Ren found himself in the middle of a very realistic-looking dream. He was in a room that was magnificently decorated with red banners and decorations, none of which he was paying any attention to. He found himself staring at a sword, sheathed, laying there on top of a table against the white wall. There was something about the sword that drew his attention, so much so that he didn’t feel like he had a choice in the matter, as if he needed to see what the sword looked like unsheathed. Ren reached out for the sword on the table and noticed his arm. He was wearing something that reminded him of his school uniform. The school uniform for Valenthia High was an all black uniform with a red stripe going up from the sleeve cuff to the collar, looped around the collar, and went back down the other arm for symmetry. The bottom of the uniform’s jacket also had a red stripe that looped around the bottom of the jacket. When Ren saw his arm he saw that same black sleeve and red stripe going up the side of his arm that his uniform normally had. He then looked down at his clothing: the jacket was almost the exact same as his school uniform’s jacket except that it was missing the Valenthia High emblem that was embroidered on the left side of one’s chest, the bottom of the jacket was longer as if it were a cape instead of a jacket, and the collar was slightly longer causing it to slightly rise up above chin level. When he looked back up there was suddenly a large mirror attached to the back of the table, allowing Ren to get a good view of what he was wearing. The resemblance to his school uniform was uncanny, but he couldn’t deny that the outfit looked good. He had no qualms about how his normal school uniform looked anyways, he had always thought of it as stylish, but the modified version of it he wore now made him think that it looked even better than usual.

After examining his uniform for a good minute or so, he looked back down at the table to revert his attention back to the sword he was so intrigued by -- but it was gone. He looked around the table, to the left, to the right, underneath, but was unable to find it. He turned around and finally noticed the room he was standing in. The room was fairly empty aside from the large red banners (two hanging symmetrically on each wall) and the gold streamers hanging from the ceiling. Across from where he stood was a giant bed, to his left was a large armoire (the only thing on that wall besides the door and banner on the armoire’s right), and to his right was a singular desk and chair. After seeing how minimalistic the room was, Ren didn’t think there was any chance the sword could've been hidden by something in the room: it had to be somewhere obvious. Ren turned back to the table and looked at the mirror (the object that appeared when the sword had disappeared) and it was in the mirror that he found the sword. The sword was there resting on his hip in the silver sheath that continued to shine just as brilliantly as it did when it had been lying there on the table. He grabbed the silver hilt and began to unsheathe the sword. What was revealed was astounding: the sword was perfectly transparent! It was exactly like the jewel in Ren’s pendant. Ren questioned whether the blade was made of glass or not.

As Ren was standing there looking at his sword, he failed to realize what was behind him. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and looked at the mirror to see a shadowy figure standing behind him. He quickly turned around to see that it was Finite standing behind him; he had been too slow to realize that Finite was in the room with him. Finite grabbed him by the neck and lifted him into the air. Ren dropped the sword as he began to lose consciousness as his life was choked out of him, but that was when someone burst through the door in the room and blasted Finite with a magic spell that resembled a fireblast. Finite dropped Ren and jumped back next to the desk to get a clear view of his attacker. Ren’s consciousness was fading and he could not get a good look at his savior. What he could make out of the fight he saw was that his savior had grabbed his sword from the ground to use against Finite. Finite drew his sword and the two became immersed in battle whilst saying things to each other that Ren could not make out before he fully blacked out.

Ren leaped forward out of bed the moment he blacked out in his dream. “What the hell kind of dream was that!” he wondered with confusion. Finite coming for him in his dreams? Had it been some kind of nightmare to torment him? With almost perfect timing, Mana burst through the door to take his mind off of things.

“Morning!” she said cheerfully. “Did you get some good rest?”

“Rest?” Ren questioned, his mind yet to transition away from his dream. “I don’t know if I’d call almost being murdered in a dream a good rest.”

“Did you at least come up with a sword and outfit you want to make?” she questioned. Ren thought about what he was doing in his dream before Finite came along. He had actually been dreaming about what Mana had asked him to think about.

“Wait. Did you influence my dreams somehow?” he asked.

“Yeah… I did kind of knock you out before you had a chance to think last night so… I made it so that you’d dream about the sword and outfit you wanted.” she smiled.

“And Finite? Did you make that happen, too?” he inquired.

“Finite? No. Was he in your dream?”

“Yeah, he tried to kill me, and I was in some room I’ve never seen before. You’re telling me you didn’t do that?”

“No.” she said with a more serious look on her face. “If you saw Finite, then that was your own mind coming up with that.” Ren sighed. There was no reason not to believe her. “The only other meddling I did was removing your false memories from the old world and leaving you your memories of the past week. It’d be troubling to have to search through twice the amount of memories you’d normally have wouldn’t it? So I took the liberty of removing them for you.”

“Thanks for that.” he responded. She smiled at him.

“Now come on,” she said, “we have some training to do.”

“Shouldn’t we have breakfast first?” he questioned.

“You only exist here in spirit form. Your physical body is not actually present so you do not need sustenance. You only need the willpower that is ever so abundant in my realm. So you don’t have to worry about something like breakfast here. Didn’t you think it was odd how you went without a meal yesterday yet didn’t feel hungry?”

“Then where’s my physical body?”

“It doesn’t currently exist. When you return to Tye’s world your physical being will be recreated and tied to that world, so don’t worry. It’s not gone.” Ren tried to let out a smile at the statement Mana had just thrown out like it was a simple statement yet to a human the idea of not having a physical body does not sound right. Mana led Ren outside to begin his training for the day.

