88 Sweeter Than Victory (1/2)

…It'd been a pleasant, cool night when it happened.

”Mama! Look, look! The sky! Two shooting stars!”

No one could have expected it. It wasn't their fault.

”Hey, look! What the hell is that? Someone order fireworks or something?”

It was not supposed to have even happened in the first place, but that was how life often was.

”I-Isn't it getting brighter? …What the hell is going on up there?”

Unpredictable. Ephemeral. Unfair.

”Who cares? Let the conquerors take care of it. Come on, let's go.”

There was nothing they could've done, anyway. It had happened too fast.

”…H-Hey, it's not stopping! I don't think——”

They had all disappeared, in the blink of an eye. Reduced into dust.

It had been nigh-instantaneous — swift and painless.

An in-depth investigation would later conclude that approximately eighty-five kilometers had been affected by the unexpected event.

The entire city of Lei-en had vanished along with everything around it in a thirty-five-kilometer radius.

Despite their best efforts, the search and rescue teams never ended up finding anything… or anyone. The only thing they found was barren soil and a thin layer of hardened, brittle glass. Nothing more.

1.7 million people had vanished over the course of a single night…

A new page of history had been written that night and many would consider it the most tragic event in modern times since the Unification War. The Final Night of Lei-en would be remembered…

A shroud of silence filled the lifeless plain that had once harbored the living.

Two shooting stars fell from the heavens, harbingers of the end. They hurtled down toward the ground on a skewed trajectory and had avoided the destructive flood of light and heat.

One of the shooting stars quickly moved toward the other as they fell and the two became one as they descended upon the earth. They, together, crashed into an unknown forest and caused an enormous explosion when they landed.

The inhabitants of the forest, frightened out of their minds, scurried deep into the woods when they heard the deafening sound of the impact. No one wanted to find out what had crashed into their home, be it predator or prey...

She had been very, very fortunate. Had she not finished in time, he would have died. That had been too close of a call, even for her.

The girl had been badly hurt by the flood of light herself, but not as bad as the person in her arms. There was barely anything left of him.

Despite her efforts, he had still suffered the most. A limbless, charred marionette of an upper torso. He had become a lump of burnt, torn flesh and shattered bone.

The sight of what he had become was too much, even for her. She burst into tears and bit her lip so hard it bled. Here he was, on the brink of death, because she had not been fast enough.

A stubborn, flickering flame had not given up within the battered mess that once was the boy. Whether by providence or some other means, had not died, just yet.

There was still some time left. She carefully picked him up and hurriedly set off to the only place where he could still be saved.

Home.

...…He slept.

…Darkness ruled eternal in the realm of death. It was a strangely comforting feeling, no longer worrying about the incessant quandaries of life. Here, it was peaceful and quiet. None could disturb him here.

Although it was slightly boring, it was not painful. He had no longer had to worry about anything. Worrying was something reserved for the living.

Reed did not know how long he had been in this perplexing state of limbo.

Minutes? Hours? Perhaps even days, or weeks? Months? Years?

He couldn't keep track of time in here, where darkness ruled supreme. That was how it was in the land of the dead. Time was a concept designed by the living — the dead had no need for it.

Once you were dead, you were dead. Forever. Until the end of, well…