Ren and Steven spent the entire day walking just as Steven said they would. Ren was tired of doing nothing besides walking for the entire day and was glad when they decided to set up camp for the night.

  “I’ll take first watch.” Steven declared.

  “First watch?” Ren questioned. “Watch for what?”

  “This is a different world, Ren, one filled with monsters that we need to be careful of. We didn’t run into any during the day because the majority of monsters become active at night.”

  “Eh? Where were they during the day?”

  “Hiding beneath the ground.”

  “What the hell? Are they zombies or something?”

  “Hm… now that you mention it, I haven’t seen zombies.”

  “But you totally considered it just now!”

  “Well, it’s not like we know this world like our world, right? Anything could be possible here.” Ren didn’t necessarily agree with what Steven said about knowing their own world. As shown by Mana, there are things that are impossible for people to know, like the existence of magic. Maybe monsters even existed in their own world and they just didn’t realize it.

  Ren took up Steven’s offer to be the first one to go to sleep. He fell into a deep sleep and awoke in Mana’s realm. He awoke in an upright position with his back against the front door of Mana’s house. He saw Mana sitting in front of her reflection pool. Ren stood up and walked over to her.

  “So, did you know it was Steven all along?” Ren asked.

  “Yes. Each human soul is unique. Even just by viewing it through this reflection pool I could tell that the man was actually Steven in disguise. I also saw through his intentions and decided not to tell you as well.” She turned to look at him. “Are you mad?” After looking at Mana’s face, Ren thought that it was hard to ever be mad at her.

  “No. I understand why Steven did it. It wasn’t anything bad so I have no reason to be mad.”

  “That’s nice to hear.” Mana smiled as she stood up. Ren noticed what kind of smile she had on her face: it was a smile of wickedness that struck fear into Ren’s heart. She must’ve been mad that Ren had created his own ability.

  “Wait!” Ren interjected before Mana had any chance to say anything, “I know you’re mad, but… uh, I can explain!”

  “Oh? Go ahead, Ren.” Mana’s smile appearing to widen as she tilted her head only made Ren more apprehensive.

  “Well… thinking back to how magic works: you know -- by generating willpower, mana can be created to cast spells. I just took that fundamental concept and… adjusted it.”

  “That’s more than just adjusting it! That’s bending it to your will!”

  “Well, that is how willpower works, right?”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean you should just create your own ability like that! That just puts you closer to --” Mana cut herself off because she didn’t want to think of what would happen to Ren if his powers continued to grow.

  “Mana. Like I said, if my overall willpower goes past the point of no return, then I have no problems with having to die if it means I can return the world to normal.”

  “But that’s just…” Ren thought that for a god, Mana was very remorseful for a human such as himself. Maybe it was just because she took her job so seriously that she valued every life within her world, or maybe she was just so young for a god that she hadn’t become callous and cold yet. Whatever the reason, Ren respected her for being remorseful for a human such as himself. “So, tell me the specifics.”

  “Specifics?” Ren questioned.

  “You created your own power -- one of which I’ve never seen or heard of -- so tell me how it works.”

  “Ah, well…” Ren thought to himself for a second about where to begin his explanation. “I wanted a way to strike someone without injuring them, so what I tried doing was using a strike of pure willpower to do the job. I figured out that willpower isn’t a tangible substance. It took me a while to figure out how to use it as an attack, but realizing one property of willpower settled the way that I would use it: willpower has a physical presence amongst more willpower. That means that if I attack with a strike of pure willpower, then I can attack the enemy’s willpower directly without physically injuring them.”

  “That’s… unheard of… I can’t believe you came up with that ability yourself.”

  “I don’t know what it is about it, but it just came to me as if it were natural. Weird, huh?” Those words struck Mana…

  “Yeah, weird…”

  “Ah!” Ren began to rush into his next question, “but the more important topic that we should be discussing is monsters. How can monsters exist in this world? Wouldn’t monsters need souls, too?”

  “Yes, monsters need souls as well.”

  “What! So did Tye use the souls of people to do that?”

  Mana smiled. “You’re learning, Ren, but you’re also getting too far ahead of yourself. There are three ways Tye could use souls to create monsters. The first would be to use the souls of humans, but those have already been used to create the humans of this world. The second way would be to use the souls of the animals of the old world. Tye didn’t do that because I have confirmed that the number of animals in this world are similar to the number in the original world. Then, the final case would be to create monsters using artificial souls.”

  “Wait!” Ren interjected. “You said that he would create a soul, but isn’t that impossible?”

  “That’s why it’s called an artificial soul, a soul made out of pure willpower or mana. An artificial soul is not an actual soul. There lies an inherent difference that doesn’t need to be explained to a human, just know that an artificial soul is a replica and can never be a real soul. Along with creating the world, Tye created a great many artificial souls along with the monsters. The strength of an artificial soul’s willpower is based on how much willpower the creator put into it, so depending on how Tye created the artificial souls of this world the monsters could be weak or, theoretically, they could even be as strong as Tye himself.” Ren thought about a monster that could be as strong as the person who’s able to rewrite the world.

  “A monster that strong… say a dragon for that matter. That’s a scary thought.”

  “Well, it’s unlikely that Tye spent that much power on one monster. He had an entire world to create, so we can hope that he didn’t.”

  “Definitely.” Ren didn’t want to ever encounter a monster that strong. After that, Ren and Mana began training for the night. However, their training was cut short when Steven woke Ren up for his shift.

  “Ren.” Steven said as he shook Ren. Ren, who had just been defending from one of Mana’s attacks, flinched as he was suddenly brought back into reality. Steven laughed at Ren, “Having a good dream?”

  “Ah, yeah, something like that.” Ren said drowsily. “Go ahead and get to sleep, Steven. I’ll stay on watch for the rest of the night.”

  “Right, thanks, Ren.”

