"Stay down, Elly!”
Sid pressed Felise into the ground, knowing that she was being foolish.
She should have finished the Handmaiden down ages ago.
She was being reckless and risking her life, allowing emotions to cloud her mind.
And yet, and yet...
"Stop struggling, you stupid girl!"
Sid growled.
Felise looked up at her from the ground. Her eyes were full of a strange emotion... was it resentment? Defiance? Challenge?
Maybe all of those.
But there was something else there, as well, hidden deep within.
Fear... panic. And despair.
However, despite it all, Felise did not stop struggling.
The sparks swirling around her hand finally dimmed, manifesting into an intricately crafted, razor-sharp knife.
A deadly blade.
Sid froze for a split second, staring down at her former friend numbly.
There was no time to hesitate anymore, and no choice.
'No...'
...And then, she pushed her dagger down.
It cut through the fabric of the Handmaiden's crimson garment, and plunged into her flesh.
Sneaking under her ribs, and cutting deep.
Hot blood washed over Sid's hand, and she felt Elly's body shudder under her.
The knife fell from the Handmaiden's weakened grip.
The defiance in her eyes was replaced by disbelief... and pain.
And sorrow.
The same emotions Sid felt, lost in the middle of this calamitous, appalling battle.
***
Rain looked into the eyes of the Feather Knight, knowing that her time was running out.
The enemy was already recovering from shock... which meant that a moment later, her chance of killing the enemy would disappear like a ghost.
It would be so easy, to thrust the dagger forward and steal the young woman's life.
There was no reason not to.
Because Rain was a soldier.
And she had been taught well.
The essence of combat...
But was that what Rain wanted to be?
A murderer?
Before the war... she had wanted to build things, not destroy them. To add to the world, not take away from it.
It seemed so distant, as if it had happened a lifetime ago.
Still, one had to be alive to build anything. And she had to kill to stay alive.
There was no time to hesitate, and no choice.
That was just basic logic.
...And yet, Rain found herself unwilling.
She was dazed, hurting, and only starting to recover from almost being strangled to death. She could barely think, let alone think straight, which wasn't the best state to make profound decisions.
But then again, maybe it was the best state.
Stripped of all reason, Rain was left face-to-face with her deepest, most fundamental instincts.
With the things that made her... her.
And what Rain found was that she didn't want to be a murderer, a killer, and a destroyer.
She only felt disgust at the prospect.
Even if it meant not getting to become anything else.
'I'm sorry...'
She had chosen to join the war herself. But in the end...
It seemed that Rain wasn't cut out to be a soldier.
Letting out a quiet sigh, she slowly lowered her dagger.
And as she did, Rain felt something deep and profound change inside of her.
Forever.
A moment later, the Feather Knight lunged to the side, grasping the hilt of her sword.
Before she could raise it, though... Both of them looked up.
There, above them... a blinding star seemed to be falling from the sky.
The incandescent mass of white radiance plummeted toward the blood-soaked battlefield and crushed into it with a deafening thunderclap. A violent shockwave was raised by its arrival, throwing the warriors of the two great armies away from each other.
When the winds settled a few moments later, Rain gasped.
...A beautiful goddess was standing amidst the dirt and blood of the appalling battlefield, her pure white radiance seemingly unblemished... incapable of being blemished... by the crimson dust of the mortal world.
Two breathtaking wings shone in the air behind her, and a band of lustrous metal rested on her head like a crown.
Her eyes were like a sea of white flame.
Changing Star of the Immortal Flame had descended onto the battlefield.