literally
It means actually, in fact, not as a metaphor. You mean the opposite.
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Wrong: I literally died.
Right: I nearly died.
You did not die. You’re reading this.
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Wrong: He literally exploded at me.
Right: He completely lost it at me.
No cleanup was required.
The problem
Literally exists to signal that you are not speaking figuratively. Using it as an intensifier on an obvious metaphor spends the only word that does that job.
Once it means “very,” there’s no word left for the times you need someone to understand you’re being precise.
The fair counterargument
Dictionaries now list the intensifier sense, because it’s been in use for centuries and appears in Dickens and Joyce. By the usual standards, that makes it legitimate English.
It’s also true that really, truly, and very all took the same path from literal to intensifier, and nobody misses their original meanings.
So this one is a preference, not a rule. But it’s a widely held preference, and you’ll be told about it.
Now go be figurative on purpose.