  “No problem.” Steven laid down next to where Ren had been sleeping and Ren stood up to stretch. For the next few hours the night was peaceful. Ren stared up at the stars through the opening in the trees above him and thought it was criminal how beautiful the night sky of this world could be. The one thing that Ren could no longer see in the sky was the moon, so Ren reasoned that the night was almost over. They had almost made it through the night without incident. That was until Ren looked to his left and saw a flower moving towards him. Ren took a step away from the tree he had been leaning against and looked down at the tiny flower. The flower looked like a tiny sunflower (it was no more than two feet tall) with a foot long stem that had four leaves coming off of it. Two of the leaves were attached on the top two-thirds of the stem while the other two were attached to the bottom. It was as if the flower were attempting to emulate arms and legs.

  Ren walked over to the flower and looked down at it. Was it really some harmful monster? Ren was too distracted by its appearance to consider it a threat. The flower tilted its “head” up towards Ren. Ren thought the flower was a little creepy with how humanlike it seemed. As Ren stared down at the flower, Ren was overwhelmed by the flower’s creepy appearance and decided to eliminate it to be safe. Ren held his hand out and pointed his palm towards the flower, ready to cast a fireblast. The flower continued to look up at Ren. Did it understand what was about to happen? Was the monster cognisant? As Ren began to say fireblast, he saw what appeared on the flower’s “face.” A mouth began to open in the middle of the flower’s face and inside were numerous sharp teeth. As Ren noticed the flower’s mouth, he not only sped up his fireblast, but it caught him so off guard that he accidentally broke his limiter and fired a gigantic fireblast at the tiny plant. He fired it as the flower monster below him let out a scream as it lunged towards him. As the flower lunged, its size began to increase exponentially.

  Ren dodged out of the way as soon as he cast the fireblast, the power of his will surrounded him in a green fire as usual. When he looked back to where he had been standing, he saw the burnt corpse of the flower monster. The monster had become twice the size of Ren, it could have easily eaten him whole. He had been lucky that he fired a blast large enough to burn it in one go. That taught Ren a valuable lesson: do not underestimate an opponent based upon looks. They could be deadly…

  As Steven and Ren continued on their journey through the forest, the two stopped where there was a fallen tree next to a river. The two sat on the tree, facing the river, they ate their lunch.

  “Have you thought about what we’re going to do about the executioners yet, Ren?” Steven said as he finished his sandwich.

  “Hm.” Ren said as he thought about it for a second. “Avoiding them would be nice if possible.”

  “I think you should get rid of the notion that avoiding the executioners is possible. If they’re Tye’s elite force, then I don’t think they’d just sit around as we fight Tye.”

  Ren sighed. “Then I guess our only option is to fight them one on one. The question is how to do that…” Ren trailed off as he went into deep thought. Fighting more than one executioner sounded like a death sentence. He didn’t quite understand any of their abilities besides Lilith’s but they all seemed extremely deadly. If they were to fight four, three, or even two at once, Ren wasn’t sure they could make it out alive.

  “Well, look at the bright side. You at least have some idea of what all of their powers are, right? So we can come up with a way to beat them.”

  “You make it sound easy, but I don’t really have a good grasp on most of their powers. I caught a glimpse of Illness’s and Dee’s and I haven’t seen Slumber’s or Finite’s. The only one that I think I actually know is Lilith’s, but even her power seems impossible to beat. The ability to control each individual strand of her hair, extend them, and use each as a razor sharp sword easily capable of cutting through someone. She alone will take a lot of thought in order to defeat.”

  Steven threw his hand down onto Ren’s shoulder and said, “Good luck with that.”

  “Eh?!”

  “You know I’m not the brains of the group. That’s you or Tye’s thing, sometimes even Terra. That’s why I’m counting on you, Ren. You’re the leader and I’m the support. If you need anything, just ask, but I can’t come up with ideas like you can.”

  Ren sighed. “You’re right, you are pretty useless when it comes to ideas.”

  “Right?” Steven grinned.

  “That’s not something to be proud of.” Ren smiled a broken smile until he saw Steven’s expression. Steven had turned away from him and looked towards the river that ran next to them.

  “Ren! There’s a girl in the river!” Steven shouted.

  “What!” Ren’s eyes darted to the river where he saw a girl face up, floating down the river, her long black hair spreading out in the water. Ren jumped to his feet and ran to the girl to pull her out of the water. She appeared to be unconscious. Ren laid her down on the flat ground by the river.

  “Quickly! Check for breathing!” Steven urged.

  “I’ve got it, I’ve got it!” Ren leaned over the girl and listened for breathing, and that’s when the girl opened her eyes and saw Ren leaning over her.

  As the girl realized there was a person hovering over her, she gasped, “What the!” Ren looked down at the girl, surprised she was awake. She punched Ren in the face, sending him flying backwards. The girl quickly sat up and looked around.

  Ren sat up as well and yelled, “What the hell!” The girl continued to observe her surroundings, acting as if Ren couldn’t be heard. “Oi!” The girl continued to ignore Ren until he stood up. As if finally noticing him out of the corner of her eye, the girl turned her head towards Ren and finally spoke.

  “Where am I?” she questioned.

  “In the middle of the forest. We found you floating down that river.” Steven pointed at the river beside them.

  “Huh! That’s what you want to know? I want to know why you hit me!” Ren exploded.

  “Hmph.” The girl quickly turned her head away from Ren. “What would you expect when the first thing I saw standing above me was some beast?”

  “I was checking to see if you were alive!”

  “That doesn’t change how the situation appeared to me. From how things looked to me, you needed a good whack.”

  “Huh?!” Ren inquired, slightly annoyed. The conversation was beginning to run off the rails and become a pointless argument, but luckily, Steven was there.

  “Wait, Ren. Before that, we need to know why you were in the river.” Steven asked.

  The girl tried to think back, but, “Nope. I can’t remember how I ended up in the river.”

  “Amnesia then?” Ren questioned.

  “Well, I remember what I was doing earlier today, but I can’t remember how I wound up in the river. Hm.”

  “Well, all that matters is that you’re okay, right? You should take it easy for now until you can remember what happened.” Steven suggested.

  “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” The girl sighed as she examined her wet dress. She wore long white stockings, a red skirt, a white shirt, and a black jacket on top, all of which were drenched in water. “Ugh, I’m gonna have to change out of these clothes.” The girl rose to her feet and began to walk towards one of the nearby trees. “No peeking! Especially you, blondy!”

