BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!

SOLVEIG

Seeing the evil, villainous slaver collapse onto the dirt where he belonged brought Solveig no small amount of satisfaction.

“Another minute, another life saved!" she cried happily. "You’re lucky null magic is not the only magic available to me, otherwise you’d have been toast! You really oughta listen to your dad and not wander off like that!”

But Cain didn’t respond. Why not? She did a good job, didn't she?

Probably in shock from brushing with death like that, really. Loads of youngin’s were like that after their first battle, really. He probably was no different!

She strolled to him, with one hand playfully stretched out each time.

"I could've killed all of them, you know! Just like this guy. Totally been done with it. But I know you're a big softie, and I figured that's probably a bad look from your perspective. I think!"

She beamed.

"So instead, you will be delighted to know the majority of the slavers survived and we can just put them in for free labor! Put 'em to work in the mines or something. It'll be great character building! Mmhmm, mmhmm!"

Solveig struck a pose, pointing directly at Cain.

“So now you basically have to be my friend now!”

Cain opened his mouth to speak.

“M…”

Solveig’s heart tripled in effort.

“Most definitely?”

"Monster!"

...Huh?

Cain raised his sword, his hand trembling in a way it hadn't even trembled in front of the slavers themselves.

“Those slavers, you viewed them as playthings, didn’t you?!”

Solveig scoffed. "Hard not to, when they just rolled over like that. I was just—”

"You were just what? Joking? Earlier, you killed a man as you were joking about imps!"

"S... Sorry? You sound like you're mad at me..."

"I am!"

"B-But the leader is always the person you go for first, no matter what! That’s—that’s how you win!”

"Winning.” Cain scoffed. “That’s perfect, you know, that's the thing with you, isn’t it? The difference between winning and just—just hurting things so easily like that… you just viewed these people as dolls to play with, like some kind of sick game you play entirely in your head! You were amused doing what you did. Normal people don’t look at life and death the way you do! What guarantees that you don't look at us the exact same way?!”

Solveig opened her mouth… yet nothing came out. There was no argument she could make that wouldn't paint her as some self-obsessed bell-end.

Because, deep down, at least some part of what Cain said was true. 

But I tried. I'm trying so hard to be a hero for everyone…! I give it everything, every single time, and somehow it's never enough and also somehow too much...

You didn't get the girl who could drop a Great Bear in one blow without also getting the girl who sometimes hit the wrong thing. That wasn't an excuse. She knew that much. It just meant people didn't get to want her gentle and sharp in the same breath and then act shocked when the sharp part cut someone.

He looked past him, at the family still pressed into the rocks. The littlest one was staring at her. When Solveig took a half-step closer, the mother pulled the child behind her back.

A hero couldn't be a further description to ascertain Solveig's nature.

"I don't know what you are…” Cain eventually said. “But I don't think it's what everyone back at that temple thinks it is."

"I…”

She hitched.

“I…!”

Cain and the rest braced.

"I'm sorry!"

…

They all stared, dumbfounded, as Solveig looked down at her hands.

"Back when I was a hero, I had to keep so many people alive. But maybe the things I had to do to accomplish that… changed me." She gave a small laugh.

Cain’s eyes softened. “Solveig…”

"Perhaps I've been doing this so long I don’t even notice when something’s wrong anymore."

Glow…

H-Huh?!

“No…!” Solveig gasped. “This is for real now, isn’t it?!”

Her skin was the brightest it had ever been today thus far. It was shining like five fireplaces stacked on top of each other.

Solveig clutched her chest.

Cain rushed ahead. “What’s real?”

“I gotta go!”

“...What.”

“I’m g-gonna… gonna burst!”

“You need some privacy…?”

“Not that, you idiot!!!”

“Why then?”

“Does it matter?!”

“Where, though?”

“Anywhere!”

She braced and angled her body toward the trees.

“[GRAVITY MANIPULATION: ZERO]!”

“Wait!” Cain cried. “WAIT!”

BLAST!!!

\\

SOLVEIG

“Guh… urgh!”

A strangled gasp ripped from Solveig’s throat. This never got any easier.

It felt like a heart attack, only ten times worse! It was like mana existed in her veins and it was boiling.

If she didn’t claw back control of her own body right now, her magic would rip her to pieces for good.

“COME ON!”

She slammed her back against a nearby tree trunk, her fingernails digging deep into the bark as her knees buckled.

In. Out. In. Out.

She forced herself through the rhythmic pacing of her pain-management techniques, whatever good that did her.

She just wished… she just wished it didn’t have to be this way. She was used to being alone. She had spent nearly her entire damn life in the margins. But being alone like this?

It just really, really sucks…

Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump.

Her eyes perked up. The sounds of hooves.

A wayward buck, perhaps?

Solveig pushed herself off the trunk, staggering a few paces toward the sound.

“Sorry, Mr. Deer. It’s not safe here.”

Summoning the tiniest, least destructive spark of her null magic, she released her usual sound cue—

POP!

A loud bang released from the palm of her hands.

That usually did the trick…

Yet the sounds kept going.

A monster then. Ah, well. It will get caught in the blast, and all will be—

“SOLVEIG!”

It echoed off the trees but she could recognize that sweet, soft voice anywhere.

And if that was the case…

No, no, no!

Not again!

I can't let it happen to anybody else!

Indeed, Solveig made out the silhouette of the boy soon enough, riding in gallantly with immaculate form.

And when he got close enough, she frantically stepped back.

“Go away, Cain! It’s not safe here!”

Cain leapt from his mount, his boots crunching the leaves below with a heavy thud. “Look, I stand by what I said earlier. But you don’t get to just run off and leave everyone behind when things get tough. We are working through this right now, damn it!”

“No, that is not what this is at all!” Solveig shrieked, waving her arms. “I am in the process of exploding!”

“We all feel that way, sometimes.”

“You are not understanding me! I am literally expl—”

Before she could pull away, Cain closed the distance.

“I find you annoying. Childish. Detestable for even remotely comparing yourself to my goddess…”

But then Cain simply reached out and took her hands in his.

“And while I don’t know what you’re doing, or thinking, or if this is a trap…”

The sheer warmth of him crashed over her. For a fraction of a second, the roaring world outside went completely silent.

“But I am not leaving you alone.”

K—

K—!

Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

Instinct overrode everything. She couldn't let the blast touch him. She wouldn’t!

Solveig would twist and bend the very shape of her soul, if she had to.

And she did!

She bent and bent, ignoring the agonizing tears in her core, until finally, the expanding axis of the explosion moved away from them.

Then, a shimmering barrier snapped into existence for the two of them just as the world beyond it dissolved into a deafening, all-encompassing—

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