The bear slowly emerged from the black smoke. His condition could only be described as deplorable. His brown fur was completely burned. His left side was charred, while his back, which received most of the blast, was raw. His left arm was gone, leaving only his right paw for support.
The left side of his face was burnt with half his jaw missing, making his tongue loll around, or at least what was left of it. His left eye was completely closed, with the melted skin covering it.
Pieces of rock fell through his body, indicating that he had used some skill to save himself, sensing danger at the last second.
But even with the body in that state, it reared up on its hind legs and roared, as if told that it wasn't dead yet and that it could still fight.
RRROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
Agatha and Athos tensed. None of them had the strength left to fight. Agatha had used up all her mana on the last shot to make sure she hit. Whereas Athos only needed a scratch to die.
They both waited with bated breath, as he roared. But to their relief, he fell to the ground as soon as he was done roaring.
That roar was his last fight. He died the instant he fell to the ground, feeling all his strength drain away.
Athos was mesmerized by that scene. Even though they fought to the death, watching him fight until the last second was fascinating to him. He burned that scene in his eyes. In that moment he decided his future.
"I want to be an adventurer." he muttered unconsciously.
'Heh, it was really a good idea to come here today.' Agatha thought happily.
"Don't get carried away. You still have to train hard if you want to face a monster like the rock bear." Agatha said. "Normally an adventurer would take the monster's corpse, or whatever he could carry with him, but since I don't have my card anymore, let's just leave it there.
Now let's go, before the noise of the explosion attracts more monsters." Agatha got up with the help of her son.
"Shouldn't we try to put out the fire? It could spread and swallow the whole forest." Athos asked, while looking at the small fire behind them.
"Relax, the forest spirits always fix these things. Look, it's already started." She pointed to a spot in where the fire started to go erase.
Grass grew around the fire as the flames slowly died down. Affected trees regained their vitality, and new leaves grew to replace those that had been lost.
Before they could leave the fight, all traces had already been erased, leaving only the rock bear's corpse behind.
"What!? How is that possible?" Athos was confused by the phenomenon capable of breaking the laws of physics.
"Who knows? All we know is that there are special forests, capable of cure themselves . The church says it's because of the spirits of light that dwell there." Agatha said.
Athos was silent for the rest of the trip. He couldn't understand the phenomenon no matter how much he thought about it.
As they approached the city, they noticed something strange. The guards were restless, watching something inside the walls rather than guarding the gate.
Agatha could see thick black smoke, rising from somewhere in the city. 'a fire started somewhere? The only water we have comes from the river and wells, it will be hard to erase.'
They passed the guards, who were too distracted to see them. She was about to pass through the gate, when she heard a conversation she couldn't ignore.
"Man, I can't believe the alchemy shop caught fire like that. If they don't get the fire under control soon, it's going to burn the entire block down." The 1st guard said.
"Seriously, this sucks. A lot of people died when the fire started. Do they already know what caused the fire?" the 2nd guard asked.
"They think it was an experiment gone wrong. The fire started in the store and burned the entire street down in an instant. It's really a shame, Doctor Robert was a good man, he didn't deserve to die like that." The first guard said regretfully.
"Didn't he deserve it? Are you kidding me? Because of him, all those people died! He deserved what happened to him." A 3rd guard joined the conversation in a rage.
He had a sister who lived on that block. He didn't know her whereabouts and being stuck in guard duty, while watched the fire from a distance was agonizing.
Agatha had overheard the entire conversation. She didn't want to believe it. She started to run desperately, ignoring the people around her.
'He'll be fine. Robert never made that kind of mistake. The gate guards haven't left their posts, so they have no way of confirming it. They are just speculating.' She kept repeating to herself as she ran as fast as she could.
As she got closer, she could see her whole life together flashing before her eyes. The first time she walked into his store and he fell in love with her at first sight.
The moment he confessed to her and she rejected him, saying she had no interest in relationships.
The moment he saved her in the guild, antagonizing the guildmaster himself to save her.
Their first date, where he was so nervous to impress her that he ended up messing up.
Their first night together, where she was so nervous she ended up drinking too much and ruining everything.
Her wedding, where she revealed to him that she was pregnant, causing him to pass out at the altar.
The birth of Athos, one of the happiest moments of her life.
All the most important moments passed in front of your eyes. And they all fell apart when she got to the front of the block. The charred bodies were strewn across the streets. City guards collected the corpses and lined them up, covering them with cloths and blankets.
Ashes were scattered all over the place, making it difficult for anyone who tried to get close to them to breathe. But Agatha didn't care about any of that. His face was an expressionless stone mask.
She still remembered the clothes her husband wore early in the morning, so she checked one by one all the bodies on the street and after not finding him among them, she didn't take a second look.
She approached the house or at least what was left of it. A guard tried to stop her, saying it was dangerous to approach, but she didn't listen and threw him aside. She advanced, until she reached the laboratory.
There was a body on the floor. The body was completely charred with blackened flesh. He was lying on the other side of the lab, as if he'd been thrown. The broken eyeglasses lay at his feet.
It was only then that Agatha allowed herself to collapse. Until then, she had one last hope. Hope, that maybe he had survived by some miracle.
Now there was no more hope, only pain. A pain so strong that she felt as if something inside her was being ripped to shreds.
Agatha cried, hugging her husband's body. She screamed with all her strength, praying to Eishin to give back the husband she loved so much.
And Athos arrived soon after, and saw his father's body being embraced by her. He didn't believe it he didn't understand. It was something too sudden for him to understand.
Athos wept silently seeing his father's body. It was the moment when the world he knew shattered.