  “Eh? What are you -- wait! Blondy?” Ren wanted to question how she was going to change into different clothes in the middle of a forest but had no time to. The girl was already behind the tree changing. After a few seconds had passed, the girl emerged from behind the tree with the same clothes on, but they were dry. “What the hell!” was Ren’s response.

  “Oho? You want to know how I did it?” she asked.

  “Yeah!” Ren said in excitement.

  “Hmph, maybe if you weren’t a degenerate, I’d tell you.” she said with a smug face.

  “What’d you say about me!” Ren yelled back. All Steven could do was sigh, but it was a happy sight for him nonetheless. Only a few days ago, Ren was a complete mess because of what he’d been through, but now he was beginning to return to the way he was originally. Ren was beginning to rise above the situation he had been placed in.

  “So,” Steven interjected, “what’s your name?” The girl turned to face Steven.

  “My name is Aria. Aria Orion.” she said proudly with her hand on her chest.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Aria. My name is Steven Alystia.” Steven bowed to her. “And he is --”

  “Ren.” Ren interjected his own name.

  “Hm? No last name?” Aria questioned.

  “No. No last name.” Ren responded.

  “Hmmmm…” Aria stared at him as she examined Ren closely. Ren had no idea why he needed to be put through strict scrutiny. He thought Steven looked more out of place with pure white hair, but that was just Ren’s opinion. Maybe that wasn’t actually rare in this world and Ren was somehow bizarre looking in comparison. Ren turned his head away as Aria continued to stare at him.

  “See?” Aria pointed at Ren as she turned her head to look at Steven. “He’s having lewd thoughts about me and had to avert his gaze.”

  “I see. Ren… I had no idea you were such an animal…” Steven said sarcastically.

  “Huh! Wait! You’re on her side, Steven! I thought you were my friend!” Ren cried out.

  “I’m sorry, Ren, but I’m on the side of justice!” Steven declared, but quickly began laughing. Ren began laughing as well and so did Aria. When the three finished laughing Steven invited Aria to sit down and have lunch to help her regain her energy. Aria accepted and sat down on the log next to Steven. Ren attempted to sit next to her but Aria forced him to sit on the ground. Ren argued at first, but after one of Aria’s uppercuts Ren sat on the ground without question. Steven pulled out another one of the sandwiches from his bag and gave it to Aria, of which she happily consumed.

  “So what’s up the river?” Ren questioned.

  “It’s a village if I’m not mistaken.” Steven responded. “From what I know, the village north of here should have a river flowing through it.”

  “Yeah, it’s a village called Heath Village. That’s where I’ve been assigned to.” Aria said. The words “assigned to” rang through Ren’s head. What did she mean by “assigned to?” Ren was about to ask when he saw the girl’s expression.

  “What’s wrong?” Ren questioned.

  “The sky… there’s smoke.” Aria pointed north, upstream where Heath village was located.

  “What!” Ren said in surprise as he turned his head to look at the smoke. “If there’s smoke then that could mean the village is in trouble!” Ren thought of all the people who could be in danger. “We’ve gotta go help them!” Steven and Aria both agreed and they ran through the forest as quickly as possible to make it to the village.

  As the three exited the forest and found themselves on the edge of Heath Village they saw that all of the houses (houses that appeared to be low quality wooden houses) were on fire. All of them had been set ablaze by an unknown source. Ren looked around for any cause such as bandits, but there were no signs that anyone had actually been in the village. There were no bodies, no blood stains, nothing that showed any kinds of struggle in the village: there was just fire.

  “Follow me!” Aria yelled at the two as she ran down the dirt road between the burning buildings that aligned the road.

  “Where are you going!” Ren yelled at Aria as he began to follow along with Steven. Aria did not respond; she continued to run through the village with a clear destination in mind. Ren and Steven did their best to follow her past the burning buildings but the buildings were beginning to crumble and fall over, sending ashes, embers, smoke, and debris flying into the road. Luckily Steven was there next to Ren to protect him with barriers, but Aria was getting a little too far ahead. She was now a good ten feet in front of the two and gaining distance. If some building were to fall into the road then there would be nothing either of the two could do to save her. Ren chose to pick up the pace; he began to run ahead of Steven and close the gap between him and Aria. That’s when Steven noticed something coming up ahead of them.

  “Ren!” Steven yelled. Ren glanced at Steven over his shoulder. “That overhang is going to fall!” Steven pointed ahead to an overhang that connected the roofs of the buildings on opposite sides of the road. Whether it was used as a bridge or not was unimportant; what was important was the fact that Aria would be under it when it collapsed.

  “Steven! I’m counting on you!” Ren yelled back as he increased his pace even further to catch up to Aria. Steven yelled an affirmation at Ren of which Ren barely heard as he ran after Aria. As Aria ran underneath the overhang, she noticed that it was falling and that she would be crushed underneath it.

  Steven cried out, “Barrier!” as he erected a barrier large enough to stop the overhang from falling down, allowing for Ren to reach Aria in time to grab her and dodge out of the way before the barrier was broken by the weight of the overhang. Ren, with Aria in his arms, hit the ground and looked back at the debris they had dodged.

  “Are you okay?” Ren questioned.

  “Ah, yeah…” Aria said, blushing as she looked up at her savior. The two rose to their feet as Steven used his barriers as stairs to climb over the debris and land on the other side next to Ren and Aria.

  “All right, you can take us where you want to go but stay close, okay?” Ren warned Aria. Aria agreed and continued to lead Ren and Steven somewhere in the village. That place was the other end of the village (the opposite end of the village from where they had entered from). There was a mountain there along with a cave at the base of the mountain.

  “This is it.” Aria proclaimed.

  “This is what?” Ren questioned.

  “If there were any bandits or anyone with a reason to set the village on fire, this is where they would come.” Aria responded.

  “What makes you so sure of that?” Steven asked.

  “The only people who would set fire to the village are those who oppose Tye, that’s why.” Aria turned and began to walk into the cave. Ren and Steven gave each other concerned looks, for they both understood what kind of meaning Aria’s sentence implied.

  Aria continued to lead them through the cave. The path seemed pretty straight forward, almost like a tunnel that was surprisingly well lit by some kind of glowing blue crystal scattered along the walls of the cave. Ren could only question what could be at the end of the tunnel. If it were something those who oppose Tye would despise, Ren only had one thing in mind that met that description.

