Gwen didn't know what was wrong with her.
She was clearly so exhausted that even standing was difficult, clearly so despairing that she wanted to give up, clearly with blood and tears crowding her eyes—yet she simply could not let go of the longsword in her hand.
There was a fire in her heart, one that needed to be doused with the enemy's blood.
"Lady Nora, I understand..."
Gwen raised her longsword, her expression resolute, as though she intended to sever her own weakness.
She had imagined reinforcements arriving at the last moment. She had imagined heavy armor shielding her weakness. She had imagined some greater being coming to save her.
Nora shattered those fantasies with her chain flail.
At some point, the battlefield seemed to have grown dimmer.
"Only you can save yourself. Only resistance can earn you survival. Only battle can let you keep moving forward..."
The longsword in her hand was shining, and so were her white eyes.
Time seemed to stop at that moment.
Even Nora stopped swinging her chain flail. She tilted slightly to one side, as though her headless body could see that dazzling light.
A moment later, she took a step back and stood behind Gwen.
The longsword came down.
The shining blade struck the earth, and its radiance vanished.
In the next instant, countless cracks split open across the ground, and a dazzling white light shone through them.
The densely packed Dragonfang soldiers before Gwen were swallowed by that white radiance.
On a hill some distance away, a white-haired little girl silently watched the scene.
Beside her stood the phantom of a tall young girl leaning on a sword. She was the little girl's [friend], Little Gwen.
"Why did you help her?"
"I don't know either... She's nothing like me. She's very