five minutes have passed since then.
The field is grim in silence as the valiant men found themselves resting their exhausted bones, while the wounded were being treated by paramedics.
The only men who were watching the fields of dirt and mud were Kazuto and Winston, vigilant as they search for any movement from the fog, or from the stacks of corpses they have slaughtered.
"Was that all of them? Did we win?" Kazuto asked, his hands gripping firmly to his rifle.
"Seems about it. There are no more Adriatic troops approaching, and artillery fire had stopped from the enemy side." Winston replied still peaking in the distance using a binocular periscope.
He then sighed in relief, sitting down on the wooden plank where he once stood, leaning against the wall as he as well tried to relax.
"Perhaps that's the last we can see them for today," Winston uttered as he drinks a pint of rum from his flask.
Kazuto whose hands were trembling suddenly stopped as a gentle smile wrote on his face, giving off a slight chuckle after hearing those words.
Winston was quick to notice the snickering as he gaze towards Kazuto, confused as to what he was doing.
"It's all over.. We won.. We don't have to fight anymore," Kazuto muttered, his small chuckles becoming louder the longer he laughs.
"We won!!" He yelled, laughing as if he had gone insane.
The soldiers who were leaning from the walls of the trenches gaze toward him. Their faces confused, while others horrified.
However, Kazuto didn't seem to care. He then dropped his rifle and climbed the ladder away from the trench, feeling the coarse soil mixed with blood as he reach the top.
Standing in the field of no man's land he rose his hands above his head, laughing hysterically as if he never truly felt alive.
"Hey! What are you doing!? You're gonna get yourself killed!" Winston warned him.
But, Kazuto didn't listen. The feeling of joy, the feeling of freedom, it was great, there was no reason to be afraid, after all the threat was gone.
"What's there to kill me!!? We won! The Battle is over!!" Kazuto yelled.
His eyes gaze at the distant fog as he started walking further away from the trench. With each step, he could feel the numb skin of the dead rubbing his shoes, while the atmosphere gave a musty aroma of the deceased that only vultures would find delight.
"The boy had gone mad!"
"He's no hope, he'd completely lost it."
"I'm afraid we're all going to become insane like him!"
The exhausted soldiers chattered one after another, while the sergeant could only do is listen as he takes a huff from the butt of his cigarettes, blowing it as his eyes wander above the skies.
"Tsk... That stupid boy.. I'll crack out sense into him!" The sergeant muttered in annoyance, sitting on the wooden plank as his back leaned against the wall.
He took one last huff as he stood up. However, a young yet short mysterious soldier held his shoulder, interrupting him as he suggested a better solution.
"Wilhelm... Let me be the one to do it," his voice unwavering and solemn, as his gaze seemed weary.
His hair was black like the night, and his eyes were dark with little to no ray of hope coming from his eyes.
Despite his lifeless expression, his aura was the embodiment of anger and hatred, with his eyes burning like the flames of hell, and his teeth clenching.
The sergeant thought about it for a moment, sitting back down as he took another huff of cigarette as he watched his wounded men trying their hardest to stay alive and look calm despite their heavy injuries.
"Do as you please," He whispered, again taking another huff.
The soldier nodded, grabbing his helmet and wearing it as he stood up from the wooden plank and approached the ladder.
However, Winston held his right shoulder, stopping him.
"What are you trying to do?" Winston asked with a solemn gaze, his eyebrows furrowed down.
"Sergeant's orders," The Mysterious soldier answered.
With a hesitant yet firm expression, Winston let go of the soldier's shoulder. While the soldier just glared back, not giving a single hint of glimmer from his eyes.
The soldier then climbed up the ladder and reached the top, watching from afar as he saw Kazuto walking further away in the distant fog, like a lost soul in the sea of corpses.
With no hesitation he took a step forward, approaching him as he can hear the laughs. His hands turned into fists, and his teeth clenched, while his pace started to increase in haste.
Kazuto soon notices movement approaching him. However, before he could even take a small glimpse behind, he could feel his skull getting crushed by stone-like fists, as he didn't even resist and fell down to the ground.
His face and uniform damped completely in mud, as the man who punched him just stood there with his eyes wide open in anger.
"What are you doing, you bastard!! Do you want to get yourself killed!!" The man muttered in rage, as with each bitter word he said, one's heart would shatter.
"Look around you! Do you really think we could celebrate a victory in a place like this!! Some of us are exhausted and most of us are already dead, and you're out here celebrating as if we didn't lose more!!" The man continued.
***
Meanwhile, in the trenches, soldiers were wondering if the two men would even come back as they started chattering about what the soldier would even say.
"Adolph would probably go all out with his soul and spirit with whatever he would say to that man," an infantryman tried predicting.
"Can you really blame him? I mean, He did multiple things just to get into the military, and I even heard he got tangled with some military operation at such a young age. Probably explain why he's so nationalistic," another Infantryman replied.
The other soldier nodded, while Winston who was leaning against the wall gave a small 'Tsk', just listening to their conversation.
