Awakening

"Love—!!"

Thousand Blades' cry drew no response.

The pink figure still hovered in midair, her eyes vacant and tears falling silently.

The monster's four enormous arms had already risen high.

"Stop it first!!"

Knight sized up the situation and flew forward without hesitation, taunting the enemy as she went.

In an instant, Knight became impossible for the Fallen Beast to ignore.

A creature with more self-control might have resisted the taunt. Unfortunately, this Fallen Beast had very little.

Its attack immediately swung toward Knight.

Boom—!!

A thunderous impact rang out.

One claw slammed Knight into the ground. She skidded more than ten meters with her shield, her legs gouging two deep furrows through the earth as blood rose in her throat.

"Knight, don't take it head-on!"

"Thousand Blades! Check on Love! We'll hold it here!"

Seeing that Knight couldn't withstand much more, Masked Heroine rushed in.

Shen Yin was in no shape to fight, so she went with Thousand Blades to Love.

At least she could find out what had happened to her.

Thousand Blades landed beside Love and seized her shoulders.

"Love! Wake up!"

"Can you hear me?! Wake up!!"

She shook her hard.

No response.

The girl in her arms stared blankly ahead. Tears kept spilling down her cheeks, and her lips moved faintly as if she were talking in her sleep.

Thousand Blades' heart felt as though a hand had clenched around it.

She didn't know what Yang Cheng was going through right now.

But she knew that expression.

Seven years ago, Chen Zhou had carried a little boy home from the ruins. For a long, long time afterward, that same expression had stayed on his face.

"...Wait for me."

Her voice was soft, barely more than a whisper.

"This time, I'll protect you first."

"Shen