Chương 112: Facing the Ruins Alive

The people who had returned to life touched their own bodies first. Hands went to throats, chests, stomachs, and wrists. They checked whether a pulse truly beat where it had stopped. Then they looked around. The fallen fortress had not come back with them. The burned houses and ruined provisions remained as they were. The bridge was severed through the middle, and only poles remained of the market tents. Lost arms had not grown back. Burns and scars had not vanished.

The wounds that had taken their lives had closed only enough for breath to continue. One human soldier screamed when he saw a demihuman warrior rise beside him. It was the person he had stabbed. The demihuman warrior recognized him too. Both reached for their weapons, then stopped. The spear and sword remained on the blood-soaked ground, but neither picked one up first. A child saw the crest on one revived soldier's armor and hid behind Seria. It was the emblem of the unit that had set the child's home on fire.

The soldier could not approach. A mother who had lost one arm pulled her revived child close with the other. She saw the joy of finding the child, the missing house, and her empty sleeve all at once. Ern and Karun removed their wet armor beside the river. Human military marks and demihuman symbols disappeared beneath the same mud. One person started back toward his own side, then stopped halfway. The other soldier's belt was still tied around his wrist.

"Untie it."

"My hand won't move." They undid each other's knots. Even when they finished, neither could turn away at once. Inside the collapsed fortress, Marten and Grad pushed against the same stone. Several of Marten's fingers would not move, and Grad breathed shallowly around an injured rib. When the stone rolled aside, two medicine pouches appeared beneath it. Each man picked up the pouch that did not belong to him first. Marena pushed aside the pieces of her broken cup and sat up.

The first thing she saw was the white and red thread around her own wrist. The second was the proposal knot on Kichan's wake-up rod. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"You came back." Marena's voice cracked. Kichan was still releasing the final breath of the song. He tried to answer, but no sound came from his throat. Marena tried to stand, then dropped to one knee again.

"Answer me later." Before she finished, the gold light moved. The coughing around them briefly subsided. Valkyrie, which had spread itself over the dead children, returned and clung to Kichan's chest. Wind blew, but the white powder did not scatter. It gathered in the air without touching blood or rainwater, as though resting on an invisible palm. Valkyrie left Kichan's chest and stretched toward it. The instant before contact, the light pushed Valkyrie away. Riphiel started to raise her sword, then stopped.

"Can it be cut?" Argaon shook his head.

"I don't know." The powder formed a tall silhouette before Kichan. The last light of the golden ring outlined a person, while something like wings overlapped behind it. No face was visible. There was no way to tell whether it was male or female. The moment Seria saw it, she knew it was an angel. She remained standing with the hand of a revived child in hers. All humor left Argaon's face.

"That life does not belong inside this world." The being of light looked at Kichan.

"You do not belong to this world." Kichan asked in a hoarse voice,"So?"

"You used this power to open the boundary of death." The wings of light folded once.

"This world can no longer hold you."

"Was it wrong to save them?"

"This is not punishment." The angel looked past Kichan at the people who had regained their breath.

"The moment you opened death's boundary, the road home took hold of you."

"Home where?"

"Where you began." Kichan looked at Marena. Still unable to rise, she was staring at the knot on the wake-up rod. Children wept in their parents' arms. Marten and Grad were dragging each other from beneath the fallen stone. Kichan had too many things to say and do before leaving.

"Wait a minute." The angel did not wait.

"What you did will be remembered." Space split with the words. The ground did not open. No door appeared. Kichan's body simply began to lose its hold on this world. His fingertips turned transparent first. The metal of the wake-up rod rang out. The proposal knot remained tied, but its ends pulled in different directions. The world pushed Kichan out as though drawing a foreign object from a wound. His feet no longer left tracks in the mud. Though he had not taken a step, his body receded from the ruins.

He drove the wake-up rod into the ground. Its tip caught between stones, but Kichan's hand continued to be pulled backward. The metal bowed deeply, then sprang straight. The proposal knot stretched tight above the rainwater. Riphiel seized Kichan's arm. Less than a handspan separated them, yet her arm seemed to lengthen. Riphiel remained inside the other world while Kichan was forced beyond it. Batu bit down on the hem of Kichan's coat. Valkyrie clung to his chest. Dust wrapped around his wrist.

Argaon was forced one step back as well.

"Don't let go!" Kichan shouted. Blood ran from Riphiel's fingers. She did not release him. The being of light neither stopped them nor helped. The world was trying to return each of them to their proper place. Argaon closed his eyes. His small human shape collapsed. Bones, wings, and scales returned to their true size. A colossal dragon wrapped in gold stood over the ruins. No trace of playfulness remained on Argaon's face.