How exactly this story will be passed down through the generations remains to be seen. For those witnessing it with their own eyes, however, only a single, unified thought came to mind:
Hero Raid Freeden was a monster.
He broke right through the surveillance network laid out across the battlefront, repelled all the armed forces that attempted to suppress him, and charged straight into the royal capital of Vegalta like there was no tomorrow. More shocking yet was the fact that he left not even a single corpse in his wake, as if to embody the wish that he and the Sage carried all along.
By the time he arrived at the capital, the soldiers had bolstered their defenses to maximum capacity in preparation for the Hero’s invasion.
“Halt! If you take a single step—” The bellowing soldiers instantly fell speechless when they caught sight of Raid.
The recipient of their gazes, however, merely curled his lips into a fearless smile. “Yo. Sorry ’bout this. I’m a bit tight on time, though, so you gotta let me through,” he murmured as his eyes swept right past the funeral procession. “But I can’t say I wasn’t expecting this kind of welcome...being your enemy and all!”
One step, then another. Raid forced his trembling legs against the ground and trudged onward, a viscous sound squelching beneath his feet with each step. The blood pouring from his body painted the ground and carved out his path.
In this moment, he was the very image of a wounded beast. His body was entirely drenched in blood and covered in wounds, and his clothes were reduced to tattered rags and singed scraps. Stone spears and ice blades formed by magic jutted out from where they had pierced his back and legs.
Despite it all, Raid did not stop.
“I’ll drop dead for you guys once I’m done talking to her... So just this once...” With blood trickling down from his mouth, he glared at the soldiers who were standing stock-still and roared out like a ferocious beast. “STOP GETTING IN MY WAY!!!”
The casket was finally within his sights, so he made a mad dash toward it. Not a single soul was left to stand in the Hero’s way. Battered as his body may have been, his figure was the most gallant around.
Finally, he reached the Sage, asleep within her casket, and called her name.
“Hey, Eluria.”
But of course, no answer came.
“Oh, come on... You’re actually dead? Feels like you’re ’bout to jump me any second now.”
Even as she lay within the casket, Eluria was truly beautiful. She looked no older than a girl in her teens, just as she did that day they first met on the battlefield fifty years ago. However, her unaging body could no longer move.
“Jeez... Your pupils are all way too strong, you know? Not as strong as you, of course, but they fire their magic like a buncha lunatics. It was real hard holding back and not killing ’em.”
Despite the blood gushing from his numerous wounds, Raid grinned as he gazed at Eluria’s prone form. However, her eyes would never meet his again.
“I knew it... You really are something else. I’m just some idiot, but you thought all about your nation’s future. I mean, just look at all these people mourning your death...”
He dragged his dimming vision across his surroundings, at all the people who had gathered to mourn the loss of their great and beloved Sage. Every last one of them was shedding tears of grief. As he took in the scene, Raid’s vision suddenly began to blur as well.
“In the end, we never got to settle who was stronger, but I still got to fight someone like you for more than fifty years of my life... Man, what a blast...”
Raid felt his strength leave him as he collapsed onto his knees, but he mustered every last bit he had to string these final words together.
“If only...we weren’t on opposing sides...”
With his fading consciousness and rasping voice, he laid bare his true feelings for the Sage who had walked along the battlefield with him.
“I’m sure...we could’ve been friends.”
Raid looked up at the heavens with a bright smile on his face. His vision began to darken, as if that motion took every last vestige of strength he had left.
“You know...I think I was...actually...”
His body turned numb, and an odd floating sensation embraced him before his mouth could form those last words. Even then, Raid was satisfied. He was able to convey these feelings he had been holding on to for the past fifty years.
However, he couldn’t say that he was entirely without regrets. He wasn’t able to fulfill the one promise he made with Eluria back when they first met.
“Let’s settle who’s stronger between us, once and for all.”
The promise they made while facing one another from opposing sides of the battlefield—that was the last thing on Hero Raid Freeden’s mind as he gazed up at the heavens and passed on.