“We’re finally here.” Steven announced. Ren walked out of the trees and onto the dirt path that ran along the border of the city.

“Yeah. I’m back.” Ren said as he looked down the street in front of them where he could see the central tower. That was their destination.

“So, what’s the plan, Ren?” Steven questioned. Ren thought back to his training session with Mana last night.

“Checkmate.” Mana said with a smile as she had trapped Ren by using her hair just as Lilith would and threw many strands of hair around him that all threatened to take his life. It was almost as if Ren was trapped in an iron maiden the way Mana had trapped him with her hair.

Ren sighed, “This power’s just too crazy. Being able to manipulate each strand of hair -- their length and position -- just paying attention isn’t enough. It’s impossible to follow all of those strands at once, and even if I could I wouldn’t be able to defend against all of her attacks at once if she attacked from multiple directions at once.” Mana retracted her hair back into her usual ponytail style.

“Yes, it is a tough spot to be in. Any thoughts on how you’re going to deal with it?”

“Ha! I wish that I was the one asking you that question, but I know you don’t want to put me any closer to death than I already am.”

“Well… about that…” Ren raised his head.

“What?”

“For your ability to knock your enemy unconscious their willpower must be at a low point. Inconveniently that means you need to get a few hits in on your enemy before you can use your ability. I was thinking that I might be able to teach you another spell to use…”

“Really? You can do that?”

“Yes.”

“But why now? Why teach me something new now?”

“Teaching you one more spell won’t push you over the death line. In fact, you’re far from it.” Those words made Ren incredibly confused.

“Huh! Wait a minute! Then why are you being so cautious about it?”

“Well you might be far from death but as a god I still need to keep you close to the level of a human, so I won’t teach you anything more than I see necessary.” Ren thought that explanation made sense but still wished she hadn’t made it sound as if he was at death’s door.

“Well then? What is this spell?” Ren inquired.

“It’s something you can only use upon contact like freeze. It’s--”

“Oi! Ren!” Ren was startled as Steven called him back into reality. “You okay?”

“Ah, yeah. I’m fine, I was just thinking a little too hard.”

“So what’s the plan, Ren?” Aria inquired. Ren may not have been able to come up with a plan but there was one thing he knew for certain.

“Heading straight to the central tower would be suicide. We need to find a way to fight each executioner separately. Slumber will be on the tower’s bottommost floor. I don’t think we need to worry about him. The three we do need to worry about are Murder, Illness, and Finite. Then there’s Dee. We don’t know what happened to him but he lost an arm. I don’t think we need to worry about him so…” Ren thought about something to have Steven and Aria do. “My plan for right now is to split up and look around the city for any clues that may help us.”

“Clues? What kind of clues?” Steven asked. Ren didn’t really have a good idea in mind either.

“Well, some kind of information. Like if you can find out if Illness ever leaves the central tower alone. If so, then what time does he leave? Something like that to help.”

“Ha! That’ll be easy for me!” Aria exclaimed as she put her hand on her chest.

“You’re not a knight anymore you know. You can’t just waltz into headquarters and ask for information.” Ren said.

“I know! I wasn’t thinking I could or anything!” Aria said in response.

“Right…” As Ren said this, Aria kicked him in the shin. “Ah! What the hell!”

“Hmph,” was all Aria said in response as she began walking into the city.

“Where are you going?” Ren yelled at her.

“We’re splitting up, aren’t we. I’m just getting a head start. See ya!” Aria waved back as she continued walking away. Steven began walking away as well.

“At least she knows what she’s supposed to be doing,” he smiled, “See ya later, Ren.”

“Ah, yeah. See ya.” Ren waved to Steven as he walked ahead into the city. Ren stood there on the dirt road for a second and waited to see Aria and Steven disappear into one of the side alleyways. Ren knew exactly what road he was looking down because it was the middle road on the southern edge of town: Sonon Road. He also knew exactly where he wanted to go -- not how to get there -- but he did know where he wanted to go. He walked down Sonon Road until he thought he had found a familiar spot, went into an alleyway and down many more, and somehow arrived at the place he wanted. He was standing in front of Mithian’s Diner, and Lilith had arrived right on cue.

