Second Chance

"Wake up..."

A voice echoed in Lilin's mind as she tried to open her eyes. It sounded familiar, and it sounded important. Frantic, even. Well, tough luck. She stopped trying to open her eyes.

"Fuck off...." her mumbling trailed off, turning her head to the side as she tried to go back to sleep.

"Lilin... Wake up!..."

Calling her by that name... Why did she want to wake up for this person? Well, she wasn't going to ignore her instincts. She slowly opened her eyes and-

And a fresh wave of pain hit her entire body.
"FUCK!" Lilin shouted, wishing she hadn't gotten up. "Shit, what's going on?"

"You got knocked out," Annie said. "I'm shocked you didn't die, goodness."

"Ugh, fuck... Right. Throne, King, fight... I think I remember now."

Lilin tried to get up, but gasped. It didn't just hurt to try and stand, it was impossible. Her legs folded the moment she put any weight on them, and it didn't feel pleasant either. She had broken a leg before, and this was so much worse.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" she shouted as she fell to the ground before she even got up. "Ugh, f-fuck..."

Annie grimaced. "Alright, Lilin... You don't have a say in this."

"Wh-What are- HEY! STOP!"

Annie uncapped her Core and flooded Lilin's body with Life Mana. Lilin tried to stop her, but her body wouldn't move. She felt her muscles reconnecting, building back up and better than ever. Not just that, but she felt the Mana within her rapidly enhancing, the Life Mana seeming to meld very well with it. She got up, quickly taking Annie's hands off of her.

"Ugh, fuck, thank you," she growled, "but don't you DARE heal anybody again! Your Core's important, you idiot!"

Annie nodded, trying to stand up to encourage Lilin- only for her own legs to refuse to listen. She slowly lowered herself, panting heavily. She couldn't move that quickly anymore. She remembered the last time she felt like this, and it wasn't exactly a pleasant memory.

Lilin rolled her head around, cracking her neck as she rotated her arms. She felt like she had better control over the Mana than before. Talk about a pick-me-up! She took a deep breath, then dashed forward into the cyclone.

The winds weren't nearly as strong this time, which worried her immediately. She broke through the gale and saw Euwelyn struggling with only four replicas as Tobin fought on the backfoot. She launched right into action, putting out a veil of blood to protect Tobin from the barrage of projectiles and launching a slash to force the King to make some distance between him and Euwelyn.

"Lilin!" Euwelyn's cry sounded relieved, her dwindling supply of resources seeming far less hopeless now. "The blood on the floor, can you-"

"HELL yeah!" Lilin said, starting to manipulate the blood the King had pooled. She felt the immense resistance as he tried to fight back, but she had so much more Mana to pour into her efforts. She smirked as she started to gather it into a sphere in the center of the arena. Euwelyn wasted no time, pulling as much earth together as she could with whatever time Lilin could buy.

"Heh, your Core's almost out, huh?" Lilin taunted. She loved to see the grimace on her dad's face. "Looks like you really aren't much without that throne of yours, aren't you?"

The King's grimace didn't worsen at the taunt. Instead, he started to grin. He laughed, his voice reverberating once more. He continued to defend himself from the attacks they barraged him with, moving his heavily armored body like it weighed nothing as he grinned furiously.

"You believe I'm out of options, do you?"

"Absolutely," called another voice charging in from the hallway. Skating in and freezing the floor beneath her was the Ice General. She pointed a pike forward, her breath showing as the air in the room chilled with her entrance. "Demon King, your reign is at an end! I, Hrist Vangaurd, will strike you down myself!"

"Even if we're all tired," Lilin taunted again, "With a completely fresh General, you don't stand a chance!"

The Demon King didn't dignify any of this undeserved grandeur with a response. Instead, he reached behind his hips, unsheathing a short sword. The blade was a deep crimson, nearly black, and it hummed with energy. Lilin immediately realized that it was infused with the same Mana she had absorbed from the throne, and the King was already absorbing it in massive amounts.

"Behold! This blade will bring about your doom. Now, bow before me, that I may make your deaths swift!"

He slashed his blade directly at Euwelyn's clones, launching out a blood blade that cleaved the four of them in half immediately. Euwelyn yelped, feeling the last of her connections severed. The pitiful amounts of Mana returned to her upon their deaths did little to refund the immense amount she had used up until now. She tried to raise as much stone in the way as possible to deflect the follow-up attack, but it wasn't enough. If it weren't for Hrist raising a massive pillar of ice, Euwelyn would have met the same fate as her constructs. Hrist's free arm wrapped around Euwelyn's waist, lifting her up as she skated around at blistering speeds, lifting the Earth General out of the way of a much more powerful attack.

"I didn't know he had a sword like that!" Hrist shouted. "Does it have a name!?"

"It does not, but I will name it after your pathetic defeat! Hristslayer, the corrupted bloodblade!"

The Demon King laughed maniacally, mocking Hrist's theatrical nature as he launched a slash ahead of her, forcing her to slow down as he threw out another one behind her to trap her in place. Hrist cried out, only managing to stay on her feet thanks to a burst of wind from Tobin. The King laughed as he slashed at the air, twirling his blade as a hurricane of slashes threatened to overwhelm the combined evasive efforts of Hrist and Tobin. Lilin tried to attack, but she had no openings as the King started to barrage her with needles just as he did Tobin before. Euwelyn realized that she needed to do something with her remaining Mana. She formulated the best plan she could, ready to be a distraction.

"Drop me!" Euwelyn shouted as Hrist slid past a large mound of stone. Hrist didn't hesitate, letting go of her immediately. Euwelyn used a massive amount of Mana to create a boulder around herself, hoping the King's attacks were focused on her as she drew all attention to herself. It was able to absorb enough attacks to give Hrist an opening to dash in. Tobin threw as much power as he could into pushing her forward, her skating and his wind reaching speeds that the King finally couldn't react to in time.

"HYAH!" Hrist shouted as she drove her pike forward, using her ice magic to embrittle his armor and shatter it. Her attack wedged beneath his ribs, making her grin as she left the weapon there and continued her momentum, evading the King's immediate counter-attack. She jumped and twirled as she conjured up an icy rapier, twirling it around herself to deflect several attacks in a row. "Yeah, take that!"

Despite Hrist's successful blow, things were very grim. She was the only General left with enough Mana left to fight, but she could only land that blow because of Euwelyn and Tobin's combined help. She stared as the King removed the weapon from his side, gasping as she saw no blood coming from the wound.

"I control blood, fools. Did you think weapons would truly hurt me, even if you could pierce my armor?"

Hrist grimaced, trying to figure out what she could do. The wind barrier keeping the battlefield contained was barely up, and she could tell Tobin's flight was running low. She stanced up, deflecting a few more blades as she struck an elegant yet combative pose. "Fine then, I see I must go all out! Prepare, for I will-"

"Oh my fuck, shut UP ice queen!"

Lilin's face lit up as Hrist's darkened. That was the sound of her absolute counterpart. It was the Fire General, Hina-

"Hinata's here, shitheads!" Shouted a muscular blonde boy, flying in with jets of fire behind him. Beside him was a young woman that Annie immediately recognized. It was Charlie, and she looked ready to take on the world.