A few moments ago…
The church was one of the few sanctuaries left standing, its high stone walls muffling the chaos beyond. Inside, Kallen moved swiftly between the rows of pews and the makeshift cots laid out on the floor. Her rapier rested against the altar, her hands instead busy tying bandages, holding trembling fingers, and brushing away tears.
A faint scent of incense still lingered, mixing strangely with the metallic tang of blood. The flicker of candlelight danced across her face, revealing the tightness in her lips. She kept it under control, but deep down she felt the heavy weight of guilt pressing in on her ribs. Otto and Chris were out there, fighting without her. Kiana too.
She shook her head sharply, refusing to indulge the thought. "Later," she told herself under her breath. Right now, these people needed her.
At the back of the nave, two guards clashed with the twisted forms of Honkai-corrupted beasts that had managed to slip inside. Steel rang against chitin, grunts of effort mingling with inhuman screeches. Kallen's eyes lingered on them for a second before she moved to where she was needed more—an old man with a jagged wound in his leg, grimacing through clenched teeth.
"You'll be walking again," she promised him, working quickly to wrap the injury. Her voice was gentle but firm, like a steadying hand in a storm.
She crossed to a corner where a cluster of children sat huddled, eyes wide. She knelt, offering a warm smile. "It's alright now. You're safe here."
One little girl clutched a tattered doll so tightly her knuckles had gone pale. Kallen brushed a bit of dust from the child's hair, speaking softly about the snow outside and how, soon, it would be spring again.
The girl didn't answer. She stared down at her doll and murmured, "If only big brother was here… he would have saved me."
Kallen blinked, her heart twisting. "Your brother sounds brave." She reached out to rest a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "I'm sure—"
The girl's head turned slowly, her eyes meeting Kallen's with an intensity far too sharp for a child's face.
"It was you," the girl whispered, voice trembling like glass under strain. "You… took my brother."
Before Kallen could react, a violent surge of energy burst from the child. The air warped, light refracted, and a blinding wave of violet tore through the church.
The explosion ripped the air apart, stone and timber shattering outward in a spray of debris. Windows imploded, sacred glass raining in jagged shards. The sound was deafening, a hollow boom that made the very air vibrate.
When the dust settled, the church was no longer intact—it was a ruin.
The pews were splintered, the altar cracked down the middle. The people Kallen had been tending moments ago lay scattered across the floor, some groaning in pain, others frighteningly still.
And there—at the center of it all—stood the girl no longer. Her form was wreathed in a shimmering corona of violet energy, her once-childlike features sharpened into something both alien and terrible. Fragments of her dress fluttered like torn petals, suspended in the pulsing aura. Her eyes glowed with the cold, unfeeling light of a Herrscher.
Kallen's stomach clenched. She'd faced horrors before, but the sheer wrongness radiating from this child-turned-monster froze her for just a heartbeat. Then she noticed something else—
The Herrscher's gaze wasn't sweeping the room. She wasn't indiscriminately lashing out. No… her attention was locked entirely on Kallen.
Kallen's first instinct was to glance behind her, to make sure no one else was about to be caught in the line of fire. But almost all the civilians who could still move were struggling, trapped under debris or too injured to run. The ones who could flee… needed time.
Time only she could buy.
She took a slow breath, forcing steel into her spine. Fear was a luxury she couldn't afford.
Her hand reached back, fingers curling around the hilt of her rapier where it leaned against the altar's broken step. She drew it with a metallic whisper, the blade catching the dim light in a gleam of cold silver.
The Herrscher tilted her head, almost curious.
Kallen exhaled, her voice low but steady. "Alright then… if it's me you want."
She stepped forward, placing herself squarely between the Herrscher and the wounded. Her mind was a tangle of memories—Chris barking orders, Otto's cutting remarks, Kiana's stubborn grin—but she pushed them all aside. In this moment, there was only the enemy before her and the lives behind her.
Rapier point lowered in readiness, she whispered to herself, "Let's see how much time I can buy."
And then, with a sharp step and a flicker of silver, she struck first.
By the time Kiana and Otto reached what remained of the church, the air was thick with dust and the scent of scorched stone. Snow fell in uneven flurries, only to melt instantly on contact with the waves of heat rolling from the crater where the explosion had torn the sanctuary apart.
