In Liam's workshop, Kevin and Ian had finished packing everything they believed would help Erik. They both filled a large bag of supplies before heading out. Once they left the building, the two of them ran as fast as they could to reach Erik. It would take them a few minutes to reach Liam and the others but they knew they had enough time.
As they ran, the two of them saw many people roaming around looking at the destroyed village. Many of them were rummaging through the rubble, hoping to salvage anything they could.
Ian and Kevin felt bad for everyone. They wanted to stop and help them but they couldn't. The two of them ignored everyone and rushed towards Liam and the others.
After running for a few minutes, Kevin and Ian finally arrive where the others were. When they arrived there, they were met with multiple different shocks.
Upon arriving, they saw a giant made of stone, Erik badly injured, a torn battlefield, and what they believed to be the creature that caused most of the destruction. Everyone else was standing around Erik.
Quickly, Ian and Kevin gave Liam the bags of supplies. Once he received the bags, Liam began to treat Erik.
Ian and Kevin moved to the side as they watched Liam work. Ian had a face of dread, while Kevin had a face of anger. No one knew if Erik would make it. Not even Liam was sure if his treatment of Erik would be enough to save his life.
Erik had lost a lot of blood and taken too much damage. His skin had gone pale and his breathing was getting weaker even as Liam treated him. All they could do was wait and hope he would get better.
Suddenly, everyone heard something. It sounded like someone was screaming from a distance. Everyone looked around trying to identify where the sound was coming from.
The sound seemed to get closer. As it did, everyone started to hear it more clearly. "LLLIIIIAAAAAMMMM!!!!" The sound was clear. They could tell that something was calling out to Liam but not from where.
Before they knew it, something massive came crashing into Liam, taking him for a few meters before stopping. As they moved across the ground, they left behind a large dust cloud. When the dust cloud cleared, everyone was shocked by what they saw.
In between the dust clouds stood a giant woman wearing black clothing. She held onto Liam in a tight hug, lifting him off the ground. Liam's face was planted in between her chest. Each one of her breasts was as large as Liam's head.
Liam struggled to free himself as he slowly suffocated in the embrace. But he eventually managed to stick his face out to breathe.
"Frida, when did you get here?" Liam asked as he looked up at her.
"I just got here a few moments ago. I was on my way here when I saw the storm over the village and heard the loud explosions. As soon as I heard them, I rushed over here," Frida said.
"That's great to hear but I was in the middle of something," Liam said as Frida tightened her grip on him.
"What could be more important than giving your wife a hug?" Frida said as she began to spin Liam around.
"I…was…treating…Erik…" Liam barely managed to get the words out before Frida stuffed his face back into her chest.
"Oh. Is that what you were doing? Well if that's the case, then I'll handle it from here," Frida said while dropping Liam on the ground.
Once she let go of him, she walked over to Erik and began to summon something in her hand. Goldish energy started to gather in her hand as it slowly took on a shape. After a few seconds, the item finished forming.
In her hand, Frida held a large syringe. Due to the size of her hand, the syringe looked small, but it was around a foot long. It was filled with an unknown golden liquid. The needle of the syringe was a third of its size and was as thick as a knitting needle. Anyone who saw the syringe would run from it, not wanting to get an injection from it.
After Frida summoned the syringe, she injected it into Erik's arm. Once she injected half of the liquid into Erik, Frida put her syringe away and walked back to Liam.
Everyone kept a close eye on Erik, waiting to see what would happen. After a few seconds passed, Erik's body began to give off a faint glow. As his body glowed, his wounds began to shut. Slowly all of his injuries started to heal and his skin gained its color back.
Once his body stopped glowing and his wounds fully healed, he began to show signs of movement. Slowly he started to open his eyes. As he did, he picked himself up so he could be sitting.
Everyone watched in amazement as the once-previously injured Erik sat up. It almost looked like he just woke up from a nap. After sitting himself up, Erik turned to everyone else and said, "So, what's for dinner?"
"DAD!" Everyone's face was filled with joy. Ellie, Emmett, and Ian jumped onto Erik to hug him. Crystal stood to the side with tears of joy in her eyes. Kevin stood further from them with a shocked expression.
After a few minutes of joyful tears, Erik stood up and walked over to where Liam and Frida were.
Frida was holding on to Liam as if he were a teddy bear. She swung him from side to side. Liam just hung there limply. He wasn't strong enough to escape so he just accepted his fate.
"Thank you, both of you, for helping me in my time of need. If neither of you had shown up when you did, I wouldn't be here standing before you," Erik said as he bowed.
"Don't mention it," Frida said.
"Yeah. It was no problem," Liam said.
Erik raised his head before saying, "If there's any way I can repay you, just let me know."
As Erik talked to Liam and Frida, Kevin turned his attention to the fallen wolf. He walked up to it to get a better look. But as soon as he got close to it, panic filled his body.
The wolf was still breathing. Even after being badly injured, it did not die. However, that was not the reason Kevin was panicking. He was panicking because the wolf that lay before him was the same one he had seen over six years ago. The same wolf that took his parents from him.
Kevin began to breathe heavily as memories from his past started to flood his head. His body also began to shake. His legs became weak and he dropped to the ground.
Ellie was the first to notice this. She turned to look at Kevin, only to see him having a panic attack on the ground. Ellie ran towards him to see what was wrong.
As soon as she started running, everyone else turned to see where she was going. When they saw what was happening to Kevin, they all started to move towards him.
Once Ellie reached him, she tried to snap him out of it. She called out his name to no avail. When that didn't work, she tried shaking him but that didn't work either.
