The Immortal Witch Misses Frey
Danger!
The thought barely cleared his mind before he was crashing through the underbrush. His mana was already spent—he couldn't so much as fly—so he ran across the earth like the flightless mages he used to mock as Ground Bugs.
Something whistled past and burst at his side.
BOOM—!
"Ghk...!"
He couldn't let his eyes be pulled away, and he couldn't stop running. Stop, and he would surely die—so he ran.
"Save... me."
He ignored the voice calling for help from somewhere in the dark. He was not going to die in a place like this.
I'm going back!!!
Back to that one!
BAAAAANG—
Strangely, his body would not run. He lost his balance and went tumbling across the ground without end.
"Krgh, khak...!"
A spell must have struck him somewhere. He had to get up and flee at once, yet strangely, no strength would enter his body.
"Uh..."
Blood was streaming across the ground, and in his belly there was a hole so wide he wondered whether he might see clear through to the other side.
"What... is this..."
There's a hole in my body... My body, a hole...?
Impossible.
I was hit by magic?
Ah—a potion. They said that when you took a hit, you drank a potion for first aid.
He reached into his bag.
BANG—
With a blast of searing heat, his hand vanished from the wrist up. He felt no pain. He couldn't understand what had happened.
"Ah—ha, khak... hah... My hand... my hand is gone...!"
Now there was only one thought left. Someone had told him to be most careful of a single witch among the enemy. She enjoyed driving people to the edge and watching them die.
"Why... whyyy..."
Damn it.
"Why me, of all people?!!! Krgh... ugh..."
He could no longer breathe, nor speak. As his sight gradually blurred, moonlight caught a sheen of beautiful golden hair that glimmered silver as well, and a woman appeared through the tousled strands, smiling radiantly. Yes...
The Witch was there.
"Ah. Dead."
The head drops, strengthless, and I watch the corpse go still. With this, more than half the enemy has been wiped out in the sortie. Still, I catch myself wondering whether the attack meant anything.
"Not that it matters. I'll be looking at the same faces again tomorrow... What did they call it—the City? How many Human Clones are they stamping out? Our side doesn't even have the capacity."
I could do something of the sort, if I wished. But that would be an insult to the dead, and it is my creed not to use forbidden magic.
"If I don't finish what's left and get back for my Freynium, I might lose my temper and start killing my own team..."
Days have already passed since I came to the battlefield. Quite a long time, too, since I last saw Frey.
I want to shower in warm water as soon as I can, see Frey, eat a hot meal, nibble sweet pastries, and fall asleep with Frey held tight in my arms. My head is that full of her.
"What if they had Frey over there... Would they mass-produce Freys and use them to keep me...? Just picturing it is awful."
Even so, to me, Frey is my one and only friend—and my lover.
"I'll be back soon, Frey."
I look up, and the starlight glitters. Right now, we must be gazing at the same sky. I am there in it, and so is Frey.