"This is bad," Rem flopped down--defeated.

Night had fallen. Any semblance of sunlight had long disappeared. The tint of the forest's magical light suspended above the ground like glowing snow. These little illuminations were the only leverage the boy had among the bothersome darkness.

Rem already suffered for a straight one kilometer, and he was never good at running.

"This operation is a party of clusterfucks," Rem leaned against a trunk of a moss-cover tree, complaining to himself. "What am I thinking? No planning. No back-up. No risk-assessment. It's a miracle I make it this far."

With only throwing blades and swizz-army knife as his resource, Rem knew he was a brink from eating dirt. If he survived, this crappy piece of adventure would make quite a cautionary tale.

In that state of loss, Rem considered his option. He could wait and hope, or struggle in vain to look for his lost back-ups. The stoic boy took one second to decide. He would rest here until his feet stop its unending grievance before flipping the bird at the ugly face of defeat.

After all, that would be what Superman does.

"HELP!" Scream a familiar voice. "Help me!"

Rem was tempted to shriek Eureka. It appeared Murphy finally decided to take pity on him. Now he needed her attention.

Rem took out his swizz-army knife. It was rectangular, decently weight and perfectly balanced as all things should be. He tossed the black plastic-clad tool up and down playfully.

Then he threw it at the goddess who was running around like a headless chicken.

One of the first things Rem learn from his short time with Scathach was the difference between Skill and Magic. Magic was the power to convert Mana to work depending on the user attribute, while skill was a crystallization in the mastery of their art.

Rem's skill, [Knife Throwing (D)], was the evidence Rem's ability to throw sharp-object was graduating from the realm of humanity. Days spent under Scathach's brutality scribed raw precision and technique into his muscle's memory, creating the skill within his subconscious itself.

Under its influence, Rem could predict a moving target path and nailed it with a knife. While Cytortia was fast, she was as equally predictable.

The mass of plastic and metal flew in a long arc and landed on the flailing goddess with a successful clang. The goddess fell over, clutching her head in tears. That wasn't the end. The goddess's momentum wouldn't allow the girl to stop gracefully. Cytortia inevitably toppled into a wheel of pain and rising dust cloud before ramming into a tree and coming to rest.

Cytortia twitched twice and went rabid. Today ordeal reduced her clothing into a shabby mess. Her moderately pretty face was dirty and puffy from all the tripping and crying.

"What the hell, Rem?!" The goddess yelled.

"I need to get your attention."

"You have a better way than throwing stuff at me, right!?"

"Would you stop and listened otherwise?"

Cytortia clenched her hand in rage and punched Rem in the face with all the strength she could muster.

Rem did not see that coming.

...

Finally, at long last, and few punches, the goddess and her buddy came with a practical strategy.

Finding Luxinna again with the World Enemy on the loose was impossible, Rem suggested they should locate and took out the World Enemy first. It was a plan which sent a shiver down Cytortia's spine.

Cytortia protested for a solid thirty minutes, but after calling elder Avar only to hit a voice message, the goddess was desperate. The fact that the livelihood of one certain elf girl was still up in the air only increased her stress-level. However, the deal-breaker would be the eyes of Rem that sent an invisible pressure crushing on her head.

In the end, the goddess moaned out a frustrated cry to heaven and surrendered.

Both Rem and Cytortia drank from the Cleanser the goddess kept. Using her skill, the goddess directed toward the two-man team toward the highest mana concentration in the area.

Meanwhile, Rem was reading the goddess Status ID.

...

Cytortia

Heavenly daughter of Wood

Stat

Str: 120 [E]

End: 300 [D]

Magic: 375 [C]

Wisdom: 240 [D]

Dexterity: 120 [E]

Skill

Active

Nature Magic [C]

Healing Master [A]

Alchemy [S]

Tactical Retreat [A]

Animal Communication [B]

Passive

Goddess Origin [SS]

Divinity [A]

Wood Affinity [SSS]

...

Rem felt the silver of doubt crept upon him.

His power-level, the sum of his stat, was only 1000. The cowardly goddess in front of him had a power-level of 1155. Cytortia was a solid 155 point above him, and she still ran like a bitch against the World Enemy.

Rem looked ahead. Now that he got time to think. Is this worth it? He was about to pick a fight with a monster who took an entire nation three tries and sky-high price to defeat. Every result Rem foresaw told him, he was in to get painfully tore apart limbs from limbs in a messy death.

Even if he survived, there was a price he had to pay to defeat such a monster. The prospect of that price sent a cold, wet touch of fear trickling down his collarbone.

