Ren woke up and found himself in a bed in the man’s cabin. It was probably the man’s guest bed in case he ever had any visitors. Instead of examining the room he was in, the first thing Ren did when he woke up was jump out of bed and march into the main room. Ren saw the man sitting in his chair at the dining table. Ren marched over to the man and stood next to him. The man, who was eating his breakfast, stopped eating and looked up at Ren.

“I accept your challenge!” Ren declared. The man’s eyes widened as he watched Ren declare this so intensely.

“You… you look much better than yesterday.” The man was shocked by Ren’s sudden rebound. “How could you change so suddenly overnight?” Ren only smiled at the man, his eyes shone with determination. The man tilted his head down and gave a soft smile. “Very well. You have one week to prepare for our duel. Should I be the winner then you shall remain in this barrier for the next year in order to train yourself. Should you win, then you may go on your way to Centiria. Do we have a deal?”

“Yeah, I accept.”

“Very well then. I’ll see you in one week.” The man began to chuckle. Obviously he didn’t believe that Ren would be able to best him in one week’s time.

“Of course. I will defeat you.” Ren said this and immediately turned to go out the front door. Over the next week, Ren trained vigorously both in Tye’s world and in Mana’s Realm. Mana gave him the same sword training she usually gave him so that his sword skills would improve even further and allow him to beat someone such as Slumber, but when he woke up for the day and had to train on his own Ren came up with a new way to train on his own. Ren thought of the fundamental principle that Mana had told him about willpower: you can do anything so long as you perceive it as possible. For Ren, it should even be possible to go as far as recreating the world like Tye did if that were true. In consequence Mana would kill Ren since his overall willpower would become far stronger than a human’s ever should -- and that’s what his pendant was there for. So long as he didn’t unleash too much power at one time then he could never use such an ability and therefore not have to die by Mana’s hand. Yet that left a question in Ren’s mind: if he could learn an ability that didn’t cause his pendant to break when using it, then would his overall willpower increase? To Ren, the answer would be no because he was using willpower that was within the bounds of the limiter placed upon him by Mana. The only question left was what kind of ability Ren was going to create.

The first time the man saw Ren training outside, the man stood on the porch and watched as Ren stood next to a tree. Ren was in his stance, facing the tree as if the tree were his opponent. As Ren began to move, the man noticed a faint green light begin to glow from Ren’s pendant. Ren then swung a horizontal strike towards the tree in front of him. Ren’s sword barely cut into the tree. Ren then struggled to pull his sword from the tree, eventually giving up and just making it disappear and resummoning it. Once he resummoned his sword, Ren tried the same attack again and it ended in the same result. The man questioned what Ren was doing. He saw no point in attempting to cut straight through a tree with a sword. Of course the man had done that the other day, but that tree had already been chopped at before with an axe, the man’s swing had just given the tree the final strike it needed to fall. Cutting through an entire tree was too arduous a task for someone to accomplish with one sword strike, yet Ren appeared to be trying anyway.

One night, as Mana and Ren were taking a break from their training.

“Hey, what have you been attempting to do during the day?”

“Wha! Attempting to do something? I haven’t been doing anything!”

“Eh? You think you can fool the Goddess of Willpower when you’ve obviously been attempting to use your willpower for something? You know your pendant glows when you activate your willpower right?” Ren was at a loss for words to use as an excuse.

“Agh! It’s a surprise okay! I’m staying within my limit so I’m not increasing my overall willpower so things are fine.” Mana frowned.

“Well it’s true that it’s within your limit, but if you learn something new your overall willpower will increase because you know for sure that you can do something else with your willpower. It just won’t be able to go past a certain limit of power unless you break your limiter.”

“So it all depends on how much I know, huh…” Ren went into thought. What Mana just told him meant that one’s overall willpower depends on how much they perceive is possible, not the output of their power. Ren had one thing to say about that, “Listen, Mana. I can’t beat the executioners with the power I have. If I increase my overall willpower to the point where you have to kill me then so be it. Just let me save this world before you do, okay?”

