Shin rested against a tree as he looked up to the sky. Bjorn gave Shin his sword, resting it beside him. Shin looked pale, shivering and sweating. Bjorn covered him.
"Rest. The amount of Akrion you were releasing had put too much strain on your body."
Shin took a deep breath and embraced the blanket tighter, stopping his shivering.
Bjorn said,
"The wagon is near in that direction. When you are able to move, head there."
And walked away.
Meanwhile, Ren was running through the branches silently, watching the woman who had blinded him hanging still. He jumped up onto a branch and decided to attack from above. He sat low, waiting, but she didn't move an inch for a while now.
He instantly jumped, focusing on the root on her back. He grabbed it while falling and used to it to swing to land on top of it . He noticed how this root vine split into a net of smaller ones spreading through her back, neck, and her head. He put his feet against her back and pulled.
The woman reacted late to him landing on her back but got agitated once he started pulling the root vine. Her entire body started to glow slowly then immediately released bright light through her entire skin.
Ren closed his eyes and kept pulling, but light passed through his eyelids like nothing and started burning his eyes. He screamed in pain and pulled harsher, not caring for the woman's skin, as the roots started to separate away. Bits of her skin were still attached to the root's thin net. As for the one on her head, he broke it off — eyes closed.
The woman fell down below.
Ren kept holding on to the root until he heard the woman fall on the branch, then he let go. He landed instantly, rubbing his eyes. Tears ran like they were too dry. He opened them, blinking — everything foggy — but a few moments later his vision cleared back.
The woman lay next to him, not moving. He bent down, checking on her. He pushed her eyelids — her eyes were still pure white and she remained unresponsive.
He understood the dream was still going.
He started looking down for Bjorn, yet he wasn't there. He lifted his head and noticed Peter was next to him. The snapped roots started slithering slowly toward the woman, and reattached to her.
Ren tried to lift her, he didn't notice the link was attached to her again, she was pulled away from him and dragged far up.
He quickly ran toward Peter, jumping from small branch to another.
Ren stood on the nearest branch to Peter. He tried to free him but realized it was the same pattern of restraints as the woman from before. He looked around in haste and saw Lili far away up with the same type also. He confirmed that Aspects have a different link from others to the dream world, and that even when broken they won't wake up.
He was lost in thoughts, not noticing Orrin behind him smiling.
"I was checking you from afar," Orrin said.
Ren turned, caught off guard. He stood up after he had sat low. He lifted his arms, ready to fight.
Orrin shook his head, laughing.
"What a magnificent toy you are."
Ren lowered his hands.
"I know it's not your fault for being like this, but this ends now. Human beings are not toys!!"
He looked angrily at him.
Orrin stared back, silenced by Ren's words, then burst into laughter.
"You think I'm that useless kid she told you about? No, no. That kid was weak."
Ren was taken aback.
"You talk like you are someone else, like you're not Orrin."
Orrin's smile shrank.
"The fact you called me that irritates me. When I woke up for the first time and realized I shared this body with that wimp, I was angry, but the fact he controlled it made me furious."
He lifted his hand.
"But I made it my own."
Ren stared, surprised by his words.
Behind him the root vine restraining Peter moved. As the unconscious Peter stood behind him, Ren felt the air slightly move around him along with a faint shadow on the branch bark. He spun, blocking with both arms up and taking a few steps back in the process.
Peter stood there and open-handed pointed at him.
Ren was confused by it. He looked above Peter's shoulders and realized he was about to use his Manifest. Yet something was different — multiple pointy objects similar to wooden stakes slowly appeared in greater numbers around Peter.
Ren — who had fought Peter 82 times in the real world — had never witnessed this move.
Peter closed his hand, launching them one by one, all at an incredible speed at Ren.
As soon as the first landed by his foot, he saw the damage it did and how deep it penetrated the branch. Ren dropped his guard and ran full speed as he saw the rest coming at him.
Orrin laughed but got silenced by Ren's punch destroying another puppet. As he popped in another place, continuing to laugh:
"Struggle all you want, but I know them better than they know themselves."
Ren — running full speed — had reached the end of the branch as the tree's massive trunk stood in front of him. He looked up, turned back, and started barely dodging the wooden stakes, receiving shallow cuts. He tried to block one with his gauntlet but was knocked back by the impact. He landed on his back, instantly got up. He saw the damage it did to the gauntlet — he took it as a warning not to try it again.
Ren saw the stakes' numbers weren't dwindling and set Peter as his target.
He charged toward him, running as Peter kept launching his wooden projectiles. Ren jumped, rolled, and ducked while running, trying every move to dodge — one hit was lethal.
He shortened the distance between them and jumped, ready to swing at Peter, whose eyes didn't show any emotions.
Ren rolled mid-air, dodging the stakes, and swung at Peter. But his eyes caught something shining from afar. He couldn't look, nor had the time to do so.
Seconds earlier, far away, unconscious Lili extended her thumb and index, pointing at Ren. Flames compressed into a small spinning sphere that grew hotter by the second until it shone brighter. Ren was mid-air. Lili's eyes — white, linked to the dream world — launched her attack, aiming for Ren's head.
It traveled with great momentum and landed on Ren's gauntlet as he threw the punch. It pushed Ren's arm against his body, twisting it as his body absorbed the force, launching it downward. Ren went through multiple branches like paper. He instinctively pushed his arm to change the sphere's trajectory before it exploded. He successfully managed to, but he was falling way too fast and there was no way to slow down.
Bjorn jumped up in the air, absorbing his momentum with his chest and shielding him as they both fell crashing. At that moment the explosion erupted somewhere in the forest in a big radius. The shockwave reached them and knocked them away.
Bjorn stood, checking on Ren.
The gauntlet on Ren's hand was completely destroyed. Bjorn carefully took it off. Ren yelled in pain as his arm was heavily bruised and broken with burn marks.
Bjorn looked worried.
"Ren, we should retreat for now. We're outnumbered and you're heavily wounded."
Ren held his arm in pain.
"No. We have to end it now. We can't afford to retreat."
Bjorn replied,
"How? We can't even get close to the tree, let alone know who's controlling it"
Ren stood up slowly and shaking. His whole body was in pain.
"If we destroy the base of the tree, she should be there."
Bjorn was confused.
"Who?"
Ren said,
"If we can separate him from her, we can separate them from him."
Bjorn was still waiting for an answer.
Ren pointed toward an area at the base of the tree.
"Bjorn, can you destroy the tree through that point?"
Bjorn looked and measured the width of the tree roughly.
"It's too wide at the base, and the wood is too hard. If I took my time recharging my Akrion between hits, I can maybe destroy it in two hits."
Ren said,
"Alright. I'll attract his attention. You need to go around and delay your Akrion channeling until you reach the other side of the tree."
He extended his fist.
"We only have one chance to free them, Bjorn."
Bjorn fist-bumped Ren.
"Let's give it everything we've got."
Bjorn removed his torn shirt, showing his refined big muscles, and ran toward the forest, taking a longer route.
Ren held a piece of the torn shirt and rolled it tightly around his injured arm. He walked toward the tree. It took him a while to reach it as he limped slowly. He stood still. Silent. He drew a long breath with the image of Tamara flashing in his mind.
At the top of his lungs, he yelled:
"Orrin!!!"
Orrin — who was standing above, smiling — frowned.
Ren stood waiting as the root vines started descending. Orrin sat on Peter's shoulder. Along with all his Aspects victims, they descended from above slowly.
Ren stood alone against a dozen of them.
All odds against him.