(Renji and Damien had spent that day sitting and pondering on their respective beds, shame heavy as a stone in their chests—hands still felt bloodied despite their clean states, their eyes downcast as they replayed the screams and laughter. But outside people were rejoicing their victory, bonfires crackling, songs echoing, praising them as saviors with cheers echoing across the village.)
(The villagers held a moment of silence for the fallen, but immediately after just like a funeral they flipped and partied with drums pounding and dancing wildly. Husbands and wives laughed intimately while feeding their children; single men and women mustered up the courage to talk with shy smiles. The celebration here was joyful but a difference to what was happening past the horizon of the green pastures.)
(In a dark place, trees shook with ashy winds. In the dense dark forest's heart, the tribe of dark elves huddled.)
"Jo'ayina loyatu mopila hshzex," (Gibberish translated to 'Where are the others? The children are starving.' The tribe heard something run to the center and cried 'WE HAVE LOST.' Confusion rippled as they narrowed their violet eyes. One swallowed with fear as they looked at a dark elf by a dark-flamed fire.)
"Foriana?" 'Pardon?', The dark elf's eyes landed on the messenger with a piercing violet gaze holding the messenger still.) "Polaria malta doo?" ('Are you mute?', Voice resonated as it striked fear into the messengers heart.) "Jo'ayi montil?" ('Who?' It rose to stand at it's full height.)
(The average height for a male dark elf is about 6'0 or 182 cm, their bodies lithe and extremely slim—no exaggerated busts, curves, or bulging muscles, built for shadowy agility rather than brute force. The average height for a female dark elf is about 5'10 or 179 cm, equally sleek and predatory. Now, this dark elf who struck fear into his fellow kin was 6'7 or 204 cm, a colossal outlier among his kind. Far from the typical slender frame, he was muscular—not grotesquely overbuilt, but powerfully honed enough to hint at his unnatural difference from other dark elves.)
"Skótos," (the old man said gravely, his voice carrying the weight of ancient knowledge as he explained everything to Renji and Damien about the dire consequences of their victory. The name hung in the air like a death sentence.)
"Who names their child Skótos?" (Jiwon asked, his eyebrow raised in incredulity as he sat cross-legged on the floor between the beds of Renji and Damien. He leaned forward intently, meeting the old man's faded blue eyes with his own light blue ones, holding the gaze without flinching.)
(Soren, who sat on the bed near Renji, just sighed softly before speaking, his voice steady and his gaze directed firmly towards the old man, ash-blond hair shifting slightly with the motion.) "So if I could ask, should we fear his coming?"
(The old man sighed deeply, the sound rattling in his frail chest, and met Soren's gaze with eyes shadowed by decades of survival.) "I doubt that creature would wait any longer after hearing the news. You two," (his command directed sharply at Renji and Damien,) "I don't know when he will come, but I suggest you both prepare yourselves and get ready to die."
"Huh?" (Damien intoned, leaning forward on his bed with eyebrows raised in sharp surprise, dreadlocks swaying as his eyes widened.) "What do you mean get ready to die?"
"The elf is not a creature to be reckoned with or taken lightly,"( the old man replied, his tone laced with grim certainty.) "He is a creature that, for some reason, an evil god bestowed Rank Nulla upon."
(Renji just stared, but the shock in his eyes was all that was needed to convey his disbelief.) "What?" (Renji finally uttered, voice low and resonant.)
"Yes, he is Rank Nulla, but he sits at the second key and... Oh, we all may die today," (the old man said, his eyes focused on some distant point in the air, a flicker of raw fear passing through them.)
"We have to evacuate then," (Jiwon said urgently, rising up to his feet.)
"It's too late," (the old man said, already accepting the worst of fate. He stood there still and almost shaky as his breath quickened into ragged gasps. Jiwon raised an eyebrow, about to take a step towards him, before he felt an oppressive pressure descend like a suffocating fog. Yesterday, the dark elves' presence had been sinister, but this was so dark and evil that Jiwon's legs began to shake uncontrollably, knees buckling under the invisible weight.)
(Outside, the villagers felt it as well, a collective shiver rippling through the celebration—but an unfortunate little girl was running carefree and bumped into a towering dark figure, immediately falling onto her rear with a startled yelp.) "Hey, I was runn—" (The girl looked up to see the tall dark figure, short dark hair framing a cruel face, wearing the fur of a black wolf that draped from the top of his head to the bottom of his heel like a savage cloak, another dark hide covering only the important bits. Terror widened her innocent eyes, and just before she could even vocalize the scream rising in her throat, her head was already flying off in a gruesome arc, blood splattering across the cobblestone path.)