“Willpower,” Mana began, “the power to do anything so long as you will it. This is how you will create your gear. When you’re ready to enter battle, will your gear into existence. Like this.” She said as she held out her hand, summoning a bright white light that morphed itself into the silver sword she had the other day. “Just like that -- all you need to do is imagine the willpower coming from your pendant comes together to create your gear. Go ahead! Try for yourself!” she said as if it sounded easy to make a sword appear out of thin air.

Ren looked down at his pendant and began to think to himself, “All right. If I can turn willpower into mana then making that willpower into a sword shouldn’t be too different.” He took a deep breath and then held out his hand, focusing hard. When he had steadied himself, he began his attempt. “Summon!” he yelled. No sword appeared. Ren stood there with his arm outstretched and his mouth wide open, his expression unchanged from when he yelled out, “Summon!”

Mana laughed, “What’s with that ridiculous expression?” Ren pulled himself together.

“Ahem.” he coughed. “Don’t worry about it.” he said as he readied himself for his next attempt. It took Ren a few tries to summon his sword, but in the end he got it in a fewer number of attempts than the number of times he tried to use magic. “Summon!” he yelled with intense focus as the bright light appeared in his hand and became the sword he had seen in his dream: the transparent sword.

“Wha--” Mana was thrown aback by the appearance of the sword Ren was holding. “Why a clear sword?” she questioned.

“Huh? This is what I saw in my dream.” he said. “So you didn’t have anything to do with how this sword looks?”

“No.” she responded. “The things you saw in your dream were influenced by me -- for example, I changed the subject of your dream so that you would dream about your combat outfit and sword -- but the contents of the dream were created by you.” Ren looked down at the sword that still appeared mystifying to him. Completely clear? Why would his brain think of such a strange sword?

“While I’d like to delve into the psychology behind why my brain showed me such a strange sword,” he said sarcastically, “I do think it’s interesting. So long as it’s a strong, durable sword then there’s nothing I have to complain about.”

“Oh, I see.” Mana said. “Well, then I guess the next thing to do is have you create your combat outfit. You do that the same way you created your sword.”

“Yeah, I’ve got it this time!” Ren said confidently. That confidence was well placed, he created his outfit on the first try.

“Ah, that outfit. That’s a lot like your school uniform!” she exclaimed, wondering why he made the choice to make it his outfit.

“I actually liked my school uniform a lot. I think this newly adjusted uniform gives me a ‘sharper’ look. What do you think?”

“Yeah,” she said, examining the color scheme and slight changes that were applied to the original uniform, “I like it.” She smiled at him and he smiled back. “Now we can really begin your training.” She said, continuing to smile at him. Ren didn’t quite know it at the time, but something about the smile she gave him then said, “You’re in for one hell of a training session.” However, by the end of the week Ren had learned this well. The whole spirit body -- you don’t need food because the willpower abundant in the atmosphere of her realm will keep you energized -- concept was utilized to its fullest by Mana. Ren was only given a few minutes of break each day he was trained and he was trained all day (But with no actual concept of daytime/nightime in Mana’s realm how could Ren even know if they were training the same amount of time they had the day before?). While he didn’t have an excuse not to train because he never actually felt tired in a spirit body, his mind did feel a bit strained from the constant training. The one thing that kept him going? That was his experience in the previous world: Finite having killed all those rebels and Sal, fifty-one people who were all people from Ren’s world, the original world. Ren wanted to train his hardest so that he could save the people of the original world and put an end to Tye’s world, even if that meant killing his best friend.

At the end of their last training session together, Mana told Ren to sit next to her. She had sat down next to her reflection pool. Ren, tired from the day-long training session, happily agreed to the chance to sit down.

“A sword, wielded by a swordsman who put down his sword, and four basic magic spells,” Ren began, “will this really be enough to defeat a monster like Finite?” he turned to Mana, interested to hear her opinion.

“Of course! Your power depends on how much will you have to take charge of the events in hand, so as long as you have the will to continue fighting you will win.” her smile beamed at him.

“You did put a limiter on me, remember?” Mana’s expression seemed to freeze over as she realized what he said.

“W-well.” she stuttered. “Just take that in a philosophical sense then.” She laughed with her hand on the back of her head. Once she finished laughing she turned back to face him. “Seriously though, even with the limiter I believe you can do it. All you need to do is stop Tye and then control will be back in my hands.”

“Hmmm. So that’s how it works.” Ren said slightly intrigued, but he knew, “It’s not like I’m a god so I’ll leave the specifics to you on how that works. If stopping Tye is what my job is, then I’ll do it.” However, Ren realized one fatal flaw in Mana’s teachings. “Wait, but how is a sword and four spells enough to take down someone who can alter the world? Couldn’t he just erase me from existence with that kind of power?!”

Mana smiled. “There are rules for everything. Willpower is no exception. One of the fundamental rules of willpower is that one’s willpower cannot overwrite another’s. So long as you have the will to fight, Tye cannot wipe you from existence at the snap of his finger. In other words, you cannot be insta-killed so long as you have the will to fight back. But there is an exception to this rule,” she continued, “it is not absolute. One’s willpower can be overwritten if the foe’s overall willpower is stronger.”

“What do you mean by overall willpower?”

“You could say it’s one’s perception of their own abilities: the more abilities one has -- and the stronger they are -- the more overall willpower they have. Tye’s ability is strong enough to the point that he himself almost appears to be a god, meaning he has a strong overall willpower. On the other hand, you have a willpower greater than a normal human, but thanks to my limiter you remain on a level closer to that of a human.”

“Wait! What you just said makes it sound like Tye’s overall willpower is greater than mine, so couldn’t he insta-kill me?”

“No, no, no.” she smiled. “To overwrite another’s willpower one’s will must be much stronger than the other. If you were still a normal human you’d be vulnerable to his powers like you were before, but the slight buff given to your willpower over the past week will protect you from others’ willpower.”

