The Renard

It was 10:00 pm and the sun was saturating a deep dark orange, which brought the sky to a fiery state that stretched across the entire tournament's boundaries. Midnight was approaching, and the sun would soon bleed red.

"There," the Sins looked up a grassy hill. At the top, a thin tower stretched up towards the sky, with a large bell that sat atop. Open stairs with no railings wrapped around it that led to the highest platform. The three Sins began climbing up the hill to see this for themselves. They stepped over graves, and patches of flowers, coffins that resurfaced, and piles of dirt littered.

"Who'd think the center of the map would be such a large cemetery like this?" Ian looked around. Stretching for miles away in all directions, the dying grassy fields were scattered messily with tombstones of all sorts. There were just over a thousand in total, in memory of the thousand deaths to Jenzaya's Extinction.

"Reed did all of this…" Veronica whispered. "Thank god he's out of the picture now…"

Ian grunted. "We still can't ease up just yet. There's a few more contenders left, and we might come across that man in black with the two swords again. He was strong…"

Gian-Luca gripped his Lacerator of Judgement tightly, which caused it to set aflame. It emitted a faint light for the darkness that began to seep into the area. But the main instances of light would be the orange sun up above, and the heights of torches all over the tower atop the hill. The Sins were about to walk upon the surface of the hill.

A cold breeze blew by. The torches' flames were put out for a moment.

"Hm…?" There was an eerie moment of quietness. Suddenly, the torches reignited as eternal flames. Grass was heard prickling against something in the windy distance. The Sins immediately turned their attention to its direction.

A figure enrobed with a deep red hood came to the higher surface.

"—!" The Sins fell back on defense. They then noticed that the individual hadn't even noticed them yet, as the hood they wore hung lowly before their face. The person began to slowly walk up the stairs of the tower.

"Stay quiet," Ian told the two. He didn't want to attack upfront just yet, but rather study the mannerisms of their future victim. This person was in fact one of the remaining few contenders, so Ian made the safe assumption that they must've been quite strong. To their sudden surprise, another older-looking contender came running up the hill. Luckily for the Sins they remained outside of the light, hidden inside the shadows of a tree where they couldn't be seen.

The other contender ran up to the scene, carrying what seemed to be a rifle in hand. He came to a stop near the base of the tower and began to catch his breath. The robed contender climbing the stairs noticed him, stopped, and watched him from above.

"Huff, huff… Is this… the center of the boundary?" The man had a greying beard, and his skin wrinkled with clear stress over his years.

"It is." The voice came from the robed individual, who began to walk back down the stairs, very silently.

"Stop!" The bearded man screamed. He pointed his rifle at the robed one's head. "Take one more step and I'll blow yer brains out!"

The robed individual had no reply. That's when the bearded man took notice of the other contender's appearance; a red robe, accented with golden symbols that bled down the hood; a rugged brown string that wrapped around the individual's waist, holding the robe's wrapping in place; sandals to wear under bare footing. The outfit was uncanny, and the other man immediately recognized the look.

"STOP!" He screamed again.

"I'm not moving."

The bearded man's heart had picked up in pace. He felt blood coursing through his veins with heat.

"Don't move at all! I know what ye can do, I know who ye people are… You're one of them Renards, aren't 'cha?"

"Renard?" Veronica whispered. "What's that?"

"Shh." Ian put a finger up to her lips. "Stay quiet."

To what the man said, the robed individual had no response. They remained quiet.

"DON'T IGNORE ME!" Spit flew out of his mouth. His heart only beat faster. "I could never mistake the look of one of ye bastards… I know full well what ye guys do, BECAUSE I REMEMBER EVERYTHING FROM THAT ONE HORRIBLE DAY!"

"One horrible day…?" The robed one asked.

"The day ye all took my daughter… Sweet, sweet Abigail." The man had tears begin to drip down his cheeks. "We were just a peaceful family living up at Hunsington District, away from all the danger of you fools and your faction wars… But you goddamn Renards came up North to us that day…"

The Renard remained quiet.

"You all ruined the peaceful state of our hometown district. And when y'all came over to our house, I offered y'all money, I offered y'all cows, I offered y'all my house, I offered y'all everything in exchange for sparing me and my family…" The man gripped his rifle tightly. "But y'all ravaged my wife, took my child, and left me with a burning barn…"

The man's eyes bulged with wrath. "Y'ALL TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME, AND LEFT ME WITH NOTHING!!!"

