Last Chances | Kazuha x reader

~21~

The moment you stabbed your sword to the ground, it rapidly broke all around leaving only you, Aether, Dain, and Paimon on a safe platform. In the cracks that surrounded you, the golden light that you usually wielded broke through them. A blinding light came from below and after the light had died, all the monsters that had appeared had disappeared as soon as they had come.

The hundreds of enemies that had surrounded you had disappeared and the only thing left from earlier were the giant cracks that you had created as well as tiny particles of light that gradually started disappearing.

"Wow-" Paimon muttered speechlessly as she uncovered her eyes.

Coughing out blood, you fell to your knees. You could feel yourself lightheaded after the explosion of power that you had made.

"My lady!" Dain cried out as he ran to you and held your hand which you had placed on top of your sword to support you.

"Sorry for worrying you," you struggled to laugh. "Seems I used too much power for my body to handle."

"You should have just let me handle it, my lady," Dain looked at you with concerned eyes.

"Help me up Dain," you placed your weight on him. "Let's get going."

"You must rest my lady," Dain argued with you.

Before you could do anything else, Aether looked down at you, "Dain is right. Just rest first."

"Please be careful y/n," Paimon whimpered when she saw the state that you were in.

With great power comes great responsibility. Although you had the power to destroy that many enemies within a second, that power had its consequences. Without the core, your body had become the catalyst for the power to flow through and since human bodies were not made to withstand such power, you had experienced a powerful comeback.

"No," you shook your head. "We have to get going. We can't wait any longer."

You and Dain had a staring contest in argument. You needed to continue on and waiting was something that you couldn't do. Dain, in opposition, wanted you to rest after using the powerful attack to destroy the monsters.

"Fine," Dain relented while picking you up in a princess hold. "If your going to be stubborn and refuse to rest, the next best option is to make sure you won't have to walk."

"Dain-" you were about to complain.

Out of nowhere, the ground started to shake like an earthquake was coming. Dain quickly put you down in the case of an emergency where he would have to fight and brought out his sword. His hand glowing blue as he prepared his power, he looked towards the area where the earthquake seemed to be coming from.

Before any of you could react, a giant ruin monster - even larger than a ruin grader appeared from the ground. Its body cracking from its movement, the core in the middle glowed before blasting a giant lazer towards you. Just in the nick of time, Dain used his sword to block the powerful lazer that was nearly about to hit you. Simultaneously, around the giant lazer, smaller cores around the large core on its head started to activate as well.

Seeing that Dain was occupied with defending against the attack of the ruin monster, Aether ran towards its leg and cut the core that was shallowly protected in hopes of stopping it from continuing its attack. Stabbing it, it's knee bent and under all its weight, it fell down and thankfully, it ended the lazer blast.

To your surprise, the Ruin monster stood back up as if Aether hadn't even attacked its core. Once more, it stomped on the ground and under its weight, you could feel the vibration of the powerful step.

Lifting up one of its arms, you swiftly ran away from where the arm was targeting, adrenaline pumping through your body. You could feel the exhaustion building up in you from what was happening. You didn't know for how much longer you could hold on. The attack from earlier had taken a lot more out of you that you had thought.

It made one more step before holding out its arms.

"Run!" You shouted to Dain and Aether as you forced yourself to stand up once more while using your sword as a makeshift cane to support you.

"My lady-"

When Aether felt you collecting your power, he immediately grabbed Dain and pulled him away from you knowing that they would be more of a burden than any actual help. Right before the Ruin monster took one more step towards you, your sword started to glow golden.

Feeling the power building up in you, you glared at the monster. Focus pointed towards the monster and the monster alone, you dug your sword deeper into the ground and a giant magic circle appeared right below the monster. A giant blast of golden light appeared where the circle was and it pointed up all the way to the sky.

As the light dimmed, all that was left was a charred ruin monster that fell to the ground face first before disappearing.

Coughing out blood once more, your vision dimmed. You fell to the ground exhausted and out of energy. The adrenaline that had once filled you was now gone.

"It seems you've passed all the trials," a familiar voice spoke.