Kenrich was completely taken aback by the sight. Violet was struggling and cursing, but it was clear that she had no strength to fight back. Tinsen and the rest of the soldiers spotted Kenrich in the corner of the clearing and Tinsen let out a haughty laugh.

“Is this yours?” he joked as he held Violet a little higher.

“Let her go!”

“Sorry, pal. No can do. It truly is a shame. You both carried yourself with such confidence throughout this battle. Too bad the outcome was predetermined. I prefer not to have to use this when I don’t feel the need to, but you both caught me on a bad day.” Tinsen was pointing to an orange stone encased in one of his many golden rings. “I’m sure it’s strange to see such a feisty girl in such a weak state, but I assure you, it’s no fault of her own…I’m sure you think quite highly of this woman, don’t you, boy?”

Kenrich readied his sword and pointed the tip straight at Tinsen. As he did, the three soldiers went in front of him with their large shields facing outwards.

“Not much for conversation, huh?” Tinsen said, shaking his head. “All I want is to make sure you die at least knowing the truth. The truth about this woman…and her intentions.”

“Enough of your games!” Kenrich yelled.

Kenrich shot a fireball straight at the group of soldiers surrounding Tinsen, but their massive shields blocked most of the blow. It was still enough to knock the soldiers back a few feet though.

“Such savagery! You truly are Violet’s pupil! I’m sorry, boy, but I won’t be tolerating any more of that-”

Tinsen pointed his fist at Kenrich and shot an orange beam that engulfed Kenrich’s body completely.

“Urrrgh!” he grunted.

“No! Leave him alone!” Violet barked.

Kenrich finally understood what had happened to Violet. The second the orange light covered him; he felt all of his strength leave him. He fell to his knees, unable to return to his feet no matter how much he wanted to. He tried to raise his sword, but his hand dropped it, not being able to hold its weight.

“Quite useful, isn’t it?” Tinsen chuckled, holding Violet’s face up to his own. “Being able to sap the strength of you, and your dog here…What a power to have, huh? Doesn’t matter how strong, or difficult you are, you all fall to your knees just the same! Now, I was going to spill all of Violet’s dirty laundry myself, but you’d never believe me, would you? So, I have an idea-”

Tinsen held Violet out in front of him and drew his sword from his side, placing its blade against her left leg. Violet started squirming, but without her strength, Tinsen was easily able to keep her in place.

“Go ahead, Violet. Tell him what you really plan to do with the ring. Tell him about what you really hope to find in Paradise Falls. That’s where you were heading, right? Not like I need to ask. Who knows what dumb reason you gave this poor boy to make him follow you here, but you can undo that lie right now!”

Kenrich stared up at Tinsen angrily, but had no strength left to put up any sort of fight. Violet on the other hand had a look of panic on her face.

“Don’t listen to him, Ken! He’s only trying to toy with us!”

“Ha! Toying with you, am I? If I was going to do that, then I’d do something more like THIS-”

Tinsen angrily slashed his blade at Violet’s left leg, separating it at the knee. A pained grunt came from Violet’s mouth, followed by short quick breathing. She was doing her best not to scream.

“Wonderful! Look at all this blood! I never thought I would have the pleasure of killing you twice, Violet! I think we can both agree that the first time was much too quick though! We’ll do better the second time…”

The look on Tinsen’s face was deeply disturbing. His pupils were dilated, he was breathing heavily, and his eyes did not leave Violet’s pained expression. He brought her face close to his and continued his rant.

“Maybe that changed your mind! I promise to end your misery and give your dog here a quick and painless death, all I ask in return is for you to explain to him how you’ve been using him this whole time! Go on! The boy deserves to know!”

The anger within Kenrich started to generate that familiar heat inside of him he felt in his prison cell, but it had not reached its height yet. Violet continued her short, pained breathing, but looked as if she was going to say something.

“K-Ken…” she started. “I…I…”

“Go on, Violet! We don’t have all day!” Tinsen laughed.

“I…meant it when I said I wanted…to keep the ring out of Admia’s hands…but…”

“But…?” Tinsen parroted, placing his face closer to Violet.

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Violet was silent for a moment. It was not clear if it was from the pain she felt or if she was truly struggling to get the next words out, but Tinsen was sick of waiting.

“Speak, Violet!” Tinsen yelled. “I tire of your constant delays! Maybe this will finally get the words flowing!”

Tinsen raised his blade once again and sliced off Violet’s other leg. Massive amounts of blood were now pouring from her severed knees. Too much blood to stay conscious for long. Realizing that he was about to lose her before he got what he wanted, Tinsen started punching Violet’s face repeatedly while yelling “Speak!”

It was finally too much for Kenrich to handle, his eyes started to flicker orange once again, and after a few seconds, he did not feel tired anymore. Kenrich got to his feet and faced Tinsen and his guards.

“Huh?” Tinsen said, looking towards Kenrich. “Did it wear off?”