“Ah, Ren!” She exclaimed. ”I never thought I’d see you again!” Ren instantly summoned his gear and took his stance but, “Now wait just a second, Ren, or you’ll die.” Ren took no movements after hearing her words. He didn’t know exactly what she did, but he had an idea he was already caught in a trap. “You see, right now I have a strand of hair wrapped around your neck. One wrong move and -- Pop! -- off goes your head! Got it?”

“Yeah… I’ve got it…” Ren said in defeat as he felt Lilith tighten the strand of hair around his neck. He was amazed that a single strand of hair could threaten his life like this but it was something he had to accept.

“Great! Then follow me. It’s time for our date.” Lilith exclaimed.

“Wha--” the strand of hair tightened around his neck as Ren questioned her. “I mean, right!” Lilith began to walk down the alley and Ren followed. Where was he being taken? And date? How ridiculous was that? Being forced to go on a date with a murderer? Ren reached towards the hair around his neck while Lilith had her back towards him.

“Reach for that and I won’t care about your priority status. I will kill you.” She said this to Ren without even looking back at him. How had she known? Some kind of super sense? “Come on!” She had immediately put on a cheerful voice and smile after saying something so seriously to him. “Stand up here beside me!” Ren didn’t see much else that he could do. He moved up next to her as they continued to walk.

Lilith led him back out onto Sonon Road and led him down the street towards the central tower. Ren noticed that the two of them were gathering a lot of attention as they walked down the street. The last time they had been together they had been just another face in the crowd, but now… something was definitely different.

“Why is everyone staring at us?” Ren asked.

“Oh, that? Don’t worry about it. They just don’t trust me is all.”

“Don’t trust you? Even though you’re an executioner?”

“I’ve only been here in the city for a few days, but I’ve had to kill a lot of people who either regained their memories or could regain their memories. The number of people I’ve killed makes the people apprehensive. They think that I might kill them next. That’s why they’re staring.” Hearing about the number of people she’s killed wasn’t surprising to Ren. She was one of the ruthless executioners after all. How could that surprise him? One other detail caught his attention.

“So you know about the old world. Does that mean you have your memories? No matter the answer, why do you do what Tye wants?” Lilith lost the smile on her face and stopped walking forward.

“Because… important to me…” Lilith’s voice was so quiet that Ren couldn’t make out what she said exactly other than that something was important.

“Important? What i--”

“Killing! Why should I care about what world we’re in or if my memories are false or not? All I care about is satiating this feeling for murder!” Lilith yelled this so loudly that every single person around them stopped walking and stared at the two. Ren thought Lilith may have been different from the other executioners, but she wasn’t. She was a cold blooded killing machine, but could he blame her? The words she had just said: why care if her memories are false or not? That just means that Tye made her a murderer through brainwashing. She was innocent in all of this, meaning that it was probably the same for the other four executioners as well. Lilith’s smile came back onto her face as she exclaimed, “Come on, Ren! Let’s go.”

“Yeah…” Lilith grabbed his hand and began to pull him down the road when a group of people surrounded the two. It was a group of six individuals all armed with metal bats. “What do you think you’re doing!” Ren yelled out of concern for the six individuals. Metal bats against an executioner? That was a sentence for instant death!

“Eh? Mind your own business kid. Or what? You her boyfriend or something?” It was one of the individuals behind Ren who had responded to him. While Ren was looking back at him, he couldn’t see Lilith being filled with anger.

“No, you idiot! You don’t get it!” Ren yelled at the man.

“Eh? What is it I don’t get? You’re holding hands with the executioner who's been going around killing people in our city randomly. That just means you’re together with her aren’t you? That just means we need to kill both of you and our city will be free from death. Are you still going to tell me I’m wro--” Lilith began to yell. Ren turned to see that her hair had become a bright red, as if her hair itself was fire.

