My Wife is a Dead Villainess, and I'm Her Living Weapon

"Burny, what am I looking at?"

The party stood on a red cliff overlooking a pit of glowing crystals. Burny had led only Bianca and Elian here, quiet and somber since Sunny’s death. The Snow Wolves stayed at the entrance of the passage leading to this place.

To humans, hearing that a friend would disappear for a few years was sad—but it wasn’t truly the end. In Averignis, death was sometimes similar—temporary, cyclical, expected. So, Elian couldn’t blame him for being sad.

But something in Burny’s silence felt heavier than mere sadness.

The Flame Swallow pointed towards the crystals, "This is our graveyard. In Averignis, our journey ends when we meet the Fire for the last time. These are the Swallows that no longer wished to come back."

Elian felt Bianca suddenly hold his hand, "Burny, do you mean to say that not all Flame Swallows come back?"

She gazed at the sea of Flame Swallow cores before her.

"I thought, you had to break a Flame Swallow core, before your kind would perish."

Burny sighed and lowered his head, "Under normal circumstances that is the case. But when a Flame Swallow meets the flame, we are often given a choice: to continue burning or to be content with what we have achieved."

"Then that choice determines if they come back?"

"Yes. I fear... Mother might not come back this time. And on the off chance she does, there might be nothing waiting for her. Even if we find my father or my siblings... they may already be truly gone."