  “Shhh!” Aria held out her hand behind her to stop Ren and Steven in their tracks. “Be quiet, I hear voices.” The three then went into stealth mode, keeping to the right wall of the cave, slowly inching closer to the voices as they crouched behind the large stalagmites of the cave’s floor. When they arrived at the cave’s end, they saw the source of the voices: a group of bandits standing there, facing the wall of the cave. Ren questioned what was there that caught their attention, but then Aria stood up and walked towards the bandits. Seeing as how he couldn’t just let her confront the group of about seven bandits alone, Ren followed after Aria and so did Steven.

  “Hey, do you hear that?” said one bandit to another as they began to turn around. The bandits had heard the sound of Aria’s footsteps slowly becoming louder and faster as she began to run at the bandits from behind. “Ah! Who the hell are you!” Yelled the bandit as he drew his sword from the sheath hanging on his back. Aria was already right in front of him, leaving the bandit no time to even swing his sword. Aria elbowed the bandit in the stomach, causing the bandit to flinch, then send his sword down towards Aria. Ren watched as Aria fought brilliantly. She dodged the sword as she grabbed the man’s shoulders and lifted herself into the air on the man’s shoulders, like a handstand, then kicking the man in the side of the head as she fell to the ground -- and after her kick landed on the first bandit, she spun around midair and punched another bandit in the face. After seeing Aria finesse the first bandit, Ren ran in with his sword and punched the bandit (the one angry after Aria had just punched him) in the face and knocked him over. Ren instantly had to go into a dodge from there as another bandit had swung at Ren with a sword. Steven ran in between the two bandits on the far left. The two had swung their swords at Steven at the same time but Steven deflected both swords with his barriers then trapped both bandits within barriers just as he had done to Ren. This time, unlike with Ren, he used the full body barrier trap from the start so that his opponents would have no time to think about a way to escape it as Ren had done. Steven quickly knocked both bandits onto their knees and Aria made the remaining bandits fear her with her overwhelming close combat ability.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Ren looked up at the bandit who had swung a sword at him and found a familiar face. The bandit in front of him was the lizardman he had fought before. The one he had fought against to save Lilith from.

  “It’s you…” Ren said in surprise. The lizardman realized that it was Ren and became angry.

  “You!” He yelled. “Come to foil me again! Well it won’t happen! Not again! I’ll get my revenge!” The lizardman raised his longsword to swing it at Ren. Ren tried to reason with him, but the lizardman wouldn’t listen. The lizardman began to swing his sword down but saw Aria coming at him from the corner of his eye. The lizardman dodged the flurry of kicks Aria led with and then saw that his bandit friends had begun to flee from the cave. Aria sent various attacks towards the lizardman but he dodged them all and began to flee in the direction of the cave’s exit along with the other bandits. “You! You’ll pay for this!” the lizardman yelled at them. Aria didn’t bother chasing after the bandits so neither did Steven nor Ren. Ren turned to look at what the bandits had been looking at. On the wall of the cave… was a door.

  “A door? What?” Ren questioned. “This is what the bandits were after?”

  “No, not the door.” Aria clarified, “They were after what’s inside the door. Come on, I’ll introduce you.” Aria walked over to the door and began to open it. The thought reentered Ren’s mind: there was only one thing that he knew about those who despised Tye -- the target of that despise was none other than the executioners. Aria opened the door, allowing for Ren to see inside, and what he saw was, “This is my teacher, Dee.” Aria smiled. Yes, it was clear as ever to Ren, just as it was clear to Dee who was staring back at Ren, a fight was about to break out.

  “Oho.” Laughed Dee. “Ren, I didn’t expect to see you here. How’d you get so far south so fast? Did you come here because of the rumors that I would be here?” It was almost comical to see a lizardman as large as Dee sitting at a chair behind a desk with papers in hand.

  “Wait, you know each other?” Aria questioned.

  “I guess you could call us... acquaintances.” Dee said as he neatened the papers he was holding into a nice stack of papers that he laid down on his desk.

  “Steven, he’s --”

  “I know, Ren. I remember the name.” Steven took his stance and so did Ren. Aria looked at the two, confused.

  Dee sighed. “You really want to get into this that fast? No questions?”

  “I don’t think there’s anything we need to talk about, Dee. You’re an executioner, which means you’re in our way.” Ren replied.

  Dee stared at Ren’s determined face and knew he had no way of getting out of the situation without a fight. “Listen, Ren. You may have priority citizenship, but I won’t let you leave unharmed from this fight. If it’s a fight against me, I’m not going to hold back.”

  “Have it your way, Dee. I don’t need some priority citizenship to protect me.” Dee laughed at this.

  “You’ll regret it, boy.” Dee turned around and grabbed his claymore off of the back wall and said to Aria, “Fight, Aria. These two are our enemies.” Ren looked at Aria. Dee’s statement had confirmed that Aria was on the executioner’s side.

  “So, you’re a knight then?” Ren questioned. Aria had been confused up until Dee told her to fight, now she looked at Ren with the face of an enemy.

  “That’s right. More specifically I’m an executioner in training.” Aria confirmed. Ren thought back to his conversation with Lilith when she told him about how knights train to become executioners. Right now, he was looking at proof that what Lilith had said back then was the truth. “Dee. I want to fight this one.” Aria pointed at Ren.

  “Huh?” Dee asked, surprised. “That’s the priority citizen I told you about. Are you sure you --”

  “It doesn’t matter who fights him, does it? Let me do it.”

  “Well, if you insist…” Ren was surprised that an executioner backed down to Aria. Was Dee just respectful of Aria, or was Aria just hard for Dee to deal with? Dee sighed and looked at Steven. “Well then. Other boy. Let’s fight, but tell me your name first.”

  “My name’s Steven. Remember that when I send you to hell.”