***
"Do you want to die!? You imbecile!" Adolph muttered as he kept on punching Kazuto.
Adolph then grabbed Kazuto's collar and punched Kazuto in the face one last time, finally dropping him to the ground full of mud as he spites on his uniform.
Kazuto's face had turned into a mess with each side of his face full of bruises and wounds, with his nose found bleeding from the amount of shock he endured.
Yet Kazuto didn't even retaliate once, he just watch as he didn't even bother defending himself.
Adolph gaze at him as he lay down in the mud, as Kazuto's eyes damped in tears watching the dark sky. Adolph gaze at him in the silence seeing how weak he really was, as he stood up and gaze back at the trench.
"Get up, before I killed you myself," Adolph muttered as he jolts his hand to remove the blood and mud.
He then took his step back. However, before he could even leave he could hear whispers coming from Kazuto.
"You think... I wanted to be in here in the first place, killing people... I don't even know..! Do you think I enjoy that..? Huh!?" Kazuto muttered, groaning in pain as he tries his best to stand up.
"What are you talking about?" Adolph replied gazing back at him.
"I was only forced to be in here! You thought I wanted a life full of adventure and thrill like the rest of you who signed up!? No!! I never want to live a life where I'm always in constant danger!! I-I just wanted to go back home where I came from and to be back with the people I love!!" Kazuto shouted, his mouth clenching and his tears coursing in his cheek.
"Shut up! No one wanted a life like this!!" Adolph replied in disgust.
Adolph who was focused on Kazuto's desperate and trembling eyes suddenly shifted away in a different direction, as he suddenly saw two silhouettes appearing in the distant fog.
Their uniforms weren't clear. However, those men were coming from a different side of no man's land, and Adolph could only conclude that their enemies.
"Get down!!" Adolph muttered, pushing Kazuto back into the mud.
"What's the big deal!" Kazuto said annoyingly.
"Shh... Movement." Adolph replied.
The two men who were approaching later saw them hiding in the mud as they started walking towards them.
Both Kazuto and Adolph were not carrying any weapons, not even a handgun or a knife, if it would come into a fight only their fists could save them. However, when Adolph finally saw both of their faces they weren't as hostile as Adolph thought they were.
"Hanz!? Gunther!? What are you doing here!? And what happened to the rest of your squad!?" Adolph asked as he slowly kneeled, no longer feeling threatened knowing it was one of theirs.
"The rest of the squad was found out and executed, so we didn't have much of a choice but leave the Elven trench. However, we did get valuable information." Gunther informed him.
He was tall with a muscular physique, with his hair and eyes being dark as the fog that consumed the battlefield.
As they continued talking, Hanz's hand reached out to Kazuto, giving a small welcoming smile as Kazuto gazed up.
His smile was bright like a child, with his lapis-like eyes full of rays of kindness. Despite wearing a helmet, Kazuto could see strands of blond hair.
He thought about it for a moment, succumbing as he took the offer and held Hanz's hand as he was slowly pulled up.
"Anyways, What happened to his face? It's all bloody and messed up," Gunther asked, pointing his finger towards Kazuto.
Adolph looked away with an irritated expression, replying.
"I don't wanna talk about it."
"Well if you don't want to talk about it we should start heading back to the trench. We can't stay here very long knowing that we're out here in the open." Hanz suggested.
Gunther and Adolph nodded, while Kazuto was just panting from exhaustion. The four soon ran as fast as they can back to the trench, trying to avoid stepping into any corpses or jumping off into pools infected with diseases.
Meanwhile, the soldiers in the trenches were starting to get worried as not a single hush of wind can be heard in the distance.
It had been like this for the past three minutes and some even concluded that they might have already been dead, or worse they got captured as they kept on bickering.
The soldiers began to chatter, their whispers like a nest full of bees.
"Stop!! All of you!! I had enough listening to your stupid nonsense!!" The sergeant yelled as he slammed the wall behind him.
The soldiers immediately stayed quiet as the sergeant gazed every each one of them with a horrifying glare, as some of the soldiers couldn't help but tremble.
"You, Heinrich!! Call out their names!! If they don't respond, then we truly know the truth of what happened to them!!" The sergeant ordered.
Winston saluted with his back straightened and his palms extended to his legs, while his expression instantly in attention and firmed.
He then started climbing up the ladder, and took his head above the trench, taking a deep breath as he was about to shout both Adolph and Kazuto's full names with a straightened posture and a firm expression.
However, before he could even yell it out, a loud gunshot can be heard in a two-mile radius.
The soldiers who were resting hastily grabbed their rifles and went into their positions, while the four soldiers who were running back to the trench ducked with their hands covering their heads.
The bullet had pierced into Winston's helmet together with his skull, as blood slowly started flowing down his forehead.
His eyes had locked on Kazuto as he saw him only a few meters away. However, his eyelids began to feel heavy and soon his body had fallen back to trench with his limbs turning numb as he breathed his last breath.