The once-dark room began to glow with a brilliant gold light. The energy spilling out of Evelyn’s spell was impossible to not feel overwhelmed by it. Adrith felt a weight was placed onto his back, the moment he heard Evelyn extend her chant he yelled out, “Get ready to leap!”

Adrith’s partner clad in iron turned their head to regard him with curiosity, yet before they could even speak, Adrith yelled, “Now!” Almost without hesitation, they jumped. Adrith turned to see that the suit of armor had risen almost a foot off the ground, he was impressed, someone who doesn’t seem very agile has some strength. Might have been the only reason Adrith believed they survived this long with that armor and weapon.

Adrith enacted his plan now, he twisted his body as he threw his blade into a far-off wall past the armored warrior. After which, Adrith slammed his foot down, launching himself forward like an explosion went off under his foot. He dashed past his armored comrade by empowering himself once more. Adrith took hold of the metal collar on the suit of armor the moment he passed them and threw them as far as he could. Adrith took that moment to stomp down once more and launch himself forward to follow them like a bullet released from a sling.

The sound of metal grinding against stone filled the room for a moment as the large plate armor ground to a halt on the floor. Adrith came flying towards them and dropped himself to the ground as he covered his head.

Evelyn’s chant then finished.

With a merciless roar.

The explosion that was unleashed was so powerful, that Adrith felt himself be lifted even from his prone position. The light blinded him even with his eyes closed and head to the ground. He could feel the immense heat wash over him as if he had looked into a large furnace.

Adrith had barely stayed awake from the impact of the explosion as it lifted him from the floor and threw him into the wall. The moment Adrith recovered from his shell-shocked state, he could see the smoldering corpse of the Chimera Dragon. Countless pieces of burning gray goo, gray semi-liquid limbs, shards and pieces of bone, and countless different strange malformed pieces of monster and human parts.

Evelyn began to bring her Wishing star down and began to look upon the devastation. She could see she had killed the beast. It took many monster cores, yet that wasn’t all. After the Chimera Dragon had performed its energy blasts, multiple of the injured died by the Chimera Dragon finishing them off. However, there were a few she couldn’t shake that she was the one to in fact kill by her spell.

Evelyn looked at the woman who was riding her Wishing Star, and even she died. She couldn’t heal her wounds, even when she tried she went through such immense pain she didn’t try, and eventually she passed from blood loss. Evelyn felt something well up in her chest, she prayed, she hoped that they were Undead. Evelyn finally turned to Adrith who began to stand and the armored fighter, the only other person to survive. She began to head over to the two of them as she began to check on them.

“Are you two alive?” Evelyn asked somewhat jokingly, yet also somewhat seriously as she distracted herself from the situation that just occurred.

Adrith finally rose, “Aye, just took a bit more of a beating than I expected from that spell”.

Evelyn began to help him fully to his feet. She noticed across his body, even with the armor, he not only broke it himself but also had taken countless hits, many of which dug deep, some even directly to the bone if not into it.

The two then looked over to the armored person, they seemed not to be moving, Adrith and Evelyn looked between each other before Adrith said, “Let us see if our friend is out or not”

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The two made their way over as Adrith began to reach for the helm, undoing the straps, clasps, and cap to allow the helm to come off. There they saw a very young and somewhat feminine-looking face. Yet from the hair and the tattoo that could be seen from under the collar, they both believed that this was more possibly a man with very boyish features. Adrith took off his gauntlet and glove as he held his hand over their mouth to feel a breath.

“Seems like they were knocked out, either from my throw or the impact of your spell”, Adrith said while putting back on his gloves and gauntlets before putting their armored friend back into their helm. It may be uncomfortable for some, yet the helm provided some support to the neck when they lay in it.

“So what are we going to do?” Evelyn asked as she looked around.

Adrith responded as he began to look around, “We’ll collect what we can here, take a rest, and once we all have done resting and knowing what our friend knows, continue on”.

Evelyn nodded her head as she asked, “Do you think they were also Undead?”

Adrith turned to Evelyn, in her eyes, he could see, she was saddened by what happened. People died and she was there to see it. Adrith thought for a moment, what should he say? Adrith nodded his head, “Yes, they have that kind of feeling, that’s why we’re collecting their things”.

Adrith spoke as calmly as he could, he knew she was looking for some comfort. He couldn’t be sure any of them were Awoken. He knew that she could even know that they may not be Awoken, yet she was looking for comfort. She wanted to hear anything other than that they had watched multiple people die, and that she may have even expedited their deaths.

Adrith made his way over to the Wishing Star and began to gently lift the woman from the disc and set her gently down on the ground. He began to close her eyes and give final thanks before he rose up to begin to collect things that they could. For many of the people, it did not matter if they died to the Chimera Dragon or were finished off by Evelyn, many of their things were destroyed.

Their clothing was turned into kindling for smaller fires, the wood of some of their weapons was turned to charcoal, and even some of the metal was warped. Yet he was able to collect as much as he could, maybe they could repair some of the weapons. For some of their armor, much of the leather and padding was completely destroyed, the metal however survived still, the real problem was the smell when he peeled off the armor, the smell of burning fat was an absolutely sickening smell.

The smell was sickeningly sweet, and the body responded instinctually to the smell. As the nose made the smell desirable, like that of fatty cooked meat, the body reeled, tensed, and made one even throw up. Adrith took a moment to think, as he decided to leave the armor for now, it was mostly metal pieces, and if he wanted to sell the idea of them being awoken, Adrith said, “This is going to be gross to do, let’s do this before we leave, they should be brought back at that point and be out of their armor”

Evelyn nodded to Adrith as she watched him continue going through the battlefield. He moved to the Chimera Dragon and began to cleave off pieces of flaming flesh and move it away. She looked at Adrith confused until he began to pull out a random assortment of items, Monster cores, and then a massive monster core around the size of a small child. Much of the items were damaged, yet quite a few were still intact. Some clothing, some armor, some weapons, some random materials, yet the thing Adrith was most excited about was when he pulled out a simple metal medallion.

“Perfect”, Adrith said as he began to place the medallion on his belt loop.

Evelyn began to help collect the things, they used much of what they found to more easily carry much of what they found, as they then turned to their armored friend and began to place them onto the flying disc. They decided to move to an area a bit away so the smell wasn’t as overwhelming.

“You should sleep first”, Adrith said.

Evelyn nodded her head, “Thanks, I used quite a bit of energy”

“I know, we should be fine, but I’ll keep watch in case”, Adrith assured Evelyn.

Evelyn nodded her head as she began to lay down. Using some of the clothing they found as a pillow as she said, “Right”

As she began to sleep, she could feel a sense of dread become lifted off of her. She wasn’t sure if she was hearing chanting or not, yet it felt okay. It felt as if she was able to rest without worries as if all her worries could be faced tomorrow.