By the fourth day since the arrival of Minos and his group in the Spiritual World, all the invading beings of the planet were dead, their bodies buried or devoured by the native beasts of the planet.
Today, the surviving creatures from the various races of the Spiritual World began their journeys back to their lands on the Continent of Beasts, the Divine Continent, the Ancestral Sea, the South Sea, and Elves Island.
But the strongest of the survivors, the remaining leaders of the major forces that had fought in the war, were gathered in the Dry City for the great farewell to the dead.
Ruth had organized the great farewell ritual for those who had fallen in the war, an event that would close this part of the Spiritual World's history.
Tomorrow would mark the beginning of a new era, the beginning of the rebuilding of this shattered world.
So, in the early afternoon, the most important surviving names were gathered in the Dry City and walked through the streets of the city towards the Dry City Mausoleum.
Most of the dead had lost their bodies to their enemies or had even been used by Abby before disappearing altogether. Thus, there were no graves for the billions of living beings who had died there.
But the imperial family had skillfully created murals with names, murals with arrays that could show a little of the many living beings who had fallen in the war.
Those who passed by the Dry City Mausoleum in the future would understand how much the planet had lost in the catastrophe that began with the Ice Age.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Fortunately, the planet's civilization survived the perfect storm, weathering the worst of the Ice Age and the alien aggression.
...
Minos, his two companions who had come with him and Ruth from The Adamant Land, and the primary names of the Stuart family were leading the way to the Dry City Mausoleum.
They were all dressed in black, with serious looks on their faces as they strolled under the watchful eyes of the millions of locals who silently followed the event.
Aurae, Vico and Callie were also there, along with important members of the allied forces of the world, humans, hybrids and beasts, representatives of the races that have not yet become extinct.
As they entered the Dry City Mausoleum, they all felt the aura of death of this place, built long ago to house the first heroes of the Black Plain's War of Independence.
But today, the place seemed much bigger, currently containing over 100,000 tombs, spread over an area of 5 square kilometers, in a gigantic building of 20 stories above ground and 30 stories underground.
The mausoleum was so large that there were streets inside the building, with a few small squares here and there with murals depicting the heroes of the War of the Worlds.
Minos stopped in front of one of these murals and poured his energy into an array, causing the device to display a bit of the fallen warriors.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})He saw his old friend Brooke appear under the effect of this array, but also several others, including Eda, the leader of the tribe of dragons, the Gods he helped advance before leaving the world, and others.
He saw Isabella and couldn't help but clench his fists at the sight of her, remembering the sweet, beautiful, red-haired woman he had lived with for decades.
Now, however, it seemed like so much time had passed. Even though he remembered Isabella very well, sometimes he felt so far away from her that it was almost as if it had all been a beautiful dream that ended in a nightmare.
He shuddered at the thought of his wife and soon found the tomb in the most prominent position in the area where Isabella's body was kept.
The embalming techniques of the Spiritual World were very good. The bodies embalmed there could last for tens of thousands of years before showing signs of decomposition.
Even the first bodies from this place, buried centuries ago, were as perfect as when they were killed.
Minos and his family made their way to Isabella's grave alone, while the others followed the graves of their own acquaintances and friends.
When Minos and Ruth reached that place, they felt Isabella's body in the golden urn they were standing in front of, in a part of the mausoleum that looked like a small square, with statues of warriors around the tomb and pictures of Isabella.
The armor she wore was there, as well as letters she had written, things she had used in her life.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Everyone there knew that they could speak to Isabella again through the fusion of Abby's techniques, but no one would desecrate her body in this way.
Talking to Isabella again would be fantastic, everyone felt that. But Abby's fusion wasn't simple. When she used such a power, she forced the destruction of the essence of the revived warriors, something that would completely erase their essence at the end of the fusion.
In short, anyone temporarily resurrected by such a fusion would become less than someone who had sacrificed themselves, their existence erased until they could no longer be reborn.
Neither Minos, nor Abby, nor even Lily, wanted to desecrate Isabella's body. In front of her grave, they just mourned, remembering the good times, but also missing her terribly.
"The place looks good. Did you do it like this?" Ruth asked Abby and Gloria, holding a handkerchief in one hand to wipe away her tears.
"We tried to do the best we could in the time we had. But a lot of things happened after you left. We couldn't do more," Abby said in a sad tone.
Meanwhile, Minos stood silently in front of Isabella's grave, eyes closed, thinking about the last time he had seen her, inside the illusion he had created after she was mortally wounded.
'I wanted you to be here... But even with all the power I have, it's out of my control.' He thought, as if talking to Isabella.
'I really hope I can see you again. Things didn't start well between us, so I want to behave better next time.' He remembered how Isabella had pursued him at the beginning of their relationship.
'If you're reincarnated somewhere in the universe, I'll find you one day and make you remember this life. No matter how long it takes, we'll meet again.' He clenched his fists and vowed he would understand life and death enough to know how to read reincarnation.
He hoped that the symbol on his chest, related to the Upper Realm, would one day give him the chance to learn enough to try something about Isabella's reincarnation!
So he ended his farewell to Isabella, hoping this was just a 'see you later' and not the farewell that everyone around him thought it was.