(A woman was walking past holding a basket of loaves, humming softly, before noticing the blood pooling in her path. She tracked it towards the origin and immediately dropped the basket, loaves tumbling forgotten, placing her hands on her mouth before letting out a piercing scream.)
(The villagers turned and ran towards the scene in horrified waves, but they could only see the woman's body in two on the ground, blood flowing freely and what looked like guts twitching as the last-minute nerves fired.)
(The men stared in stunned rage before their eyes flickered on and they all charged forward as one. The dark elf—Skótos—looked at them impassively, his glowing violet eyes tracking all of them. He took a step forward before speaking something guttural in his own language, and suddenly limbs were cut off mid-stride, heads severed clean from necks, bodies crumpling in sprays of arterial blood.)
(In the room, the old man was trembling uncontrollably before he spoke through gritted teeth.) "I'll give one last piece of advice: to unlock your second key, tap into the emotions that caused you to activate your Wi in the first place."
(His eyes began to glow a piercing light blue, vitality surging as his skinny limbs began to fill out with lean muscle, veins pulsing with renewed power. He turned on his heel and began to walk out the room with purposeful strides, down the stairs and out the front door, moving towards the direction of the dark elf.)
(They both spotted each other across the blood-slick streets, and Skótos had a slight smirk curling his lips before bursting forward in a violet blur, grabbing the old man's face in an iron vise and running with him through multiple buildings—walls exploding in showers of splintered wood and dust. But sadly, Skótos was not alone; he had brought with him another group of dark elves that were ravaging the houses with savage glee, kicking in doors and slaughtering women and children indiscriminately, bloodshed spreading like wildfire across the village.)
(Skótos positioned the old man in utter defeat and near death, beating him so badly with thunderous punches that bones cracked audibly, before throwing him towards a wall with bone-shattering force, causing spiderwebs of cracks to form as his back hit the stone.)
"Ahh, I'm not in my youth anymore," (the old man muttered weakly, blood trickling from his mouth as he tried to get up to his feet on trembling legs. Immediately, the dark elf moved forward with a purple blade materializing in his hand, piercing it straight through the old man's heart in a spray of crimson. The old man was shocked, eyes bulging as he tried to speak a healing chant, but Skótos placed another sword into the old man's throat and through to the other side, severing his spine with a wet crunch.)
(The old man could just stare into the depths of Skótos' violet abyss as Renji and Damien ran down the stairs and out the house to witness the carnage—people screaming before being cut down in sprays of gore.)
"Shit, what do we do?" (Damien spoke urgently, his eyes running through the chaotic area.)
"We follow the old man's advice," (Renji responded calmly, golden eyes surprisingly steady amid the horror.)
"How? All he told us was to remember the emotions we felt when we first activated Wi," (Damien responded, his gaze now focused intently on Renji's eyes.)
"Well, we better remember it or we will be dead in the next couple of seconds," (Renji said, already noticing a group of dark elves charging his way, violet glowing eyes gleaming with bloodlust. He took a slow, deep breath, closing his eyes briefly to remember the searing pain of near-death plus the helplessness he felt in front of Valerius—his brain immediately tapped into Wi like a floodgate bursting. Renji's eyes flickered on with golden lightning, and he burst forward faster than before towards the dark elves, a streak of electric fury.)
(Damien watched dumbfounded for a split second before taking a slow, deep breath himself, running towards the dark elves with determination. His mind latched onto the feeling of desperation when he ran towards the closed gates, the dark elves now mirroring those inescapable barriers—gates that promised no escape from death this time. Remembering that thought was agony, but immediately his blood pumped even harder as excitement burned into his veins like liquid fire, his eyes flickering on with crimson blaze, and he burst forward faster, outpacing even Renji.) "Catch up, slowpoke," (he said mockingly, a feral grin on his face.)
(Renji just rolled his eyes mid-stride as he jumped while spinning his heel in a devastating arc, landing his foot into the face of a dark elf with a crunch that crashed it down amid its kin. He rolled his neck with a satisfying crack. A dark elf swung at him with clawed savagery, and immediately he caught its hand mid-strike, staring into the dark elf's soul with golden intensity before pulling it closer viciously, letting go of the arm and grabbing its head before smashing it down onto the cobblestone path with skull-shattering force.)
(Damien was already moving with raw, uncoordinated fury, grabbing the hair on one dark elf and another, smashing their heads together repeatedly in a frenzy of bone-crunching impacts before letting one go limp and slamming the other one into the ground with enough force to crater the stone.)
