Already set to die?

Death eventually came for all, Ren just didn't expect that he was knocking on their door instead of it knocking his.

The very moment that the heiress had fired her ball of fire into the ceiling, the flames had lit up the caves revealing numerous scratches on its walls was the moment that screams rose into the air like the continuous twitters of the birds in the morn.

Scratches that now were revealed to belong to the tiger like being that had just slaughtered dozens of able bodied men.

Ren said tiger like as it resembled the mountain tiger that he had once briefly seen carrying its cub into the deep stretches of the forest.

Although it was a terrifying experience as he feared he wouldn't be able to protect the sleeping baby on his back, the tiger thankfully disappeared back into the forest without any further fuss.

It was the last he had seen of it, but because the encounter was so influential to him, he still recalled the figure of the tiger to this day as it remained a common visitor of his dreams and nightmares.

Body rippling with muscle and unbridled force, the tiger like being swung its claws, the obsidian black tearing crimson red streaks through the air as those who were unfortunate enough to stand in the claws path were turned into strips of flesh and bone.

This was where all of the similarities lied however.

Face splitting into four different portions, its upper face gave a cunning grin even as it's lower mouth split into three different parts that tore apart people with as much as ease as someone breaking a stick in half.

Snake like tail coiling around someone unfortunate enough to be caught in its embrace, the demonic tiger broke bone with every movement and tore apart flesh.

Human tongue in its throat moving in line with its mouth, it hummed a joyful tune far removed from the scene at hand.

Orange furred body covered in black markings, the two slitted eyes stared at the face of the Heiress that even underneath the helmet Ren could tell was pale with fright.

"Face me Demon!" Turning to the side where he saw the knight who had accompanied the Heiress step up, they shouted loudly before charging at the tiger demon that turned around to face the charging knight.

Pulling out their blade, Ren felt his hopes briefly flare up before being ruthlessly snuffed out as they were instantly tossed to the side with what looked like a casual gesture of the tiger demon.

*BANG

Crashing into the wall, the terrible sound of bones cracking sounded out in the already twisted symphony of screams and groans.

Blood instantly staining the knight's armor red, the other knight instantly grabbed the heiress and whispered something hurriedly into her ear.

Being forced to turn by one of the accompanying knights, she was forced to run deeper into the caves, far from the monster that was currently using its tail to catch any others unfortunate enough to be its next of prey.

Hurriedly following this knight with many others Ren felt cold sweat climb up from the base of his spine.

And despite his better judgement telling him to never ever look back to the nightmare made flesh, he caught sight of something he wouldn't be able to forget easily.

"Just try and run... I'll eventually find you"

Tiger head returning to its previous unsplit visage, a cheshire grin split its face in half as a crimson tattoo blazed fiercely atop its forehead like an eye.

And that eye was staring directly into Ren's soul.

Blinking, the eye seemed to become everything around Ren.

Crimson hooks spreading from atop the Eye's carvings, the runic eye appeared to slowly creep towards Ren.

*SNAP

Feeling a sudden shock pull him out from the Eye's strangely hypnotic gaze, he hurriedly suppressed the urge to stop running and look back at the eye and continued to run away further from the demonic tiger.

'I still have my family to think about!'

Reminding himself what he was fighting for, although it was very cheesy as was the words of a friend of his, it was one of the things that kept him going.

'And don't you forget that Ren.'

Ignoring the urge to turn around and stare at the eye once again, Ren continued to remind himself of his family while his legs continued to carry him further away from something that would inevitably cause his death.

'Daniel, Iris, I'll come back if it's the last thing I do.'

Biting his lip to the point that he felt blood, the next thing that Ren knew, he was collapsed on the ground hurriedly catching his breath alongside the many others who had taken the chance to accompany her.

Sweat pouring off Ren's body like a waterfall, his gaze wavered briefly as it tried to readjust to the sudden darkness that swallowed his surroundings.

Now realizing that the Heiress had been leading the way with a small flame all this time, Ren could only briefly think about how lucky he was to have followed the Heiress only to return to trying to catch his breath as he was to tired to even think.

'...' 

And as time passed by like that, Ren eventually sat up from his place on the ground, dust clinging to his back like a parasite as the cold cave air settled around them.

Eyes barely making out people's outlines in the darkness Ren could confidently say that it was even worse than the time that he had tried to look for his siblings in the darkness of their home.

At the least back then he had the light of the moon to aid him, but now? In this utter darkness it was a miracle that he could barely see his hand right in front of him.

And that was all due to the tiny light of swiftly dying embers.

Eyes still adjusting to the utter darkness, one of those to the left of him spoke up.

"Can- Can we have some more light Heiress?"

"No" Only to be met with a swift rebuttal, Meredith Lorelai soon followed it up with an explanation as she made a few more embers to slightly light up their surroundings.

"The only thing that more light is going to do for us besides make it harder to make out what hides in the shadows is make it even easier for that... thing, to find us."

