Amid the deep clanging of metal against stone, each clang echoed...isolated yet persistent.
The space felt like it had been woven into a heavy tapestry soaked in the breath of battle. Every sound intertwined like a red thread slipping through the eye of a needle in the hands of someone who never tires.
Faint light spilled from luminous crystals embedded sparsely along the walls, illuminating two figures through the hazy curtain of dust.
One was towering, statuesque, like a relic from an ancient age, exuding the solemn aura of a bygone era.
An invisible halo coiled around him, silent but crushing, as though he embodied a vow that had never been broken.
And the other… slender, somewhat misplaced. A lone shadow amidst a vast darkness, like a flickering candle trembling under a storm, its fragile flame wavering with every gust.
But the flame did not go out.
It still burned, uneven, clumsy, but unyielding.
The two figures clashed, their movements weaving like a soulless dance. Each slash, each piercing impact rang out sharply before vanishing into the void, only to begin anew.
A sequence of actions devoid of emotion or breath, like a never-ending string of code endlessly repeating.
Only the sound of metal… and willpower remained.
Ren held his breath as his steel sword slid past the stone blade of the Golem Sentinel, just a slight misdirection, but enough to make his entire body feel suffocated.
A searing pain raced through his chest. His lungs no longer inhaled air, but tiny, cold, razor-sharp knives that tore him open from the inside. Every breath felt like torture, like he might cough up blood at any second.
His sword arm throbbed violently, trembling despite his attempt to grip the hilt tight. A dull pain spread slowly up his shoulder, dragging numbness along with it. Only a few exchanges… and he was already like this?
Every joint in his body seemed to scream, a twisted symphony of physical limits.
He clenched his teeth, knees dipping slightly.
'This damn game…' The thought surged through him like thunder. '...how can it feel this real?'
So real that you forget it's not the real world.
So real that pain becomes the realest thing of all.
Ren ducked low, spine bending just in time to avoid a massive stone fist that swiped inches from his face, a blow that could've easily shattered his jaw into scattered pixels.
But it wasn't over.
He had used everything he had...his raw instinct, and even had to activate the Survivor's Instinct skill from his necklace just to keep up with the speed of this stone knight.
Each attack from the Golem Sentinel became a raging torrent. Stone fists, snarling roars, all of it rained down like a thunderstorm in a tempest.
The blows came from unpredictable angles, following no pattern, only speed and brute force ruled here.
Ren twisted, rolled his shoulders, pivoted, each movement a narrow escape from death. But with each moment, the attacks grew faster. He wasn't fighting anymore, just surviving.
His simple cloak fluttered with every punch that narrowly missed his fragile form, like a blade of grass trembling beneath razor winds.
He no longer knew how long he'd been holding its attention. A minute? Two? Or just a handful of seconds?
Every stretch, every lunge, every dodge felt like an eternity. He bit down hard, eyes darting around… no one had come to help him.
Why? Where were they? What were they doing?
But he knew, asking was pointless.
The only thing he could clearly feel now… was his body nearing its breaking point. Muscles burning. Knees shaking. His arms no longer obeyed. And worst of all…
…was the helplessness.
The feeling of being cornered, when all you can do is defend and carve out seconds from the storm that's breaking down your body and spirit.
Another blow came, a stone elbow crashing from above.
Ren clenched his teeth, raising his numb arm in despair. He couldn't dodge something this close, his body simply couldn't manage it anymore. There was only one thing left to do… block it, and then....
The stone fist slammed against Ren's sword...
The sound echoed like a hammer pounding against his skull. The ground beneath him cracked open as he was smashed to the stone floor. His right arm shook violently, joints screaming in agony, as if about to splinter apart.
-400
His mind reeled… a high-pitched ringing blared in his ears like something knocking on the walls of his skull.
He heard something break inside him… or was it only in his head?
His vision blurred. Everything began to blend, light, sound, his own breath, even the mechanical growl...all became warped and smeared.
The Golem Sentinel was still approaching, each step heavy and inevitable, like an inescapable chain of fate.
Ren wanted to let go.
Right here. Right now.
He felt so heavy… Why was he doing all this? Why walk such a painful path? Why not choose an easier way?
Just lie still. Let it end.
How easy that would be...
…but in the hazy fog of that fading consciousness, an image flared up, briefly, yet far too vivid to ignore.
