The enraged Elven Prince threw the body of the once mighty Zertera into the silver shoot, which instantly consumed everything, leaving only a pile of shattered bones, while Ludwig, who was carrying Vinter, saw the forest behind him shrink and the earth turn dull and dead.

But even seeing all this, the only thing he could see now was his smiling team, led by Zertera, who had taught them everything. And Vinter, who was still unconscious, saw his memories of how Zertera found him broken and angry and rescued him, and taught him how to live with loss and how to take revenge.

However, as soon as Ludwig saw the forest begin to die, thin roots began to emerge from the ground, immediately clinging to the distant trees, and occasionally trying to grab Ludwig and Vinter.

- Grrr damn roots, leave me alone! 

Thanks to his strength and the sword he still had, the roots did not manage to hold him long enough to swallow him. A few minutes later, he ran outside the once dense forest, and although he continued to run, the roots stopped at the edge and began to engulf the still living trees and bushes, but for some reason unknown at the time, the roots did not leave the forest.

- So stay there, damn roots! 

After catching his breath, he continued to run, away from the forest and the camp with the Royal Army and a few elves who remained there to control the people and the information they might know.

After running around the camp for about 3 kilometres with Vinter on his shoulder, he collapsed on the ground, powerless, and lost consciousness for several hours until the evil Vinter brought him back to life with his shouts and punches to the face.

- Shit! Get up! Where are Zertera and the others? Where the hell are they! 

He swung again to slap Ludwig across the face, but he opened his eyes and Vinter stopped.

- Where are they!

Ludwig just closed his eyes and turned his head to the side in silence, but Vinter wasn't satisfied with that response and continued to shout at him until tears and partial loss of voice drowned out his screams.

Then Vinter slowly got up and started walking in the direction Ludwig had come from, hoping that he would find them himself, even though he didn't care about the master's last request, he wanted to go back and save those who were gone.

- They are... gone.

- This, uh, damn Zertera, uh, he can't just be killed.

Ludwig stood up slightly and looked directly into Vinter's eyes, who fell to his knees a moment later and no longer tried to hold back his tears.

"Again! Again! I was behind the weak, and again I am to blame for their deaths! Again I could do nothing! Again I am to blame for their deaths!" 

After spending several hours with these thoughts in his head, he stood up with almost empty eyes and without even looking at Ludwig, and without saying a word, he slowly walked away, to the place he could still call home, to Krint, to someone who did not care about his strength and how pathetic he was.

- Vinter! What the hell are you doing? 

Slowly turning his head to Ludwig, he looked at him and shook his head slowly, then walked on as if he were a dead man without hope or emotion.

Ludwig quickly got up and tried to stop him, but before he knew it, he was on the ground, and tried again, and the result was the same several times over, until he gave up and just started following Vinter, who just kept walking, not stopping for anything.

And so he walked for several days until he finally reached Krint, who was in his little smithy at the time, and as soon as Vinter noticed the old ball of wool, he started walking towards it, and when he reached it, it just collapsed at his shaggy feet.

****

After being unconscious for about a week, Vinter finally woke up, and the first thing he noticed was Krint sleeping leaning on the bed where Vinter was lying. Then he slowly touched Krint's hair and moved his hand slowly, which woke up the old man, who would normally have been cursing, but now he was silent and just looked at Vinter.

- I'm glad you're finally awake.

Without answering, he just closed his eyes and cried because he remembered the loss of a dear person, while Krint just watched him in silence, and although he wanted to help, he could not explain to the man how to deal with the loss of a loved one because of his incredibly long life.

After crying for about 30 minutes, he fell asleep and Krint breathed out a sigh of relief and slowly left the house to tell Ludwig about the awakening, who, although he followed Vinter, needed to sleep and eat, unlike the first, so he stayed two days.

