- Death -
Death had gone to check on Hrom by himself. He said he had things he needed to think about on his own.
'All basic affinities and he doesn't believe in the equality of all species being possible...'
Death was running his hand over Hrom's side. His mind had been split between thinking about Kahvis, and thinking about his plan of attack. He had the most important role in the war, a fact that he fully expected but still worried about.
'How long has it been since you've joined me in battle?' He scratched Hrom.
"I know you're there, you can't hide your presence from me!" Death yelled.
The humans that had been hiding and watching Death scattered. Normally he would just tolerate their curiosity, but he wanted to be alone.
'Not a single one of you will want to be near me after this battle is over. Your stares of interest will turn into downward glances of fear, as they always do.'
Even some grim struggle to keep eye contact with Death after having seen him fight in person. Only a handful have walked away from their shared conflicts with respect out of admiration, instead of respect out of fear.
Death decided he wanted to do one final thing before rejoining the other two. He went over to where Saint had been healing the rescued.
- Saint and Death -
"What do you want?" Saint asked, not turning to look at Death as he approached.
"I want to talk about the past," He said.
"I don't," She mumbled.
Saint was going around and assessing the damages of the various rescued races. She started with the elves that had lost their ears. She held up a piece of paper with the words "It's going to hurt, but only for a little while." The elves she went to all nodded and presented their stumped arms to her.
"I don't want to go into this battle without having made some type of amends," Death asserted.
"You'll be okay, you'll be okay." Saint softly assured the elves whose hands she was regrowing. She knew they couldn't hear her well, but kept reassuring them while she healed. She turned to Death and changed her tone to an emotionless one. "What? Think you're not going to make it back?" She ended with a "tch"
She continued going around to the elves and healing them. After the pain in their hands stopped they would thank her with teary eyes and jumbled words. It was clear that the healing combined with her presence alone had started restoring their emotions.
"What if I don't?" Death asked. "My "good luck" isn't infinite."
Saint ignored him and went to the eyeless vampires next.
"Are you ready?" She would ask each vampire she went up to.
She knew that without their eyes the vampires would more easily feel the pain of having a hand regrown. Most of the vampires struggled and grunted as she expected.
"I know the pain seems unbearable, but the hardest part is over now." She tried reassuring the group.
She moved over to the lycan group.
"I'm not trying to recruit you." Death said before she started. "I just don't want to leave things like this."
"Like what?" Saint asked.
"With you feeling apathetic about "my" existence," Death answered.
Saint ignored him again and started to regrow the hands of the lycans.
"Even Vázo would flinch from this treatment, so don't feel like you need to be stoic," She smiled.
Every lycan knew about Vázo, and almost every being knew Saint, so her words felt genuine. Each lycan she went to would try thanking her with whatever words they could create. She would smile and assure them she didn't need thanks for what she was doing. She told them that she doesn't heal for praise or profit, only for the sake of helping.
"I know I'm trying to fix a problem that's hundreds of years old in a single day," Death spoke as Saint moved to the group of humans. "But when you ignore calls and constantly travel it makes fixing this almost impossible."
"Take that as a hint then," She said with a sideways glare.
She approached the human group. They were far worse off than all the others. The sight of their mutilated bodies filled Death with anger towards Moloch and Baal. This anger started to infect his tone.
"All of our history is just meaningless to you now?" Death's tone got a quick look of anger from Saint.
She walked up to him and whispered.
"It was meaningless with him, so why not me as well? I'm healing torture victims, I don't have time for your misguided attempts to mend our relationship."
"Misguided?!" He yelled in a whisper.
Saint pushed her palm into Death's chest and sent him flying backward. He crashed into a stone hut, drawing every nearby soldier's attention.
"I'm sorry for that." Saint apologized to the group. "He shouldn't be here when I'm trying to help all of you."
No one responded to what she said. The vampires were asking what happened while all the other survivors were just looking at her with their mouths agape. The elves explained to the vampires what happened, who couldn't believe what they were hearing.
- Death -
Death got up from the hut he had crashed into. He wanted to walk back but knew better. Chances are that if he went back he would be met with more increasingly violent responses.
