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Elena shook her head while screaming in pain, suddenly opening her eyes.
"Aahhh! Mom!"
She scread without thinking, trembling uncontrollably and beginning to cry.
Elena barely noticed where she was or what was happening.
The only thing she felt was the sudden realization that the nightmare was real the mont she awoke.
And that everything she had seen had truly happened.
"Aaaagh!"
She scread in horror and agony, slamming her head against the floor until she began bleeding.
This was the only thing she could do.
Scream.
In horror.
In agony.
In sorrow.
All the emotions she had to release.
"Uuuhh...! Mom...!"
As she cried desperately, she clutched sothing with her arms.
Suddenly, she realized she had arms again.
She had lost them in that fight.
But now she had them once more.
Her skin was blue.
And her vision constantly displayed glitching, flickering letters.
"What...! Ugh...!"
She felt sharp pain in her head as she heard the buzzing sound of countless data streams attempting to enter her body, which resisted them.
She scread as the data tried to erase her entire being and replace it.
She fought back with all her might, her soul and body exuding a thick aura of black energy.
Eventually...
The pain subsided significantly.
But her entire being remained strange, warped.
"What...! What’s happening to ?!"
She scread in horror, staring at her blue arms and...
The small wooden ball on the floor, emanating a faint aura of life from within.
Elena’s hands trembled as she fell to her knees again.
Crying loudly, she hugged the small wooden ball.
Inside was her little brother.
Unable to be born, her mother hadn’t given up on him.
She had torn a piece of her own body and transford her uterus into a sphere of life.
Celestial energy encased it, keeping the tiny fetus alive.
"Mom... Sniff... Mom... Aahhh... Haaaaha... Uuugh...! Ueagh..."
Feeling wretched, Elena vomited onto the grass beside her. Her head was spinning.
Slowly, she tried to calm herself while still crying desperately.
She struggled to sort her thoughts despite the horrific events that had transpired.
Despite...
Despite her mother...
"No...! No! No! Why?! Is this a dream?! It has to be a nightmare! Mom..."
She began crying and screaming in horror again, pounding the floor, unable to accept reality.
She tried desperately to "wake up" from what she believed was a nightmare.
But she couldn’t wake up.
The truth was undeniable.
And the past... was unchangeable.
There was no way to alter the past.
Just as when her father died.
And now... her mother.
Her lips trembled as Elena realized this was her fate.
"I am fated to be alone..."
Gazing bleakly at the blue sky, Elena felt lost. She didn’t know what to do or who to be anymore.
She felt like dying.
She considered slitting her throat right then.
To join her mother and father...
To end it all.
Sohow, her katana from BNLO lay beside her, sheathed.
She grabbed it, pointing it at her throat.
Her hands trembled.
"Mom..."
As her tears fell onto her sword...
"Aee..."
For a mont.
She heard a small, faint voice.
"...?"
She looked down at the small wooden sphere.
There...
That tiny life.
"Auh..."
It was trying to communicate with her.
Elena didn’t understand how.
Or why this was happening.
It was rely a tiny fetus.
Yet it exuded a powerful aura of life, nature, spirit, and... heaven within it.
"..."
Her hands trembled as her sword fell to the ground.
Elena cried, gazing at the tiny thing inside.
A small soul, a faint spirit light.
"Aee..."
The small soul inside had sohow sensed her distress and tried to reach out to her.
Perhaps to ease her loneliness.
"I’m sorry... Uuh... I’m sorry... Aahhh... I almost... I almost left you alone... I can’t... do that...!"
Elena hugged her little brother’s soul.
Despite the pain, she ca to another realization.
She had to protect this life.
Her dear little brother.
"Anna...! Right... everyone else...! T-They...! Mom... Mom sent them with ? Where...?"
She quickly regained her senses, scanning her surroundings.
She found herself in a vast grassland before a sprawling spiritual forest.
"A-Ah...! Wait, what?! Where am I?!"
She realized she wasn’t on Earth.
The strange glitching sounds and flickering screens she had seen now made sense.
Elena had sohow arrived in Arcadia instead of Earth.
And she was, inexplicably, inhabiting her Avatar and her real body simultaneously.
