Avatar of the Frozen Behemoth: Volume 1

Chapter 37: The Last Goodbye

Yukio reached out, his hand hovering just above her small shoulder, trembling violently as though even the act of touching her might shatter him. He hesitated, fingers brushing her blood-soaked clothes, unable to force himself to meet the sight of the deep gashes in her head.

I can't. I can't look. I won't survive this if I do. The blood-her blood-was everywhere. It had drenched her hair, pooled beneath her, spreading like a plague, darkening the ground with a sickening crimson. Yukio recoiled as if burned, bile rising in his throat.

This isn't real. It couldn't be. Amara-his baby sister-lying there like this... it was impossible. His mind screamed at him to wake up, to escape from this nightmare, but the smell of iron and the sight of her broken body told him there was no escape. No waking up.

His chest tightened, squeezing with a pain so deep, it felt like his heart was trying to claw its way out. "No... no, no, no..." His voice cracked, hoarse, weak. "Please, no..."

His knees buckled, sending him crashing beside her body, but he didn't care. He couldn't care. The pain in his legs was nothing compared to the agony tearing through him. "Amara..." Her name tasted like ash on his lips, and it hurt to even say it aloud.

The sight of her bullet wounds, the blood that wouldn't stop flowing, all made him want to collapse and never move again. Yukio's knees hit the ground hard, but the pain in his legs was nothing compared to the suffocating guilt crushing his soul.

He let out a broken cry, the kind of sound that came from a place far beyond physical pain. "I... I should've been faster... I could've... If I just..." His words trailed off, as if even his own voice betrayed him.

He wanted to lift her up, to take her away from this burning, destroyed town before the soldiers found her body, but every time he moved her, more blood poured from her wounds. It was too much-too much for him to bear.

Yukio froze, staring down at his sister's bloodied body, unable to keep his composure any longer. If I touch her again, will she fall apart? I can't even carry her. What kind of brother am I?

He collapsed forward, his head resting beside hers, feeling the cold, lifeless skin of his sister against his. "I-I'm sorry," he whispered again, his voice barely audible as his head hung low. "I... can't carry you. I... I'm too weak... I can't even do this for you, Amara. Forgive me..." Tears dropped from his chin onto her face.

He gently wiped them away, but they only mixed with the blood that had already stained her cheek. "I'm so sorry Amara, I really am" he whispered, barely able to breathe through the sobs that choked him. Sorry won't change anything, you idiot. She's gone. She's gone because of you.

The echoes of explosions rang out in the distance, but it was the chanting that broke through his grief. Yukio lifted his head slightly, just enough to catch the words. "May chaos prevail and devour," the Janoan soldiers repeated over and over, their voices growing louder as they approached.

Yukio's eyes widened. He had heard those words before. Black symbols had covered Spadia just before the first bomb went off, flickering orange and growing brighter as if marking the end of everything. He blinked, shaking off the memory. He couldn't afford to get lost in it now.

He looked down the street and saw more soldiers moving closer, torching buildings, checking for any survivors. They shot at bodies on the ground with flaming bullets that scorched the dead flesh, ensuring no one was left alive. The sound of gunfire was sickening, the finality of it pressing against his mind like a vice.

"I have to go," Yukio whispered, looking back at Amara's body. "I have to leave you..." His heart screamed at him to stay, but the logical part of his mind knew he couldn't. The soldiers were coming. They would find her. They would desecrate her body.