Another day passed at Pioneer Village, and Dawn broke with a familiar rhythm with cooking fires being lit. The construction crews assembled while children's laughter echoed between buildings that grew more permanent with each sunrise.

Vlad found them at breakfast, and he glanced through the group, Reinhard, Marie, Joseph, and Brunhilde. They were all seated around a small fire, eating food from the latest supply delivery.

"You can continue with your mission now." Vlad said with a chuckle.

Marie looked up mid-bite before she swallowed quickly and spoke. "Are you sure?"

Vlad nodded slowly. "Trust me, we have found enough people to fill the roles for you. Go on, complete the true reason you came."

The reminder struck, they'd arrived seeking Joseph's sister Vivian, investigating her disappearance. That original purpose had been consumed by a larger catastrophe, which they needed to deal with to reach the area where her signature would lead them.

Reinhard and the others nodded, smiles appearing despite underlying concern about continuing the search. As they approached Pioneer Village's edge, familiar voices called out behind them.

"Wait!"

Janus, Veryn, and Amiya all rushed over with urgency. They arrived slightly breathless before looking up at Reinhard and the other with a determined look.

"Vlad told us you guys were going to do your mission now?" Janus asked quickly.

Reinhard and the others nodded, with Marie looking at them curiously.

Veryn then says. "Can we tag along?" She glanced toward Amiya before continuing. "From what Amiya told me, the direction should be the same way as Naraku Town."

Amiya nodded, her voice dropping to near-whisper. "We want to... check it out..."

The unspoken meaning was clear. The town where they'd grown up, and where their families had made final stands, where the townspeople had chosen staying over evacuation. It might most likely be underwater since it was consumed by the tide before its transformation.

They wanted to see, to confirm, to perhaps find closure.

Marie's smile appeared immediately as he moved forward, and she took Amiya's hand in both of hers. "Of course. Let's go check it out."

The acceptance made Veryn smile while Amiya and Janus's shoulders relaxed slightly, tension bleeding away at having support rather than facing alone.

The group departed quickly.

Seven people moving through the restored forest Reinhard, Marie, Joseph, Brunhilde, Janus, Amiya, and Veryn. The landscape they traveled through bore no resemblance to the root-covered or crimson-black tide one.

Trees stood tall and healthy with grass covering the ground without any roots, and the beautiful blue water moved along. Birds chirped while squirrels ran up and down the trees, and they saw some deer eating the grass without a care in the world.

Joseph had the Signal Master in his hand and was leading them. The device was a compass with wings extended from the sides, one black and one white, aligned diagonally. White strap hung from the bottom while the device itself shimmered faintly, magic visible in its construction.

The compass needle swung, pointing toward a specific direction. It tracked Vivian's magical signature connection, which was established before her disappearance, allowing location despite distance or obstacles.

They followed the signal but not in a hurried manner, and allowed Janus and Amiya to set the pace as their destination approached. Neither spoke, faces showing complex emotions difficult to settle on just one.

The forest gradually transitioned.

The area around gave way to smaller trees and less dense grass, with the water being more prevalent here. Reinhard saw small streams becoming channels, suggesting larger bodies of water ahead.

Then they saw it.

The town was underwater, the buildings rising from what had become a shallow lake. Water level reached second-story windows on taller structures, completely consuming single-story homes.

But when they narrowed their eyes, they saw the buildings showed damage beyond simple submersion. Walls had collapsed, roofs caved in, timber structures listing at angles suggesting imminent total collapse. Stone foundations remained, but everything built upon them was ruined.

Janus and Amiya stopped at the water's edge. They stared with expressions gone completely blank; they weren't crying or speaking, and just stared as if they were processing the sight of their home transformed beyond recognition.

The others gathered behind them, but no one offered a comforting hand or a hollow reassurance. Once Janus and Amiya recovered enough, they stepped into the lake and began moving through it.

The chillingly clear water swirled around their ankles, then their knees. They felt silvered fish dart between their legs; it seemed animals had already taken root in the place.

Buildings slid past on either side like tombstones. Janus's head turned, his gaze landing on a torn apart part of the house, and his feet stopped moving as he stared into it. The window of his old room, where Nigen had sat with him through storms after Misha was gone.

Amiya's eyes were locked elsewhere, on the crushed husk of a residence where the roof had been peeled back, exposing the interior. She could almost see her mother, Lena, tending the herb boxes on the windowsill, now swallowed by the water.

No bodies remained.

The tide had consumed everything organic before transformation, leaving only structures as evidence that people had existed here.

They reached the town square.

The central area where the community had gathered, where Janus and Amiya had played as children, where townspeople had made their final stand before evacuation. The water here was deeper, reaching their mid-thigh, but no animals around.

Janus stopped moving completely before he said slowly. "Do... Do you guys think there could have been another way?"

Reinhard closed his eyes before responding. "I'm not sure. I didn't get to ask Charles if this was the only way, but considering his desire to end the Dark Silence and not lose that many people..."

He left the statement incomplete, allowing implication to settle.

Amiya gave a slow, mechanical nod, her head moving as if against a great resistance. "This path." She forced out. "Was the one with the least amount of lives lost."

A heavy sigh escaped Brunhilde. "Even with how crazy his actions were, he only wanted to erase the buildings and objects of the Forerunners, not the people themselves."

Reinhard's voice gained a softer yet distant tone. "And Charles only wanted himself to die, as punishment for cowardice and guilt... I could feel his emotions when Honor died, and his emotions during my fight with him." He paused. "The emotion standing out the most was guilt and pain."

A violent tremor ran through Janus. His hands clenched into white-knuckled fists at his sides, the sharp bite of his nails drawing thin, dark trails of blood that dripped into the clear water. "Then couldn't we have waited?" He burst out, an angry expression appearing. "A couple more days, even one more day, to evacuate-"

"Would the townspeople and villages have left?" Marie's question came gently, without judgment, but cutting to the core issue.

Janus fell silent, unable to formulate arguments against the truth he already knew.

Then Amiya began to shake. It started in her hands before spreading over her entire body, a dam threatening to shatter. Her voice was thick, choked with the tears she was no longer holding back. "They were all so stubborn…"

Joseph let out a soft sigh. "I only knew them for two days, but it was long enough to know they would never have abandoned this place."

Amiya nodded, the motion sending tears tracking freely down her cheeks. "You're wrong about one thing, though." She whispered. "Their home wasn't the towns or the villages. It was the entire forest. Even if we had evacuated them, they would never leave the forest, no matter what we said."

Reinhard hummed before saying. "Then implementing my plan of knocking them out was the best, huh?"

A laugh escaped Janus that was half a sob and amusement. A chuckle escaped Amiya, the shared recognition of a ridiculous yet perfect solution breaking through their grief.

"Yeah." Janus said, a grin appearing through pain. "That would have been a good idea."

Amiya added. "Although they would have been pissed after waking up."

Janus's grin widened. "But they would have been alive to be."

A new silence descended, but this one was different. It was not the silence of shock, but of acceptance.

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