Vaelin stroked his beard. He was trying to piece together the Lord's message, looking for a face to fit the title of Savior. Renji didn't care about titles. The rage in his gut was a physical heat, a slow-boiling acid that burned every time he thought about the Abyss Lord's shadow flickering on those walls. His hands were clamped shut, nails digging into his palms. The man had to die. It wasn't a choice anymore; it was a mechanical necessity.
Liora reached out and took his hand. Her palm was soft and warm, a stark contrast to the cold stone of the vault.
"I'm here, Renji," she said softly. "The Abyss Lord isn't a villain. It's just a misunderstanding."
Renji didn't want comfort. He pulled his hand away, the movement sharp and dismissive. He walked straight up to Vaelin, ignoring the old man's personal space.
"How do I get the seventh fold elements of Aeteris?"
Liora's voice cut through his skull like a cold blade. "Renji, stop. You're going to get yourself killed. You're acting like an outsider."
Vaelin turned. His eyes were narrowed, suspicious. The air around him felt heavy.
"Seventh fold? That's a term for scholars and dead kings. How does a stray like you know Aeteris is a seventh fold race?"
Renji stood there. He'd messed up. He needed a lie, but his brain was firing too fast.
"I've spent my time researching," he said. It sounded weak, even to him.
"Renji, not even the high-born Aeterians know that," Liora warned.
"I found the records at the Great Library," Renji added, trying to ground the lie in something Vaelin might believe. "I figured it out from the old ledgers before they burned."
Vaelin didn't look entirely convinced, but he didn't call for the guards either. He pulled three heavy scrolls and a weathered map from a hidden compartment in the stone. He laid the map out. It showed a jagged, grey valley tucked between the territories of the three major clans.
"Be careful, Renji. That place is called the Hollow of Whispers. The arrays don't reach it. No clan magic, no protection. You'll find Vermilion Crest members, Azure Veins, and Jade Sinews all hunting for the same scrap of truth. It's a graveyard for people with too much ambition."
Vaelin didn't wait for a thank you. He just turned and walked into the shadows of the shelves. Renji closed his eyes. He felt the weight of the task ahead. Liora stepped closer, her expression a mix of relief and something he couldn't read.
"You're close now," she said. "Take this."
She handed him a short blade. The hilt was made of icy blue bone, cold enough to make his fingers ache. "My mother gave it to me. It's saved my life more than once."
Renji took it, feeling the balance. It was perfect. "How old are you, really?"
Liora didn't answer with a number. She stepped in close, the scent of damp earth and ozone following her. She kissed his cheek, a quick, dry touch of skin. "I'm just like you," she whispered into his ear.
Then, she was gone. No fading, no walking away. She vanished in a sudden, sharp explosion of blue flowers that smelled like old rain. Renji's eyes went wide. He stood there in the silence, but her voice still echoed in the back of his head.
"The path is behind the shelf at the back. It leads out of Ouroboros. Don't die, Renji."
He didn't hesitate. He ran.
The journey was a blur of physical exhaustion and survival. He spent a week crossing the map. He dragged himself through salt deserts where the heat peeled the skin off his nose. He climbed frost-bitten peaks where the air was too thin to catch. He even skirted the edges of volcanic wastes where the ground felt like it was going to liquid under his boots. He killed things—beasts with too many limbs and eyes that glowed with a sick, yellow hunger. He was a hunter again, but the stakes were different.
Seven days later, he reached the Forest of Painted Leaves. It was beautiful in a way that felt like a trap. The trees were vibrant shades of violet and crimson, but the air was still. Too still. The Vermilion array was gone. He was on his own.
The attack came from the left.
It wasn't a roar or a shout. It was just a sudden displacement of air. Something hit Renji in the ribs before he could even reach for his new blade. The force was like being hit by a runaway cart. He flew backward, his back slamming into a purple-barked tree. The wood didn't break; his spine did the complaining instead.
He slid to the ground, gasping for a breath that wouldn't come. His vision was a mess of red and black spots. He looked up and saw it.
It looked like a man, but the proportions were wrong. Its arms were too long, ending in three-fingered hands that gripped the dirt like talons. It wore a mask of white bone, and its skin was the color of bruised meat. It was an Azure Vein scout, but mutated, warped by the lack of an array to stabilize its form.
The scout moved again. It didn't run; it flickered.
Renji rolled to the right just as a jagged piece of Azure glass shattered against the tree where his head had been. He pulled Liora's icy blade. The cold of the hilt helped focus his mind. He lunged, but the scout wasn't there. It was behind him.
A kick caught Renji in the kidney. He went down on one knee, his mouth filling with the metallic taste of blood. He swung the blade blindly, catching the scout's leg. The blue bone sliced through skin like it was paper, but the scout didn't scream. It just hissed.
Renji tried to stand, but his left leg gave out. The avatar's strength was flickering. The energy was draining out of him, leaving his muscles feeling like lead. He was fighting a superior predator with a body that was currently failing him.
The scout lunged again, hands outstretched for Renji's throat. Renji didn't try to dodge. He waited until the creature was inches away and drove the icy blade upward. It went through the scout's chest, hitting something hard and brittle.
The scout froze. It stared at Renji through the holes in its bone mask. Then, it began to freeze from the inside out. Blue frost spread across its chest, locking its limbs in place.
Renji shoved the creature off him and watched it shatter against the ground like a dropped mirror.
He slumped against the tree, his breath coming in ragged, wet sobs. His shoulder was dislocated. His ribs were a disaster. He looked at his hands; the gray skin was turning a sickly, pale white. He was losing the avatar. He was becoming human again, right in the middle of a forest that wanted him dead.
He tried to reach for the scrolls Vaelin had given him, but his fingers wouldn't move. He was staring at a patch of moss, wondering if it would be soft enough to die on, when he heard a new sound.
Heavy, rhythmic thumping. Like a drum.
He turned his head slowly. Emerging from the violet fog was something much larger than the scout. It was a Jade Sinew executioner, seven feet of raw, green-tinted muscle and plated armor. It carried a spiked mace that looked heavy enough to crush a boulder. It stopped ten feet away and looked down at Renji, the dying outsider.
Renji tried to lift his blade, but his arm felt like it belonged to someone else. He couldn't even make a fist. He just looked at the executioner and waited for the end.
The executioner raised the mace.