277 Why? (1/2)

”Indeed...” Xadi agreed while sitting on the ground in front of her while observing the list as well and watching Gustav's name being erased, ”But we still have a lot of options, don't we? We can just pick someone else to fight...”

Detra stared at the fur frog toy for a couple of seconds, ”That's not the problem here...”

”Oh... Right...” the toy replied as he looked back and observed an immense air of gloominess spreading over the air.

The whole group was crouching on the ground with either their eyes bawling, their head buried on their legs, or trying to comfort someone next to them by holding their hand or giving them a hug.

Evlin was holding Ellie in her arms while the two continued to sob with Claire holding Ellie's hand.

Daren and Lilith were hugging each other while embracing Lance between them with their heads down and their eyes closed. These two were not new to the pain of losing someone but they still were not ready to hear the news of their friend's passing.

Ria and Auren were doing the same while holding Marcia and trying their best to hold their tears.

Dia was sitting nearby observing thinking about what she should do. She never really knew Gustav that well nor was she that close to Ria yet. She didn't know if she should try to comfort her sister or just leave her be, but eventually, Ria glanced over at her and just extended her hand for the girl to grab.

Once she did so, Ria pulled her new sister closer and buried her in her embrace as well. Dia couldn't tell if this was helping at all, but if that's what her sister wanted, she felt it would be best to just stay there for a moment.

Joseph also was not really that close to Gustav so he just sat next to his frog teacher and tried to observe the progress of the list as well.

Eclipse and the griffin Evlin brought with her were trying to comfort Sphinx as well as they could feel something was upsetting him and stayed by his side cuddling themselves.

Ashley was sitting on top of a rock while embracing Marcus in his sword form while thinking about her time together with Gustav and trying to remember if she ever did show how grateful she was to him. She was afraid that during their time she could have forgotten to be a true friend to him as well.

Leona stayed by her side in case Ashley needed a shoulder to lean on but the woman just kept quiet the entire time.

”They're not taking this very well...” Xadi noted, ”Aren't you concerned that we should be focusing on the plan?”

At that moment, Detra gazed at the group and suddenly the image of Marcella popped into her head, ”People need time to mourn those they lost... Leave them be...”

Evlin lost Dalla when she was just sixteen, Ellie saw her aunt almost dying while having her body stolen by Mia, saw Flora dying by her own hand during her adventure in Hana's garden, and saw many mages perishing during the war to rescue her aunt, Ashley lost her parents when she was just a child, Daren had her wife killed by a spirit, Lilith was once drunk with power when using Marceus and murdered an entire squad of soldiers by herself which caused her to be afraid of blood, Ria saw her father be killed by her own mother and aunt under her sister's orders right in front of her, Auren also saw Ria dying in his arms once until the goddess of the west appeared and saved her life, and Marcus' first memory after coming to exist was seeing his father Marceus vanish completely.

Even Claire also already knew that feeling from being separated from her father due to an accident involving a robbery.

Death was definitely not a stranger to any of them, but that did not make it any easier whenever they had to encounter her once again.

”Why...?” Evlin whispered.

The rest of her group began to lift their heads and look at her.

”Why him...? Why would Knucker want to kill him?? Why did he have to die???” she continued while her tears proceeded to fall, ”He had no reason to kill him!! We were going to accept his dumb game! We were going to do everything he wanted!! There was no reason for him to die!!”

Ashley stood up and walked towards her. Daren did the same while pulling Lilith's hand so she could follow him. Ria and Auren stood up as well.

”Evlin...” Ashley whispered, forcing the crossbow mage to lift up her head and gaze at them as they looked back at her.

They had no answer for her, they had no words to comfort her. All they could do was let her know that they all shared the same pain, and that they were there for each other.

Ashley pulled Evlin's and Ellie's hand and the two stood up to be embraced by the whole group as they continued to support each other.

Claire and Leona moved closer to Joseph and watched as the crossbow family mourned as one the loss of a family member.

”You not gonna join them...?” Detra asked Leona.

”I wasn't close enough to him to share their pain...” she replied, ”It wouldn't be appropriate...”

”Do you know death...?” Detra bluntly asked.

”I- I do... Yes... I also have those who are not with me anymore... That's one of the reasons why I decided to join the followers of the east, to begin with...”

”Then you share their pain very well...” Detra explained, ”Death comes in many ways... Many forms... It can happen as fast as the blink of an eye, or it can take as long as the years it takes a seed to grow into a tree... But in the end, it's always the same feeling...

Something that used to be there... Simply isn't there anymore... And there is nothing that you or anyone can do about it...”

Joseph absorbed these words and looked at Claire, noticing that she too was trying to contain her tears, not because she was sad for Gustav, but because she was being reminded of her own loss as well.