Leila, her thigh run clean through by something unknown.
Yujin assessed the situation in an instant and understood what had struck her.
*The black Erosion Species — its tail…!*
There were several reasons he could draw that conclusion.
The fact that, just moments before, the creature had driven its own tail into its abdomen.
And that simultaneously, the same shape had burst out from the shadows.
Even for an Erosion Species, a wound to the abdomen was unquestionably a critical injury.
If it hadn't been an act of desperation — if there had been some deliberate intent behind it —
then the only explanation was that it had somehow passed its tail through to the other side.
*Could it be… using the inside of its own body as a shadow?*
Yujin didn't know exactly how Midir's ability worked.
All he knew was that it could slip into shadows
and emerge from other shadows elsewhere.
But what if the condition was simply being below a certain level of light?
Using the interior of its own body as though it were shadow —
that wasn't so far outside the realm of logic.
*After coming this far, what kind of nonsense is this….*
He had thought the enemy's ability was perfectly sealed off.
He had cornered it, and there was only one step left.
And it had been hiding this move until the very last moment.
The unexpected turn painted Yujin's mind a blinding white.
"Ugh — ngh…."
While he teetered on the edge of panic,
Leila let out a ragged breath and doubled over.
Perhaps the agony of a thigh run through was too much to bear.
She was drenched in sweat, a low, pained sound escaping her lips.
Then, jaw clenched, she brought the hand holding her gun down against the tail.
But it was like striking iron — not the slightest give.
Even so, the desperate effort was almost pitiable to watch.
Then Midir wrenched the tail that had skewered her thigh in a wide, violent arc.
"Gkh—!"
"Krgh!"
*Crack.*
A sickening sound of muscle and bone being torn apart —
and both Yujin and Leila were hurled away as if flung by a giant hand.
The force was tremendous; Yujin rolled several meters across the ground.
He threw himself into a breakfall by pure reflex,
but his entire body throbbed as though he'd been struck by a car.
"Lei — Leila…."
Yujin, battered and barely conscious, forced himself to look up through gritted teeth.
Fortunately, the drone controls seemed largely unaffected —
the surroundings were still blazing bright as midday.
He could see at a glance where Leila had fallen.
About ten paces away.
She lay crumpled on the ground, her body trembling.
Her thigh — bone and muscle exposed — bled without pause.
Anyone could see she was in no condition to fight.
In the face of the worst possible outcome, Yujin's fist clenched tight — and then a sound of despair reached his ears.
"Krrr…. Kikikik."
"The black Erosion Species…!"
The black Erosion Species. Midir.
Having wrenched its tail free from its own abdomen, the creature mocked them.
As if to say: *this was the best you could manage, coming at me with this?*
It savored the aftertaste of victory in its ruined state.
Naturally, Midir itself was far from unscathed.
Blood poured ceaselessly from the massive wound in its abdomen.
Without the formidable vitality that Erosion Species possessed,
it would have been a fatal injury — one that should have stopped it cold long ago.
And yet the creature could still move.
Its legs dragged, its body swaying heavily from the wound,
but it still had more than enough strength to kill someone.
*Again… I was the one who held her back….*
If Leila had been able to react the way she normally would,
she could have moved fast enough to avoid it before it landed.
The thought that he had once again been the one to drag her down made Yujin sick to his stomach.
Had this been the best he could do?
Was it a mistake to think the two of them could defeat it alone?
Was there a better way he hadn't seen?
Why did it always end up like this?
The preparation had been perfect. Why — why.
"Damn it…!"
Midir glanced between Leila and Yujin in turn.
Then it began to move — slowly, toward Leila.
Yujin posed no threat worth acknowledging.
It intended to kill her in the most gruesome way possible, for all the trouble she had caused.
Yujin watched the retreating figure and felt something twist inside him.
His insides knotted and tangled together, turning into wreckage.
Unable to hold back any longer, he drew his card and leveled it at Midir.
"Stop — stop it!"
*Clatter. Click.*
The card shifted, reshaping itself into something like a gun.
He had never fired it at an enemy before.
But with his vision gone red, all he could see was the creature.
Midir glanced back at him once, then scoffed.
It already knew exactly how weak he was.
It dismissed the gesture as meaningless.
And that was Yujin's stroke of luck.
A weapon capable of dealing a single effective blow to an Erosion Species.
And the best possible opportunity to fire it at an enemy completely off guard.
More carefully than he had ever done anything in his life, Yujin pulled the trigger.
*Bang!*
The moment the trigger was pulled, Yujin's body lurched violently.
The recoil from the firing mechanism was far stronger than he had anticipated.
Leila's electricity generated a powerful magnetic field that launched the round.
The bullet traveled true and buried itself directly in Midir's shoulder blade.
"Kiiiieeek!"
A direct hit in the gap between the hard outer shell.
Midir writhed in pain it hadn't expected.
Then it snapped its bloodshot eyes toward Yujin.
In that instant, Yujin sensed something was wrong.
He had succeeded in piercing the skin and causing pain —
but no matter how he looked at it, the damage didn't seem meaningful.
If anything, the sharp pain had only stoked the creature's fury.
*As I thought… this wasn't enough.*
Still, Yujin felt something like relief.
He didn't want to watch Leila die again.
Dying first himself was at least easier on his conscience.
*I'm sorry. But… I didn't give up until the end….*
He closed his eyes and let the tension drain from his shoulders.
He would die soon, but he could turn back time.
So… he just had to endure this brief moment of pain somehow.
Yujin steeled himself not to break under whatever came next.