“I won’t let you interrupt our date!” Lilith exploded as she launched multiple threads of hair (many combined into small spears) at their attackers and impaled each of them in multiple fatal locations. They had surely died instantly. Ren watched as Lilith retracted her hair and the men’s bodies slumped to the ground. The crowd around them stood in silence until Lilith cried out in victory. “You see that! They attacked me, just so you know! As an executioner, it’s my job to maintain order in this city and that’s what I have done! If you have any complaints, take it up with Finite!” Lilith tugged on Ren’s hand and the people around them parted to make way for the two. Ren had been staring at the men’s bodies and was pulled back into reality when Lilith told him to, “Come on!” Lilith smiled at him again and she once again looked like the cute, innocent girl he had once thought of her as… but the blood dripping from her hair said otherwise.

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

Lilith and Ren sat down in a familiar setting: a restaurant. Ren watched as Lilith engulfed her food just as she had done before. She offered to buy Ren’s food again, but Ren declined because the sight he had just witnessed had upset his appetite.

“Why?” Ren burst out. “Why did they have to die?”

“Hm? That was just self defense wasn’t it?”

“Yes, but you didn’t have to kill them. Haven’t you ever heard of knocking someone unconscious?”

“Ha! Why would I do that when I could just kill them. Isn’t that easier?” Ren realized there was no way of changing her thinking. “Ah, seriously though. Why are the number of troublemakers increasing so much lately? That just means more work to do.”

“Why do the people who have regained their memories have to die? Isn’t there another way?”

“Nope. It’s not the memories that are the problem, it’s the powers that come with them. Having powers means that they might become a threat to the executioners so we need to get rid of them before then.”

“And what about you? What if you gained your memories?”

“Ha! An executioner can’t gain their memories!” Lilith laughed at the thought.

“What? How are you so sure of that?” The reason people gained their memories was something that still remained uncertain. If what she was about to say meant that Tye could prevent people from ever gaining their memories that would bring the question: why didn’t he implement measures to ensure that people wouldn’t gain their memories. The only answer would be that Tye had purposefully made it so that people could regain their memories.

“Because Tye enforced that upon us of course!” There it was! Even if Ren didn’t know how Lilith knew that for certain, if that was true then it meant Tye was truly insane. That this world… was truly disgusting. That would mean that the entire world was set up with the idea that people would have to die, not with the idea of allowing everyone to live peaceful lives. That was something that Ren couldn’t forgive. “Well, that also means I won’t be coming to your side so long as I’m tied to Tye, so good luck!” Tied to Tye? What did that mean? Ren had no time to think, because Lilith was already standing up to leave. “Come on, Ren. We’re onto our next stop!”

Lilith led Ren into one of the main shops on Sonon Road. Once inside, Ren could easily tell that he had been led to a clothing store, but it wasn’t a normal clothing store. The only clothes the store sold were fancy dresses. Lilith led him to a small room with a curtain and told him to wait outside. The curtain opened and out came Lilith in one of the dresses she had picked out to try on. She did this routine multiple times and asked for Ren’s opinion on each of the dresses. Lilith looked good in all of them, but Ren wasn’t in the mood to judge a cute girl’s appearance when that cute girl was also a murderer. That’s when Lilith emerged in her final dress: a red dress that perfectly complemented her hair and eyes. She was astonishing in that dress. So astonishing that the expression on Ren’s face shone clearly as Ren had nearly forgotten that he was staring at literal murder. Ren quickly hid his expression, but it was too late. Lilith had decided that she was going to wear the dress for the rest of their date.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“But why do you need a dress? Isn’t that a bit too fancy for a normal date?”

“That’s because it’s the perfect opportunity to dress up tonight.”

“Tonight? Why tonight specifically?”

