L did not fear death per-se, but she was frustrated that she seemed to have died simply because her body had given up. She was a warrior; she always had been. A death in combat sure, being assassinated by some rival party maybe, but dying as she lay on the floor simply because her body gave out; it aggravated her. She figured that now that her body was dead, she would be heading to... wherever people go when they die. The God of Honor had never actually explained that part of things. L perceived a new "hole" in the in between, through it she glimpsed a massive wall made of stone, the outer edges of a fortress. L had always hoped there was some sort of warrior afterlife, perhaps this was it? As she drifted toward this "hole" in the in-between. A voice reached into her consciousness from the ether. "Are you certain you intend to go already?" The voice was not the God of Honor, L did not recognize it but it felt familiar to her somehow. She did her best to respond, still only having the barest grasps of how this place functioned. "I don't seem to have much of a choice do I? My body died." The voice smiled... although L had no idea how she knew that. "Did it? Or do you just think it died?" L looked at what she assumed was the portal to the afterlife, "I’m fairly sure this hole to the afterlife would not exist otherwise." The voice spoke, slightly disapprovingly. "Are you sure of that? Did it appear immediately after you "died?" Or did it appear until you convince yourself you died?"

A few moments of silence passed as L recounted her actions to herself. "I suppose that is true. The first time I died, there was no time delay before I was in-front of the God of Honor. Although I have no idea if there is supposed to be one if a God is not interfering. I’ve also been told that this place I currently exist in does not act the same way as the rest of... everything? I guess?" The voice laughed "I would not know, I have no knowledge of your location, not really. Refocusing for a moment please. Your body is almost like a second creature, it exists. Your soul exists. They have been mangled together in some way that is clearly not natural. Did you know, your body has no need to breath to keep itself alive?" L would have rolled her eyes if she had them, "You say that, but I’m fairly sure I’ve been breathing up to this point." Even though the voice was trying to keep itself neutral, exasperation managed to shine through. "Yes, but that was when your soul was inhabiting it. Your soul perceives the need for its body to breath, and its heart to beat, so your body does so. But I have seen your physical body, it requires ever so little to continue to function. In-fact, the only real thing it needs is your soul, a little rest, and a little energy; which you get from eating. It had lost its soul, and it also lost the reason to continue fighting without it. You might say your body has died, but I would say it’s just... waiting."

Her body was supposed to be a demons. The God of Honor said that demons were born without souls. In theory that would mean her body was a second living being, with her only being one half of the whole. However, she never felt that way, no second voices or strange desires. Not counting when she held her sword anyway. Perhaps it was created without a will of its own. Born "brain dead" so to speak. If L had a body currently, she would have a headache. "Yes, it’s all very confusing. The first time I saw your body I was confused as well." L already had a hard time focusing in the in-between, this was making it quite a bit worse. "Let us, for a single moment, assume I am not actually dead. What do you propose I do?" The voice sighed "Obviously you decide to go back rather than go to that big walled garden in the sky, or whatever you think you’re looking at." L took one more glance at the hole and what she believed was the afterlife behind it. "Is it that easy?" The voice laughed "Probably not normally. If your body becomes unable to hold your soul, normally you don't get much time to think about it. But wherever you are, or whatever is going on with you right now seems to be giving you the time to decide." As L thought about it, the vision of her "dead" body reappeared in front of her, taking the place of the hole to the afterlife. "I guess there is nothing stopping me from trying to just... go towards that." As L's consciousness drifted closer to the vision of her body lying motionless, she had an important thought. "Actually, who are... what are you? Why are you able to talk to me here? And why are you helping me?" The voice did not respond as L drifted into her vision of her own death.

V crossed his arms as tears welled up in Eika's eyes. Alice had sat down, aggravation showing across her face. "Sorry I was unable to save your friend. This backwater world barely has the tools to fix a broken arm, much less any real medical emergency. Other than healing magic, which most people cannot do. If I only had my tools..." She looked at V "Do you know if she would want to be buried or burned? Or some other ceremony?" V shook his head, both he and L knew they could die at any moment but it was still frustrating to lose her like this. "Not that I know of. She probably would not care very much what happens to her body after death. As long as it was not used for some dishonorable purpose." She nodded and began to pull out a simple sheet out of one of the nearby crates. Luna had walked over and was poking L's cheek. "Luna! Don't do that!" Eika cried out, halfway between sadness and surprise. Luna looked up at Eika "Oh... sorry..." As she stood up and went to stand next to Eika, she tilted her head. "Do dead people breath and stuff?" Eika looked at Luna like she had gone stupid... er. "No, did... did you think that they did?" Luna shook her head "Not normally, but that dead person is, so I was wondering if I got it wrong." She pointed to L's body. Alice looked toward L with apprehension in her eyes, but knelt down to examine her regardless of her opinion of Luna's mental faculties.

"Somehow, she does in-fact appear to be breathing." Alice felt for a pulse with a confused expression, "And her heart seams to just be... beating normally now." She looked at V "I don't suppose she has died and suddenly revived with no impetus before?" V shook his head "Not unless she has been secretly dying for fun when I was not around." A grim look came over Alice's face, accompanying her next words. "Do not celebrate too quickly, she may be some type of undead or revenant, or perhaps possessed by something. It would not be the first time I saw something like that happen in this damned place." Alice stood up and placed her hand on the grip of her mace, backing up a few paces. Eika confusedly looked back and forth between L, V, and Alice. "What? L is alive? Don't smash her!" Eika jumped in front of The Champion of Good. "You can’t smash her without knowing if she is bad or not yet!" Alice placed her other hand on Eika's head and moved her out of the way. "I am not going to attack her yet. Just... standing ready." V pointed to L's sword as it lay next to her body. "Luna, could you move that over here please?" he waved toward an area a few feet away. Luna jumped into action, slowly. "Yes Captain!" Luna struggled to drag the weapon across the road, still only barely able to carry it without hurting herself, but at-least it did not burn her like it did to everyone other than L. "Yes... Captain?" V looked at Eika, who shrugged. "She was helping some of the city guard that came by a day or two ago. She keeps saying weird things since then. She will probably forget about it in a few days."

