For hours, he mourned beside her corpse. Hours passed, and snow started falling, covering the crater and all the signs of the unfortunate accident. He didn’t notice exactly when it started, but now he was surrounded by a white sea that enhanced his sense of loneliness. Nothing around for kilometers, just he and her body.

In that empty field, space distorted, and his old friend appeared by his side.

“My condolences, my friend,” Saulo said, gently patting Dalton on his shoulder, trying to avoid the burn marks that were still healing.

“I know it's hard, and believe me when I say we all feel her loss, but as the clan leader, there are some things you still need to settle before…”

“I know,” Dalton answered, turning to Saulo with tears frozen on his face.

“Please, guard her for me, Saulo. And send someone to deliver the news to old Alex…” He ordered.

Artemis' dad deserved to know.

“Send a message that her funeral will be there, and we will be going with the kids and some close friends. She would like it that way, to depart in a flaming boat to face whatever comes next…” He said, releasing a small chuckle by remembering her saying something along those lines.

Finally stepping away from the body, Dalton said his goodbyes. Nodding at Saulo, he gave the signal for him to safeguard her with his dream. Receiving his orders, the teleporter readily activated his power. Space distorted around Artemis, and, with a flash, she disappeared, being transported to a small pocket dimension owned by Saulo. There, her body would be protected from any kind of outside influence, including decay, allowing them to take their time to travel to the Warriors Clan, her hometown.

“Take me back, please,” Dalton asked, completely lifeless again.

###

Back at the tribe, Jason was still oblivious to the latest events, having only seen Sarah’s healing mist as a clue of what’s been going on. Sitting at the table with the tamer's representatives, they waited.

“Do you really not know what's going on? I feel like a hostage! This is absurd!” The taller one nervously complained again.

“Did you see me leaving? I know as much as you do!” Jason complained back. “But I know one thing for sure. The situation is already handled, and we will shortly resume our meeting.” Jason assured, trusting that after Sarah acted, everything was fixed.

But still, nothing happened.

“Never before have I been disrespected so much.” The tall guy complained after waiting a bit more.

“Never before have you had the chance to be disrespected, pardon my blunt way of answering you, but you are a new clan and this your first attempt to negotiate anything for what I know. So chill, unforeseen events happen, and there is nothing we can do to solve it faster,” Jason answered, already losing his patience.

With a snort, the representative went back to his chair to keep waiting for a bit more.

More time passed, and still nothing happened, so Jason finally decided to end their suffering. “Let's end this for today. By the way, it seems it’s more complicated than I thought for Dalton to not come back after all this time. I’ll take you to your accommodations…”

With a bend in the space, Dalton and Saulo finally showed their faces again. Noticing Dalton’s lifeless face, Duke instantly knew something was wrong and went straight to the representatives, in an attempt to stop them from annoying Dalton.

“Please leave and go back to your Clan,” Dalton politely asked. He was in no condition to negotiate anything, and he knew it. Also, he had to travel to Artemis' hometown too, so sending them away was the best solution.

But, of course, after waiting for so long without even a clue to what was happening, the tamers felt the right to complain. “That’s ridiculous! You made us travel all the way here and wait for so long just to kick us away in less than a day and with nothing settled?! We refuse to leave empty-handed! We at least demand compensation for our time!” The tall representative said.

Dalton, who was just on his way to leave, turned and looked into the representative’s eyes. In any other context, he might even have agreed with the compensation or any other demand they make, for the sake of just sending them away quickly, but not today. Today he was angry, sad, and in grief, but above all, he was way too tired for this diplomatic nonsense. So he reverted to a younger version of himself, wilder and merciless.

“I will not repeat myself, leave or die. You are free to choose, but decide quickly, please, since I don’t have time to waste here,” Dalton stated, not giving them a third option.

The tamer representative wanted to answer, but his fear of dying didn’t let him.