Spitting out her final words, the man besides the heiress followed up, their quiet voice penetrating the silence that followed her statement.

"Just as the Heiress said, we can't light up our surroundings, but that doesn't mean we can bring some light to our situation can we Miss Meredith?"

Tilting their head, Ren vaguely saw the future Baroness nod their head.

"...I trust by now you at the least know that what we are dealing with isn't normal right?"

"Even the blind would able to see that somethings wrong here, out with it knight!" Angry voice leaking out of the man who had asked for light, the Knight only calmly replied.

"Then I won't explain the common knowledge, this is what is known as a... sleeping rift, these are rifts with a lesser mana dispersion rate than what it actually should have and is thus much more dangerous than it actually is."

"A sleeping Gate? So you know what this is!? Then why haven't you warned us beforehand!?"

Agitatedly getting up Ren slowly slinked towards the Heiress as the man who called for fire earlier got up from the ground and walked to the Knight resting their back against the wall.

"...I am sorry, but the situation was urgent, we only discovered the abyssal rift a day before it broke into an erosion zone so we weren't able to discover that the rift was actually asleep."

"That doesn't change the fact that you brought us into this mess, and now its your duty to bring us out of it!"

Placing their finger against the Knights chest, Ren felt the air around them tense up for a moment as a dark voice left the Knight's mouth

"...When entering the rift you were made plenty clear of the dangers that you may face here, so now please keep your hands off of my chest before you do something that you may regret?"

"What if I'm already regretting entering this rift with you huh? What're you going to do then Knight!?"

"...This is your second warning." The clear shing of metal sounded against its sheath rung out in the confined space met with an equally clear ringing sound.

"And this is my first!" Voice echoing in the dark cave, Ren widened his eyes as his eyes had adapted enough to finally see the blade that the man had just unsheathed.

Glaring at each other, the Knight spoke in a dark tone. "...Are you truly willing to face off against the Barony?"

"What barony? All I see is a stupid knight standing in front of a Bronze Ranked Mercenary!"

Feeling his heart go cold at the words Bronze Ranked Ren gingerly tiptoed his way out of the general vicinity of the Mercenaries way.

And perhaps sensing the implication of the Mercenaries words that they were strong, just as strong as them, the Knight hesitated for a moment before fully unsheathing their blade.

"..."

Feeling the tension in the air imperceptibly rise, Ren felt sweat drip off from the back of his head as he cycled his gaze between the two others.

On one side was a knight of the barony who was able to face a boar head on and kill it, on the other side was a bronze ranked mercenary of equal skill that was able to do just the same.

'...'

And they were staring at each othe rwith murderous intent.

Feeling his heart beat rapidly against his chest as if it was trying to escape the confines of his ribcage and escape to a place far from here, someone interrupted this two sided standoff.

"Calm down the both of you."

A clear voice piercing the tension like a knife through white bread, the two turned their gazes to the source of the voice.

The Future Baroness.

"Fighting is going to get us nowhere, instead, a battle between the two of you is nothing more than something that will only benefit our true enemy."

"Since a fight is loud, it will attract that... thing and even if assuming the ensuing fight won't attract it's attention the blood spilled certainly will, you aren't both confident that you can hurt each other unharmed do you?"

Silence.

Staring at each other, as if someone had pulled a lever in their minds, both of the simultaneously returned their weapons to their sheaths.

"...As the Future of the Barony asks."

"As the Future of the Barony asks."

Both willing and unwillingly moving to the side, Ren turned his gaze of admiration to the Heiress.

Snapping her fingers, a small flame manifested atop her palms lighting her golden eyes as they stared directly into the eyes of all gathered here.

"Now that that problem has been dealt with, we must deal with the problem at hand."

"How to get out of here." Flame flickering, the fire snuffed itself breaking apart into seven embers that gently floated to the faces of all those currently present here.

"And to do that, we must work together, and to work together, we must work like... leaves on a branch, I'll start first."

The First Ember floated to her golden iris.

"My name is Meredith Lorelai, I am an apprentice mage and Aspiring Knight, the future of the Barony."

The Second Ember floated to her Knight's ear

"My name is Patrick, Knight Squire and the Heiress's bodyguard."

The Third Ember floated to the face of the volatile mercenary.

"...My name is Jordan, Bronze Ranked Mercenary."

The Fourth Floated to a tall effeminate figure.

"...My name is Agathe, Seamstress."

The Fifth floated to a shorter still effeminate figure.

"...My name is Annie, Herbalist of my fathers shop."

The sixth floated to a hunchbacked old man

"Claude, an old hunter."

And last but not the least, the final ember floated to Ren's face.

"My name is Ren"

"..." Turning to look at the faces of the six others gathered here, the golden eyes of the future Baroness were dyed black as she spoke.

"Now that we all know each other, let us draw up a plan to escape this place." She paused. "Alive."

+++

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