“I guess that’s a relief,” he smiled. “It’s like being given a debuff immune buff that lasts until I’ve run out of willpower.”

“That’s quite the way to put it.” she laughed. “But if that means you get it then that’s good.”

“And Tye, you said he almost appears to be a god.”

“With his power to alter the world, wouldn’t you call that power godlike? I say god-like because I don’t think he’s able to get to the level of god without understanding the fundamentals of willpower, and with no way of learning about the fundamentals of willpower he will remain at the same level of overall willpower. So you shouldn’t have to worry about him becoming even more powerful.”

Ren looked down at the reflecting pool and saw himself sitting next to Mana, the goddess of willpower. Ren never imagined that such a situation could ever happen, that a human and a god would ever meet, much less a goddess tell the human that he must kill his best friend to save the world. What is this? Some kind of fantasy world? Ren couldn’t help but laugh at the thought.

Mana questioned his reason for laughing but Ren simply responded with the question, “It’s almost time, huh?” he asked, continuing to stare at his reflection with a smile.

“Yeah.” she responded as she too looked down into the reflecting pool. Questions that only one such as a god could know about began to plague her mind. The answers to these questions were uncertain, would Ren be able to succeed in the brutal world he was about to be thrown into? He had no clue of the horrors that awaited him; even so, could he make it? In the end, it was up to Ren and Ren alone. Mana stood up. “Ren.” she said, her voice more forceful than usual, causing Ren to almost jump from surprise. Ren stood up to face her. “You are about to be thrown into a world that you know nothing about, a world created by your best friend, Tye. Many things await you, whether they be happy or sad, you are bound to find a great many new experiences await you on your journey. All you need to remember is that so long as you have the will to fight back, the will to save your world and the ones you care about then you will win any battle. Never forget that.”

This kind of talk still seemed more philosophical at this point instead of real to Ren. Being able to make things happen just because he had the will to make it happen? It sounded too good to be true; even so, he couldn’t just give up could he?

“Right!” he said with conviction.

Mana smiled at him. “Good, then it’s time for you to go.” Ren continued to stare at Mana while she tilted her head, still smiling at him. Even now, she still looked breathtaking to him. “Now then, turn towards the reflection pool.” she said.

“Huh? Like this?” Ren asked, turning away from Mana to face the reflection pool. He looked back down into the pool of water. Something then hit Ren in the back, causing him to fall forward. As he fell he caught a glimpse of Mana recovering from the roundhouse kick she had used to kick him in the back. He hit the water expecting to have a hard impact when his body hit the ground of the shallow pool -- but as he sunk deep into the water he realized he hadn’t hit the ground. He continued to sink. Where was he? Then he remembered what Mana had said about the reflection pool before: it was the gateway to the human realm. In other words, he was on his way back into Tye’s world.

----------------------------------------

Character Files

The Girl of the Group: Terra Lanon

Age: 18

Eyes: Light blue

Hair: Long, blond

Height: 5’ 8’’

Outfit: Valenthia High uniform

Information: Terra has known both Tye and Ren since elementary school. While they were acquainted back then, the three had never really known each other until they met in their second year of high school. Even after all that time, Ren still had a crush on her.

The New Teacher: Dr. Wallace Tirion

Age: 32

Eyes: Green

Hair: Brown

Height: 6’ 2’’

Clothing: Likes to dress up in suits

Information: A man who became a teacher in order to look after Jonathan, the son of the woman he loved. Unfortunately he was given no time to take any action before Tye erased Jonathan from existence and recreated the world.

----------------------------------------

After a while the sinking feeling disappeared and Ren was left in pitch blackness. The moment he was able to perceive this darkness he leaped forward out of his slumber and looked around. It was pitch black and hard to see but there was one area that appeared to be light: up -- in which he looked to see the night sky and all of its stars. There was even a full moon, shining bright as ever. He felt the cold breeze of the night brush past him and the soft feeling of the grass beneath his hands. This was it, he was back in Tye’s world -- but where was he? He looked around as his eyes began to adjust to the darkness and saw nothing but trees. Was he in a forest? Wait, in the middle of nowhere? How was he supposed to find Tye? He looked back at the night sky as he began to wonder what he should do, but one thing caught his eye. The night sky appeared to be lighter in one direction. “Is it lighter in that direction or am I not seeing things correctly?” he wondered. Nevertheless, he decided it wouldn’t hurt to follow the light since he would eventually have to wander off in one direction so why not the direction in which there is a light. He walked past tree after tree after tree in the quiet forest. The light in the sky got brighter and brighter, making him more and more sure that the light actually existed. The source for that light? The source was the massive city he found himself at the foot of.

The massive city was there, in the middle of the forest. As Ren reached the last tree and looked at the city border he saw that the city border was a completely straight line. From what he could see from where he was standing, he could see one road stretching from the border and going into the heart of the city. On both sides of the road were blocks of buildings each with an alleyway in between each building. Ren wanted to get closer so he could get a better idea of how this city was laid out. He stepped forward onto the dirt path that separated the city border from the forest. It was a dirt path that appeared to be the size of a road, and Ren had guessed that the length of the dirt road spanned the entire side of the city. Ren looked to his left, and then to his right -- an instinctual habit when one crosses a road -- were there cars in this world? Whether it was out of habit that Ren looked both ways or whether he was just curious about if the road really spanned the entire length of the city border or not, Ren didn’t have time to worry about some dirt road. He needed to get into the city and see if he could find information about Tye’s whereabouts.