Lilith giggled in excitement. “You’ll see,” she said as she grabbed his hand and pulled him to their next destination. Once they were outside again, Ren had noticed that the sun was setting. He knew that he had arrived in Centiria late in the afternoon but didn’t realize just how long he had spent captive. All he could do was continue to be led along by Lilith. Of course, he was looking for a way to escape every single second he could, but there was just no way. He was being forced to walk next to Lilith at all times. If he had so much reached for the strand of hair wrapped around his neck then Lilith would either cut off his head or impale him with one of the other thousands of strands of hair she had on standby. He had to find some way to distract her, but how?

“Where are we going?” Ren asked as he realized he was being led down the sidewalk towards the western residential district.

“There’s a park up ahead that’ll be the perfect place, you’ll see!” Ren thought that Lilith’s smile seemed even bigger than usual as she turned to continue leading Ren towards this “park.” The park was in the middle of the western residential district. It was very large for a park and Ren found it comparable to the park that was in Valenthia High’s student housing area. There was one big difference though. There was a large hill in the center that had stairs leading towards the top. The hill was massive and easily stood above the small houses of the residential district. At the top was a flat plateau that had a lookout area that allowed for one to look out over the houses in the area and see the central tower. The only other thing on top of the hill were trees.

It was now completely nighttime as Lilith and Ren climbed to the peak of the hill. Lilith's eyes shined as she looked towards the central tower.

“I’ve never been up here before! It’s so pretty!” At this time of night the city was dotted with lights from nearly every visible window. The sky was also completely clear of any and all clouds, allowing for each and every star in the sky to shine down upon them. Ren didn’t allow himself to get caught up in the beautiful scenery, he continued searching for a way to break free of Lilith’s grasp without dying. “Ah!” she blurted out, “It’s about to start, Ren!”

“What’s about to--” Ren’s question was instantly answered as he saw the first one. The red explosion had happened so suddenly -- but it most certainly caught his eye, as it shined throughout the city -- and everyone had to notice it -- how couldn’t they? -- for it was such a large blast on a magnificent scale: everyone surely noticed the first firework in the sky and thought it was beautiful. That’s when another went off -- a large blue one! -- and another -- a large pink one! The fireworks went off one after another after another as Ren stood bewildered at the sight. Lilith was encaptivated as well. The expression on her face was one of the most joyous expressions Ren had ever seen. She truly looked like an innocent girl to Ren in that moment, and that innocent girl had been forced to become a murderer in another world due to Tye. He had to do something! Or else his journey would most likely end after these fireworks! These fireworks were likely the pièce de résistance to Lilith’s “date” idea. After the fireworks had ended, Lilith would most likely choose to end Ren’s life then and there. He had to do something, and now! Ren grabbed Lilith’s shoulders and turned her towards him. Lilith was shocked at first and tightened the hold around Ren’s neck, but the hold was loosened after Ren had done it. Ren had kissed Lilith. Her surprise was obvious as the grip around Ren’s neck was even looser than it had been before. Ren lifted his right hand and rested it on Lilith’s right cheek as he lifted his left hand up and grabbed the strand of hair that bound him. As he began to move away from Lilith he cast two spells: his left hand he used to cast freeze to destroy the strand of hair around his neck and prevent Lilith from using it to kill him, and his right hand cast his new spell… shock. Electricity coursed through Lilith’s body as if she had been struck by a lightning bolt. Ren leaped backwards as he was freed from her grasp and watched as Lilith screamed in agony. Ren began to feel bad for her. This was the first time he had used this spell and didn’t know how powerful the output was. When Mana had shown it to him, she had created a small monster using an artificial soul and used shock on the monster. Before seeing if the monster had been killed by the shock or not, Mana erased the monster from existence. So while Ren couldn’t tell how potent the spell was, that was enough to show him what the spell looked like and how it was used, so that was all Ren needed to use it. Now, looking at how it affected Lilith so strongly, Ren couldn’t help but think it was perhaps too strong and began to question why Mana had taught him this specific spell.

