[- Hey babe, did you finish for today?!]

Jack had stopped his couple-hours-rock-playing for the day. At his side, Elicia kept grinding her stones on a perfectly circular motion.

As for him, his pomice had become little to nothing at the time, and he had drawn numerous things on the ground - things like a tree, a small house, some words… anything which would maintain him entertained.

[- Babe?]

It was as if Elicia couldn’t hear him.

[- Should I cast “Mind Clearing” on you? Babe?]

Jack had ridiculously high stats - even without leveling his main level that much. With a main level of 10 (on his Dragon King account) he had stats even max-level players wouldn’t have.

So, his Mind Clearing spell was quite effective. Even better than some higher-leveled ones.

- No… its fine…

Jack frowned. Elicias’ voice was low and extremely depressed. His humongous size was something which avoided him being able to see her clearly, but his many senses allowed him to notice a lonely tear slipping from her eyes.

She stopped for a moment and rubbed her cheeks, getting rid of the tear.

For some reason, Jack started to feel his eyes hot as well.

- Ain’t you going out? It’s time for you to play. You can do it… I won’t stop you from playing…

Jack felt as if his chest was being compressed. Something weighting hundreds of tons settled on his mind. He felt terribly sore all over. It was as if his own heart was trying to break free from his chest.

- Honey… HON! JACK! What’s happening?!!

Jack had started to hyperventilate. Constant and multicolored glows alternated on his body as his large tears flooded the cave a bit.

It was as if something was trying to enter his head. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to accept it.

[- Ah… ahhck. I…]

His mouth seemed full of saliva. His tongue seemed as if it was thrice the size. He drooled a bit, and it was a desperate and awful drool.

His eyes started to frown deeply and he reached for his head with his paws.

- JACK! JACK! LOOK AT ME! JACK! HEAL! GREATER HEAL! No, no… that’s… shit…

Elicia was confused, weared out, desperate. Jacks’ body was totally tense, his huge eyes injected and the little lucidity he still had clinging as best as it could to reason. A few more moments and a full panic attack would ensue.

- GREATER MIND CLEARANCE! MIND CLEARING! GREAT LUCIDITY! HEART SETTLING! WARRIOR TEMPERING! CONCENTRATION! CALMNESS! SLEEP!

Elicia casted spell after spell. Once she remembered the first one, all others came naturally.

As for Jack, offensive spells had little effect on him, but, with exception of the “sleep” spell, all others were support-type spells and helped him greatly.

[ - Ahh… ahhh..]

Elicia flew to Jacks’ nose, hugging the space between his eyebrows. Never before had she been as frustrated on the size difference between the two as now.

- There. There hon.

Jacks’ tears still followed suit, but his many mind fortifying skills helped greatly. Finally, he managed to regain reason for a bit.

Elicia looked concerned at him, while Jack, as gently as he could, caressed her back with his claws.

Then, with immense sadness in his heart, he looked at her.

- What happened? Why did you become sad all of a sudden?

The curiosity and innocence in her eyes were fake, and Jack could see it. He knew she had understood it already. And she would see it soon.

[- Babe… we are…. We…]

- Shhh…shhh… I know, I know.

She stopped him on his tracks for a bit, leaning against his body and slowly beginning to cry as well.

Jack never regretted something as much as he regretted not being able to hug his wife tightly. On his heart, sadness. On his mind, the awareness that he had done so much less than he could have. Even if he couldn’t turn human, turning on a smaller form…

He was overcomed with emotion, but, this time, he was at least aware of what was happening.

He was dead. They were dead. And days and months inside Another World may have numbed them enough to forget about it, but that was the truth and the ultimate truth.

They were dead already.