"Ugh...!"
She felt another sharp pain in her head, realizing the cause was her two bodies attempting to overlap.
This bizarre phenonon, which she had never imagined possible, was happening.
"Why is this happening? What...! Why?"
She tried to access her Status, and though she could, it was riddled with glitches.
While struggling to contain her sorrow and pain, she searched for other survivors.
"Elisa?! Anna! Monicaaaaa!"
She wandered the grasslands, gently carrying her little brother while trying to comprehend what was happening.
But it was so hard to grasp that she couldn’t fully understand it.
"Mom made... a portal back ho, but we landed in Arcadia... right in front of her forest?"
When she arrived in Arcadia, her Avatar had tried to manifest but then overlapped with her body.
Sohow, they were constantly attempting to rge.
She did her best to endure the pain.
It was utterly bizarre.
She had thought the Avatar was a separate entity.
However, it seed to be an Astral Projection created by so form of higher divine magic.
This entity only appeared when she logged in.
Now that she was logged in, the entity was trying to manifest and beco usable for her soul.
Slowly, she unraveled the secrets of BNLO’s Avatars.
But Elena couldn’t care less even now.
"A-Anna...! Soone? Ah!"
As hope began to fade, she spotted soone on the grass below—a red-haired elf.
She recognized her and ran toward her.
"Anna! Annaaaa!"
She cried while embracing Anna, who was convulsing in pain.
"Uuugh! Aaaagghh!"
"A-Anna?!"
"Nnnggh...! It hurtssss! My head! My head! Aaaaahhhh!"
"...!"
Elena realized it was the sa pain she felt.
However, Anna had far less control over her body and magic, unable to resist the Avatar’s aggressive assimilation.
"Don’t worry, I’ll help you... Nngh!"
Elena gritted her teeth, using her powers to transfer Anna’s pain to herself.
Then, she saw countless glitching pixels and windows appear. Through sheer will, she began tearing them apart and destroying them.
As she did, her hands blazed with strange "glitched flas" made of corrupted data.
This effort helped Anna calm down and stabilize.
"E-Elena...? Ahh... what’s going on? Where... where are we?"
"Arcadia..."
"...What? Ahhh! No! Everyone...! What the fuck happened?! Elena! Y-Your mom!"
"..."
Elena looked down, her face pale as candlewax, her eyes bleak.
"I... know..."
Anna quickly hugged her without hesitation, crying on her shoulder as Elena did the sa.
It had all happened so quickly and so horribly.
They had truly lost.
"We have to... find the others..." Elena muttered, her voice devoid of life.
"Y-Yeah..." Anna nodded, swallowing hard. "I... I think I saw Elisa sowhere... Monica was with her."
"What?! Where?!" Elena gasped.
Anna led Elena to a small apple tree, where Elisa and Monica sat, eating apples while groaning in pain.
Sohow, the apples eased their pain, but it wasn’t enough.
"M-Monica, it hurts...!"
"Where...! How do we log out... Aaagh!"
"Monica! Elisa!"
Elena rushed to them and, without waiting for a response, used the sa technique as before.
Channeling her desire to protect them, she banished the bugs and glitches from their bodies, stabilizing them.
Then, she hugged them without another word...
She was overwheld with sorrow yet filled with relief.
At the very least, not everyone had died.
Thanks to her mother’s sacrifice...
She and her friends had survived.
And so had her little brother.
"Mom..."
Elayne was truly a hero.
An incredible hero.
To the very end...
She prioritized the children’s lives above her own.
"Elena..." Elisa cried desperately. "Your mom... Uuuhh...! Your mom...! Sniff... Uwaaahhhh!"
"Waaaahhhh!" Monica also cried desperately. "Everyone... Uncle Mark, Aunt Rita and Lily... Jenny...!"
"I can’t believe it..." Anna muttered. "W-We lost... and... Ugh...! Damn it...! Damn it all!"
As they wept on each other’s shoulders, the friends slowly cald beneath the darkening blue sky.
The sunset on the horizon signaled sothing.
The world kept moving forward, heedless of their grief.
And it would continue even if they weren’t ready to move on.
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