Lilith’s screaming stopped and her upper body slowly slumped over, but she remained standing. She remained in that position for a few seconds and Ren could’ve sworn he saw smoke rise from her body. That’s when he heard it… her words…

“You… you…” she sounded as if she were crying, “Ren!” she shouted as her hair lit up red like fire and shot towards Ren. She must have been shaken up because each strand of hair was fired at once and all directed towards Ren’s body. Ren easily dodged out of the way as her hair smashed into the ground and shot up debris. Ren honestly thought that he had already beaten her with that shock spell, but realized that was probably asking for too much. The reason Mana had taught him that spell was so that if he got in a situation where he was close enough to his opponent he could use shock to deal the initial amount of damage he needed to inflict to then be able to finish off his opponent with his ability. Ren had failed in following through with that idea. Mana had probably told him how to use shock with the idea that this specific kind of situation would arise and he had failed to finish her off. Now he was going to have to fight the hardest fight he would ever have to fight in his life to survive. Even against Mana, Ren had never once been able to avoid an all out attack where each individual strand was thrown at once, and from a different direction as well. That kind of attack was impossible to dodge and was incredibly difficult to prevent unless he hit his opponent with an offensive spell, but he didn’t want to harm her.

Lilith retracted her hair and used some strands to slice her dress’s long skirt to allow her to move easily. She was getting serious about this battle, although Ren didn’t know if he would last long enough for it to be called a battle. Lilith gave a roar as she sent out the attack that Ren was dreading. Each and every single strand of hair was launched at him, and each strand was coming from a different direction. A truly unavoidable attack. If Ren blasted some of the strands with a fireblast, the hair would regrow instantly and continue the attack, that’s why Ren’s only option was to fire a blast at Lilith and use its cover as an escape. Ren yelled fireblast and accidentally broke his pendant as he was enveloped by green flames. He had accidentally fired his strongest attack due to the stress he felt; he thought he was going to kill Lilith because of that. He ran after the fireblast he had followed since it had cleared out the incoming strands coming from in front of him and dodged out of the way as the strand pierced into the ground where he once stood. He then looked to where Lilith had been standing and saw only a large scorch mark. Lilith had leaped backwards out of the way. Ren sighed in relief but then realized he should’ve expected an executioner to be able to dodge that blast. He then shot three fireblasts: one to destroy the hair remaining on his left, his right, and above him. This made sure that Ren wouldn’t be killed as Lilith retracted her hair.

After her hair had been burned off, Lilith retracted her hair. Her expression was one of pure rage. Ren’s actions had truly upset her, and Ren didn’t really understand why. Weren’t the feelings she displayed for him an act? Wasn’t it all because of the false memories Tye implanted within her. There was no other option. It’s not like she knew him before this. It had to be.

Lilith began to do something that Mana had not even done (well, since Ren never got past the first attack, he never got to fight against anything more advanced than her “iron maiden” attack), Lilith wrapped both arms in hair to form two gigantic claws. Hair also rose up behind her in the form of… a chainsaw?

Lilith ran towards Ren and leaped at him with her claws. Ren dodged out of the way of Lilith’s downward smash but Lilith sent the chainsaw after Ren. Ren summoned his sword in time to deflect the chainsaw, but then realized that, “Couldn’t she send strands of hair out from the chainsaw?” and quickly fired a fireblast at the chainsaw before the strands of hair extended from it and pierced Ren. Lilith reformed the chainsaw and leaped in again. Lilith went for the same kind of overhead slash and Ren dodged out of the way again, this time instantly firing a fireblast towards Lilith’s nearest claw to prevent any strands from being extended from it. Lilith dodged away from the blast. The fireblast generated a haze of smoke after it hit the ground. When the smoke started to clear it was Ren who was the first to run in to strike. He needed to get in close enough to finish her with his ability.

