"Are you all right?" a gentle voice sounded...

Maria was in a half-asleep state. She struggled to open her eyes but an instinctive fear she was feeling was preventing her from doing so.

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"Wake up Commander... There is no danger anymore" the voice continued urging her to wake up. The black-haired girl didn't know how much time had passed until she fully regained her consciousness. The first thing that she saw when she finally moved her eyelids was the image of a brown-haired boy, a little younger than her, staring at her with worry.

"You are alive..." she muttered in a daze. She had never expected to meet the youth again after he had become lost inside the fog. Although she had met him only three days ago, she truly felt happy from the depths of her heart that he was safe and sound. Suddenly, she remembered the terrifying existence that tried to devour her. Her body began trembling while her face was slowly becoming pale. Seeing that her condition was turning worse, John tried his best to soothe her.

"Everything is okay. You are not in danger anymore... You have nothing to worry about..."

"What about the dragon? Where is it?" she shouted desperately.

"It's okay. It had already left. You should rest a little more."

"What happened with the dragon? Where is it now?" Maria started asking persistently upon realizing that something was wrong. How could that monster leave like that...

"..."

"Answer me! This is an order!"

"The dragon was headed towards the Order. We still don't know what happened after." The one who answered wasn't John but Vladimir who had been silent until now. He was still sitting on the ground with his back turned. Neither John nor Maria could see his expression.

"The Order!" the girl screamed and quickly stood up. Any sleepiness she felt had long disappeared. She began running towards the exit of the cave but a hand suddenly grabbed her arm, preventing her from moving.

"Let me go!" the female magician roared and then slapped John's hand away. The youth didn't try to stop her anymore, he allowed her to exit the cave and witness herself the cruel reality he had created.

The first thing she saw was a thick black smoke in the air. She froze for a moment before returning to her senses. Her legs started moving with an uncontrollable speed. The boys didn't dare to leave her alone and quickly followed behind her. After all, the reason they hadn't gone to check the situation back in the Order was because they were worried about the black-haired girl and her mental state.

******

Maria had experienced a plethora of feelings the whole day, but nothing could compare to what she was feeling right now. She thought that after her near-death experience, nothing could affect her anymore, but only now did she understand how wrong she truly was. Around her, there were the corpses of countless people. She was familiar with almost all of them. They were comrades in arms that had fought and survived together.

"I killed them" the girl muttered. She was the one that discovered the dragon and proceeded to investigate its lair instead of reporting back to her commanding officer.

"It's definitely not your fault" Vladimir shouted from behind. He didn't give the chance to the girl to talk back as he hurriedly continued

"Nobody could predict that things would end up this way. If Eric and Claudia abided by your commands, nothing of this would have happened."

"Vladimir is right..." John interjected

"Nobody can predict the future. We have to be strong and move forward for the people who were left behind. What we have to do now is to steel our hearts and search for any survivors. It's our duty as the people who luckily escaped from this devastating crisis." the brown-haired youth said with an unreadable expression.

"Survivors? Sophie!" Maria exclaimed. Without waiting for even a second, she started scrutinizing the faces of the lifeless bodies around her. Some were destroyed beyond recognition but she didn't let herself be discouraged. As long as there was a chance to save her sister, she would give it her best.

*****

The night had finally come when knights from the capital arrived at the place where the incident had happened. When the fog dispersed, the dragon could actually be seen all the way from the capital. The Emperor immediately commanded his eldest son as well as the older brother of Adriana, Johan de Grenmar, to lead the elite squad and rescue the princess and her Order.

The spectacle in front of them was so repulsive that even the veteran warriors couldn't help than frown upon seeing this. The whole forest was filled with scattered limbs, blood, and corpses.

"Your Highness, I am afraid that we came too late..." a middle-aged man said gravely.

"Leave your conclusions for after we have investigated the area!" Johan replied angrily. The knights searched around carefully but no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find anyone alive. When they started losing hope, someone suddenly started shouting

"There is light in the distance!"

'Light? Maybe it's a bonfire!'

"They might be survivors! Let's go quickly!" the prince said with excitement.

********

They had been searching for at least a few hours when they managed to find Adriana and Sophie, as well as, Father Jonas and Edward. When Maria saw that her sister wasn't dead she could finally let a relieved sigh to escape from her mouth. All of them were seriously injured, so they had to move them away from the battlefield carefully to treat their wounds. Luckily, both John and Vladimir could use Light magic so their lives at least weren't in danger.

"The Empire should have already been alarmed by the existence of the dragon. We only need to wait for help to arrive" Adriana said. She was the only one from the survivors that was conscious since she had the least injuries among them, thanks to Sophie that protected her.

"You should rest too your Highness" John pleaded but the princess pretended not to hear him.

"I have many questions about the two of you. I will start with the handsome boy over there. You and Maria were the first ones that discovered the dragon. I won't ask now what transpired but I want to know how you two escaped from its wrath."

"The dragon was about to eat Commander Maria but it changed its mind upon realizing that humans were heading to its lair. It suddenly became enraged and decided to massacre the knights of the Order first. When it returned, it seems that it had vented its anger and decided to spare us." Vladimir hurriedly replied.

"I see... At least the deaths of my men weren't in waste. Remember that you are alive today thanks to their sacrifice. Never do anything that will dishonor them." the princess softly said with a heartbroken expression. Neither of them could answer, both of them for their own reasons.

"What about you, John? I remember that you disappeared back then... What happened?" Adriana asked. She was a little suspicious about the boy in front of her. Wherever he went, catastrophes would happen but he always managed to miraculously survive. She was planning on using him to sniff out any spies from Erebus, that's why she had asked Maria to keep an eye on him but now it was pointless. Except for them, nobody else was alive after all...

"I had lost most of my memories. If the dragon didn't break the magic, I would continue walking lost in the fog. When my senses came back to me, I decided to search for Vladimir first. Maybe that's why I survived. When I arrived at the cave, the dragon had already left" John replied with an awkward smile.

'It makes sense. After all, a boy couldn't be related to a mighty existence like a dragon in any way. I have become paranoid...'

She was about to open again her mouth when she heard the sound of footsteps.