(Skótos stood near the old man's lifeless body, blood pooling beneath, as he felt the sudden pressure of two new opponents surging like twin storms. 'Must be them,' he thought in his guttural language, eyes narrowing as he walked down the path, turning corners before reaching them. Renji and Damien were in the middle of their bloodbath, bodies piling at their feet, when Skótos crouched slightly and immediately charged forward in a violent shockwave. Before Renji could complete his next motion, Skótos grabbed him by the throat and ran with him, smashing him against a wall with wall-shuddering impact. Violet eyes met the golden ones in a clash.)
(Damien noticed instantly and switched trajectories mid-leap, running towards Skótos with blazing speed. Skótos glanced back casually before hurling Renji towards Damien like discarded toy. Damien jumped over Renji's tumbling form, and immediately when his vision locked onto Skótos again, the dark elf was already before him with two violet blades humming with otherworldly energy. The moment Damien's edge of the boot's toe touched the ground, Skótos swung in a blur, and Damien could barely fall back in time—a dreadlock was cut clean.) "My dread!" (Damien muttered in irritation before backflipping away and standing to study Skótos intently, crimson eyes narrowing.) "Alright, you dark piece of shit, yo—"
"Why are you racist to your own?" (Renji muttered, walking towards Damien and standing beside him as he rolled his shoulder with a pop.)
"The fuck is that supposed to mean?" (Damien looked over towards Renji, eyebrow raised in confusion before looking back towards Skótos.) "After we are done with him, it's your pale ass."
"Why does my ass have to do with this?" (Renji asked, his expression serene and unperturbed as he met Skótos' gaze directly.)
"Shut up," (Damien muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest.)
(The tension rose greatly, thick as fog, as Soren and Jiwon peered from behind a crumbled wall, watching the fight unfold with bated breath. On the other side, some dark elves were doing the same, violet glowing eyes glinting. Jiwon and a dark elf met each other's gaze in a fierce glare across the chaos before suddenly three figures flew past in a blur of motion.)
(Skótos had placed his massive hands on Renji and Damien, running with them like ragdolls and smashing them into a wall with explosive force. Renji and Damien grabbed Skótos' arm with a tight, vise-like grip, and immediately Skótos pushed against the wall for leverage, continuing to run with them through multiple walls in a trail of destruction—timbers splintering, dust choking the air. As Skótos was about to crash them into another wall, Renji brought up his body with acrobatic precision and hugged Skótos's arm, immediately stopping the momentum cold. Skótos let go of Damien and raised the hand Renji had hugged, smashing him down onto the ground with earth-shaking impact. Renji let go fluidly but rolled away, springing back to his feet.)
(Damien was on the opposite side of Skótos now, as both Renji and Damien just stared at him with focus before charging at the same time in perfect sync.)
(Damien and Renji threw a synchronized punch from both sides, immediately caught effortlessly by Skótos' hands, but that didn't stop the intricate choreography that ensued. After Skótos had let go, Renji swiped his foot in a low sweep causing Skótos to jump up evading, and Damien lifted his leg to smash it into Skótos' torso. It was too late for Skótos to fully respond as Damien's foot connected solidly, sending him flying back into a wall with a resounding crack of stone. Before he could recover, Renji was already there, smashing his fist into Skótos' gut with piston force, followed by another fist from Damien into Skótos' face, snapping his head sideways.)
(Skótos conjured up a sword in both hands, violet energy coiling, and raised them up about to slice both of them in half in a cross-blade execution. Damien and Renji leaped back in unison just in time. Skótos finally straightened, glowing eyes burning as he stared down at Damien and Renji.)
(Skótos rolled his neck with a series of audible cracks and just stared before the swords disappeared into wisps of shadow. He spoke in a commanding tone,) "Lo'pona kigol lin'ê môtâka."
"This is that babliboo language Jiwon was talking abo—" (Damien was cut off as suddenly the sun above descended rapidly, plunging the sky into unnatural twilight, and the moon came up—but something was profoundly wrong, as if the moon itself was darkening with inky corruption. Suddenly, the area changed immediately, warping reality: everyone who was still alive, including the dark elves and Soren and Jiwon, found themselves transported to an open barren land dotted with thousands of swords rooted deep in cracked earth like a graveyard of steel. Renji and Damien were on edge immediately, backs pressed as they watched warily—suddenly, all the thousands of swords lifted up telekinetically, gripped by multiple versions of Skótos, clones manifesting in violet haze.)
