I stared at the night sky, body aching, breath shaky. Blood dripped down my arms. My whole body felt like it had been through a grinder. Muscles shot, nerves fried. Sweat? Pretty sure I had none left.
Moonlight lit up the blood-soaked battlefield. Corpses piled up like trash in a warzone. Some were so mangled, just looking at them made my stomach churn.
The stars above… they looked dimmer than when I was a kid. Back then, I used to stargaze with Aveline. We'd lie there, looking up, dreaming dumb little dreams. Now? Those same stars felt distant. Cold. Fading.
'Ha… I actually beat them. Just barely.' My eyes dropped to the sea of dragonic beasts I had just barely wiped out. Hundreds of them. All from Herkon. They were supposed to stay in the abandoned northern region, so why the hell were they here?
Maybe necromancy? That bastard necromancer king probably raised them. Wouldn't be the first time.
"Damn it… it hurts…" I mumbled, forcing air through cracked lips. My chest rose and fell like I had bricks stacked on it. Every breath stung. My body was at its limit. I'd gone full throttle for way too long without pacing. Rookie mistake.
Now I was weak. Pathetic. Like a child again.
'Fuck…' My gaze returned to the stars. Some had disappeared. Others flickered, barely clinging on.
'Is that what's gonna happen to me too…? Just vanish?'
I looked at my hands—shaking, bloody, bruised. My body was torn open in too many places. Couldn't defend every attack. Couldn't dodge everything.
My knees buckled. I collapsed, slipping from a pile of cooling corpses. The stink was god-awful—burnt flesh, iron blood, death.
SLAM!
"NGH! Ha… shit…" My body hit the cold ground hard. Bones screamed. My vision blurred. Black spots danced in the edges.
'Is this where it ends…?'
I stopped resisting. My eyes closed. Limbs limp.
'Damn it… I promised Aveline I'd come back alive…'
The darkness pulled at me. I let it.
There was a light. Way off. Distant. Gentle.
'So that's it, huh? The famous light at the end of the tunnel…'
'Am I gonna reincarnate or something?'
---
I groaned.
My eyes didn't open yet, but the warmth on my face was too real to ignore. Something… blinding.
"Tch… too damn bright…" I muttered. Threw a hand up to block the sunbeams stabbing my eyes. The warmth. The sheets. The air. This place—
Wait. This was my room…?
I looked around, groggy as hell. Yeah. Same plain walls. Same ceiling fan that never worked. Same bed.
'Don't tell me… I'm still alive?'
"Heh… Thank God…" I whispered, eyes landing on my bandaged body. Wrists. Chest. Legs. All wrapped up like a damn mummy.
Then I saw her.
Sitting right next to my bed, head slumped over, fast asleep in the chair—Aveline.
"Aveline…" I said, voice cracking.
She stirred. Eyelids fluttered. Red from crying.
"…Brother?" she whispered, voice low, like she was afraid I'd vanish if she got too loud.
"I'm not dreaming, am I?" she muttered.
I smirked, reached out, pinched her cheek—hard.
She winced. "Ow!"
I pulled back. "Still dreaming?"
Her eyes widened. The confusion turned into full-on tears.
"BROTHER!!" she cried, throwing herself onto me.
"OOF—!" I grunted, chest aching under the weight of her hug. She was squeezing the life outta me.
"Chill, chill… I'm still a patient, y'know?" I laughed a little, weakly patting her back. "And like I told you—I always come back alive."
She didn't say anything at first. Just cried into my shoulder. I ruffled her hair. It had grown a little.
"How long was I out…?"
She sniffled, pulled back just enough to look me in the eyes.
"…Three months."
My heart stopped.
"…Wait—WHAT?! Three months?!" I practically yelled, the shock hitting harder than any dragonic beast ever did.
Three months of nothingness? My longest coma before this was like… two weeks, tops. That was already bad. But three months? That's nearly a quarter of a year just gone.
No wonder I felt like a hollow shell. No strength. My arms were twigs. Even Aveline could hug me without issue—normally she could barely wrap her arms around my torso.
'Shit… don't tell me I've gotta rebuild everything again…'
"…The doctor left bad news," she said, voice quieter now. Her eyes avoided mine.
"…Bad news?" I asked, my stomach tightening.
She hesitated. Then—
"They said your mana core was depleted. Nothing left. Even your reserves. Empty. Gone."
My chest tightened. Vision tunneled. My jaw clenched.
"…What…?"
She continued. "They told me… you'll have to start over. From the very beginning."
I couldn't speak.
The silence dragged on. Heavy. Crushing.
She knew it too. She stood up, gently pulled away, leaving me alone in the room.
She didn't need to say anything else. Her face said it all—worry, pain, helplessness.
I stared at the ceiling. Blank. Empty.
'Just like that… everything I built… gone?'
No powers. No strength. No mana.
Nothing.
---
- End of Chapter
---