As the group prepared to face L's perhaps commandeered body, her eyes fluttered open. The light burned her eyes, she felt like she was on fire, most of her skin burned as if alight. Her head was pounding like she had never felt before, and every muscle in her body felt like it was made of some unholy combination of jelly and rubber, no strength but somehow still tense and in pain. Her heart was also beating irregularly, and her breath came in short uneven bursts. She tried to speak, but every aspect of her body involved with speech refused to cooperate. She was now upset that she could not fall asleep, and was apparently not damaged mentally enough to be in a coma or other form of unconsciousness. Also, she noted that she was in-fact, apparently alive. She managed to tilt her head slightly, just enough to look at Eika's face. Eika pointed "See look! SHE'S ALIVE!!" Alice pushed Eika backwards as she examined L from a distance. "Well, she does appear to be awake. However, she seems to be unable to move or do much. Which is a good sign. Normally when you're undead or possessed or some such, the previous condition of your body does not hold you back. Not like this anyway." Alice cautiously approached L, still wary of any sudden movements, should L make any. 

The examination of L's current condition did not take long. "As far as I can tell, she is alive, but her body is just as destroyed as ever. It’s possible she might...re... die. I also have no explanation as to why she is alive again, nor how she is awake. I don't know how much she understands, she could be largely brain dead. If she knows what is going on around her, it will be a while till she is capable of speech again. It is good that she seems to have some type of regenerative ability, otherwise she would never regain the ability of speech. I’ve never seen frostbite inside of a living persons mouth before." Alice stood up as she sighed "I cannot devote any more time to her currently however, there are others who need my attention. Keep an eye on her, she is going to need water but make sure she does not choke." She spoke to the woman who had been shocking L's chest, who nodded and rummaged around in one of the nearby supply crates. "Eika will stay here for a while and watch over her." Eika sat down on a nearby crate. Luna stood next to her, watching a bird in the sky as her ears twitched in the breeze.

V decided to walk some more, he needed to regain some ability to move.  On top of that, he wanted to get a better idea of the layout of what was apparently their "safe zone." Also, it was not as if he could do anything for L in her current state. He told Eika where he was going, it was best for her to know, in case he did not return. As he walked off toward the end of street, he wondered how L was just suddenly... "fine" again. It would be great if she was immortal, but he somehow doubted it. He approached the location Alice indicated as the edge of the warded area. V was surprised to see a noticeable golden shimmer in the air as he approached. It was only visible when he was less than three feet away from it, but it very clearly outlined the area. He walked along this "ward," intending to figure out the outer edge of their safe zone. He had expected it to curve, to encompass the few streets in a sort of semi-circle, but what he found was that it had strange corners and almost looked like it zigzagged in certain places. Although that was not particularly crucial information, it was interesting.

"Are you sure you should be patrolling in that state? The Rabbit eared girl could kill you at this point I’d wager." A familiar voice spoke with amusement. Looking outside of their "ward" V saw O leaning on rubble that was once a house. "Well, I’m certain you could kill me in this state. So why haven't you? Is this barrier that strong?" O laughed as she flexed and cracked her knuckles. "No, based on what I’ve seen so far I am certain I could break through it. The woman who created the barrier, and her little spirit servants are the real problem. I break this barrier, and I’m swarmed by a million spirits and a giant angry woman with a hammer who, I must say, has quite a lot of strength. In another place and time, me and her could have gotten along quite well." V looked at the barrier, if it was easily breakable, what purpose did it serve? Maybe the same idea of a lock on a door "Locks keep honest people honest." But... that did not really line up with the situation as it was described to him. He supposed it was possible O was just blustering. It would be consistent. "Why are you here then? I was fairly sure 'Watching people die of injuries you had nothing to do with,' was not really your wheelhouse. In-fact I was unaware you had the ability to hold human conversations, and use something most people like to call "basic planning skills."" O shrugged, "I can when I need to. I may have... overestimated my ability initially. You can hardly blame me, the strongest thing I encountered was a woman with a sword who only barely escaped me. I could have killed an endless tide of what passed as a guard in that town. If I do not adapt, I will perish." She extended her golden hands, and ran them over the barrier. "However, I would gladly kill all of you if that woman was no longer here." O licked her lips as she spoke.

"Then why are you here?" V figured it was not for any good reason, although it was perhaps possible that she was running errands for J. "Oh, well. As for that, I just want to be here if and when the carnage starts. The Champion of Fire already was run off once, he seemed like someone who holds a grudge. I’ve seen a few other of our kind examining the border as well. I just want to be here when someone finally starts the party. I just don't want to be that woman's primary target is all, otherwise I would do it myself." V nodded to himself, that made enough sense that he did not have any reason to think she was lying. "Well, nice uh... to see you. I guess. Not really. I need to get going. I’m sort of exhausted and in terrible pain." O just watched creepily as V wondered off. "Are you certain you do not want to work together to kill the woman?" A voice slithered down from the rooftops to O. She scoffed "I despise you utterly. Come, let me tear you in half so that I might wash the dust from my skin." The voice sighed "Do not complain to me when you are facing that woman alone and you suddenly find yourself in trouble.