New World - A New Beginning

Chapter 104: A Lone Tree

JAY CADMIUM'S POV:

I returned to the main camp, cuts visible all over my body and scrapes engraved in my armor. Due to the bind exhaustion that every individual had begun to feel on the battlefield, both forces decided to retreat and regain their power.

I could tell Ares had wanted to wipe me out in one blow, but he quickly realized it wasn't realistic.

That being said, this outcome was a tremendous victory for the Dragons. We had formed a line along the West, a defensive perimeter, that we were already beginning to expand to make sure we couldn't get flanked.

I entered the most intricate tent amongst those placed for daily life and rest, my eyes falling on the white-haired princess sleeping peacefully. It seemed like she had finally lost consciousness, and I had been told to immediately begin the healing process if we wanted to assure that she could make a permanent recovery.

I held my arm above her, opening my palm and closing my eyes.

"Integrate," I muttered.

A beautiful cyan mark crept around my arm from the back of my hand as my hair matched Asthia's. The golden glow of holy bind emanated from my palm gently. Its effects soothing the apparent pain that Asthia was currently experiencing.

I visualized the spinal structure of a normal human, the model in my head way more precise than medics of Auroria could've been able to create. Immobilizing the enemy through strategic strikes to vital areas was something that was forced into our minds at a young age back on Earth. It was apparently very entertaining to watch a paralyzed fighter slowly meet their end...

I gasped as the remainder of my strength left me. I had barely managed to finish reconstructing her spine, and it felt as if I could simply pass out and never wake up. The effects of Integrate ended immediately as my features returned to their original state.

A presence suddenly stood outside, my body standing up and approaching the silhouette. I was barely able to support my own weight but decided to ignore the overwhelming frailty of my body.

"Feeling better?" I asked as I exited the tent. Mia stood before me emotionless.

"Yes, thank you," she said, looking up to meet my gaze, "did you get taller?"

I laughed, surprised that my height was the first thing Mia wanted to talk about.

"Maybe. Do you think I did?" I asked jokingly.

"Hm, I'd say so. You're surprisingly tall for your age."

"You know we're the same age, right?"

"Uh-huh," she said, brushing off my rhetorical question and simply turning around. I guessed that she wanted me to accompany her wherever she was going. I sighed, realizing there was no possible way I got out of this situation.

I walked alongside the pale girl, her complexion snow white. I never knew if it was her normal color or if she was feeling ill, but I decided not to ask. Slowly walking around was a nice change of pace for me, and something told me Mia was doing this more for my sake than for her own.

She stopped at the top of a small hill, a single tree waiting at the top. She lay against the bark, tapping the ground beside her invitingly.

I groaned as I sat down, weighed down slightly by my armor. I had requested the armor to be as light as possible, but even a feather would be a burden to me in my current physical state. I had run all the way south through the continent, fought a brief but intense battle against the Dwarven army, and had used Integrate momentarily to heal Asthia. I was exhausted.

A long silence ensued. Mia and I simply looked down at the Dragon encampment, enjoying the fresh breeze that occasionally swept through the valley.

"It's nice sometimes, isn't it?" said Mia, "to just sit and do nothing."

I chuckled, letting out a long sigh.

"Yea."

"Moments like these are rare, you know? You should enjoy it while it lasts," muttered Mia, closing her eyes.

"I am enjoying it. I just don't know how to show it," I responded truthfully, slowing my breathing and feeling every strand of hair wavering in the wind.

"How's Asthia?"

"She'll be okay. It'll just take time for her to walk again."

"That doesn't sound great."

"It could be a lot worse."

Another moment of silence. Pauses like these never felt awkward when I was with Mia, probably because we both thrived on silence, and enjoyed the quiet. Speaking our minds was new to us, and even after living 13 years as another person, skills such as laid-back conversation were still difficult.

"Are you alright?" I asked suddenly, Mia's pale complexion worrying me slightly. The girl smiled sadly, nodding.

"I am. I'm just thinking about everything that's happened. Everything went by so quickly that it was hard to understand everything, but now I have the chance to look back on my actions. I've taken many lives, Jay. I don't know how to live with that."

I didn't know how to answer, simply looking at the girl. I had lived with killing all my life. The act of taking another's life was just a means to survival for me.

"I've also committed atrocities that I'll never forget," I confessed. The pictures of dead civilians flashed before me like a replayable movie. "Those people didn't deserve to die, but saying that they were simply caught in the crossfire would be a lie. Residential buildings were our main target that day, it was no mistake."

"Do you regret what you did?"

"I can't afford to. If I begin to regret my actions, I'll constantly be looking back, ignoring the future."

"So you ignore it?" asked Mia, not really understanding my approach.

"That's impossible," I said, wondering how I wanted to phrase my thoughts. "It's a matter of accepting it and moving on, I think. I accept what I've done and look to the future."

It was an extremely logical way of thinking, a method that suppressed emotion and morals in exchange for a clear head. If I let my feelings get the better of me, then I was bound to drown in the sea of blood that I had spilled. By focusing on what lay ahead, I hovered above the haunting souls of those I had killed, barely out of their reach.

"I see. I don't think I'm able to do that, though," said Mia, smiling.

"That's maybe for the best. It's like living on a time bomb of emotions that could go off at any moment."

"A what?" asked the girl, completely lost in the vocabulary I had used.

"Nah, nevermind," I said casually, chuckling at myself. "Just an expression I use."

"Oh, okay, mister fancy," teased Mia.

I smiled smugly, playing along with the joke. The girl laughed, forgetting the heavy subject that had plagued the light-hearted atmosphere in the previous topic.

Maybe times like these weren't so bad, I thought, laying back and taking a deep breath. If we were to win the long war ahead of us, our priority was making sure we remained sane during the long years. It sounded simple, but the horrors of taking the lives of others were bound to start kicking in sooner or later.