Aftermath

It was a beautiful winter morning in the Iramasha settlement, people were bustling, and doing what they normally did every day. It was almost serene and peaceful to view for people who were not natives, and had just come to see the sights of this beautiful place. The market place was busy as well with hundreds of people buying goods and making trades of some kind or another. It would have been a normal day in the lives of those there in the market, if not for a figure that came tumbling down from the sky. The figure, clothed in tattered rags, the remnant of some kind of old war jacket, crashed into a stall that was currently unmanned. The stall, which was filled with clay pottery, came crashing down around the figure as a woman nearby let out a shrill scream of surprise. People began to gather around the stall, wondering what had just happened as several clay pots rolled out from the broken down stall.

As the people gathered around, they got a good look at the figure. A man, no older than twenty years of age, lay in the remnants of the stall. His body was injured, blood seeping from wounds that had been left across his whole body, and his eyes barely open, he reached out for the sky, struggling to do something he couldn't do anymore. "Got to fly to Cirno... need help...", as he struggled to utter these words blood sputtered from his mouth, and leaked out to the floor below. The people backed away as the man struggled to his feet, he tried to summon his ability to fly again, but instead he staggered forward and landed flat on his face. Not a single person came to his aid, but the man kept getting back up, determined to reach the Angel of Ice at all costs.

He stumbled forward, using his sword as a crutch to keep him up. One hand was battered beyond recognition, barely held together by skin and tissue, it hung limply from an arm that was battered and bloodied. The man kept moving, the crowd parting naturally as they watched the man struggle with no intention of really helping, a young child with tears in its' eyes tried to help, but a concerned mother held her back, shaking her head. They didn't know what the man's intentions were, but seeing him struggle like this, looking as horrifyingly damaged, and broken as he was was still hard to watch. Eventually a man nearby came by and placed the damaged arm over his shoulder without a second thought of what other's would think of him. The man with the blade gave him a look and a weak smile before saying: "Thank you..."

Inside the second spirit, Valus, watched the boy struggle in the way he was. It took all of his being to keep the boy from dying, he had cauterized several wounds to keep him from bleeding out, yet the blood kept coming, and he had no idea what to do. Was Steiner going to die? How much longer could the guy keep going like this before he finally took his last breath and welcome the after life? It made things hard on Valus, who felt so helpless through all this, to see Steiner like he was. A shell of the happy and caring individual that he used to be, it was like he was looking at a man who already had one foot out the door of the living world. Just gotta keep going...keep giving him energy until we can reach Cirno. Maybe she can help. Steiner's inner voice was quiet, he wasn't talking to him, and it was fine. He knew it was taking all he had to keep going on just like it was taking all he had to keep Steiner held together.

At any moment he felt Steiner could die and with him, he too would cease to be. He didn't want to die, but more importantly he didn't want his host to die either. If that meant he had to die to ensure that Steiner would live on then he would sacrifice himself. The man holding Steiner Franz, struggled with his weight as Steiner could barely move himself due to the severity of his own injuries. As they struggled forward, Steiner's eyes began to droop, and Valus could feel Steiner slipping away, the damage becoming too much for him to keep back, and for Valus to keep held together. Steiner vomited up blood and bile as he fell from the man's shoulder to his side. Was this how it ended? His journey was coming to close because he was too damn weak, too damn pathetic to keep on going in this chaotic world. "I'm sorry..., Steiner spoke softly to no one out there, but he was thinking of the angel who had gave him the chance to be something more.

Who had gave him the opportunity to become a hero and do the things that he had wanted to do ever since he had been abused as a child. Now he was letting her down, he wasn't bringing any warmth to this world, or any light. He was a flickering candle against a violent storm and he could feel the flame that was his life begin to blow out. Valus went into overdrive, pushing himself further to keep Steiner going, but he himself felt strained, and exhausted from pushing himself to keep Steiner going. The man reached down, looking down at the dying boy with sorrow, as he tried to pick him back up on to his shoulder, and help guide him to a hospital. Steiner needed help in the most dire of ways, he just hoped he could survive this ordeal, but even if he did survive, what sort of condition would he be in? He kept going, however because he had to. He had to survive.

He had not yet completed the mission he had been handed, after all.