Vivain could hear the screams that tore through Prometheus's small frame, his voice croaked till nothing else could be produced. She picked herself up from the mini crater, her steps towards him slower than intended.
She didn't want to accept the thoughts that invaded her mind. Prometheus's screams could have been for something else. Elaine couldn't just die and leave them behind. She was their party leader, their friend.
After a walk through eternity, she finally got to Prometheus's side. The reality she had denied, the grief she silently didn't want to process, crashed into her all at once. Her chest tightened with a pain that felt equal to torture, a pain she hadn't felt in a long time and one she thought she had grown indifferent to—sadness.
The tears didn't come, she didn't allow them. One of them had to be strong for the other, and bawling her eyes out wouldn't do anything but shatter the already broken Prometheus. The kid had been through enough.
Her lips parted to speak but barely a sound came out. She clenched her fists tighter, she wanted to be strong for the both of them.
But how could she, when being strong just for herself was already proving difficult?
She bent low to face Prometheus, his eyes swollen with tears streaking down his face. Noticing Vivian, he faced her with a barrage of questions.
"Vivian, tell me she's sleeping. Elaine isn't dead right?... she'll wake up. She always does."
The words came in-between croaked sobs and violent coughing. Vivain didn't have an answer for him. He was right, being the sword saint's party member they had all seen her in countless gruesome states. Times they had thought she had passed away, just for her to wake back up.
Prometheus, being the first of the party members, had grown accustomed to it. The thought of death no longer aligned with her in his mind.
…And yet, she died.
Vivian pulled his small frame into a hug, gently resting his head against her chest plate. She didn't want him to see the grief in her eyes, she knew he had always seen her as practical. She didn't want that image to change, even at a time like this.
She didn't offer him reassurance, nor did she tell him everything was going to be alright. She just held him tight, and at times that was much better than speaking words you didn't have faith in.
Seconds passed with him in her embrace, web-like cracks had begun to spread across the ice. She felt his body shudder once more in her arms, and slowly the tears came to an end.
He pushed lightly against her armour, Vivian took it as a sign to let him go. She released him from her embrace and watched as he wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
"W…we need to get her back to the town," he managed to voice out.
"Yes, we do," Vivian replied softly.
She picked up Elaine's cold body and rose to her feet. Prometheus had already risen back to his feet, and without hesitation they began to make their way back to the town.
The guild master paced back and forth along the steps of the guild hall. The adventurers that surrounded him all had ashen expressions, the news on the loss of their loved ones had already begun to spread amongst them.
The majority of them looked hollow, they had become the type of people Aster detested the most. Those who had lost all will to live, but who could blame them?
They had fought with aching muscles, charged forward with bleeding limbs, just to find out that every drop of sweat and blood they had wasted on the battlefield…was futile.
What was the point of war when there wasn't a family to go back to?
A few moments ago, a group of adventurers that had gone in search of the sword saint returned pulling a wagon with a child laid down on it. They called for the healers, who rushed forward to attend to the child.
The guild master approached them and inquired about the sword saint.
"Two of her party members went in search of her," one of the adventurers told him.
He gave a small nod, walked away, but continued to pace around.
The guild master's inner turmoil didn't correspond with his visible calm. His thoughts were racing in a panic, but all he could do was pray for her to be alright.
"Guild master, I just remembered, we encountered the corpse of a high-grade beast before bringing back the child," the adventurer added.
The guild master acknowledged his words with a low hum and turned to face the guild hall. The panic in his mind settled slightly, but he couldn't shake off the slight sense of foreboding. If his thoughts were correct, then Elaine had killed another one of the war grades, which left them down to one.
He couldn't tell whether she had encountered the other, he silently prayed she didn't. Battling one of them, he believed she could come out victorious.
But battling against two, he didn't want to think of the price she might have had to pay just to emerge victorious.
Moments passed, the healers had finally closed the wound in the child's side. Slowly colour began to return to his face and his skin no longer looked pale. He laid there with his eyes closed, finally taking his time to rest.
The guild master had a clear vantage point standing at the steps of the guild hall, that was why he was the first to notice the two silhouettes approaching them. He walked down the steps and headed in their direction.
The surrounding adventurers parted a way for him without question. He was getting closer, and the silhouettes were getting clearer. He noticed a body in the arms of one of them. Pale blonde hair that implied it could only be Elaine.
Metres away from them, he noticed the red-rimmed eyes of Elaine's party members. People he had grown to associate with her. The eyes of the youngest among them were swollen with visible trails of tears.
The closer they got, the quieter the guild hall became.
He stepped forward and stopped right in front of them, none of them met his gaze. His eyes glanced down at Elaine, her body looked ghostly pale. Horrifying thoughts began to invade his mind, but he pushed them to the side and placed two fingers on her neck to check for a pulse.
…Nothing.
He didn't shout, what he feared the most had eventually rooted itself in reality. His face looked like it had aged a hundred years, and just like he came, he turned around and began to walk away.
"I shall prepare her burial."
These were the last words anyone heard from him before he departed back into the guild hall. Prometheus's grief had been loud, Vivian's had been restraint, and his had been…silence.