Even so, they could only gather parts of the bodies. It seemed the Head Eaters were not the only ones that had been feeding through the night.

No one could tell which aberrants had taken what, and at some point, the remaining family members stopped trying to figure it out.

The longer they stayed, the harder it became to let go, so they chose to burn everything as soon as possible.

Even then, it did not sit well with Gideon. He looked at the scattered body parts laid carefully on the white sheets he had bought from the system, the contrast making everything look even more disturbing.

He turned to Percy and spoke as gently as he could. "Do you want to keep the ashes? I can give you urns for your wife and daughter."

Percy stood there as if his soul had already left his body, but after a moment, he gave a small nod.

"Yes... if it’s not too much trouble."

Gideon simply tapped his shoulder in response. He knew words would not help. At times like this, there was nothing to say, and this was the only thing he could offer.

Fortunately, not all the captives taken by the Skull Fangs were from the same group as Percy and Charlie.

Some of them were from Edelweiss Town, which confirmed Elaine’s earlier suspicion. Piggy clearly knew more about what had happened with the Eagle Union than she had said.

Out of the captives, about fifteen remained. Six women and four men were from Edelweiss Town, while the rest belonged to Percy’s group, including the little girl who had been traveling with them.

"This isn’t my mother!"

Alyssa’s voice rang out sharply as she pointed toward one of the corpses. "My mom is beautiful! Her hair is brown, her eyes are blue! This... this is just a leg!"

Her voice broke as she started crying, her small hands trembling as she pointed at the remains. The body they had identified as her mother only had its lower half left.

It was the only corpse they could not clearly identify. The others, as broken as they were, still had enough left, pieces of clothing, fragments of their bodies, something that allowed the others to recognize them. This one had nothing.

That was why they had assumed it was her mother.

Gideon frowned and walked over, with Percy slowly following behind him.

Moments like this made him realize something he did not like about himself.

He could talk to women easily, joke, flirt, and ease tension without much effort, but when it came to a child, he had no idea what to say.

A man named Bruno stepped in before he could try.

Bruno knelt down to Alyssa’s level, gently placing his hands on her shoulders.

His eyes were still red, his face strained from crying over his own son, but he still forced himself to stay calm as he pulled her into a careful hug.

"It’s going to be okay, Alyssa," he said softly, his hand moving to stroke her long hair. "I’ll take care of you."

"No!" Alyssa shook her head violently, pushing against him. "I want my mom!"

She could not accept it. She only had her mother, and she was too young to understand how to live without her. She could not have been more than eight years old.

Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed harder. "You’re all lying! I want my mom! Where is my mom?!"

The scene was painful to watch. Even Gideon turned his head away, unable to look at her any longer.

A child was not supposed to see something like that. Not her mother reduced to scattered remains on the ground. A father was not supposed to bury both his child and his wife like this.

Everything felt wrong.

Gideon stood there, watching the scene unfold, and for the first time, he started to regret bringing them here.

The reality in front of them was far crueler than whatever they had imagined. It did not give closure. It only tore them apart even more.

His gaze shifted, and he noticed Elaine standing at a distance, Piggy behind her after they had finished helping with the bodies.

Not everyone had accepted that help.

Charles was the worst of them. He was shaking, his emotions completely out of control as he pushed Piggy away and lashed out at her.

"Don’t touch him!" he shouted, kicking her back. "Don’t touch my brother’s body! This is your fault! You killed them! They’re dead because of you!"

His voice cracked as he tried to lunge at her again, his grief turning into anger.

The situation nearly turned into a full fight. Others stepped in, trying to hold him back, while Piggy stumbled from the impact, unable to respond.

In the end, Elaine stepped forward and stood between them, her presence forcing the situation to pause.

Gideon could still remember the look in Piggy’s eyes earlier, the guilt that had been there when she spoke in a low, shaken voice.

"I didn’t mean for this to happen... I didn’t know it would turn out like this."

It sounded weak. Because she should have known.

Even Elaine had no patience left. Her anger snapped, and she slapped Piggy hard across the face, the sound sharp enough to cut through everything.

"You killed this group and left their bodies out here in the open, and you didn’t expect aberrants to come and tear them apart?"

Elaine’s voice rose, filled with fury. "Don’t mess with me, Piggy!"

The tension rose again, ready to explode, grief and anger mixing into something uncontrollable.

Then Percy spoke.

"We’re all exhausted," he said, his voice hoarse but steady enough to cut through the noise.

"Let’s just end this... I can’t keep looking at them like this. My wife, my daughter... they don’t deserve this. They’ve already suffered enough."

He lowered his head slightly. "So please... just this once, stop."

Slowly, the anger faded and just like that, the fight lost its meaning.

Thinking about it, they could not just leave like this, so Gideon stepped back for a moment.

While everyone was busy saying their final goodbyes and trying to calm Alyssa down, he quietly opened the system and bought what they needed.

Wood that would burn easily, simple caskets, and flowers.

He began preparing a place for the cremation. It was not anything elaborate, just layers of wood stacked carefully beneath and around the open caskets, but he hoped it would be enough to give them some dignity in the end.

Elaine approached him without saying anything and helped.

She placed the flowers around the caskets, arranging them in a way that softened the harshness of the scene, turning something brutal into something that at least felt like a farewell.

After all, a funeral without flowers felt incomplete.

When everything was ready, they poured oil along the lower parts of the wood to make sure it would catch fire quickly.

Gideon then told Percy and the others to move the bodies into the caskets. He gave them time, letting them say their final words without interruption.

Once they were ready, Gideon took a long wooden pole with a bundle of cloth tied at the end, already soaked in oil, and handed it to Percy.

"Do you want me to do it," he asked quietly, "or will you do it yourself?"

Percy took the pole without answering, but the look in his eyes was steady.

Gideon lit the cloth, and the flame caught quickly.

Percy stepped toward his wife first. His lips moved as he murmured something under his breath, his voice too quiet to hear, his eyes filled with tears that he no longer tried to hide.

Then he lowered the flame to the wood, and it spread almost instantly, climbing along the oil-soaked surface until the entire casket was engulfed.

He stood there for a moment before moving to his daughter and doing the same.

Charlie followed not long after. He insisted on doing it himself, just as Bruno did for his own family.

Each of them carried the same expression, grief.

Only Alyssa did not take part. Bruno stayed beside her, gently guiding her, making sure she saw her mother one last time before the flames consumed everything.

It became a silent funeral.

There was no priest, no ritual words, no guidance, only the sound of fire and the quiet grief of those left behind.

Yet somehow, it still felt solemn, even peaceful in its own painful way. It was something they would carry with them for the rest of their lives.

When it was over, the caskets remained mostly intact, making it easier to collect what was left. The ashes were carefully gathered, treated with more care than anything else that day.

Gideon opened the Infinite Shop again and bought several urns, handing them out one by one.

They were simple, but they were all that remained, the last physical connection to the people they had lost.

After that, they left the place behind.

Gideon did not know if the four men and the child would be able to survive in the Safe Zone without breaking, or worse, without trying to end their own lives.

But he hoped that, at the very least, they could still see that there was something left worth holding onto.

Hope, no matter how small.