A few adventurers, along with spare foot soldiers, arrive at the aftermath of a fierce battle. The scene before them is pure horror.

  The surrounding area is completely destroyed. Many of the trees are toppled over, a crater is formed where the road leading to Amber is supposed to be, inside the crater is a body with red mush lying next to it, besides that one, there are three other dead bodies at the scene.

  Blood is scattered around all the corpses except one, which was charred, presumably by that beam of light that alerted everyone.

  “What the hell happened here?” Marvin asks as he approaches the scene with the others. Marvin had planned to call it an early night and was on his way home when the ominous, bright light suddenly appeared in the sky. Something in his gut told Marvin he needed to get to the source of the light quickly. He gathered a few adventurers and patrol guards to join him.

  “Oh god. Marvin!” The voice comes from a fellow guard who recognizes one of the bodies. Marvin looks over to the guard, who is kneeling, checking for a pulse on Zeke Feywin.

  Marvin immediately rushes over and kneels beside his old friend. He looks to the guard for an answer, who simply shakes his head. “Damn it, Zeke, what happened to you?” Marvin curses, feeling that something isn’t right.

  Zeke was one of the strongest warriors he’d ever met. Zeke was a hero in his prime and was currently a low B-class adventurer, having grown weaker. Very few people could fight him, and even fewer could kill him. For anyone to accomplish the feat of killing Zeke, their abilities would have to be at least that of a B-class adventurer. But why was there a fight in the first place? Marvin wonders.

  Still kneeling, he peeks his head up and scans the area. He’s looking for something. Suddenly, a twig snaps, alerting Marvin to the direction of the sounds, and he sees two people coming out of the woods. He quickly stands up and walks toward them. A stunning woman with long, straight blue hair steps out; behind her, a young boy holds a book. Marvin recognizes the woman right away. “Jennifer, what are you doing here?”

  “Probably for the same reason as you guys.”

  The beam of light. Marvin inwardly guesses. He glances at Sam, who is trying to sneak glances at the commotion behind Marvin. “Look, Jennifer, I don’t think right now is the best time for you guys to be here.”

  “Oh, and why’s that?” Jennifer asks, crossing her arms. “It’s obvious a big battle took place here. I’m simply saving you the time of requesting my help by coming here and offering my assistance.”

  “The current situation isn’t one where I can have you help. If you could please go back and wait until-”

  “Dad?” Sam interrupted. His face goes pale.

  “What? Zeke’s here?” Jennifer tries to look past Marvin and the crowd behind him.

  “Damn it, please go back.” Marvin pleads, but it is too late. Just as Sam had spotted his father lying on the ground, she too recognised her husband’s corpse.

  “Move!” Jennifer pushes her way past Marvin and everyone surrounding Zeke. All it took was one look, and she immediately knew he was gone. Zeke isn’t breathing, and his face is drained of color. Sam creeps behind Jennifer. They both get down to embrace Zeke.

  “Dad… No, he can’t be. Mom, Dad… he’s… he’s gone. Uwaaah!” Heavy tears pour down from Sam’s cheeks onto Zeke’s.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Jennifer clenches her fist tight. Blood trickles out from her hand. She is trying to keep it together, for Sam’s sake; she couldn’t afford to break down. Not yet. Then she realizes something, no… someone was missing. “Where’s Quinn?”

  Sam takes a short pause from crying. He, too, has overlooked the fact that his older brother is nowhere to be seen.

  We’re going to look for him. Please stay where you are; you're not in any shape to be searching the woods. There might be more perpetrators out there. I’ll find him,” Marvin assures Jennifer, who reluctantly listens.

  Marvin rounds up the group and explains that they will search the area for Quinn. He shares Quinn’s description and what he is capable of, advising them to be cautious when confronting him, as he may accidentally hurt them or run away far away if spooked.

  With that, they split off into smaller groups and spread out to cover more ground. Marvin decides to go off by himself; there aren’t enough people for everyone to have a partner. He notices a row of toppled trees.

  Marvin follows the trail of broken trees and spots a pool of blood. Something is at the center of it. He slowly inches closer, too hesitant to go further because if he did, the question he has in the back of his mind may be answered, and he wasn’t ready for that.

  Marvin knows Zeke didn’t leave the capital alone. His eldest son was with him, so when he first saw Zeke, he quickly looked for any signs of Quinn. Since there was no body, he held onto hope that he had either escaped or hidden somewhere nearby.

  Marvin is now standing in the blood, his shoes completely soaked. Reality hits him hard, destroying his theories about where Quinn might be; the proof is right in front of him. Even if there was no body, there is a heart. It didn’t belong to the other body with the gaping hole; its heart was lying right beside it. The heart he’s looking at is about the right size for a thirteen-year-old. Marvin kneels, gently picks up the heart as if it were his own, and carefully wraps it in a handkerchief.

  Marvin takes his time returning to the others. He had just met the boy earlier that day. He provoked Quinn into punching him, and in the end, he spent hours telling Quinn stories of his father’s glory days. Quinn was attentively listening to every word; his face was full of awe and life. In that short time they spent together, Marvin grew fond of the boy. “It’s a shame I didn’t have more time with you,” Marvin says with a hoarse voice.

  Death isn’t a stranger to him. In the past, he had seen many adventurers set out on quests and never come back. Though it happened often, it always left a bad taste in his mouth. Still, it brought back memories of when he was an adventurer himself. He and his party had taken a job to investigate a nearby village overtaken by corrupted beasts.

  The village was in ruins, much like the current surrounding area, just on a larger scale. There were no survivors, and clearing out the lingering beasts was easy. The hardest part of the mission was seeing many corpses in tatters, some of which belonged to young children. Marvin would never forget that gut-churning feeling when he saw a young girl crushed along with her mother, who appeared to have attempted to shield her child with her body.

  This feeling came back as he imagines Zeke sacrificing himself, fighting off three attackers at once so Quinn could escape, only to die anyway. Marvin carefully carries the heart back to the rest of the group.

  Jennifer is still mourning the loss of her husband, along with Zeke’s youngest son, who hasn’t stopped crying. She notices Marvin walking toward her. She stands and meets him halfway.

  “What did you find out? Where’s Quinn?” Jennifer shakenly asks.

  “...”

  Marvin doesn’t say a word; he just gently hands over a bloody handkerchief.

  “What’s this? Marvin… what is this?” Just as Marvin had deluded himself, Jennifer is also ignoring the answer that is literally in her hands. Too afraid to open it, she just stares at the red cloth, tears welling in her eyes. “No… please God, not again.” She finally unravels the handkerchief.

  Through the fabric, Jennifer feels traces of Quinn’s emotions. He was confused, angry, and in pain. So much pain. She can’t hold back anymore; tears stream down her face as she falls to her knees, crying.

  Everyone present is familiar with the scene. At first, it was a grieving widow who had lost her husband; now, it’s a shattered mother who also lost a son. No further explanation is needed. Jennifer’s wailing marks the end of the search for the missing boy.

  Sam, who is already crying his eyes out, also notices this signal and cries even harder as he internally calls out his big brother's name. Unlike him, Quinn was strong. It was no secret that their father was growing weaker and weaker with time. Once they realized this, Quinn had taken it upon himself to hone his strength and work hard to protect their home from monsters and complete quests for the adventurer’s guild to earn money for the family, since Zeke wouldn’t be able to take on as many jobs as before.

  Now that Quinn is gone too, it’s his turn to take up the mantle and fill the void his brother and father left.

  I will become strong, Sam vows to himself.