In front of him, the goddess sensed his hesitation. She knew this would be her last chance to get out of this disaster.

She would not let this go. It was a battle for survival, and Cytortia wanted to live.

"Chuang's and Tai Hua's power-level when at their awakening was 1500 and 1600 respectively," Cytortia said, clinging desperately for survival while looking hopelessly at the ground. "Their current power is at least quadruple that value. We are puppies in front of them, yet, even they won't fight against a World Enemy under these circumstances!"

Rem listened. He admitted Cytortia had a point even with fear choppily coated her reasoning. Of course, a girl who was a bully-victim all her life would cow away from adversity. It was an ingrained survival instinct to run from a predator.

"Do you understand how hopeless this is now?" Cytortia looked at Rem. The white of panic was transparent in her eyes. "Rem, you must see that worm fighting Scathach, right? That's nothing compared to World Enemy! They are a monster so powerful we have to assemble an army to win! Rem, nobody asked you to do this, and even then, it is not worth it. We will die! Both of us!"

Rem breathed, summoning a single image into his mind and put his foot forward with all his will power.

Someone did ask him to do this.

Cytortia bit her lips at her plea ineffectiveness. She needed to try harder. The air tensed against the cocktail of emotion as the goddess's face turn dark before she spoke with trembling lips.

"Don't you get it? I know Luxinna might fall into their palm already. But it is only a chance? Are we walking to die for a tiny possibility? J...Just wait for Scathach! She will fix everything! The elves already assembled an army! I am sure of it. Isn't it better to fight when every back-up has arrived."

In a land of black sky and red poppies, a ten-year-old version of Rem Breaker agreed with that statement.

Rem stood stiffly, the balls of light in the celestial forest reflected from his eyes. The animalistic instinct to glee fought with his courage under the act of calmness. He breathed gradually, slowly forcing his foot to move. Rem thought about an old elf waiting and hoping that everything would work out.

That possibility fueled his willpower. Rem moved another foot past the goddess. He noticed how the speck of white-bark managed to sneak past the moss cover trees. Strangely, he couldn't help but compare that image to his heart.

Just how much emotion he had to cover up until he got everything done.

Cytortia was right. He had no chance. The probability of him living through this mess was as likely as high as the chance of an ordinary man trying to stop a train barehanded.

Another imagination surfaced--a sad incarnation of good looking dejectedly over the burning multiverse.

That pushed him one more step.

"Rem! Listen to me! What you are doing was not bravery?! It is the height of stupidity! You think you are a hero! Heroes are the lapdogs who join Chuang and Tie Hua and murder for them! Please come back! Let those lunatics take the glory! Our life was not worth it!"

That wasn't true. Rem thought, soldiering against the enticement to surrender.

'Heroes' would join them, but 'he' wouldn't. He would be there at the impasse between the two armies--the greatest bulwark against total anarchy. A figure of hope who flew in the blue sky. A fictional hero created during men's darkest hour to never let us down.

What would he say in this situation?

There a right and a wrong in this universe. And that distinction is not hard to make.

The boy took three steps forward.

He glanced at the sky. The night was dark and overwhelming, but maybe tomorrow would better. The sun would always break the darkness. Perhaps that light of dream and freedom would shatter the veil of hopelessness and opened up a new future. Rem gave a content smile. His emotion wasn't wholly there, but he didn't need it. Everyone deserved to be free, including that idiot elf.

Luxinna Drakokia might be perfectly safe. But what if she wasn't? Ignoring that possibility wasn't something he would have done. Reality was a bitch, but that didn't give him the entitlement to pity party. If a girl got pinned under a fallen building, her resue is the priority. The consequence came later.

Rem was not the hero he wanted to be. That hero was the highest aspiration of hope in human form. But, unlike most of humanity, Rem understood the difficulty of that code chose to follow it anyway. Now, it was time to prove he meant it.

Cytortia could only look in awe as the hesitating boy took a step to steady himself and marched fearlessly to his doom.

Everything she was seeing defy her understanding. Rem was afraid. He knew the possibilities were uncheatable and irreversible. Despite that, he was willing to risk it all for a girl he met today. No one in her life would do this, not without expecting any reward.

"How are you doing this?"

Throughout Cytortia's life, she retreated from obstacles. A part of her even agreed with Magnolia that justice was a deadman's path. The existence of four senior sisters with too much power influenced her to prioritize survival above all else.

"Because it is the right thing," Rem said. "I only ask myself what would Superman do, that's all. Even if she is not there, I still have to be sure."

