Chapter 2: The Weight of a Hero's Vow
The silver pillar of light didn't just push the Abyss Executioner back; it rewrote the air around them. The smell of rot was purged, replaced by a scent like mountain air and hot iron.
Cian knelt in the mud, his hand still clamped tight over Elara's gauntlet. His blood—the blood of a "Dross"—was seeping into the cracks of her sapphire-engraved plate. Normally, the mana of a commoner would be rejected by a Knight-Captain's armor like poison. But the System acted as a bridge, a translator for their souls.
[Synchronization Rate: 12%... 15%... 18%...]
[Active Skill: Shield of Devotion (Rank 1) — Operational.]
[Effect: 50% of damage taken by the Valkyrie is redirected to the Hero. Physical Defense of both parties increased by 40%.]
"What... what have you done?" Elara whispered. Her voice was no longer the commanding bark of a captain; it was thin, trembling with a mixture of terror and awe.
She looked down at their joined hands. Where Cian's blood touched her, the sapphire runes weren't just flickering anymore—they were burning with a steady, white-gold radiance. The fractured mana in her chest, which had felt like shards of glass cutting her lungs, began to smooth out.
"I told you," Cian gasped, his vision swimming as the System began to drain his stamina to fuel the shield. "I'm not letting you die."
The Abyssal Executioner roared—a sound like tectonic plates grinding together. It hauled its massive, bloated body out of the crater created by the light. Its rusted cleaver, a weapon that had tasted the blood of a hundred knights, pulsed with a hungry purple aura. It didn't understand what Cian was, but it recognized the threat.
[Threat Detected: Abyssal Executioner (Tier 4 - Elite)]
[Warning: Host is Tier 3. Direct confrontation survival rate: 14%.]
[Suggestion: Use 'Linked Resonance' to empower the Valkyrie.]
"Elara, stand up!" Cian shouted, his voice echoing with the System's authority.
"My sword is gone, boy!" she cried out, her pride finally breaking. "I have no weapon! Without a blade, a Valkyrie is nothing but a sacrifice!"
Cian looked at the shattered remains of her Tier 4 claymore. Then, he looked at his own bleeding palm. A wild, desperate idea took hold.
"Then I'll be your blade," he hissed.
He reached out and grabbed the broken hilt—just six inches of jagged steel. In his hands, it should have been useless. But as he channeled the heat in his chest, the System responded.
[System Prompt: Weapon Manifestation.]
[Converting Hero's Will and Valkyrie's Mana into 'Solidified Resonance'...]
The broken steel didn't grow back. Instead, a blade of pure, translucent silver light erupted from the hilt, three feet long and shimmering with a violent energy. It wasn't a physical sword; it was a physical manifestation of their Tie.
Elara's breath hitched. She felt the power of the blade through their connection. It felt... warm. It felt like her own strength, but amplified by a fierce, protective desire she had never experienced from another human being.
"Take it!" Cian thrust the hilt toward her.
As Elara gripped the sword, the Shield of Devotion flared. A translucent dome of golden energy enveloped them just as the Executioner's cleaver slammed down.
BOOM.
The ground beneath them shattered. The shockwave leveled the surrounding tents and sent nearby Shadow-Wolves flying. But the golden dome didn't even flicker. Elara, who moments ago couldn't even stand, now held the weight of a Tier 4 monster's strike with a single hand.
"This power..." Elara stood up, her height and presence returning. She looked at Cian, who was now pale and sweating, his body trembling from the strain of being her battery. "You're a Dross... how can you support a Knight-Captain's resonance?"
"Stop talking... and kill it!" Cian coughed, a trail of blood running from his nose.
[Warning: Vitality at 30%. Mana Overload imminent.]
Elara's eyes hardened. The confusion was still there, but the warrior in her took over. She stepped out from the shield, the silver light-blade humming in her hand. She moved like a blur—not the desperate scramble of a dying woman, but the graceful, lethal dance of a goddess of war.
She didn't just swing the sword; she flowed with it. Each strike left a trail of light in the air that exploded a second later. The Executioner swung wildly, its cleaver passing through the air where she had been a millisecond before.
With a final, soaring leap, Elara brought the light-blade down.
"For the fallen!" she roared.
The blade sliced through the Executioner's neck as if it were parchment. The monster didn't even have time to scream before it dissolved into a pillar of black ash, sucked into the vortex of the silver light.
[Major Enemy Slain: Abyssal Executioner!]
[Experience Gained: Level 3 \rightarrow Level 7]
[Affinity with Elara Increased: 0 \rightarrow 12]
[Status: 'Curious Interest' unlocked.]
As the monster died, the light-blade flickered and vanished. The golden shield dissipated. Cian's legs finally gave out, and he collapsed into the mud.
The silence that followed was deafening. The remaining Shadow-Wolves, seeing their leader erased, retreated into the purple mist. The soldiers who had survived the slaughter stood frozen, staring at the common miner and the Knight-Captain.
Elara stood over Cian, her chest heaving. She looked down at her hands, then at him. The link was still there—a faint, warm thrum in the back of her mind. She could feel his exhaustion. She could feel his pain.
She knelt beside him, not as a superior, but as someone bound. She reached out, her fingers hovering over his dirt-stained face.
"Who are you, Cian of the Thorns?" she asked, her voice a soft whisper that the System recorded as a [Heart-Link Whisper]. "And what have you done to my soul?"
Cian tried to answer, but the world was spinning. The last thing he saw before the darkness took him was a new notification on his screen.
[System: First Vow Confirmed. The Valkyrie's heart has been touched.]
[New Feature Unlocked: The Harem Map. Searching for second resonance...]
[Distance: 2.5 Miles. Direction: The Shadow-Caves.]