The Fourteenth Night - Last Night 4 - I am Still Me

The problem for Hanzee and the others were just like a walk in the park for Renir when he split the water without any excess movement or effort.

Like God, Poseidon, Renir whipped his finger and thick strands of water came out of the split water and enveloped the six or the Hexix each.

Renir could leave Ze and Ye back to the cave since he has to protect them.

However, even though it seemed effortless on the surface. Renir was subtly soaked on the face, not because of the splashes of water but because of manipulating the water energy.

A strand of water is equal to a hand. Moving four of them was like four hands multitasking!

This was the first time Renir had executed this and he gave himself kudos for making it looked seamless, but the mental stress was heating his head up.

Although eventually, he will master this through practice, it was still a long way.

Just two hands were hard for him to do different actions, how about ten of them?

Renir barely did it since the movement was just split into two with just many strands. One group was lifting them while the other pushing them.

Not to mention keeping the wall of water, now spherical surrounding them instead of over the cave's window, and splitting the flood. This should be enough to explain his mental strain.

It was very restrictive for him as he walked down the stairs, but then on, he removed the strands of water, greatly relieving him.

Creating a tsunami was akin to one big strand that was fueled with a lot of energy and didn't need a lot of control since it was just a big wave with one direction.

Instead of taxing his mentality, it was enormously using his energy.

Right after, he recovered the energy by eating the hard-rock "scales" of the Water Sentinel and the remaining concentrated water energy within.

After these long nights, whether this plan of his works or not, he will definitely take a good sleep before the Wind Sentinel take form in Gantlet.

When Sceke and the others entered the cave below, they tried their hardest not to look at the demon marionette passed the cave passage.

They will act like the old man with his sensitive fear. The demon marionette was literally a demon, and their stomachs twist within them while their faces turn pale to green once they made eye contact with its red eyes.

Sceke waved goodbye with Hanzee and Veronia while having a sack of water creatures in each of their hands. They have this big cloth sack folded in their cheap belly bags.

They always have this and other things since they never know what they could take from the woodland. If they are lucky at the time, they can buy backpacks so they could bring tools with them.

After the short goodbye, they closed their eyes and imagined their destination. There are not many to choose from since it was only two-way paths between the rune in the woodland and rune in the desert, nothing more.

However, they do not understand this mystery at all with the magic that conveniently explains every worldly law that was being broken instantaneously.

Nothing seemed to be strange anymore as one could say it is caused by magic...

Nobody really understood the concept of magic so the rune users are careful at every "magical" matter until they get familiar with it.

The same could be applied to these rune portals. They were afraid that if they didn't imagine their location, they would be sent to somewhere otherworldly.

They had done this several times but couldn't get familiar with it.

Having no control over where their body was heading was pretty fearful that they may develop a trauma. However, they are rune users that survived the thirty nights in the woodland. Unless life-threatening, fearing it is unnecessary.

So with steeled resolve, the three vanished as if they didn't exist or been there at all. No trace, no light, no anything that made it looked they were transported instead of becoming inexistent.

With just a blink of an eye, they disappeared. Even Renir who was like the god of seas was flabbergasted by this.

That was surrealistic. This was still true after all he had gone through.

Just like that, more than popping a bubble, the space they were occupying just now was abruptly filled with air.

Old Ze and Little Ye also had the same expression as Renir had. The five always travel together so nobody had the chance to be left behind and witness the process.

Once again, it hit their senses, 'This is a strange world.'

Even Little Ye with little experience in the real world she originated thought so too.

Old Ze wheezed from that sight. From time to time, he caused worries that were dispersed through their banter and playful argues. He himself was filled with guilt.

However, it was already proven many times, he was not useless at the very least. When it comes to it, he had a mind of steel, only worried for his granddaughter, not him. That was his great virtue which made Ye preserved her bead of revivals.

After they recovered from the shock, Old Ze asked something to Renir in a friendly tone as he had with Sceke and the others. He no longer looked at him as a reckless and ignorant teen or a powerful benefactor but an ally.

The gratitude was still there, but somehow, sometime, he will definitely repay it as a friend.

"What are you going to do now?", Old Ze was rather calm. With Renir as their guard, only the demon marionette could threaten them.

Renir was surprised as if walls and distance were gone between them. No longer strangers but allies, he felt tingly about it so he cheerfully replied, "While we wait, I'll start the plan now.", he continued, "Follow me to the demon marionette."

Old Ze's face darkened, he hopefully thought he and his granddaughter was safe from fear now.

But the old man could only sigh while Ye clutched to her grandfather's arm.

Looking at their complexion towards his plan, Renir felt bad. But nothing he could do about it.

