Chapter 55: Retreated Troops: END IF VOLUME ONE
Chapter Title: The Outskirts of Sorrow
Ash curled into the wind, the scent of blood thick in the air. A low moan of the wind carried with it the cries of the fallen. The sun had not yet risen fully, but the horizon glowed in angry orange, as if mourning the destruction left behind.
Dominic trudged forward, boots coated in the dirt of the dead, his cloak torn, eyes bloodshot with grief and disbelief. He could not believe that they had left Lillian to die. He felt so weak knowing that he let her die for them.
Lady Fares walked beside him, her hair disheveled, her expression hollow but commanding. Behind them trailed the remaining members of the Ghost Force u Alice, a few young initiates, and two wounded medics dragging a barely conscious soldier on a stretcher. Kreper was also with them. She was shivering visibly and could nearly fall apart. Dominic sighted her.
"Guess there see those who feel it more than I do." he said referring to Kreper. His eyes darted in fury.
They had lost. Both a battle and a home.
The Ghost Village, once a bastion of resistance, was now a crumbled stone and shattered hopes. The Colossus attack led by Gravemind had torn through their defenses like paper. Screams had filled the air . Lillian’s roars as her arm was severed, the gasps of warriors dying under monstrous fists, and the crackle of fire eating through stone and steel. Danielle’s death. All of this all ended with them running.
Now, they were in retreat.
Every step Dominic took felt heavier. As the newly hailed General, he was supposed to be strong , unshakable. But his heart was shaking. He could feel the deaths behind him. Not through a system alert or battle stat. But in the silence. The silence of absence.
"They’re gone," Alice said quietly, her voice barely audible over the wind. She hugged herself tightly, blood dried on her temple.
Dominic didn’t respond. He stared straight ahead, where the edges of the forest welcomed them with deceptive serenity.