Ren cast waterburst to blind Lilith, but with his pendant still broken, the burst of water was so powerful that Lilith was shot backwards and slid across the ground. Ren continued to run towards her but Lilith was no longer blinded at all and leaped in to swipe at Ren again with her claws. Ren shot another powerful waterburst and Lilith used her hair to push herself out of the way before she was shot through the air and down the hill. Ren fired another one as soon as she hit the ground. He continued this until he had drenched the entire surrounding area (aside from where he stood from) in water.

“Gust!” Ren yelled as he created a powerful gust of wind to not only distract Lilith, but to also keep her pinned on the ground. Then Ren threw his right hand down onto the ground and made sure he was touching the water he left on the ground. “Freeze!” Thanks to Ren’s limit break, the entirety of the water began to freeze over quickly and stretched over to where Lilith -- who was currently drenched -- was standing. The ice crept up Lilith’s legs and completely froze her hair. If Ren was right, she was no longer able to control her hair. Ren ran towards her with his sword in hand. Inside the sword, the same green light began to appear and shine brightly. Ren swung the sword at Lilith and it broke upon striking her, allowing the sword of pure willpower to slice through her willpower, and reform upon exiting her body. Willpower burst out of her as Lilith slowly began to fall over, but Ren caught her on the way down. He looked down at her and thought about how she was just an innocent victim in all this. He laid her on the ground and looked towards the central tower when he realized that the fireworks had stopped. Had they stopped just then? Or had they stopped during the fight? Ren was so absorbed in the fight that he hadn’t paid attention to any fireworks after he had kissed Lilith. That was by far, the most intense fight he had ever fought, but the feeling of victory was short lived. The ground began to shake intensely as a large beam of light engulfed the central tower.

“What the hell!” Ren yelled as he saw the giant beam appear in front of his eyes. He then heard the sound of Lilith moving. Was she trying to get up?

“It’s… him…” she said quietly, “he’s waking up…” Lilith fell unconscious and Ren was greeted by someone else.

“Ren!” Aria yelled from the staircase.

“Aria!” Ren yelled in surprise. Aria ran up to Ren and noticed Lilith on the ground next to him. “What happened here? No! More importantly, what’s going on over there!”

“I have no idea! Do you know where Steven is?” The two had to yell at each other due to the noise of the earthquake.

“No! I never met up with him!” Ren looked down at Lilith and then moved to pick her up. “What are you doing!” Aria questioned his actions.

“I’m taking her with us!” Ren said, carrying Lilith like a princess.

“What! She’s an executioner! Wake her up and she’ll kill you!”

“That’s fine with me! I just… can’t leave an innocent girl behind!” Aria questioned why Ren would call Lilith innocent, but that was a detail that Ren couldn’t go into detail on. “Come on! We need to get to that beam of light!”

“What? Isn’t that dangerous!”

“She said something that I can’t just ignore!” Ren was already moving towards the stairs. “Come on!” The two ran out of the park and Ren led the way towards the central staircase that led down towards the central flower garden. As they came out onto the main street where the staircase was, they saw one person standing at the top of the staircase. It was Steven who was standing there.

“Steven?” Ren cried out in surprise.

“Ren? Aria? And… who’s that?” Steven questioned.

“No time to explain!” Ren shouted. “Do you know what this is!”

“No! I was exploring the residential district when this beam of light came out of nowhere! I ran here because I thought this is where you’d be!” Ren looked at the large pillar of light that was emitting a powerful force that was like a strong gust of wind attempting to push them away. Ren then looked around for any civilians that may be in harm’s way. There were many citizens but they all chose to remain close to the buildings and in the alleyways. The three of them (Ren, Steven, and Aria) were the only ones who chose to get close to the pillar of light.

“What are we supposed to do?” Aria questioned. Ren stared up at the pillar of light that stretched high into the sky.

“We can’t do anything…” Ren said in response. The ground then began to shake even more and it became hard to stand. Ren looked towards the base of the pillar at where the tower should’ve been. It was still there. He could see it through the light, though just barely. Then the ground around the pillar of light began to rise as if the ground was being sucked up by the pillar of light. Ren finally realized what was happening to the central tower. The ground was raised higher and higher and Ren didn’t think there was anything he could do to stop its ascent, but that was the least of his worries. Ren looked down at the base of the stairs… and saw Tye standing there.

