On the fifth day of training, the morning air in the forest was crisp and smelled of damp earth. I spent the hours teaching the children how to forage, showing them how to spot the difference between edible roots and poisonous ones. We gathered dry branches and flint, and I sat them down to practice striking sparks until a small fire crackled between us.
I knew they couldn't rely on the marketplace forever; they needed the forest to be their pantry. I pointed out tracks of small game, explaining the balance of hunting—take only what you need so the woods stay full. To round out their skills, I showed them the clusters of wild berries and hardy fruits hidden in the brush.
Since it was Lavender’s turn to supervise their physical drills, I grabbed my coin pouch and headed back toward town to restock our cooking supplies.
The atmosphere in the city streets was electric, but not with joy. I noticed squads of soldiers moving with a frantic, rhythmic pace toward the central plaza. Then it clicked—today was the public execution of the captured rebels. Because the plaza sat right on the edge of the market district, the heavy iron scent of the crowd and the distant sound of drums were impossible to ignore.
A massive sea of spectators and rigid rows of armored soldiers surrounded a raised wooden stage. Five bandits stood there, their hands bound tightly with rough hemp rope. One by one, they were forced onto their knees, their heads bowed toward the grain of the wood as executioners tested the weight of their blades.
"So, the execution is happening today," I muttered, my voice lost in the low roar of the crowd.
"Public executions are a standard deterrent for criminals in this era," Ora noted from within her crystal.
I didn't want to see it. I turned my back on the stage to finish my errands, but I had only taken a few steps when the air suddenly turned heavy. A crushing, overwhelming aura blanketed the street, making the oxygen feel thin. My chest tightened, and a cold sweat broke out across my neck. It was a primal, terrifying power; I knew instantly I was in grave danger.
Within seconds, the coordinated silence of the plaza shattered into a cacophony of screams. I whipped around, and my lungs seized.
A colossal Blue Dragon had manifested in the very heart of the plaza. Its scales shimmered like polished sapphires. It opened its maw, and a torrent of frost erupted, instantly encasing the stage, the soldiers, and the front rows of the crowd in jagged, milky ice. No one caught in the blast survived; they were frozen into statues and then pulverized under the creature's massive, clawed weight.
"What is happening?! Why is there an Ice Dragon here?" I gasped, shielding my face from the sudden freezing wind.
Ora emerged from her crystal, perched precariously atop my head. Her translucent form was trembling. "This is impossible... this shouldn't be happening yet. It seems our greatest fear has come to pass, Aren!" she cried.
The dragon continued to tear through the stone architecture of the town like it was made of parchment. Panic took hold of me, and I ran. I ducked behind the stone corner of a large warehouse, my heart hammering against my ribs.
"What do you mean?" I demanded, trying to catch my breath.
"I recognize that dragon from the memories of the spirits I’ve spoken with," Ora explained, her voice small. "That blue dragon... it looks exactly like Frexia."
"Frexia?"
"She is one of the seven members of the Black Scorpion. She is known as the Ice Dragon, the wielder of the Celestial Item of the Frost Spirit."
I felt a hollow pit open in my stomach. According to Ora, Frexia had once wiped out an entire province, leaving five million dead in her wake. Ora hadn't realized Frexia originated from this specific town; the spirits only knew her as a mindless force of nature that leveled cities.
Ora urged me to intervene, but I looked up at the sky in despair. The beast was ten meters tall and circling upward. "I can’t stop her if she’s flying that high!" I shouted over the sound of crumbling masonry.
From the clouds, the dragon exhaled a concentrated beam of white energy. Anything it touched—houses, carts, people—turned into brittle, frozen waste. I watched, paralyzed, as she eventually beat her massive wings and soared away into the distance.
"Why was she at the plaza? Was she trying to save the bandits?" I wondered aloud.
Ora shook her head. "No. Even the bandits were shattered in that first blast."
"Could it be... that she was one of the bandits scheduled to die?" I whispered, the thought chilling me more than the wind.
