God of Nothing

Aleph treated the grieving townsfolk, cleaning up their cuts and applying poultices. They may have defeated the demon lord's army, but with a score dead and almost everyone wounded, he was loath to call the operation a success.

"You should be good to go. Come see me in a day, I can use mana so the bone sets in correctly."

He tied up the young man's arm in a sling and sent him on his way.

"Thank you, my lord." The young man said before leaving the room.

Aleph sat back in his chair, massaging his eyes. It's been half a day since the conflict, and they had only just finished treating the wounded. It's been one and a half days since their victory over the heralds, but they were still reeling. Their reinforcements never showed up until the end.

He stood up and looked out the window, looking out at the camp below. Kyrios had been decimated. The very earth had been upended, blackened spots littered the ground, the wall they painstakingly repaired had a massive crater on top of it. Perhaps most depressing is that the people had experienced so much loss that they refused to leave the tents. 

"Aleph." The door swung open, revealing a disheveled Iona.

"I just got word from Lord Vaynard. The army should arrive in a few days. The prince will be joining us in a week or so.."

"...Did they mean to leave us to die?" Aleph answered back with a question of his own, letting out a hint of the bitterness he felt.

"That is…"

"We held them off for three days, Iona. One of which I saw to on my own. You said they would arrive by now."

She scanned the room as if looking for something, beelining towards the chair Aleph lent to his patients. She immediately slumped and closed her eyes. For a while, it was deathly quiet in the room. Aleph almost thought Iona had fallen asleep.

After a while, her eyes opened up a crack, finally looking Aleph in the eye. "They were blocked. By a dragon, they said."

Aleph thought back to the creature that almost ended his and Vaynard's chances of escaping. Any army would have folded fighting such a being. "The black one? Did its rider show up with them? Did they survive?"

Suddenly, he felt far more fortunate that he didn't face that one instead.

"The king is dead, Aleph." He looked sharply at her, surprised by the news.

"How is it possible?" He asked incredulously.

"They're fine. Apparently, the dragon just stood in their way, only attacking if they got close enough. They got wise to it after a couple of attempts. Vaynard said the rider was nowhere to be seen, but I think we know where they went."

She rolled a piece of parchment across the table, but didn't say anything more. Aleph took a glance at it, only to stiffen. It was an obituary, proclaiming the death of King Mios.

"They just announced it today. The king was stabbed by an unknown assailant. Vaynard had to double back upon hearing the news."

Iona sighed, clearly just as frustrated at the whole thing as Aleph was.

"Between the king's death and the dragon, most of the troops wanted to return to the capital, too. So they eventually marched. Vaynard had his coronation as soon as they arrived."

Aleph raised an eyebrow at that. "Did his capture not derail his status as crown prince?"

"It did, but then he turned up with an army on his back, so that helped, I think? He's been looked at as some sort of savior before then, and you giving him that shiny new cape did little to assuage those assumptions. Anyway, they need to deal with that first, before they can come to us. They hoped the dragon would be gone by then, too."

The silence stretched out after that. Aleph leaned back in his own chair. He noticed it before, but it offered too much comfort to be doing work in. This used to be the mayor's office, abandoned just as it was when the nobility tried to flee. He was increasingly certain that fate had marked these people for destruction. Tragedy just kept piling up for the people of Kyrios.

"How is your squad faring?" Aleph asked. Iona sighed once again, reminded of her other problems.

"To be honest, we're barely a team right now. Luke is down with horrible mana scarring, but he's really just complaining about having to stay in bed. It's the other two I'm worried about…" She shifted her position, putting her head down on the desk that separated them.

"I set Brig to work on a mountain of things, but I'll eventually run out, and the thoughts of what happened to his friends will catch up to him. I haven't even seen Polo since we won. People said he's just been wandering around but…"

Her shoulders started to shake. For all her competence, even Aleph forgets that she's quite young for her position.

Aleph went around the desk to give her an encouraging nudge. Then he walked to the window, looking down on the camps below.

