🌠 ARC33: The Light That Was Seen

The limit came without a sound.

An attack she should have avoided caught up late.

Her shoulder splits.

Her sight tilts, just for an instant.

—Bad.

There’s no time left to recover.

The higher one doesn’t close in.

It crushes the exits, and corners her with certainty.

It’s learning.

It isn’t afraid.

It isn’t rushing.

It moved like something that already knew it would win.

She swings.

It’s knocked aside.

She catches it.

She can’t hold.

Sensation starts to leave her wrist.

At this rate—

she dies.

That was as far as thought went.

There’s nowhere to run.

No time.

No more plans.

—So.

Lumia decided.

“...Just once.”

She murmurs it to no one.

Something opens in her chest.

What she held down begins to spill—quietly, and yet with certainty.

Light.

Control, to the minimum.

Don’t widen it.

Don’t layer it.

Only to survive.

The next moment.

The night turned inside out.

Not brightness.

Not heat.

“Presence” itself burst.

The air is forced outward.

The ground screams.

Shadows lose their escape.

The higher one retreats for the first time.

One step.

Then two.

The light runs in a straight line.

Released through the sword, it wasn’t a slash—

it was

rejection.

Don’t come here.

Don’t come any closer.

Light like a will hammered into the world.

The higher one’s body cracks.

It doesn’t fall completely.

But—

it ran.

Into the depths of the forest.

The others follow it.

Silence snaps back.

Lumia drops to one knee.

Her breath is shallow.

Her vision blurs.

A hollowing sensation in her chest.

—It was shaved away.

She knows it clearly.

It won’t return.

It won’t recover.

And still, she’s alive.

But.

A voice behind her.

“...Did you see that?”

“Light...?”

“Magic...?”

Between the trees.

In the direction of the road.

Villagers were standing there.

On their way back from an escort?

Coming to check?

She doesn’t know why.

But for certain—

it was seen.

The light that tore the night.

The force that drove monsters back.

Something that wasn’t human.

The murmur spreads.

Fear.

Awe.

Expectation.

All of it mixed into their gaze.

Lumia tries to stand—and staggers.

Her legs won’t take weight.

Her body is too light.

—The price has already begun.

She used the light.

She survived.

And.

She can’t hide anymore.

The rumor will return to the village.

Exaggerated.

Twisted.

Taking on meanings by itself.

A wielder of light.

One who calls monsters.

Salvation, or calamity.

Lumia stands, leaning on her sword.

She explains nothing.

She offers no excuse.

Just—

this one-time light

had, without doubt, called the “next.”

She knew that much with absolute clarity.

The night isn’t over.

And.

The village, too—

is no longer

a safe place.

— Lumi🪄💕