Tristessa saw the collapse of the cascade of shadows that seemed to have completely covered the ground. Revealing nothing less than one of Madame Luchie's two caravan carriages.

  Almost the entire wooden surface was broken or burned, and the iron details like hinges and fittings were bent and warped. By some miracle, the wheels were still in place, though splintered and covered with a black, sticky, and putrid substance. More than half the merchandise had disappeared along with the canvas that had covered it. The other half remained, though showing signs of having suffered considerable damage from heat and impact.

  “D-damn it...”

  Material things were the least of her worries, the girl's gray eyes understood, as her gaze moved to the vilecross leaning against the carriage wall. Tay, one of the two pulling the chains, was crestfallen, covered in cuts and slowly bleeding from each one, dampening his fur and dripping. He was alive; his chest was rising, though weak.

  And then…

  “R-Reiden!” Tristessa tried to cover her mouth with her hands, her eyes filling with tears of pure joy that fell the instant she realized he wasn't alone. “Oh…!”

  Everyone was there except for Madame Luchie and Bran. They were all surrounding Reiden, kneeling on the ground. Deep in sleep, breathing through their open mouths, both hands outstretched toward the mercenary leader.

  Lufreya, Melian, Dom… Their armor was in tatters, their wounds varying in severity according to the bandages wrapping parts of their limbs and torsos.

  Melian was the only one standing behind Reiden, drawing considerable attention. His chest was bare and covered in severe burns; he moved his thaumaturgy catalyst, tracing phosphorescent glyphs in the air that instantly faded, while with his other hand he coordinated the movements to draw lines and geometric shapes. He was deep in a trance, his eyes rolled back, whispering a single, continuous spell whose effects Tristessa couldn't see.

  “What is he doing…?” she wondered. A doubt bound to be solved later, since Tristessa’s watery gaze shifted to that family… “…!”

  Jin, Tiara, and Lucahn. Their clothes were disheveled and dirty, but they had no visible injuries. They were huddled together, pointing their hands at Reiden, except for Tiara, who used her left hand to cover her swollen belly.

  “J-Jin! Oh, Jin, Jin, Jin!”

  There were no limits to the joy she felt at repeating his name. Tristessa almost lunged at the sweating, ragged hunter, overwhelmed by her rampant emotions. Stumbling and falling to her knees beside him, she gazed at his face, as bearded as ever, as gentle as she remembered even in his sleep. Her heart pounded, caught in a whirlwind of excitement and happiness she thought she would never feel again after coming into this world.

  “L-Lucahn, and…and…” Her vision blurred by tears and snot dripping from her nose, Tristessa stroked the head of that sleeping child who was using his father’s arm as a pillow. Then she turned to Tiara, leaned against her chubby son. “And you, you fucking pregnant bitch!”

  Tristessa pulled the three of them into a tight embrace. Sobbing with no control at all and breaking them free from Melian’s thaumaturgical spell.

  “Huh?!”

  “What the fuck is going on?!”

  “M-Mommy, Daddy, you’re squeezing me…!”

  Oh, hearing their voices only made Tristessa cry harder. She cried so much that she made the fatal mistake of forgetting everything that had happened in the last few hours. Forgetting that he was near the exit of Feydra Forest, that the witches of the Coven had committed a massacre several kilometers to the north, and that she had just become one of Daiana Mercer-Archeos's primary targets. And without hearing the many, heavy footsteps on the road, approaching.

  Luckily, it was a Vilecross wearing military armor on its limbs and carrying Auron in its right hand. The gunslinger got down as soon as he ordered the lesser demon to stop and went straight to where he heard Tristessa crying.

  “Vergil? Where...?” Auron reached the black-furred aracross and stroked its head as soon as it jumped, barked, and licked his fingers. Then they both stood still at the side of the road, watching Tristessa crying and hugging the Mercer-Archeos family as they tried to get their bearings. “Well… It seems like Valdrek covered your path with violet roses once again, eh, lady?”

  The gunslinger smiled from behind his handkerchief, watching as the three Mercer-Archeos realized who was embracing them and drenching them in tears and snot as if there were no tomorrow.

  “Tristessa?!”

  It took them a long minute to break the warm embrace the girl had subjected them to. There was a sense of peace in their eyes, especially seeing a supposed Holy Gunslinger standing nearby and a Vilecross in the service of the Empire standing guard in silence. For them, and for Tristessa, it truly felt like the end of a long nightmare.