As the man poured his eyes out, still maintaining his gun's gaze on the Renard, the Renard still had no response.

"That's why I'm here after all… I wanted to win it all so I could find my daughter, that's it. But who woulda thought that I'd run into one of ye BASTARDS along the way!" He shoved the rifle's barrel into the Renard's temple. "You must be here for one of ye own goals too, huh?"

The Renard nodded.

"Now listen, little feller." He stood tall over the Renard. "As much as I'd love to rip out every single one of ye's guts and burn it in a fire, my priority is finding my daughter. And ye, bastard, are part of the faction that took my daughter. SO TELL ME WHERE THE HELL SHE IS!!!" He pushed his rifle harder. This cocked the Renard's head to the side.

Still, the Renard remained silent under the hood.

"Don't ye understand how great of a deal I'm giving ye? I'll let ye off to win the tournament, to get whatever ye want, as long as ye just tell me where my daughter is. If ye don't…" He finally cocked the rifle. "I'll send a bullet through that disgusting brain of yers…"

"Scare tactic." Gian-Luca had observed. The bearded man's gun was never properly loaded until that moment. Up until then, he'd only had it out as a means of provoking fear and threat.

The man's ear rang. He immediately turned his aim towards the tree that the Sins hid behind.

"Come out! I know there's more of ye!"

"Shit…" Ian grunted. "I told you guys to keep quiet—!"

"Come out!"

The Sins came out of cover, behind the tree.

"Hm…" The bearded man had expected more of the Renards. "I didn't expect to see some younglings this late into the tournament…"

"Free—"

Bang!

A bullet flew past right between Ian and Veronica, hitting the tree behind them.

"Not a word from ANY OF YE! Not until I get my hands on the information I…" The man caught a few breaths. "The information I need…"

He coughed and wheezed for a moment, but snapped out of the haze. He kept his gun pointed at the Sins, while keeping the Renard at bay. Ian's attempted command had been interrupted, so he couldn't get the man with the gun to freeze like he'd wanted.

"If only Venus were still conscious, some old dude with a gun wouldn't be much of a problem. The three of us don't have much firepower alone…" Ian thought to himself.

"Now where were we?" The man turned his attention back to the Renard. "Ye answer my question, and I'll let ye live on and win the tournament. Answer now."

The Renard had no proper response. What came out of the hood was instead an unsatisfactory one.

"I don't know where your daughter is."

The bearded man's heart rate shot back up, and so too did his blood pressure. "SURE YE DON'T!!!" He turned his rifle back on the Renard, sinking its muzzle hard against the forehead. "I SAID TELL ME WHERE MY DAUGTHER IS OR WATCH ME BLOW YER BRAINS OUT, NOW!"

"I don't… know where she is…"

The man brought his finger closer and closer to pushing the trigger. His heart was pounding, so hard in fact that he could feel it beating against his chest. His arteries began to swell.

"TELL ME OR—!" He stopped yelling. The Renard lifted his hood and looked up, surprised to see shock in the man's eyes.

"Ack—!" The man collapsed to the floor, wheezing for air. His sight went so hazy he couldn't even see properly anymore. Blood had clotted and his heart was malfunctioning. His stress levels had gone too high, and without hope of finding his loved one, he lost hope in keeping himself alive.

"Abi—gail—!" His rifle collapsed aside, and he reached his arm up into the sky one last time. Finally, he saw Abigail.

"Ah…" One final tear poured from his eye. It rolled down his cheek down onto the lifeless grass below. He could finally see Abigail, now that he was beginning to enter the same realm she lived in.

"You've… been up there this entire time…?"

The man's arm fell aside. His raging spirit had finally passed away. The Renard watched the lifeless body below him. Suddenly, a loud noise interrupted the dimming scene.

Beep!

"5 contenders remaining, Phase 5 initiated. The gas wall's speed has been increased, and will therefore close the boundary region by 1:00 am tonight. Become the final contender remaining by then and be gifted the final reward for winning the Metatron Tournament. Only once the final contender stands, the gas wall will stop moving. Good luck."

The announcer's nearing final words echoed into the darkening distance.