God of Nothing

They followed Connor from that point on. They sped up too at his suggestion, making Rayse feel much better about not encountering any wandering bands of Harbingers like yesterday. It wasn't like they would have any trouble, but if that could happen right outside the fortress walls, he shuddered to think about what lay this far out.

They've been sprinting for a while now, the landscape changing rapidly as they went. The sides still looked mountainous, but now they've begun to encounter remnants of past battle lines. Ruined camps, dessicated barricades, and even the occasional dead demon littered the field. The lack of human corpses was unnerving. He hoped it was because of wildlife, but the absence of signs of them being preyed upon unlocked some horrific imagery in Rayse's mind.

I hope they didn't mess with where my parents lay, he thought.

He looked at each of his companions, checking how they were faring in the journey. Connor looked calm and focused, his jumpy, indecisive first impression fallen by the wayside as he expertly maneuvered the group in these wastes. It was a straight journey, but Rayse still appreciated him coming. Like Luke, the younger man seemed to perk up at the mention of his parents, making him realize how big an impact they really had in the war.

Luke seemed fine, the big man able to keep up quite easily with the younger crowd. It looked like he had completely recovered from Kyrios. He huffed along, carrying nothing but a small pack of provisions, a light green light oozing from his skin. He knew the way as well, so he ran by Connor's side, nay, even a bit ahead, ready for anything that might come at them.

The biggest surprise though was Polo, who sprinted abreast with Rayse himself. He suspected Luke had decided to slow their progress in the beginning to allow him to follow, but even at a pace where regular men would falter, the sickly looking man followed without complaint. Like Luke, he also used his mana to fuel his speed, but the green glow stayed on his skin and didn't leak out like the former. It was times like these when he realized that Polo was every bit as competent as his sister.

Rayse himself was surprised he could keep up. With everyone around them using mana to fuel their strength and stamina, he figured he'd eventually tire out at this pace. It hasn't happened yet, though. In fact, he felt like he could go longer than he could before. Mana hearts improving somebody's physical traits were a common occurrence, but this extent left Rayse wondering exactly how much mana he had rampaging in his body right now.

He noticed Luke try to talk Connor down from speeding up with mana, likely out of consideration to his condition, but didn't bring it up when he saw how Rayse kept up. 

…Maybe it wasn't Polo Luke was looking out for with our former speed, Rayse thought.

Connor only looked ahead, serenely focused on the mission, so eventually they all just ran in silence until the scenery shifted once again. Rayse saw the remains of a camp, same as all the others, save for a lone structure. It was a familiar construct of magically molded earth, stretching far more widely than any of the others they had come across. Connor motioned for the group to slow down, and they eventually settled in. They found a nearby door, which, after closing his eyes for a moment, the scout went through by himself. The rest followed, seemingly familiar with this place. Bracing himself, Rayse entered last.

"...Oh." A soft gasp escaped his lips at the scene. It was brighter than he thought, as he late afternoon sun peeked through the windows to give the room a surreal feel. The inside was a massive space of  gray walls and packed dirt floors. There were splatters of brown in the walls, but the stone blocks themselves were looking spotless. Rayse walked up to the nearest one, running his hands through. He looked up to see his companions walking separately from each other. Connor was kneeling in one block, while Polo was just wandering around. Luke was walking up to one spot, where the wall had been busted open. It was away from the almost uniform placements of stone blocks so Rayse didn't notice, but there was a pair of them right there on the opening.

"This used to be our hospital wing. Had to repurpose it after the ambush." Luke said somberly. "I was meaning to do it up more nicely, but we lost the position soon after this fight, and I never got the chance to return until today." 

Rayse joined him as Luke knelt, and he knew it was the spot. It was all but confirmed by Luke's sobbing.

"Rasan, Shelly, I brought your kid." He said, voice quivering in the wind. Rayse knelt beside him, just looking at his parents' graves.

It was a picturesque scene, two stone monuments illuminated by the afternoon sun, the shadow it cast fell on the pair that grieved. The light bounced off of them a little, making them sparkle despite being a hurriedly made construct. In Rayse's eyes, the stone coffins may well have been made out of marble. He basked in the atmosphere for a while, strangely feeling comfort in the shadow of his parents' grave. He felt a hand rest upon his shoulder, and he turned to see Connor's tear stricken face.

"I just always used to run right past this place. Holds too many memories, you know?" He swept his hands back over to the rest of my graves. " Two of my brothers lay within the stone. Saw Miss Shelly bring them back right from the grave when I was a messenger, only for those damn demons to strike when we least expected.

