After Old Baldwin's soul departed, the dead man's body burned away even faster under the sun's active spiritual energy. Within minutes, it had turned to a cloud of dust, which General Baldwin gathered up in his tattered military cloak.
He handed the ashes to the guard beside him: Lady Irina, the undead Sword Saint who had spent this time fighting alongside Old Baldwin.
After Old Baldwin's departure, she had wanted to follow her superior with a peaceful death of her own. But her sister had grabbed her wrist and refused to let her disappear without a word a second time.
That left Irina in an awkward position.
Still, Old Baldwin had died a second time because he had fulfilled his final wish. Lady Irina's undead body remained stable, showing no sign of fading away. That meant her second life was far from over.
As the little mummy put it, the dead had to find a duty to fulfill after their resurrection before they could rest in peace.
General Baldwin was more than willing to welcome Lady Irina, whose loyalty had been proven, back into the Winterwolf Legion. But this wasn't the time to discuss that. The general wiped his eyes and straightened his uniform before picking up the Wolfblood Sacred Sword, now reduced to half its length.
He strode over to Old Qin and offered him the broken blade with both hands.
The general said:
"This was my grandfather's final wish. He wanted this sword to be given to his friend from another world. Please accept it, Lieutenant Colonel Qin."
"But it's a national treasure of Nordtov."
Old Qin wanted to accept it, but hesitated. He said to General Baldwin:
"The legend of the Wolfblood Sacred Sword is known throughout your country. Now that you've finally recovered it, would giving