I didn't have the answer, but a new terror replaced my confusion. My mind went straight to Lavender and the kids. What if they had finished drills early? What if they were in the market? "I have to get back to Lavender!" I shouted, turning on my heel and sprinting toward the forest.
Ora protested, her voice sharp in my ear. "The Ice Dragon is the priority, Aren! Don't tell me your strays are more important than stopping that monster!"
I didn't argue. I just ran. I knew I couldn't face a dragon alone while my mind was fractured with worry. I ignored her warnings, my boots thudding against the dirt path until I reached the clearing where I had left them.
I skidded to a halt. The forest was silent, but the air smelled of copper.
Five massive, high-grade tigers were prowling the training ground. The grass was matted and stained deep red. The tigers were hunched over, feasting on something in the center of the clearing.
"What... what is this?"
My blood ran cold. On the ground near the largest tiger lay several small arms, severed and still clutching the iron daggers I had bought for them. Scraps of torn, familiar clothing were scattered like confetti.
"No... no, it can't be."
My knees buckled, hitting the dirt with a dull thud. A wave of nausea hit me as I realized the tigers were eating the children we had spent the last week protecting.
"STOP IT!!"
A blind, white-hot rage took over. I unsheathed the Time Sword, the metal humming in my hand. But before I could take a step, a blur of motion cut through the air. A sharp, searing sting flared in my right shoulder. I looked down, confused, and saw my own arm falling to the grass, the Time Sword still gripped in its fingers.
"AAAAHHH!!"
I collapsed, clutching the raw, bleeding stump. The pain was rhythmic and sickening. Ora screamed at me to move. I scrambled through the dirt, reaching for the sword with my left hand, and gasped out the command: "Time Heal!"
In a sickeningly bright flash, the bone and muscle knit back together. My arm was whole again. I stood up, gasping for air, and braced myself. Just then, a massive lion thudded into the dirt in front of me. It carried three figures on its back.
"My, how impressive. How did you grow your arm back?"
A man with long, groomed hair and elegant silk robes looked down at me. He held an unconscious Lavender like a trophy. Behind him stood the two assassins from the Candal mansion—the ones who had hunted us before.
"What are you doing with Lavender?! Give her back!" I roared.
The man let out a dry, mocking laugh. "I am Lazarus Candal. I’ve simply come to reclaim what was stolen from me. This girl belongs to me."
"What are you talking about? I bought Lavender fairly! She was never yours!"
"You are mistaken," Lazarus sneered, his eyes cold. "This slave is the offspring of my 'special' servants. Her mother is quite useful to me; I need the girl to keep her parents obedient." He explained with casual cruelty that his brother had sold her without permission, and he was here to "correct the error."
As he spoke, long, metallic blades erupted from his back like the legs of a spider. They swayed with a dark, rhythmic pulse. Ora hissed a warning—it was a Spirit Item.
"What did you do to the children?!" I demanded, my voice shaking.
"Oh... those Musang trash? They were useless, so I fed them to my pets," he said with a demonic grin.
My world narrowed down to the man in front of me. "I’ll make you pay for what you did to them!!"
I charged. The giant tigers lunged to intercept me. "TIME FREEZE!" I shouted.
The world turned gray and static. I sprinted past the frozen beasts. As time resumed, I swung the blade in a wide arc, opening the throats of two tigers before they could even blink. I dashed toward the third, but a heavy blow from a paw caught me in the ribs, launching me across the clearing. My lungs burned. I used Rewind to snap back to my previous position and, knowing the move this time, I ducked and drove the sword upward, ending the beast.
The next few minutes were a blur of desperation. My energy was flagging. I used the thick trunks of the trees for cover, dodging swipes and bites while the Time Sword's glow pulsed slowly, recharging. Once the cooldown passed, I triggered Time Freeze again and systematically finished the remaining tigers.
Lazarus watched, his smile finally faltering into an irritated scowl. "I didn't think an insect like you could kill my pets. You’ll pay for this with your life."
