Walking through the streets, most of which still bearing the many scars of the hell the city saw recently, and passing by so many people who stopped working to express their gratitude.
"Uncle Shurry, there's a lot of ladies looking at you, men too."
Meda noticed, and simply spoke her mind.
"Yeah, are you uncomfortable with it?"
"Hmm, no? But… Can I ride on your shoulders?"
"Huh? Oh no fair Meda! I wanted to do that!"
"Too bad, I asked first."
"Uncle Shurry, can I ride on your shoulders too!"
"Sure, you're both small enough there's enough room for both of you."
""Yay!""
So the remainder of the walk was with Bell and Meda riding on their Uncle Shurry's shoulders.
"Oh wow! I can see a little farther, this battle must have been really bad."
"Yeah, there's still some fires going on to the right- Huh, now it's ahead of us?"
"I'm going to teach you something important, can the rest of you keep up?"
"Uh, y-yeah?"
Al's response was the only verbal one, and yet the least confident.
Shurry accepted it regardless, and jumped. The two kids laughed as they practically flew through the air.
"Wow! Uncle's really fast!"
"Huh? Is that a funeral pyre?"
Shurry landed right near a gathering of citizens, paying their respects to the dead.
"That's right, the bodies of the dead are burned here in ceremony." He said, picking the two of them off his shoulders. "When mass casualties like this happen, there's simply no way to give them all a burial."
"That's, why I'm…"
Bell let some tears flow. Meda followed suit, though she lasted a little longer than Bell did.
"Sometimes there isn't even a body to bury, so we hope the flames will guide the dead here, and the smoke will lead them to rest."
There was a stall nearby, selling flowers for the funeral pyre for a single valis each, they were obviously losing money doing this. Shurry knelt down to both Meda and Bell, handed them each a small bag of money. And he didn't say a word, simply smiled.
This is a lesson, one that words would only get in the way of. They're both so kind, and have lived through their own struggles, I'm sure they'll do what I expect of them.
Bell and Meda took the money to the stand, and they put a 5 valis piece on the table for each of them. At first the stand worker was about to give them change, but the two kids didn't wait. Instead they took their single flower, and approached the funeral pyre, and offered the flowers they'd purchased to the ever growing pile of offerings others had made.
People grieved in all kinds of ways, though this was something the whole city could understand. Some aspiring musicians played somber tones, as if trying to extend an olive branch, and guide lost souls, and each time someone offered a flower, a drum would sound out. The souls of the dead, if they could not see, they would hear, if they could not hear, then they would feel… Feel all of the mourning those left behind were offering up.
Bell, and Meda, both had their thoughts about what was going on. They hated death, but this part of the funeral… It wasn't so bad, emotional, yes… The two went back to Shurry.
"Uncle, this… This isn't everyone is it?"
Meda asked, doing her best to wipe her tears. She was reminded of the day, almost no one came back…
Bell was emotional, but he had no idea how to put it into words. That didn't stop him from trying…
"Uncle, we should go to the others too…"
"We will. But first it's time everyone else makes their offering."
The atmosphere changed, once the people saw the remnants of Zeus and Hera arrive, coming forward to offer flowers of their own.
Then, it was Shurry's turn, he purchased a flower, and placed it upon the pyre.
"I should have been faster… I should have been stronger… I wasn't, fact is, I was hardly strong enough to even avenge all of you…"
He paused, looking around the area, seeing there were quite a lot of fractured families, men who'd lost everything, women who'd lost everything, children who through no fault of their own, had also lost everything.
He focused, and raised a hand to the sky… He strained, channeling the arcanum he was currently keeping sealed inside himself. And… A thin, pale-gold light shot up through the air, and into the sky.
"Let that light guide you to Tenkai. And may your next life be a better one."
From there, Shurry, and company all went around to the rest of the funeral pyres and other services. Repeating the process almost exactly each time, with the only major difference being just how much the death toll had sunk in.
And finally, the last stop, Hero's bridge…
"Oh wow! These are all the heroes!"
Alfia, Meteria, Shurry, and Zald all shook their heads.
"There are many heroes who did not make it onto these pedestals. So many…"
Shurry gulped… There was a clear difference present about this bridge. He ignored it for now, just like the others who knew it was practically inevitable. Instead, he stood in front, facing the statue of Albert, and a chill ran the length of his spine.
"This is the last person I met when my soul partially went to Tenkai."
"So you met the man who made the One Eyed Black Dragon, just that. He must have been impressive."
"He was far weaker than I am. He's got a long way to go over there before he can come back."
"I see, then the dragon grew to that strength…"
"Yes, and it's why I'm uncertain if I can defeat it on my own. I watched that… exchange while I was there… I learned first hand that even if I had been there it wouldn't have changed much of anything, hell, I might have died too."
"Don't let it eat you up inside that much, alright?"
"Yeah… Al! Albert, is also someone who's a lot closer to you than you may think."
"Huh?" Really?"
"He is the father of the woman you're chasing after."
"Wait! That doesn't make sense…"
"Ais is human, but she was frozen in ice for a really long time. And was only freed recently."
"So-"
"So, if you really want to prove yourself worthy of being by her side, you need to prove you have what it takes to stand across from him."
"I-"
"And that means, I'm going to put you through the ringer. Get ready because by the time I'm done with you, and you go back to your time, Hestia is bound to be in for a hell of a shock at your next status update."
They left the bridge, and went straight to the training grounds where Al was challenged in every single possible way. And at the same time, the Denatus had begun.
…