Chapter 87 - Deliverance

Regardless of whether she arrived a minute sooner or not, Lerish would still find Ren's disfigured body lying down on the floor. Her heart full of sorrow, she rushed to his side and placed his remaining hand covered in blood on her cheek.

"R-Ren!!!"

She hurriedly placed her finger on his neck, and felt a pulse. A weak pulse, followed by a slightly weaker one--each pulse slowly becoming imperceptible. Feeling despair, she softly spoke:

"No...please, Ren..."

"Ah? So you came back, Your Highness?"

"--?!"

Standing in front of her, Argus looked at her with a devilish smirk as he pretended to be surprised by her return.

Thanks to his precious 'babies' he can see everything around him up to a certain distance, even blind spots. Because of that, he was able to watch Lerish's movements without her noticing it.

Seeing his face, and the eyeballs floating around her, Lerish felt like throwing up anytime if she continue meeting their gazes. Steeling herself, she diverted her attention to Ren, whose life was slowly slipping away.

"I'm so glad you returned, Your Highness. Have you finally made up your mind to become my wife?"

Lerish didn't answer his question. She had already chose to reject his existence altogether, and instead devoted herself into trying to stop the bleeding from the young man's severed arm.

Holding back his anger, Argus continued to speak: "You know that what you're doing is futile, right? No matter how much you try to nurse him, he won't recover that easily from the damage I dealt to him. Why don't you just--"

BANG!!!

As he took one step closer to them, a small projectile flew towards him and hit his forehead, exploding upon impact and created a palm-sized exit hole at the back of his head. However, such attack wasn't lethal enough for someone like him, as Argus quickly regenerated his damage shortly afterwards.

"Ah! Nice shot, Your Highness...sadly, you can't put me down with just that."

Unfazed, Lerish fired another shot at him--this time hitting his right shoulder. The shot almost severed his arm, but his regeneration speed was too fast it repaired his body before the damage could even set in.

'Kuh,' she bit her lip in despair seeing him take her shots without any intention to dodge. 'My shots are blessed with Miss Aoi's power, but why...'

"Hm. Futile your actions might be, I'm impressed with your resolve to defend that dying man in your arms," Argus spoke to her in derision. "Your aim is deadly, but it only made me feel something in me instead. You know what that is?"

Looking at her confused expression, Argus grinned for a moment before teleporting right in front of her, and catching her off-guard. With her adrenaline rush kicking in, Lerish quickly aimed her slingshot at him but his ungodly speed prevailed, as he snatched the object from her hands.

"I feel like taking your eyes out even more, Your Highness!!!!!" he shouted maniacally.

Without a weapon to defend herself and Ren, Lerish desperately closed her eyes, and--

{Impale}

In a blink of an eye, a large spike of darkness burst from the ground and pierced Argus in his torso, causing him to be pinned to the ceiling.

Surprised and confused by what happened, Lerish opened her eyes and saw the young man lying on the ground awake and his remaining hand raised. Immediately after regaining consciousness he used his Arcana to forcefully separate Argus from her, therefore preventing him from collecting his prize.

"Y-You?! You're supposed to be dead by now, I made sure of it!" Argus yelled in shock after seeing the young man alive and kicking.

"Yeah, sorry. Does that made you feel disappointed?" Ren replied.

"You bastaaaaarrrddd!!!"

Ren only smiled at him. He then shifted his attention to Lerish who's still overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events, and said to her: "Sorry for making you worry, Miss Lerish."

"N-No. You don't have to apologize..."

'After all, it was me who's at fault here,' she muttered silently. Keeping her gaze away from him, she couldn't make herself look at him with one of his limbs missing.

Thinking quickly, Lerish helped him stand up. In the process she inadvertently glanced at his severed arm some meters away, and she yelped in shock. To calm her down, Ren lightly smiled at him and said: "Don't worry, Miss Lerish. I'm fine."

He's smiling, yet he lost his entire left arm. How can she forgive herself about it?

"But he said that you're supposed to be dead already. How did you manage to survive, Ren?"

"Oh, about that? Well, actually..."

-----

In life, there's also death. It has been the case since time immemorial that all living things must meet their end sooner or later through all means.

Then there's Ren.

Floating in a huge, black space, Ren frantically looked around and asked to himself:

"How did I...get here?"

As he tried to understand what's going on, a voice suddenly came up in his mind as it spoke:

{So you're finally here, Ren Mortel.}

"Eh? Do you know who I am?" Ren broke in panic as he heard the voice calling his name.

{By name...} the Voice replied. {I know everyone in this world: those who once lived in the past, those who are living now, and those who are yet to be born. I know all of them, save for you.}

"T-That's strange," Ren muttered softly. He thought, maybe the reason as to why the mysterious voice currently in his mind hardly knew him is because he, though a human, didn't come from this world.

{Despite of that, I have taken a great interest in you. I have watched you all this time, trying to fully understand who you are, only for me to have more questions than answers each and every time. Your existence is a dilemma, should I say?}

Ren couldn't think of a reply to the Voice's words. Since that day his life has been of a mess more than anything, and even then he still had a following of mysterious beings watching his movements.

That kind of a situation...isn't that the same as being a celebrity?

"I could tell you the story of my life if given the time, but most importantly--what in the world is this place? What am I doing here? How can I get out?"

Faced with a flurry of questions from Ren, the mysterious Voice only replied: {This place...is called the [End Line].}

"End...Line?"

{Yes. This place, as you might not know it, is the place between Life and Death. As to why you're here, it's because you're supposed to be dead by now.}

"I'm dead...?" Ren couldn't believe what he has heard from the Voice. Just a while ago he was facing Argus, who unleashed more or less his full potential, in their battle. An explosion came some time after, and he's suddenly inside the strange black space.

