Chapter 164 - A Fleeting Reprieve

It was tall and lanky; likely rivaling the size of Asterius, formed out of what looked to be shadows, almost blending in with the darkness that shrouded the cavern. The only feature that distinguished it from the darkness was its wide grin full of pearly whites. 

"Murderer...Killer...Murderer…"

Speaking out in an itchy tone, coming out almost like static, it let out these repeated words as it slowly approached. 

"...Murderer?"

Dazed for a moment at these words, he was unprepared for the sudden burst of speed it displayed, clearing the distance between them in an instinct that spiked his heart rate up to ten times over. With its long, thin arms, it grabbed each side of his head, holding him close to its spiral eyes as it continued to grin. 

"Murderer! Killer! Murderer! Killer!

"No! I'm not!"

Looking into those swirling eyes of black and white, he felt his consciousness became entranced in these words. He could feel something emanating from its shadowy form and into his head, on a physical level--it was trying to alter him. 

"Murderer! Murderer! Murderer---!"

Its tone became vicious, the smile it held becoming wider--so wide that its cheeks would've torn apart if it were human. 

"...Stop it!"

Mustering up his strength, he finally drove Belus through its smooth torso, feeling no resistance within its body. The repeated words came to a halt; the ethernaut simply stared at him silently with its smile before its form began to crumble into shards of darkness. 

Dropped back onto his feet, Ren quickly grabbed his head, feeling as if his brain had been tied into a series of knots. 

Once again, time proved to be a luxury as burrowers made their presence known. 

"...Once more."

He moved past the plague on his mind, picking himself back up as he felt his body yearn for him to keel over from the pain, or to fall over and succumb to his exhaustion. 

Through the veil of darkness, flesh, and mortality--he carved through it endlessly, his body numb and on the verge of shutting down, until at last--he was the last one left breathing. 

Standing alone in the pasture of fallen bodies, covered in blood both his and not-- from head to toe; he claimed victory. He was unsure if he was even holding onto his blades, feeling nothing past his static fingertips. 

A walking corpse at this point; he lumbered his way back to the fountain, dragging his feet as his limbs stayed dropped at his sides. The path back to the fountain was littered with an array of contents coming from the plethora of juggerknull's bodies; their blood seeping into the grooves and crevices of the stone, clinging to the bottom of his boot like an adhesive. 

Dropping to his knees once more in front of the fountain, he rested his cheek against the cold, smooth rim of gray stone, peering with his tiresome gaze into the somber matter, seeing her obscured figure below the surface of its crimson sheen. 

"...I did it, Meinhard...I saved somebody."

Allowing his eyes to close by no will of his own, they were suddenly jolted open as a pair of subtle, light footsteps were heard from both his left and right--instantly drawing his hand to his blade. 

"Stay your hand, we're no foes of yours."

Squinting past his blurred sight, he found that the gravelly voice was attached to someone short of stature, or rather something. Although the voice was definitely human, the build of the entity in question was short in stature, with a short neck and wide head unbefitting of a person. 

"Who are you?"

"We're the ones asking the questions here, boy--"

The one to his right scoffed, his appearance obscured by a worn, hole-filled cloak made of beige fabric with patches of black. 

"Stop that, Velrum. If he's the one that Miss Iris is looking for then--"

Clearly the more reasonable of the two, the mysterious figure to Ren's left interrupted his companion before promptly being interrupted himself by the half-conscious human. 

"Iris?! What did you just say? That name--say it again!"

The leftmost figure had no time to react as Ren sprung up from his knelt position, rushing over and gripping the figure by his slender shoulders. 

"Back up!"

"Velrum, no! It's alright."

From the frantic movements of the blood-soaked human, Velrum had placed his hand on his sheathed sword, stopping only once his partner raised his hand to stop him; slowly, he looked back up at the young man. 

'...Iris?"

"Where is she?!"

Getting a closer look at the features of the unknown being, a small, pointy nose with lengthy ears that twitched at the sudden closeness--Ren didn't care. For the first time in a long time; beyond all these sleepless days, life returned to his eyes--a wonderstruck innocence stared into the unknown being's eyes. 

"...You're Ren, aren't you?"

Hearing his own name come from the lips of the non-human being, he fell silent for a moment before nodding his head slowly. 

"Yeah...I'm Ren."

As the syllables parted from his lips, what little consciousness he was holding onto began to slip away. A surprised expression came over the mysterious visitors as the young man slumped over, falling against the one he held onto so fervently, his grip still tight on the short being's ledges. 

"Well, don't just stand there! Help me set him down, Vel!"

"...Right, right!"

Taking their hoods off, the two elven beings gently took hold of the crimson-drenched young man, carefully laying him down near the fountain. 

Being brought so close to the ominous statue, something within the liquid caught the corner of Velrum's emerald mirrors. 

"Hey, Moko! There is someone in here!"

"Huh? What're you talking about--"

Following the curious words of his companion, Moko leaned over the side of the tall geyser of crimson, peering into it as the unmistakable silhouette of a person was floating under the liquid. 

"Should we bring them out?"

Velrum asked, looking towards his companion with a questioning look, scratching the top of his silver-covered scalp. 

"Fool! We'd be cursed a hundred times over for touching the sacred liquid! It's bad enough as it is that our skin met the paramount stone! A thousand prayers will be sung from my bedside tonight...Lest I want the gods to punish me."

"Right...Well, he was fighting off those creatures as they drew close to this divine well...Do you think this person is someone he knows?"

Now scratching his scruffy beard that lined his neck, Velrum backed away from the fountain, looking down at the unconscious, snow-haired man. 

"...It matters not. We will wait with him here until he wakes. That is the order Elder Heldjrim gave to us--we will not fail him."

"Still, this is really 'Ren'? The description Miss Iris gave us was definitely a boy with dark hair. I mean, the eyes match at least…"

Velrum knelt beside the fast asleep human, he parted Ren's eyelids to take a peek at his iris before standing himself back up with a tiny huff. 

"He confirmed as much...Besides; I can just tell. That look in his eyes, I've never seen so much joy come over someone's eyes with just a mention of a name."