"I think we should leave this place."

"...What?"

"There is so much death here that the people cannot rest. Prolonging our stay will only break our already fragile minds. We can return to mourn the dead another day."

"...Mmm." Was all he heard in response.

From above, he noticed Lacey and Brandon, walking out from below. They seemed shaken up, and he understood why.

"Rayse is awake." He said out loud.

__________________________________

Rayse lay in bed, unable to sleep. He struggled to calm his breathing, along with his chaotic mind. I really overdid it this time, he lamented. He raised his hand to his face and opened and closed it a few times as he tried to analyze what just happened.

He felt perfectly fine when he woke up. In fact, even now, he felt no pain. It was only when he tried healing Brandon that he felt something was wrong.

Is it berserk again? Probably, but he hoped his master could do something about it like last time. He turned to his side, looking out at the open window. It was already dusk, meaning he had been sleeping for at least 36 hours.

Rrrrrr-

Somehow, thinking about the time made him hungry. He wiggled his toes and fingers one last time, just to see if he had any other injury. Once he was sure he wasn't hurt anywhere else, he got up to look for some food.

__________________________________

"That boy… Can he really not use magic anymore?"

"Yes, I have done all I could." 

"But Luke also overdid it and you said he'll be fine! Are you sure nothing can be done?"

She pulled himself out of the chair to face him. She seemed as distressed as he ever saw her.

"Against my repeated warnings, he overused that horrid spell of his. What's worse, he squeezed out so much mana at once that the passageways inside his body had all but burned down. They may recover on their own or with repeated healings, but he would never again wield close to the realm of power he exhibited today."

"But that kid… He would have been a hero…"

Iona's knees buckled at his words. It's no wonder, too. It may have been fleeting, but he showed power exceeding a herald at that moment. Power that eclipsed Aleph's current self.

"For now, just glad that he lives."

On one hand, he felt devastated that his student cannot fulfill his potential, but on the other, that meant Rayse would be safe from all the fighting. Maybe Lacey and Brandon have similar concerns, he considered.

After some time, Iona stood up. She joined him by the window as he looked over the camp. They looked at the townsfolk for a time, as the sunset bathed them in gold. They found Rayse slinking out of the building, walking determinedly towards the cookfire. Aleph could sense his burgeoning mana heart even from here, but alas, the mana veins in the boy's body had all but burned to a crisp. It amazed him that the humans of this world could function entirely separately from the condition of their magical organs. I suppose that goes for people who hadn't developed theirs, too. He mused.

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"Miss Iona?*

She shifted her gaze from where Rayse was, and flashed him a smile.

"Now that Rayse can't do it, we need to turn YOU into a hero."

He remembered their talk when they arrived here. He'd been mulling over her words then, and now, looking at the town, he'd come upon an answer.

"Erebos just cannot let me rest… No matter, until he's slain, you are free to use my talents as you please."

Iona held out her hand at him, offering a handshake. He remembered the first time they did this, back in Sleepy Joe's tavern in what now seems so long ago. Has it really just been a year? As someone used to eternity, the constant ebbs and flows of this new life seemed fantastical to him.

Just like back then, he took her hand and shook it, sealing the deal.

Iona moved again, but this time to leave. Aleph watched her go, only for her to stop at the door. Her hand hovered on it, but she made no effort to open the door. Instead, she looked back at him, asking one final question.

"Oh, by the way. You remember that knife the demon stabbed me with? Do you still have it?"

"I have been trying to locate it since you both were taken away. My guess is that it was blown out into the plains during all the fighting."

"Hmmm."

"Why do you ask? Did something happen?"

"Well…", Iona hesitated, her expression grim. "I don't know if I should tell you this, but the king isn't really dead. He was found stabbed, but they managed to save him. He's currently bedridden, heart still beating but unable to wake."

Aleph started to sweat. He recognized the symptoms.

"You mean–"

"Yes, Aleph. King Mios has Eroded."