Selfish

Thousand Blades was nearing her limit.

She had no idea how far she had charged or how many Fallen Beasts she had killed.

Fifty? A hundred?

All she knew was that the Fallen Beasts around her weren't thinning out. There were more of them than ever.

And her arms were growing heavier.

Her magic power was sounding the alarm.

Her body was growing sore and sluggish.

The Silver Blades around her had dwindled from dozens at their peak to a mere seven or eight. Even their flight paths were starting to waver.

"Hah... hah..."

She panted hard.

Another wave of Fallen Beasts surged out of the darkness.

Three Second-Tier Fallen Beasts and more than a dozen first-tier ones. Layers of scarlet eyes filled the tunnel from wall to wall.

Thousand Blades gritted her teeth, and her Silver Blades flared once more—

They pierced the first-tier Fallen Beast at the front without trouble. But when they reached the Second-Tier Fallen Beasts, they no longer cut through with ease.

Their tips sank into the beasts' bodies but failed to deal a fatal blow.

The Fallen Beasts charged straight at Thousand Blades.

Is this it?

As Thousand Blades watched them close in, she felt no fear. Only regret and remorse.

If I'd reacted faster back then, if I'd followed sooner, I wouldn't have been left so far behind, would I?

But just as a Fallen Beast's claws were about to strike her—

Whoosh!

A streak of silver shot from behind her without warning.

It was a Silver Blade.

A Silver Blade... almost identical to her own.

Only this Shadow Blade was a little longer and slimmer, with a faint pink glow along its edge.

That single Silver Blade plunged into the horde and split into phantasmal copies. Blade-light poured down like a silver