Tinsen shot another orange beam right at Kenrich, but upon impact, the orange light immediately dissipated.

“H-how are you…”

Before Tinsen could finish, Kenrich sped up to the soldiers in front of him and picked up two of them by their necks. The third soldier thrust his spear into Kenrich’s abdomen, but he had no reaction. Once the guard removed the tip of his spear, the wound immediately closed like it was never there. Kenrich then slammed the two soldiers he was carrying into one another, caving in their armor and their bodies, immediately killing them. This sheer show of strength made the remaining soldier fall back on his knees. Kenrich picked up the remaining soldier and threw him into a nearby tree, leaving a red streak across the brown bark. After witnessing this, Tinsen looked at Kenrich with immense fear in his eyes before dropping Violet on the ground and running deeper into the forest. He did not get very far though before Kenrich made his way in front of him, cutting him off. Tinsen fell back onto the ground and put his hand in front of his face, cowering.

“D-don’t kill me…I can give you money…Here! I’ll even return the ring to you!”

Tinsen took out the ring from his back pocket and showed it to Kenrich. Kenrich looked at it for a second and then grabbed Tinsen’s hand and ripped it off. Tinsen took his arm to his chest and rolled on the ground screaming. Kenrich slowly took the ring out of the dismembered hand. He then stood over the curled up Tinsen, and ripped off his helmet before holding him up by his orange hair. Tinsen looked at him with tears streaming down his face. Kenrich looked back at him with no expression in his bright orange eyes, before shoving the severed hand down Tinsen’s throat. The sheer force of it killed him almost immediately, but there were a few seconds of absolute horror before that, which showed on his deceased face. Kenrich stood back up, and slowly made his way back towards Violet, who was seconds from bleeding out on the forest floor.

“Ooooh…scary…” she said weakly while looking up at Kenrich, who was staring down at her with bloody hands. “Did you…get back the ring?”

Kenrich’s eyes still shone with orange light as he looked straight at Violet without acknowledging her questions.

“I’ll take that…as a yes…” Violet looked up towards the sky. “Everything is getting cold, Ken…But you’ll bring me back…won’t you?”

Kenrich continued looking down at Violet without changing his blank expression. He then looked over at Violet’s severed legs which sat lifelessly a few feet away from her. He walked over and grabbed each one before placing them on the forest floor at the end of Violet’s knees.

“What a…gentleman…” she said, closing her eyes.

Kenrich continued staring at her as she silently passed away on the forest floor. Suddenly, Kenrich grabbed his head. The orange light started flickering once again before finally giving out and returning his eyes to their normal, light brown hue. Kenrich was back in control of his body.

“What the fuck…” he said quietly as he saw Violet’s body lying motionless on the ground.

She was clearly dead. Stepping back from her corpse, he scanned the forest floor. He was positive that he had just transformed again. It was the same feeling he felt back in the dungeon. And, once again, he had no idea what the motivation of his other self was, but the only thing he wanted to focus on now was finding the ring. He started patting his pockets and checking every crevice of his clothing. As he did this, he spotted the raven-decorated ring sitting on his finger. Did he put it on while he was in that state? He dwelled on this for a second before snapping back to reality and grasping Violet’s hand. White light filled the area before encasing Violet’s body. Kenrich watched and saw that the white light had picked up Violet’s severed legs and adorned them back to her body perfectly. After about ten seconds, Violet’s body started moving once again.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” Kenrich said to her.

“I just died again, and that’s how you greet me?”

“Sorry, I just had the idea of saying that if I ever revived you again. It seemed funny in my head.”

“You say that like you were hoping it would happen again!”

Violet stood up and punched Kenrich’s arm.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did though with the way you were looking at me. You were towering over me, just…watching me bleed out.”

“Really?”

“Uh huh. It’s really hard to figure out your motives, Ken. One second, you’re killing Tinsen and getting the ring back, then the next you’re watching me die.”

“I…killed him?”

“Yup. I saw it from over here. It was quite poetic, shoving the hand he used to sap our strength down his throat. Let’s go look!”

“Ugh…I don’t think I can stomach looking at that.”

“C’mon! I’ll hold your hand-”

Violet grabbed Kenrich’s hand and led him towards Tinsen’s body. Once they arrived, Violet grabbed Tinsen by his hair and put her face close to his.

“This is better than you deserve, you fucking psycho,” she said, coldly. “I’m going to take his rings. That strength sapping one will probably come in handy.”

Violet started taking off all of Tinsen’s rings one by one and stashing them in her pocket. Kenrich’s eyes traveled over to the other dead soldiers near where Violet’s body laid and grimaced at the grisly sight. Even after all this death, he was not desensitized quite yet.

“So…what now?” Kenrich asked as Violet was undoing Tinsen’s sheath.

“Well…we continue going to Paradise Falls.”

“I see…”

Kenrich’s tone showed a bit of uncertainty that Violet caught immediately. It was clearly about what Tinsen had said. About her true motive.