Chapter 47 - The Great Climb

Before no more than ten minutes had passed, he found himself high enough to experience a looming breeze brush against his body. Just once glance down made his legs tingle, his palms perspiring as he saw the depths already below him. There were no railings to protect him from a misstep or a powerful gust of wind--and that fact kept him wide awake as he carefully placed each step in front of the last.

Left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg--this process was all that filled his mind. The armor felt as if he was carrying a boulder on his back, trying the best he could to maintain his balance as his head became dizzy.

With his next step, his foot slid, causing him to fall down against the timber steps. He didn't even have the strength to move anymore, feeling comfort resting on the prickly wooden stairs as his eyelids became encumbered with the thought of sleep.

However, the world of dreams isn't what awaited him as he suddenly opened his eyes--feeling as if a spark just set off inside of him. That's when he noticed the sensation flowing through his body, traveling through his veins like a river of vitality.

"The...tree?" He asked himself quietly.

It bore the same vague sensation of mana, but it was different--something more gentle, lacking the tainted touch of sin. He felt connected with the tree, feeling the air soothingly vibrate around him as if it was trying to revive his tired body.

In this connection, he sensed something familiar--it was hard to put into words, but he knew--

"...Meinhard…" He looked at the wooden step just below his eyes.

Ren slid the black glove off of his hand, pressing his palm against the wood. That same familiar sense resonated against his palm as he smiled warmly.

"Even now...you're still supporting me," Ren ran his hand across the step.

Strength returned to his body, every pore filling with the vitality gifted to him by the tree's essence. He got back up, picking his new resolved body up and leaving his defeated self behind.

Now it felt as if every step he took was being guided, he no longer feared the heights he traversed--he had full trust in the evergreen colossus.

"...Just another," Ren paused to look up,"a hundred stories to go."

Each step taken echoed throughout the cylinder of grandeur nature, creaking beneath his step as he kept his eyes forward on the path ahead. His throat parched and his stomach yearning for fulfillment, he marched up each step, grazing his boots against the ancient crafted steps.

Time returned to being but a concept for him during his journey up the tower of stairs.

Left foot. Right foot. It was the first thing you learn to do as a bipedal creature, and he was truly embracing that fundamental concept.

Like how the devout religious gave their thanks to God via "Ten-thousand punches" a day, he used this mandatory journey as his own gift to God, if he had to do it anyways, might as well earn some points up there above the clouds.

"Speaking of clouds…" Ren muttered to himself, his voice coming out hoarse from his dehydration.

As he raised his foot and lowered it once more, he was free from the bounds of the evergreen. The fresh air of the high-altitude greeted him with a brisk cold, soothing his heated body from the extensive cardio.

He stopped for a moment upon reaching the top, standing on the platform of colossus leaves as he watched the night sky glimmer with the graceful beauty of stars. Extending his arms to the side, he inhaled as much air as his exasperated lungs could handle--

"AHHHHH---!!!"

Everything he had, he returned to the open airs--waking the sleeping valley of beasts with a roar of victory. His own ears rang from his roar, feeling his veins press against his skin. Holding the yell, his head soon went light as if his consciousness was caressed by a cloud, falling back against the stiff green.

"I did it, Meinhard. I'm pretty awesome sometimes, aren't I?" Ren chuckled to himself.

He imagined Meinhard would reply with something along the lines of "Only because I helped," while looking at him with those smug emerald jewels that were his irises.

"Are you alright?"

A feminine voice suddenly asked. The voice was too gentle and full of concern to belong to Beatrice. As he looked up--the girl was standing over him with both a confused and concerned look on her face. Face to face with a girl like this on a starry night, his complexion quickly shifted to something more akin to a tomato as his cheeks heated up.

"Gah!" He quickly sat up.

The girl once again looked at him with concern, this time she probably thought he was insane.

"You're Ren, aren't you?" She asked, sitting down in front of him on her knees.