  “Is it really all over, Tessa?” Jin asked, his two nervous hands pressing against the girl’s cheeks to wipe away the tears that kept falling. “The Coven… Daiana…”

  “For now, everything seems to be under control. General Zephyr is coming… He drove the witches away, kicked their fucking asses back to his psycho lord.” Calming down a little, she said the first thing that came to mind to finally easy the family’s collective fear; to rid them of the torment that had plagued them for almost a week. “You’re not one hundred percent safe yet, but…”

  “Oh, thanks sweet Xiliarra...!”

  “I told you Miss Tristessa would save us, Mommy!”

  Out of nowhere, the girl felt Lucahn’s head hit her chest, taking both her attention on Jin and her breath away. That was his attempt at a hug, his small arms unable to wrap around Tristessa’s waist. But he was warm, affectionate, and it made her just want to cry more and hug that boy with all her might.

  “M-Miss Tristessa, you're such a crybaby!” he said from below, his chin resting on her hip, looking at her with a broken smile. “If…if Gaal were here, he'd definitely shower you in kisses until you stop crying!”

  “Oh, Lucci… I’m so sorry…”

  The little boy pressed his lips together tightly, fighting back the tears that came from remembering his beloved, giant dog.

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  “Don’t worry. At least we buried him in an open field, like the one behind our house. Before my sister attacked us…”

  “Hey! I-I told you to call me Triss, or Tessa, remember?!” she sobbed, an attempt to stop him from speaking about that horrible topic. All while Jin covered his eyes with one hand and Tiara just watched, arms crossed and with that typical distant look of hers.

  “Really? I don't…,” was the boy's reply, causing Tristessa to shed more tears onto her chestnut-brown hair.

  It was certain that Lucahn didn't feel the same emotion that was burning in Tristessa's soul from within. It was joy mixed with an abysmal sense of desolation caused by all the times she had seen that child die in the cruelest way possible or be kidnapped by the Coven.

  His adorable, smiling face replaced by that of the deranged Lucahn who had gouged out his own eyes… Or worse, when she saw him inside the second-floor bathroom, when the Coven invaded the house…

  “I-it doesn’t matter if you don’t remember, you can call me that from now on, alright?”

  “Yes, Tessa!”

  She let out a giggle mixed with a sob and stroked the child’s head before letting him go to return to his parents’ arms. It seemed almost miraculous… Karla Luchie had kept her promise to keep the Mercer-Archeos safe and sound. But…

  “Where is Madame Luchie?” she asked, prompting Tiara to answer.

  “She took the other carriage and went alone to the north of End-World, several days ago now. She thought she'd outsmart the monster, but a faction of her group went after her. The other one followed us…” she recounted, spite and anger clearly evident in her voice. “That monster never lost track of us. It was like she knew where we were at all times.”

  “You're talking about Daiana, aren't you? It's because of that damned eye she has in her hand. If only I had known before that Reiden's Divinity could also render the Simulacrum useless… Ah!” Mentioning the mercenary's name made Tristessa turn her head so sharply that she almost hurt her neck. Toward the man kneeling some inches from her. “Hey, what's wrong with Reiden? He… Oh, shit!”

  Now that she saw him more closely, the mercenary leader was in a very bad condition. He was drenched in sweat from head to toe, spider veins covering every inch of his skin, and his yellow, blood-injected eyes were staring into space. He was wracked with muscle spasms, and no doubt the moans that escaped his bleeding lips were the deepest pain that could emanate from his strained soul.

  “What’s wrong with him?!” Tristessa wanted to take hold of the sides of his face, but stopped at the last second, afraid of doing more harm than good.

  “He’s completely absorbed in his Divinity. Do you think hiding this carriage and all of us for hours was easy? We all had to contribute with our spiritual energy through [soul exponentiation] so that his soul wouldn’t be destroyed,” Tiara explained, naming a new concept unfamiliar to Tristessa, as her husband and son helped her to her feet. “We’d better wake everyone up. Jin, you go check the vilecross’s wounds. And you take care of Reiden, girl… I’m sure he’ll be happy to see your face first.”

  “I doubt it…” she whispered, watching out of the corner of her eye as the three of them set to work waking the mercenaries, starting with Melian. “Knowing him, he’s probably more worried about you than me.”

