Heir Of The Supreme

Not only did the pain never come, the heat itself seemed to almost completely disappear.

...As if the raging ball of fire was suddenly extinguished.

'I'm alive?!?'

Confused, Delsie opened her eyes.

However, after being nearly blinded moments ago, it took several moments for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

But no matter how many seconds she waited, all she could see was darkness before her.

Just as she wondered if she went blind, she saw the darkness... Move.

"Are... You... Okay...?"

Hearing a croaky voice that sounded familiar yet completely alien, Delsie lifted her head.

It was then that she saw it.

A charred-black face.

The face was horribly burned, with still-lit embers dancing across the horribly melted flesh.

Numerous features of the blackened head were already gone, burned away by the baptism of flame. With flesh and hair burned away, portions of soot-covered bone revealed themselves.

It was a nightmarish sight.

But despite all of that... Delsie could still recognize the owner of that face.

How could she not?

However, Delsie rejected these thoughts. Even though... Deep down, she already knew the truth.

Choking back tears, Delsie slowly opened her mouth.

"R-Rick... I-is that... Y-you?"

The once-pink lips of the burned corpse lifted up into a small smile.

However, with portions of skin and flesh missing, Delsie could see portions of teeth peeking through where his cheeks should have been.

"You're... Alive...Thank... The... Gods..."

As if forcing out those words took the remainder of Rick's strength, his lifeless body limply fell into Delsie's embrace.

Hastily moving her numbed sword arm, Delsie hurriedly caught Rick's body.

However, it was already too late...

Rick was dead.

As her body froze from the shock, Delsie heard a voice ring out from behind her.

"I meant to kill the injured one... But it worked out even better."

Slowly turning her tear-ridden face, Delsie saw a man donning a camo-coloured military uniform approach her.

The man had shoulder-length grey hair, which, alongside the wrinkles on his face, betrayed his age.

Not only was he older than Lyn, but he looked old enough to easily be someone's grandfather.

Delsie didn't recognize the man as one of those that had set up the ambush on their group.

Which could only mean one thing...

The enemy reinforcements had arrived.

Still in shock by her lover's sudden death, it took Delsie several seconds to even comprehend what was going on.

The poison clouding her senses didn't do anything to help either.

Weakly clutching Rick's body with a shivering arm, Delsie stared at the approaching man with a gaze full of ire.

"You... Did you do this?"

Despite the horrible tragedy, Delsie was still a Captain of the Clairmont Army and a 2-Star at that.

She was trained to always maintain a level head no matter the circumstance.

...No matter how much she wanted to shut herself away from the world, turning her eyes away from reality.

The man tossed her a cold gaze before looking around at the deceased Kelonian soldiers.

Though not as potent as Delsie's, a look of pain flashed across his eyes.

"I could ask you the same."

The man shook his head with a sigh.

"Look... You're a soldier. Although neither of us has any personal grievances with one another, we fight and kill each other without reserve. This is just war."

Although their countries weren't formally at war, small, deadly confrontations broke out frequently.

As the man said, this was how things were between enemy nations.

The higher-ups would make elaborate schemes to harm each other, while soldiers like them would fight and die to fulfill them.

That was their reality.

Even Delsie had killed a man she had never even known moments prior.

The bow-wielding man perhaps even had a family of his own, earnestly waiting for him to return.

But now... He wouldn't.

Thinking about this, Delsie couldn't help but remember Rick's siblings.

They were still waiting for him, waiting for a brother who would never return.

Without him, who would have helped them out with their financial problems?

The elder siblings would be able to graduate from university and find jobs soon. Still, Rick belonged to a family of six.

Of which, he was the oldest among them by a full five years.

In fact, Rick had siblings that were over a decade younger than him.

While Rick paid for their education, housing, food, and other expenses, he never uttered a word of complaint.

Because he loved his family that much.

At least enough to join the army and risk his life.

Yet he threw it all away...

For her.

As the tears flowed down her cheeks, Delsie's face contorted into an expression of pure grief-fuelled rage.

Her visage resembled that of a malevolent demon.

Feeling her chilling gaze, the approaching man frowned and stopped.

"Hah... This is why I hate my job," he lightly sighed to himself.

However, no matter how much anger and hate Delsie felt, it didn't change the fact that she couldn't move.

It was then she felt a soft warmth spill into her poisoned injury.

Tilting her head, she saw a tearful Ginny standing behind her.

Her companion was pouring her energy into Delsie's wound, healing it.

"Ginny..."

"Just hold on! I'm almost done!"

"Not me... Save Rick!"

Ginny scowled as she looked away from Delsie's eyes.

"Delsie... It's already too late. You already know that."

"Please! Just try... He can't be gone!"

Follow curr𝒆nt nov𝒆ls on fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com.

Not having the heart to rebuke her, Ginny pretended to be deaf to her friend's desperate pleas, instead focusing entirely on tending to Delsie's injury.

Seeing a close friend die before her was already painful enough for the healer.

But having been a combat medic for over a couple years, this wasn't her first time enduring this.

"Brace yourself for a second. It's going to hurt!"

Putting her hand onto the arrow sticking out from Delsie's arm, Ginny carefully pulled it out.

The arrowhead worked as a makeshift stopgap to stop the blood from spilling out, so as soon as Ginny pulled it out, a horrible concoction of blood, poison, and pus began to rapidly pour out from the injury.

Luckily, Ginny's timely healing quickly sealed the injury before it could get too bad.

Despite seeing his enemy getting healed in front of him, he didn't make any movements to attack them.

Not only did he allow it, he seemed to even encourage it.

Instead, the man directed his attention to the two people Ginny and Rick were fighting moments prior.