A sudden stillness settled over the place. The strange cave had vanished completely, and everything that had happened in it along with it...
Daniel looked left and right, searching for anyone missing, but everyone was down on the ground. He let out a relieved breath, his eyes going, of course, to one person first — Arvela. But then it struck him, and he rushed off to check on Raym, whose condition was perhaps the worst among them, alongside Aldous's...
Raym knelt in that same position exactly, his right arm shattered and hanging limp against the ground, staring upward with an expression wiped clean of everything...
Daniel tried to come closer to comfort him, but a thick black aura began to rise from him, wrapping around his body. Daniel drew back a step, fear creeping into his features, and said in a wary voice:
"This boy... he's full of surprises. How can something like this happen to the same person??? It's terrifying..."
He narrowed his eyes further, and added:
"But what's more terrifying is that he isn't even conscious right now..."
Daniel's voice rose across the place: "RAAAYM!!!" — but to no use. He tried approaching again, but the black aura blocked him, beginning to choke him and blind his sight...
Before he could grasp what was happening, wind rose behind him, pushing the aura back, carrying a voice screaming with it: "RAAAYM!!!"
That voice pulled Raym partway back to reality, and the aura began to retreat. But he turned to them with the eyes of a guilty man...
"It's my fault!!! He sacrificed himself for me... a useless person..."
He lowered his head, his clenched fist trembling:
"How many more people will sacrifice themselves so I get to live, I wonder???"
And the aura seized control of him once more...
That was when Round stepped up beside them, and said in a firm voice:
"Raym. This isn't your fault. Lord Lorian did that of his own free will..."
Raym showed clear confusion at his words, so Round went on:
"Lord Lorian... he was always a mysterious man, one none of us could really understand — even us. He spent his entire life trying to right a wrong he never committed, and I knew he'd do anything to see it through. So why do you think we joined him???"
He paused for a moment, looking off into the distance as though summoning an old memory:
"Achieving his goal alone was impossible... Even with us beside him, it was impossible. But from the moment he met you, I saw something different in him. He sees himself in you, Raym..."
He turned back to face him directly:
"Saon and I — we joined him to support him, to repay a debt we owed him. But you were the only one who joined understanding his motive. In the end, that filthy wretch Araki was going to die by either of your hands — but that would never have healed the other's wound..."
His voice dropped lower:
"Raym... Lord Lorian chose you to carry out his revenge, because he saw that your will was stronger than his own. And now, you've inherited his purpose as well."
He lifted his head, unwavering:
"And I know Lord Lorian was the most rational man I've ever met. Every decision he ever made, he had weighed every possibility of it for a very long time."
Then he said it, in a voice that would not be argued with:
"Raym... this is not your fault!!!"
Raym clenched his left fist tight before it eased, and his head dropped fully toward the ground. Just before his body could collapse, Lyra was there to hold him up.
He tried to lift his head to see her, but he couldn't even manage that.
Lyra looked at the state he was in — a shattered person, held apart from death by nothing but his grip on promises and wishes made to too many people. He finally lifted his head, and their eyes met in a moment heavy with feeling — and both looked away from each other, embarrassed.
She tended his wounds a little, at least enough for him to stand on his own feet.
Time passed quickly, until everyone had gathered themselves back together and started for home. Everyone began moving — but Raym stood a moment longer, turned back for a glance, and said nothing...
Time passed quickly, until they drew near their familiar grounds. And as they returned, one person stood waiting for them, aching with anticipation, and cried out at the top of his voice:
"RAAAYM!!!"