The Awakened had collapsed wherever their legs had given out.
Maggie on a rock, her halberd planted between her knees; Zirel leaning against a tree trunk, motionless like a cracked sculpture; Elisa sitting on the ground, spear resting on her shoulder, head tilted back, eyes closed; Rony and the other two—Armin and Inès—more or less slumped together.
All around them, ordinary soldiers bustled. Filthy blades, soaked gloves—they butchered the carcasses like hurried butchers, digging through blackened entrails to extract the anima gems. Each shard ripped free gleamed for a moment in the dust before being tossed into a sealed metal box.
Due to the many restrictions imposed by the guilds and clans, no one except recognized Awakened had the right to buy or sell anima gems. And even for absorption, one had to be sponsored by a clan or guild.
So for these ordinary soldiers, the essence gems were forbidden fruit.
