Ding!

Ding!

Ding!

A plethora of status window notifications appeared before Kaelen, but he ignored all of them as he gazed into the empty skies, screaming until his throat burned as though he had swallowed sandpaper, clawing at his face with his blunt finger nails until he drew blood.

The skies gave him no comfort, and so, he lowered his gaze down at the lifeless Julius who was drowning in a pool of blood, his wide-opened eyes a horror that would haunt Kaelen for as long as he lived.

As his screaming ceased, Kaelen finally noticed that Julius had died with a smile on his face. Albeit reluctantly, Kaelen extended his trembling hand and gently shut Julius’s mannequin-like eyes.

[How can you look so peaceful?]

Kaelen struggled to stand to his feet, but knowing how much faith Julius had in him, he endured his trauma-induced paralysis and stood upright, wiping the tears off his face.

[Now isn’t the time to despair...]

He encouraged himself.

[The others... I need to go and find the others and save them with this power you gave me.]

A pang stirred his heart, reverberating deep into his soul.

[Please be alive... Arthur, Margaret, Helena, Hank!]

Before darting away, he took one last look at Julius and vowed to give him a proper burial, he then looked to the distance, where the two monstrosities, Charymos and Honyopi were doing battle.

A shockwave resulting from one of their clashes carried a gust of wind to where he stood and his brows furrowed into folds of wrath and he made yet another vow: To disembowel Honyopi and retrieve Igor’s remains.

Yet, he understood the hypocrisy of it all; he was the one to make them this way, he had spent countless sleepless nights making them as evil as they are with much thought and consideration. But how could he have known that the world he had created from behind a computer screen would become his new reality?

Even so, he loathed them. So much so that he wished he would have never created them in the first place.

Kaelen spared no second more and ran as fast as he could toward the jungle, a constant prayer for the safety of the remnants of Soaring Boar echoing in his heart.

///

"Margaret!"

Arthur shook Margaret with all the strength that his body would allow him, his right eye gouged out and blood spurting from where it once was. But that was not the only place he bled from, not when he and the woman sprawled on the ground had single-handedly fended off seven gluttonous Orcs.

His entire body was drenched in blood, and it was evident that he would soon perish from hemorrhaging if Mana deviation did not get to him first.

"Mh... Arthur?"

Margaret opened her fuzzy eyes, the sound of her voice slightly brightening Arthur’s pale expression.

"What... Happened? Did we win?’"

She glanced around, the searing pain from her bleeding temple causing her to wince as she got up to her feet.

"Heh. Of course, we’re Soaring Boar. What’s a bunch of pigs to us?"

Said Arthur with a fading voice, gesturing at the grotesque ensemble of Orc carcasses that were either riddled with arrows or burnt to a crisp.

"Where’s Hank and Helena?"

She asked worryingly, recalling how Igor was killed so ruthlessly by a terrifying Orc, simply for being the most "plump food", amongst them.

[Did she forget?]

"They- uh. Don’t worry about them, they went to go get Kaelen and Julius... Ah! On that note, you gotta run Margaret, I’ll go get the others and meet up with you later, okay?"

Arthur knew that he was about to die, but...

[I don’t want you to see me die.]

Simply thinking of the toll it would take on her, he simply could not allow it.

"You’ve always been such a terrible liar, you fucker."

Margaret said as she hung her arms around his shoulders, and despite her harsh sounding words, her tone was extremely warm and affectionate.

"Marge..."

He whispered, gently clasping her waist and pulling her closer.

"Fufu... Is that a pet name? whatever happened to ’hag’? I was actually growing fond of it, you know?"

She let out an adorable chuckle.

"..."

Arthur gave no rebuttal as he usually would, and instead gazed deep into her eyes.

"You know Margaret, I have always—"

"I know. I just wish you could have said it sooner, dummy. I feel the same way."

She gazed back into his eyes and the two of them maintained eye contact for a few seconds in complete silence. It was as though at that very moment, only the two of them existed in the entire Tower—No, in the entire world.

Until finally... They locked lips, sharing a passionate kiss that lasted nearly five minutes, only breaking so that the two of them could catch their breaths.

"You know, I had always hoped you would take me dancing for our first date, and only then would I let you kiss me, consider yourself lucky."

She chuckled.

"But you’re a terrible dancer though?"

He teased and let out a chuckle of his own.

"S-shut up."

"Haha... I’m just kidding. Well, who says we can’t dance right now? Plus, the view is immaculate."

He pulled her even closer, firmly placing his right hand on her waist whilst his left hand raised her right.

"Yeah? You call this an immaculate view?"

She glanced at the Orc carcasses.

"I’m not talking about them."

He grabbed her chin, shifting her eyes to himself.

"..."

She simply blushed in response.

"B-but, I was going to dress up, put on some lipstick and maybe— "

Arthur wiped the blood from her forehead and smeared it on her lips.

"There. You have lipstick, shall we dance?"

He said, the light in his eyes dimming and his voice as weak as a whisper.

"Okay."

She nodded and the two of them danced slowly as though they had all the time in the world.

"Arthur, do you believe in the afterlife?"

"Yeah."

"Wanna get married once we get there?"

"Definitely."

"If we have a son, can we name him Kaelen?"

"Yeah. I’d like that."

"We’ll decide on what to name our daughter, maybe Martha?"

"..."

"Fufu... Do you get it? It’s both our names combined."

"..."

"Hey, Art –"

She suddenly felt the entire weight of his body... He was gone.

"..."

She wept silently, preparing to cast a spell that would consume her lifeforce in exchange.

But before she did so, she corrected his posture and...

■■■Forbidden Magic: Ice Capsule.■■■

She straightened his posture some more, to the best of her ability and locked lips with him.

In just a matter of seconds, the two of them became ice sculptures and a quarter of the entire jungle was changed into a tundra.