He was chosen for this position because one of his dreams allowed him to feel other living beings' emotions, so he had a feeling of others' stances during a negotiation. Very useful, including now. He could clearly see from Dalton's emotions that he was not playing. The dangerous mix of emotions present in the man gave a clue to the man’s mental state, and his eyes confirmed his worries. His eyes didn’t contain fear. He didn’t have fear of consequences, like nothing mattered anymore.

Without saying a word, both tamers left. It was way too dangerous to risk annoying a being with that level of power.

After the situation was resolved, Jason finally breathed again. For a second, he thought Dalton would really kill both of them, and any future chance of peace negotiations would be destroyed. When the representatives left, he finally inquired about what the hell was going on.

“So, I think now is a good time to explain to me what you’ve been doing in the past hours,” He asked.

Dalton looked back at his friend. His imposing stance instantly melted into one of lifelessness, like his energy escaped his body, making Jason instantly regret asking. “She’s dead, Jason. Artemis is dead,” Dalton answered.

Jason stood in his place, astonished. He didn’t know what to do or what to say, given the surreal situation. Like Sarah, he too was close to Artemis. It was painful. Adventures from when they were young passed through his mind, making him reach the same conclusion as Dalton. Why now? Now they were supposed to be a hundred times safer than when they were younger, and they were also supposed to be a few times stronger too… So how? ‘Fuck,’ he mentally cursed. Tears started forming in his eyes, the more he faced this new reality and remembered past adventures. Still in shock, he just stood there, while Dalton left.

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Saulo, who already had his share of crying, gave Jason a friendly pat as well.

“The funeral will be at the warriors Clan. Feel free to come too; I’m sure Dalton will want you there,” Saulo invited, before leaving to prepare for the trip.

Reaching his home, he decided he was still not ready to face Lucien. The kid was way too close to Artemis, and he was not mentally prepared to see the kid fall into despair and fear of loneliness, just like he was. It was a harsh reality.

Avoiding his responsibility, Dalton flew to the roof. He took his time there thinking about life and everything that happened today. He watched the sun set, letting his mind travel through time to relive some of their good and memorable moments. Moments like his proposal, which he would give anything to live through them again.

###

“Come on Artemis, is it really necessary?” Young Dalton complained.

Back at that age, Dalton was nothing short of stunning. He had a lean athletic body, similar to old Greek statues, and short military cut hair. His presence, despite carefree, emanated a sharpness unusual for someone so young, serving as proof that, opposing his age, the young adult had already seen a considerable number of battlefields. His multiple scars confirmed that hypothesis.

A few meters from him in the open field near the Warriors' city, a young blond beauty with an unyielding look on her face stood, accompanied by her father.

“Yes, it is! How can I marry someone weaker than me?” She answered, with a playful tone in her speech.

“Fuck! This is unfair, and you know it! I am for sure stronger than you, but there is no way I’ll be using explosions on you! That evil gnome you call a father would kill me for that!” Dalton complained.

“It’s good that you know it, you little bastard! If you don’t want it, you can always give up on marrying my daughter, hahaha!” Alexander answered his daughter's boyfriend.

“This is a plot you two made to have her beating me up over and over again… damn it,” Dalton said, but just as the previous hundreds of times he still tried.

Time after time they fought. Alexander, her dad, always watched their fights and played the role of referee so she didn’t go easy on him. Both fought barehanded every time, and the outcome was always the same.

Day after day, month after month they faced each other, neither gave any signs of giving up. Dalton for pride and Artemis for… well, she was enjoying herself a lot. They fought and fought and fought more.

Dalton, who was used to brute force in all his previous fights with explosions, hit a wall he couldn’t surpass, so he went back to the basics. Once again, he worked on his hand-to-hand combat, just as he did when he was younger.

Along the months, a new style, using explosions to propel his limbs and redirect his movements was created, abusing the toughness of his body and the unpredictability of the instant acceleration of explosions gave to his strikes. Dalton remembered feeling ready, feeling that this was the time.

But just like all the last times, he was completely crushed. She was a complete monster when she got serious.

