1

“It’s almost dinner,” Hugo said.

“I know, but your sister’s internals have to be calm before anyone can go,” Kilian replied.

Hugo, with [the siblings], stands behind Selina and Kilian as she tries to soothe the tensions within her legs, keeping her landlocked and immobile. “I need your help to hold her feet down for this last step.”

||Vivien HP: 58/100||

Kilian holds both feet down while observing Selina pouring a drop of green liquid from the tiny bottle. She rubs her palms with the green liquid and massages Vivien’s thighs. “Feel any warmth from below.”

“A little…” she replied before grabbing the bedside, yelling in pain. Selina is currently pressing down on her thighs and exerting a brief of her magic into her through the arms. The qi transitions to strands of green and red simultaneously flowing into her thighs. The two colors flash and illuminate below her legs and thighs, momentarily before it dissipates. Selina let’s go once it dissipates. She gestured her eyes to Kilian, and he let his hand off her feet.

“Try to move it now,” Selina said, sliding away, giving Vivien space. Hugo went up near the bedside watching his older sister. Vivien was able to twitch her toes. “Are you crying?” Hugo noticed tears drifting from her eyelids. She doesn’t reply other than wiping her eyes while intently focused on her feet and legs. Smoke coming out of her legs in thin air, spooked her. Kilian soothes her, insisting that’s the new norm, motivating her to move her legs just as they should be.

Vivien turns her legs to the bedside, letting her feet fall to the solid floor. Feeling the toes touching, Hugo gives his hand and she grabs it as his brace to stand up. “It hurts,” he murmured. Kilian went ahead holding his elbow. “You not the physical type?”

“Unfortunately not. I read and write most of the time,” Hugo replied.

To everyone’s delight, Vivien finally stood after hours and wasn’t able to. She slowly walks through the room before sitting down at her bedside. “What did you do to me? And thanks,” she asked while offering her gratitude towards Selina. Her health bar quickly fills up to the max.

|| HP: 58 -> 100/100||

Selina leans back onto her chair, “It’s my form of healing magic that regenerates and disables negative ailments for a certain period…If you are not gonna work on your internal anxiety, it’s gonna come back,” Selina bluntly said not forgetting to include how it would impact the war. If internal fears can’t be overcome she will either become a grave or a traumatic individual. The smoke coming from her leg is what got rid of it for an undisclosed short term. It eliminated her paralysis, enabling her to walk again. Unfortunately, for now, she couldn't walk as normally as before. Vivien's legs contain vast potential energy that can likely boost her speed beyond an ordinary runner. Klaus's siblings hadn't had the opportunity to be taught and trained. Originally, it was supposed to be today but was postponed due to the incident during Kilian and Mei’s battle.

Mei is currently sitting outside not knowing what had happened prior which Kilian and others demand her to answer later. Kilian eventually apologized to Vivien after conversing with others the past couple of hours. With the amount of people within the palace borders, if this continues that would devalue and destroy the potential forces of Jinsu itself. What he hasn’t told everyone else except Selina is he planned to give them each a potion that grants them the opportunity more instantaneously and move on from there. There’s not that much time left to fool around as there’s been no news outside of Jinsu these past days, excluding the gifts.

Rumbling sounds coming from Vivien’s stomach, silencing the whole room. Others feel the sentiment of feeling hungry as the sunset from the window.

“Kilian?!” Roland appeared through the door demanding him to appear at the gates. Confused, he followed Roland as both departed the clinic and flash stepped to the gates. Both are met by their mailman, who is now on horseback pulling a wagon.

"Your new ride?"

"Yes, sir. No one's claiming it, so I took it for all mail travels. But I have received something bizarre to me," He said while climbing off the horse. Part of the wagon is covered by a black towel. "Somebody must have put this here, and I recognized it."

“Smells pungent from the back,” Kilian said, climbing onto the wagon seeing the mailman with his hands over the towel.

||Target Scan…

Dead Body found||

“Is there a dead body under there?” Kilian asked, after his OLRS scanned it.

