My name is Isabelle Thorne. Before the world ended, my life was simple. It was kendo. The smell of the dojo, the weight of the bamboo sword in my hands, the quiet focus of a perfect strike. I wasn't looking for fame or glory. I just wanted to be strong. I wanted to be perfect. That was all that mattered.
Then the email came. 'The Aegis Mandate: A World Salvation Project'. It felt like a joke, a scam. But then the world broke. Monsters appeared. People started gaining strange, magical powers. My simple life of kendo was over.
I didn't want to be a hero. It was an accident. My university friends, they were excited. They saw it as a game, a chance to be special. A boy I knew, Kenji, a loud and confident boy from the business school, formed a "party." He said we were going to be heroes. He dragged me along because I knew how to use a sword.
Our first dungeon was in Sector 7. An old, forgotten apartment building. Kenji read on some forum that it was an "easy farm." He was so confident. We all were. The first room was just full of blue, jiggly slimes. We laughed as we killed them. We felt powerful. We felt like heroes.
Then we entered the second room. It was full of goblins.
"They're just goblins!" Kenji shouted, raising his cheap iron sword. "Charge!"
We charged. It was a mistake.
BOOM!
A rock, thrown by a tiny green monster, slammed into our tank's shield. The sound was like an explosion. A shockwave blasted him backward, his arm broken. The air filled with the shrieking sound of goblins moving with unnatural speed.
One of my friends, Masaru, tried to fight back. He was a kind boy from the literature department. He thrust his spear. A goblin, no bigger than a child, dodged under it.
BOOM!
The goblin punched forward, its tiny fist a blur of green motion. A sonic boom, a loud CRACK!, echoed in the small room. The punch didn't just hit Masaru; it exploded against his chest. A visible shockwave ripped through him, and I saw his bones break under his skin. He fell. He was gone.
Panic. Pure, animal panic. I drew my katana, my hands shaking. I was no longer a kendo student. I was a cornered animal. My training took over. I moved, my blade a silver arc in the dim light. I felt the sickening crunch as it cut through flesh and bone. I was not graceful. I was not perfect. I was just trying to live.
We lost three friends that day. But we found a treasure chest. Inside was an ugly, black iron sword that glowed with a faint, magical light. Kenji took it. He said it was his right as the leader. He held it up, his face full of greed and relief. We had won. It felt like we had lost everything.
Then, the ambush. A single goblin, hiding among the dead, lunged at Kenji. He was so busy admiring his new sword, he never saw it coming. Another boom, another crack, and he was gone. The sword clattered to the floor. We ran. We didn't even try to get the sword. We just ran.
Someone had taken a picture of me during the fight. A picture where I looked fierce and determined, not terrified and sick to my stomach. It went viral. They called me "The Blade of Aethelburg." They called me a hero.
I didn't want the title. But it was given to me. The government formed an official hero team, "The Liberators." They made me their leader. I was swept along by a story that everyone else was writing for me.
For forty-three days, we fought. We liberated four dungeons. We killed hundreds of monsters. We saw things no one should ever have to see. With every victory, the world called me a greater hero. With every victory, I felt a little more of my old self die.
Now, we have a new mission. Our fifth target. A notorious dungeon that has become a symbol. A place that lures in young, stupid students with promises of easy loot and glory, and then kills them. A perversion of a dungeon, they call it. The "Farm" of Sector 7.
As I stand with my team before the entrance to that same, dark apartment building, I grip the hilt of my katana. I am no longer that scared girl. I am Isabelle Thorne, leader of the Liberators. I have a duty. I have a promise to keep to the ghosts of my friends.
This time, we will not run. We will find the master of this place. And we will deliver justice.