Chapter 26:
Ren X: Last Arrival In Another World
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We were in a sort of drainage basin where all the pipes in the city’s underground sewer system met. Aside from the neon-green water moat surrounding the arena, there didn’t appear to be an active flow of water. However, that was about the only positive thing to take from the situation I found myself in.
“Let the feast begin!" The old woman in the center, Gertie, lifted up her cane and adjacent hand in the air as an ominous-looking bloodshot eye opened sideways in the center of her wrinkled forehead. “Release third eye chakra, dance of the crows!”
As the eye glowed a bleeding purple, a murder of crows began to encircle the witches, their caws echoing against the domed ceiling above us. My exasperation only continued to grow as my friends showed no signs of improvement.
It looks like I’m gonna have to fight my way out of this one, but how? I don’t even know any spells besides summoning those glowing orbs!
We weren’t lacking in fighting strength and spirit between those who had tagged along with me, but in the case of myself alone, I wasn’t inclined towards fighting off multiple magic users with nothing but melee attacks and my wits to go on.
But… if I don’t do something, figure out some way forward, everyone here will die.
It always came down to that, I knew as well as anyone. Just like with the fire golem, inaction was unacceptable here, come what may. I didn’t have time to think about how in over my head I was.
Before I could contemplate a suitable course of action, however, the hag pointed her staff in my direction, and the crows surrounding her torpedoed in my direction, screaming at me as they did.
“Ehehehehe, fly my pretties!”
“AGH—!“ As a single striking force, the murder of crows barreled into me, knocking me sideways as I attempted to run. I tumbled once, planting my hand on the ground and skidding to my feet.
The straggling crows pecked and tore at my clothes and flesh while I slashed blindly with the Ashen Fang, only managing to clip one as it fluttered to the ground. For my efforts, I was already bloodied from their razor-sharp beaks and claws. I inhaled through my teeth, trying to push through the pain until my wounds healed themselves.
“You’re out of your element, boy!” The witch holding the orb, Gertilda, taunted me. “Though a healing ability is tricky, tricky, you rascal, you.”
“I’m only just getting started!”
“Ah, ah, one shouldn’t get cocky, it just means more flesh for our pretties to pick from your bones!”
“The cocky ones are you hags!” I retorted. “Why don’t you let my friends in on the action, and see if you’re so tough against all of us? I bet you won’t!”
Worth a shot, right?
“Hah! The boy fancies himself a comedian, doesn’t he, sister, doesn’t he?” Gertie taunted, her crows returning to her side.
“He does, sister, he does! Thinking he can outsmart a coven of skinwalkers with playground insults is childish, but oh-so-adorable.” The witch who seemed obsessed with whether or not I was cute, Gertrude, cupped her hands together with a girlish gesture that was ill-befitting someone so horrifying to look at.
“Ren… over here…” I heard a voice from behind me, it was Guildmaster Milton’s.
“Boss, you’re alright!?” I was surprised as the man tried and failed to lift himself to his feet; his eyes were all out of focus. I wanted to try and help him up, but he waved me off, perhaps giving up on doing so.
“Listen, dear boy… that orb, imbued with a dark hex of the mind…” Milton struggled through his explanation, clearly not all there mentally. “You have to… the light, you must…”
And just like that, he was down for the count again.
The light…
I glanced at the dark orb again. Fortunately, his explanation told me plenty and confirmed my earlier suspicions. If I were unaffected by the darkness because of my affinity, then that would make sense, but I also had the perfect antithesis to their tricks in my arsenal.
If I could only get close enough to Gertilda, the one holding the orb, it was likely that I could free the others from their incapacitated states if I destroyed it.
“And something tells me I’ll need light, the opposite of dark, to do it.”
However, it wouldn’t be easy. Gertie, who wielded crows notwithstanding, if the other two sisters let off a barrage of their own magic, would it even be possible for me to evade repeatedly without getting grievously wounded?
Not to mention that I lacked the experience to even properly use light magic in the first place, were I to get within striking range past the swirling wall of crows.
“To resist our trance even for a moment, you weren’t bluffing about the strength of your friends, after all.” Gertrude giggled. “But they cannot save you from your fate, dearie. Cute and weak as you are, you’ll probably be consumed and released later as bird excrement.“
“Fate is all just a bunch of bullshit anyway!” I spat, earning a glare from the woman. “I’ll beat you three ugly hags with my own two hands and make you eat those words. How ’bout that.”
…
The witch's arms fell to her sides as her body language went dark. My brow began to sweat as I regretted my harsh choice of words more than expected.
“Ugly………me?……………….UGLY!?” Gertrude shook with rage, clutching her orc skull mask with one hand. “I’LL SHOW YOU UGLY, YOU FUCKING BRAT! Release heart chakra, strangling vines!!”
The woman’s attitude dramatically shifted from her cutesy demeanor before as she let off a barrage of curses and insults, followed by a spell. A glowing green knot appeared over her left bosom.
Gnarled vines shot out of her chest, shattering the brick underfoot and tossing the Governor, still unconscious in his chair, to the side.
Sensing my dwindling opportunities, I started sprinting towards Gertilda, my dagger poised to strike at the orb. However, I felt a vine wrap around my ankle and lift me off my feet just before I could make it.
“Shit—!”
My stomach dropped as I was hoisted meters in the air and promptly slammed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. I felt as if my bones were crushed under the weight of gravity, and the oxygen evacuated my lungs in a hurry.
I didn’t have a moment to recover as a vine wrapped itself around my throat, peeling me off the ground so that I would look in the eyes of the witch I had just insulted. I glared back at her, undeterred.
“You… old crone…”
“The fate of all living things—beautiful and grotesque—is to die alone, and be eaten by something else.” She reiterated, tightening the vine around my neck so that I could no longer breathe. “You may be able to heal your wounds, dearie, but can you survive SUFFOCATING??”