'Well, at least I tried,' He thought, picking pieces of stone out of his robe.
"Everything alright sir?" Rebecca and Julia asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Death responded. "I'm in the wrong here, so I had it coming."
Rebecca and Julia weren't wondering who was right and wrong in the argument, but what it would take to launch someone like Death. They had heard stories of Saint, everyone at a certain age had, even still they were amazed by what they had seen.
Death walked away. He apologized to the stone mages that were repairing the hut.
'Whatever happens, happens, I guess. Maybe I should just be happy that you're still healing at all.' Death sighed.
- Saint and Lucifer -
"I already sent Death away, so choose your words carefully," Saint warned the approaching Lucifer.
"I'm just here to attempt speaking with you," Lucifer said in a bored tone.
Saint was restoring the last survivor's hands of the group.
"You're the last one for now," She smiled. "You've all been great in the face of this." She reassured the group.
'Really is just flipping a switch for you isn't it.' Lucifer thought. "You don't need to do this alone you know?" He said.
"I've got more mana than every healer in this resistance, and you, combined," Saint responded. "I think I'm fine doing this by myself."
"So are you going to stay with them until this battle is over?" Lucifer asked.
"That's the plan." She answered.
Lucifer waited until she started to move away from the survivors. He leaned in and whispered.
"What are you going to do if the demon lords' armies try to attack them?"
"Every being in this world knows my policy." She whispered back. "If they want a pointless fight they can have it. You're getting close to receiving the same treatment as Death if you don't leave now."
Lucifer put his hands up. "Fine fine. Happy to see you doing well," He started backing away.
'Good to see you have more tact than the two of them combined,' Saint thought.
- Kahvis and Yamato -
(Back before Lucifer, Death, Kahvis discussed their battle plans)
Yamato was asking Kahvis questions as they walked around checking on soldiers.
"Do you think Saint will help us?" Yamato asked.
"No," Kahvis's tone was sharp. "She's as bad as Death when it comes to progress in this world. I think our best-case scenario is she stays to heal the survivors. I'm not going to waste my time with her if I can avoid it."
Yamato wasn't surprised at the comment. Saint's presence had been unexpected, but the two had previously discussed the idea of trying to recruit her.
"Are you going to try and convince her to stay to heal the survivors?" Yamato asked.
Kahvis looked around. "No. You've heard the stories surrounding her, if she wants to stay she will, if she doesn't she won't. Are you excited to potentially have a match with Peter?"
"If possible, yes," Yamato answered.
- Peter, Oliver, Yamato -
"I'm goin' to go meet with Luce," Peter told the group after the planning was over. "I assume you're goin' to meet with Death, and ya with Kahvis." He shifted his eyes from Oliver to Yamato.
"I need to meet up with Rebecca and Julia first, then we'll go to Death," Oliver answered.
"I heard that you two had a match with each other," Yamato said. "I was curious Peter, would you be okay having a match before we split off?"
Peter would normally accept any requests that he got for a duel, which made his response surprising. "No. I'll be holdin' off duelin' until this battle is over."
"That's a shame," Yamato responded. "Well, I have that to look forward to after we've won."
Peter sighed. He didn't like overconfidence on its own, but given the current outlook for the coming battle, he couldn't help showing his annoyance.
"Yeah...sure," Peter grumbled as he walked away.
- The Five -
Yvere and Lao tried leading the group through Verdyr as quickly as possible. They were happy that they didn't need to greet Titania again but didn't like the eerie feeling that came with the quiet stillness of the elven woods. The feeling was similar to that of Vázoluna.
The five were practically sprinting through the woods. The sooner they were out the sooner they could just ride to Heliopolis. Lao and Yvere had confidence in their riding abilities and knew, barring an ambush, it would be difficult for anyone to catch up with them once they were moving at full speed. It didn't take long for the five to get to the edge of Verdyr.
"Everyone in one cart," Lao ordered.
"Lao?" Yvere said.
"Wh-" Lao noticed the hellspawn demon that was approaching them.
The demon was wearing a thin black cloak that revealed her green shirt and black pants. Her colorless eyes scanned the group.
"What are you doing here?" Lao asked.