"I thank you in their stead, Rayse. For giving me enough time to say goodbye. I know I was being greedy for wanting more, but now I'm just glad that their suffering is over."

He heard a shuffling from his side, and once again, he looked to see Polo bowing deeply at the grave. He still didn't speak, but the shaking of his shoulders told Rayse all he needed to know. And that's where the tears start to escape him.

He always had misgivings about his parents going off to war. He used to always tell them no when they went to the warfront to take care of the wounded. Always threatened to sell the house and run after them as their trips became longer and longer. Rayse practically begged for at least Shelly to stay, so maybe his sisters wouldn't drive him crazy as much, but the answer was always the same.

"Now, now Ray. If going there was enough for less people to experience having lost their parents, wouldn't that be worth it?"

He would always fire back with him having lost his own parents, but then Rasan would just smile and pat him on the head. He felt that it was unfair that Lacey and Brandon got to keep their parents while his had to go off and save people he didn't even know. In fact, he didn't understand that until recently, he wasn't capable enough to be doing the saving.

Seeing these great men appreciate his parents' sacrifice made it all the more cathartic. He watched through tears as Luke massaged his shoulder, smiling at the grave. By his own admission, the man wouldn't even be here if his parents hadn't saved him that day. That single act meant that the people of Hios, Kyrios, and all the rest of the towns near the portals they raided with Luke had his parents to thank for that.

The fact that his parents had done that for countless others made Rayse realize the magnitude of their contributions to the war.

They paid their respects in silence, and eventually, Rayse stood up to pray for each of the other graves too, the poor souls that his parents were trying to save. When satisfied, he walked over to where the rest were to suggest returning to the fortress when he noticed something strange.

Beyond was a large forest just ahead of the hospital building, stretching end to end between the mountain chains on either side. Have they always been there? Luke followed his gaze and narrowed his eyes in similar confusion.

"I don't remember there being a forest here. What's going on, Connor?" Luke asked. 

"...Strange. These woods weren't here when I passed earlier." Connor muttered. 

Rayse walked up to inspect the trees, which looked off to him for some reason. They were quite close, only a couple paces from the graves. How could I not notice an entire forest? He ran his hand through the bark, and it made his senses go haywire. He jerked his hand back, revealing a whitened bark where his hand came away. He lept back as wooden tendrils emerged from the earth to pierce his position. He returned back into the building, where everyone waited with weapons at the ready. The trees shook off the soot covering their trunks as branches swayed, moving against the wind like many headed serpents.

Moving creepily like this, he remembered what they were now.

"Shit! They're demons!" Rayse warned as he pulled out his spear. The trees shrieked, a high pitched sound that was so unnatural, it made the hairs on the back of their heads stand up . The barks opened up to reveal a large red eye, looking at the intruders that disturbed their slumber. The menacing forest began to shake the very ground they stood on.

"W-what do we do?" Connor said. The veteran scout had clearly never seen such a thing before.

Rayse's senses were still sensitive from touching them before. Through the tremors, he felt a similar power burgeoning from below, a force of such magnitude that he abandoned any plans of fighting.

"Something big's coming at us! Run!"

That broke the standstill. They each retreated back where they came and kept on running, only looking back once the shaking had stopped. Rayse wondered if it was alright to turn back when all of a sudden, the ground and sky flipped, sending them all tumbling to their feet. 

"Tilling!"

Rayse steadied himself with his spear so he didn't meet an embarrassing fall, and luckily, Luke conjured up a nice bed of softened soil for the rest to tumble on. In any case, They all turned back to see that a massive tree had emerged from right under the hospital, crushing the entire thing on its wooden grasp.

"No!!" He shouted, but he was held back by Luke from advancing. They tussled for a bit, with Rayse winning out, but the earth itself molded around him immediately afterwards to keep him in place.

"Mom! Dad! Let me go, Luke!" He pleaded, squirming in the ever shifting earth that held him, his prodigious strength all but useless as he failed to get any leverage. Both spear and shield were pulled away from him, leaving him helpless in the dirt.

"It's not me, kid." Luke said sadly, which prompted Rayse to stop struggling. He turned to his companions. First to an awestruck Connor, and finally to Polo, who held out shining olive orb at him. He looked on as a sad smile began tugging at his forlorn friend, shadows of his former self beginning to show. He shook his head and spoke with a raspy voice.

"Sorry, bud, but sis wouldn't want you dying today."