# Chapter 41
Everyone cried. They were all their beloved ones. Paying their respects to the fearless who lifted their swords and fought together for their homeland, they prayed for the dead to safely cross the River Styx.
Tyche came near to a man who wailed the most sorrowfully among them and stood behind him. He was Machiades, the commander of the Sacred Band of Thebes at the age of thirty-five. He was grieving the death of his lover and fellow soldier, Kaeius, a twenty-year-old young man. Since he died from Ares’ spear penetrating his neck, his dead body was found headless. They collected his body in no time but struggled to find his head in the hell of dead bodies.
In order to shatter the battle line of Marea’s military, Machiades was on stand-by, riding on his horse, but he later noticed that Kaeius was missing and then cried out in sorrow when he saw his dead body carried in the cart.