"Don't worry, there is a certain distance the demon marionette could only reach. If it could escape in the first place, it would long catch up to us with its killing intent.", Renir said to release some of their worries.

"It's fine...", Ye whispered, "Don't you dare pull us there, okay?"

"Ahahah,", Renir did not have a problem with Ye's attitude and somehow, he felt they were closer this way, "I wouldn't even dare to get close to it, how could I pull you…", he laughed softly.

"Hmn", Ye nodded with a smile.

'I've never been good with kids. This is kind of refreshing.', Renir joyfully thought, relieving him from stress caused by his plans and its unknown results.

Renir walked towards the passage while a sphere of air surrounded them, shielding them from the water while following Renir as the center.

Old Ze's body trembled and his face seemed like he was thrown a bucket of water when he saw the fearful red eyes of the demon marionette.

Even though much braver than her grandfather, Ye was still young. In front of this demonic being, she could only hide behind Old Ze.

When they reached the passage, the demon marionette still stood at the position where Renir last saw it, never once blinking like an inanimate object. But there were no torches that were lighted like before which they all dismissed in their thoughts since nothing changed other than that.

Only Renir saw the demon marionette a challenge, not a complete death like the others. None actually dared or thought they could have a chance to touch the door behind it, except for Renir.

Unknown to Old Ze and Ye, they thought the flat surface of the water was still Renir doings.

They never had been in the cave below after the seventh night in woodland so they were oblivious to this.

At this point, the moonlight couldn't reach there so there was barely to see. This was the reason why it was so hard to avoid eye contacting the demon marionette since those pairs of red eyes are so bright and gleaming in the darkness.

However, on the bright side, they had to thank the darkness for hiding the demon marionette when just its eyes were already giving them the scares.

The only problem was they were also curious about Renir's plan and wanted to see it for themselves.

'Ahh, such a headache...', Old Ze thought as he sat down, farthest from the pair of red eyes and near the vertical surface of the water.

Ye played with the law-breaking form of water to keep her mind away from the demon.

Renir, on the other hand, faced the demon marionette. He believed he was still not its opponent, but none of it matters.

This is not a contest of strength, willpower, or intellect but only luck. Renir was about to gamble his life, quite literally.

This could be the stupidest decision and plan Renir had ever made in his entire life. But he could feel it could work, but also because he was desperate.

[It longs for the Bead of Revival so it can escape from the chains of Gantlet.]

Those were written in the rune. If Renir was right, giving one of his bead of revival could revive the demon marionette back to its consciousness.

However, even if it works...

Do demons have gratefulness? Do they have enough conscience to repay their debt?

Renir could answer those questions right away. He was gambling with his guts. When one is a demon, is it already evil?

Gantlet was a strange world filled with mysteries. Could demons in his knowledge be the same as this demon?

No one could deny it but no one can prove it either.

It was like a lottery with a price of one bead of revival.

If giving one wouldn't get any effect, then he could only take grief in his big loss. If it succeeds as he hopes for but a demon is the same as the demons he knew, it was still worthless and regret will bug his mind. The three of them might be killed by the demon's bloodlust and the grandfather-granddaughter pair could only hope to escape using the rune to teleport, which Renir will do anything for them to successfully escape.

'But if, even with a low chance, the demon became grateful to me, could I have a chance of entering that door and back to Earth?', Renir thought.

It was so far-fetched that Renir was greatly hesitating. In his guts, he could feel it would somehow work.

And according to what was written in the rune about the demon marionette, it is said, it longs for the bead of revival.

It should be grateful for its savior, right?

But this may be just his guts. There are so many things at risk. Having the demon marionette as an enemy was akin to death, countless times.

Maybe, this only fell into his mind because of his desperation and only took his guts as one of the reasons.

Gantlet was like hell for him. Although he was empowered, enlightened, and changed, he wouldn't want to experience it all again.

In the end, is he still weak? Risking this much because of desperation?

No, Renir knew he was not weak and a coward anymore. There was something pushing him to take all these risks. Even this plan was so uncharacteristic of him.

Something inexplainable like his senses, the energies, the strange creatures, the Giganslik, the Water Sentinel, and even the Gantlet itself.

This was the reason why he felt he could get home before facing the Water Sentinel again. Confidence of luck mysteriously rose within him.

But the only question was would he trust this feeling and risk it?

After being paralyzed from hesitation, Renir smiled.

'I survived many life and death situations following what my guts and body tell me. I resisted it sometimes since fearing of what inhumane I will become. But I think, I'm still me.'

He pinched near the wrist of his right hand where the bead of revivals appeared.

Pain coursed through his body, twitching of muscles made him twist and turn.

"Argh!!", he loudly groaned out of torture.