('One,' Skótos intoned in his language. One swordsman clone charged forward with lethal precision, slicing at Damien, but Renji lifted his leg and connected it to the clone's head with a spinning kick, shattering it into dissipating shadow. 'Two,' two clones attacked in tandem, overwhelming the duo momentarily, forcing them to run away in evasive zigzags. 'Three,' three clones with extra ferocity now moved to attack; Renji and Damien split and ran towards two different directions, circling back towards the original Skótos. 'Four,' four extra clones were now chasing them relentlessly, but it was weird—Skótos was already faster than them, so why were these clones so slow and weak, their strikes glancing harmlessly? 'Five,' Renji and Damien both leaped towards the original Skótos, ready to smash their fists into him in unison, and immediately Skótos raised up a hand— one lone sword lifted up and flew towards him. Skótos immediately slashed through them both, the blade moving through their bodies like butter through silk, and Skótos stood a few feet away, discarding the sword with an annoyed flick, eyes narrowing as if frustrated by a glitch.)
(Immediately, the barren area they were in disappeared like a popped bubble, snapping back to the ruined village. Renji and Damien collapsed onto the ground coughing in primal fear, chests heaving—they were alive, but how?) "Is his attack weak or something?" (Damien asked between hyperventilations, his features hardening into defiant resolve.)
"I doubt it; it's most likely that he failed to use it. So we can't get hit by it again or el—" (Renji suddenly vomited black blood, viscous and tar-like, and he tried chanting healing repeatedly, but more blood poured out relentlessly. Even Damien was going through the same horrific problem, black blood spilling from his mouth in choking gouts.)
('No matter how much you heal, you won't stop bleeding. In fact, you were meant to die from that attack, but I failed. So now the heart of your souls is slightly severed; you'll need a spiritual healer to fix you,' Skótos said in his language, voice dripping with cold satisfaction, but Damien just looked towards him and flipped him off defiantly as he continued vomiting.)
(Skótos slowly approached them with deliberate menace, grabbed the back of their heads in crushing grips, and began smashing them into the ground repeatedly—thud-thud-crunch—before throwing them both up and conjuring a sword, slicing at their mid-torsos with shallow precision. The blade carved open their abdomens but didn't go in fully, exposing digestive organs in gruesome display as normal blood flowed freely from the wounds.)
(Soren and Jiwon just stared in helpless horror, about to watch their friends die, and immediately Jiwon ran forward recklessly.) "HEY!" (He didn't know what he was going to do, but he wanted to at least try something heroic. Skótos just stared impassively as even Soren joined in Jiwon's desperate attempt, both throwing fists—Jiwon jumped and threw one into Skótos's jaw with all his might, Soren following with another into Skótos's mid-torso.)
(The fists connected, but their bones shattered on impact like glass against steel, sending them stumbling back in agony. Skótos got rid of the sword and grabbed their heads in vise-crushing holds, nearly pulverizing skulls, before throwing them towards a nearby wall—bodies impacting with cracks of bone and skull as they collapsed onto the ground, motionless.)
(Skótos just stared down at the fallen before beginning to walk off casually, speaking something commanding to the watching dark elves. The elves snickered with malicious glee, ready to descend for the kill, but suddenly four portals appeared—white and radiant—sucking all four of them in with irresistible force.)
(Skótos looked back, and shock washed through his face, eyes widening. The dark elves just stared at the spot where the four disappeared before their eyes.)
(They were gone for two months in that world, but two years had passed on Earth. In a bustling hospital ward, everyone suddenly blinked in unison, and when they opened their eyes, they saw four men collapsed on the sterile floor amid beeping monitors and startled patients.)
(Immediately, people called for the staff; nurses and doctors rushed in a frenzy as Renji and Damien were placed in the emergency room. Surgery was performed urgently to sew back their ravaged organs, doctors fighting desperately to staunch the black blood spilling from their mouths.)
(Jiwon and Soren received their treatment as well, fractures set and wounds bandaged. After a day of recovery, they were all in the same room, bandaged up like mummies—the black blood had finally stopped, thankfully. It stemmed from a weird organ that looked identical to a heart but smaller and not beating within them that the doctors wanted to remove surgically, but when they tried, their heartbeats almost flattened to nothing, so they had left it in.)
(Damien woke up groggily to Renji, Soren, and Jiwon talking softly nearby.) "Was that a dream?" (Jiwon asked, his light blue eyes uncertain, hair disheveled.)
"No dream puts us in this state," (Soren responded firmly, referring to their bedridden and bandaged forms.)
(Damien chimed in hoarsely, managing a weak grin.) "At least we are home."
(Jiwon sighed deeply as a bright smile spread across his lips, dimples flashing.) "Yep, home sweet home."
(But their peace was only a temporary vacation from the other pains they were about to go through.)