Ren ran across the road and stepped foot onto the sidewalk next to the one visible road he had seen from the trees. As he walked down the sidewalk and took in his surroundings, he began to create a theory about how this city was built. He continued walking down the street, having seen no one outside along the way, until he came to the next crossroads. However, Ren had taken a long time to reach the very first crossroad in the city. Why had that street been so long before it connected to another street? The intersection that Ren had found himself at was a T-intersection. The street that he had been walking down was the street that fed into the T-intersection, but on the other side of the intersection, there were no buildings. Ren crossed the road to take a look. From where he was, he got a good view of the inner city. As he looked to his left, he saw that there were no buildings on the side of the road he found himself on and it was the same when he looked to his right. From what he had seen, Ren thought that he had a pretty good idea of how the city was laid out. How could he already know? Because it had been made to be symmetrical and organized. The city border was a completely straight line with a dirt road spanning its length, the city blocks were split up so that there were a multitude of buildings in each block each reachable through a system of alleyways, and then the center of the city that Ren was looking at spelled out the exact layout of this city.

So how was this city laid out? Imagine a perfect square, that is how the exterior of the city has been laid out. There are four borders to the city and each has a dirt path going along the border’s side. Now imagine that the square city has another square inside of it, that inside square being proportional to the outside square. The area in between the inside square and outside square was where all the blocks of buildings were. Each block was separated by a road that led from the city’s border and fed into the center of the city where the roads eventually came to a T-intersection. The T-intersection was a road that spanned the length of the inner square. How could Ren know that the city was organized this way? The answer was staring at him in the face. The inner square was almost completely empty. From the sidewalk where Ren stood he could see that there was a drop where the inner square began. At the bottom of this drop was a beautiful flower garden. That was what was within the area of the inner square, a beautiful flower garden spanning the entire area. Except that there was one rectangular tower that stood at the very center of the town. The tower was extremely tall, taller than any other building in the city that Ren could see. Ren didn’t think of it much at the time as he was unsure what the purpose of one large central tower could be so he continued to take in his surroundings.

He could see that there was a path leading from the base of the tower to a staircase that led up to the upper level of the city. Since the tower was a rectangular prism with a square base, he surmised that all four sides must have paths leading to staircases as well. He then looked around to his left and right. The reason he could tell the city was a perfect square? Because the absence of buildings within the inner square allowed for Ren to view the buildings of the outer square with ease. While that doesn’t mean he could one hundred percent say that the city was laid out the way he concluded it was, what he had seen so far had convinced him that it was true and it would be very hard to believe that someone who had made the city appear so symmetrical would fail to do so on some part of the city Ren had yet to see. Nevertheless, Ren chose to believe his conclusion that the city was a perfect square.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ren noticed movement coming from down below in the central garden. People were coming out of the wall below him. Apparently there was a door there that was hard to see from Ren’s angle. But who were these people? They appeared armored and had swords on their hips. They ran to the staircase and began to run up it. Ren turned to his left to watch what the people would do as they made it to the top of the staircase. They turned to their left as they reached the top of the stairs. “What? Were they coming for him? Did they have some way of knowing he had appeared in the world and was going to attempt to kill Tye?” he thought to himself. Even if that was an option he couldn’t just run away, for they might not know that he’s out to kill Tye and running away might just make them suspicious of him and chase him anyways -- and how did he know that they were in some way loyal to Tye? They might not even know who Tye is. Tye might be acting as some kind of god hidden behind the scenes, or maybe he was the king of some nation. Whatever their true reason for mobilization was, Ren decided the best thing to do was to stay still and watch the armored group pass.

As the first man of the group got close to Ren, he looked over at Ren curiously as he ran. The man began to divert from his path and slowdown in order to talk to Ren. The other members of the group ran past him. Ren watched as the long line of armored individuals ran past.

“You, what are you doing out so late by yourself.” the man said inquisitively. Ren thought he could take that to mean they didn’t know who he was, or at least had no reason to attack him. He made up an excuse on the spot to please the man.

“I just decided I needed some fresh air after I woke up from a nightmare. The flowers here in this garden are really beautiful. They can take my mind off anything.” he smiled.

The man smiled back at him and gave him a slight chuckle, “Hahaha! They do don’t they? But…” the man’s tone quickly turned more serious, “you should really be getting home,” he said, “it’s dangerous to be outside right now. The rebel group opposing Lord Tye that showed up recently has begun an attack on one of the buildings here in the capital. You should really head back home for the night.”

“There it is!” Ren thought. “Lord Tye”, meaning that Tye has some kind of known rule over the people of this world and that Ren is standing in the capital, and if the people he’s watching go past him are armored soldiers then that must mean that they are Tye’s army. The man said they were going to fight rebels, so wouldn’t that mean this man was on his way to fight Ren’s allies? If Ren could rendezvous with these rebels then that could make his fight easier, and that could also point him in Tye’s direction.

“Rebels!” Ren burst out in a fake voice of concern. “They’re here now? And they’re attempting to overthrow Lord Tye?”

“Yes, it is quite the foolish thing indeed. Overtaking Lord Tye is impossible when he has us, his soldiers to defend him. And if we fail there’s always the undefeatable executioners to put an end to the uprising.”

“Where are the rebels? What are they attempting to do?”

“They’re over there to the north.” he pointed behind Ren at one of the blocks of buildings. “Over there is an important research building Lord Tye setup in order to further our technological advancements. It’s become one of the most important buildings in the entire world and those rebels mean to use our research to destroy our very way of life!” he said, fully believing that what he was saying was true. Ren couldn’t help but feel angry that the man standing before him was brainwashed into believing that this was his “life.” The man didn’t know that his life had actually been stripped from him by the very man he called lord.

