Gellio now left the marketplace, already consuming the fractured and torn bodies of the attack. It was a depressing sight, for Shorin used to be a lovely and lively city. Because of a mysterious attack, it was now nothing more than a destroyed husk of what it once was, just like how seemingly everyone was right now.

  The citizens' feelings welled up inside of him, memories of their lives before their untimely deaths. It depressed Gellio even more, yet he could not leave anyone behind. Because whoever or whatever chose Gellio to survive, should have looked at him to pick up Shorin’s shambles, and he was well going to do it.

  Gellio's form was still that black hollow-eyed body, the blue fire warmly and calmly in the body. Every once in a while, during his long task, he would look at Katy and his mother, once again remembering the memories of their short life together. But he quickly came back into reality,, gathering people’s “life dust” and going to the next. A repetitive and lonely task.

“That’s what I’m bound to do. ‘Till I rescue the last body, then I’ll see what else I’m forced to do.”
 

 Looking for all the bodies in the wreck took quite a lot of retracing steps; Gellio always felt there were more people left behind, even when he moved to the next area. He always noticed some kind of green sticky goo sticking to the ground, like a leech to an arm. It was always there when he came back, always more. When Gellio cleared a new area, and went back to an old one, the green goo stuck out there.

“Green goo, always there the second time, but never the first. Were the bodies there blocking it's growth until I took them out? More mysteries, no answers in me. No memories, no feelings that can explain it. Is this an apocalypse? It's only me in the wreck of this little city, but is the rest of the world the same? Or could more people like me... be picking up after every civilization?”

“I should stop trying to ask questions to myself... no answers to something asked again and again.”

 Time melted into itself, and Gellio did not care. He could've spent hours, months, or years in the Wasteland, but it didn't matter. He was always looking for the remaining citizens of Sorhin, the shambles of the city. The memories he had in here were gone, only dust and ruins in the large face of the world. 

The place he most often went back to was the small marketplace, amidst all the destroyed buildings that once made up the metropolitan area of the city. He'd made sure he had cleared it out many times before, yet Gellio always needed to go back here. The market in itself was filled with that mysterious green goo, the one that always followed Gellio wherever he went.

“Just sentimental value, that’s it. I don't always need to come back here, wasting my time finding more. Even for all the people inside of me, people I cannot disappoint, I still feel lonely. Strange logic of the Wasteland follows.”

Yet when Gellio kept walking and walking, his form never stayed the same. The blue fire kept at his inside, but his hollow-eyed face did not remain there forever. The more he gathered the bodies, the more his form shifted. However, while he did not notice this much, horns slowly grew out of his head. They were made out of a dark and revolving matter, like his previous hollow body. A mouth formed there too, crooked and smiling. The eyes even grew to sharp slits, changing his vision. The form resembled what most would perceive as a terrible walking demon, the blue fire still coming out of him. Dim matter now moving while he took another step, a shadow in this terrible landscape. Dullness and mystery followed his path, just as his mind was right now, yet Gellio continued on his task.

Soon enough, the boy became aware of this form. As he came back and forth to the marketplace, he could see his reflection in the broken shard of glass, yet he did not particularly grow scared. This form made him feel strong, not a weak shambling body miraculously walking, barely any better than the dead citizens of Shorin.

“Another mystery, new strength and body, I see. Am I a demon, then, walking until I’m struck down by a hero?”

“Ah, no, these silly thoughts are useless. But... what really is this new form? I... I suddenly feel better... and stronger. How did I achieve this?”

Gellio even stopped his labors to wonder this, an intriguing question that left his dark mind stomped for a while. His new demonic body was still there, alone in Shorin. Yet, he came back to his inside, to his memories and feelings of all the poor citizens he had gathered from their pain. 

No poor citizen in Shorin should be left, yet for all that I do I’m still alone, I can only glimpse memories of times where everything was better. However, those times won’t come back. It’s just me... the boy who survived without reason.