Even before Croix opened his eyes, he could taste the blood in his mouth. He could feel the cool cracked blacktop against his tattered cloak, and he could hear the gentle crackle of fire beside him.
For a while, he didn't want to get up. A strange feeling of peace pervaded over his mind in what felt like an eternity of it being absent. He could finally think with clarity and look upon the next day with hope instead of dread. Had it really been that long? Had they actually been trying to stop Aamodt for all this time? All in all, it'd probably been only a month but to a kid of his age, it could've been a decade for all he was concerned.
He let out a contented sigh, his chest aching at the heavy breath of air. It tasted like dusty rubble and ash. He coughed to get the residue out of his lungs and laid his head back down against the cool pavement.
"We did it," he said with a small smile forming on his lips, "we actually did it."
He continued to lay there, staring up at the starry night sky as the fire beside him and several others glowed ambiently. Then, without much rhyme or reason, he decided it was time to go home.
Croix rose shakily back into the air, nearly stumbling as his magical essence had trouble sustaining his wounded body in its typically floating posture. After a little bit of trying, though, he was able to steady himself in a stooped but still standing position.
And it was as he stood, that he heard a meek coughing just a few yards away, and a familiar voice call out to him.
"Croix…"
"L-Landen?" The little monster replied rushing toward where the human boy still lived, surrounded by ruined ground and exploded remnants of cars. His body was covered in ash and barely moved while still showing signs of faint life.
Croix gasped when he saw why.
Embedded in the center of his chest, caked in dried and still running blood, was a jagged piece of metal stuck straight through his torso, jutting out of him like a pointed gleam of silver.
"Croix…" Landen called again, coughing with a small moan in pain. "Are you there…?"
Croix could feel the tears already swell as he dashed to his side. He looked down at his friend; they're eyes meeting and holding the other's gaze for a moment.
"Looks like we beat him," Landen grinned slightly.
"Yeah," Croix sobbed, "we did..."
"I heard what you said to him...about forgiveness. Despite everything he did, I'm happy you said that to him. He needed it, especially at that moment."
He nodded but didn't say anything, his eyes instead moving down to the crooked piece of shrapnel inside Landen.
"It's bad...isn't it," the human remarked quietly.
Croix nodded.
"I guess that's my fault then. Trying to play the hero at the last minute, make myself useful while you were doing all the heavy lifting." He wheezed in pain once again and smiled. "I guess it didn't turn out so well in the end."
The little monster's watering eyes looked at him in confusion, his voice still wavering with sobs. "W-What do you m-m-mean by that?"
"You were standing right next to Aamodt before his being shattered. I knew that if it stayed where you were, you'd be fried or crushed in an instant. I tackled you, kept you covered while the entire lot was torn apart. But," His vision drifted to the massive bleeding wound in his chest, "I didn't have anybody to tackle me."
"Y-You saved me?"
The human's face turned serious for a moment as he shook his head. "Don't say it like that. It makes it seem like you did nothing and I did everything. You're the hero in all this, Croix, not me. If it wasn't for what you did, Crystal Bay and life as we know it would be gone. I just did what anybody would've done: helped a friend."
"Don't say that!" Croix shouted in desperation, tears dripping off his cheeks. "You were always there to protect me, to help me when I needed it most. I couldn't imagine what would've happened if we weren't together, holding on like we always do. You're a hero Landen, and the whole world owes you for it."
"Maybe," he said with a string of increasingly weaker coughs, "maybe. But hero or not, I don't have much time left. I can feel it already, the chill, the light…"
"Landen, no! You can't, you can't die! Not now, not like this! I need you!"
"The feeling's mutual, dude...but that's not going to stop what's already started."
"My Mom!" Croix suggested frantically. "She has healing magic! I can go get her; we can save you!"
Landen shook his head. "We're out of time; I'm already too far gone. There's nothing anyone can do for me now."
"Oh, c'mon Landen! There's gotta be something!"
"One thing," his friend struggled at keeping his voice above a whisper, "there's one thing I need to ask of you."
"W-What is it?"
Landen hacked with fading strength, blood flecking out of his mouth. "I always admired your drive, your persistence, your determination. You were able to stick with whatever you put your mind to and was always able to adapt to what life threw at you. You've got potential Croix, more than I or anyone else our age could hope for."
He reached out, clasping a gentle hand on his friend's shoulder. "Don't go wasting it wishing for me to come back. You're too good for that."
Croix sobbed, looking back at Landen with fresh tears. "I'm not sure if I can do that…"
"Promise me…" Landen whispered. "Promise…"
The little monster gripped his palm tightly, squeezing it as tight as he could. "I promise," he said in reply.
A last, bright smile formed on Landen's lips. "Thank you, Croix...for being my friend…"
And then the smile began to fade, the gentle hand on Croix's shoulder loosen, and the weak breaths ran silent.
Landen Fonten closed his eyes for the last time.
The limp hand on Croix's shoulder slid off him softly, falling without a sound to the cruel earth below. Croix looked to it and the body of his friend it had once belonged to.
All he could do was weep, water rolling down his face in a flurry of sadness, the world around him gradually turning black, the light of the fires and the night extinguished under a black curtain of emptiness.
Nothing mattered to him anymore. Landen Fonten was dead, and he'd died along with him.