Bang! Clank!
Cassian heard loud explosions and collisions coming from beyond the destroyed wall. It seemed that the battle had moved inside the city.
And although he was tired, he headed there. Along the way, as he tried to ignore that feeling of coldness and oppression, he noticed that, in addition to corpses, there were some saplings with white fruits growing on them.
That gave him a bad feeling, which made him quicken his pace.
When he arrived, he saw chaos: warriors facing aberrations and beasts. Leaving aside the beasts—whose numbers were not so great, at most fifty against a hundred residents—they actually seemed to have the advantage.
The real problem was the aberrations: at least a dozen. Their numbers were much smaller than those of the beasts, but they were much more dangerous and problematic. Among the residents fighting, Cassian recognized a few, such as Yefaziel.
Thump! Bang! KRAAAK!
He was engulfed in flames, fighting the aberrations alongside four other men equally engulfed in fire.
Cassian thought about helping, but as he surveyed the surroundings, he noticed something else: a little apart from the battle was a group of people he recognized.
He recognized them immediately: Nahara, Eshaan, and Diona....But something was wrong.
Instead of joining the fight, Cassian ran toward them. The closer he got, the more he noticed, and the bad feeling kept growing.
Until he finally understood completely: what Diona was holding in her arms.
"Aaaahhh… waah… why… why did you say we would get married?! Why did you die… you fool… you weakling…!"
Cassian understood. She was hugging Rowen… no, it was just his head. His body lay off to the side, as Diona hugged him desperately and sorrowfully.
"This... is..."
He remembered how he had talked to Celestine about the flag Rowen had raised.
Before, that thought hadn't seemed so serious or relevant. But now, seeing his lifeless body, embraced by the woman he had promised to marry, the brutality of reality hit him hard.
The feeling of coldness and heaviness grew, making it a little difficult for him to breathe. He felt as if someone were squeezing his throat.
"Cough... Salvador, is that you?"
Eshaan's voice was heard, and Cassian snapped out of it, understanding the situation better. Not only had Rowen died.
Nahara and Eshaan were seriously injured, both with deep wounds in their chests. Eshaan was still conscious, but Nahara was not. In addition, black veins could be seen spreading across her body.
"Wait, I'll take you to Lys and..."
Without hesitation, Cassian approached them. They were not like him. With those wounds and the poison in their bodies, it was almost certain that they would die. It was essential to take them to Ellys, who was the only one capable of healing them.
He considered picking them both up and running, but their bodies were too fragile, and any wrong move could make their condition worse.
"Let me... take Nahara, she's in worse shape."
"No... but you too..."
Cassian thought Eshaan was in just as bad a condition. If he didn't take him, he would die too. But he didn't know how to transport them both. His storage only worked with inanimate objects.
Just as he was thinking about what to do, he heard Diona's hoarse voice.
"Sniff! ... Don't forget I'm here! Take Eshaan, we have to move fast."
Diona got up carefully, left Rowen next to her body with caution, wiped the tears from her face, and took the delicate Nahara, signaling Cassian to carry Eshaan.
Cassian, who normally did not hesitate to ask questions without restraint, said nothing this time; rather, he could not.
The feeling tightening his throat intensified, and he found it difficult to say anything, especially after seeing Diona's actions.
He could only do what she had said: take Eshaan and start heading toward where Ellys was.
He said nothing else and couldn't ask any questions.
Although Marcus was nowhere to be seen, the words simply wouldn't come out of his mouth.
..
.
".....Everything was going well, and although there were a few casualties, we had remained strong. It was only then that, suddenly... the aberrations arrived, one after another. One killed Rowen... from behind, before anyone noticed... It was fast and silent, with arms like mantis sickles. Then it just left... and two more came. Nahara managed to kill one, at the cost of her injuries."
"..."
After a moment of running through the streets, avoiding the beasts and any aberrations as best she could, Diona began to speak on her own about what had happened.
It seemed that remembering broke her voice, but she didn't stop. Cassian didn't understand why she was telling him this at that moment; she was clearly struggling to talk about what had happened and seemed on the verge of tears.
"The other one was coming for me. I fought... but she overwhelmed me quickly. When she was about to deliver the final blow... Eshaan intervened and took the blow for me."
"Diona, you don't have to—Cough!"
"Stop. You're in no condition to talk. I... need to say this... Marcus and I managed to kill her while Eshaan held her, but at that very moment another aberration appeared... a monster whose entire form was a huge mouth. It was very fast too, and it dragged Marcus into a swarm of beasts where he was... he was..."
"..."
