The dead tree’s branches, warped like tentacles, stirred slowly as Igtyan approached with a smug voice.
“Pyrug. You’re last.
I’ll start with that nosy adventurer who stuck his big nose into someone else’s village business··· shall I?”
With that—
A branch shot forward like an awl, flying straight at Monero.
In that instant.
From somewhere··· no, from deep inside Rynel—
a low, clear baritone rang out.
—“Looks like I’ll have to help.”
“…Who is that?”
His body was paralyzed.
Rynel tried to turn his gaze toward the source of the voice, but he couldn’t move even a fingertip.
“I’ll get you out of this.
In exchange··· I’ll borrow a part of your space for a while longer.”
His consciousness sank deep inward.
His eyelids lowered slowly,
and his body went slack.
“Ry··· nel···!”
Pyrug called out with effort, but another wave of sleep powder washed over them.
“Haa··· my eyes··· so heavy···”
“…I can’t···”
One by one, their awareness snapped and blurred,
their bodies sinking helplessly.
And then—
SHRAAAK!!
The tentacle-branch coming down on Monero slammed into an invisible wall and stopped.
“……What the hell is this?”
Igtyan snapped back, irritation in his voice.
Beyond his line of sight—
Rynel’s eyes were overflowing with blue light,
coldly piercing him through.
“…Cute. Watching you struggle with such trivial power.
It’s almost entertaining.”
“Spouting nonsense before you die?!”
Igtyan switched targets from Monero to Rynel.
Dozens of root-branches surged in at once.
In the same moment—
from the dead tree’s core, *BOOM!*
A violent blast rang out, and part of the trunk shattered into splinters.
“…Seems the owner of this body still doesn’t know how to handle this power.”
“…Let me show you what it looks like.”
“You—what the hell are you?!”
Igtyan shouted.
“You brat. Don’t meddle in grown-ups’ business!”
The ground shook,
roots erupting from every direction as they swallowed Rynel whole—
But the motion stopped,
absurdly, meaninglessly.
“Now I can move a little.”
Thud—
Rynel appeared right in front of Igtyan, as if he’d blinked there.
Without a word, he pressed a palm to the dead tree’s trunk and murmured,
“『Telekinesis—Release』.”
KWAAAAANG!!
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Telekinetic force detonated from within.
Shards of wood blasted outward, razor-sharp, from inside to out.
Igtyan staggered under the flying fragments and shouted,
“D—damn it··· What are you?!”
“…I’m Orta.
Just borrowing this kid’s body for a moment.”
“Bullshit!
What, the brat caught some hero disease? Quit acting tough!”
“Then··· I’ll show you a little more.”
When Rynel lifted his hand,
space itself twisted in silence.
Igtyan summoned tentacles,
lashing wildly at the seams of space like he meant to tear it open.
Whish! Crack!
He hurled mana like a beast,
as if trying to shatter the rift.
Red petals were dragged into the rampaging mana,
crumpling together as if kneaded.
“Ghk···!”
His breath grew ragged.
Igtyan clenched his teeth and lifted his head.
“Then···!”
In that instant—
he tore one tentacle free, sharpened it, and hurled it straight at Rynel.
Shuk!
A branch speared out through the warped space,
aiming for Orta’s shoulder.
“Die!!”
But—
Tap.
The spatial barrier quietly flicked it away.
The tentacle shattered like debris.
“…Disappointing.”
“Shut up!!
You think I’ll bow to some petty power like this?!”
But—
the space tightened harder at its center.
Igtyan’s entire body
was slowly, surely, pulled in like twisted thread.
“No—! Just a little more···
Modia··· my Modia···!”
With his eyes bulging,
he stared at Rynel with a grotesquely contorted face.
“You—what are you?!
What are you, damn it—who the hell are you!!”
That scream was tangled up with
despair, fear, and something alien he couldn’t name.
At first,
that boy had looked like any ordinary outsider adventurer.
But—
this power that manipulates space itself.
It was far beyond anything human.
“…Yeah. That’s it···!”
Igtyan’s eyes rolled up, wide, as if the pieces finally clicked.
“You—You’re a demon, aren’t you?!”
As if he’d solved everything at last,
he burst into a crazed laugh.
“That’s why···
That’s why you felt so wrong!”
Amid petals blooming red,
his body was drawn deeper and deeper into the core of space.
“I wasn’t wrong···
Your demon kind will learn it too.”
Grinding his teeth, he shouted one last time—
“Human madness···
doesn’t die out that easily···!!”
The swirling space went still,
as if holding its breath.
And then—
That tiny point rapidly expanded and burst.
KWAAAAAANG!!!
With the eruption of energy,
dark red petals, shattered wood,
and dead-tree fragments crushed into dust blasted in all directions.
A storm swept everything away,
filling the air with splintered debris
and red-stained petal powder.
Between the wreckage—
Rynel was still standing.
But in that instant—
the bracelet on his wrist flashed crimson.
Pzzzt…!
It vibrated as if convulsing,
as though red mana inside him were trying to force its way out.
“……This bracelet. It’s stopping me again.”
Rynel’s voice rasped low.
“This thing… I should just… throw it… a…way…”
But his hand stayed clenched, unmoving.
Cold sweat ran down his skin.
“…Damn… I… used… more mana… than I thought…”
His words trailed off.
Rynel’s knees buckled.
Thud.
He collapsed onto the ground.
The bracelet’s red glow
slowly faded away.
The first to open his eyes was Pyrug.
“…Ugh.”
He drew in a breath as he pushed himself up,
then immediately scanned the area.
The dark presence in the sky had cleared,
and a soft morning sun was settling over the land.
“…How are we… alive?”
