"Minor injuries on one side, serious injuries on the other. Those who are close to death, bring them to Eira."

Kael ordered, the soldiers nodded.

Eira had already begun healing others, Kael could see she was tired, but she was still helping, it made him smile, it also made him worry, however, before he could think too much—

"Lord Kael."

One soldier rushed towards him.

"We found these near the place where the Sky Soldiers were gathered before they left."

Kael frowned, Lavinia looked at the artifacts and recognised them with one gaze.

"They are healing artifacts."

And that made Kael’s expression change as he realised it.

Aurelia must have ordered her people to leave these behind before they left.

"Aurelia..."

Lavinia realised it as well.

Kael looked at her, then the artifacts, then at the wounded and he understood what it meant.

This was Aurelia’s last attempt to make things right, her last attempt to make sure the relationship between Kael and the Sky Kingdom wasn’t completely ruined and Kael...

He accepted that gift, along with the gesture.

He wouldn’t consider the Sky Kingdom to be a complete enemy, at least for now.

"Use them."

Kael spoke.

The Artifacts were distributed, Lavinia began explaining how they worked. Yes, she had naturally involved herself in the action despite Kael telling her to rest.

Kael saw that and he just sighed in defeat.

Just like that, the treatment became more organised.

Those with minor injuries were taken care of by the Alliance’s methods, they may be primitive, but at least they were enough to stop the bleeding.

Those with more serious injuries were helped using the Sky Kingdom Artifacts and the worst cases were still brought to Eira.

With that, the healing began.

Kael stayed beside Eira, making sure she only worked on critical cases, the little thing was already pushing herself, he didn’t want her to use too much energy.

This continued for hours, slowly the battlefield began to change, water, new clothes, and herbs were brought, civilians slowly came out as well, helping in whatever way they could.

Kael watched it all.

Seeing how all the tribes moved together, temporarily forgetting their grudges, it... put a smile on his face.

So he, while ruffling Eira’s fur gently any time she was not healing, continued watching.

As the sun started to fall, Lavinia brought out the Divine Food that the old cooked, the soldiers who saw it immediately straightened, their eyes shone with delight and hunger.

Just like that—

The food was distributed.

The battlefield was already cleaned at some level, the bodies were differentiated, blood couldn’t be wiped out, but Lavinia and a few other weak wind mages did scatter it through wind spells, making the smell go away.

Morvain did not eat for a long time, she only sat with the other elders and looked toward the open land where the Steel Dragon was resting.

And she...

She remained silent.

Kayden only watched her, he could tell what she was feeling, after all, he felt the same thing, so instead of saying anything.

He sat down beside her and watched the Dragon as well, all while he fed Morvain without her realising it.

By now, Kael had stood up as well, Eira had healed all those she could and was now asleep in his arms, he made sure not to disturb her.

Igni and others had already returned to the Sanctuary, though before leaving, both Igni and Cirri did look at the Steel Dragon one last time.

Lavinia was now beside him, she had recovered almost all her Mana, she was exhausted yes, but she could function.

Though for now, she only focused on remaining next to Kael.

Kael too, gave the orders to the rest. The night duties were given to civilians who didn’t participate in the war, the soldiers were told to rest.

And with that—

The night passed.

The next morning, the Heights woke up exhausted from the big war, it was even worse because the soldiers knew there was a lot of work they still needed to do, even though they had won the War.

So after waking up and having breakfast, the soldiers moved.

The dead were counted, the wounded were treated, Eira appeared again, again healing those in comparatively worse situations.

The rest collected the weapons, the arrows they used, the weapons the enemy dropped, every single thing was important.

They also needed to rebuild the broken gate. The prisoners were already taken to prison yesterday, so at least that was done.

As for Kael—

He had to do something else.

By the time the sun was completely up, he was already standing with Lavinia, Korvath, Gruumak and a small group of Alliance soldiers who were ready to leave.

They weren’t going to War, not this time, they were going to bring back the remaining tribes, the enemy tribes that were already lost.

Some of whom were desperately waiting for them, some were waiting for their warriors’ victorious return and would soon be receiving the bad news.

Kael prepared himself, he first went to those who were waiting for them. That was the easy part, then, he broke the bad news to others.

Even now, even after reaching as far as he did, standing in front of the elderly and telling them that he killed their children was extremely difficult, and those children standing at the back, looking at him from a distance—

They did not make it any easier.

Still—

Kael did what he had to, he broke the news, the people broke down and in this situation—

As much as he hated himself for it, Kael instructed these people to join them. The only thing he was glad about was the fact that Lavinia, the moment she heard about the enemy’s strange state, had decided to record the battle, and the enemy’s state.

That mattered, especially when he would explain how he killed every single one of their tribe members who attacked them.

At the very least, telling them he only did it because their children had lost their minds was a little easier than directly breaking the news.

So—

With a heavy heart—

Kael continued to visit one tribe after another, recruiting them into the new the Heights was building.