  Dee laughed. “I like your spirit, boy. Go ahead, come at me!” Steven took up Dee’s offer by running past Ren and Aria and into Dee’s office, lunging at Dee with his sword. Ren realized that he had never told Steven what to expect from Dee’s ability and thought that Steven could be in trouble if left alone with Dee for too long. He almost forgot that there was an opponent standing in front of him. He looked back and saw Aria’s fist flying towards him. Her fist connected with his face and sent him flying like earlier when she had punched him after waking up. Ren quickly rose to his feet and took his stance. Aria took her stance as well, but was yelled at by Dee.

  “Aria!” Dee yelled as he deflected Steven’s sword, “If you’re fighting that boy, you’ll need to fight for real! Use your powers!” Ren questioned what powers Aria had. If they were deadlier than the excellent combat skills Aria had displayed with her fists, Ren worried what kind of power could be worse.

  Steven lunged at Dee, going for an overhead strike. Dee caught Steven’s sword by blocking it with his claymore, then Dee threw so much weight into deflecting Steven’s sword that Steven fell backwards from the force. Dee spun around to gain momentum and sent his claymore flying towards Steven’s stomach, threatening to cut Steven clean in half. Steven created a barrier -- knowing full well that it could not completely stop an attack of such force -- and used it to block the claymore long enough for Steven to fall backwards out of the strike zone. The barrier broke and Dee’s sword swung through, missing Steven just barely. Steven rolled backwards along the ground and rose back to his feet, but Dee was smiling.

  “That power of yours… you’ve revealed it already.” Dee said amidst his smile. Steven was feeling the pressure as he realized why Dee was smiling. Dee knew Steven’s powers and from that one attack that caused Steven’s barrier to break, Dee also knew about how much strength each barrier would have. Meanwhile, Steven knew nothing about Dee’s powers. Steven was at a huge disadvantage. Dee was so confident that he looked back out the door at Aria, who continued to fight Ren with hand to hand combat.

  “Aria! You need to use your powers against him or else you’ll lose!” Dee yelled at her. Aria cast Dee a glance that showed that she didn’t want to use her powers against Ren. Maybe it was because he had saved her earlier so she had doubts about fighting Ren; nevertheless, Aria did just as Dee ordered this time.

  Aria kneeled to the ground before Ren and put one hand on the ground and one in the air. From the ground she lifted up a sword of stone, as if she had melded the ground into a stone and lifted it from the ground, and her other hand held a sword of rushing air. The sword was full of such rushing air that it was visible to Ren, but he was still amazed at how such a thing was possible. But summoning two swords was not the extent of Aria’s power, this became apparent to Ren as Aria used that power against him.

  Aria was nowhere close to Ren but still swung her vortex sword (the sword made from rushing air) horizontally. Ren barely caught a glimpse of what happened. A wave of air had been shot from where the tip of her sword had swung and hit Ren’s body, flinging him backwards due to force. It was as if Ren’s entire front side had been hit by one of Aria’s punches. Then, Aria swung her earth sword upwards. This time Ren knew something would happen once the sword was swung so he dodged to the side. When he looked back he saw that there were stone spikes sticking out of the ground on the line that the sword had been swung. If he had still been standing in place, he would’ve been skewered by ground spikes. Aria swung her earth sword down on the same line and the spikes retreated into the ground. Ren thought he had a pretty good idea of what her ability was: the creation of elemental swords using the elements around her. Those elemental swords could then be used to control the elements around her. Without knowing the specifics Ren couldn’t know just how powerful her abilities actually were. Could she just use her air sword to deprive Ren of oxygen? That was unknown, but if Ren was still breathing then he thought it was a pretty good bet to think that she couldn’t do that. Nevertheless, Ren kept other possibilities in mind as well as he proceeded with the fight.

  Aria swung her earth sword on a diagonal, bottom left to top right, meaning a stone spike would come from the floor on Ren’s left. Ren leaped forward to dodge but was met with a stone pillar to the gut and a blast of wind that sent Ren flying to the side. Ren picked himself up and rose to his feet as Aria began walking towards him.

  “Surprised?” She began. “Who ever said that my attack depended upon the direction I swung my sword? And who ever said my attack could only take one shape?” She had certainly caught Ren off guard with her attacks. She had done a good job of showing her abilities yet keeping some elements of them hidden at the same time. Even now, Ren couldn’t be sure that he completely understood her abilities but that could be said of anyone he fought against. It wasn’t his own ability so Ren could never truly understand anyone else’s ability to its full extent. All he could do was guess based on his observations. So to say he was at a disadvantage would be false, because he had skills Aria had not seen yet either.

  Steven took a few swings at Dee but each strike was deflected with ease. This was when Dee decided to show off his ability. As Steven threw one strike at Dee, Dee raised his claymore up to not only block Steven’s strike but to also block Steven’s view of Dee’s face and shoulders. When Dee lowered his claymore he revealed that he now had three lizard heads (each head smaller than the original) instead of just one. One of the heads lunged at Steven as Dee lowered his claymore. Steven dodged by rolling backwards of which Dee followed up with by running in to smash Steven with an overhead strike. Steven used a barrier to prevent Dee from gaining any downward momentum with his sword so Dee could not break the barrier to swing his sword down. Steven used this opportunity to lunge in again, but Dee attacked by lunging his three snake-like heads at Steven. Steven responded by swinging his sword upwards in an attempt to cut off all three heads in one strike. As the sword should’ve connected with the first head, Dee disappeared. There was no longer a lizardman in front of Steven, only a claymore falling to the ground, but as Steven watched the claymore hit the ground he saw the group of many, many rabbits on the ground.

  “What the hell! Rabbits?” Steven asked in surprise.

  “Hahaha!” One of the rabbits nearest to Steven laughed. “Surprised! Haven’t you ever seen any other powers in action besides your own? This shouldn’t be very surprising to you by now!”

  “Well, it’s not like I’ve made any contact with another human in eleven months so I haven’t had a chance to see any abilities.” Steven replied.

