Ren stood alone. The Tree of Dreams cast a long shadow under the faint moonlight.
Orrin, along with his puppets, levitated above. Their eyes were white, their faces carried no emotions — only Orrin seemed to show a faint hostility. Yet he smiled.
"If you only offered yourself to me, I would've kept you as my puppet."
Ren stared quietly, eyes filled with rage. He drew a long breath, Tamara's face flashing in his mind.
At the top of his lungs, he roared:
"ORRIN!!!"
Ren lifted his finger and pointed at him.
"Tonight this ends. Tonight you die."
Orrin smiled.
"And how are you supposed to achieve that?"
Ren grinned, slow and wide. He whispered:
"Easy."
At the top of his lungs, he yelled:
"Come down and face me, you little brat! Don't hide behind your puppets! Unless you want to ask permission from your mother!"
He continued calling Orrin in the most disrespectful ways possible.
Orrin — who sat on Peter's shoulder — stood and stared angrily.
"Suit yourself."
As soon as those words left his mouth, roots emerged from the ground, ensnaring Ren's arms. Orrin and his puppets descended. Lili — hanging in the air, facing ahead — extended her arm. Her hand burst into flames. Ren's eyes opened wide, his smile fading.
Her flames were blue.
Orrin flew to her shoulder.
"Her Absolute Manifest is terrifying. I couldn't risk trying it. But let's see how painful it is now that we are far away."
On the other side of the tree, Bjorn approached slowly, avoiding any sound, fearing the roots below. Ren's voice echoed through the dark as he called for Orrin. Bjorn — a few steps from the tree — looked up in awe, fascinated by how massive it was up close.
He set his palm on the bark and immediately sensed it — an unimaginable amount of Akrion flowing within, mostly concentrated at its base. Bjorn understood why Ren had specifically targeted it. He whispered:
"Akrion pushes Akrion. Well done, Ren."
He took a few steps back and laid his hammer on the ground. Closed his eyes and focused. Akrion coated his body slowly, flowed even slower. Second by second, the coating thickened and the flow started bouncing like fire.
Bjorn opened his eyes. As the Akrion channeling through his body reached its peak, he bent down and lifted his hammer. The flow extended through the handle into the hammer's head, coating it in the process. He tightened his grip and the Akrion coating began seeping into the steel, slowly changing its color into deep crimson — the thick red aura dissolving into the metal itself.
Bjorn's forehead was soaked in sweat. He moved the hammer with care, as if it were about to explode. He stretched his arms back, took a deep breath, and whispered:
"Crimson Forge."
And swung with full strength.
The hit moved air like an explosion before it even landed. And when it did, it never made contact with the tree — the force exploded outward as the trunk and the earth below caved in, releasing a terrifying shockwave that sent the entire tree shuddering from root to crown.
The sound and shockwave reached them like thunder. Orrin turned as the tree shook back and forth. The earth started to shake.
Orrin's face paled as he yelled in terror:
"Nooo!"
He moved quickly — Lili and his puppets with him. Only Peter and the woman from before remained near Ren watching as he smiled. he stood still until Orrin was far away. He tore the roots ensnaring him. His injured arm was shaking, his body trembling, muscles sore and in pain.
Now, it was time for strategy, not brute force. He started analyzing the mysterious woman who had fallen victim. Her outfit didn't resemble a knight nor a mercenary, wearing a fur capelet*. He noticed a small leather satchel tied to her waist. He understood that other than her blinding Manifest, she was no threat to him. He only needed to focus on Peter, who was physically trained and whose Manifest had reached a new level. Ren was at a disadvantage in the open. With no time to stand idly, he looked at the forest and ran toward it. He looked back and confirmed that they were following him.
'So even when he's not around, they move on their own,' he thought to himself as he picked up his pace.
Deep within the forest, where vision was limited and since Ren wasn't an Akrion user, the puppets couldn't sense him. As the distance grew between them and the tree, the root vines attached to them became a burden. The woman levitated above the tree line and used her Manifest. Light shone faintly through her skin as she concentrated it out of her palm. The darkness in the forest started to dissipate. Peter stood below her, focusing his senses on the smallest movements. Then he stretched his arm forward. He stood silently for seconds, then a barrage of wooden stakes poured out of thin air around him, toward every single tree, bush, and plant. Each stake sped fast, delivering devastating damage upon impact.
Ren stood behind a boulder, watching as trees disintegrated into sawdust. He was focused and prepared as he started to remember the previous encounters he had against Peter in those loops. Bjorn was the one who gave him the advice about Peter's Manifest. His words echoed, igniting Ren's memories while they were sitting around the campfire:
"Peter's Manifest can store objects which he can summon back. His Manifest occupies a certain space around Peter like a sphere. Its range isn't that vast. Although he can't use it in defense nor attacks since the object size is limited and the amount he can store is limited."
Bjorn smiled. "You just need to push him far enough to empty it, then you will have a chance."
Ren kept staring at Peter unleashing his Absolute Manifest. His worst fear was the uncertainty of its current potential.
The thick forest slowly began to disappear. The destruction grew closer and closer to Ren's location, and the light from above limited his movements. Ren's eyes fixated on Peter. He picked up a large stone near him and waited. The sound of wood shredding and trees falling grew closer and closer. The light from above became brighter and brighter.
It's now or never. Either run further or face the inevitable.
Ren closed his eyes and took deep breaths. Until it happened. Silence took over the area. Ren opened his eyes. Peter was there, standing still. Just the last tree line between them. The woman was up at a distance.
It's time.
Ren got up and threw the stone with all the strength that was left in him, and instantly ran to the side. The woman noticed the movement, followed the stone as did Peter. Their reaction was synced and instant. She focused her light on that area. As for Peter, he stood there, arm stretched. The stone flew with great momentum and lethal force, but the moment it reached a certain distance from Peter — the limit of his Manifest — it disappeared. Yet at the same moment, Ren was mid-air from Peter's right side, ready to deliver a heavy punch.
In his head, Bjorn's words could be heard clearly:
"While storing objects, he can't use his Manifest to summon any."
Ren's smile stretched. His fist was going to land.
Darkness took over instantly, followed by a shine. His eyes snapped to the side at its source. The woman fired a concentrated beam of light toward him, which went through his chest, burning through flesh and bone, leaving a hole.
Ren's eyes widened. His facial expression went pale. The last thing he saw was blinding light followed by his mother's face calling for him. Ren's body fell to the ground, lifeless.
The variable he cast aside took over the entire equation.
As the woman's white, lifeless eyes stared back at him.