Ash and snow came down from the charred sky with lightning howling through the rolling gray clouds as the ash and snow fell down on the ruined city below. Sentoraya, once the proud jewel of the Kaiyumian mainland, was reduced to a smoldering ruin under a blanket of snow and ash. The air carried a haunting silence as the wind howled through the gaping holes in the once imposing wall, filling the air with the sounds of metal creaking of signs and lamp posts that swung in the wind and the flapping of soot-stained canvas and burnt cloth in the cold wind. The silence of the city that once hummed and bustled with life was deafening by comparison. The busy markets now quiet, the lively streets now dead, the gleeful taverns and restaurants fallen silent as the joyous music of merriment now carried the soft inaudible hum of death.

Bellona looked over the city as her lantern creaked as it swung with the wind. Keeping her mask close to her face, she watched over the decimated city with a feeling in her gut that she couldn’t shake. She wondered how much more she could continue looking for survivors; the deathly silence of the city told her everything she needed to know. Her head spun as she tried to come to terms with what happened; the Eikon’s destruction of the city, the people turning into more Eikons, the endless cycle of infection and death. She began to understand the horror of the Eikons that Arylos tried telling her and began to understand his distaste for war.

This wasn’t a war; it was an execution.

Bellona shook her head as she tried to clear her mind. She continued forward, crunching the snow under her feet as ash flew by her. She cast the light of her lantern out yet all she could see was the ash of Sentoraya. The destruction reminded her of worlds where the lands themselves would explode violently; where volcanoes ruled the heavens and the earth. She realized that this was a case of two forces of nature colliding violently; an unstoppable force against an immovable mountain.

Bellona climbed up onto a ruined stone wall and looked around at the destroyed buildings around her. She could make out the vague shapes of bodies in the snow, twisted in the agony of their final moments. Bellona felt a part of her ache while looking at the destruction and began to wonder if Arylos could have survived at all.

She jumped down from the wall and pushed forward, searching the snow for her friend. She pushed against the cold winds, keeping her mask to her face as she searched and stopping only occasionally to search the snow, sweeping through it with her gloved hand in hopes of finding any sign of the Titan. As she continued forward, she could only find the corpses of more Eikons, many twisted in the agony of their deaths and others torn apart. As she continued climbing over toppled buildings and gutted machines, she found a large ruin of shredded metal, rock, and bones that coated the buildings underneath. In this pile of refuse, she could make out large footprints, taloned and large enough for her to swim in if there was water. She recognized the footprints of a Reig, recognizing the footprints of a massive stone-like dragon that crushed the ground it walked on.

Bellona looked around and continued forward towards a large shape in the snow, larger than several houses. As she approached the structure, she could see it was made from several interlocking metal plates like armor that carried dents and holes of battle. Just as Bellona realized what she found, she locked eyes with the dead Eikon, the machinery in its eye more visible with its purple light quenched. As Bellona continued her examination, she found a large hole in the creature’s other eye where machinery dangled like mangled tree branches from melted metal. She stepped up on a mound of rock near the creature’s mouth and examined the metallic fangs as she rested her hand on the creature’s jaw, the fibers of her glove freezing to the cold metal. Bellona began to wonder just how many more creatures like this were out there, understanding Arylos’s fear of them.

Thunder howled in the gray sky, breaking Bellona’s concentration on the monster. As she pulled away from the dragon, she looked around in an attempt to find Arylos. Yet she couldn’t see any trace of him; no tracks, no bodies in the snow, nothing. She shuddered as the wind started to blow past her, wondering just how much further she would have to look. As she stepped down from the rock, her boot struck something metal in the snow that caught her attention. She looked down and saw the hilt of a familiar sword in the ash and snow that made her heart slow down; she recognized the gold guard, the red hilt, the broken black blade. A sickening thought came to her as she quickly got down on her knees and picked up the sword from the snow. She ran her fingers along the broken blade, seeing where the metal had been melted and snapped clean. Whatever was not damaged by the fracture showed deep scratches and wear; a level of wear Bellona thought Arylos was incapable of leaving his weapons.

Bellona looked back to the snow and could make out a vague shape in the snow as she felt a sickness in her stomach. She dropped the sword hilt and set down her lantern as she began digging into the snow frantically. The deeper she dug, the faster she went and the louder her gasps for air as she quietly prayed to not see what she knew she was about to. Eventually, her hands touched something in the snow and as she cleared it away, she felt the need to vomit as she locked eyes with Arylos’s gray and lifeless eyes, his irises having lost their familiar red glow and replaced by a blue-ish green that was unfamiliar to her. As she moved more snow away, she could see more of his face, his skin tarnished by soot and peeling away like a sunburn. Each brush of Bellona’s hands resulted in more of the burnt skin on her gloves as she revealed his mouth, baring fangs like a slain monster with dried black blood coming down from his mouth.

Bellona sat back and looked at her fallen friend, the monster cut down in the snow staring back with his cold eyes. As the thunder rolled in the sky, Bellona felt a tear stream down her cheek, a sensation she had not experienced for years. She wiped away the tear and looked at the fluid clinging to her glove. She shook her head and swallowed her emotions, burying them deep inside her as she tried to find the words to explain all of this. She let out a shuddered breath as she came closer to Arylos’s corpse, gingerly removing a glove and resting it against the Titan’s cheek as she felt her emotions climb out from the grave she put them in and manifest as more tears.

As Bellona felt the tears fall, she felt warmth come to her hand. It was gentle at first, before it began to sting her hand. She looked at the corpse in confusion as the warmth built into a heat that was not just frostbite. Slowly, the warmth began to grow into an intense heat and Bellona pulled her hand away, feeling the burn starting to set in. She watched Arylos with a handprint on his face where she touched him where the skin seemed more alive and flesh-colored.