  “How unfortunate for you, boy. If I were a bit nicer, or chivalrous like Slumber, then I’d tell you how my power works; however, I am not nice… I am Death!” The horde of rabbits leaped towards Steven. Steven created a barrier in front of him to block all of the small rabbits leaping towards him. The rabbits crashed into the barrier and fell backwards onto the ground. After hitting the ground the rabbits then hopped towards the barrier’s sides to go around. Steven created a second barrier, leaving one side open to funnel the rabbits through one side. Steven turned towards the opening he left and waited for the rabbits to begin hopping around the barrier -- then he went to strike the first rabbit, but he missed! Once again his target had disappeared! That’s when Steven heard the sound of one of his barriers being shattered like glass behind him. Steven turned around to see a large shark leaping towards him -- but it was a shark! It had no limbs to defend against a counter strike! The shark lunged towards Steven with its mouth wide open as Steven swung his sword down to cut the shark in half, but once again the shark disappeared. Underneath where the shark had been sat a small looking monster of which Steven had never seen before. It was a yellow, pill shaped monster with large, innocent looking eyes; small yellow wings; and yellow, stubby legs. The monster itself was about three feet tall and two feet in diameter. The monster looked up at Steven with a face that made one question if such a monster could have any hostile intentions. Then the monster began to lean forward and tilt the top of its head towards Steven, which gave Steven a bad feeling. Steven set up a barrier in front of him to block whatever strike was coming. Once the monster had been set up, it stopped leaning forward, tucked in its wings, and fired. The monster shot towards Steven like a bullet, breaking through Steven’s first barrier but being stopped by a second that Steven had placed after watching the monster launch itself at him.

  “Oho? You managed to place a second barrier?” The monster looked up at Steven as he questioned him. No doubt, it was Dee who was becoming these monsters, but how was he doing it? “That’s commendable, boy, but you haven’t learned my ability yet, and that’s why I’ll have the first real strike.” Steven was hit from his right, he had no idea what hit him, but it hit hard. Steven flew across the room, then slid across the floor. He looked up to see a second and even third pill shaped monster. Two of them were standing where he had just been. The three monsters hopped over to each other and Steven watched the three monsters merge into one as the lizardman known as Dee reappeared. “Curious? You were hit in the side by two bullet bugs: deadly monsters native to the snowy mountains in the north. They’re capable of launching themselves at high velocity into their opponents which make them hard to deal with if their numbers are great. That’s why the north is so deadly… but I wouldn’t expect one of you to have any knowledge about them.” Dee picked up his claymore and pointed it towards Steven.

  “One of you, huh.” Steven repeated what Dee had said. “I’m not sure what you mean by that -- but, what I do know -- its that -- I can’t go down just yet.” Steven picked himself up to his feet using his sword like a cane.

  “That’s the spirit, boy.” Dee smiled as he lunged in for the kill because he didn’t think Steven was in a position to fight back at this point. He put all of his strength into a downward blow that would destroy any barrier blocking his path and splatter Steven’s remains across the entire room. Steven smiled as Dee’s claymore fell down towards him, he had been faking the amount of damage he had taken to make himself appear to be completely worn. Dee had fallen for it. Steven dodged out of the claymore’s way with ease and went to strike Dee with a horizontal slash across his chest. Dee thought he would be able to escape Steven’s attack again by using his ability just as he had done before. Dee disappeared and became a flock of eagles, but there was something wrong with his transformation. He couldn’t move! Steven’s slash hit one of the eagles, causing Dee to reform himself as a lizardman.

  “Agh!” Dee cried out in pain as he grasped his left arm as it began gushing out blood. “You! How did you --”

  “Your ability… it’s a pretty simple one, isn’t it?”

  “What?”

  “It allows you to turn yourself into any monster. That can be pretty handy. What if you became a dragon? Then you could easily kill me, but why didn’t you? Not to mention, why was it that you could become multiple monsters but only when they were monsters smaller than your lizardman form? Simple. Your power is to turn into a monster or monsters so long as your body mass remains constant. All that remained for me was to put you into a position where you had to transform into smaller monsters of which I trapped within a cage of barriers. Since you reform in the area you disappeared, it was easy to set the trap.”

  “You!” Dee yelled as he lunged at Steven.

  There had to be a way that Ren could close the gap between him and Aria. If he could just get close enough to use his ability, then he could end the fight easily. The catch to Ren’s ability was that it was not a skill he could use to end the fight in one strike. While it was a strike intended to attack an enemy’s willpower directly, it cannot dispel an enemy’s entire willpower all at once; thus, in order for Ren’s ability to completely dispel an opponent’s willpower and knock them unconscious, Ren first needed to widdle his opponent’s willpower down before his ability could do its job. Normal attacks can be used to accomplish this task since one’s willpower to continue fighting drops when they feel pain, so Ren needed to get close to get a few hits in before he could use his ability to knock Aria out.

  The question he faced was, “How?” Running at Aria would do him no good. One blast of air or a stone pillar to the stomach would be all it took to stop Ren in his tracks. Use a spell against her? No, even if she was an enemy Ren didn’t want to hurt someone who was being controlled against their will by false memories. Then how could he close the gap? Ren only knew of one way, and it was a way that would make Mana mad.

  “AHHH!” Ren burst out into a yell as his pendant shattered and the green flames of his willpower engulfed him: his goal was to create a visual spectacle to confuse Aria. It worked, as Ren ran towards Aria he saw that she had hesitated to use her attacks immediately. Aria swung her sword of air horizontally, summoning a wall of air that shot itself at Ren. Ren retaliated by using gust, with his limiter broken, creating a powerful gust of air to rival the blast of air coming towards him. The two blasts of air collided and then dispersed. Aria’s first attack had been thwarted, which meant that the next thing she would try would be her earth sword -- this is precisely what happened. After seeing that her attack had failed, Aria was thrown aback in surprise but as she saw Ren getting closer to her she knew that she needed to make one last attempt to stop Ren from getting closer. Aria swung her earth sword horizontally, summoning some kind of strike to come from the surrounding earth. Ren knew that there was one way to reliably tell which direction the attack was coming from: the sound of the earth shifting was the giveaway. The sound came from behind Ren and above his head, meaning that Aria was attempting to strike Ren in the back of the head to either knock him out if the attack was a stone pillar or kill him if it was a stone spike. Ren threw his left arm behind him and cast fireblast behind him to destroy Aria’s attack with explosive power due to his limit break. Now Ren was in range to attack Aria, but the problem was that her swords were not just for show. As soon as Ren came within striking range, Aria was already throwing strikes at Ren. This was a first for Ren. When he had participated in SwordTours he never had to face an opponent who dual wielded swords because only broadswords are allowed in SwordTours. To fight someone with the ability to strike twice as fast as he could was a lot of pressure.