A laugh.
Wind rushing through short hair...
That moment when someone had once grabbed his wrist, pulled him through tall grass, shouting as if the world couldn't hurt them.
R...
Ren's heart clenched.
The image vanished like smoke, but the feeling remained. That raw, imperfect emotion, yet so real it reached down to the bone.
His mind drifted through faces, familiar ones, those who had helped him, those who had given him a reason to still be standing here.
People he had helped... even if he hadn't done much...
He couldn't die.
Not here.
Not now.
Not when… he still didn't fully understand what it all truly meant.
Ren forced himself up, even as the crimson HP bar flashed like blood in the lower-left corner of his vision, his knees pressing against the cold, unforgiving ground.
His right hand still had feeling, albeit faint. His left braced against his knee, every knuckle trembling but refusing to let go.
The Golem Sentinel was preparing another attack, a diagonal slash, the same kind that had sent unlucky players into oblivion before.
But this time, Ren didn't dodge.
Not entirely.
He shifted his body just slightly...almost unconsciously, and his left hand grabbed the edge of the Golem's armor as the blow grazed past his back, tearing through his cloak.
In that razor-thin moment, he wasn't thinking anymore.
Only reacting. Remembering. Feeling.
And something else that felt almost like...
...faith.
Ren pushed off the ground, muscles straining, his sword gripped tight in his right hand as though it were part of his own lifeblood.
He didn't scream. Didn't shout. He just moved forward.
One beat. A turn. An upward slash aimed at the Golem's wrist, where shards of stone armor had broken, revealing pale, quartz-like skin.
Not to bring it down.
But to regain rhythm.
To reclaim choice.
To take back… the right to live.
But then...
The Golem suddenly twisted, with an unnaturally smooth motion for such a massive form. Its stone blade halted midair, and in that instant, Ren realized.
It wasn't a real strike.
Just a feint.
He'd walked straight into a trap.
His sword cut through empty air, wind shrieking along the blade as if mocking him. The momentum threw his body forward, off balance, heart skipping in dismay.
"Damn it...!"
In that same instant, the Golem pivoted back, impossibly fast. Its massive legs slammed into the ground, dragging the upper body around in a killing arc.
The space between them was now just a single step.
A breath.
One last chance to deliver the finishing blow.
No roar. No warning. Just that chilling silence before the storm. The Golem Sentinel raised its arm, the glow of luminescent stones casting shadows across its colossal form, shadows that fell over Ren like a funeral shroud.
"REN!!!"
A scream tore through the air, crashing against his chest like thunder. Then came another voice...no less familiar, riddled with panic, fury, and something even deeper: fear.
He didn't have time to turn.
A deafening crash exploded into the space around him, the sound of shattering stone and grinding metal, sharp and violent enough to pierce the ears. Ren shut his eyes on instinct, bracing for the crushing blow...
But... it never came.
No searing pain. No weight tearing through his shoulder or hurling him into eternal darkness.
Something had stopped the attack.
The air around him felt like it had solidified, heavy with a new pressure. Ren opened his eyes, blurred by dust and tears, just in time to see a flash of light between the two bodies, a flash from a sword skill, or perhaps a perfectly timed ability.
A silhouette stood in front of him, arm raised as if defying fate itself.
And then—another.
Their shapes were unmistakable... familiar yet different. But in that moment, they weren't the people he once knew.
They were the wall standing between Ren and death.
"Yuna... Nautilus..." Ren murmured, his voice catching in his throat.
His expression was a strange blend of shock, bone-deep exhaustion, and... something faintly warm, flickering through his chest like a glimmer in the dark. That feeling held up his trembling legs, not with strength, but with the simple fact of their presence.
In a fleeting heartbeat, in the span of a fragile second, they had charged forward and stopped a blow that could have ended everything.
The two of them. His friends. Familiar names who once walked beside him, who once looked to him for support.
But... something had changed.
They were no longer the inexperienced players who stayed behind in battle. No longer the wide-eyed faces clinging to him as their savior. Now, they stood on the frontlines, between him and the monster, between him and death.
They had chosen their own path. And this time... they chose to return.
Even if a quiet distance now lingered between the three of them, a silent truth that their bond might never fully return to what it once was, Ren could still feel something undeniable deep in his chest:
They were still here.
And they were still fighting, not for their own safety...
…but for each other.