He muttered like it was a reflex,
patting himself down for injuries.
As he turned slowly,
an unfamiliar stillness met him—
and Rynel, Aira, and Monero lying collapsed.
“……We were… in a fight just now.”
Flames, the beast, illusions.
All those dawn memories
felt like a dream that had slipped through his fingers.
“…Don’t tell me… this is… heaven?”
Just as Pyrug let out a small, breathy laugh—
A dazed voice rose behind him.
“This is… heaven?”
Startled, Pyrug turned.
He met Monero’s eyes—
still sitting there, scratching his head.
A small smile crept onto Pyrug’s lips.
“…Yeah.
Looks like we all died and made it to heaven.”
Monero’s eyes went wide and he shot to his feet.
“Really?!
No— I can’t die yet!!
I’ve got so much I still want to do—!”
At the commotion, Pyrug sighed and shook his head.
“…Idiot.”
And then he snorted a laugh.
“…Hng.”
Aira woke up too, rubbing her eyes.
“What… it’s morning already.
We’re alive… right?”
Then—
Monero, sitting nearby, grinned like he’d been waiting.
“Aira, welcome to heaven.
We’re… dead, and this is where we ended up.”
Tap.
“If you’re going to play dumb, do it properly. It’s obvious.”
Aira smacked the back of his head lightly.
“Hey—!
Couldn’t you just fall for it for once? Everyone treats me like I’m the idiot… unfair, unfair.”
As Monero pouted,
Pyrug broke into a wide grin.
“Still… traveling with you three might actually be fun.”
As they all smiled—
Pyrug’s gaze suddenly froze.
“Right… Rynel.”
Aira and Monero turned at once.
A short distance away,
Rynel lay unconscious among the debris and petals.
“Rynel! Rynel!!”
Monero rushed over, grabbed his shoulder, and started shaking him.
“Hey, wake up!
How hard did you push yourself?!”
Pyrug followed, knelt, and checked him.
“He probably… dealt with that monster.
Looks like he burned through too much mana.
He’s just… exhausted. That’s all.”
He nodded and stood.
“Let’s go back to my place.”
“Back we go~”
Monero chuckled and hoisted Rynel onto his back.
“Saving Princess Rynel is—
Sir Monero’s job, right~?”
Aira joked, nudging Monero lightly with her elbow.
“Ugh… why am I always the one doing this…”
He grumbled,
but his steps were steady.
Just as the three were about to turn—
Pyrug spoke quietly.
“Hey. You go on ahead.”
Monero looked back.
“Huh? Why?”
Pyrug’s expression was the same as always.
“I’ve got a bit of cleanup to do.”
“What kind of cleanup?”
Aira narrowed her eyes.
“We’ll help.”
But Pyrug shook his head.
“No. As a herb-gatherer…
there’s something I need to collect.
Go rest. I’ll be right behind.”
Aira hesitated for a beat,
then nodded without pushing further.
“Okay.
Don’t take too long.”
By then, Monero had already walked a fair distance.
“Hey~! Monero!
Wait up~!”
Aira adjusted her sleeve
and jogged after him.
Left alone at the ruined site,
Pyrug walked back toward the wreckage.
Among the charred black fragments of wood,
he picked up a branch that had clumped and warped.
“…Igtyan.
In the end, you were swallowed by your own greed.”
Pyrug let out a quiet sigh.
“I’ll… pray you rest in peace.”
He bent down again,
pulling out another branch that looked relatively intact.
“……This might be useful.”
A faint—barely-there—blue mana lingered around it.
For an instant, Pyrug’s eyes turned serious.
Blue.
That pale, cold blue that leaked out whenever Rynel’s power flared.
Not spirit arts.
Not classical magecraft.
A color that belonged to neither.
Most mana was dull, or clear,
or scattered with hue depending on element—
But this wasn’t that.
“…Rynel.
Is he really… human?”
Pyrug stared for a long time
at the faint tremor of mana left in the wreckage.
“…Why… am I here?”
Someone, coming back to themselves, lifted their head.
At the same time, murmurs rose across the village.
Children cried,
elders clutched their backs, groaning in pain,
and the whole place stirred into chaos.
The road back to the village
was a complete mess.
People who’d suddenly slept outside.
People who couldn’t walk right,
their ankles still wrapped with vines.
But—
Like they’d slept deeply in sweet dreams,
their eyes were slowly sharpening again.
“Still…”
Monero exhaled hard, pressing a hand to his chest.
“I’m glad the villagers are okay.”
“……But, Monero.”
Aira looked at him carefully.
“Who… was Modia?”
Monero frowned slightly.
“Modia?
Probably… the person that guy loved.”
“Yeah…”
Aira shrugged faintly.
“No matter how much you miss someone,
do you really have to go that far…
even if it means turning everyone else into sacrifices…”
Bitterness seeped into the end of her voice.
A brief silence passed—
Then Monero asked, almost casually,
“…Aira.
Do you have someone you want to see again?”
Walking forward, he hesitated at his own question.
“Yeah. I do.”
Aira nodded.
“My parents.
It’s been a long time since we got separated… but I know they’re okay.”
A quiet smile formed at the corner of her lips.
“There’s a place we promised we’d meet again.
I’ll probably end up passing through it naturally, while I’m adventuring.”
“Where is it?”
The moment Monero asked—
From the distance,
Pyrug came jogging up, panting, carrying a load of supplies.
“Let’s go together!”
Aira turned back with a smile,
waving at Pyrug.
“Hurry up~!
I’m hungry!”
And then—
Monero suddenly remembered
the table at Pyrug’s place, overflowing with green.
- ··That terror of greens.
He flinched for a second,
then lowered his head.
“…Feels like
the real battle is about to start again···”