Cocoon Break II

Freya saw Blund instinctively turn his head, but all of a sudden, his chest thrust forward as if someone had shoved him from behind. A bloodstained silver spike pierced out from beneath his breastplate. Blund grunted and abruptly widened his eyes. As if he had taken a heavy blow, he opened his mouth as though trying to say something to her, but the moment he did, blood foam flowing back from his punctured lung gushed from the corner of his mouth...

"Don't—!" Although this was far from the first time she had witnessed life and death brush past each other on a battlefield, this time was different. This time, she was the commander, and everyone's lives were in her hands. Blund and the others had placed their trust in a commander who was hardly exceptional, and that trust had brought them nothing but death—cold, merciless death.

It had all happened because of her decision.

It was wrong.

She had clearly seen the silver monster gather into shape behind Blund like mercury. First came the torso, then the head, and in the blink of an eye it was fully formed. On that silver, featureless face, a crescent-shaped maw opened in silent mockery—as if mocking her, mocking the commander's incompetence and weakness. She had clearly shouted a warning, but she had still been too late. Just a little too late.

Lace's pale, peaceful face in death, the villages burning fiercely among the mountains of Yusong, and Blund now staring at her wide-eyed with blood covering his face—all the images seemed to overlap before her eyes.

"Monster!"

"Monster—!" Freya felt as if all the blood in her body had frozen. Instinctively, stiffly, she pulled her hand back and drew her longsword. She had cast the commander's duty to the back of her mind.