Kiana's boots crunched on debris as she stumbled forward, eyes darting frantically through the haze. "Kallen—!"
Her voice caught the moment the smoke shifted, revealing a figure on her knees in the center of the ruin. Kallen's once-pristine uniform was torn, streaked with soot and blood. Her rapier lay bent and useless at her side. Her shoulders heaved with ragged breaths.
And before her stood the Herrscher. The child's small frame had been swallowed by a lattice of violet energy, sharp and jagged like shards of an amethyst storm. The corona of power around her shimmered, distorting the air. She raised one arm slowly, a spear of crackling light forming at her fingertips, its tip aimed directly at Kallen's heart.
"NO!" Otto and Kiana's voices overlapped in a desperate cry.
The Herrscher's arm tensed, energy gathering for the killing blow—
—but in the next instant, a massive shadow barreled in from the rubble to the left.
Chris moved like a thunderclap, his greatsword intercepting the spear with a ringing, jarring impact that sent a shockwave tearing through the dust. His other hand clamped onto the Herrscher's forearm, twisting sharply to break her stance. In the same motion, he pivoted, boot slamming into her side to drive her back a step.
"Not today," he growled, voice like iron grating on stone.
The fight ignited instantly. Otto flanked to the right, his sidearm barking sharp bursts of concentrated energy, each shot forcing the Herrscher to shift her defenses. Kiana rushed in from the left, her club arcing down in a sweeping blow that connected with a surge of sparks, momentarily staggering the enemy. Chris pressed the center line, his greatsword a blur of weight and speed, each strike forcing the Herrscher to retreat or deflect.
Their teamwork was raw but unrelenting—Chris absorbing blows, Otto striking with precise, calculated angles, and Kiana hammering openings into the Herrscher's guard. The child's alien shrieks split the air, her energy spears colliding against Chris's blade in showers of molten sparks.
The tempo built until Chris drew back for one last strike, channeling every ounce of momentum he had left. The greatsword sang through the air in a single decisive arc—
—and shattered upon impact with the Herrscher's barrier. The force still sent her hurtling backwards, violet trails streaming from her as she smashed through several buildings across the street, the collapsing structures sending up plumes of dust.
Chris staggered from the recoil, tossing the broken hilt aside. His chest heaved. "Otto! Take her—take Kallen—NOW!"
Otto didn't argue. He sprinted forward, crouching beside Kallen to lift her arm over his shoulder. "We're getting you out—"
"No."
The word was soft, but unshakable. Kallen pulled her arm free, pushing herself unsteadily to her feet. Her knees trembled, but her eyes were steady. She wiped the blood from her face with the back of her hand and looked between them with a faint, bright smile.
"She wants me," she said simply, glancing in the direction the Herrscher had flown. "Then… I should help, right? You two have done so much for me. Let me do what I can this time."
Chris's jaw clenched. "You're too hurt. You won't last—"
Kallen giggled softly, the sound warm despite the chaos around them. "Thank you for worrying about me." She turned her gaze on him, and then on Otto, her expression filled with gratitude. "And… thank you for accepting me. Both of us."
Her eyes softened even further as she added, "And… sorry, about Otto."
Otto frowned, taken aback. "It's my fault, not yours!"
Kallen shook her head, smiling at his irritation. "I know you'll say that. Still… I'm sorry."
Chris opened his mouth to argue again, but the ground shook beneath their feet before he could speak.
The Herrscher had returned.
This time, the aura around her burned hotter, jagged arcs of energy lashing wildly through the air. Her face was twisted with fury, the violet glow in her eyes intensified to a blinding glare.
Kallen stepped forward, putting herself between Otto and Chris. She faced the Herrscher squarely, her rapier—bent though it was—raised once more.
She glanced back at them briefly, her smile unchanged.
"I'll be safe with you two… won't I?"
It was a smile like no other—an angel's smile.
Calming, serene, untouched by fear.
And yet, deep within its warmth, there was something final.
Like the last glimmer of light before it fades into the dark.
Kiana's throat tightened, something in her chest screaming that she knew what that kind of smile meant. She reached out, but before she could say a word—
—the world flickered.
The snow, the ruin, the violet light… all of it bled away into shadow.
A voice, cold and mechanical, cut through the emptiness:
"Simulation… ended."