The mailman nodded."I think this is war, sir," he said, pulling the towel away.

"Are you shitting me?!" Roland yelled from behind.

||Analyzing Body identification||

Kilian stutters as he sees what's in front of him. "That…can't…be her, ain't it?" He pointed at the outfit, keeping himself postured without tipping back. The optimism of everyone hoping to see her again only to be right in front of him. The mailman looked back up at Kilian directly, offering his condolences. He lifted the long hair over, revealing her face, covered in black scars around the hairline above her forehead. One of her eyes is missing, leaving an empty socket.

||Identity Match: Huo

Subject Deceased||

Slumping on his knees, he held her face, gazing at her before touching his forehead on hers. He surrenders to his internal feelings as tears drop. Feeling no remains of her qi left, he leans her on the back of the wagon, hovering over her face, closing her eyelids. Her head slumped low.

Kilian climbed off the wagon, wiping off the tears from his eyes.

"I'm so sorry." Roland offered his condolences as he too, held his tears, swallowing his neck. He went up the wagon, kneeling in front of Huo, giving his remarks. Kilian backs away and moves to the side of the wagon where he can't see her face. The mailman pulls out tissues, handing one to Kilian. He took one, blowing his nose. His nose lost it, splattering blood on his tissue.

"Ugh." He wiped off the remaining from his nose, crumbling the tissue to dust.

"How many more have to be perished and sacrificed only for the cowards at Yun."

"That's what hierarchy does. The innocent are always at the disposal of these big nations. Willing to grasp anything they can. Like Jinsu, the people on the streets every day are just trying to survive in this world. That's what I see over there, too. There's always the bad, no matter how much morals apply. Taking leadership always has uncertainty, and it’s a matter of when you'll be tested. The more we save, the better, and put less in vain. Have a little faith. I know how it can be."

Kilian looked at the mailman, "What if we lose? What if all of this was for nothing?" He looked around, pointing at everything. "Am I doing the right thing? I don't even remember who I was years ago. What kind of person am I?" He exclaimed.

The mailman grabbed Killian’s collar, twisting it, forcing Kilian’s face to stare back at him. "If that's the case, why did you do it then?! Huo doesn’t want to see you like this. I don’t think anybody who knows you wants to see you broken.”

“You’re right,” He wiped the last batch of his tears and nosebleed before flashing step to the clinic.

He returned to Vivien’s room where she looks significantly better now. Everyone else turned to Kilian, seeing his hands and parts of his face stained in blood.

“It’s only been a few minutes. What the hell happened?”

“Huo’s dead.” He walks into the room pulling the empty chair. “Her body is outside. Somebody or whoever killed her put on the mailman’s new wagon. The body was mutilated, and one eye was missing.” Kilian feels burning inside his head, evaporating his tears. War and suffering are the only coming through his mind as he is coping with his grief.

After hearing the news, few went out of Vivien’s room. Vivien instantly stood up requesting to see her, followed by Selina. The four generals didn’t follow along, leaving only the siblings to appear along with few other members within Hong An. They arrived at the wagon and were greeted by the mailman, who lifted the towel again. Kilian leaves them to pay respects to Huo as he glances at the whole front lot and the gulf in the distance.

Roland stands by his side once more now asking him a question, “Are you gonna do it?”

“I’m very thirsty. My mind and neck are burning for more. I’m gonna take all that they have.” Wind generated from out of nowhere circling his foot before surrounding the entire of his face momentarily before dissipating, revealing his facial change. His hair is slicked back with a cleaner cut. All his facial hair is gone, revealing his prominent jawline and the burn scar under his neck originally to be partially covered by his prior beard.

“When do we start?” Roland asked.

“After today, Hong An will begin reconstruction, establishing a new form of unity. War protocol set in motion. ”

||Documentation created…

[]Initiate a war declaration||