“Steven… hold onto her for me.” Ren said, eyes wide open, as he stared at Tye while putting Lilith into Steven’s arms. Steven hadn’t noticed Tye until Lilith was in his arms. He looked down at Tye in anger.

“Go get him, Ren.” Steven said. Ren said nothing in response as he walked down the stairs and into the flower garden to greet Tye.

“Long time no see, Ren.” Tye was the first to speak. “I haven’t seen you since you disagreed with my intention to create a better world. So what do you think, Ren? Isn’t this a much better world than before?”

“Much better? How is a world as paradoxical as this one better!”

“What? You don’t like it?”

“How could anyone like such a world? We’ve been pulled into some other world where those who remember the old world are slaughtered without a second thought. Terra was one of those people! How could you say this world is better than the peaceful world we had before!”

Tye began to laugh uncontrollably after hearing Ren say that. “Peaceful! What kind of lie have you been telling yourself, Ren! I know more than anyone that your life was not a happy one!”

“What?”

“As your best friend, I know everything about you! I know how much you struggled in that world! And I know just how bored you were with it, too. You were so bored right? Didn’t you want a life of adventure? Something to tear you away from your everyday life and make it interesting?”

“You don’t know anything about me!” Ren burst out. “Did you think I hated my life? That’s the biggest misconception you could have ever said and you’d have to be truly delusional to believe that! Those days I spent with you, Steven, and Terra. I was happy! So happy! Even with Jonathan! Even with the Akatsukis! Even through everything! I was happy!” Tye stared back at Ren with a blank face. “Do you really have nothing to say?” Tye smiled a wicked smile.

“You don’t need to lie to yourself anymore, Ren. You’ll see, this is the perfe--” a fireblast was shot at Tye but was deleted by some invisible force before it hit Tye. “What was that?” Tye said out of genuine curiosity.

“You’re truly insane. That’s painfully obvious now.” Ren had tears in his eyes. “I don’t know how you got this way, but I will… end you.” Ren’s pendant broke as he summoned his gear and slowly walked towards Tye.

“You… dare attempt to strike me after the generosity I’ve shown to you! You have priority status! No one in this world can kill you so long as I say they can’t!”

“You can take that priority status with you when I send you to hell, because I’m going to make sure that’s where your soul goes after you die.” Ren was within striking distance of Tye. He swung at Tye with his sword, but his sword didn’t connect even though it should have. Ren looked down at his sword and saw that part of the sword had been deleted from existence. The only part of the sword that remained was the hilt and a small section of the blade. It was just like that story Dr. Tirion had told Ren before, but Ren remained undeterred even after seeing this. He simply resummoned his sword and took his stance again.

“Tsk. I don’t have time for this. Finite! Deal with them!” Tye yelled as he disappeared and was replaced by Finite. That threw Ren for a loop. Where had Tye gone? Ren looked up and saw that the pillar of light had disappeared. The ground that had floated up into the air had lifted up the central tower into the sky. It now hovered in the sky as a sky island. How were they going to get up there? While that was an important question, what was more important was the executioner standing in front of Ren. Ren, with his pendant already broken, shot a fully charged fireblast at Finite and sent him flying back towards the large hole in the ground where the tower once sat. Steven and Aria ran down along with Ren as Ren charged at Finite, who was standing right on the edge of the hole. Ren threw his sword down at Finite and Finite caught the blade with his left forearm. Ren continued to push down against Finite in an attempt to push him into the hole.

“Ren! Get away from there! It’s not safe!” Aria yelled from a few feet behind him as she ran up in an attempt to strike Finite as well. Steven was right there next to them with Lilith still in his arms, that’s why it caught him, too. The ground beneath the five of them shook slightly, then gave way, causing all five of them to fall into the hole.