Failure after failure, Sheina felt more and more alienated from her own body. The bow that used to feel like a third hand to her, now felt like something that was actively rejecting her. She couldn’t understand it, nor could it understand her body.
And all the while, the Mocking Jay kept hurling insults and taunts her way, perfectly aiming for the weak spots in her mind. That’s what it was good at.
"You’re not good enough!"
"You don’t deserve that bow."
"Michael doesn’t need you. Nobody does."
Sheina tried to fight this feeling, she tried to reject the thoughts in her mind by actively trying to prove it wrong.
She could become good enough if she just forced herself to train more. She could become more familiar with the bow if she shoots more. And she could become helpful to Michael if she just took more responsibility in the company.
She grasped her bow as hard as she could and tightened her grip on the strings.
She pulled the arrow back towards her chin and further back. If only she could force the bow to bend to her will, she could overcome this slew of misses and mistakes.
Holding the bow at its tightest and aiming carefully at the Mocking Jay, she tried to concentrate.
However, her thoughts began to wander.
I have to save my siblings. I have to save Lord Michael. I have to keep the Reborn company organized. I have to get stronger. I have to do this!
With all of those thoughts running through her head, an eventual seed of doubt formed in her mind.
The tasks burdening her was too daunting for her to complete. She began to wonder if she could even do all of it, if she could even do one!
Then, Sheina suddenly felt a weakness spread throughout her body.
She gritted her teeth and forced the arrow to fly.
However, it didn’t even leave the bow. The arrow slumped forward, still in its place.
"No...," she muttered with a broken voice.
She fell on her knees, covering her whole face with her fingers still shivering. She forced herself too much, and now, her hands were extremely fatigued.
She couldn’t even hold her bow anymore. It fell on the ground, landing beside her.
All of those thoughts haunted her. It had been building up, and building up, and only now when their only pillar of hope, Lord Michael, disappeared did she truly feel the weight of the burden on her shoulders.
She was deluding herself, thinking that she could become the right-hand woman of the prodigy called Michael Vanderbilt.
She thought that she had a chance to catch up to him with the GodForge pieces in her heart.
By practicing day and night, holding nothing but her bow and arrows, she thought that she could awaken her Diva and prove to everyone and herself that she belonged in her position as Michael’s secretary.
She was even ridiculing and mocking her siblings for not working hard enough, for not spending all of their time in practice.
But training or not, the result was the same. She felt no more stronger than when she received her GodForge piece and when she hadn’t.
They weren’t getting out of this place.
Just then, Sheina felt a warm hand on her shoulders.
She looked up and saw Zion giving her a slap on the back.
"Don’t worry, sis! I’ll grab that Mocking Jay by the wings and won’t let it fly," he said with a reassuring smile.
That smile that would have annoyed her any other day, was now a silver lining in front of a dark cloud.
"No. I’ll cut it off," said Jaku, taking out his katana from its sheath. "Let’s see if it can still fly away after that."
The usually lazy older brother was now taking initiative, leading the charge. He looked dependable.
Then, Sheina felt a warm hug wrap around her body. She looked to the side and saw Umisu laying her head behind her back.
"...you don’t have to do it all yourself... you can rely on us," Umisu muttered before walking off and joining Jaku and Zion in fighting the guardian.
Sheina gazed at her siblings.
Zion was punching the air, trying to catch the Mocking Jay. Jaku turned into pure lightning as he chased the guardian all over the abyss. And Umisu used her spear to create a powerful gust of air that disturbed the Mocking Jay’s flight path and forced it towards one direction.
Emotions welled up in her chest. "You guys..."
Zion, who she treated as nothing more than a no good scoundrel, was now being more dependable than ever.
And just like that, Sheina felt something inside her click.
Umisu was right. She didn’t have to carry all of that burden herself.
She was so narcissistic to think that only she could be the one to take charge, that only she could save themselves out of this situation.
She was treating her siblings as nothing more than dead weight. But in truth, they were more than capable of completing tasks that even she couldn’t complete.
The Mocking Jay didn’t have to be defeated by a bow and arrow. Jaku was doing well chasing after it using his lightning spells.
She was just so focused on the fact that only she could bring them out of this situation that she completely closed herself off from seeing the truth.
This was not a one-woman job. This was a collective.
She was not the only Rebornian. They were all of them. Even with Lord Michael out of the picture, she wasn’t the only one who could keep this nation afloat. There were plenty of talented and gifted individuals capable of stepping up to the task. That’s how Michael set it up in the first place!
He made it so that everyone had their own responsibility for the Nation and its prosperity.
She just forgot that.
But now, this failure was a brutal reminder. She didn’t have to take the burden alone. She couldn’t. This was a task for everyone.
She slowly stood up, picking up her Mithril Artifact compound bow as she did.
This time, she closed her eyes. She didn’t look at Mocking Jay’s movements. She didn’t stress about its random trajectories and flight patterns. She didn’t have to.
All she had to do was follow her siblings’ voices.
"Where are you running off to, you little bug?!" Zion shouted, with each of his punches creating a sharp cracking sound that echoed throughout the chasm.
This sound was like an echo-location, allowing Sheina to accurately pin point everyone’s location even when she had her eyes closed.
"You can’t run away forever," Jaku cooly whispered as he chased after the Mocking Jay. His speed as a literal bolt of lightning severely limited its flight patterns, allowing for Umisu to easily control its pace.
"HYAAA!" Umisu shouted, whirling her spear around and creating a vortex of air that shot towards the Mocking Jay.
Jaku chased after the guardian and led it straight towards the air vortex, letting it fall right into their trap.
With tremendous winds shooting at him, the Mocking Jay lost control of its wings and was forcefully propelled towards one direction: forward.
This opportunity gave a straight shot for Sheina to take.