Life was considered by most a blessing. It was something spiritual about being given the right to possess a soul. Everyone has the right to live, but it isn’t discussed how well one should live. It also isn’t discussed how one should react to someone threatening that way of living.

Death was always around even in the earliest stages of life. It was a symbol of the end as nothing could live forever, normally. Some people feared it, and some worshipped it, lusted after it even. Not for what it meant, but just for the release.

Both concepts had its fair share of negatives and positives as everything tends to have, but they were both so similar. Life could be very stressful where one hoped to die, but death could be so scary and final that one begged to live.

Was this any different?

A mass of flesh laid on the ground, constantly oozing blood from its head wound. Believe it or not but this “monster” had the same colored blood as a human. Did this mean anything? Could the color of one’s blood humanize it?

Whatever this thing was… it was no longer alive. It was now just a heap of flesh soon to rot in the upcoming hours. Was taking a life wrong? One could answer that in so many ways that it was hard to get a definite answer.

Isaac’s green eyes were in shock, the color of his eyes was quickly fading as he took in the scene in front of him. This Leviathan was dead… because one of the students had killed it. It seemed simple enough, but still…

The academy had tried its best to prepare students to become weapons of war, but they never had to kill a living thing. There was only talks about doing so. Everyone always seemed like they could handle it. This was never put into real practice.

Was this really necessary?

She can’t be ok with this, can she…? Can anyone be…?

“Did it have to turn out this way...?”

“It attacked us, there was no point in keeping it around…” Grey replied, looking at the fresh corpse of the Leviathan. She'd hold out her hand, attracting the metal object that ripped through the creature's skull back to her hand.

That was a reasonable response, he couldn’t deny that. The feeling of sadness that he felt, however, was also reasonable. He couldn’t shake this feeling off but didn’t want to say anything more. Nobody knew if there were more of these creatures lurking about, so they had to be on their toes.

“That wasn’t fun at all. I was trying to have a peaceful night of sleep and instead, I was nearly murdered.” Junji complained, his clothes now soaked from the water of the attacker.

“Maybe… we should get back on the move.” Claire suggested, shaking due to being wet in the fresh cold night air. It was certainly an unexpected event, and now she was skeptical of the area.

“Aww man, this truly is the worst!” Junji whined. Things were looking up at first with the group being able to enjoy a nice meal, but now everything was returning to how it once was. Poop.

“Ugh, I can't believe this happened.”

“Looks like it’s a good thing you never take the time to put on makeup.” Keianna snickered.

“I wouldn't count that as a necessity, plus I don't think I need it as much as others,” Claire remarked, as she sat down, trying to think of something while she dried off.

“What was that?” Keianna could have thought she heard a slight comeback in there, but no that couldn't be true from the world’s best ass kisser.

“Maybe it is a good idea to move. Dead bodies eventually start to smell worse than athlete’s foot, right?”

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“Yeah, I don't want to be around for that. Let's get back on the trail.” Picking herself up, Claire began to walk towards the trees.

The others didn’t appear to mind this idea as they went on to follow Claire. Isaac didn’t budge an inch as he continued to stare at the corpse that was living just a few moments ago. His right hand tensed up as he clenched it tightly.

Looking back Junji saw this and went on to rest a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, buddy, what’s the holdup? I’ve never smelled a dead body before, but I know it isn’t pleasant.”

“It’s nothing…” Isaac gave a half-ass response as he walked on ahead. Of course, Junji knew that this had something to do with the death of that monster, but now wasn’t the time to bring it up. They could still be in danger after all.

The night air was cool and thin, blowing softly, tickling the gang’s skin like a gentle feather. Being in the woods was way different from the city. In the city even at night things were very much alive and noisy, but here it was like not a soul lived. It was so dark that it was hard to navigate.

To combat the darkness Junji had to make a makeshift fire lantern by calling forth his magical fairy to brighten up their path. Thanks to Claire guidance the group made sure to stay on the correct path. Getting lost was bad, but getting lost at night was a headache.

Something else was shining brightly as well up above the sky, various stars twinkled. This was also something that couldn’t truly be enjoyed back at home.

