President Arni stood in the capital's main square among the masses of people… The same square where the festival had been held just a few days earlier… The white color worn by the people of Frata spread across the square, covering the stubborn traces of blood that refused to disappear… Were it not for the pure whiteness of the clothes and souls of Frata's people… A dark red hue lay over the square… The crackling sound of flames in their midst… And the smell of burning wood… The square filled with the sound of weeping… Growing gradually louder… Each time members of the First squad knelt and picked up a body wrapped in white cloth from the row of corpses in front of them—reading its name—then placed it in the fire… The sound of weeping intensified… The smaller the body, the louder the weeping became…
Riz was carrying a small body, no more than 50 centimeters in length… And just before throwing it into the fire… She froze… She kept staring at the tiny body… Andra looked at her, and she looked back at him… Her tears falling against her will… Andra extended his arms, offering to take the child—he would do it himself… She couldn't bring herself even to do that… Her tears soaked into the child's white cloth… Then… Red droplets fell onto the white cloth… She hurriedly moved the child away from where the blood was dripping… And pressed a hand over her head, which was bleeding… Andra glared angrily at the woman who had thrown a stone at Riz's head…
That woman shouted, "Why are these filths touching the bodies of our Children and our people?!" People around her started chanting in agitation, "Yes! The Black Souls are the ones who killed our children, and now they're carrying their bodies in front of us!!" The crowd roared and began throwing stones at the first squad… Riz turned her body to shield the child's corpse from the stones… The stones rained down on her back… She kept gazing at the child… Trying to wipe away the droplets of blood from him with her clothes… The crowd's crying turned into an angry uproar, and stones scattered over the Second squad. Members of the Second squad tried to protect their faces with their arms…
President Arni stood calmly until he spoke in a booming voice, "Please look… See where your stones land… And where your children's bodies lie…" The stones ceased… Their arms fell… They looked at their children's bodies wrapped in white… And at their own stones… Striking those bodies… Silence returned to the square, broken only by the crackle of the flames…
President Arni continued, his face heavy with grief, "Our country and humanity lost many of their Children today… Grief hangs over all our hearts… We stand here burning their bodies so that their souls might be freed from the god who has deprived us of both His heaven and His hell…" Then the president shouted, "But what eases my heart today… And allows me to stand before you with head held high— Is that our army found the perpetrator in Bial and took him down! And we did not lose a single White Soul in the operation to capture this criminal!" Cheers spread among the crowd amid their tears… Arni stamped his foot on the ground, raised his hand, and placed it over his eye, saying, "No god could defeat us… Nor can anyone else… Frata will rise from this tragedy… Long live Frata." Tears glistened in the people's eyes, filled with sorrow, yet they shouted, "Long live Frata!!"
He opened his eyes slowly… Where am I…? His eyes closed again against his will… His left eye refused to open… The last thing he remembered… He clutched his stomach… He could still feel that terrible pain… And his face… As soon as he woke, all the pain attacked him at once… Nier groaned in agony… The one who had been sitting on a chair beside him woke up and said eagerly, "Nier!" He looked at her… It was Seeta… She was covered in bandages—her arms wrapped, parts of her body covered with bandages here and there…
In a weak voice, as though he could barely speak, Nier asked, "What happened to you?" Seeta laughed as she wiped away her falling tears and said, "Look at yourself…" Nier let out a pained chuckle. Seeta's eyes welled again. She said, "You've really woken up…" Nier rubbed his eyes and asked, "What… Was I asleep for a long time?" Seeta stared at him with surprise… She said, "You don't remember what happened?" Nier fell silent for a moment… then said, "No…" Seeta also fell silent, watching him.
Nier's state was indeed worse—half his head wrapped in bandages from the meteor-like strike that hit him—burn marks showed on his face beneath the bandage… Large bandages wound around his torso, covering the partially healed cavity in its center… Even his limbs were not free of bandages… Seeta lowered her head and said, "Nier…" He looked at her and saw her entire body trembling… She stayed like that for a while, trying to push herself to speak… Then said, "I'm sorry…"
Nier asked, puzzled, "For what?" She continued, "When I thought you were… I couldn't think of anything else but one thing… That I… That I hadn't thanked you…" Nier looked confused but let her go on… In a trembling voice, Seeta said, "Tell me… Do you think you regret saving me now… Regret staining your blade with my blood now?" She lifted her face, tears streaming down her trembling cheeks as she said, "Given that I killed my own mother?" She looked at her shaking hands and said, "Is this the girl you wanted to save—A killer?"
Nier stared at her in shock, lost for words… Her sobs grew more violent… A hush fell for a moment until Nier managed to say, "I couldn't…" She looked at him… He went on, "When I stood before the enemy, I couldn't kill him…" His body quivered as he added, "Elir… He ended up in danger because of me—because of my weakness…" Then he looked at Seeta, "And you… You did what had to be done…" She gazed at him for a moment… Then asked, "You couldn't kill?"
Mika was standing, leaning against the wall outside the clinic, silently watching them, before he walked away… Silence once again blanketed the room. Then Seeta wiped her tears and said, "I'm sorry; you just woke up…" Nier smiled at her and replied, "It's all right… I'm really glad you're okay, Seeta." Seeta smiled at him before he says, "How is Bial? What's going to happen with it? And the people? My mother…" He stopped with fear crawling to his face… Seeta said anxiously, "The third squad is taking care of the people there…" She continued, "There is a list Nier… of the survivors… If you gave me the names I can check…"
Before Nier could answer, he sensed a figure standing at the doorway… He looked, and Seeta followed his gaze… They saw Elir—leaning against the doorframe, holding a tray of bandages… Throughout the five days Nier had lain in that room, whenever Seeta came to check on Nier, she found Elir either curled up in a chair beside his bed, asleep, or changing Nier's bandages… He did not eat, nor did he sleep—he would only sit by Nier. He appeared haggard, his injuries and burns from the battle still visible on his gaunt and pale face… Seeta said to Nier, "I'll leave you two alone…"