District 42-Chapter 319: When everything’s crumbling, Gods standstill

Rurik left Ari’s body on top of one of the beds. Tears were falling off his eyes while he did so. It was heartbreaking to see his friend like that. He couldn’t take it.

’Ivar is already stabilized, but we need to bring at least one of his senses back, so we can find a way to communicate to him what happened. For now, he is just a lost person who can’t do anything by himself. He can feel just the taste of things, and his body has some instinctive reflexes. However, without the rest, we can’t communicate at all.

’The healers are treating him as they could, but there are not enough resources in District 42 to make this kind of complex treatment. Most of our equipment was left inside the Castle, after all.’

He sighed, feeling a headache coming. However, he wore one of his gloves (because the other was thoroughly destroyed because of his last powerful attack) and put it on top of his own head, soothing that painful feeling.

’The worst thing is that there are other Aesirs still missed and I need to go look after them. Nonetheless, how can I bring myself to leave Ari alone here in this state? Even so, there is nothing I can do for him now. He is damn poisoned! I don’t have the resources to treat him right now, and don’t even know if these resources will come in time to heal him!’

His tears didn’t stop falling. He put his hands in front of his face, crying desperately beside Ari’s bed.

That was the first time that he was feeling a loser while acting as a healer. He never felt so lost and defeated as in that time.

’If my other glove was here, then I could heal everyone but... it got overwhelmed. All the damage that I got in that battle was absorbed. That’s the combat skill of the gloves that I myself implanted, even though I knew the risks. I still wanted to fight when the time came. But, to defeat that powerful Vanir, I needed to use it at its peak. I needed to absorb as much damage as possible.’

He was thinking over and over again if he did some kind of miscalculation when trying to turn the tables, but that wasn’t the case. He did it perfectly. That was the way to go.

’What do I do?’

Suddenly, someone burst inside the tent that he was, followed by a bunch of other Ridires.

"F-Freygar!?" Rurik wiped his tears, looking at him from top to bottom.

Apparently, he was ok. There were some serious wounds here and there, but he was in a good state. Better than 90% of the patients that Rurik got that day to take care of.

The troop coming along with him wasn’t in a good state, though. Some cases were serious, but the majority weren’t.

"Please, say to me that you brought good news!" Rurik approached him in a hurry, almost begging.

Freygar had a grim expression on his face, even painful.

"I am sorry. I don’t know what to say. It has been nearly thirteen minutes that I am searching for you since I got teleported here by Canute."

"C-Canute!? Wait, what happened?"

Freygar told him all the story that happened on the Royal Family’s floor, until the point where Jomurgand was going to end with their lives and then they got sent through a portal to a random place of District 42, out of the Castle.

"I heard a commotion among some citizens. They were saying that the Royal Family’s troops needed to get out of the Castle and set a support base, so I searched until I got here."

Rurik didn’t feel any better when hearing that story. He was expecting something more, though, because Freygar’s eyes were still worried and filled with anguish.

"What’s it, Freygar? What you have more?"

Freygar bit his lip behind the mask, he teared up but didn’t let himself cry there.

"It’s Brenna. We found her. The citizens could evacuate her when the teleporting pads got activated again. There were just a few, though. She couldn’t overcome the Vanir’s assault and break the dome as the others did. Most of the citizens were dead in the middle of the battlefield, not to mention the Ridires."

One of the warriors of Freygar’s troop carried Brenna’s body to Rurik.

The woman was mumbling nonsense continuously while drooling. Her body was having slight spasms in different parts. Her pupils were dilatated, her eyes aloof. She seemed to be in another dimension inside her brain.

Rurik let her on the bed. He didn’t even need to inspect carefully to know what was happening.

"She is in a complicated state..." He rubbed his mask. "Her mind got shattered. I don’t know how they did it, but she is out of herself. She is broken. Completely broken. It’s worse than a coma, even! It’s so explicit that I don’t even need to look any closer to knowing."

Rurik lost strength on his legs and just let himself sit on the ground, leaning his back on the side of the bed.

Freygar knew that the Immortal Aesir had enough at that point, but he still wanted to talk more.

"Hey, man... Do you know where are Casper, Canute, and Vick?"

The red-haired man just shook his head, clicking his tongue in frustration.

Their answer appeared, though. They didn’t really want to know that since the truth would surely be unbearable, but it came, anyway.

In the far away tents, a commotion could be heard.

Rurik and Freygar exchanged worried glances at each other. They could easily guess who were the ones causing such a mess there.

"Come here. We need to be the strongest, remember? When everything is crumbling, the gods are the ones standing still." Freygar approached his partner, offering him a trembling hand.

Rurik looked at it, then held it while nodding.

"Yes. It’s time to stand. I just hope I don’t fall again..."