Sacrifice

Rod threw himself through the air toward Tia, a human missile aimed at intercepting her fall, as reckless and doomed as a moth drawn to a raging inferno.

Time seemed to stretch, to warp and bend. Elka could clearly see their two figures growing closer with agonizing slowness, and she could see the lightning coalescing on the Lake Lord’s horn growing ever brighter, a miniature sun of pure, destructive energy. In the face of Death’s steady, inexorable advance, Rod’s actions seemed so foolish, so pointless, and yet so tragically, heartbreakingly noble.

Rod, are you… in love with Tia?

The thought, sharp and painful, flashed through Elka’s mind, but she quickly, violently, cast it aside. As his childhood friend, she knew him better than anyone. She knew what kind of person he was. Brave, kind, and gentle, with a warm, easy smile for everyone. He was like the morning sun itself. A person like that naturally attracted the attention of others, but when it came to matters of the heart, he was as dense as a block of petrified wood.

So it wouldn’t matter who was falling. Rod would have sacrificed himself to save them.

That kindness, that warmth you show to everyone without distinction… it’s enough to drive a person mad with jealousy.

But even so, she still loved him.

And so…

Elka suddenly gripped her wand, ignoring the sharp, stabbing pain in her head as she poured the very last, desperate dregs of her mana into it.

“To think that I would one day be saving my own love rival…” she muttered to herself with a wry, bitter smile. “Well, I suppose it fits my established kind and cute persona.”

“Good thing I ‘accidentally’ learned this spell.”

“It should be fine if I use it now, right?”

“Charm Magic!“

Elka aimed her wand at the Lake Lord. With a great shout that seemed to be accompanied by a strange, coquettish gasp, two large, shimmering pink hearts bloomed in her clear eyes. This was the first spell Elka had learned that didn’t require an incantation, and the one she had mastered with a speed that had genuinely scared her sometimes. But her target wasn’t human. She was still a little nervous, unsure if it would even work on a magical beast.

Zzzzt…

Before her expectant, hopeful eyes, the Lake Lord’s massive, tensed body visibly, comically, relaxed. The apocalyptic storm of lightning that had been gathering on its horn, ready to strike, began to fizzle and dissipate into nothing.

The Lake Lord turned its massive head and looked at Elka.

And in its ferocious, monstrous eyes, two large, goofy, and very pink hearts appeared.

“It worked!”

Elka couldn’t help but pump her fist in excitement. As long as the Lake Lord was attracted to her, Rod would be safe. A third-rank warrior like him wasn’t going to drown in a simple lake.

It was just…

“ROAR!”

The Lake Lord let out a hoarse, guttural, and distinctly lovesick roar, its massive body twisting in the water with a speed and agility that completely defied its size.

It was charging toward her.

Recklessly.

Its eyes were full of pink hearts, but reflected within them… was the ghostly, shimmering image of its dead mate.

In that moment, Elka felt as if she were watching a devoted, heartbroken wife, rushing recklessly toward the husband she thought was long dead, about to give him a big, loving, and probably bone-crushing embrace. It was a truly touching scene.

If only that devoted wife wasn’t a thirty-meter-long monster that could smash a warship to pieces with a single, affectionate slap of its tail.

“God of ice and snow, I beseech…”

Elka gritted her teeth and raised her wand again. But before she could even finish the incantation, a sharp, blinding pain shot through her head, and she nearly fainted, her vision swimming.

“It’s over…”

Elka’s face was as pale as a sheet, her expression one of utter, hopeless despair.

Her mana was completely, utterly gone. She couldn’t squeeze out another single, pathetic drop. She couldn’t even control her own levitation spell to dodge the rapidly approaching, lovelorn monster.

“Is this it? Is this the end for me?”

With death so close, so imminent, Elka surprisingly didn’t feel much fear. She looked up, her gaze searching for something in the distance. But the massive waves stirred up by the charging Lake Lord blocked her view. She couldn’t see anything.

But…

“Rod must have saved Tia by now.”

“In that case, my death won’t be entirely meaningless.”

A small, satisfied smile appeared on Elka’s face, and she slowly closed her eyes.

“I hope Tia and Rod can be happy together.”

If I know that, I can rest in peace.

…

Like hell I can.

I won’t be happy about that at all.

…

“Shield.“

A clear, cold, and impossibly authoritative command echoed in her ears.

It was followed by the sharp, deafening, grating sound of countless pieces of metal twisting and grinding together, and behind that, the enraged, frustrated roar of the Lake Lord.

Death, it seemed, had been put on hold.

Elka opened her eyes in confusion.

She saw a figure, cloaked in a simple raincoat and hood, standing in front of her. The figure was so slender that it could only be a young woman. But when she stood before Elka, it felt as if the entire world, the raging storm, the churning lake, had gone completely, utterly silent.

The figure turned, revealing a prim, beautiful, and strangely familiar face.

“Are you alright?” Anne asked, her voice calm and even.

“I… I’m fine,” Elka replied like a frightened kitten, nodding slightly.

“Good.” Anne turned back. “I’m going to kill it now. Protect yourself.”

“O-okay.”

Elka stared in a daze. Only now did she see the source of the terrible, grating sounds.

It was metal. Countless pieces of metal.

Metal that was alive.

Silvery-white, dark gold, reddish-copper, and even some dark red pieces, covered in ancient rust, as if stained with the blood of centuries. Countless pieces of metal of all kinds were twisting and weaving together like a swarm of metallic serpents, defying all laws of physics, combining and forming a solid, impenetrable wall. And when this wall stood before the charging Lake Lord, it once again became as hard and unyielding as the heart of a mountain.

The charging monster had no way to stop, and it crashed into the wall with a sickening, unavoidable force.

And then… it began to scream in pure, unadulterated agony.

Even its hard, magic-resistant exoskeleton was no match for the wall of solid metal. The moment they collided, Elka watched in stunned silence as the Lake Lord’s most prominent feature, its menacing, lightning-wreathed horn, snapped clean off.

“Honestly.”

Anne rose into the air, slowly flying above the thrashing, agonized Lake Lord. She looked down at it, her eyes full of a cold, detached, and utterly terrifying killing intent.

“If you rampage like this, what if you scare away the fish I need to bring back for my Young Master?”

Anne raised her hands. Her ten fingers curled slightly, and then, above her head, she clasped them together in a simple, elegant gesture.

“Cage.“

Her voice was cold and merciless. Like a god issuing a supreme, and final, decree.

The metal wall instantly disintegrated into a swirling cloud of metallic fragments. And under the command of some powerful, unseen law, those fragments reassembled.

A forest of razor-sharp metal thorns erupted from the lake in an instant, completely, and brutally, enveloping the Lake Lord.

“ROAR!”

The Lake Lord twisted its massive body, struggling frantically. Its terrifying strength bent the solid steel, and its hard scales resisted the sharp metal thorns. But it could not stop its body from being gradually, inexorably entangled by the “growing” forest, which sprouted new, vicious “branches” and dragged it, thrashing, out of the water.

Without the water to support it, the Lake Lord’s struggles became even more futile.

“Just a fish, after all.”

A giant, menacing scythe, as black as the void, appeared in Anne’s hand, its blade reflecting a cold, eerie light. She walked down a staircase of solid steel, step by step, until she stood before the now-helpless Lake Lord.

“A Dominator-class magical beast is only this strong,” she mused to herself, her voice a soft, contemplative whisper. “It seems it won’t take me long to procure a dragon’s essence for my Young Master after all.”