*Thud. Thud.* The sound of something massive drawing closer.
And just as whatever had stopped before him reared back to swing —
a crawling dread swept through every inch of his body, raising every hair on end.
"Blue… Thunder!"
*Boom!*
A thunderous roar that left his ears ringing, and the world flashed white before him.
Enough light that it would have hurt considerably if he hadn't had his eyes shut.
Yujin, arm raised to shield his face, opened his eyes.
Midir, which had certainly been right in front of him moments ago, was nowhere to be seen.
Far away, Leila lay face-down on the ground, one arm stretched out ahead of her.
"I… did it…."
"Leila!"
Yujin scrambled toward her in a panic.
She seemed utterly unable to rise —
lying face-down, drawing ragged, shallow breaths.
He crouched down, and their eyes met.
And in that moment, Yujin felt something strange.
Looking at her — battered, bleeding, broken —
his heart was pounding in a way he couldn't believe.
As though it might leap straight out of his chest.
An emotion he had never once felt in his life, with no name he could give it.
*What is this feeling….*
For a moment, Yujin was lost.
But the feeling was quickly swallowed by the wave of worry he felt for her.
Perhaps nearly dying had briefly scrambled his head.
Without noticing that the Link had quietly faded,
he looked at Leila, who was smiling faintly.
*
Even thinking back on it now, that expression earlier was genuinely the best I'd ever seen.
When Midir was slowly closing in on me as I lay there on the ground.
The raw, desperate emotion the Commander had shown the creature, blazing with furious feeling —
*God, that was so good. You absolute idiot.*
Are you trying to kill me by auto-erotic asphyxiation? Is that the plan?
I'm putting your name in my will as the cause of death. I mean it.
*Haah…. That aside, it does hurt. If Trance had been even a little slower, I genuinely would have been crying. For real.*
I glanced down at my blood-soaked thigh.
A hole punched clean through my perfectly lovely thigh!
Not that it mattered — I'd die and come back to normal anyway.
The truth was, I already knew about Midir's self-harm warp attack.
It had appeared in the original story too, as a trump card held in reserve.
I'd figured it might use it if cornered. And sure enough, it did.
Still, it was worth going this far.
The main event hadn't even started yet, and it was already this good.
All the frustration from the last loop had completely melted away. Let's keep this going.
"Are — are you alright? Your condition…."
"Fortunately… I'm still breathing…."
The Commander spoke to me as I lay there.
The wound was serious, but a Valkyrie doesn't die from something like this.
He quietly pressed a hand to his chest, visibly relieved.
Once he confirmed I was alive, he asked what had happened.
He'd closed his eyes a moment ago, braced for death.
It seemed he hadn't seen what occurred in the interim.
So I told him: the moment the Erosion Species' attention had shifted to the Commander,
I had fired my unique ability at full power and finished it off.
Then I pointed toward the distant pile of rubble where a wall had collapsed.
"The Erosion Species flew over that way…. I gave everything I had, so it's certainly dead by now…."
"Hah… I see…."
A lie, of course.
I had deliberately aimed to miss the vitals.
It was probably barely clinging to life somewhere in that rubble.
The Commander, who had no idea, finally let his guard down completely.
It seemed the reality of having defeated Midir was finally sinking in —
he squeezed his eyes shut, as though believing he had escaped this loop at last.
When he opened them again, he looked at me with sad eyes and said:
"Then… I'll call the medical squad."
"Please. I can barely lift a finger right now…."
"…I'm sorry for putting you through this."
"Don't be. There were reasons."
Silence settled after my last words.
The Commander contacted the medical squad via his terminal, asking them to come to our location,
while I kept stealing glances at him, performing the act of someone hesitating over something.
Several minutes passed without either of us saying anything.
I gave a small, deliberate cough and tugged at the hem of his clothes.
"Commander… um…."
"Yes. Go ahead."
"Hmm…. A — actually, never mind!"
"…Is that so."
The Commander looked faintly bewildered by my uncharacteristic behavior.
He's always been particularly weak to this sort of thing.
Then I let a flush creep into my cheeks, as though embarrassed, and spoke.
"When I've recovered… let's have a meal together sometime."
"A meal… you mean?"
"You don't want to?"
"I — I want to!"
Of course he does.
The Commander's eyes went wide and his reaction stiffened —
but that was simply how he looked when he heard something he hadn't expected.
I'd been pushing him away, away, away this whole time, and now I was pulling for the first time.
The whiplash must have left him completely dazed. Easy. So easy.
*…Ah. It's almost time.*
I was chuckling to myself, toying with the Commander, when I snapped back to attention.
I'd been keeping my senses pressed to the ground this whole time.
Through the earth, I could feel something moving — clearly, unmistakably.
In a few seconds, Midir would wake in the rubble and come for us.
And it would lunge at us while we were completely off guard.
That was where I would sacrifice myself to finish it off,
and send the Commander — who believed everything was resolved — plummeting into despair.
*For the closing line… "I think I may have… misunderstood you all along" should do nicely.*
Ah. Here it comes.
The perfect ending had finally arrived.
I quietly tensed my body and readied myself to move.
*Crash!*
Midir burst from the rubble and came charging.
A blow driven by pure hatred for the one who had reduced it to this state.
I played the part of someone caught completely off guard —
while moving my body to shield the Commander —
"…Huh?"
Someone grabbed my arm and stepped in front of me.
The wet, unpleasant sound of flesh being torn.
The electricity that slipped from my hand surged into Midir —
and *pop* — the light illuminating the area went out.