The waft of air hitting her face was heavy with a stench so vile it made her nostrils curl, while a flurry of sparks was hindering her sight. Celia stopped, then jumped and ran before stopping again; stopping only to pick up the blade and slash any enemy who was unlucky enough to end up in her way.

Her heart was beating fast, and her arm was shaking despite her efforts. In fact, in spite of all the training she had gone through over the past year, she felt the urge to throw up and it made her swallow hard.

Another quick breath, blood spilled onto her cheek, and she twisted, trying to avoid more of it, losing her footing in the process. Crashing hard to the ground, her speed not helping to soften her fall, she used a dodge roll maneuver to get back on her feet in one swift motion.

It hurt, she wasn't ready for any of this, though she needed to be. After all, she was the secondary damage dealer. Their primary damage dealer went out of commission when they were so close to winning. Afterwards, as expected, chaos ensued.

Chains spewing embers shot out of the ground, one catching Celia's small wrist as the child flew across the floor and landed with her feet on the back of one of their enemies - a Visitor this time, not one of their traitorous fellow humans.

Her Mana was already spread out, so she circled and reabsorbed it, trying to feel the air current around her, trying to discern what was the enemy and what was their wide area support's Mana. Of course, that support's spell was also nearing its end, making things easier – yet that fact was what made it all a lot worse.

Finding its weak spot in a heartbeat, she slashed at it without remorse. A brief sound of her effort was all that could be heard, drowned out by the screeching noises that echoed through the dead and empty old field.

'Pan,' she reached out, struggling to concentrate, 'I don't know what to do.'

'You can't reach her,' the one she could only hear in her head replied, 'it is futile. Your life is more important.'

What did she expect from him? Her heart flooded her system with powerful fury, keeping her going. There was no way she was going to stop trying!

All the brown-haired girl wanted to do was to reach the center of their forces. She tried to close in on the monsters flashing their teeth behind their support; the heart of their unit.

"Erin!" Celia yelled, with her communicator broken long ago.

The girl with the long blonde hair sat on her magic circle, head down, shoulders hunched. Her breathing was shallow as she began losing her senses, and her skin was burning from hypersensitivity. Every part of her body felt raw, fighting against the cold night air.

"No, don't try to save me," she said, barely turning around, "promise me you won't." Her voice grew quieter with each word, she sounded as if on the verge of tears.

But she couldn't be crying, for beads of molten silver and liquid ivory were streaming from her pupils, staining her blue eyes with their color and preventing the Executor from shedding a single salty tear of her own. Right behind her, an angel hovered just above the ground as golden dust seemed to evaporate all over their Battlefield.

With its eyes sewn shut, while not quite flying with those large white wings, the figure was scanning the platoon as they fought the enemy to the best of their ability.

"Too slow. They won't make it in time." Sorrow was audible in the outlandishly beautiful voice.

They had done so much and got so far, but in the end... it didn't even matter. None of it mattered when Celia's blade sliced through an enemy's core and she felt every single muscle in her body bend and struggle not to snap at the impact.

One of Celia's swords was already broken, half her platoon was dead, and the blond teenage girl trying to hold the fort had no Mana left to fuel their fighting spirit. Especially since she was fighting for a girl even younger than herself, who would soon be all alone.

'Isn't it sad?' Erin thought.

Though she couldn't say, because she hardly saw or felt anything anymore. The clock on her arm was ticking, counting down the last seconds of her life. A beeping sound told her it was over, and sudden pain flooded her head, her eyes burning as if gauged out by fire as the broken contract slowly reduced them to cinders.

With her ability gone in an instant, her Mana dissipated into the ground, leaving only a memory of it behind, as enemies ready to spoil her blessings were already at work.

Without their support, the last walls of protection were gone and the screams became deafening for a second, before they died. At the same time, Celia felt a sudden pain rip through her side as she was thrown down – hard.

The impact knocked the air out of her lungs, causing her to gag as she bounced off and hit the ground once more, unable to get up this time. Her vision was blurred as she searched frantically for her only real friend in this place, straining to even make her out in the distance at first, but what she eventually saw left the nine-year-old frozen.

Erin's eyes were gone by now, leaving empty sockets in their wake, staring ahead as she tapped the ground blindly and desperately, blood pouring from every orifice on her face. As a grayish, human-like figure grabbed her once golden crowned head from behind, with its long, razor-sharp claws, ripping it clean off. It happened in a single motion; as if Erin being alive a minute ago had never been true to begin with.

At the same time, a man rose from the ground beneath Celia as something tugged at her very being, as if asking for permission. His arms wrapped around the small, trembling body, barely keeping another deformed creature from taking a bite out of its mortified contractor.