The sound of steel slicing through the air echoed across the empty training ground.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Elysia's sword moved faster with every strike, each swing carrying more force than the last. Her breathing grew heavier, and sweat slowly rolled down her face as her exhausted arms began to tremble. Yet she refused to stop.
Again, again and again.
She continued pushing her body beyond its limits, forcing every movement to become sharper, every strike to become stronger.
With every swing of her sword, memories she desperately wished to bury resurfaced in her mind.
The battlefield appeared before her eyes.
The screams of the dying echoed through her thoughts.
The despair that had covered the world returned like a nightmare she could never escape.
She remembered the countless lives that had vanished before her, the people she had failed to protect, and the weight of every loss she carried.