Mana frowned in response to this. He was really ready to go as far as sending himself to the point of death to stop Tye? Mana solemnly agreed.

The next day the man once again saw Ren attempting to chop down a tree despite a person’s incapability to do so. He moved along without staying to observe for long. However, a different day had caught his attention. Ren had gone outside during a serious storm with heavy rain and strong winds.

“Oi! You need to get inside! That’s enough training for the day!” the man yelled at Ren through the thick rain and roaring wind.

“Not yet! This is nothing!” Ren yelled back.

“You stubborn fool!” The man yelled back. “Fine! See if I care if you wind up dead!” The man stomped back into the cabin but continued to watch Ren from the window. He watched as Ren struck the tree -- or thought he had struck the tree, but the man thought his eyes were getting to him as Ren had not made contact with the tree but it did look like he had swung. What had really happened then?

Then came the day. At noon the two stepped out of the cabin and stood in front of the porch with about ten feet of space between them.

“You’re ready to fight then?” The man asked.

“Of course.” Ren said with a determined face.

“You… you’ve most certainly changed since the day I’ve found you.” The man slid his left foot back as he reached to grab the sword that had been hanging onto the left side of his belt. Ren quickly summoned his sword and took his stance. “I’m most interested… to see… just how much…” the man had been pausing as he slowly drew his sword from his sheath, “you’ve changed!” the man yelled as he quickly took the initiative and lunged at Ren. Ren had no fear or hesitation, he simply recalled all of the experience he had with the sword -- be it his experience with SwordTours or his training with Mana -- he poured all of his experience into his mind at once to create a battle sense of concentration and determination. The man thrust his sword towards Ren’s chest of which Ren responded to by deflecting the man’s sword up into the air and going in to strike the man. The man, having been knocked off balance due to Ren’s retaliation, knew he had no chance of defending any strike and chose to fall back. He used his momentum as he fell backwards to fall back into a roll in which he ended by quickly standing up straight, but Ren was giving him no time to recover. Ren charged in to keep up the pressure. By the time the man had risen back to his feet Ren was already within striking distance. Instead of striking the man with his sword (since this was a duel and not a fight to the death), Ren struck the man with his fist as he stood up. The man recoiled backwards after he had been hit in the face. By the time he recovered from the punch, Ren once again stuck the man, this time it was a punch to the stomach. The man fell to his knees and looked up at the man who stood before him. Ren had changed so much in the past week. The Ren that stood before the man was no longer a man broken by his past, but was instead a man looking forward to the future. The man grinned at Ren, who had his sword pointed down at the man.

“Do you surrender?” Ren asked.

“Heh. You’ve grown,” was the man’s response, “but this duel isn’t over yet.” The man quickly knocked Ren’s sword away from his face with his own sword and stood up. Ren was still within striking distance so he thought he would end things with his new secret technique. Ren’s pendant lit up as he swung his sword, but all the man did was smile as he watched Ren’s sword coming towards him. That’s when it happened, Ren’s sword hit an invisible wall that the man had placed. The man had protected himself from Ren’s strike with it, and while Ren was recovering the man could strike. The man thrust his sword towards Ren and Ren dodged by leaning out of the way, but Ren leaned back into another wall that kept him in place. Ren barely managed to put his sword between the man’s sword and himself, blocking the strike from striking him in the stomach. From that strike, Ren began to question if the man was actually going to stop before he struck Ren, or if the man just had faith that Ren could stop the strike.

After the man had attempted that last strike, he backed up a few feet and watched Ren. Ren tried to move, but found he couldn’t. The man had placed barriers around Ren’s body. Ren couldn’t move.

