Lennie stood alone in the center of the crater, staring up at the towering colossal golem.
"It's just the two of us now, my dear Lennie."
Caster's voice echoed down from the monster's head, distorted and manic.
"Shut up!"
Lennie hissed, her knuckles whitening.
"This ends right here. You're dying tonight. If I let you roam free in this town any longer, a lot of innocent people are going to die."
As she pushed through the absolute limit of her exhaustion, the glowing pinkish-crimson energy finally faded from her eyes.
Reverting completely to her natural, green eyes.
"Ah... now there are those eyes I so adore."
Caster laughed hysterically.
The purple venom was rapidly claiming his body now, his pristine skin turning a sickening shade of bruised violet as the dark veins pulsed violently against his temples.
"My eyes, huh...?"
Lennie whispered.
Her gaze drifted downward, landing on a chipped, worn-out iron sword lying in the rubble likely dropped by one of the mercenaries she had pulverized earlier.
Staring at the hilt, the chaotic sounds of the burning plaza suddenly began to fade.
A rush of long-buried memories violently flooded her mind.
***
*"Brother! Are you alright?!"*
A much younger, smaller Lennie cried out, rushing to the side of a bruised and beaten Garin.
They were both just children back then, surviving on the harsh streets.
Garin had begged one of the local port brutes for a scrap of food, only to be met with a heavy boot.
*"Pathetic rugrats. Like I have coin or food to waste on street rats like you."*
The brute had spat, turning his back to laugh with his thugs.
Garin had tried to hide his face, but tears swelled up and ran down his dirt-streaked cheeks.
Despite the pain, his small fingers tightly gripped a broken wooden stick lying in the mud.
He looked at Lennie, his eyes blazing with a desperate, fierce determination.
*"I swear, sister... I will get stronger. I'm going to become... I'm going to become a true knight! I'll protect you, and we'll be able to eat whatever food we want! I promise!"*
That day, little Garin had ignited a fierce, unyielding hope deep inside Lennie's chest.
The memory fractured, cutting forward a few years.
The sound of clashing steel and roaring monsters echoed.
*"Are you alright, Lennie? Here, I can get you a potion. Those wilderness monsters sure were incredibly strong."*
It was Lalia.
She rushed to Lennie's side, handing her a small vial.
Lennie took it, chucking the fluid down her throat with a sigh of relief.
Nearby, Lalia turned her head and frowned at Garin, who was casually wiping his blade.
*"Garin! Aren't you even a little bit worried about your own sister?"*
Lalia scolded.
*"Oh, come on, she's way stronger than that!"*
Garin grinned, throwing his arm back.
*"She even managed beat me at swordplay the other day. I know she's okay. Honestly, if there's anyone I should be worried about around here... it's you, Lalia."*
Garin gave a smooth, terrible attempt at flirting.
Lennie scoffed, brushing him off with a smirk, though her chest felt warm.
To Lennie, Lalia had quickly become the big sister she never had.
*"You still need to act more like a proper big brother, Garin."*
Lennie teased.
*"Don't worry, big sis has got it covered."*
Garin joked back, gesturing to Lalia.
*"You're still a total simp as always, huh, Garin?"*
Lennie laughed.
*"Hey! I'm not a simp! I'm just being attentive... there's a distinct difference!"*
*"No, there really isn't!"*
Lennie interjected, causing the surrounding crew members to erupt into boisterous laughter.
*"Still arguing as always, huh?"*
A deep, commanding voice cut through the laughter.
A figure stood just a few paces away, his back turned to them as he wiped a massive, bloodied blade.
He was standing triumphantly over a pile of slain monster corpses.
*"Ah, I see you're finally finished, Captain."*
Lennie called out, her voice instantly lighting up
*"Do you think of that lightly? Ofcource these monsters were nothing."*
He, his tone nonchalant as he sheathed his weapon.
Garin crossed his arms, looking at the older man with a classic hint of sibling jealousy.
*"Hey, who asked you to act all cool out of nowhere?"*
*"Ah, is that so? I didn't notice."*
He replied.
*"Sure you didn't."*
Garin muttered, rolling his eyes at the captain's indifference.
He then turned around, his sharp gaze softening as he looked at Lennie.
*"Anyway... I agree with Garin. Lennie is an exceptionally talented swordsman. With that said, I have a question for you, Lennie."*
*"Sure..."*
She said, shifting hesitantly.
*"What truly makes the sword?"*
Lennie blinked, completely confused.
*"Huh...? I... I don't know."*
*"Ah... never mind then."*
He murmured with a faint, knowing smile.
*"To truly understand that answer is to become a true swordsman."*
A powerful spark rose in Lennie's chest that day, mirroring the hope Garin had given her years ago.
Her memory shifted one last time, jumping a few years later.
A formidable, powerful woman stood before her, her face slightly blurred in the haze of the past, a gentle but knowing smile on her lips.
*"Your potential is immense, Lennie... but you still do not understand the meaning of a true swordsman."*
*"Then what is it?"*
Lennie had pressed.
*"That isn't for me to show you."*
The woman whispered, gently placing a single finger right over Lennie's heart.
*"It is something you must understand for yourself."*
***
The memories shattered, violently snapping Lennie back into the brutal reality of the burning town square.
"What does it truly mean to be a swordsman?"
She asked herself, the question echoing deep within her soul.
The colossal stone golem roared, bringing a massive, building-sized fist sweeping directly toward her position.
Moving entirely on instinct, Lennie violently dove beneath the rushing stone, dodging the crushing attack by a hair's breadth.
She dashed forward through the rising curtain of dust.
Her hand reaching down, and tightly gripped the hilt of the worn-out, chipped iron blade.
Lennie dodged another ferocious attack from the mega-golem.