If he really is dead, then that means--

"Wait, you just said the word 'supposed' to me. What do you mean by that?"

{Did I say that? Oh, my apologies. I must've slipped while I'm saying that,} the Voice spoke lightheartedly at him.

"Y-You..."

{Just kidding. To tell you the truth, even though you have died--something is stopping you from going into the realm of the dead. I don't know what it is, but I believe it's because someone made sure you won't go there.}

"Aoi!" Ren suddenly exclaimed.

That little girl--the Death Goddess who wants to be with her brother forever, had bestowed her power to him, making him somewhat immortal in the process. Ren might've noticed that phenomenon already a long time ago, but he only thought of it as just a stroke of luck. It's only at this point that he found out that his power is all part of one big package.

"So I'm not dead, technically," Ren let out a relieved sigh.

{Yes. That's what made you interesting, in my opinion.}

Ren now know where he is, and why he's there. The only thing left to ask is--

{No. You can't get out of here,} the Voice instantly said, even before he could ask the question.

"E...Eh?" Ren gasped in shock. "W-Why? Why can't I get out here?!"

{I don't want to, that's why.}

"That's stupid!" Ren immediately blurted out in rage with the Voice's unreasonableness. "I don't know who you are, but if you appear right here and now I'll make sure..."

{Make sure what?}

"I'll make sure you..." Ren faltered on his words. He realized that in this place, the one responsible for the mysterious voice in his head is the master; he or she can easily play him with the palm of his or her hand. With that in mind Ren sighed once more, then said: "Never mind. Just leave me alone already."

{Giving up so easily? I thought you said before that you'll be more aggressive from that time onwards, what made you relent on your promises?} the Voice asked, dumbfounded with the young man's display of passive behavior.

"I'm not breaking that promise I had with Aoi. I just thought that this is not the place for me to show that," he replied.

{Heh...}

Dead, but still alive. Aggressive, yet showing passiveness. Ren, as a person, is a messed up amalgamation of contradictions, but that's what made him more interesting in the 'eyes' of the Voice.

After pondering for a moment, the Voice asked:

{If I let you get out of here, would you do the thing I'll say?}

Surprised, Ren blinked his eyes a few times and answered: "As long as it's not something lewd, maybe I'll give it some thought."

{No worries. I'm not someone who ask things like that onto others,} the Voice assured him.

Ren's face showed suspicion in the Voice's words. He thought, those lines often come out from people who have ulterior motives in mind, promising their prospective victims that they don't mean any harm to them and they should be trusted.

After all, that's how human trafficking works, right?

The young man, already itching to come out of the [End Line] as soon as possible, finally said: "Fine. Let's hear it."

{I want you to...} the Voice paused for a short while, making Ren to feel more nervous by the moment. Waiting for the Voice to say his condition, he started to grit his teeth.

{I want you to...believe.}

"E...Eh?"

All of a sudden, countless white magic circles of various sizes and forms appeared around him, shining against the vast darkness. Then, another bluish-white magic circle appeared in front of him, its light throbbing with increasing intensity.

Confused with the situation, Ren asked: "W-What's all of this?!"

{This? This is your new start, Ren Mortel.}

"--?!"

At the same time, the bluish-white magic circle floated closer and closer to him, blinding Ren with its intense light. The Voice, gradually sounding like static to his ears, spoke:

{Believe, Ren Mortel. Believe in what you are yet to be unlocked...}

"Huh? W-What do you mean by--"

Before he could even finish his sentence, the magic circle started to glow extremely bright, turning everything into white as the whole place shook violently. Panicked, Ren shouted at the Voice, but he couldn't hear most of his words due to it starting to sound like static.

{...The...Fool...}

"What? What did you say? I can't hear you!"

As the whole place gets swallowed by the overwhelming cataclysm, the Voice--in a last ditch effort--transmitted his last message to Ren.

{Arcana...unlocked.}

-----

"So that's why you're still alive. Damn it!!!" Argus said to Ren hatefully, while still being pinned on the ceiling by the spike on his torso.

"Yeah. Frustrating, isn't it?" Ren replied mockingly at him.

'Too bad I forgot again to ask that guy's name, otherwise I won't be able to thank him wholeheartedly for giving me another chance,' he muttered to himself.

Extremely annoyed, Argus broke off the tip of the spike and somersaulted down the ground, landing not too far away from them. His handsome face warped in an ugly way, as he saw Ren's confidence returning.

"Do you think I'll be afraid just because of that? What use is your survival, if you only have one arm left to fight with?"

Just when Argus said that, Ren noticed a faint light coming from the stump of his severed left arm. Black smoke from his Arcana combined with white light and then to the surprise of Lerish and Argus his arm started to regenerate, like time flowing in reverse.

"Ren...your arm..."

"Don't worry, this isn't the first time my body healed like this," he said to Lerish.

On the back of his newly-regenerated left hand, a strange small symbol appeared which confused Ren.

"T-This symbol..."

Using that as an opportunity to attack, Argus threw a barrage of eyeballs at him and Lerish, each loaded with an even stronger explosive power than before. Lerish, still without a weapon in hand, froze in fear as she shouted--

"REEEEEEEENNNNNNN--!!!"

Huuuuummmmmmm!!!!

When Ren tried to use his Arcana to block Argus' attack, he expected that a black magic barrier will appear from his hand. Instead, the symbol on his left hand glowed a bright blue and all of a sudden, all the eyeballs flying towards them diverted their trajectories into one straight line and disappeared, as if being sucked by a small black hole the moment they touched the palm of his hand.

"W-Wha..."

Shocked to see the eyeballs disappearing without causing any explosions, Ren looked at his hand and exclaimed--

"W-What the hell is this?!!"