Final request

Down the field where the exhausted Sterix lay, tremors subtly shook the earth. Sterix felt the quiver travel throughout his own body before he opened his eyes, at the same moment wondering what was up with the sudden vibrations. But amidst the trembling of the earth, he also heard an exploding sound that he couldn't just ignore.

Though, he couldn't really tell exactly where it had come from because there was no smoke that looked new around him—only the earlier dark smoke he and the others had caused when they fought the rot.

Maybe it was because his head was pressed to the earth, so he pressed his hands against the dirt, slightly lifting his weight to actually figure out what was going on. Still, there was nothing; the vibrations only proceeded.

For a moment, he thought the demons were heading their way again, with another endless group they would need to take care of. But if that turned out to be true, Sterix thought it would be a good idea to stay close to the others; on his own, in the state he was in, he would die before he even had the chance to fight back.

'Like that would ever happen,' he jokingly thought inwardly.

Even so, he needed to hurry and get to the others before whatever was causing the shaking arrived. Though, as he stood back on his feet, he felt like he could collapse back down to the earth. His legs were just too unstable for him to walk on in his current condition, but he had to try anyway, or he wasn't going anywhere.

“...That hurts…” he uttered with his teeth clenched, the words coming out a little more muffled than he expected while trying to take his first step toward his goal.

He steadied himself, but taking a quick glance around the area, there were more demon corpses covered in ice than he had expected. Maybe this was another reason why the environment felt so cold when Sterix tried to recover his stamina.

“Did Lree do all of this?” He wondered out louder than he intended to; the words themselves came out on their own.

Sterix tried to take another step but was interrupted by another explosive sound that piqued his attention more than the first one because, this time, it was clear where it had come from.

“An enemy?”

The tremors suddenly ceased to occur with this explosion, leaving a quiet atmosphere that seemed oddly off in a lot of terms that Sterix himself didn't know how to put into words… but there was a familiar feeling about this quietness, like when he was about to push himself to the limit while engaged in a battle with an enemy stronger than he expected.

From a distance, not so far from where he stood, purple and blue lightning rose from the ground as it shifted upwards, stretching as it moved and danced. An instant later, it fell back to the ground, causing another explosion that screamed louder than the previous ones, sending a wave of dust in every direction as the ground began to shake once more.

“... That's–”

Sterix realized two things: the location the attack had come from was where the other heroes were resting, and he recognized the lightning because he knew exactly what it was—his trump card, only at a lower scale compared to when he used it himself.

Without realizing it, Sterix was moving toward that direction. He no longer noticed how unstable his legs were or how badly his body ached. His mind was entirely consumed with figuring out exactly what was going on, and who exactly had just used his skill.

He rushed through the chaos, jumping over the corpses that were in his way; his movements were messier than usual. He almost fell a couple of times while in motion, but his mind ignored it all, his eyes locked onto his destination.

The distance felt longer with every step, like the ground itself wanted Sterix to stay. Yet, Sterix kept pushing himself, and he didn't look like he would stop at any given moment to feel his own pain.

Moments passed before he finally closed the distance.

He found a cloud of dust that was just finishing settling back down. And still, he couldn't see anyone around—not even the other heroes or the person responsible for the lightning trump card.

Sterix's breathing had become heavy; breathing through his mouth seemed easier than trying to force the air through his nose.

He quickly cast his gaze around the surrounding area before stepping forward again, approaching the position that looked like the impact point of the attack. But the area was so eerily quiet that Sterix didn't know what to make of it.

What exactly happened here? Where is everyone else?

He was unsure whether the others were dead, had retreated, or had been taken away by the enemy. But that didn't seem possible; if the others had been taken by the enemy, Sterix would have caught up to them as they carried them away, or he would have at least found some signs that they had been dragged. Maybe the enemy had their own companions who helped them carry the heroes, but it seemed highly improbable because Sterix's trump card could wipe out even allies who were in close range—that was why he hadn't used it during the war.

Upon getting closer to the impact point, Sterix slowed his pace. He was a little uncertain of what he would find lying in the center of the crater.

Before he could move any further, he stepped on something soft, like a corpse. It immediately made him stop for a heartbeat before he stepped back to look down and see if it belonged to one of the knights or the demons. But after removing his foot from it, Sterix's eyes widened. It was a severed wing, and it belonged to Drizzle. Drizzle was the only person with wings on the field, and though this wing was covered in dirt and blood, Sterix could tell.

***

Sterix slowly looked around him one last time, because if this was Drizzle's wing, then what had happened to the others? There weren't many corpses here because most of the battle had taken place down the hills; only the first clash had taken place in an area like this, but everyone changed their strategies once the enemy began flying.