“Abilities. All major opponents have them in this world. If you don’t understand the specifics of your enemy’s abilities… you’ll be killed.” The man pointed his sword at Ren. Ren tried to think of a way to escape the situation he was in. Think! If powers all came from people’s willpower, then what did it take to create these barriers of any size and maintain them for a certain time period? “Do you give up? If not, then I’ll strike you. That’ll make sure you won’t be able to leave this place anytime soon.” The man moved into position to lunge at Ren. Ren began to struggle to escape the prison that surrounded him. The man launched his attack, expecting Ren to be unable to move, but Ren did something he knew would make Mana angry. Ren’s pendant exploded with willpower, causing a green flame to engulf Ren and also shatter the barriers surrounding Ren. How did this work? The man had used his mana to create many barriers to surround Ren. How did Ren know the number was a lot? From what Ren had experienced the barriers were all flat surfaces such as a thin rectangle or square. To therefore be able to encase a person’s arm in barriers it would take a minimum of three barriers to form a triangular prism around a person’s arm, but this method also left room for a person to move their arm slightly within the barrier. Thus, thinking about the man’s barriers with this theory proves that the more barriers used, the more exact one can make a trap to prevent someone from moving. The problem with this lies within how strong each individual barrier is. If one’s arm is encased in say two hundred small barriers then each of those barriers has been made with an amount of mana proportional to the size of the barrier. This is not something that Ren knows, it’s merely something he bet on. With the number of barriers being so many, yet the strength of the barriers being so little, all Ren needed was a powerful force he could use to blow away the barriers all at once. The only method he had of doing this was to cause the same explosion of willpower that occurred when his pendant would break. While he knew that such an action would anger Mana, surely she would accept that it was the only way for him to break free of the situation.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Ren dodged to the side of the man as the man’s sword thrust unexpectedly missed Ren. The man once again tried to cast barriers to stop Ren but they couldn’t contain him since Ren kept the overflowing energy surrounding him; the barriers were broken by the energy as soon as they were created. Any further attempt to stop Ren was pointless. Ren went in to end the fight. Within his sword glowed the same bright green light that emanated around Ren. Ren swung his sword at the man and as it made contact it shattered into pieces just as his pendant had done and his sword was replaced by a green light in the shape of a sword. The green light cut through the man and as it exited the other side of the man the glasslike sword reformed and the green light disappeared. Green light shot out of the man along the line that his sword had traveled through the man. The man fell to the ground and Ren’s pendant reformed. The green flame surrounding Ren disappeared as his pendant reformed and Ren made his gear disappear. The fight was over. He had won. The man was lying on his back on the ground still conscious.

“You… what did you do just now?” the man asked.

“My secret ability.” Ren responded. “It’s just like you said: you need to understand your opponents abilities. I learned yours, but I kept mine hidden from you.”

“So you had a card up your sleeve the whole time, huh?” The man smiled. Ren turned and began to walk away. “Wait! There’s something I need to tell you!” The man picked himself up from off the ground and attempted to hobble towards Ren. Ren turned back around.

“Stop! You shouldn’t be moving yet.” Ren said to the man.

“No. It’s important.” the man replied. “I’m Steven. Steven Alystia.”

“Steven!” Ren was confused. The Steven he knew had silver hair. Although now that he looked at the man, the man did look like a Steven with white hair, but the beard completely threw him off. Sure his voice sounded similar, but the way he talked was way different than the Steven he knew. Ren didn’t have any more time to ask Steven questions; he fell over unconscious.

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Character File

The Fourth Friend: Steven Alystia

Age: 18

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Spiky, silver

Height: 6’ 1’’

Clothing: Black jacket and blue jeans. Belt holds sword on left hip.

Information: Has only known Tye and Ren for one year but fit in well with the group. Rumored a delinquent, Steven constantly got into fights with Jonathan during their time at school despite Steven’s cool and calm personality. When things came to Jonathan, he always lost himself to anger.

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Ren had been waiting for Steven on the cabin’s front porch. After Steven had fallen over unconscious after their battle, Ren carried Steven back into the cabin and laid him down in his bed. Upon waking up the only thing Steven said to Ren was that he needed to shave and told Ren to wait for him. Ren agreed and went outside.

