Ithil stared at young Rax. His mouth twitched as if he wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't form. His gaze fixed on Rax's amputated legs; after staring for a while, he looked down at his own missing hand. The gleaming metallic black still disgusted him; he felt like it smelled of blood. "Ithil... are you alright? You've been staring fixedly at the swordsman for over half an hour. The boy himself has already noticed," Inola cut into Ithil's thoughts. "That makes two," Ithil muttered blankly. "Yeah... we couldn't prevent what happened to the other group either. The fist-warrior girl and her squad..." "Lucernia!" Ithil said aloud. Mina noticed the conversation, as did Jacob and Leonidas, though Leonidas chose to remain focused on the road.

"Huh...?" Inola paused for a moment. "Her name is Lucernia. She has the exact same injuries as this boy, Rax," Ithil looked back down at his arm. "I don't know... lately, I feel like we've been failing... a lot..." Staring at his gold medal, it suddenly felt incredibly heavy—so heavy he could barely lift it; his metallic arm could scarcely bear the weight. With a sharp, high-pitched ringing in his ears, his vision began to blur.

"Ithil... ITHIL! Look at me! Are you with us? Are you still here? We're right here!" Inola cupped both of his cheeks with her hands, tapping them gently to lift his face. Mina rushed over. "He's having a bad reaction to the prosthetic again. Inola, clear out!" Mina interrupted, pushing Inola aside to inject Ithil, who promptly fell asleep from the sedative. "Mmmh, Ithil is exhausted. This will let him rest," Mina returned to monitoring Rhea and Nesta, both still unconscious. Ithil drifted off.

"We all are, Sister Mina. We spent the last two weeks tracking that Ferruginoso," Leonidas noted, also feeling the toll of the mission. "T-Two weeks?" Rax asked aloud. "Yeah... the Ferruginoso that attacked you had three teams tracking it... ever since the incident with the fist-warrior," Jacob stood up to swap out the vehicle's quartz core. "Two weeks and three teams..." The concept was mind-boggling to Rax; in fact, it felt a bit insulting. "No offense, but... what took you so long?" Rax laughed bitterly.

"What?! Do you have any idea how hard Ithil worked to find that Ferruginoso?!" Inola stood up, infuriated. "YES, AND LOOK! RHEA MIGHT DIE, AND NESTA AND I ARE FINISHED! WHAT CAN YOUR FABULOUS LEADER DO ABOUT THAT?!" Rax shouted, pure cynicism laced into every word. "Petty and miserable... that's how you sound," Luan said to Rax, devoid of any sympathy. "Instead of wallowing in self-pity, you should feel lucky they're even alive. We can fight in other ways, but you're so obsessed with being a high rank that you never listened to Rhea. NOT ONE DAMN TIME!" Luan tore off his gray cape and hurled it at Rax, then stood up, attempting to strike him with his Klauvra.

"Wait!" Mina stood up to restrain him, but stopped. Luan froze mid-strike, while Rax wept beneath the gray cape. "And now the one crying inside the cape is you... hehehe... HAHAHAHA! What a damn life... hic." Luan tossed his Klauvra aside and sat down next to Rax, pulling him into an embrace. Both of them wept for a long while.