The Seventh Night - Part 2 - The Mystical Pearl

When Renir saw the man with red eyes walked to him with quick and long strides that even he, Renir, was caught unguarded, the strange man swung his arms along with his black scythe that made Renir's world came tumbling.

In Renir's last moments, he saw the strange man standing in front of his headless body. The man's red eyes were fiercely towards Renir's right wrist.

After life was cut to Renir's body, the one of the pearl that revolves his right wrist crack and within it shone white light.

.....

"Sceke, why did you word it that way?", the old man, Ze, had a troubled face out of confusion.

"It's leader,", the man with the long hair and sharp eyes, Sceke, shouted, "LEADER SCEKE!"

"Who cares?", Old Ze just replied with a bland expression with his wrinkled and hairy face, he mumbled, "And the three is resting, don't shout."

They were traversing under the starless night sky with one bright moon lighting the path.

Tracks of wheels and horse's hooves were left on the cold sand as they passed through it.

Only the gust of wind that brought clouds of sand was the noise in this silent night.

"Oh", Sceke toned down as if it was nothing, "Sorry", he then continued, "And what you are saying earlier is about the words we left in the cave?"

Old Ze was unfazed, accustomed to their leader's personality, he nodded, "Yes, why did you say 'don't trust the rune'?"

"...", Sceke, the coach of the wagon, contemplated as he closed his eyes, "It is the best advice I could give to them - the people that we regrettably left there. It is up to them how to interpret those words."

"But why did you say don't trust the rune?", Old Ze asked again.

"I know that the rune isn't lying for it not to be trusted, so I didn't say 'the rune has lies'. But not everything it says should be taken literally or sometimes helpful."

"Oh", Old Ze thought and said, "Then why didn't you just write 'the rune is deeper than what it seems'?"

Sceke smirked and chuckled.

"...", Old Ze was confused, 'So there is something deeper about what he wrote?', he thought. Even if Sceke has an exotic personality, he is still their leader.

Sceke opened his eyes and confidently said, "The Giganslik was just outside the cave, and I couldn't think straight. I was even about to pee my pants from the heat that the monster was emitting.", he proudly lifted his chin.

"Ugh...", Old Ze wasn't surprised, they were really accustomed to this whimsical attitude.

'But he was the only one who could think of giving a bit of advice though.', the old man gave a little smile behind Sceke.

Within the wagon were the old man and the other three. The three slept rather peacefully after that horrible experience which relaxed the old man.

"Why don't you sleep too?", Sceke whispered.

"Huh?", Old Ze heard it clearly so before Sceke could say something, the old man immediately spoke, "I just thought you would be lonely if the four of us sleeps. So I will be a mature old man and keep our wimpy leader a company."

"Why would I want an old man to accompany me?"

Old Ze couldn't see the slight smile that formed on Sceke's face, "Tsk!"

Comforting silence enveloped the wagon for a while before Sceke spoke again, "Say," with a serious and concerned face.

Old Ze who was about to doze off from fatigue heard Sceke, "Hm?"

"If there really are people back in the Woodlands, this is their seventh night now already.", Sceke face turned to grimace as if there was something heavy on his shoulders out of great guilt, "If they do survive from the Giganslik we left, tonight the landscape will change and the true Element Sentinels will show its first power, right?"

Old Ze sadly nodded, "I hope they survive.", even he himself was in doubt.

Sceke gulped and his expression out of guilt turned into fear, "Sooner or later, he will meet that demon in chains."

Old Ze's eyes widened and looked at his right wrist. After focusing enough, revolving pearls appeared from nothing. There are four in total...

"And on the tenth night, the Water Sentinel.", Sceke, too, looked at his right wrist for two revolving pearls to appear.

The two once again fell into silence, reluctantly remembering the horrible past.

Until,

Sceke looked from afar and mumbled, "We're near..."

From the far distance, a silhouette of a small city appeared from the horizon.

"Yeah,", Old Ze sighed, but not out of relief, "We're almost back...", while his hand was caressing the hair of his sleeping granddaughter.

Sceke's bland expression showed, but deep within, the sadness crept within him as he said, "The City of Misfortune."

.....

In the cave of the Gantlet Woodland, one of the pearl revolving around Renir's right wrist crack and shone.

The strange man that was responsible for Renir's death, stood there as if he was waiting for something.

The light the pearl shone got brighter and turned into a golden light- immaterial, yet sentient.

That light was released and moved like a wave of energy as it enveloped Renir's severed head and body.

All blood that spurted from Renir's divided neck glowed and hovered back into his own body...

The strange man looked silently without showing any expression.

Renir's severed head hovered from the light and after the blood came back to his body, his severed head was attached like a clay.

The pearl cracked once again and more of the mysterious light came out, at the same time, Renir's body that was full of wounds and injury was fully healed in that instant.

The pearl cracked again and along with its cracking sound was Renir's loud gasped!

From the top of his head to the sole of his feed, he was still covered in the golden light.

"HAAHH--!", Renir immediately sat up when he woke up with a loud gasp and looked around in terror.

He knew he had died...

But soon after, it hit Renir that he came back to life and the one who killed him still stood in front of him.

Out of terror, Renir screamed, wailed, and protected his neck when he saw his murderer lift his murder weapon, his scythe once more.

"AAAHHH---!", even if Renir reacted, the scythe was too fast for him to escape, will he die again?

Clang!* the sound of metal hitting a hard object rang in Renir's ears instead of his head getting chopped off.

He opened his eyes to see that the light covering him stopped the blade from even scratching him!

"Eh?", Renir cried but saw that his murderer lifted his scythe to strike again, unable to control his fear, he closed his eyes and Clang*!

The blade was unable to scratch his hand that wrapped around his neck again.

Renir looked in terror at the expressionless man who didn't give up striking his neck endlessly.

Clclclclang~~!* multiple sounds of metal hitting a hard object sounded in a matter of second before it vibrated from the force it received.

Renir realized that he was protected by something and that was when he flailed his feet, trying to stand up.

His hands were still wrapped around his neck out of terror. Luckily, his feet were enough for him to retreat from the man who continuously and tirelessly swung wind-cutting attacks at him!

Renir desperately kicked and kicked the ground multiple times as he tried to get away from his murderer.

But soon, the man stopped when Renir entered the passage between the cave. Not that the strange man gave up, but because of the restricting chains that were wrapped around his neck - he couldn't reach Renir

But silently, the man stayed from where he stopped, unmoving while his red eyes caused terror to the very soul of Renir.

They say eyes are the window to your soul. And Renir felt this man's killing intent was about to choke his very soul just from staring.

"AHHHH!!!', Renir cried loudly and crawled back turning his back on the strange man.

His body was fully healed even from the smallest scratch to his amputated head. At that time, he was in the most comfortable state he was in.

However, he didn't stop wailing and sobbing for some time. He curled with his face hidden beside the stone tablet.

On his right was the giant monster that blocked the path outside and to his left, the horrifying man who can and will kill him if given any chance.

Even the sound of a small crack made Renir startled before the pearl's remaining light covered him and comforted him even more as it vanished.

His wrist was left with nine pearls remaining, mystically revolving around.

Even after this, the man that once killed Renir still stood before the passage.

He was unmoving and even the action of breathing could not be seen from him. Silently, he stared at Renir with his red eyes... without once ever blinking.

Amidst the sad echoing sobs and cries of Renir, the sound of rain pouring outside could now be heard and filled the silent night with noise.

The moon descended the seventh time and the rain poured stronger into the merciless Gantlet Woodland, filling it with water...