The man bit his lip in anger, then finished speaking, “Go home. I can’t stay and talk to you any longer. I need to go defend my homeland!” he yelled as he ran down the road, following the line of soldiers that had already gone ahead. Ren looked back down into the garden to see if there were anymore soldiers coming. None. He then turned back to the soldiers and followed behind them as they made their way down the road.

The soldiers began to gather in front of one of the many large buildings Ren had seen as he had been running down the road. The building appeared normal to Ren, there was no big sign on it indicating what the building was, or maybe that’s why this building was chosen as a research lab: a standard-looking building that no one would suspect housed important scientific research. As Ren began to slow down in order to keep some distance between him and the soldiers he had followed, he heard the soldiers shout something about a rebel. That was when a hooded figure burst through the second floor window of the research building and dropped down onto the unsuspecting heads of the soldiers. The hooded figure did nothing to harm the soldiers besides landing on their heads then continuing to jump around onto other soldiers’ heads as if the figure was taunting them.

“Get him!” yelled one of the soldiers.

“Kill the rebel!” shouted another, as the hooded figure continued to dance on the heads of the soldiers. Suddenly, another rebel jumped out of the window and landed on the soldiers below. This time the hooded rebel did not dance upon the heads of the soldiers but kicked them out of the way as he landed. The rebel then jumped up to the one dancing on the soldiers’ heads and grabbed the figure so hard their hood came off. The rebel, in a feat that Ren thought physically impossible, leaped back into the building’s second floor window with the other rebel hanging off of their shoulder.

The rebel turned back yelled at the soldiers, “Don’t make any moves, knights! All of your precious scientists have been taken hostage! Any attempt to enter the building will result in the deaths of every and all of your scientists!” The soldiers’ rage became a reserved hatred as they realized they were put into a tough situation. They couldn’t possibly bust in now that they knew the rebels had taken hostages. The rebels had appeared to mock them and then tell them that they were helpless against them. Yes, the soldiers could do nothing.

Then there was Ren, who had been thunderstruck in a different way than the soldiers had been. The person who had been under the hood: the person who had been dancing on the heads of the soldiers… it was Terra. When the rebel grabbed her and knocked off her hood, Ren saw the glistening gold hair that he could never forget. Even from how far away he was standing he had a strong feeling that the rebel must’ve been Terra. He now more than ever felt the need to make his way to the rebels, but how? He couldn’t just sneak past the soldiers and into the front door. Even if there was a back door there was no way that he could go through there either. If it wasn’t going to be through a door then there was one other entryway. Ren ran into the building he was standing next to. He needed a building but couldn’t go into one of the ones closer to the research building because the soldiers may take notice if he got too close. But why a building? Ren ran to the roof of the building by using the stairs. Once on top he had to jump the alleyway distance in order to make it to the other roof. Luckily the next building was a story shorter than the one he was on so he was much more comfortable with the jump. He took a running start and jumped over the alleyway, landing on the roof by going into a roll. He then recovered and again jumped to the next roof, also one story shorter. The next building was the research building, but the research building was much taller than the one he was standing on top of. It was taller by at least five stories; even so, he had his entryway.

He looked across the alleyway at the window straight across from him. He knew that there was no way he could make the jump across the alley and still have enough velocity to break the window. Even if he swung his sword at the window in mid air the force of that strike would be useless. How was he going to break the window? There was a way. If an object such as glass becomes hot then drastically becomes cold then that glass would break because of how fast the energy in the glass is released. If Ren could touch the glass he could do this easily by blasting the glass with a fireblast and then freeze, but for that he would have to somehow jump the alley and stick himself on the wall so that he could physically touch the glass to use freeze after the fireblast. That option didn’t seem too optimistic as the only way he could hang off the wall would be to hang off the windowsill. With the velocity that he’d recoil off of the wall with there was little chance he’d have a good enough grip to hang on to the windowsill. The only way he had to lower the temperature of the glass from afar would be to use gust. Gust would not be able to drop the temperature as far since it would use the cold air of the night to blow against the window instead of dropping the glass straight to freezing temperatures, but high enough winds can still be formidable at making one cold. All it takes is cold enough wind at a high enough velocity. Would the night air be cold enough? It was the only option Ren had.

Ren aimed at the window across from him and yelled, “Fireblast!” The bolt of fire shot over the alleyway at hit the window, causing the fire to disperse to sides and dissipate into the air. Ren wasted no time in firing off gust, he had yelled it as soon as the fire hit the window. “Gust!” he yelled as a gust of wind blew past the window. Had it worked? Had it done anything? A small cracking noise was all Ren heard. It had been just a small crack, not nearly enough for Ren to jump through the window. He needed to repeat the process, and quickly for the soldiers below were probably already on their way to investigate. He again fired a fireblast and gust creating a bigger crack in the window. Was it enough? Could he get through now? The thought of the soldiers running up the stairs made him nervous. Could he repeat the process again or would the soldiers already be at the roof by then? He didn’t know if the window was weak enough yet but decided to jump anyways because he didn’t want to risk being caught by the soldiers. A fight with that many soldiers would surely be the death of him. He ran to the otherside of the roof to get his running start, steadied himself by taking a deep breath, then ran, leaped, and came into contact with the window, breaking through it as if it were paper, rolling through shards of broken glass, and landing flat on his back. The decision to take the leap had been a good one. As he sat up, he looked back through the window to see the soldiers busting through the door to the roof. They had been quite fast to make it up those stairs that quickly. “Had they used some kind of magic to make themselves faster?” he wondered as he stood up. The next thing he needed to do was find the rebels, which wasn’t hard to do -- for a rebel grabbed him from behind and held a knife to his throat.

