Castroph fell.
He was exhausted. Famished. And broken.
Grabbing anybody that hadn't become minced meat or a pile of blood was harder than anything he had faced. That's while he had to save himself from becoming one himself.
The only grace there was. Was the fact that anybody alive in the weird fog was far away from the source. The very capital that was supposed to be their savior but turned out to be their own scourge.
And it wasn't even scratching the surface of what the Monarch Gweren had done or planned.
Castroph's face still held a smile when he fell. He was content with having lived his oath. 'I can now die.'
"…denied!"
'Hmm?' He didn't understand what was said. Or did he hear even. 'Uhh, my mind is playing death tricks.'
A force of heavy intent slammed into his back.
"Your death is denied!" Castroph heard it clearly this time.
Another force slammed into him. He coughed up blood. He was surprised he even had blood left in him from all the cuts and bruises he has. The amount he had bled into the weird fog.
'I am just hallucinating. Please, my imagination just let me… be me.'
It wasn't heard. He was hit again. But this time, he was dragged up by his neck.
The one who grabbed him also pried open his shut eyes. Light smacked him in his dead eyes. They might have as well tried to pour acid on it and he will still not respond.
Castroph stood at the edge of life. Death had already embraced him.
Rather than getting pushed into it more he was staying still at the edge of life. All because someone was still calling out to him even if they did not remember his name. 'Maybe they don't know me? Ahh, but death is here I should….'
Hit again with a heavy hand, he fell hard back into something soft. Everything to his numbed body would feel soft. He had to tank impossible amounts of attacks shockwaves. Who created them never came to his mind.
Another hard hit. Then another. And another.
His body went into the extreme that forces it to run its emergency response. The body's built in fight or flight reaction. His body wasn't at all in condition of performing any. But it forced every segment of it to reignite.
Light that had smacked his eyes became something coherent he could understand. His skin partially felt the cuts he had. The bruises pained him. His organs within felt like a mix that had melted inside which was true. His inner organs had been gone below his ribcage without ever leaving his body.
"How is he still alive?" asked an unknown voice. One feminine.
"Don't ask how! Keep hitting him! Trust me, he needs it." Said another more feminine than the first.
The coherency that had finally been interpreted by the leftover brain in his skull. It told him the only thing.
'Uh… I am in the hands of a priest. I hope they are able to at least give proper funeral to the corpses I brought or the ones who died on the way.'
He indeed was. It was none other than Priest Noria.
Noria woke up moments after Castroph fell. She heard it. And she felt the will she had being circulated between her and Leous.
'Such a genius! She figured out how to circulate will among two people better than I could.' If she could smile, she would have. If she could say words of encouragement, she would have.
The only thing she could for the couple of moments was realise how pathetic she was in terms of the will.
"Hey! Please, please, please, wake up Noria." Tears streamed down Leous's cheeks as she hugged Noria tightly. "I need you."
'Keep doing what you are doing, Leous. I'll be…'
A tear fell down on Noria's deep red robe. It soaked in and the coldness and moisture reached deep and touched her skin. It sent a shiver up her spine. It wasn't enough.
But for Noria to have a reason? Yes, it was. She chose to create more will. She knew she had none. What she did next was only something she had heard of or better to say learned by her mentors.
She crafted new will within her by using her existing will she is sharing with Leous one step at a time. A gamble to do it while the will you held only existed within you for a moment.
After two more cycles of will had gone that's when Noria had got enough to split between her and Leous. Noria opened her eyes and locked it with Leous's.
Leous held her breath as the cream purple corneas stared back at her own burnt orange eyes. 'She is…she is..'
"I am ok, thanks to you." Noria turned towards Castroph, "Now let's save him."
And that's when the plan of hitting Castroph until his body began to believe he still was in danger began. Noria believed after just a single glance that was the only way. Her own will revelation did not pry further than that. Yet she saw it how lucky the boy was.
'He had escaped the most damage by leading…but he will blame himself because thousands died following him.'
"afe..em," Castroph muttered.
Leous bent down to listen carefully. "Just once more…trust us we will-"
"Save..," blood shot out of his mouth as Castroph said, "them."
He fell back down hard on the ground skidding away from Noria's lap.
Noria and Leous looked at him. A boy of merely seventeen years of age or so. He did not ask to be saved.
'He asked to save others.' Same thought ran in Noria and Leous. Both looked up at the handle and front of a cart filled with humans right at the boundary of the deathly fog.
"Leous, stay here. And do what you did with me. Share it with him." Noria began standing up.
"No, let me. I am a knight too. I-"
"Cut the crap about being a knight, and save yourself and this boy. I'll save the others." Noria's gaze hardened.
"But-"
"No buts. It is time we travelled away from this ruined city." Noria's hand shook as she clenched it into a fist.