“Why’s everyone so quiet? It’s kinda making me nervous.” Junji broke the thick silence while maintaining his focus on his fairy.

“Is no one going to mention the fact that she finally told us her name?” Claire mentions, looking back at Grey, who followed along, probably the furthest back.

“She did mention her name, didn’t she?” Junji turned his head back to see the one called Grey strolling behind.

The nonchalant girl would pay them no mind, however, as she walked along avoiding any type of eye contact with the others.

Isaac was quieter than a mouse, the once cheerful scholar was now feeling down in the dumps. His head was lowered as he walked along the trail, his blonde locks covering his eyes.

“What’s wrong with him? He’s unusually quiet.” Keianna asked, catching a glimpse of Isaac.

“I don't know,” Claire added, as she kept on. “Are you alright, Isaac?”

Hearing his voice being called snapped him back into reality as he quickly shook his head in defiance. “Oh-oh, I’m fine. Nothing to worry about.” This was a lie, but he disliked being a burden on others.

“Okay, I'll take your word for it.”

This was the result I wanted… but still, I wouldn’t mind her asking more.

And so Isaac’s situation went unnoticed amongst the crowd.

The group continued along the trail, passing through bushes and tall trees which looked like monsters from afar. The darkness truly changed what the images looked like from that of the day. Just how far was home now?

“Leviathan, huh? I never expected to find one hanging around here. Gaifall is pretty far from here, isn’t it?” Junji was curious about the previous encounter from earlier.

“Should be, unless they brought us out farther than we thought,” Claire mentioned, raising her right hand to her chin, thinking on the idea.

“If that’s the case there’s no way we’d make it back in just three measly days. Especially not being unsure of where to go.” Junji responded.

“Right, so being close to Gaifall would make no sense… but then that means the Leviathan was close to Terra.”

“Who gives a shit? It’s dead. End of story.” Keianna dismissed the question of the Leviathan completely. “More importantly, you had some moves back there, Grey.”

“A Seer soldier must be ready and able to kill when necessary. We had to survive somehow…” Grey finally spoke, sharing her thoughts on the matter.

After hearing this Isaac could be heard mumbling something to himself, but loud enough for the others to hear him saying something, but not able to decipher it.

Having heard his mumbling, Claire wondered just what he had said, going in to question him. “Did you say something, Isaac?”

“O-oh you heard that? I didn’t really say anything. It’s nothing.” Isaac really didn’t want to share what he had said to everyone for fear of confrontation.

“Just spit it out already. You’ve been dead quiet for a while now.” Keianna stated.

Isaac came to a stop, causing Junji to cease his movement as well as he looked over at the boy.

“I know Grey felt like it was necessary to kill that Leviathan, but I don’t. I feel like there was something more we could have done…” Isaac said as he lowered his head, still thinking about the deceased creature.

Claire stopped walking, turning around to look back at Isaac. “Is that what's upsetting you?”

“Yeah, I feel even worse that we just left his decomposing body to rot back there. We didn’t even give him a proper burial…” Isaac started to pout, his face taking on a saddened expression.

“Are you really upset over a Leviathan dying? What a pansy.” Keianna shook her head and just continued on ahead.

“Isaac… I guess I understand how you feel, but it's already been done. From the way things were looking, we would have been the ones dead if it weren't them. And since it's too late to bury them, the most we can do is just move on.” Claire states, walking over to him.

“Claire’s right buddy. I know it’s your first time seeing death and I’d be messed up about it too if that thing wasn’t trying to kill me.” He chuckled lightly at this as he approached his friend and gave him a firm slap on the back. “There’s no need to be sad man, that thing wasn’t even a human.”

He’s right it wasn’t human… even though it bled the same blood and showed the same expression of fear.

Claire sighs, turning around as she scratched her tangled and damp red hair. “Let's just try to forget about this, as hard as that may be.”

Claire’s right… it’d be best to forget this for now. I have to complete this last test so I can even become a Seer. That way this will never happen again.

“You’re both right. I’m sorry I worried you. We should catch up with Keianna.” Isaac said reassuringly even sporting a smile as if the events in the past didn’t happen.

“That's the spirit.”