"You are done for," a man with twin daggers said as he threw Elero through a white stone wall. As the rocks fell on her bloodied, beaten body, pain encroached upon her mind, but she never once cried out in pain.

'Not yet,' she thought as her hand rose through the rubble and lifted her shaking body up. 'They haven't come out of the cave yet. I can't stop now. Why isn't the beast bait working?' Those left, about half, were downing healing potions. Even though she had used all her supplies sparingly, in the end, how could she win a war of attrition against more than a dozen men? She grabbed her cracked longsword and stared at the approaching, blurry figures.

A girl wielding a large hammer walked next to the pseudo-leader: "We'll stuff you in a cage like the freak you are. Don't worry, I'll keep you company." She smiled. "And I'll enjoy hearing you scream."

"No thanks," Elero couldn't manage to get the words out of her dry throat. She stood up only to fall right back down, her legs turning to mush. 'I can't hold my legs together or the little life essence I have will vanish but I can't fight without them.'

"Look!" The girl pointed at her deformities. "She's already done for even though she was so high and mighty a second ago!"

"Quiet," the pseudo-leader hissed. "I thought you learned your lesson on overconfidence." At this, the girl went silent. The group closed in; their weapons aimed at Elero's throat. "Looks to me like you have nowhere to go." He said, not as a taunt but as a fact. "And your plan, the guardian? It isn't coming."

Elero narrowed her eyes. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"We cleared out this entire area," the pseudo-leader continued. "You may have mixed in beast bait with the explosive meat but I saw through what you were doing. There are no creatures close to here because we slaughtered them. If there is no fight in the first place, that means that there is no chance for the guardian to show up and stop it. That was your plan, was it not?" Elero internally cursed.

"Did you think we were that stupid?" the girl chimed in. "You need to learn that peasants have more intelligence than that." By now, the group was in the building, just shy of the rubble. Elero glanced behind her at the three archers taking position if she were to move.

'I can duck down and then their shots will miss,' Elero thought. 'Maybe I can slide through someone's legs and make a run for it.'

Elero held up her hands. "Alright, I surrender. I've bought enough time, I hope."

"Surrender?" The man smirked. "Oh no. You almost killed some of our own. Trak told us. You're going to die here, alone." Elero's eyes went wide. She pulled an artifact only for an arrow to knock it away. "Smart, but I always achieve." The man stomped on the artifact, crushing it.

He pointed one of his twin daggers at her throat and stepped onto the rubble along with the others. By now, she could practically hear all of their heartbeats, all of them erratic except for the man. "Take a look at yourself. You're littered with arrows. Even though you can heal yourself, the damage adds up, and you're hurting. You can't move, can you?" He let out a long sigh. "That's disappointing. I want a fight. I want you to resist and try to hurt me. The fact that you're still conscious right now proves you still have the will to go on."

…

"Stay conscious." Elero's brother slapped her awake, raised his bloody hammer, and plunged it into the mess that used to be her legs. "You won't need these anymore." He smiled that same smile he always had when painting. His gaze was one that was staring at a canvas, wondering what horrid expression to paint. "I just needed a new brush was all, and a new paint."

"Stop," Elero pleaded, unable to move with the poison coursing through her veins. "Just kill me, please. Why are you doing this?"

"Because you don't need legs," her brother chuckled. "Not when you're about to become what you truly are, my angel." He dug his fingers into her legs' wounds, yanked out pieces of bones, and swallowed them whole. "And now…" The magic circle, the thousands of jagged characters etched every surface of the room, and her brother's eyes all flickered with a mix of blood-red and bright white light. "The ritual is complete, you are complete. You will, and will always be, my most perfect creation."

The door burst open and Lord Mech hurried in. At the sight of the bloodied hammer and his daughter, he lept forth and snapped the boy's neck. "Elero." He hugged her tight. "Oh Goddess…no." He finally noticed her liquified legs after a time. "What has he done to you?"

…

Tears streamed down Elero's face as the men drew closer. "See?" the pseudo-leader said. "You're crying because in your head, you know it's over. Push through it. Come on. You have something else in you, don't you?"

"Talk about bad habits." The girl said. "I know I've got my issues but you're a sick person. Stop giving her time to recuperate. She's mine."

"That's not it," Elero said. The group lept back. A volley of arrows whistled into her spine but there was no pain, only the clatter of broken wooden shafts against the stone. Two grey-feathered wings stretched out of her back and a cracked halo appeared above her head. As the light of the goddess flooded through her body, her strength returned and her legs reformed. Gold tears dripped down from her single, glowing eye. The other was normal. "Goddess forgive me for I have sinned." The ceiling of the hut collapsed inwards, allowing a single ray of light to shine down upon her. She raised her weapon. "Today, my sin is one of Pride."

"Yes!" The pseudo-leader yelled. "Everyone, back up. She is mine and mine alone. I'll kill anyone who interferes."

A layer of dull, grey energy shot out of her halo and swirled around her body, forming thick plated armor. Her broken longsword repaired itself with the same gray energy that made up her armor, except now not even the metal had a sheen. An audible crack sounded, a second scratch on her already-damaged halo. She winced but shook her head. Arrows clinked off her armor. She stepped off the pile and towards the pseudo-leader, a wide smile under his mask. She smiled as well. "Thanks for the information on the guardian."

At this, the man raised an eyebrow: "Shut up and fight you walking light cy…Glitter no!"

The girl ran in front of the man, who jumped back and cursed. "I can take her." The hammer descended as a massive shadow with Elero in the center. Elero sheathed her longsword, stretched out both hands, and caught it. Even though she sunk into the ground, even though she fell to a knee, she held firm. With the hammer still in her grasp, her wings stretched out, and flapped. Glitter, too stubborn to let go of the hammer's end, flew up with her.

Arrows whizzed past Elero and clinked against her thick armor, but never pierced through it. She rose higher and higher until she and her victim were above the fog. Only then did she fold her wings back up. Like a fallen angel she dipped down from the light of the sun. Like a demon she grabbed her opponent mid air and held her such that she would break both their landings.

Instead of squashing into a paste however, thick layers of life essence swirled around the girls' body, and she landed feet first, cracking the stone. One of Glitter's legs snapped. She gritted her teeth and pulled Elero in a bear hug. "You are not stronger, you lowly noble." The grey armor screeched. Elero cried out as another crack appeared in her halo.

"But I am the best fighter." Life essence swirled around Elero's mouth. A set of long fangs stabbed through Glitter's mask and into her face. The girl cried out and her grip went slack. Elero's fangs returned to teeth: "And I always win."

"Are you sure?" Came a voice from behind her. Two pains shot into Elero's back and, while the armor had absorbed most of the blows, another crack went through her halo.