And the first time they met, old Krin almost killed him, but at the last moment he noticed a drawing of a familiar helmet that Vinter had once talked about for hours, and Ludwig told him the whole story from Vinter's arrival at the camp to their escape from the dead forest.

But as Vinter came to, the two of them got to know each other a little and became slightly friends.

- Hey! Our sleeping beauty woke up, but went back to sleep.

- I'm glad to hear that, and I hope she's happy about it too.

- I'm afraid that if she was consumed by the creature you described, then Zertera is gone in every sense of the word...

Ludwig glanced at Krint, who was leaning against his hut and opened his mouth to ask something, but he beat him to it and continued speaking.

- Because this creature absorbs everything from the What people call the soul to the physical shell.

- Ha! After what I've been through, I thought nothing could surprise me, but you, Krint...

- Ha-ha, even after living as long as I have, there are still things that surprise me, so don't throw words to the wind.

- ...

He put his hands to his face and thought about his life and how he had lived it, and Krint put his hand on his shoulder and patted him lightly, then slowly walked towards his forge, waiting for Ludwig to ask him a question.

But he remained silent, even after Krint had turned the corner of the hut, and even after several hours, during which he had not moved. At the same time, Vinter woke up again, but he stared at the ceiling in silence, and did not even touch the food that was next to his bed.

Later that day, Ludwig left his swords at the door of the hut and disappeared without even saying goodbye to anyone. Krint simply picked up the swords and threw them into his box where he kept everything. Later, he told Vinter about it, but he did not react to it at all.

And then he stopped responding to anything at all, and in this state he spent several more days, until Krint could no longer stand it and force-fed Vinter, and so on for several more weeks, until the idea of insulting the things he held dear came to the ball of fur.

However, no matter how hard he tried, or what he did or said, Vinter still showed no reaction or emotion, but even so, old Krint did not give up and continued for about 2 weeks, until he shouted at Vinter in anger. 

Within a few more days, Krint stopped doing anything with him except feeding him, as he started spending most of the day in the forge. And one day, he began to drag parts of the armour into the house, which in a few minutes assembled into an almost exact image of Zertera.

At that moment, a spark of hope flashed in Vinter's eyes, but then it faded away as he noticed that it was just an empty suit of armour. As soon as Krint noticed this, he quickly grabbed a hammer and threw it at the armour, which he had been doing for several days, causing it to shatter.

At the same time, Vinter shouted at the ball of wool for the first time in a long time, making it clear that there was still a chance to bring back, perhaps not the same, but more or less alive Vinter, who wanted to live.

After doing this a few more times, Krint finally got Vinter to get out of bed and tried to hit him, but because he had been in bed for so long, his body was weak, and he collapsed just as he swung to hit him.

- Haha! My plan is working! 

- Leave, her, alone.

In a little hoarse and short words, he replied to Krint, who, with his arms outstretched, laughed a little ominously at the whole hut, and in a moment he crawled towards Krint and almost grabbed him by his thick hair, but he reacted faster and dodged.

Falling face first to the floor again, he tensed and began to crawl towards Krint, who, in his efforts to move away, tripped over a replica of Zertera's helmet, which he had created from Vinter's memories and hours of storytelling. When he fell, the replica flew to Vinter, who hugged it tightly with tears.

- Why! Why did you die because of me? 

- For the sake of seven dragons! You're not to blame for his death, and you're a fool to live so that his sacrifice wasn't in vain.

- But-but I wish I was stronger! 

- Then damn well be, and take revenge! Don't cry like a child whose favourite toy has been taken away.

- I-I-I can't. Even with the master, I couldn't! How am I going to become that without him?

- Oh, gods! You already know everything he wanted to teach you, so you son of a bitch, man up and build on what you've been given.

With that, Krint picked him up and carried him calmly to the bed, while Vinter still clutched the replica of Zertera's helmet. After putting him on the bed, Krint went to prepare dinner for them, but Vinter put the helmet on himself and fell asleep after a while.

                                                              End of the Prologue