Arthru found himself completely shell shocked. Not even his mind wanted to work and yet for some reason, he also started piecing things together at great speed.
His memories went back as far as his first day in this world. When they were eating dinner and Ani was joking around with the fact that she almost chocked on the food she was eating.
"Hehehehe, even if I die I can revive myself again using a magic spell." She said jokingly.
At the time, he didn't really think too much into it as it was merely a joke. However, when he added the weird stuff he had seen happen during the period of time he was with this group of heroes, he was starting to realize that this wasn't a joke.
One of those things was the fact that Arthur had never seen anyone awake whenever Ani is asleep. He didn't think about it before but it was indeed true. Whenever Ani is asleep, everyone else is also asleep. Ani also slept way less than anyone else.
Another weird thing was the fact that he felt no pulse on Boriat when he pulled him out of the battlefield and yet suddenly, he regained consciousness as if nothing happened. Not to mention the weird behavior Ani was showcasing the whole time ever since the battle ended.
Yet, even after he understood all of that, he still couldn't accept it. No matter how logical it sounded, he didn't bring himself to swallow that explanation.
"No… No, no, no, Ani… What… What the fuck did you do?" Amidst the chaos, Arthur stood up and walked slowly toward Ani with widened eyes, his mind didn't understand what was going on. "What did you do to them?"
The girl's borderline crazy mutters stopped as she raised her head and looked at Arthur. Her face lost all innocence and was replaced with a maniacal expression that terrified Arthur.
"I did nothing. I did nothing at all!" The girl replied in a tone that almost sounded like she was begging.
"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO THEM?!!!" Finally, Arthur snapped as he grabbed the girl by the collar and glared at her. "Why the fuck are they dead?!!"
"No… They aren't dead. They aren't. I will revive them. Just wait." The little mage panicked as she tried to grab her staff. However, Arthur threw her back with a furious expression. He was completely blinded by rage.
"No! You talk to me now! Why are they dead?! What the fuck happened?!"
As he was speaking with her, countless people surrounded the dead heroes as they tried to help them.
"A doctor!! We need a doctor!!" The princess screamed as tears welled in her eyes. However, no matter how much they tried to wake the heroes up, they couldn't. Some had already even realized that they were long gone and yet they didn't speak in fear of turning the whole place into even more chaos.
"Speak!!" Arthur looked back before he turned around and yelled at Ani.
The girl was scared by his angry yell. Her tears filled her eyes and her body started shuddering. "When we fought the demon king… We… Not everyone survived…"
Ani closed her eyes as she remembered what happened that day. After the brutal battle against the demon king and when everything was over, Mino, Boriat and Kali sustained deadly injuries and immediately died after they succumbed to them.
Everyone except Ani and Arthur, who found themselves completely and utterly devastated.
***
"No… No, no, no! Don't die on me now, guys! Come on, please! Mino! Kali! Boriat!" Arthur dragged his ragged body toward the three companions of his. Their bodies were completely drowned in blood and their breathing has long stopped.
When he reached them, Arthur started doing chest compressions on each one of them with clear desperation. His eyes welled with tears as he clenched his teeth in frustration.
"Goddamit! Don't die on me now!! I won't let you do it!! I won't!!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. Yet, those words never become real. No matter how much he tried, his friends were long dead.
"Ani!! Help me here!"
When he called for the last member of the hero party other than him, he noticed that she was sitting not that far away from him. Her body was shaking as she stared at the bloodied corpses of her friends.
Her eyes were wide and her pupils were dilated to the point were Arthur thought she was staring death in the face.
"Oi, Ani!!!" He called for her again and yet he got no response.
"This can't be. They can't be… This is a lie! This is a lie!!! AAAHHH!!!" Screaming at the top of her lungs, Ani grabbed her head and shook it violently.
Arthur saw the state his friend reached so he clenched his teeth and dragged himself toward her.
"Get a hold of yourself! They're dead! It's over! We can't do anything about it!" Even though he himself could barely accept it, that was the truth and he needed it to save his last friend. He was the only one that still could rationally think to some extent.
"No! Let me go!! I'm going to give them healing potions and they will wake up!"
"They won't wake up." Arthur responded in a serious tone.
"..."
"We came here ready to sacrifice our lives for this goal. We did what we needed to do and we lost our friends. We should be glad that they sacrificed their lives so that countless other lives could live. This was our purpose."
Ani's tears kept trickling down as she closed her eyes and started crying silently. So, Arthur hugged her as he tried to stop his tears. The pain he felt at that moment was indescribable.
The two stayed in that position for a while before Arthur pulled away and stared at Ani. He thought that since she stopped crying, she must've calmed down a little. However, when he made eye contact with her, his expression froze.
The girl had a maniacal smile on her face. All her pain had vanished and was replaced by an empty, senseless grin that shook the boy to the core. Before he could even utter a single word, he felt strong pain on his head.
Ani had picked her staff and hit on the head, knocking him unconscious. As he slowly started losing light, he heard the last few words she said.
"Don't worry… I will fix this mistake."
"You…"
He tried to speak, only to end up completely unconscious before he could even utter two words. Then, silence took over the place. Ani sat there, looking at her friends with her empty expression.
"You aren't dead, my friends. I took an oath upon myself that none of you will die and that's what will happen." As she muttered those words, her fingers went to her pocket as she pulled out a knife before she slit her own wrist with it.
Blood trickled down of her skin before it dropped to the ground. So, Ano stood up and started walking slowly around her three friends, forming a circle around them.
Then, when she finished she put her staff right on the line of blood before she channeled her mana. The orb on the staff shone with a grim, black light.
"Rise from the dead… My eternal family." She said.
As she said those words, the black light moved from her staff to the blood before it spread around the circle like wildfire.
Then, it eventually covered the heroes' bodies. A sea of darkness completely engulfed them.