Ren still couldn’t believe that he had just stumbled upon his only friend left. He thought of the odds: first the odds of finding a person he knew in a land of unknown size with a population of nearly the same number of people as the original world (since the souls of the original world were reused), and then there were the odds of Steven having his memories. The odds seemed so low to Ren that he couldn’t comprehend the fact that he had truly found the only friend he had left. As Steven emerged from the cabin, any thought that the man may not have actually been Steven completely left Ren’s mind as Ren looked at Steven’s cleanly shaved face. The man in front of him was truly Steven, but with spiky white hair instead of the silver hair that Ren was familiar with. Before Ren could say anything, Steven took the initiative.

“I know you have questions, Ren. I’ll start explaining.”

“Go ahead.”

“I should start from the beginning, before I got my memories back.” Steven began, Twelve months ago I was living a normal life in this world. I had a family in a village northwest of here and was living out my days peacefully, but soon people caught word that the capital city of Averaelia had fallen. People panicked at the time but people gladly came to accept their new ruler, Tye, and very quickly, too. But none of what actually happened up until then was important; it’s all false after all. One month after the fall of Averaelia is when things began. Due to rumors of a member of the royal family fleeing to my village the executioners showed up one day. Everyone in the village was slaughtered. I survived due to my ability to create barriers. The thought of creating barriers came so naturally to me, as if I knew deep down how to actually use them, as if the knowledge had been inculcated into my brain from a very young age. That’s how no matter what attack they threw at me, I survived it.”

“I have to ask. Which executioner came after you?”

“The one chasing after me was one wearing a cloak. All I could make out from underneath the cloak were his red eyes.” Ren averted his eyes; he couldn’t look Steven in the eyes as he said this.

“That’s the one who killed Terra…”

“I see… He most certainly appeared to be the most threatening of the five of them. If only I was able to do anything other than run at the time.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve come across him a few times and it’s become painfully apparent that he’s powerful. He’s a monster.” Ren began to wonder how Steven actually made it away from such a monster. “How did you manage to get away from him? Did Finite give up in his chase?”

“So his name is Finite, huh?” Steven questioned as he thought back to how he escaped, “After he chased me a distance away from the village he suddenly gave up after a while. I don’t know why he stopped, but I guess I should be thankful for it.” Steven then continued his story. “After I escaped from the village, I decided to run away to a desolate location: this peninsula. I learned of this location from the fake memories implanted in me of some conversations I had with the villagers. Some mentioned going on vacation to a peninsula on the southwest side of the continent. That’s where this cabin came from. It was those villagers’ vacation home. I fled here from my village and decided to live in hiding here for a while. So I grew a beard and hid myself in this forest. You were actually the first person I’ve made contact with in about eleven months, Ren. I’ve been living here alone, surviving off of nature.”

“Eleven months? It must’ve been tough.”

“Not as much as you would think. Meat is plentiful because this world contains more than just common animals, it contains monsters that can be cooked and eaten as well. Fruits and vegetables are naturally abundant as well. That’s one of this world’s pluses I guess.”

“So why hide your identity from me in the start? You even went as far as hiding your personality for a week. It was a great performance.”

“A performance, huh? I guess it was, wasn’t it?” Steven gave a soft smile. “The reason I hid my identity from you was something I decided the moment I saw your face. I saw your soul broken, and it needed healing. If I had revealed myself as Steven then, then I probably could’ve helped in a different way than I did, but I chose a different, harsher method, and I don’t regret my decision. Seeing you burning with determination as we fought, that’s when I knew that my decision was the correct one.”

“I guess so, but there’s no way to know now, huh.”

“So… how did you get your powers? Was it because of what happened to Terra or… was it caused by something before that.”

“It was because of…” Ren pictured Terra dying before him again, “something before that…”

“Right…” They were both silent for a second, but Steven continued the conversation. “So these executioners, what do you know about them?”

“Since you’ve been here this entire time I assume you know nothing?”

“Right. I didn’t even know Finite’s name before you mentioned it. From the raid on my village I caught glimpses of the other four executioners, but I don’t know anything about them.” Ren took a deep breath as he recalled his experiences with the five executioners.