This is bad…
My eyes watered as I gasped for even the tiniest puff of air. To make matters even worse, the opportunistic crows landed on my shoulders, trying to peck at my vulnerable eyes and nose. I thrashed trying to dissuade them to no avail, my legs kicking wildly.
“The Black Sacrament will return all to the sweet embrace of death, as it should be, starting with you and your companions.” Gertie taunted me, extending her staff so that more crows would swarm and attack me. “Then Ember, too, will join you all as a flesh and blood offering to the great one eheheHEHEHE!!”
Very bad…
“Ren…kun…”
Reminiscent of when my father held his hands around my throat in a murderous rage, my vision wavered as I began to lose consciousness. Blood from several lacerations and tears rolled down my cheek, and I spotted Shion in my peripheral vision, crawling toward me unconsciously with a hand out. It would appear that even bereft of her senses, she still felt a desire to save me, but…
I promised I would protect THEM this time, save Shion… Was I a damn fool to think that I could?
I gritted my teeth, hearing the dark abyss call out to me. It beckoned me to stop struggling against the void, to stop fighting death‘s pull. As if my existence were a cosmic accident, as Alpha succinctly put it, my death would thus be things returning to their natural state. Reality could heal from a blight that had plagued it since Shion’s original sin.
My fate…
All my life, all I had ever done was fight, and even more so after my arrival in this world. I defied anyone who said I was a waste of space, who claimed I was a liar and that I didn’t belong, but it all grew to be so tiring after a while.
How much could one really fight on their own in defiance against the world before they became consumed by it? The darkness and greed of man, the suffering that living beings bring to one another, and the endless torrent of sadness of grief. Just when I had finally found a group of people to fight alongside, to call true friends, it was all coming so swiftly, so cruelly to an end.
To be given hope after so long, and have it ripped from my grasp. Bearing that in mind as my nails clawed at the vines, digging into my neck, I thought that maybe, just maybe, it was past time to simply let it all go… to leave it in the hands of another. Maybe someone just a bit better than I was….
. . .
… because after all, I was no hero.
. . .
. . .
. . .
“But that’s not what you really want, is it?”
Perhaps it was a hallucination, or a trick of the light, but I saw a burning silhouette beside me. Her features were unclear, and yet she felt so brilliant, so familiar and warm. I felt as though she were the shepherd who would guide my soul to heaven beyond our mortal coil, but her next words shattered that defeatist facade in an instant.
“The boy I raised wouldn’t give up and leave it in someone else’s hands. Not when the people he wants to protect are behind him.” The spectre said.
My eyes widened with a realization.
“Mo…..ther…..??”
“Have you really changed so much in such little time??”
“No, I…”
“You have the power to overcome the darkness, Ren, it’s inside of you. Even if you can’t see it, you can visualize it, can’t you? Let your heart take care of the rest…”
Visualize… That’s it!
Zero’s words, a hint on how to use magic. I emptied my head of negative thoughts as a warmth spread through my arm, and into the Ashen Fang until it began to glow with a bright gold light. The crows swarming my person briefly vacated, keeping their beady eyes trained on my dagger until the light became truly blinding.
“What’s this??” The witches murmured angrily amongst themselves, staring in awe and fear at the brilliance of my named weapon.
I swung my blade downward, cutting through the tough vines with relative ease, and released myself from Gertrude’s death hold. Gasping until my lungs were properly filled, I steeled myself with newfound will. The aberration that spurned me to action had since disappeared, but I suddenly knew what I had to do.
“Crows like shiny things, don’t they…?” I muttered to myself, noticing their unbroken attention on the Ashen Fang as I waved it from side to side. “Then you bastards can have it!”
Tossing my glowing dagger in the air, the crows fell out of formation to follow the object, leaving the trio of witches vulnerable to attack. I charged in with a look of determination, dodging past choking vines and shifting ground.
“ORRRRRAAAA!” Landing a devastating punch to the face of Gertilda, she dropped the dark orb as she flew backwards, also losing her mask in the process. The other two witches squealed in unison as I caught the glowing object and held it close to my chest.
“Urrgh—!” I felt like my mind was under attack by the horrifying object as it pulsed in the palm of my hand like a beating heart. “What… is this damn thing??”
Though I felt like I could collapse at any second from the sheer power, I focused all my energy into pumping the sphere full of as much light energy as I could muster, enough to make me lightheaded and risk mana depletion fatigue.
“Heh, so this is magic.” As I felt the mana drain from my body, the orb began to change from a deep purple to a light pinkish color, and cracks began to form along its surface.
“NO, unhand the artifact this instant, boy!” Gertie cried out. “You know not what you’re doing!”
“It was given to us by the great one; you are unworthy to possess it!” Gertrude echoed.
The orb began to vibrate violently as if it could break down at any moment, and a twisted grin spread across my face. An idea had come to mind.
I won’t get through this unscathed, but… do I ever?
“You really want it?” I pumped the last bit of mana I could into the orb, and chucked it as hard as possible at the two witches who harnessed crows and vines. “Then catch it, will ya!?”
They snickered, looking smug as if I had openly tossed away my only advantage. Fighting each other to leap for possession of the thing, the witch with the third eye emerged victorious.
However, what awaited them was wholly unexpected by either sister, and fully anticipated by me.
“I got it!” Gertie declared with a toothless smile.
The orb, having been destabilized and oversaturated with mana, suddenly exploded, reducing the two witches to a shower of smoldering guts and providing a truly spectacular special effects-like display for the eye to see. Unfortunately, however, I was also very much a part of that display.
I smiled as I was encompassed in a flash of light, everything eventually fading into white.
Kaboom.
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