings were already at work.

Celia felt a sudden pain rip through her side as she was thrown hard.

The impact knocked the air out of her lungs, causing her to gag as she hit the ground once more, this time unable to get up right away. Her vision was blurred as she looked into her friend's eyes, straining to even make her out her in the distance at first, but what she eventually saw was a scene of horror to the nine-year-old.

Erin's eyes were gone, mere empty sockets staring ahead as she felt the ground blindly and desperately, blood pouring from every orifice on her head. As a grayish, human-like figure grabbed her head from behind with its long, razor-sharp claws, she couldn't even react. It had ripped it clean off in a single motion, as if her being alive a minute ago had never been true to begin with.

At the same time, a man rose from the ground beneath Celia as something tugged at her very being, as if asking for permission. His arms wrapped around the small, trembling body, barely keeping another deformed creature from taking a bite out of its contractor as well.