Sterix finally found something, or someone. It was unclear with almost everything covered in dirt, but the shape looked human—Sterix could tell because of the armor.

Without wasting a thought, he paced toward it, and yet, just looking at the armor itself made him hesitate. It was feminine armor, only the person wearing it had been so badly burned that it was impossible to tell who exactly they were. It could have been any female knight, as some of them had participated in the fighting, but this armor looked different from a standard knight's uniform. It was custom-made armor that belonged to one of the heroes.

Sterix flipped over the burned corpse. Some of the skin was still unburnt, but he couldn't bring himself to the conclusion that this was Elinous. Elinous was strong; she couldn't just let the enemy do this to her without a fight. Though, looking at the stomach of the corpse, Sterix found a deep cut—the kind that could kill anyone in an instant, rendering them completely motionless.

Sterix clenched his teeth as he forced himself to look away, a stream of tears cutting a thin line across his face. At this point, there was nothing he could do except act like he hadn't seen anything. But that was harder, because it was clear who the corpse was; he couldn't just ignore something like this.

“...I'm sorry.” Saying these words felt very wrong in more ways than one, though at the same time, they seemed like the only words Sterix could produce.

Someone suddenly let out a dying cough. It wasn't loud, but with the silence hanging over the whole area, the cough was hard to miss.

Sterix glanced back toward where the crater was as the coughing continued, fading with every breath. Someone was still alive, and without immediate assistance, they would surely die.

Sterix rushed back to the crater, finding Flora lying in its center with a gaping hole in his chest, his armor destroyed, a hand severed, fingers missing, and a body that seemed to have withstood the enemy's attack at a terrible price. Though it wasn't just his body alone; there was jagged ice that slowly melted beside Flora, and at the end of that ice was Lree—or at least half of him, because his lower body was entirely missing.

Flora had lost a lot of blood, and now the blood that remained in his body was leaving too. He was barely holding himself together as he breathed heavy breaths, trying to maintain his consciousness.

“...Sterix—” Flora coughed. “...You're finally here…”

Flora let a faint smile take hold of the corners of his mouth. Seeing the beat-up man approaching him made him calm down a bit; though his vision was a little foggy, it wasn't clouded enough that he couldn't tell who it was.

Flora pressed his single hand against the ground, trying to sit up properly, but his body fell again after just shifting slightly.

“Don't push yourself,” Sterix muttered, finally closing the distance.

***

Five knights on horseback rapidly approached the battlefield. Behind them, twenty wagons, each pulled by two horses and driven by a single knight, followed the lead of the first five. In every wagon sat two knights who possessed no visible weapons.

The five leading knights were Holy Knights, each wearing the exact same type of armor, while the knights in the wagons were body retrievers coming to gather the fallen.

“Commander Luferin, don't you think it's a bit too quiet? Everyone might already be dead!” Maromus, one of the Holy Knights at the front, suggested.

Luferin wasn't actually a commander; she was more like an acting commander for the current squad, as the real commander was somewhere else entirely.

“I know, but we can't yet be sure if that's true,” she responded with an expressionless face, though her armored hand clenched tightly around the hilt of her sword. “Until we scout the whole area, we can't come to that kind of conclusion. Besides, you saw it too, meaning that the heroes may still be alive.”

***

“...I look pathetic, don't I?” Flora said, then added as Sterix pulled his body to one of the walls of the newly formed crater. “...But I guess—something like this was expected of me… I mean, I'm always in worse condition than anybody else… You, on the other hand… you are always there… to lift everyone's spirits.”

“...Stop talking like this is the end!” Sterix snapped, not because he was angry at Flora, but because he was frustrated with himself, his grip tightening. “You're not going to die here… I promise!”

Flora stayed quiet for a long moment before saying anything.

“I'm sorry, Sterix… but… there's no need to beat a dead horse.” His smile widened slightly. “I'm going to die at any moment now… You're just wasting your strength on me.”

“I said stop talking!”

“Dawn will be arriving soon… I just hope… I'll be able to see the rays of the sun one last time.”

“Shut up!”

Flora stopped talking, letting out a broken chuckle as Sterix finally pressed him against the crater wall. Sterix looked down at him with eyes filled with fear. In that entire moment, it never once crossed his mind that he was still in pain himself. The agony had gone completely silent, allowing him to move without feeling a single thing.

“...You know what? …I have one request. I hope you can do it without question…”

Sterix stayed quiet and listened carefully. Flora then reached his hand toward Sterix's flank, gripping the broken sword—the very weapon that had been used to kill Elinous—and dragging it forward.

“...Take the sword and end my life.”