  Ren had gotten close like he wanted, but he was completely on the defensive -- he had to be or else Aria’s fast strikes would surely land. There appeared to be no room for him to use any spells, for he didn’t have the time to raise his hand to cast one. He appeared to be truly stuck. That was until he noticed that Aria had made an error. Ren had been defending by deflecting Aria’s flurry of sword attacks, but he hadn’t just been mindlessly deflecting her attacks. He was attempting to deflect her attacks in order to create that chance for her to make a specific error. That error is to have her swords attack from the same angle. If both swords attack at once from the same angle then Ren can deflect both swords at once and give himself an opening to strike. Aria threw both of her swords down at the same angle. Ren let the swords connect with his sword and then used his weight to throw Aria’s arms to the side, giving him the opportunity to attack as she recovered. Ren knew it was a risky tactic to use against Aria but he did it anyway. Ren cast waterburst in Aria’s face (controlling it so that it was not the powerful, limit break version that sent the lizardman flying through the wall back in Centiria). While Aria was blinded, he used that time to dodge to the opposite side of Aria that he had flung her arms towards and punched her in the gut, causing her to lose her air. Thinking she was weak enough, Ren’s sword lit up green as he threw his sword at her. The sword shattered as it hit her, the green blade sliced through her, willpower shot out of her in response to the strike, and the sword reformed after it had sliced through her. Aria fell to the ground unconscious.

  “You!” Dee yelled as he leaped towards Steven with his claymore over his head. Steven created another barrier to prevent Dee from gaining any downward momentum for his swing, so Dee could not swing his claymore down. Dee, frustrated by Steven’s barrier, threw the claymore backwards in order to get rid of it. He then went out of his way to smash Steven’s barrier that had been placed to stop his swing. A show of strength perhaps? If it were to intimidate Steven by showing that he could smash barriers with pure strength, then it had worked. Dee began to walk towards Steven.

  “Ehhh? You look even scarier than earlier. Do we really have to continue fighting?” Steven questioned with an intimidated face.

  “Oi, oi, oi! Don’t tell me you’re giving up now, boy! We’re just getting starte--” Dee’s sentence was stopped as his snout hit the ground. Steven had created a small barrier in front of Dee’s right shin. When Dee lifted his right leg to walk, his leg had been caught on the barrier and he fell over in consequence. “You… I’ll make sure to give you a proper death… yes… tearing you limb from limb! -- that sounds perfect!” Dee rose to his feet and began to spring towards Steven. Even though they were only a few feet away from each other, Dee thought that by putting power into each one of his movements would allow him to plow through any barriers Steven created, and he was right. Dee burst through each of the barriers Steven had set up through some kind of monster strength. When Dee reached Steven, he grabbed Steven by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the wall. Steven gasped for air as the impact caused him to lose his breath.

  As Steven gasped for air, Dee began to speak: “Any last words, boy?” Steven attempted to say something as he was pinned against the wall.

  “Lo--lo--look--”

  “Eh? What is it boy?”

  “You should’ve -- been paying -- attention -- to the fight -- going on -- outside this door.” Dee’s eyes widened as he felt a sharp pain pierce through his right shoulder blade. As his eyes wandered over to his shoulder to find out the cause, he saw his own blood filling the air. Ren had just cut off Dee’s right arm. Dee cried out in pain as he grasped his wound with his left hand.

  “You! Ren! You! Did this? I wasn’t told -- this wasn’t part of the plan! I wasn’t supposed to--” Dee continued to spout nonsense as Ren checked on Steven.

  “Steven!” Ren burst out in concern, “Are you okay?” Steven had fallen to his knees after he had been released from Dee’s grip.

  “Ha.” Steven laughed. “I know I may look pretty busted up, but that was all due to the acting.”

  “Acting? What the hell?”

  “I may have had to fool Dee a little to beat him, but… I got a little injured in the process.”

  “A little injured? You look like you just fought your way through hell!”

  “Heheh.” Steven gave a light chuckle. “I’ve been in worse fights with Jonathan with this freak. Enough about me, it looks like he’s about to do something.” Ren turned to look at Dee, who he had completely been ignoring while he went on some confused tangent. Dee was now staring intently at Ren without moving a muscle.

  “So? What will you do, Dee?” Ren raised his sword towards Dee. “If we fight, I’ll win.” Dee took no time at all to respond.

  “Certainly, you would win.”

  “Huh? Wait, you’re just going to admit defeat?” Ren was completely baffled by the thought of an executioner surrendering in a fight.

  “Don’t get me wrong kid, I know that if we fought I’d lose, but I never said I would surrender.” Dee began to run towards the door.

  “Oh? And you think I’ll just let you escape?!” Ren ran after Dee after he ran through the door. For some reason, Dee was much faster than Ren. Ren realized there was no way of catching up to Dee, but maybe there was a way to stop him still: if he could hit him with a fireblast then that would surely stop Dee in his tracks. But how would he accomplish that? That’s when Ren realized that Aria was also lying on the floor, unconscious. Would Dee attempt to grab her as he fled? Indeed, Dee had slowly moved towards Aria as he ran. So was his plan really to pick her up as he fled? Ren had no time to think because Dee was already very close to Aria. Ren cast a fireblast and aimed it to hit Dee if he bent down to pick up Aria, but Dee had not gone to pick up Aria. Dee continued to flee, choosing to leave Aria behind. The fireblast shot over Aria and fizzled out in the air. Ren considered firing another fireblast, but it was too late. Dee was already out of sight. He had gotten away.

  Character File

  The Executioner in Training: Aria Orion

  Age: 18

  Eyes: Purple

  Hair: Long, black

  Height: 5’ 8’’

  Clothing: long white stockings, a red skirt, a white shirt, and a black jacket

  Information: Raised in Tye’s world as a knight, Aria graduated from her class in the knight’s academy as valedictorian and thus earned the qualification needed to become an executioner. Her ability is one that allows herself to create elemental swords from fire (blaze sword), water (aqua sword), earth (earth sword), electricity (lightning sword), and air (vortex sword). Each elemental sword has its own unique attack pattern such as the vortex sword being used to fire a wall of air or the earth sword being used to create stone pillars or stone spikes.