Now that he could see her properly, he couldn't believe the fact that he was even talking to a girl this cute. She had innocent azure eyes that radiated with kindness, and a nose as cute as a button. Even as otherworldly as her waist-length cerulean hair should be, it looked natural on her, illuminated every so subtly under the serene moonlight. It looked both fluffy and silky, bouncing with each movement of her head.

"Hello?" She asked as the boy was left in a trance.

She leaned closer to make sure he wasn't spacing out, tapping his forehead. This only caused his pink blush to shift into a dark red as he felt his body run over with warmth from her minuscule touch.

"Y...yeah, I'm Ren," He nodded his head, coughing into his hand to compose himself.

"Well, nice to meet you, I'm Iris--oh, I'm one of the Outlanders," She smiled.

The girl extended her hand towards him, which he didn't hesitate to accept. Her skin was as soft and smooth as a baby's own, which he deduced meant she somehow had access to lotion in this world or there is the existence of vanity magic.

"Yeah, nice to meet you too," His blush persisted.

As she stood back up, she adjusted her silken blue skirt before crossing her arms, likely to retain her warmth against the cool night. The outfit she wore definitely didn't seem viable for cold weather--pristine robes of silver with blue designs etched into the seemingly soft fabric that gave her an air of nobility. Her white boots seemed like a bad idea to wear in a forest composed almost entirely of mud as the catalyst for walking, yet they were without a single blemish.

However, the clothes she wore played no part in her natural beauty. Despite the luxurious fabric she wore, any unapproachable regality she held fell to null upon once looking at her kind eyes. It was hard to believe a girl like this existed in a cruel world. One look at her and he was helplessly bewitched.

"Tristan made you climb the tree, didn't he?" Iris asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"Mhm…" Ren nodded his head.

"He can be a real jerk sometimes. He's done that to every new Outlander who came after him," Iris shook her head while letting out a sigh.

She looked at him for a moment, he wasn't exactly a sight for sore eyes--covered in dirt and sweat from his extensive journey up the tree.

"Well, it's not as if he does it just to mess with you. Although, I imagine that's part of it," Iris placed her hands behind her back.

"What do you mean?"

"The climbing of the heavenly ascending staircase, there is a purpose for it," She told him.

"Besides being wildly inefficient?" Ren joked.

"Yes, besides that. For people not of this world--like us, the journey up the tree sort of...synergizes us with the world. It sounds weird, doesn't it…" Irises frowned, noticing Ren's questioning gaze.

Her almost comically cute frown erased any cynicism he had, attacking him directly in his weak-to-cuteness heart.

"No, it's not that! I totally get it. I felt something like that myself when I was climbing up the tree. It was sort of like...the tree wanted to help me, it guided each of my steps and retained my strength. Honestly, I think I would've died without its help," Ren explained, looking at the palm of his hand.

He opened his mouth in an effort to tell her about how he felt Meinhard's presence within the tree--but social ineptitude aside, he didn't want to make himself seem any weirder than he already was. Looking back up at her, her nose was scrunched as if she had just smelt something terrible.

"Not to be rude, but you should probably head in and take a bath..." She suddenly said, giving him a concerned look.

She was trying to put it as nicely as possible, but it still stung. It's not like she was wrong though, between spending the day in the humid forest, then in a cavern full of goblins and their "loot", finally followed by an egregiously long stair climb, all while wearing basic armor--he definitely was ready for a bath himself.

"Urr, I don't even know where the bath is," Ren stood up.

"I'll show you, come on," Iris smiled, gesturing for him to follow as she began to make her way towards the front door.

As soon as she turned her back, he raised his arm to check the state of his body odor--

--Deathly.

Now that he was no longer experiencing the Grandfather tree's support, his body felt as if it was made out of pure lead, lumbering behind the kind girl. As soon as he entered the front door, he was met face to face with Sora, who looked as if he just got out of the bath himself with his drenched red hair drooping down over his face.