The soldiers looking across through the window must’ve thought that Ren was a hostage at that moment. They must’ve thought that the fire they had seen from below was a stunt to show off one of the hostages and that the rebels meant business. The soldiers on the other roof could do nothing but stand there in anger, while the rebel holding the knife to Ren’s throat knew that he was someone who had just come from outside. What that rebel didn’t know was that Ren was an ally.

“Wait!” Ren pleaded. “I’m not with those soldiers, I’m an ally!” The knife was not relinquished from the hold it had on his neck.

The rebel leaned forward and whispered into his ear, “Play along. Keep looking like a good hostage.” the quiet voice said.

Even at that quiet volume, Ren knew he had nothing to fear anymore. He gave a slight grin before he put on his act, “No! Save me from this rebel! You’re soldiers aren’t you! Help!” The soldiers could do nothing but avert their eyes in anger, fully believing that if they took any action the hostages inside would end up dead.

“That’s right!” the rebel cried. “This is just one of the hostages we have! Any attempt to enter this building will only end with this knife slitting their throats!” The rebel then dragged Ren away.

“No! Please!” Ren yelled at the soldiers. Once the rebel had pulled Ren around the corner into a stairwell the rebel took off her hood. Terra looked at Ren with a smile. Ren couldn’t help but smile back. What unbelievable luck! Ren never would’ve thought that shortly into his venture into the new world that he would have encountered Terra, but wait. Did Terra actually know who he was? How would she?

“This way.” she said as she grabbed Ren’s hand and pulled him down the stairs. Ren didn’t ask if she knew him; the coming events would surely reveal the truth to him. Terra led Ren to the first floor. After turning the corner he saw two men standing in front of an elevator door, one fidgeting with a panel on the wall, the other was also a person Ren knew -- Ren was looking at Valenthia High’s newest teacher, Dr. Tirion. Despite the fact that Dr. Tirion may not know who Ren is, the surprise on Ren’s face was not hidden in the slightest. Dr. Tirion looked over at Terra and saw that Ren was standing next to her.

“Ren?” Dr. Tirion asked as if the Ren standing before him was just an illusion. He knew who Ren was? Then that must mean that Terra knew, too. Ren turned his head to Terra.

“Yes, Ren?” she questioned. Yeah, she knew, too.

“How do you guys have your memories?” Ren asked. Dr. Tirion laughed.

“Ren, take a look at the situation we’re in. I don’t think this is the time to begin explaining things, especially because we don’t actually have any hostages.”

“Yeah, we were lucky for you to suddenly appear and make it look like we actually have at least one hostage.” Terra smiled. Ren looked past Terra and Dr. Tirion at the large man who was messing with the panel on the wall.

“Who’s he? -- and more importantly, what’s your objective here? Shouldn’t you be trying to defeat Tye?”

“That makes it sound as if you think we could just waltz into Tye’s tower and make it out alive. We can’t fight Tye, not yet. That’s why we’re here, but again the length of the explanation would take too long.” As Dr. Tirion finished saying this, the elevator made a “Ding!” to signify that the elevator was ready.

“You’re ready to go, Wallace.” said the man, the one who was working on the panel, to Dr. Tirion.

“Thanks.” Dr. Tirion said to the man. “Come on Terra, let’s go.” He motioned to Terra and she followed him into the elevator. “And this is Hector.” He patted Hector on the shoulder as he entered the elevator with Terra.

Ren realized he was about to be left behind and ran towards the elevator but the doors shut quickly. “Wait!” he shouted.

“Don’t worry, kid. They’ll be back once they’ve completed the objective.” Hector said.

“And what objective is that?!” Ren asked with a bit of anger in his voice. Hector laughed.

“I’m afraid even I don’t know, but I trust Wallace.” he said. “All I need to do is protect this elevator with my life, for that is what Wallace ordered me to do.” Ren was taken back by Hector’s apparent loyalty.

“Why do you trust a school teacher to order you around?” Ren asked. This gave Hector an even greater laugh than before.

“A school teacher, huh? That’s what Wallace was before this?”

Ren was surprised. “You didn’t know?”

“Of course not. There wasn’t much time to bring up the past you know, despite all the time we’ve been together here. All I know is that he was the one who brought us together and he was also the one to lead us. That’s all I needed to know.” Dr. Tirion leading a revolutionary force to take back the world? With the one chance Ren had to talk with Dr. Tirion Ren in the original world, he never would’ve guessed Dr. Tirion had what it took to be a leader. Ren wanted to talk to Hector more, but the two were thrown off by the sound of an explosion upstairs. “More noise?” Hector questioned. “First you, now what? Have the soldiers called our bluff?” Hector ran towards the stairwell. “I’m going to go check out that noise, you stay here where it’s safe!” Here where it’s safe? Did Hector not think Ren could fight?

“Wait! I’ll come with you!” Ren yelled, but Hector had already begun making his way up. Ren chased after him up the stairs. Ren ran up three flights of stairs until he found the source of the noise. Ren looked through the doorway into an open room where he saw Hector pinned on the floor underneath the foot of a large humanlike lizard. A lizardman? -- and it was holding a large claymore, too.

“R-run…” Hector managed to get out as he was gasping for breath. “It’s --” Hector could not say anymore, for the lizardman’s claymore was dropped onto his head, splitting his head open like a watermelon.

“H-Hector!” Ren shouted. Ren watched the blood rush out of his head and spread across the floor. He looked up at the lizardman, “You!” he yelled. Ren summoned his gear: his uniform transformed into his combat outfit and the glasslike sword appeared in his right hand. The lizardman looked up from Hector’s motionless body and removed his claymore from Hector’s head.

