"N-No, please...please, th-this...this has to be a dream, right? This isn't real...this isn't real, this isn't real, THIS ISN'T REAL!!!" Cried Keira in anguish, wailing over Kelsey's corpse.

A couple of minutes had passed since we woke her up, she was disoriented at first, before rushing towards Kelsey as the memories came flooding back.

She was eerily quiet for a moment, before breaking down.

The rest of us were hanging back, giving her some space as she grieved.

She was on her knees, her shoulders trembling as she sobbed uncontrollably, the tears streaming down her face and dripping onto her deceased lover's body.

This hurts to watch...I may not like her, but she didn't deserve this.

Before waking her, we gathered the bodies of the others who were killed, the Detector and the Ice Mage, before preserving them in Treasury.

We had to dig up the Detector's body, I used Devour to eat through the dirt. Her body was crushed and mangled beyond recognition, we wrapped up her remains before preserving them.

The Ice Mage, Lora Payne, I'll make sure to remember her name too...even as the others got taken down one by one, she kept fighting, and Aria would probably be dead if it wasn't for her.

That blast the Archdemon hit her with, it likely would've killed her if Lora hadn't raised those ice walls and absorbed some of the momentum of the blast.

"Damn it...damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!!! THIS ISN'T FAIR!!! Why?! Why?! WHY?!" Screamed Keira, her voice cracking towards the end, her shoulders slumping before she let our a choked sob as she whimpered, "Why, damn it...?"

I glanced to my left as Aria clutched my sleeve, not saying a word. It was the same with the rest of us too, none of us said a thing.

All we could do was stare quietly.

Sera then hesitantly stepped forward, taking a quiet, deep breath before slowly approaching Keira.

"G-Give her back...please, give her back. I'll...I'll do anything, so please...please...," She sobbed quietly, before jumping slightly as Sera gently placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey...come on, we should go. We shouldn't stick around this place any longer. Let's get back home and give her a proper burial, okay? Here, I'll help you carry her, we'll-...," Began Sera softly.

"N-No, don't touch her!" Exclaimed Keira, pushing her away.

"I'll go talk to her too. You two should hang back, though," Whispered Aria to me and Damien, before heading over as I nodded, while Sera tried to calm Keira down.

It took a while, the two of them gently comforting Keira, who snapped and lashed out at them initially, before slowly going more and more quiet the more they talked to her.

Eventually, she went completely silent, crying quietly to herself.

Aria and Sera were holding onto her on either side as the tears silently streamed down her face.

I can't imagine how she must be feeling. To have lost someone she so clearly loved deeply, and to see their corpse in such a brutalized state.

"Let's preserve her body now, okay? We'll make sure she rests peacefully once we get back," Remarked Aria gently, as she rubbed Keira's back.

"I-...o-okay," She mumbled quietly, before I walked over as Aria gestured at me.

Keira didn't so much as glance at me, as I created a copy of a bedsheet and handed it to Aria, who wrapped up the body with Sera's help.

Knowing how she feels about me, I'm probably the last person she wants touching Kelsey's corpse.

As the other two wrapped up the body, I opened a portal into an empty slot in Treasury, before they slowly and carefully placed the body into it.

Keira glanced at the portal, her face scrunching up slightly as a final tear ran down her face, before she averted her gaze as I shut the portal.

"If you want, you can rest, we'll carry you out," Offered Sera, as she placed a shoulder on Keira's arm.

"N-No, it's okay, I...I can walk," She responded quietly, before getting back onto her feet, stumbling slightly as her legs wobbled a bit.

She then looked around, before walking over towards something laying on the grass, reaching down and picking it up, before a quiet sob echoed out as she clutched the object to her chest.

I think that's one of the pieces of Kelsey's broken weapon handle.

She slid it into one of her belt loops, before turning around and walking back, lifting her head before nodding slightly as she met Aria's and Sera's gazes.

We then began heading back, getting out of the Boss Room and making our way down the Dungeon, none of us saying a word.

My first ever High Level raid, not to mention my first raid as a Guild Hunter...what a disaster this turned out to be.

<I must admit, I am a little surprised>

<I did not think you would care about the deaths of people you barely know>

Come on, I'm not that heartless.

It's not as though I'm grieving or anything...like you said, I barely knew them, so I'm not particularly torn up about it.

Even so, a bunch of people just died in front of me, I'd be a total psycho if I felt absolutely nothing.

It was the same during my final Practical Training exam.

<Perhaps you are more sympathetic because you got dangerously close to dying yourself?>

<You barely survived, so perhaps you are sympathetizing with those who weren't so lucky?>

<That was also the case during that exam, though to a much lesser extent>

Yeah, maybe. I couldn't really tell you, I'm not a psychologist.

Well, if nothing else, I'm sure as hell glad that I made it out of this alive. And Aria too, of course.

<Considering how high the Rage Meter went, I gathered as much>

<Sixty-five percent...previously, it has never gone higher than ten percent>

<Quite evidently, your feelings towards Ariella Velle have grown much stronger>

Well, uh, yeah, she's my closest friend and-...

<You know that's not what I meant>

...yeah. I know.

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