"Don't worry," I snarled, wiping blood from my mouth. "You’re next!"
I lunged for Lazarus, but the male assassin blocked my path with a heavy spear. "You think we’ll just let you near Master Lazarus?"
He was fast—much faster than the tigers. We traded blows, the ring of steel against steel echoing through the trees. I waited for a lapse in his rhythm. When he committed to a deep thrust, I rolled and whispered, "Time Freeze." I moved behind him and delivered a heavy, overhead slash to the base of his neck.
The blade hit a shimmering magic barrier. It didn't take his head, but the force shattered his protection and sent him stumbling. Before he could regain his footing, I lunged and drove the sword through his ribs.
"You're dead!" I yelled. He tried to dissolve into the shadows to escape, but I used Rewind to pull his body back to the exact moment my blade hit his neck. With his barrier gone, the second swing took his head clean off.
The female assassin let out a guttural scream of fury. She unfurled two steel fans, sending razor-sharp blades of wind whistling toward me. They sliced through the surrounding trees like saws. I dodged and wove through the gale, but the wind caught me, leaving deep gashes across my chest and legs.
I forced myself to ignore the pain. I couldn't waste energy on healing; I needed one last strike. She kept up the pressure, her breathing growing ragged as she unleashed gale after gale. When she finally paused for a split second to inhale, I saw my opening.
A few minutes later, the clearing went quiet again. I walked back toward Lazarus and tossed the female assassin’s head onto the blood-soaked grass at his feet.
"You absolute filth!" Lazarus roared, his face contorting. "Do you have any idea how valuable those subordinates were? You will suffer!"
This was the first time I had killed people by my own hand, but I felt nothing—just a cold, empty void. All that mattered was Lavender. "Don't worry," I said, my voice flat and toneless. "You're next."
The fight with Lazarus was a waking nightmare. My muscles were screaming, and the repeated use of the sword felt like it was draining the very marrow from my bones. His blade-tentacles were a blur, striking my limbs as I tried to get close.
"This is bad... I'm running out of energy," I realized. I had one shot left.
"TIME FREEZE!"
I poured every last drop of my strength into the blade. I sprinted toward him through the frozen air. As the world regained its color, I slashed at his throat. He was fast enough to move his head, but the blade carved a deep red line across his neck. He stumbled back, clutching the wound.
"How are you doing that?! You're just a peasant!"
He was bleeding. I moved in for the final blow, but with a panicked snarl, he shoved the unconscious Lavender directly into the path of my sword. He was using her as a shield.
I panicked, twisting my body to abort the swing. I dropped the sword and reached out to catch her as she fell toward me. But as I pulled her into my arms, I saw the gleam of the silver blades rising behind her.
Lazarus lunged. The blades drove through Lavender’s back and passed straight through her, impaling my chest as well.
We were skewered together, pinned like insects. I couldn't move; the air in my lungs was being replaced by blood. I gasped, looking down at her face. "Lavender... please don't give up. I'll save you..."
Her body was limp in my arms. I couldn't feel her heart beating against mine. I reached for her neck, praying for a pulse, but there was nothing. "No... Lavender? No, you can't be dead!"
The front of her dress was soaked in dark red. She was gone.
A cold, hollow despair washed over me, followed by a rage so hot I thought my skin would blister. For the second time, she had died because I wasn't enough.
"You'll pay for this, you demon!" I screamed, though it came out as a wet cough.
My vision began to fray at the edges. My legs gave out, and I slumped to the ground, still holding her. I could only weep—a mixture of salt and blood—clinging to her cold body.
"Please... give me one more chance," I whispered, my fingers brushing the hilt of the Time Sword one last time.
I looked up at Lazarus. He was standing over us, smiling like a devil. "That’s exactly what a peasant like you deserves. Die in agony and hatred!"
"I will never forgive you! You'll pay for this, Lazarus!!!" I screamed with the last of my breath.
As the words left my lips, one of his blades flashed forward, piercing through my forehead. For the second time, the world went black.
2026-03-05 01:09:48
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