The Author's POV

Swooosh—

A gentle wind blew past a forest as the leaves rustled.

The gentle moonlight shone from above, creating a tranquil environment.

"Hey, Kevin, hold up, where are you going?"

But the tranquility did not last for long as it was soon broken by multiple individuals who ran through the forest. To be more precise, it was four individuals chasing behind one individual, Kevin.

Halting his steps, Kevin scanned the surroundings. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he had not noticed the others behind him.

'The old man told me to go out this way, but where is he?'

The forest was huge.

So huge that Kevin estimated that it would take him a whole day to explore it. Finding Ren inside of the forest was like finding a needle in a haystack.

"Kevin!"

Suddenly, Kevin heard a voice coming from behind him. What followed after was the sound of rushed footsteps.

Kevin slowly lifted his head.

Coming over from behind a couple of trees were Emma, Amanda, Jin, and Melissa. They were all looking at him with weird faces.

"…huh?"

Caught off-guard by the unexpected sight, Kevin stared at them with a dazed look. Then, quickly recalling what he was here for, he spoke up.

"What are you guys doing here?"

"That's the question we want to ask!"

Emma frustratingly said, walking up to him. Stopping a couple of feet away from him, she looked around the forest.

"You suddenly started acting weird out of nowhere. I called out for you multiple times but you never replied so I followed you here."

"You followed me?"

"Well…hm, yeah. You had a very serious look on your face, I thought that something was up."

Emma turned her head.

"You guys also followed for the same reason, right?"

Everyone silently nodded. Clearly siding with Emma.

Staring at them, Kevin scratched his head. He had been so focused on looking for Ren that he had lost his composure and ended up worrying the others.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you guys like that."

"Whatever."

With a deep sigh, Emma rubbed her face and then looked at the moon in the sky. 'At least she doesn't look too pissed'. Kevin sighed in relief.

But then Emma frowned and glared at Kevin.

"Oy."

"What?"

"You still haven't told me why you're here."

"Oh, right..."

Kevin turned his head before he scratched the back of it.

"Not gonna say anything?"

"…you see, things are kind of complicated."

Not satisfied with the answer, Emma's glare intensified.

"I think we deserve an explanation after you made us worried and caused a whole scene."

"Ugh." Kevin groaned. Lifting his head and staring at the others who were looking back at him, Kevin let out a deep sigh. 'How should I tell them that I was looking for Ren?'

Would they even believe him? Maybe Amanda as she already knew, but what about the others?

"…Ehew."

Eventually, he let out another sigh. He trusted everyone here, and so he didn't mind telling them about his skill, inspection. Whether they believed him or not, it was up to them.

"Haaaa!"

about to open his mouth, a muffled shout

snapped in the direction of where the sound came from. Then, everyone exchanged glances with each

"What was—huh? Kevin?"

say anything, Kevin had already run off towards where the

"Kevin, wait up!"

and rushed from behind. Amanda, Jin, and Melissa followed suit as their figures slowly

***

the forest from above, with his hands behind his back,

a solemn

"Haaaa!"

that rang out,

"Should we interfere?"

him, Waylan had a worried look on

at Ren in the distance, from the way things were going, he could

eyes, Douglas did

"Haaa!"

out. Turning his

If we don't stop him now,

costs, they couldn't let Ren kill Aaron. The

his mental demons, but from the looks

"Haaaa!"

"I'm going."

longer, Waylan decided to make his move. It would only take him a second to arrive at the scene, so

"Wait."

extending his hand towards

the meaning of this?" Waylan asked

his hand, Douglas pointed towards a certain spot in the

a look

"…huh?"

to look in the direction of where Douglas had pointed and

at Douglas again,

"You're not telling me…"

what

***

"Haaaaaa!"

and agonized scream felt like a beautiful piece of music to

I craved for more.

my face revealed, I had to scar my face

eyes as I stared at the dagger in

you, I ran out of the

Don—

liquid inside of it all over my dagger. The liquid was pale yellow in

I've got the perfect

at Aaron who was barely

I took out a potion from my dimensional

spent quite a bit of

I opened his mouth and

"Drink up."

"Ugh…Mhh."

I shoved the potion down his throat. A horrified look manifested on his face as he flung his arms around. It was clear that he

pressing Aaron onto the ground I brought the knife closer to his

"Khhaaaaa!"

long black scar traced down half of

asked, tracing the dagger along his face, creating more and more

of me was

"Haaa…stop!…stop!…p-please."

given Aaron previously, his voice slowly returned to him, and his

words, my hand suddenly came to a halt. I

you just say

"Haaa…haaa…"

answer, I was met with Aaron's rough breathing. Standing up and leaning my body forward to take a better look at him, I noticed that Aaron's

'He already broke?'

of course,

I laughed.

was no way he could've broken with

you return

another potion. The injuries in his body

"Let's continue."

the dagger, I traced it along his face once again.

"Why aren't you screaming."

My face froze.

I got no reaction from Aaron who just looked

My eyes became unfocused.

"Aaron?"