The sheer wind pressure whipping her hair across her face.
*Damn it!*
She thought, her lungs burning.
*He's too fast...*
She leaped back frantically, dodging another building-sized punch just by jumping straight up.
While suspended in mid-air.
She gathered every ounce of momentum she had left, coming down with a devastating dropkick that completely severed the colossus's left arm.
She leaped back, landing heavily on the cobblestones.
But it was no use.
The towering golem effortlessly drew the surrounding rubble back into its frame, growing the limb right back.
*Damn it… He's abusing his healing potions.*
Lennie realized, her teeth grinding.
*He knows that using too many high-grade potions causes catastrophic side effects to the body.*
*But he doesn't care anymore... because he knows his time is almost up.*
A sudden, dark wave of doubt washed over her.
*I didn't expect this. Maybe... maybe I should just leave these people be and try to find Taylor... if he is even still alive.*
She violently shook her head.
"No! Do not think like that."
*He is alive. And besides... what would he even think of me if he found out that I just ran away and let all these innocent people die? No. I can't. I just can't do that.*
Lennie stood tall before the roaring golem once again, the worn-out iron blade gripped tightly in her hand.
"Finally accepting your fate, huh, Lennie?"
Caster mocked from above, his voice breaking through the smoke.
Lennie spat a mouthful of blood onto the stone.
"Not a single chance!"
She closed her eyes for a split second, and when she snapped them open.
A terrifying surge of power forced both of her irises to flare into a brilliant, glowing crimson once more.
*I can still go.*
*I have to end this quickly.*
*If I hold this form for too long, I might end up permanently losing my eyesight.*
*This time, I'm ending it once and for all.*
27.
She launched herself forward, her boots cracking the stone.
"Haaa!"
With a single, blinding horizontal strike, she slashed the entire massive golem clean in half.
But it was a hollow victory; the stones merely magnetized back together, regenerating the colossus instantly.
"This is starting to get seriously annoying."
Lennie said, her mind racing against the clock.
*What truly makes a swordsman?*
22.
A massive stone punch came at her with immense, localized speed.
But with her crimson eyes fully active, she perceived the trajectory perfectly.
"Too slow."
She muttered, leaping fluidly to the side.
As she moved, she swung her sword in a blur of motion.
Countless arcs of kinetic pressure flew from the worn-out blade, severing the golem's oncoming hand into a million scattered pieces.
*Is it the sword itself?*
She thought, leaping high into the sky again.
"No!"
She landed gracefully on a chunk of flying rock thrown up by the blast.
*Is it perhaps the wielder's physical strength?*
She launched herself off the floating debris with immense force.
"Too easy, wrong again!"
The vibration of the impact caused the chipped blade to almost slip from her fingers.
*Then what is it? What is it?!*
The repeating question distracted her for a fraction of a second, causing the golem to catch her completely off guard.
A massive stone backhand caught her mid-air, slamming her violently down into the shattered street.
15.
A massive cloud of smoke and dust erupted from the impact crater.
As Lennie lay there, coughing up blood, she repeated the question to herself one more time.
Suddenly, the answer started to become glaringly obvious.
Scenes violently flashed through her head in a rapid montage.
From the exact moment her brother Garin had sworn to protect her as a child... to hearing Nova ask the question for the very first time... to when her master had pointed a finger at her chest and told her she had to understand it herself.
"Now... now I finally get it…"
She mumbled to herself, a serene smile touching her bleeding lips.
10.
She looked down at her battered, chipped blade as the shadow of the colossus loomed over her again.
The mega-golem came descending with another devastating, final punch meant to crush her into paste.
Lennie didn't dodge.
She leaped directly in front of the incoming fist, grabbing her worn-out hilt tightly with both hands.
8.
She sprinted upward, scaling the very arm of the golem against the law of gravity.
6.
*What truly makes a swordsman isn't the quality of the blade, nor the strength of the arm...*
She continued
*it's the unyielding will of the soul channeled through the edge.*
As the thought solidified in her mind, a brilliant, radiant blue energy suddenly enveloped the shattered iron blade.
From his hiding spot in the ruin beyond the barrier, Taylor saw the glowing light and his eyes widened in immediate realization.
*That energy... that's the exact same aura Garin used back then!*
4.
With a sharp crack, the physical metal of the worn-out blade completely shattered under the sheer pressure of her will.
Lennie didn't care.
She looked straight up through the debris at Caster.
Caster stared down at her, his violet eyes wide with a sudden, tragic awe.
*"Those eyes..."*
He whispered softly.
*"They're… beautiful ..."*
In his final, poisoned moments, a long-forgotten memory suddenly played out in his fading mind.
He saw a raging fire from his childhood.
Through the flames, a beautiful woman had come to his rescue.
*"Mom!"*
he had desperately shouted in the memory.
A man had grabbed the woman, pulling her back.
*"It's too dangerous, you'll die!"*
But the boy had only stared at his mother's deep, crystal-blue ocean eyes.
*"Mother..."*
Caster whispered back in reality, staring into Lennie's glowing, crimson-violet gaze one last time, completely transfixed.
A sudden picture of Garin flashed in Lennie's head.
Followed randomly by the memory of the day Caster had confessed his twisted feelings to her in the shadows.
*"Sorry, I'm just not interested."*
Her own past voice echoed cleanly in her mind.
*I wonder… if I had said, yes. That day, would things have turned out differently? I guess we'll never know, huh, Caster?*
"Goodbye, Caster."
Lennie said softly.
2.
The brilliant blue energy emanating from the broken hilt fully solidified, forming a massive, radiant blade made entirely of pure, concentrated mana.
With a final, cataclysmic swing, she brought the energy blade directly down onto Caster's transparent barrier.
Baaam-!