“Oho?” The lizardman began to stare at Ren. “You, you’re different from the others.” He continued to stare. “The way you summoned your equipment, so that’s your ability?” he questioned. Ren said nothing but stood there, carefully watching what the lizardman would do. “Right, I suppose that was a stupid question. Of course it was your ability, it wasn’t magic after all. But still, something’s fishy about you…Aha!” The lizardman shouted out as he came to his realization. “You’re that priority citizen! I believe your name was something like… what was it again… Ren. Yes it was Ren! You were the one we were told to look out for.” They had been told to look out for Ren? “But you have your own powers… that’s quite the predicament.” The lizardman scratched his head in confusion. “What to do with a priority citizen who’s gained powers. Hm, I wonder.” The lizardman began to trail off in thought as if Ren wasn’t actually there.

“Hm?” The lizardman said as looked back to see Ren charging at him with his sword in hand. Ren swung his sword from the right; despite the large size of the lizardman, the lizardman still managed to shift from the relaxed stance he had been in while thinking to blocking Ren’s sword with his claymore.

“Woah, there! I was thinking -- and if you don’t give me time to think,” the lizardman began as he knocked Ren back a few feet with his claymore. As Ren slid back across the floor the lizardman had already gone into an overhead swing. Ren dodged out of the way -- and was very glad that he made it out of the path of destruction -- because he turned back to look at where he came from and saw that the lizardman had struck with such strength that the floor had cracked as if someone had dropped an anvil from three stories above. “I just might kill you.” The lizardman finally finished his sentence, one that made Ren question just who this lizardman actually was.

“Who the hell are you?!” Ren shouted his question at him.

The lizardman shaped his snout into what could be called a smile. “You’ve survived one strike from me; that alone is enough for me to gladly tell you my name.” The lizardman stood up straight, plunged his claymore into the floor, then crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I am Executioner D of Tye’s elite squad. I am… your Death!” The look on his face was one of true enjoyment. Ren wondered where the sick enjoyment of killing people came from. “You can just call me Dee.” he finished. Ren said nothing as he rose back to his feet, all he did was take his stance to be ready for this “monster’s” next attack.

“Yes! Yes!” Dee cried out. “That’s right! This won’t be fun unless you believe you can win!” Dee burst out into laughter. Ren questioned if he could attack while Dee was so lost in laughter but as Ren found out from his first attack Dee was actually quick on his feet. Dee’s laughter suddenly stopped and actually caught Ren more off guard than any movement Dee could’ve taken. He began to say things like, “Yes,” and, “Yes, sir. Of course,” as if he was talking to someone. Was Dee actually talking to someone or was he just insane? Neither would be surprising to Ren after learning that things such as magic -- and lizardmen apparently -- exist. Dee said the words, “All right. I’ll be returning to base now,” as he turned to face Ren. “It’s your lucky day, Ren. I’ve been called back to base. It seems I’ll have to let you go, but just so you know. The next time I find you, I’ll be taking you straight to Finite. He’s the one that will decide what to do with you.” He said this as he stared straight at Ren. “You are a priority citizen, but you have your powers and that makes you a threat. I would deal with you right now if it weren’t for Finite and his rules, but the only one with the authority to overrule Finite would be Tye. Wait, I guess Slumber would be able to do that as well, or is that the case? I’m not too sure -- no! What, I mean is that we can’t fight anymore, I have to fall back!” Dee turned towards the gigantic hole he had made as his entrance into the building and began to walk away, but Ren knew there was no way he could just let him get away. Ren charged at Dee’s back to strike him down. As he got within striking distance, Ren thought that there was no possible way that Dee could defend. Ren was so close to him! Dee had made no movements to defend himself! Ren could take him down!

Ren swung his sword down in an attempt to slice straight down Dee’s scaly back. As the sword came down, Ren thought he was in the clear; Ren thought there was no possible way that Dee could defend now. Ren had won. He had succeeded in taking down one of his biggest threats… but when the sword should’ve made contact, it didn’t. Instead, everything became white. It took Ren a second to realize what that white color actually was. There were suddenly doves. Many, many doves all burst out from the space Dee once occupied and flew out the hole Dee had made in the window. Ren stood there with his sword laying on the exact spot on the ground it had struck. He was the most shocked he had ever been in his life. It was like a magician’s magic trick: suddenly, Dee had become a flock of doves and escaped. Ren’s gear dispersed into thin air and he once again wore his normal school uniform.

Loud footsteps stomped up the stairs behind him, but he was too shocked to turn around to see Terra and Dr. Tirion behind him.

“Ren!” Terra cried out from behind him. Ren turned around to look at her but she had ran over to him and hit him with a hug. This made Ren snap back into things.

“Terra?” he asked, wondering what was with the sudden hug. Terra said nothing but remained hugging him. Ren then thought of what was behind him on the ground: Hector’s corpse. Terra must’ve been afraid something had happened after she and Dr. Tirion came up the elevator and saw that Hector and Ren had disappeared. She was right to worry, Ren had completely underestimated his foe. Dee’s ability, the specifics still remained unknown to Ren but he knew Dee had him in the palm of his lizard like hand the entire time. If Ren didn’t have some “priority status” given to him by Tye, he would surely be dead right now.

“It’s time we make our escape.” Dr. Tirion said while he was kneeling on the ground next to Hector’s body.

“Did you complete your objective?” Ren asked in curiosity. Dr. Tirion stood up and walked back towards the stairwell.

“No… it wasn’t here.” Dr. Tirion said as he began to walk down the stairs. Ren looked at Terra who was still holding onto him.