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Bellona continued to watch in confusion as the snow began to move and she could see the fingers of his broken hands begin to move in the snow as the joints popped loudly. Then his eyes began to jerk around as a dull red glow returned to his irises. As the fiery light returned to him, his eyes locked onto Bellona and a deep growl welled up in his chest. Before Bellona could do anything, Arylos took a deep breath as his body sucked in air and he slowly rose up from the snow, falling back down as his arms gave out beneath him.

“A-Arylos? Is that you?” Bellona asked softly, watching Arylos slowly come back to life.

Arylos’s eyes glanced back over towards Bellona. She watched as a deep growl accompanied by a series of clicking noises arose from his throat as he tried to speak. Eventually, the growling formed a strange voice and his lips moved, but they did not match up with the speech she was hearing. Bellona recognized this tongue, hearing Arylos speak it before. As Arylos continued speaking in the otherworldly tongue, Bellona let out a gasp of relief, satisfied that he wasn’t gone yet. She gingerly held out her hands for Arylos to take yet he snorted and shook off her help as he looked up at the sky, letting out a soft animalistic moan.

“Look, hey, don’t focus on that, okay?” Bellona said while gently resting her hand on Arylos’s shoulder, feeling the heat of the flames inside him. “You saved everyone, okay? We can worry about all of that later.”

Arylos turned away from the burnt sky as he looked back towards Bellona and she could see his eyes change between varying shades of red as his irises changed shape continuously. She fell silent as she watched the Titan look at her as if he was struggling to see her. Arylos began to speak again and she could tell from the pitch of his voice that he was asking. She could not make out what he was saying yet he continued to ask the same word over and over until she could make out a vague “Ihsyr?” from his speech.

“‘Ihsyr’? What are you trying to say?” Bellona asked, trying to figure out what he was asking.

Arylos let out a growl as he turned away, his eyes darting around like he was trying to search for something. As the Titanic speech came from his mouth again, Bellona could make out “Ihsyr jv’wermahkt?” from his voice that spoke in several voices at once.

Bellona slowly shook her head as she struggled to understand what the Titan was saying. “Arylos, I don’t know what you’re saying,” she said softly, wondering how much of him was left.

Arylos looked back at her with the fire in his eyes matching an anger deep inside him. “Ihsyr jv’wermahkt?” he repeated in a clearer voice for Bellona as a deep draconic growl sounded from his chest. Bellona realized that he was expecting her to understand him; there was something he needed her to understand.

Bellona wracked her brain as she tried to understand what the Titan was saying. She knew just as much of the Titanic language as everyone else, so why was he expecting her to understand him? She kept tossing around the question along with what he could be saying that she would understand. She focused on “Ihsyr”, trying to see if there was something she could read into it. She thought about what that word would be in the Templarian language, realizing it sounded a lot like Is’r, a name that suddenly made sense.

“Iris!” Bellona exclaimed with a gasp, finally understanding what he was asking.

Arylos lurched forward suddenly, clasping onto Bellona’s coat as he continued growling, wheezing out more animalistic growls from his chest. He looked at her with desperation in his eyes as he began to mutter in the otherworldly language, trying to find words for Bellona to understand. He held onto her tightly, desperate for anything she could say.

“She’s in the refugee camp in the caverns to the northwest,” Bellona said with a soft sigh while grabbing Arylos’s burnt hands.

Arylos let out a series of clicking noises from his throat before letting Bellona go and trying to stand on his legs, yet each attempt resulted in him falling back into the snow. Before Bellona could stop him, he began to pull himself forward, dragging himself along the ground as he continued to speak in the strange language. Bellona tried to grab him yet he was insistent, pushing forward with as much of his strength as he could.

“Arylos hold on!” Bellona called out as she jumped to her feet, grabbing her lantern and rushing after the crawling Titan.

Arylos let out a hissing sound as he continued forward. As he dug his left arm into the ground, a crunch sounded out from his arm as the limb formed a deep crack that ran along his inner forearm. Arylos looked at his broken arm and let out what Bellona could only call a screech as he tried to pull himself forward using his only remaining arm.

“Arylos, that’s enough!” Bellona said as she walked in front of Arylos and knelt down, grabbing his intact arm. “You’re falling apart, you can’t make it there on your own.”

Arylos continued his growling and shook his head like a persistent dog as he tried to pull his arm back. Bellona could see him continue to speak, howling the Titanic language like he was screaming. The sound hummed in her ears as she heard several whispering and screaming voices in the deep resonating hum of his voice. She watched him try to resist her, try to fight back as he slowly calmed himself down. As he looked down at the ground, she could hear a sniffling sound coming from him as his growls grew quiet like a low hum.

Bellona began to understand Arylos; he was an animal in his death throes. He knew he was running out of time but he wanted to return to Iris with what little strength he had left. Bellona let out a sigh as she rubbed the back of Arylos’s hand. “I’ll take you to her; all you had to do was ask,” Bellona said softly with a warm smile while she patted the Titan’s hand.

Arylos looked up at her and as his eyes continued to focus and change shape, she could see a tearful look in his eyes. Before long, he looked down at the ground, falling silent save for the low growl in his chest. Bellona let go of Arylos’s hand and repositioned herself by his side and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. With the Titan secured, she lifted herself and Arylos up and she could see his legs try to regain their strength and just barely hold the Titan up. Slowly, she moved forward with Arylos matching her steps.

Arylos looked down at the ground, as if shameful as Bellona carried him. She could hear the voices of his speech mutter in words she still couldn’t recognize. Bellona heard Arylos’s speech and as he fell quiet, she let out a soft sigh. “It’s okay; you don’t need to apologize to me,” she said, understanding what he was saying.