  She didn't say that out of spite or reproach, but quite the opposite. With admiration, knowing the kind of person Reiden was, demonstrated in every loop without exception. What she longed to be, light years away from scratching the surface…

  “Reiden? Can you hear me?” Tristessa placed her hands on his cheeks after gathering courage. The touch felt strange, wet and warm, and when she looked at her palms, she saw they were stained with the blood that was seeping from under the mercenary's eyes. “Come on, snap out of it! Reiden!”

  With a little pressure and a shake, the man blinked once, and new lines of blood ran down to Tristessa's fingers. A deep, exaggerated gasp followed, and then the brutal confusion of shock.

  “Calm down, Reiden, it's me! It's Tristessa! It’s okay! Relax!” she exclaimed, struggling to control the twitching, the muscle spasms of waking. She knew what it felt like once the soul is free from the inhuman effort demanded by the use of a Divinity. The calm after the storm was about to arrive, but not before the suffering that came with going through the eye of the tornado. “It’s all right!”

  “Agh…ah…!”

  Reiden struggled to breathe, the blood clotted in his throat and mouth working against him. But it took even more effort to control the phantom pain that persisted within. The cracks were mending, the very foundations of oneself finding their balance.

  The healing process hurt and would continue to, like everything else in that cruel Nekromian life.

  “That’s right, calm down. Breathe, and look at this beautiful face. But don’t fall in love, please…,” she said, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs, her smile widening as she noticed recognition in Reiden’s eyes. His lips parted halfway, a stammer turning into attempts at laughter. “Now you know who I am?”

  “Ah…T-Triss…”

  “Huh? What’s wrong?” she asked, eager to hear that voice after so many days.

  “G-Get…your reeking mouth away…from my face.”

  That was something Tristessa hadn’t expected.

  “What?! That hurts, you damn sexy geezer…”

  Beside him, Tristessa ran her hand along the mercenary’s back, feeling the dampness of his bloodstained shirt, stripped of the Fireclaw Company black poncho and the pieces of metal armor lying nearby, broken and useless. Reiden’s breath returned to normal at a gradual pace, and the deep pain he felt became a little more tolerable, although it brought with it waves of agony that made him groan and close his eyes tightly.

  Around her, Tiara and Lucahn helped Melian sit down, his eyes still blank, his consciousness still frozen on the task that was already over. Jin used pieces of the burned and torn canvas that had survived from the carriage to apply pressure to Tay's open wounds. That made the vilecross roar, pained, but the lesser demon was aware that it was necessary to survive.

  “T-Tessa...”

  She looked at Reiden, smiling at him out of the corner of her eye and letting out a sigh of relief when she saw that he was a little more awake. Conscious, but so sore that he had to hold onto her to lie on his back on the ground.

  “Hang on a little longer, General Zephyr and reinforcements are coming. Do you want to use my lap as a pillow?" she asked him like a mischievous palkuria, making him let out a weak laugh followed by a convulsive cough. "Sorry."

  “I-I can’t see properly yet… Everything is… blurry.” Reiden tried not to writhe against the pain that was focused on the center of his chest. It was so unbearable that he had no way to soothe the suffering other than cover his eyes with one hand and press his temple, in a never-ending cycle. “Tell me… Is… everyone…?”

  “Don’t worry. Everyone is fine, thanks to you… The way you used your Divinity was impressive.”

  “I almost… I almost gave up. Feeling my spirit falling… to pieces… Never again… Never…”

  Hearing him say that only made Tristessa smile more warmly, and she used the cloth tissue inside the right pocket of her trench coat to dab the beads of sweat on his forehead.

  “You say that, but I’m sure you’d do it again. That’s just who you are,” she told him, earning the mercenary’s undisputed attention.

  “What does it make me...to be willing to relinquish my life...for others? Knowing that...my wives, their children, my grandchildren...are waiting for me at home?”

  His question was crafted with guilt, devoid of any pride in the courage she had shown for people universally hated on Nekrom. While she could never truly rest easy for several obvious reasons, Tristessa never doubted that she could trust this man to protect the Mercer-Archeos. She would entrust her life to him if necessary, and she didn't need to rely on events from previous loops to say so, since in this present moment she wasn't the only one who seemed to share this opinion: Jin, Lucahn, Tiara, and the mercenaries who were slowly regaining consciousness, upon hearing Reiden ask those two questions, stopped their self-imposed tasks to do one thing together.

  To offer him silent looks of gratitude. Surely each one had their own answer to the questions. Tristessa took the initiative and answered in the name of everyone:

  “It makes you a hero, Reiden. You always were, and you will always be.”

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