The Beginning of Ruin

Year 615, 1 month after I left the kingdom, I stayed for a while in the cave in the middle of desert avoiding the upcoming sandstorm. Glen's condition became worse and worse, his body is very cold, I can barely manage to keep him breathing using my mana. We will stay in this cave for a while because I thought the heat of desert can manage to keep his body temperature low, but at night, here is extremely cold, I don't know what I should do. I hope mothers and sisters, and everyone stay strong, I don't know what is happening, but I hope, in the name of God, everyone is fine. 

Aria was writing her diary inside the cave before the approaching sandstorm arrived. Writing diary had become her routine during the journey, one of the few things that kept her spirit from breaking while searching for a way to cure Glen's condition. The sound of strong wind outside slowly echoed through the cave as grains of sand occasionally slipped through the entrance.

After closing her diary, Aria tried to fill her stomach with the scorpion and snake she found earlier near the rocky dunes. She roasted it and carefully separated the scorpion shell and snakeskin before eating the parts that could be eaten. It was not that she had completely run out of food, but she wanted to save their remaining supplies for as long as possible and survive using whatever she could find instead.

Fortunately, her body retained a massive amount of holy mana that allowed her to resist food poisoning far better than ordinary people.
For the time being, Glen did not need to eat because he remained unconscious, but he still needs mana from Aria to keep his body stable.

After finishing her meal, Aria looked toward Glen lying beside the wall of the cave. Thin cold air still radiated from his body, because of that, Aria still needs to keep her distance while staying beside him. Aria was exhausted after spending hours searching for a place safe enough to avoid the sandstorm, Aria finally closed her eyes and decided to sleep.

"Don't go there, Glen..."
"Wait for me..."
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't leave me alone..."
Aria murmured those words in her sleep while the sound of the sandstorm continued to howl outside the cave. The cold wind occasionally entered through the small gaps between the rocks and causing the weak campfire to flicker. Aria curled up in the cold and her body stiff and shivering from coldness of desert and from Glen's body.

She seems want to wake up but couldn't leave her dream.
Beside her, Glen remained unconscious without moving even slightly. The coldness radiating from his body had not disappeared since the day Aria escaped the kingdom with him. His breathing was faint, almost difficult to notice, yet Aria still continuing supplying him with mana without stopping even a single day because she is afraid that stopping for even a day would make him never wake up again.

At the same time, Aria slowly sank deeper into her dream.
Inside the dream, she saw the kingdom once again. The streets were still crowded. The knights of Royal Order were patrolling normally. Merchants were loudly advertising their goods near the market while children ran across the stone roads without worry. It was a peaceful sight from a time before everything fell apart.

Then she saw Glen again.
The younger Glen stood in front of her wearing the uniform of Royal Order while arguing with someone. His expression looked frustrated, something rarely seen from him. Before him, stood Heitor with his usual calm smile.

Aria remembered that moment clearly.

Back then, Glen said that something is wrong with Heitor and warned her to be careful around him. He said, "something is changed", Heitor was unusually calm and cunning not like his usual who polite and cheerful. However, Aria never listened because Glen's explanation was quite vague and rely on hunch instead of actual evidence. She only thought Glen was jealous of Heitor because lately Heitor keeps appear around her. Heitor was cheerful, caring, optimistic and kind toward her. At the other hand, Glen is cold, calculating, and incisive. Even though Glen and Aria are very close, Heitor is her childhood friend, and she can't just stay away from Heitor just like that.

The dream suddenly changed.
Blood stained everywhere. Everyone was injured and some of them were no longer breathing. Torn limbs and shattered weapon were scattered across the battlefield while the smell of blood filled the air.
Heitor stood there in front of everyone near the edge of a massive pit with unknown depths. No one knew where it led because that place had never been explored yet, but everyone knows it is dangerous. Darkness completely covered inside the pit as if it could swallow anything that fell into it. Glen, whose mana was already depleted, looked weak and barely able to stand. Heitor grabbed Glen by the neck and lifted him slightly without difficulty. 

Aria still remembered Heitor's expression clearly. 
He was smiling.
Not the calm and gentle smile she used to see, but a smile that looked more like a demon enjoying the suffering around him.

Before anyone could stop him, Heitor stabbed Glen directly through the heart.

Aria tried to move.
Tried to scream.
but her body would not respond.

Then Heitor threw Glen into the pit. His body disappeared into the darkness within seconds, as if the depth itself had swallowed him. That was the last time she saw him before he disappeared for months. That moment replayed repeatedly inside her dream like a punishment.

If only she had believed him earlier.
If she had listened.
Perhaps everything would not have ended up like that.
Her chest tightened

The dream slowly shifted once again, returning to a much older memory from before all of the tragedy began.
Back when before she met Glen. At that time, Aria was still a young orphan living inside a church near the outer Duchy. She spent most of her days helping the sisters and mothers clean the church and assisting sick people who came from poor villages nearby. She also saw a memory of her and Heitor playing together as a child in the orphanage, but that life didn't last longer, because the church decided to take her away.

Helping people become her entire life.
She had no family, no grand dream, and no place outside the church.
Until the day she met Glen from the first time.