“Come on, Terra. We need to catch up to Dr. Tirion.” Terra nodded her head and let go of Ren. She then went ahead of Ren down the stairs. Back on the first floor, at the bottom of the stairs, Dr. Tirion was standing with his back against the wall opposite the stairs. He had been waiting for Terra and Ren to make it downstairs before continuing.

“Are you ready?” Dr. Tirion asked the two. Terra nodded her head.

“Ready? How do you plan on escaping from the first floor?” Ren questioned. Dr. Tirion pointed down at the ground and Ren’s eyes followed. A hole began to open in the floor as if an earthquake had created a fissure in the ground. “A hole? How?”

“Terraformation,” Dr. Tirion responded, “that’s my power. It’s how we infiltrated this building without tripping any alarms. The problem with this strategy was that we tripped the alarm once we began fiddling with the elevator controls; thus, the armed force came along and we had to convince them we were a threat by making them believe we had hostages. Now come on, into the hole.” Ren’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness but the hole still appeared very dark to him. While he could see down the hole, he couldn’t see very well. The hole wasn’t very deep, about ten feet deep from what Ren could see but with how dark it was Ren thought that his depth perception could be off by a foot or two. Ren looked over to where he thought Terra was standing but she had already jumped down as well. “Hurry up so I can close the hole, Ren.”

“Right, right. I’m coming down.” he said as he lowered himself to ground level and then pushed himself over the edge and into the hole. Dr. Tirion then closed the hole above them and the darkness of the hole became even greater. “So, now what?” Ren questioned. Ren heard the ground moving again. Dr. Tirion then pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on, allowing Ren to see that Dr. Tirion had opened a hole to a large tunnel. The inside of the tunnel looked so smooth that it must’ve been created using Dr. Tirion’s terraformation.

“This way will lead us back to base.” Dr. Tirion said.

“A base, you’ve got a base set up in this amount of time?” Ren questioned.

“Of course, we haven’t been sitting around doing nothing all this time afterall.” The three began walking down the tunnel, Dr. Tirion walked behind Terra and Ren so he could close the tunnel off as they walked. Terra had remained silent ever since she found Ren upstairs next to Hector’s dead body. He wondered if he could cheer her up somehow.

“It’s nice to see you again, Terra. To be honest I didn’t know if I would ever see you again.” Ren looked at Terra to see what kind of reaction she’d have.

“Yeah… after being reincarnated in a different world I don’t think you’d be wrong in thinking that. Especially because we had our memories wiped -- and by one of the people we considered to be close to. No, it must be even worse for you. You were his best friend, and for him to do something like this… I can only imagine how hard this is for you. Or wait, you may have just regained your memories recently. Do you know what I’m talking about?” she asked. Ren was already filled with questions but he kept the conversation going.

“Yeah, I know Tye recreated the world. I had confronted him on the roof of our school and was sent to a new world with my memories erased.” Ren cut himself off there, not wanting to go into too much detail. He thought about what Mana had said about people being able to increase their overall willpower and that if people’s perceptions became too strong then they must die in order to keep the world at balance. While Mana hadn’t explicitly told him so, he decided to keep Mana a secret. From what Ren had said, Terra took that to mean that the timeline of events was: Ren facing Tye on the roof and that led to the world they were currently in. There was no way for Terra to know about the world in between unless Ren told her, but Ren decided to hold off on talking about that as well until there was a reason for him to tell her about that.

“I see. So you were at the epicenter then, huh?”

“Yeah, albeit an epicenter of an earthquake that created a fissure the size of the whole world. I just never thought such an earthquake would -- or could -- be caused by Tye.” Ren realized one point that he was curious how Terra knew about it. “How’d you know it was Tye who recreated the world? Why would you suspect him?”

“Well it was pretty obvious,” said Dr. Tirion from behind him. “I was there to witness it when it happened almost one year ago. Tye came down from the sky over the royal capital of Averaelia with his executioners at his side. They sieged the castle and slaughtered the royal family to claim the nation as their own empire that they call the ‘Tyrian Empire.’ For some reason they pronounce it like my name, Tirion, it’s almost like he’s mocking me specifically. Anyways the point is that to the people who witnessed Tye’s power that day they could only attribute it as the power of a god: the power to rewrite the world as he sees fit. One of the people closest to the castle grounds that day said that he saw Tye take a sword to the chest but remained unharmed. The reason? When the soldier pulled his sword -- that he thought was pierced through Tye’s chest -- out he saw that the end of the sword was no longer there. The part of the sword that touched Tye no longer existed. That tale is one of the most frightening to have come from that day, for it truly shows that Tye controls this world. But to answer your question, Ren, we know that it was Tye because we’ve seen his powers; thus, the only one who could’ve possibly done so was none other than him. It’s not like any other human with godlike powers has shown up.” So they didn’t actually know -- rather -- they were forced to believe it was true due to the circumstances, but Ren barely paid attention after Dr. Tirion’s first sentence. He had said, “One year ago.”

“H--how long have you two been here?” He questioned.

“One year.” Terra responded. “Haven’t you?” Ren didn’t respond. ONE YEAR! How could one week turn into one year! Sure there wasn’t an actual concept of time in Mana’s realm but to think that Ren’s one week was actually a year?! Ren couldn’t believe it. The truth became even more clear to Ren as he stepped out of the tunnel and into the rebel’s underground hideout. Ren could do nothing but stare at the size of the massive hideout filled with dozens upon dozens of rebels. This was not a venture of one week’s length, it had been one spanning an entire year! Dr. Tirion, who had finished filling the hole the three of them had walked out of, patted Ren on the shoulder as he walked in front of him.

Dr. Tirion turned around with his arms spread out to his sides, “This, Ren,” he said with excitement, “Is the revolutionary force, Remembrance: those who remember the true world we came from and those who wish to take back our world!”