Cassian barely understood. In his head, he didn't know what to think about what she was saying; it was difficult for him to listen to her, and he really felt like he didn't want to hear it, because doing so intensified the feeling he was experiencing.
But he couldn't stop her either. He could only listen silently as he moved, dodging beasts and aberrations that had invaded the village.
"If it weren't for the intervention of my father and Sir Yefaziel, as well as the rest of the veterans, none of us... sniff... I shouldn't cry, but... we've been together for as long as I can remember. I just can't... I want to ask you... that, regardless of how this ends, if you manage to survive, remember this and pass it on... Say that there were brave warriors here who fought to the end. Not just Rowen and Marcus ... everyone who will die here, please."
Cassian listened to Diona's words, finally understanding why she was telling him this. It seemed like a simple request, but Cassian felt it was heavier than it sounded, because of what it implied.
Again, he felt that the words did not come out so easily, but even so, with difficulty, he was able to say a simple..
"I... I'll do it..."
Cassian thought that the most reasonable thing from the beginning was for everyone to live, but that was no longer a possibility.
He didn't understand how he had ended up like this. Cassian wondered...
Was it because he had simply done what he was told…?
Or was it because he had gone off on his own…?
Could it be that he had gone too far, without meaning to…?
Maybe it was because he hadn't thought about anything other than fighting…?
Was it because he hadn't considered that the situation could turn out this way…?
Or maybe he had been too relaxed after how easy the previous tests had been…?
He really didn't know.
Everything, at that moment, was confusing and difficult for him to understand.
"jijijijiji..."
!!!
But he couldn't think about it anymore. In that instant, Cassian felt it: how everything slowed down, how time seemed to stretch out.
With the experience he already had, he knew something was wrong and that he had to act.
Then he saw it: from the shadow of some buildings, something very fast came straight for his neck.
His perception, in that extended moment, allowed him to react. Instinctively—and somewhat consciously—he jerked his head back sharply as he ducked.
Both his movement and that of the object that was a scythe passed slowly, as if passing frame by frame. He watched the blade pass over his head, reflecting his confused dark black eyes.
At the same time, he felt his body move to counterattack whatever it was.
Cassian knew it wasn't human. Right after dodging, he regained his position and delivered a strong kick to the creature's side.
Bang!
Time returned to normal. The impact sent the aberration—a humanoid insect hybrid with metal scythes for hands, a twisted spiral face with only a mouth and a single eye in the center, and several pulsating tumors—crashing through multiple buildings."
Cassian thought that follow-up attacks were not possible, let alone eliminating it, as he had Eshaan in bad shape in his arms.
Besides, he had to move fast; the noise he made could attract more beasts and aberrations.
"We have to hurry to—"
Just as he turned to tell Diona they had to move on, what he saw left him speechless.
Only now did he remember that Diona was following close behind him... and when he looked back at her, all that remained was a headless body.
He could only watch as she fell, her face not understanding what had suddenly happened; it was the same expression Rowen had had before.
He had managed to dodge, but the moment he counterattacked, the scythe continued on its path and went toward Diona.
She had no time to react, and when Cassian's counterattack came, it was too late: she had already been decapitated.
Cassian watched this with bewilderment. He felt as if time had stopped, but in reality everything happened so quickly that he barely had time to think.
Now he wondered if, had he not dodged, he would have withstood that blow. At least he felt that with his toughness there was a better chance, even with his art he could absorb much of the impact.
It was all over now, but he thought he had made the worst decision.
"Kuekuekuekue..."
"Jujujuju..."
He couldn't think about it anymore. He understood that in that place, a moment's distraction meant death.
He heard the annoying laughter approaching; that meant more aberrations.
"Jijijiji..."
Including the one he had hit.
Diona had died, and as if her body was only now reacting to the events, she began to fall along with Nahara, unconscious, into his arms.
Cassian stepped forward and, inevitably, had to let go of one of the hands holding Eshaan to try to catch her as carefully as possible.
"Ugh!"
"Aaagh!!"
Both Nahara, even though she was unconscious, and Eshaan groaned in pain. Cassian didn't know what to do: both were in a delicate state due to the poison from their wounds and the poison from the aberrations, and carrying them carelessly could quickly worsen their condition.
"Diona!... That damn aberration was the one wh-... cough-cough!"
Eshaan—who finally understood what had happened to Diona—shouted at the aberration, but in fact, doing so in his condition could only worsen his state.
"jijijiji..."
Cassian was struggling to find a way to carry both of them without hurting them further.
At that moment, regardless of whether he was a monster, he would have given anything to grow another pair of arms.
"Saved... cough..."
"Stop—"
"On my waist... a bag... ugh!... pill... give it to me... cough!.."
..