"Where should we go? Is everything frozen?" I asked Fuki, as if he had any way of knowing.
Fuki pointed in the distance, toward the village with Jane, Janice, and Papiya.
"Over there. None of them should be frozen... that attack only hit Ken and me." He explained.
"How could you possibly know that?" I asked him, continuing to walk toward the village.
"Because of Ken's ability. You know, that ability he used... [Shift]? He altered the space of the available range of magic skills. I saw that ability when I was transported... they should all be fine." Fuki told me. I nodded in excitement, following in his footsteps.
"Shouldn't we go to gather the bodies? I would like to bury everybody." I told Fuki. Again, he turned around and looked at me like I was stupid.
"Bodies? What the hell are you talking about...? Ken moved everybody out of the battlefield already. They're fine." He said.
What?
So I overreacted for nothing? I thought I was going to go insane, and he's telling me Ken prevented that completely?!
I guess I can't be mad... but shit...
I was... happy.
"Why did his body crack so many times in that fight? And, why was it so lackluster in the end?" I asked him again.
"I assume his strength was weakening, being that it was the end of that body's cycle... and it was probably [Shield]. He was a pretty high-ranking Mage, I assume, so he could easily use a skill that required so much mana and dedication to learning. That's just my assumption though." Fuki told me. I decided to go with it, considering that I had nothing else.
"Doesn't it seem suspicious to you that we beat him so easily?" I asked Fuki again. I was genuinely concerned with how easy Zeus became near the end of his fight... and how much damage he took at the beginning, it didn't really add up unless the fatigue piled on that heavily.
"Of course it does, but as I said, it was probably the end of that body's cycle..." Fuki drifted off into thought.
"Hey, Fuki, what's wrong?" I asked him.
"Well, I was just thinking that it's best if I stay behind. If you tell everybody Zeus is dead and that you killed him, your reputation would improve, wouldn't it?" Fuki asked me. I had no idea he was concerned with the way I was perceived by the public...
I remembered our time briefly when he thought that I froze over Zyphilia, and I started laughing.
"Look how far you've come... I don't want this credit on my own. You deserve it just as much, if not more than I do. Come on, we can go together." I told Fuki.
"Are you sure? I'll give you most of the credit." Fuki playfully said.
We continued our journey for about five more minutes, walking toward the village with everybody in it. I was still worried if everybody was injured or if they were fine... but Fuki said it was okay, so I could only trust him, right?
"Before we go in... I feel like the people are expecting us to be these legendary Heroes... I don't want to be known as the people who killed Zeus. I want to be known as the people who freed Ono. He was an innocent person in all of this who didn't deserve to die due to Zeus... Soul and Tama also wanted me to keep him alive, but we couldn't... if Soul and Tama ask, tell them I killed him." I told Fuki.
"Are you sure? Anima, we both killed him, even if I was going to give you all of the credit... they can be mad at me, considering we're not really in the same party." Fuki asked me again.
"We might not be at the same party, but we're still friends... they'll know that I didn't have any other option, so they'll just have to deal with it," I told him.
"Why do you always take the blame for everything? I might've been guilty with Zyphilia... but I'd still like to know what brings you to act so bravely." Fuki asked me. I looked at him for a moment, and completely ignored his question.
"Wait a minute, how old are you?" I asked him.
"Uh, fifteen... why?" Fuki asked me.
"Why do you care? I thought children were supposed to ignorantly accept everything at face value instead of wondering why it happens." I asked him.
"What?! How old are you?! Why am I a child?!" He asked me.
Good... I successfully deterred that question...
"I'm seventeen, probably. I really lost track of time now..." I told Fuki.
"Seventeen?! You're not even that old!" He said. We went back and forth, playfully arguing as we approached the city.
That's when the people all stuck their heads out of their homes. The silence was slowly fading.
"Anima? Hero guy...? What happened? Did you guys win?" Dex ran over from one of the houses and came up to us as other citizens started to watch him.
"Yeah... Zeus is dead." I told him. Dex's eyes lit up and the people came running out of their homes, grabbing onto Fuki and my shirts and looking us in the eye.
"Our stuff! Is our stuff okay?!" They asked us.
"Your stuff? Isn't that rude of you? Get the hell off me." Fuki pushed people to the ground and they slowly backed away.
"Looks like you learned how annoying these people are... your stuff is all destroyed, sorry," I told everybody.