Kevin was too deep into his panic attack to notice anything. Terrifying and saddening memories filled his mind and clouded his senses. The only thing he could hear was his breathing and his heartbeat. He could faintly hear the sound of someone calling him, but it was too far for him to pay attention to it.
After a few minutes of trying to bring Kevin back to reality, Ellie finally went to her last resort. She raised her hand and with all her might, she slapped Kevin. The force of the slap knocked Kevin to the ground.
Kevin was surprised by the sudden slap. While holding his cheek, he turned to Ellie and angrily said, "What was that for?"
Before he could say anything else he turned to look at everyone's faces. They all looked at him with worried faces. Kevin pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "I was doing it again, wasn't I?"
"Yeah," Ellie said with a sad voice.
"Thanks for waking me up. I needed that," Kevin said with a sigh of relief.
"Why did it all of a sudden happen now?" Emmett asked as he stepped closer.
Before Kevin could say anything, Erik stepped forward and said, "It's because of the wolf. It took me a moment, but after looking at the wolf I noticed it looked fairly similar. The reason being, was because it was the same one that had killed Kevin's parents."
Everyone was shocked to hear what Erik had said. Not many people knew what had killed Kevin's parents, but everyone there did. However, no one knew what the wolf that killed Kevin's parents looked like. The only person who did was Erik. Once everyone realized this they all turned their attention to the barely breathing wolf.
"So what do we do about this thing?" Emmett asked as he glanced at everyone.
"It's too injured. It won't last much longer," Erik said
"Sweety, can you put me down? I'd like to take a closer look at it," Liam asked Frida.
"No. That thing is too dangerous," Frida said almost instantly.
As everyone talked, the wolf started to move. It opened its eyes and looked at everyone who was standing around it. It had no energy to move or attack. All it did was look at them with anger and sadness in its eyes.
Erik didn't hesitate when the wolf moved. He summoned his ice sword and was about to cut the wolf's head. But he stopped only an inch away from the wolf's neck as a thought crossed his mind. He pulled back and said, "I shouldn't be the one to kill it." After saying that he walked up to Kevin and handed his sword to him.
Kevin was confused by what Erik did. He did not know what Erik wanted him to do.
"Kevin, you should be the one to kill it. It did kill your parents, so you should be the one to kill. This way you can get revenge for your parents and put your mind at ease," Erik said.
Everyone also seemed to agree with Erik. If anyone deserves to kill the wolf it would be Kevin. No one would argue for the kill.
Everyone watched Kevin closely as he walked up to the wolf. He held onto the ice sword tightly.
The wolf looked at Kevin with both anger and confusion. It seemed to remember Kevin from somewhere, but it was too weak to know from where.
Once their eyes met, the wolf seemed to finally know where it had seen Kevin. The memories of it killing Kevin's parents were clear to it. It understood what was happening, and so it accepted its fate.
Even if it wanted to fight back it couldn't. It knew that just like it, there was someone out there who wanted to get revenge on it. Seeing Kevin standing before it, the wolf did nothing but watch its helpless self be taken from this world.
Kevin held onto the sword tightly but with shaky arms. He didn't know if he wanted to kill the wolf or not, but now he had to make a choice. He stared into the wolf's helpless gaze, unsure of what to do. He felt pity for it.
He was about to put the sword down when the memories of the wolf killing his parents flooded his mind. Sadness and panic filled his body. The sword started to shake even more in his hands.
But then the thought of wanting to avenge his parents came to mind. He remembered all of the good memories he made with his parents, and how it made him feel knowing that they were taken from him. How he would never be able to make new memories with them. How they will never see him go to the academy, how they will never see him get married, and how they will never see their first grandchild.
These thoughts filled his head and he slowly went from being sad to being angry. With each thought, he became angrier and angrier. Soon he was filled with nothing but rage.
He lifted the sword into the air, ready to bring it down upon the wolf's neck. But before he did, he gave the wolf one more look.
The wolf looked back at Kevin. Even though it couldn't talk, its eye told Kevin to finish it off. It accepts what must be done
"This is for taking my parents from me. AND FOR MAKING ME SUFFER ALL THESE YEARS!!!" Kevin swiftly brought the sword down.
The moment the sword went through the wolf's neck was a silent one. Everyone held their breath, not wanting to disturb the moment. But everyone waited for the sound of tearing flesh or breaking bone. However, that sound never came.
At first, everyone thought Kevin had missed or that he had chosen to spare the wolf. But upon closer look, everyone saw that the wolf had been killed.
Its eye was closed and its breathing had stopped. The ice sword had a little bit of blood on it but not enough to indicate that it had cut through the wolf.
Erik walked up to Kevin so he could take a closer look and what he saw surprised him. Kevin had indeed cut the wolf's neck, but the cut was so perfect that it was difficult to see.
The fact that Kevin had managed to cleanly cut through the wolf's neck was what surprised him the most. That was a very difficult task to do even for him. But Kevin had managed to do so in an enraged state. To him, it seemed that Kevin had focused all of his rage into perfectly cutting through the wolf's neck.
Erik was going to say something about it but chose not to in the end. Instead, he said, "So, how do you feel?"
"I don't know. It feels like a weight has been lifted off of me. But at the same time, I feel empty. Like a part of me has been taken away. I don't know. I think I need some time to process things." Afterwards, Kevin gave Erik his sword back and began to walk away.
Ellie saw the confusing look on Kevin's face and said, "I'll walk you home."
Ian and Emmett didn't say anything but chose to tag along.
Erik, Crystal, Liam, and Frida had a worried look as they watched the group of four walk away. They knew the best thing to do right now was to give Kevin some space and allow his friends to support him.