Sol looked on in horror at Mika, whose sword had pierced the body of one of the red-robed men. He muttered, still crouching on the ground beside the injured Heemi's body, "How… how can you kill so easily…"
Sol didn't see the figure advancing toward him with a bow and a flaming arrow.
The red-cloaked man said, "You will never be like them… you cannot bring yourself to kill a soul… this is how God created us… this is what the lights envy us for… don't taint your white soul…"
Sol backed away in terror, his voice almost a sob, "Why… we should never have joined this damned army, Heemi!"
He stopped when he drew near Heemi's unconscious body. Despite all his fear… he still… he still tried to protect her… even if only with his body… because how do you apologize to a dead man for failing to keep your promise and not protecting his sister…
Tears streamed from Sol's clenched eyes in terror… watching the arrow closing in on him… Then he smelled that odor… that smell… the scent of blood… Why… why was he smelling it?
It overwhelmed his senses… but he felt no pain from it… he felt only the heat of the flames engulfing the nearby buildings… and the scalding tears on his face…
Sol opened his eyes… to find Arlo… striking the red-cloaked man's chest with his weapon in front of him… even though Sol had his eyes closed, he could see clearly what had happened. Arlo had protected him… protected him and Heemi… He'd stepped in front of them and thrust his weapon into the chest of the one advancing. He saved them.
Sol heard the scream of Heemi's subordinate Ineni. She rushed toward Arlo, crying, "Arlo!!! What… what's going on…"
Arlo almost collapsed, but he planted his feet on the ground and steadied his wavering body. Sol saw what looked like droplets at first… but they soon became a thin stream of dark red liquid… hitting the ground and slowly creeping toward Sol's feet. He pulled his feet back in terror, looking over at Inini… she was weeping loudly, examining the arrow that had pierced Arlo's abdomen.
Arlo spoke in a weak voice as he patted her head, "Don't worry… it's not the first time we've fought with injured bellies… right…"
But that look… the look on Arlo's face that Sol was seeing… He'd never seen anyone try so hard to hide that level of pain… The veins stiffened on Arlo's reddened face… His entire body rose to take a single breath… Tears pooled in his eyes, but he refused to let them fall…
Inini tried desperately to stop his bleeding, pressing on it with her hands… but instead of the blood reaching the ground, it soaked her hands…
Arlo lifted his arm that was holding his weapon… wrapped the other arm around Inini, brandishing his weapon… and blocked the arrow that would have hit her. Arlo, fighting through immense pain, said, "Inini…"
Inini clung to him tightly, sobbing like a child, wailing loudly. Her anguish crept into the hearts of those still fighting. Mika's face twisted with revulsion, and Seeta wept in the midst of their battle. Sabana looked at them, her heart stinging.
Arlo went on in a weak voice, "Listen… if you're going to give up and die here… who's going to protect me?"
Enini thought… that was true… Arlo had always protected her. Inini had never protected him before. This was her chance to return the favor… Inini would protect him… no matter what it took.
Inini pulled herself away from his embrace, her cries like screams, gasping for air between them as she stood in front of him, brandishing her weapon, and said, "I'll protect you, Arlo!! So hang on there okay"
The red-cloaked woman standing before her said, "Do you love that boy?"
Inini didn't answer.
The cloaked woman lifted her head, revealing her own streaming tears, and raised her bow, "I'll be able to see my love you killed in paradise… and reunite with him… we'll live together forever… but you… you won't see him again… you two won't live together forever… how sad…"
Inini became angry, yelling as she charged her, "Don't flaunt your eternal paradise in front of me, you harlot… Arlo is still here!!! Don't speak of him as if he's already dead!!!"
Arlo smiled… Arlo smiled… he said something to her… Inini didn't catch it clearly… she was already heading for the red-cloaked woman, who had fired her arrow. Inini felt its heat… grazing her cheek gently, as though it were a kiss from Arlo…
The red-cloaked woman, her tears still flowing, said, "I let my wrath take control of me… I shall ask God to forgive me… but… just as you burned my heart for Rion… I shall burn your hearts for everyone you love!"
Inini drove her weapon straight into the red-cloaked woman's heart… The woman had already lowered her bow… The woman already stopped fighting…
Inini remained like this for a moment… what had Arlo said earlier? The words slowly returned to her mind:
'I wanted to do so many things… I really wanted to do so many things with you… I love you… Inini…'
Wait… where did her arrow go? She didn't want to look… she wouldn't move from in front of the dead woman's body… That woman died before telling her… where her arrow went…
Inini's head turned slowly, her eyes wide… she saw the bodies of those unconscious… saw those still fighting… saw the fires devouring her town… and then… she saw Arlo's body… lying… on a rug of crimson red.
She'd always loved the red roses Arlo used to gift her… She'd always loved Arlo… And now an arrow from that woman was lodged in Arlo's head… He had always opened his arms to greet her each time he saw her… as though he hadn't seen her in ages… so why… is she rushing toward him now… and he doesn't move… doesn't open his arms… doesn't smile…
She closed her eyes, pleading, "Arlo… Arlo… stand up… just stand up…" She reached Arlo's body… collapsed to her knees… and held him… "Arlo… you… you can't be dead the one time you needed me to protect you… right?"
Arlo…
Sol clung to Heemi… he didn't know why he felt consciousness slipping away now… were his injuries overtaking him… or did he simply want to leave this place?
A few steps in front of Inini, the last two who had been fighting both Seeta and Mika fell.
Seeta stood there, panting, struggling to breathe, bent over, putting all her weight on her weapon as a crutch with one hand, and she held her bleeding side with the other. She hated the feel of her own blood… hated how hot and sticky it was… hated how it trickled out of her body… every few seconds… she'd wipe her blood-covered hand on her pants… only to press it against her side again… then wipe it again…
Her face was bleeding… wounds covered her body. She saw someone approaching in her hazy vision… he was limping on his right leg… holding his chest… his sharp expression had faded… his eyes were half-closed… Mika…
Mika drew close, resting his hand on her shoulder, allowing her exhausted body to lean against him just a bit… how comfortable that felt… Mika's voice echoed through Seeta's head as she was close to losing consciousness, "Are you okay?"
Seeta nodded weakly… she wiped her bloody hand on her pants… then lifted it once more to hold her side. In a faint, whisper-like voice, she said to Mika, "I never expected to feel this much pain in my life…"
Mika's eyes widened in surprise… despite that stubborn look in her eyes that had never left them these past months… he never expected to hear such words from her. Why… why did he feel that painful tightness in his chest… why did he let her feel that pain… Tears welled in his eyes as he turned toward Vera and said with violent anger, "It's your turn… come on!!"
Vera said, seething, "Don't get cocky because you killed my men… for my brothers, despite their strength, are nothing compared to the power of the god's weapon, Turath!"
Mika looked at Seeta as he gently stepped away from her, and was about to move towards Vera, but Seeta stopped him… she grasped him with her blood-soaked hand. He looked at her… then froze in place. That trembling look on Seeta's face… he had never seen her so scared before… he had never seen her that frightened…
Mika followed her gaze… she was staring at Vera, standing before them… Mika's jaw dropped when he saw Vera… he was glowing… his fiery red hair swirling… his eyes aflame…
Seeta murmured in terror, "His soul… it's red…"