It was still daylight, but the world had drowned in darkness.
The eclipse had begun.
A shadow swallowed the sun, and with it, all hope seemed to vanish. The battlefield lay in ruin. Once-pristine swords, meant to defend the innocent, now lay shattered—drenched in blood both noble and vile. Blades that once gleamed with honor had snapped like brittle bones. The soil, once vibrant with the scent of life and earth, now reeked of iron and death.
The ground had turned into a crimson marsh—a pond of blood where bodies floated like forgotten dolls, stripped of names and futures. The green had been erased. Even the brown of the earth was gone, replaced by a suffocating red that clung to the boots, to the skin, to the soul.
This battle… no, this massacre—will be remembered for generations. Or perhaps it won't.
Perhaps there won't be anyone left to remember.
I laughed.
A broken, hollow laugh that cracked through my chest and echoed into the lifeless wind.
It was the relics. Always the relics. I should have known. I should have never trusted her. I should have listened.
You inhuman bitch.
Kaiser had warned me.
He always did.
> "Ray… stay away from her. There's more to this than you understand."
But I didn't listen. I was blinded by faith. By hope. By love.
And now—
"Right, Kaiser?" I asked, my voice trembling, my vision blurred with tears. "You told me... and I ignored you…"
He didn't answer.
"Say something, damn it!" I shouted, clutching him tighter. "Why didn't you tell me the whole truth? If you had... I would have killed you myself. With my own hands."
His body was cold.
His eyes—those fierce, storm-lit eyes—stared up at the darkened sky, searching for light that would never return. Blood soaked his torn robes, and the lower half of his body was gone—obliterated by the blast that tore the heavens apart.
I was holding what remained of him. Just his upper half.
And even now… it felt like he had something to say. Something he couldn't.
His lips twitched, ever so slightly.
Was it guilt? Regret? A final attempt to smile?
I'll never know.
Because I held him as his soul slipped away… beneath an eclipsed sky, surrounded by relics and corpses, choking on the silence of things unsaid.