It was too late to move, too late to react.
Even if I managed to get out of the direct trajectory, the explosion alone would still kill me.
Too late.
Too late to move. To cry out. To do anything.
Simply put, I was a dead man already.
Yet, it seemed, my brain refused to accept that.
Everything around me, including the hurtling hell comet seemed to slow to a dead stop, my final moment spliced into eternity.
The thundering roar of battle became a distant echo, Noah's warning cry was drowned out by the thrumming beating sound of my own lifeblood.
It was that same MageKnight, even though I couldn't see him clearly, I knew it was him.
'I knew that damn bastard was going to be the death of me…seriously how unlucky can one guy get?'
'So my final moments huh?'
I didn't feel anything beyond a soft sadness. Once more I had failed to find a little peace for myself. Now, here, I was going to die in the same way I had in my old life. I was going to be killed.
No dying of old age for me.
So, in my last moments, I decided I'd relax. Loosening my shoulders, exhaling smoothly as I waited to be killed.
At least this time, I'd died a little better.
The last thing I did was close my eyes.
I refused to die scared. This battlefield had already taken so much from me. It had taken blood, sweat, and tears, I'd be damned if I gave it the satisfaction of taking my fear also.
Instead I smiled. A wide, honest, almost maniacal, but most definitely real, smile.
'Goodbye world.'
A heavy force collided into me, sending me sprawling to the ground.
Before I could reconcile what happened there was a massive explosion, and my head smashed off something hard, knocking me out immediately.
I must've been out for a while, because when I woke again the sun was making its descent.
My entire body felt numb and cold.
For a moment I thought that I had truly died. But then, I'd died once already, and last time I had died, I was sure it hadn't been this uncomfortable.
After a while, I realised that something heavy was ontop of me. Groaning, I heaved it off me, clambering weakly to my feet.
"What the fuck?"
Around me the earth had turned into a blackened hell hole. From the centre I stood in a wide shallow crater…the only thing alive.
'How?'
Looking down to see what had collided into me, I saw that it was…not an it.
"What?" I exhaled softly.
It was a body.
A body wrapped in warped steel armour that had been wrent apart from taking the force of a blow meant for me.
Kneeling slowly, I peeled off the helmet, my thoughts running at a thousand miles a second.
'Who was it?' A sick feeling rose in my throat at the idea of losing someone else.
'Who else died for me?'
As I removed the helmet, my necklace slipped out of my armour, dangling in front of me, the jewel twinkling in the day's dying light.
My breath hitched as two scarlet eyes rested on the last face I had ever expected to see.
Two dark eyes stared back at me, and for the first time since I had met him, they softened.
"Skelter…." I whispered as if having to confirm.
His face was wrecked—bloodied, pale, expression slack. He wasn't going to make it. I could see that instantly.
No healing technique I had would change that.
But I couldn't accept it.
Frantic, I began stripping away his armor. Making him lighter. Easier to carry.
"Just wait," I muttered through gritted teeth. "I'll take you to the healers. You'll—"
"Stop," he rasped.
I froze.
"Look, you little shit, I'm not letting you die without telling me what the hell was going through your idiot brain."
He chuckled weakly. "You…talk like a street rat."
"I'm going to save you," I growled. "So shut up. You're not dying."
But he wasn't even looking at me anymore. His eyes had shifted to the necklace—Officer Mara's gift.
It swung gently, glinting red in the scorched light.
He smiled again, lips twitching as he fought to speak one last word.
"Red..."
Then his eyes grew cold, distant. And I knew those eyes weren't seeing anymore. They would never see anything ever again.
The pain surprised me.
It wasn't grief. I had never liked Skelter, and the feeling was returned twice as vigorously.
My time in camp had been marked by avoiding him as much as I could, which was no surprise seeing as though he'd almost killed me when we first met.
But, there was pain. A feeling of loss even.
Not grief. It felt more like 'nothing' had been stolen from me. Like losing something I never knew I had, something that could've been…special.
And so its loss still...burned.
Skelter had died, for me.
For me?
It didn't make sense.
It was madness. He was meant to be a villain in my life. Evil, and cruel.
But it had happened.
The ground shook, its tremors snapping me out of the shock.
'Later.' This wasn't the place to be lost in my thoughts.
I ran—just as the ground beneath the crater split open. A sinkhole swallowed Skelter's body whole.
Barely, I escaped the clutches of the growing sinkhole.
"Arthur!"
I turned. Noah was limping toward me, eyes wide. His body looked ragged, and his left leg was definitely damaged with that limp.
"You're alive?" I muttered, in half disbelief. "How?"
"Mana Burst," he grimaced.
Right. That made sense. Unlike Mana Surge, which enhanced over time, Mana Burst was raw, explosive—near impossible to control, yet at times, it could be infinitely stronger.
I couldn't help but let out a small laugh of relief.
Noah looked past me to the gaping pit. "What the hell happened there?"
I turned back. The sinkhole had stopped growing. The earth was still.
"You know, that's a damn good question."
Stepping closer, I tried to peer through the darkness. Why was there a sinkhole under a battlefield? Was it an opening into a tunnel? If so, where did it lead?
Then I remembered the novel.
This war—this battle—it had been discussed in class. The MC had been told how the enemy had suddenly appeared around the army, undetected by any magical array. From there, the rebels had slaughtered the empire's forces.
'Oh, oh no.'
A camp stood to the west—new. Not there before. Rows of tents. General Thanason's banner.
In the novel it was said an assassin reached Thanason's camp and killed the general.
No one had realised until after the battle that the body had actually been a double.
The real General Thanason's body… was never found.
I stared back at the hole. Where Skelter had fallen.
'His body had never been found…'
A chill laced down my spine.
"Noah..."
"Yeah?"
I met his eyes, voice tight. "We need to move. Now."