The soldiers looked inside the tent, deeply concerned for their prince.

“Leave me be….” Rubio spoke softly, turning away as he sat.

They all complied, albeit with a heavy heart. For years under Alaric’s Sun, they always knew him as the happy, kindhearted, pacifistic boy—always painting in memory of their fallen comrades after the battle.

Moments later, general Rosette came back to the outpost. The soldiers backed away from the tent for her.

She peered open, “Enough of this, Rubio…. I beg of you. I know that you need peace at this time. I would thwart—but for now—I must disobey.” Rosette walked to him behind and rubbed his back, “A million apologies….”

Rubio sighed, eyes closed briefly. “No… I should be sorry. I didn’t mean to push you away. I can’t even forgive myself….” he sniffled.

Rosette moved closer, “If you feel that way, I’d never doubt it. However, I had every doubt on your words against Haruto. A million apologies, again—but I agree with him. You are afraid. It tears you up inside every waking moment, and I see that. Fiery—your eyes are—they never lie….”

Feeling the warm hug of his best friend behind, Rubio began the waterworks again.

He turned around and wept a river on Rosette, “Please go with him…. Don’t let my brother die….”

Rosette let go while smiling and tearing up. “It would be my pleasure, your Highness. We three—are forever till the end….”

At a village far away from the outpost, Coelestian brigade mages entered the house Ted was in before. The horrifying image came with a ceiling completely red. Every flesh turned to mush, soaking up the late couple’s clothes. Outside, Feuer and his team stood by.

Danielle, Feuer’s childhood friend, walked to her fellow archmage, “What’s the matter, Hokori? Ran out of vulgar humor and pop culture references?” she raised an eyebrow.

He did not respond, not even opening his mouth once. As Danielle observed his eyes, it was as if he looked upon a desolate wasteland right in front of him. All Danielle saw in her point of view was a grape vineyard. Mesmerizing, even. Tokino, Feuer’s comrade from Novus, walked toward her from behind.

“With all due respect, Danielle… it’s really in bad taste for you to make light on the matter at hand—considering how much it impacted him for years. Ted Manson should have died that day. I hope to the Gods—Hokori and Feuer find peace with that monster’s final demise….”

After Tokino talked to Danielle, they were all informed by the other mages of more clues on where Ted went. The mages noticed the mark of a missing boulder from the family’s garden, poorly covered in grass patches. They all discussed how Ted might have ridden it in the air via his innate ability. Suddenly, a stern-eyed Hokori jumped far away to an unknown location, confusing them all.

Two kilometers away from the village, Haruto and company arrived at another. Nothing was off the ordinary, yet still very odd. Haruto and his men found no corpse or any other signs of bloodshed. The village was eerily empty. Haruto concluded people resided here at one point, noticing a water wheel from afar in movement. They decided to set up camp, provided if an assault could happen at any time.

Rosette eventually caught up with their whereabouts and hugged Haruto with lots of tears. After asking if he was okay, Haruto told Rosette they never encountered enemies. He suggested staying with the others, which was what she intended to do in the first place.

Back at the outpost, Rubio decided to look for Gevär, given that he had returned yet. Surprisingly, the prince was on the right path, going with the memory of the other soldiers who saw where the peerless marksman traveled. Suddenly, Rubio heard thunderous noise from a rocky valley in the distance.

With not much magic left, Gevär lost an arm and an eye, and a massive chunk of his gut was missing. As he stood his ground holding a rifle, Ted walked closer.

Gevär panted. “Damn…. For all my youth beforehand—you are the most formidable….” Due to expending too much magic, his skin cracked all around, and blood seeped out.

“Nice of you to say, child. But right now, I’m feeling for the story of the Ashen Man. I heard it’s even popular with other children like you.”

Gevär’s squinted, “Ashen—” Suddenly, Ted pulled him telekinetically and dealt a punch to his gut. The enemy’s magic was incredibly vast, causing multiple ribs to shatter and blood spraying around the vicinity from the mouth.

Ted looked down at Gevär on the ground and chuckled, “Let me shed some light on the subject, child…. When people run out of that sweet, sweet ‘mana’ that gives them power… they start to ember away like autumn leaves. So what if I told you I found a quicker way?” He smiled intimately.

Gevär struggled to get up, coughing. Never missing an opportunity, Ted made him float in midair. At that moment, Gevär could not move an inch.

Ted looked at him very affably, with casual eyes and a serene smile. “Magic… is of the soul, child. That’s what makes it pretty. So when someone’s too weak to hold it any longer—well—it’s just as the kids say. It’s up for grabs….” he spread two fingers and a thumb at Gevär’s chest.

Waves of visible energy permeated around the affected area as Gevär screamed in agony. Eventually, Ted pulled out a red orb-like object the size of a marble. Now fallen on the ground, Gevär’s body started to “flake” away just like how Ted told him, and just like how Ted imagined, it looked like colorful ashes in the wind. In his last moments, Gevär tried to grab hold of the monster’s right leg.