  Aria opened her eyes and turned her head to the side. There, she saw Ren sitting a few feet away from her with his back to a tree. Ren was looking up at the sky, and he looked so peaceful with his hair blowing in the wind. Aria questioned for a moment how someone like this could be her enemy, but quickly threw that thought out of her mind as she sat up. Ren noticed her moving and turned to greet her.

  “Ah, good evening, Aria.”

  “Why?” Aria questioned.

  “Huh? Why what?”

  “Why am I still alive? You won the fight, I should be dead right now.”

  “Well, I… I didn’t want to, that’s all.” Ren looked back up at the sky with a smile. Aria once again questioned why he was her enemy. He was so kind at heart that not only did he not kill his enemy, he was able to look away from his enemy as they were sitting right next to him. “I guess, all I want is for you to hear me out. Is that okay?” Ren’s kindness was enough to get Aria to listen.

  “Yeah, I’ll listen.”

  “Great… is what I should say but this story is so ridiculous that I don’t expect you to accept it. Who would ever accept such a story? I know I wouldn’t… but it’s the truth, no matter how you may choose to avoid it, in the end, it’s true…” Ren turned to face Aria and turned his smile into a serious face in an attempt to show sincerity in his words. “This world is not our world: it is a fabricated world created by Tye and we -- we are his puppets, implanted with false memories to believe that this world is the true one.”

  “Ridiculous!” Aria shouted as she stood to her feet. “Tye having the power to create the world? How ridiculous is that? He hasn’t been around here for as long as the world has existed you know! He only became the ruler of this empire one year ago! How do you expect me to believe such a ridiculous story!”

  “Like I said, it does sound ridiculous and hard to believe… but if you think about the circumstances I told you about, isn’t it possible? You only believe you’ve lived in this world because Tye gave you those false memories. You only think this world has a history, but this world has only been around for one year. This world was created on the day that Tye overthrew the empire with the false history he created. If you take into account the circumstances I’ve stated, isn’t it possible that what I’m saying is true?”

  “Yeah… but you just can’t expect me to believe it without proof… I feel like I’ve lived in this world for eighteen years, working hard to use my powers for the benefit of the empire and now you’re trying to tell me that I didn’t work at all? -- that I was not put through hardship to pursue a real goal? I can’t just believe you...”

  “Of course, and I wouldn’t expect you to. All I want is for you to be open to the idea that I’m right because I’m going to prove to you that I’m right.”

  “And how do you expect to prove such a ridiculous claim?”

  “There’s only one way I can think of. You see, if someone from this world has a near-death experience with an executioner they regain their memories along with gaining an ability.”

  “Wait, I thought people gained their powers at birth.”

  “As I found out from Executioner M, Murder, she told me the same thing: the people of this world gain their powers at birth and those people go on to devote themselves to the knights, but how does that work for the rebels? The rebels gained their powers through a near-death experience with an executioner and also regained their memories. That’s why rebels exist in the first place. Do you know a band of rebels called Remembrance? That’s the reason for their name: those who remember join the rebel force called Remembrance.”

  “Ah, Remembrance, the force that was wiped out in the capital a few days ago.” Those words struck a chord within Ren, molding his face into a mix of horror and anger. He turned away from Aria so that she couldn’t see his face. He knew that once the rebels had been ambushed the other night that most wouldn’t make it out alive, but for all of them to have been killed. That was too brutal, and Tye had to pay. Ren turned back to Aria, his face still visibly displeased.

  “The same can be said for Steven and myself. We both regained our memories after a near-death experience with an executioner.”

  “But how can you expect me to just take your word for it? This could be a rebel plot that’s spread around to convince people that you’re in the right.”

  “And that’s the problem. The only way to convince you is for you to see the transformation firsthand: see a person devoted to Tye realize that this world is a false world, but I don’t really have an idea of how to do that.” That’s when Steven emerged from the forest behind the two and interrupted the conversation.

  “Ren, it’s the villagers.” Steven interjected.

  “What did you find?” Ren questioned. Ren had sent Steven to find out what happened to the villagers from Heath Village. There had been no signs of anyone in the village when they had been running by the burning buildings. No living, nor dead person was sighted so they had no idea where the villagers had gone.

  “That’s the thing. I didn’t find any of the villagers anywhere. Not even any bodies amongst the rubble.”

  “Ah, the villagers? You don’t have to worry about them.” Aria said.

  “Huh? Why’s that?” Ren questioned.

  “There’s a noble living just northeast of here on the coastline. If the village was attacked, it’s his job to shelter the people of his domain. If there are no bodies then that means all of the villagers safely evacuated to his estate.”

  “A noble, huh?” Ren began to question a certain fact they may have been overlooking: a group that may be able to convince Aria that the old world existed would be the group of rebels they had just run into, but where had the rebels gone? “This noble, is he loyal to Tye? -- and if so, just how loyal, or important, is he?”

  “Why are you--” Ren cut Aria off.

  “It could be important. I need to know.”

  “Well,” she began hesitantly, “of course the noble is loyal to Tye. In fact, the nobles could be called the most loyal to Tye of all the citizens within the empire, for they are the ones benefiting the most from Tye’s economic reforms. As for importance, as the leader of their respective domains the noble holds the responsibility of taking care of his or her domain and is one of the most important roles in this empire.” Ren’s eyes widened as she said this. “What? What’s that look for?”

  “The rebels…” Ren began, “they’ve been thwarted from getting their revenge on an executioner twice now…” Ren thought back to when he had protected Lilith from the rebels and to just recently when he fought them away from the literal Death’s door. “Right now they’re thinking of another way to get what they want, and if it’s not attracting an executioner by burning down a village… their next move is probably--”

  “The noble’s mansion!” Aria finished Ren’s sentence as she realized what he was leading into. “Quickly! The villagers could get caught up in the fighting!”

  “Right. I don’t want anyone getting hurt, because one death means one death in our own world as well.”

  “Right.” Steven agreed as well and the three set off through the forest, Aria in front to lead them towards the noble’s mansion.