Ben finally opened his eyes after basking in sunlight every day. It was faster than Porylusica's prediction of 2 to 3 months. Well, that prediction was made on the 2nd day his treatment started.
The prediction isn't accurate because Porlyusica doesn't know the amount of solar energy that Ben's body absorbed. It's amount was very low at first because his body took extensive damage. But as his body gets better, the amount increased and accelerated his healing.
"BEN!" Bella shouted happily as she jumped on his body.
"Hmm? What happened? Bella, why are you so excited?" Ben asked, confused.
"It's because you've been asleep for too long." Mira said with tears in her eyes.
"Asleep? What are you talking about?" Ben questioned.
"What's the last thing you remember, Ben?" Porlyusica asked.
He tried to recall his last memory and it finally surfaced. His eyes widened and he became alert before looking around for danger. The last thing he remembered was using all of his power to protect Mira and Bella from Acnologia's attack.
"Where's Acnologia? Where's everyone else?" Ben asked, panicking.
"Calm down, Ben. It's over. He's gone." Mira said as she gave him a hug.
"Really? Then everyone is safe?" Ben asked hopefully.
"That's..." She trailed off.
Ben's eyes widened and his body trembled as his heart beats rapidly. He immediately jumped out of his bed and left the room. Then he ran around the tree, checking every room that he found as he ran.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! WENDY! CARLA! WHERE ARE YOU? COME OUT RIGHT NOW! THIS IS NOT FUNNY. I WON'T GET MAD IF YOU COME OUT NOW. I WILL BUY ANYTHING YOU WANT, SO COME OUT!" Ben angrily shouted.
He keeps shouting and calling for his two sisters while calling out his guild mates names a few times too. But none of them respond even after Ben checked every room and exited the tree house. He doesn't give and ran around the forest to search for them.
Mira and Bella pursue him and tell him to stop, but he doesn't listen. The last thing he wanted to experience was losing his family again. So he is in denial and hopes Wendy and Carla are fine as he ran around to search for them.
Slowly, his angry tone turned into one of begging as tears flow from his eyes. "Please! Wendy, Carla, please come out. I will do anything you want, so just answer me, I beg you. I'll take you to any festival that we haven't attended, we'll go on vacation anywhere you want, I'll even take you on my journey, so please come out, please."
Mira and Bella cry as they see Ben's strong back slump down weakly as he cried.
"Please don't leave me." He said.
The girls hug Ben from behind as he cried harder and louder. He had never cried this hard in his whole life because now he felt his whole world collapse. This was the 3rd time he's lost his family members through misfortune like this, so it really breaks his heart.
Mira and Bella understand what Ben is feeling and they also cry hard on his back. They pour all their emotions through their tears and cry. The three had just lost the most important thing in the world.
Porlyusica just watched the three from afar without saying anything. She can't do anything except watch them and make sure they don't do anything reckless. As their elder, she has the responsibility to watch over them.
"This must be very hard for you, so you can cry as hard as possible. But you need to move on after this, don't get stuck in the past just because of your grief and sadness. If you can get past this, then you will be a lot stronger." Porlyusica muttered while standing behind a tree.
Ben, Mira and Bella cry for a long time until their tears won't come out anymore. They sniffle and Ben just looks down sadly without saying anything. Mira and Bella have better complexions because it's been over a month since they found out while Ben had just learned about now.
The girls just sit there silently to give Ben time to sort his emotions. He just kept quiet while looking down with his head between his knees. His face is expressionless and his eyes were blank as if his mind wasn't there.
Ben thought about why this kept happening to him. He had trained to grow stronger and he had become stronger than most mages. But his strength is not enough and he lost some precious people again.
"Ben let's go back. It's almost night time." Mira said.
Bella also nudged Ben's shirt but he didn't respond. He remained silent and didn't move from his position at all. It made the two really sad to see Ben like this. The pain in his heart must be immense for him to be in this state.
They don't have a choice but to take Ben back to the tree house by force. He didn't resist and just let them carry him back. They put him on his bed and he still didn't move as they lay him down.
Then just like what Mira did on the first day after learning what happened, Ben doesn't want to eat anything. But he doesn't lock himself in his room and will still swallow the food if they feed him. The problem is he still has a blank expression and doesn't respond to anything they say even after 5 days.
"It's been 5 days and he's still like that. It really breaks my heart to see him like this. Can't we do something?" Mira asked while she ate dinner with Porlyusica and Bella.
"Help Ben." Bella said while looking at Porlyusica hopefully.
"It's difficult. Even I don't know what we should do. It will be better if he wants to talk, but he's been silent for 5 days. His body might be here but his mind isn't. Helping someone who doesn't even listen is a hard thing to do." Porylusica said.
"Then what should we do? We can't let him stay like this forever." Mira asked.
"I know, but it's not that easy. If we at least know what he thinks or wants, then maybe we can think of a way to help him." Porlyusica said.
"What he wants, is it? The only thing I can think of is he wants to know Wendy and Carla are fine." Mira said.
"Giving him false hope isn't a good thing to do. It's better to know the painful truth rather than a happy lie. Nothing good will come out of it." Porlyusica shook her head.
"But I can't think of anything else." Mira said.
"Let's try to ask him at least. We haven't tried it, so we don't know if it will work or not." Porylusica suggested.
Mira thought about it for a while.
"Alright. We need to try it at least." She said.
They go to Ben's room after finishing their dinner while carrying Ben's food. Mira fed him slowly while Bella held his hand in concern. Then after he finishes his meal, Mira finally asked a question.
"Ben, everything that happened also really broke my heart. But seeing you like this breaks my heart even more. Bella is also very sad seeing you like this, so please come back." Mira begged.
Ben remained silent, so Mira continued. "At the very least, please say something to us. Please tell us what you want to do so that we can help you. Don't make us sadder than we already are."
Ben doesn't say anything but they still wait. They almost give up and leave when they hear Ben whisper something. They can't hear it clearly, so Mira got closer to Ben and saw that his face wasn't blank anymore although he still looked very sad.
"...land. Let's go to Tenrou Island. I want to make sure." Ben whispers.
Mira was surprised, but she also wanted to go there again to make sure of it. So she supported Ben's wish and told Porylusica about it. Bella agrees and wants to join them, so Porlyusica can't disagree.
"Alright, but I will join you too. I'm worried that you will do something that puts you in danger." She said.