But nevertheless, this was an improvement on his last poor attempts.

Dalton remembered thinking day and night about how to beat her. How frustrating it was and how his pride didn’t let him give up. The smirk that gnome gave him when he was being beaten was already enough.

He tried and tried and tried. Then he involved his friends in the challenge, there was no rule against it and they accepted. They had meetings on how to beat her, brainstormed how he could exploit her weakness, and which strategies he should attempt. But in the end it was only him doing the fighting.

After involving his friends, progress happened. He pushed her each time more, feeling closer and closer to his goal. He could now see an ugly look on the gnome’s face after each battle, and there was no better incentive than that.

He recorded, just like yesterday, their last battle. How he countered her brutal starting. How he kept his distance, blasting earth on her face. How he wasted her energy, making her fight more than she wanted in the air. But more than anything, he remembered how he endured her beating until her energy ran out, after his tricks were gone.

After it was finally over, his face was completely swollen. Ugly bruises filled his body from being used to wipe the floor. He remembered the state he was in at the end and the exact words he used to propose after pinning her on the ground. “Finally…,” he said with some strain in his breathing, “So, will you marry me now, you asshole? I swear, If you say no after all that I…” and he couldn’t finish because Artemis' mouth didn’t let him.

“Of course, I accept you, dummy!!!” She said laughing after the kiss. “I’m not that evil to say no, you know? Actually, I wanted to say yes the first time, but dad wanted to see you put some effort to show your sincerity, so I agreed!” Artemis kept smiling.

“In the end, this was way more fun than I imagined!” She said.

His friends and her dad were teleported closer by Saulo to congratulate him on his achievement, but Alexander completely broke the mood.

“Now you prick, that's only left for you to beat me!” He declared, with a mischievous grin on his face.

In an instant decision, Dalton didn’t think twice. He blasted the ground to create a smokescreen, pulled Artemis closer to his chest and flew away. He was sure that not even a lifetime of training would help him defeat that monster. If She was an apex predator, her dad would be a death beast.

For the next minute he flew. Desperate, he went higher and higher to get out of his reach, with Artemis laughing the whole time in his arms.

In the end, his friends told him that the bastard did not even try to catch him after he was gone and just wanted to spook him a little, but he didn’t believe it even for a moment.

###

‘He will be waiting for me there won’t he? I guess I deserve whatever he decides to do with me…’ Dalton thought, old Max will never forgive him… and neither will he forgive himself. It was nice remembering some good old times, but reality always came back. Dalton, immersed in sadness after realizing that moments like that will never happen again.

He came down from the roof.

Someone needed to give Lucien the bad news, and he was the only one left to do that. He tried, but as expected, Lucien didn’t receive the news well.

“You are lying! This can’t be true!” Lucien yelled.

“I’m sorry boy… I can’t believe it myself.” Dalton answered with a weak voice, devoid of life.

Lucien ran to his bedroom. Again, he felt the unfair hand of destiny looming over him. Couldn’t he really have a moment of happiness? For hours, tears rolled. He lost the sense of time, swallowing in sadness. Things didn’t matter anymore. His goals seemed so distant and unimportant now, without anyone to celebrate his future victories with him.

How could he stay strong? How could he face the odds alone? Who would support his dreams now that she was gone? No one…

Steadily, despair took over the boy. He stayed awake all night, crying and suffering. He didn’t want to have a stupid vision right now. He wanted to dream like everyone else.

Dream about the past. Dream about his mother. Dream about a different future, with her supporting him every step he took towards the top. Dream with ehr alive.

But he couldn’t.

Moments before the sun showed up, his body shut down and the kid fell like a lifeless doll in his bed.

His visions had a schedule, and they didn’t care about the boy’s opinion. Just like any other day, his conscience was thrown into that same body to live through someone else’s day.

But different from the other times, Lucien didn’t pay attention to anything. Ignoring his surroundings, he kept grieving. Alone inside that body, with only his thoughts and memories to keep him company