“They call themselves DMISE, an acronym created by their names. First, there is Death, a lizardman with the ability to change himself into different animals. Frankly, I’m not too sure if that is actually what his power is but from the time I fought him that’s what it appeared to be. Second, is Murder, a deceptive girl with red hair who’s incredibly cute yet secretly deadly. She has the power to extend her hair and use each individual strand as razor sharp swords. She also has the power to heal wounds. Third, is Illness. I didn’t have a close encounter with him but from what I could tell he could move quickly and his hand…” he pictured Illness’s arm piercing through Dr. Tirion, “let’s just say it’s sharp. The fourth, Slumber, a knight of dignity. When I fought Slumber he never actually used an ability, he was just an incredibly skilled fighter. Finally, there’s the End, Finite, he’s just a pure monster. There’s not much else to say. His lethality is greater than any of the other executioners, which isn’t knowledge I gained through fighting him, it’s just the impression he gives...”

“And we have to fight those monsters…” Steven almost dove into thought as he considered how the two of them all five executioners.

“Wait, I don’t think we have to beat the executioners. I don’t think that’s a condition we need to clear to win. It’d just be easier if that were possible.”

“Oh? And why do you say that?” Ren couldn’t tell Steven about Mana so he couldn’t tell his exact reasoning. What Ren was thinking was that so long as Tye was defeated, Mana could put the world back to its original state. What he said to Steven was: “If we can take out Tye, then the world will be returned to normal.”

“Take out Tye? Return the world to normal? What do you mean? How could you be sure of that?”

“I’m not sure. It’s just that was the goal of the rebels I fought with: kill Tye and that will return the world to normal. I don’t know the specifics. I just choose to accept what the people who have been actively trying to return the world to normal have concluded.” Ren thought that lie was actually pretty convincing. He didn’t know if the rebels actually thought they would ever be able to return home and if they did then he had no clue how they hoped to accomplish it. He had only been with them for a day after all.

“And you’re sure these rebels knew what they were talking about?”

“Well, they were led by Dr. Tirion. Not to mention that Terra was one of the higher ups in the group.”

“I see. So that’s what you’re so quick to believe what they said.”

“Right. I don’t even need the reasoning. I’ll believe her, I’ll believe Terra.” Even though that was a lie, Ren didn’t flinch as he stared at Steven with a determined poker face in an attempt to make Steven really believe the lie he was saying.

Steven sighed, “When it comes to Terra, I know I can’t change your mind, but how do you expect to get to Tye without fighting any of the executioners?”

“That’s something we’ll have to figure out along the way.”

“So you have no plan.”

“Of course not. Not too long ago I was too busy training to beat you. I’ve had no time to think of a strategy.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment to mean that I’m strong.” Steven said triumphantly.

“I’m not quite sure if the loser has the right to call himself strong…” Ren smiled a broken smile.

“So, what should we do?”

“Ah, well.” Ren had to think of something on the spot. “Well, we can’t stop Tye from all the way out here. We need to get back to Centiria. You said this place was south? So we need to go north?”

“Right. If we head straight north then we’ll go through the forest for about a day, come across a village by the end of the day tomorrow, spend another day of traveling, and then we’ll be there.”

“So we aren’t too far away is what it sounds like, but I’m guessing there are no cars in this world from this kind of talk.” Ren could finally ask the question that he wanted answered back in Centiria.

“No, there aren’t even horse-drawn carriages in this world.”

“But there are horses?”

“Yes.” Yet another questionable decision made by Tye. If they had made roads, then why had they not made vehicles to ride on those roads?

“Uwah! Walking it is then.” Ren took a deep breath. “Well then, we better not waste anymore time. Is there anything else you need to grab from inside the cabin before we head out?”

“No, I grabbed everything I needed for a journey before I came outside.” He turned to show Ren the backpack he was carrying on his back. “I’ve got enough food to last us for a few days and a few other essentials we might need.”

“Perfect. Let’s go then. You lead the way since you know which direction is which.”

“Right.” Steven turned his head to get one last glimpse of the cabin he called home for the past eleven months then turned to face north as he and Ren marched towards Centiria.