The mission was suicidal, but the spine of that boy was not that of a fool. Mortality fell both naive and cruel, but real optimism stood proud against it.

The boy, armed with nothing but throwing blades, swizz-army knife, and the ideal of the Superhero marched to face a monster meant to fight with an army.

"Who or what is Superman?" Cytortia muttered as she blindly stumbled after him.

....

"Oh my god, " Cytortia said when the two finally arrived at the target area.

Rem breathed a sigh of relief; he made the right choice. Rem reaffirmed his resolved. Like it or not, his time finally arrived.

The place was hell. Toxic green canal divided the two from floors of purple thorn and army of corrupted creatures. The Paracis Corrupter--a bubbling, disgusting lotus--sat above the green waterfall. Tentacles spread around the World Enemy's purple petal and pointed at the two invading. Its black maw and teeth opened wide, exuding a stench and pressure that choked the life out of the air.

Beneath the monster lotus was Luxinna herself.

The elf's clothing now resembled burnt rags. Red and purple electrical current boiled across her skin. Her eyes were animalistic white, devoided of pupil or rationality. Green infested flesh covered her back like a cloak of rashes. The infestation also spread down her arms, coating a layer of nauseous armor over her arm, growing demonic claws from her fingers, and cladding her legs and feet in spikes. Black tentacle brandished from her back, ready to strike at any moment.

"Rem, this is bad," Cytortia hid behind Rem. "The infestation on her was already past halfway toward the first stage."

Rem nodded. The time constraint meant that calling for Scathach's help wasn't possible.

"Cy, please hand me the cure," Rem said, suppressing the terror from his voice.

The army of creatures-- a twisted gathering of bears, wolves, and deers malformed by the black tentacles--growled as Rem accepted the vial on hope. It was a bottle symbolizing the hopelessness of the fight against the world. Rem smiled thinly. In the face of life and death, this vail seemed to shine a little lighter.

The creature inched forward.

"Rem you had a plan, right?" Cytortia said, panicking.

Rem did not answer. His mind was too busy elsewhere.

...

A manifestation of Remus Breaker walked among the chalk-color ground. Petal of poppies rose around him in a harmonious crescendo. The black still air sky was as calm and resolute as his resolved.

In front of him stood a majestic white tower and two figures barring his way.

'Go back,' the younger Rem clenched his fist in fear, mustering all his courage to face against the older Rem. 'You should know what going through with this means.'

"I know."

'This is insanity!'

"We will die if we don't," Rem expression was both resolved and resigned as he came face-to-face with his terrified younger version.

'That is better than what would happen to us if you cut the deal!' The younger self cried, punching Rem with all the power he had.

It was the vain attempt of reality trying to reject hope. Such a bubble could only fight against the dream and determination of mankind for so long. It was like how wishes to reach the star led to the invention of the space shuttle.

Rem caught the boy by the wrist and threw him to the side. The younger Rem helplessly sprawled and glared back at him.

With an anguished scream, he roared.

'Are you even a human? Where is your self-preservation? Where is your intelligence? Are you willing to burn forever for the people you don't even know? There has to be a limit to your delusion!"

Rem turned to look toward the boy.

"What separate you from an animal if not for that delusion?" Rem replied.

The boy immediately stopped talking.

"Homo-Sapiens can talk and communicate, unlike animals," Rem looked down at his younger self, and for once, he was angry. "Aside from that, what part of you is better than pig or cockroach if you prioritize your happiness and ego to the point you are willing to forsake your ideal and duty as human-being? Doing the right thing is hard and unrewarding, but if you think you can have free stuff while letting evil reign, then the barrier separating society from a jungle will come crashing down. My patience is running low, so let me be clear. We are not bitches. So shut that speech from the entitled dog-ate-dog part of your brain. Are we clear?"

The boy stared dejectedly at the ground, shivering from fear.

Rem turned to face the second person blocking him.

A girl with rainbow-color hair, a sharply angled face, and the dress made of white fires looked at him with the eyes of awe and concern. She had told him the only way forward, but she had never believed he had the strength to follow through with this.

'Are you sure?' She whispered eyes widen with both admiration and grudging respect. 'There is no known way to undo this contract.'

Rem reminiscent back toward to the time the girl in front of him told him the only method for him to wield his mightiest power.

It was the path toward [Arrival of Dream].

...

Note: Cytortia's Alchemy was derived from Poison-Concoction [C], Phase Manipulation [A], Identification [A], Substances Processing [S]