The Demon Lord And His Hero

"I can help.."

"How?" Syryn looked like he was hoping for a miracle from Red.

The redhead uneasily shook his head. "I can only do as much as you can. If only there was a way to trace Utsui." But there wasn't.

Syryn's heart sank. "Let's keep looking."

With every minute that passed, Syryn's hopes were being chipped away at. If Utsui was fine, he would have turned up. His absence only meant one thing, that something had gone wrong.

The morning sun began peeking and the avian was nowhere to be found. Helios was almost a ghost city. Only a few avians were seen trickling in to find their lost family members and friends.

When all avenues seemed hopeless, Akida arrived and he had news.

A child was found wandering the streets of helios, dazed and lost. He had been lucky to be grabbed by an avian who spotted him from the sky. He was taken to the healers at the mountains. There, the child had been given lots of fluids and rest before he was able to speak coherently to the adults. He had told them that an avian man with a stick and leaf in his hair had saved him and a few other patients who had been abandoned in the medic house when the fire first broke out. A few more of the youngest avians had still remained trapped inside the building, forgotten in the chaos that gripped everyone. As the fire burned, the avian that had saved them had turned up like an angel. Their saviour risked his life and had sent them out before he went into the burning house alone where more children were trapped.

"Do you think it's really Utsui?" Syryn's words tumbled out hot and fast.

"We can hope it is. Let's go find him." Akida said as he lifted them both off the ground. "Whether he's alive or not, we owe it to him to search until we find him."

------

The medic house that the little boy had mentioned was mostly rubble. Two floors of the building had collapsed upon themselves. The sight did not inspire hope in Syryn. How would Utsui have survived the crash of much weight atop his body?

"How are going to dig through this?" Syryn asked Akida. He was already at the edge of the rubble, flinging pieces of wood away. He knew it wasn't doing much but Syryn needed something to do so he wasn't idle and manufacturing negative thoughts.

"I think we need the wind mage friend of yours," Akida replied. "I'll get him."

Syryn had uselessly opened up a gap in the layers of debris. What good were his powers if he couldn't even do the minimum in such situations where his friends needed him? Akida had returned with his quarry by the time Syryn's gap had become wide enough to fit him inside.

"S'ryn, that's a nice hole but I'll need you to move," Sebastian told the teen. "Let me take care of this for you."

Wordlessly, Syryn retreated to a safer distance.

Sebastian was a wonder to watch when he used his magic. His power swirled and sucked the wind inwards with him at the centre. And like a conductor, the mage raised his arms. Debris groaned and creaked as the power of wind lifted them off the pile. With a howl, the powerful wind flung its load to the side. Sebastian kept repeating the process with care so he wouldn't cause more damage to the collapsed building. After what felt like the longest and most gruelling minutes of his life, Syryn saw the white robe that his eyes had been searching for desperately.

Quick as rabbits, his feet carried him to Utsui. Syryn's heart hurt at seeing the way the young avian was curled up, crushed under so much rubble. Had he been able to breathe?

Syryn fell to the floor and placed his fingers on the side of Utsui's neck. He barely registered the burns that covered Utsui's neck and face.

"Syryn?" Akida asked the pale-faced teen who hadn't said a word since he touched Utsui's neck. "Fuck, Syryn say something."

"I- " Syryn sniffled. His hand was trembling. He couldn't feel a pulse. Utsui's skin felt so cold. This was it then. Syryn felt his emotions fraying like ropes stretched too far.

He then noticed a bundle that Utsui was cradling to his chest. It was blue in colour and printed with tiny white flowers. Syryn pried Utsui's cold hands away and lifted a corner of the cloth to look at what was inside.

Three little birds, barely bigger than his palms were nestled together, protected from the crushing weight of the debris.

"Take them to a healer," Syryn's voice shook as he handed the birds over to Akida. If they were still alive, they had to be looked at quickly and Syryn wasn't sure he was equipped to care for the lives of baby avians.

The teen turned his attention back to Utsui. He held the limp wrist in his warm hands and felt his heart breaking. There was a starburst pattern on the healer's palm where he had held the plasma fruit not many hours ago. It reminded Syryn that Utsui had a wish he had desired so much that he was willing to put his life at risk for it.

"What was your wish, Utsui?" He murmured to the lifeless body. "Why did you have to be so stupid and brave?"

Sebastian watched the teen grieve from a distance. There was nothing he could say that would make it better.

"Utsui.." Syryn's tears fell like rain on the avian's face. The teen cradled his friend to his chest and silently cried. He finally felt the crushing weight of his decisions and the ripples that spread out when he changed the events of the world. Utsui wasn't meant to die. He was supposed to visit Elysium with Syryn and meet Alka, Salem, and Riha. It wasn't fair. Why did it have to be him?

"Utsui.."