Ted laughed maniacally and screamed “oh my soul” multiple times when taking a closer look at his prize. It caught the attention of a nearby Rubio, running to the scene. There he saw the still gleeful Ted, storing the object within runes and turning around.

“Oh… you look like you have a lot of soul in you too, child….” he smiled intimately again.

“What…?” Rubio’s eyes squinted.

After Ted joyfully explained what he did, the enraged Rubio threw the first attack. As if Ted conjured the most impenetrable barrier ever, the shockwave of Rubio’s attack only affected half of the scenery.

“Oh, my stars—those eyes…. You’re just like him—and yet different.” Ted chuckled with his mouth closed. He repulsed Rubio high up in the air and down again. Like before, the attacks’ shockwave only affected half of the vicinity.

Even then, Rubio got up slowly from afar with his body healing back into shape and continued the fruitless battle. As it went on, Ted laughed maniacally louder and louder.

Kilometers away, Haruto, Rosette, and their men heard booming sounds—enough to consider shielding their ears. Sweating bullets with eyes lit up, Haruto ran to the source immediately. Rosette followed, telling her men to stay behind.

Unfortunately, their aid would be null.

Ted walked and looked at Rubio on the ground, just like with Gevär. “Oh my…. You can’t concentrate patching yourself up no more….” He noticed the prince’s bloodied, battered body failing to reconstitute—like a flesh wound refusing to heal, only much faster.

Ted held Rubio high up midair just like Gevär. “Let me tell you a personal secret, child…. While I do love red—yellow’s my favorite color….” he placed his fingers on his chest.

After stashing the second prize via Runic Art, Ted whistled his way out the rocky valley, but it did not last.

Right above him from behind, an igneous meteor shower aimed at Ted. Dodging it all, he noticed the untouched scenery he stood in before was now practically desolated. Feuer walked toward him slowly—eyes lit up and a death glare.

Before Ted could intercept, a blinding array of rapier thrusts pierced his body. Almost staggering, he laughed maniacally again in place; this did not last. Right behind him, under a hundred-thousandth of a second, Ted felt a very familiar pressure. It felt as if he stumbled upon a large apex predator in the middle of a dark forest—interrupted from its meal.

From a right hook diagonally upward, Ted turned into a twinkle in the sky. The attacker followed suit, as did his comrades. After their departure, Colestian brigade mages flooded the scene.

“Leave him be. There’s nothing we can do. He’s like a living corpse now….” one of them held off another from healing Rubio.

The prince heard all of their voices that abandoned him. He chuckled faintly, “I know I’m dying, but… you don’t have to be so cruel….” His breath diminished. “Oh… what beautiful skies….”

Moments later, Haruto and Rosette finally arrived for their prince. The latter cried out his name and ran to his aid quickly.

He held his brother up within his arms, “Rubio! Oh my God, oh my God!” Haruto hyperventilated. He told Rosette to heal him, but instead, tears rolled down her cheeks immediately. At that moment, Rosette recalled her late father’s demise.

She shook her head, “No, Haruto…. Heal him—I cannot….” Rosette sobbed.

Eyes narrowing, he turned to her. “What do you fucking mean you can’t! Just do it!!” Haruto’s infernal yelling made Rosette raise her arms high in defense, “I said, just do it—”

“Haruto…! Shut up….” Rubio held his shoulder briefly. “If I were to die now… I’d rather not see you two fight each other….” he panted. With just a few of the prince’s words, his one and only brother already flooded his face with heartrending sorrow. “You were right…. I was weak.

“I couldn’t save Gevär—and now—I’m gonna meet him. I never intended to be soft. I just hated violence so much….”

A tearful Haruto laid Rubio down and shook his head. “No…. No, you’re not weak. You were the strongest of all of us.”

Rubio sighed and chuckled one last time, “I guess I was… but I’m not lying… brother…. It’s how I very much feel….” he lifted his right arm one last time, smiling intimately.

“Do it…. Both of you. Before the wind takes me….”

Even without words, Haruto and Rosette complied with Rubio’s fistbump. Tears did not stop that golden afternoon. All the while, the prince smiled.

“I love you guys… so much….”

Afterward, the cold wind took the prince away from his best friend and brother. Haruto and Rosette could not stand the “autumn leaves” that flowed along with the breeze further away from them.

Haruto looked at his surroundings, noticing familiar scorched earth of burning magma. Multiple feelings fired throughout his brain as he walked to the destroyed scenery aimlessly. Haruto’s heart now matched that of a rabbit’s. He fell to his knees and clawed at the ground.

He cracked a smile as his eyes widened, “Hehe…. Hehehe. Hehehehe. Hehehehehe. Hehehehehehehehe…!

“Aahahahahaha!! Hahahahahahahaha!! Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!

“It’s just like always!” he recalled faces in his mind, “Every single of them dies! All because I loved them!! Aaahahahahahahahaha!! Aaaaahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!” he kept smiling.

Haruto’s waterworks did not stop as Rosette stood by—absolutely horrified over what she witnessed before her.

The world finally made the sorry child snap. From that moment on, the little boy’s sense of love twisted into a grotesque, horrifying shape. The world congratulated itself.