The bow dropped to the ground, evaporating into blue dust. His breathing was heavy, chest rising and falling faster than normal. The strength he had during the fight faded away completely. All that energy burned out and he couldn't even stand up.
His knees were against the cold, hard ground. He let his eyes travel the battlefield before him. It landed on a girl with red hair, only a few feet away from him. Her eyes shut, body limp. He couldn't push himself to be beside her.
In battle, he had no time to mourn over the loss of his friends. If he had let his emotions take over, he could've lost. The world would've been shrouded in malevolence, then more than one person would suffer the loss of lives. Sacrifices were essential to a peaceful world, but he wished with all his heart that it ended on a happier note.
Even the other seraphs lives were taken. Luckily, he still had his best friend. His heart ached immensely for all the lives lost against the Lord of Calamity.
"Sorey, we did-"
"Yeah! We did! I can't wait to see the world we've accomplished together," Sorey said, smiling at the sound of Mikleo's voice. At least he was here to experience and mourn with him. He was never alone with his best friend by his side. Though, he wished Mikleo did not feel that way. He wanted the seraph to be happy, but such sorrow emotions were inevitable. "But for now, I think we should rest."
Sorey fell at his side against the hard ground. It probably wasn't the best idea for him to lie there, but he couldn't get himself to move out of there.
"We should dearmatize," Sorey whispered, trying to remove the armatization. But it wasn't coming off. He tried again and ended up with the same result. He sat up, "Mikleo? I can't dearmatize."
Mikleo did not say a word the entire time.
"Mikleo?" Sorey said again.
He looked at his hand. It was still in armatized form, but he couldn't hear Mikleo.
He couldn't feel Mikleo.
"Mikleo?!" He yelled with panic. His hands began to tremble at the worst possible scenario spread inside his mind. "Mikleo, please answer me!"
The Shepherd tried his best to stand up, but that only made how felt worse. His knees were going to give out and if they did, he'd crash on the ground. He looked around, everyone he knew was gone.
"Mikleo, please. Not you too!" Sorey shouted at the empty battlefield before him. The tears started welling up in his eyes. He still had hope that maybe Mikleo was too tired to respond, but he could not feel his presence.
How could he continue to stay as armatus if Mikleo wasn't there anymore?
Sorey knew Mikleo was growing weak, but he did not imagine that his existence would be stripped away. Even Sorey, himself, was losing a lot of power with his battle with the Lord of Calamity. Would he, too, disappear like his friends had before him?
He stood there, hugging himself. Would that be the end?
"Mikleo," he whispered between heavy gasps. "I can't...go on. Without you...here."
I was never lonely because I had you.
Sorey began to feel weaker than before, his body was feeling the effects of how pressure he used in battle. The right side of his began to feel numb, his right eye slowly losing vision. He felt nauseous and started to cough. Blood spewed out of his mouth as he fell on his knees.
"No!" Sorey shouted on instant. But inside, he thought, maybe that was for the best.
Once again, he stared at his hands. They were shaking uncontrollably and the light around his armatus began to fade, growing dim. "Lights out, I guess."
The armatus flickered on and off. He could see his human form peeking through. Instead of feeling relief that it was coming off, he panicked. Sorey didn't want to lose whatever was left of Mikleo, so he forced the armatus to stay on him as best as he could.
"Maybe, if I..." He tried to materialize the bow in his right hand, hoping it were possible. To his surprise, the weapon appeared in his hand. He let a sigh of relief and held it in front of him, barely making out the design with his weak eyes.
His eyes grew wide as he felt a slight glimmer of Mikleo's soul. Gently caressing the weapon, he understood what happened to his best friend. Sorey could not hold onto the divine artifact. It was fading within his grasp and Sorey had no power to hold on to it.
"At least, I know you're here. Somehow. But I...need you to be here. Physically..." A tear escaped. "With me."
The weapon completely disappeared, leaving Sorey alone again. Mikleo's presence, once again, gone. Which caused the armatus to flicker as well. But he continued to hold on, afraid of what might happen if he let his armatus disappear forever.
He coughed out blood again. The painful side effects of keeping the armatus on was hurting his insides. It felt as if his lungs and heart might burst, but Sorey didn't care. He needed Mikleo with him.
Sorey wanted to get enough strength to bring Mikleo's weapon back, so he could step into the real world and see what the world had become. He had to hold on, even if every part of him was going against him.
Without enough strength to hold him up, he crashed against the ground.
"I'm sorry, Mikleo." He closed his eyes.
