“No one left anything behind?” Penny says, glancing around the cavern. Ren shakes his head. He didn’t bring much with him—Vane and Penny are the ones carrying most of their supplies. Satisfied, Penny steps out of the small chamber with the rest of the team in tow, her dirk raised high into the air like a call to arms.

The bats that clustered upon the ceiling before are now gone, and Ren can only wonder where they went. Out, perhaps?

Just then, the floor rumbles. Ren hurtles towards the cave wall, slamming his shoulder hard against it. What in the world…? Before he can complete that thought, the quake subsides. Ren rights himself, as does his teammates.

“What was that?” Penny wonders, a wary note in her voice.

“Whatever it is, it didn’t sound good,” Gridel mumbles. In other words, keep their guard up.

Ren tightens his fingers arounds his rod, and Penny’s hand falls to the grip of her dirk. Ren’s gaze darts to the shadows cast by the stalagmites, to the shadows of the stalactites against the wall. Once or twice, he sees a pair of blinking, yellow eyes. But they are gone in the next second, and he is not quite sure what to make of them.

The cave soon opens up to what appears to be a mountain pass, a crumbly walkway that hugs the perimeter of the mountain. From here, Ren is bathed in the red of the sky, and in the distance, he sees the black silhouette of the Horseman of Death. They’ve certainly not destroyed his heart yet, so he continues his unceasing patrol. What they seized was only a tiny victory. Insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Now that Ren thinks about it, what is the Horseman’s goal anyway? Where did it come from? And on that note, what brought about the apocalypse?

“How unsightly.”

Vane stands beside Ren on the cliff, looking out at the scenery. The scenery that holds nothing but death and…emptiness. Not a single crow, not a single animal. Even the trees are only husks of what they could be.

“I was told of a world above the surface, before the apocalypse broke out,” Vane says. “Where the flora and fauna flourished, where the…sun shone bright. There was nothing to fear on the surface.”

“The world wasn’t like this before, right?” Ren says. “I was told that it only came about in the last three hundred years.”

“So it did. Something terrible happened three hundred years ago that brought upon the apocalypse as we know it.”

“Really?”

Vane hums. He glances down, still grasping his healing arm tenderly. “The most powerful kingdom of that time, Heliola, fell to a great power. It was then that Pandora’s Citadel was erected, and the Four Horsemen each claimed a part of Zenthos to rule over.”

“Wait, so all this came about because Heliola was ruined?” Ren asks.

“The details are rather…lacking,” Vane says. “It was all I could gather from the ancient tomes.”

He pivots on his heel, and makes after Gridel and Penny, who have already made it halfway up the slope. “Come. We must leave before we are detected.”

Ren gives the landscape one last look, as if trying to burn it into his memory, before hurrying after Vane. They continue up the mountainous passage, which eventually lead them back into the caverns. Upon re-entering, Ren is blinded.

Crystals embedded in the walls are polished to the nines, sparkling in the dim light of the moss. Ren marvels at his own, almost undistorted, reflection. Unblemished surfaces aside, the crystals are tinted with all colours imaginable—the cave’s practically a gold mine of metals. Makes Ren want a tiny chip of each as keepsakes. Maybe he’ll come back here after the apocalypse is over and grab some just before they go home.

They continue farther in—a straight tunnel that delivers them to the mouth of a cave. Just ahead is a thin strip of rock bridging two cliffs. Ren gulps. That thing looks like it’ll crumble as soon as he puts one foot on it. However, a scan of the area yields nothing else. This narrow passage is the only way across.

“Well, you only live once, am I right?” Penny says. She takes a deep breath and rolls her shoulders. Alarm bells ring in Ren’s head, because he knows exactly what she’s about to attempt—

“Here goes nothing!”

Before anyone can stop her, she’s off. Gridel’s fingers barely miss the collar of her robes, and Penny bounds across the bridge. Ren makes after her, Gridel and Vane’s warning shouts falling on deaf ears. He all but flies across the bridge, the rock shaking under his and Penny’s combined weight.

A sudden screech in the sky has Penny and Ren skidding to a halt. Against the crimson backdrop, a cloud of black soars. Wings flapping, collective chitters threatening to rupture Ren’s eardrums. For a single moment, the cluster stops in mid-air, the shape of their formation looking almost like a humongous bat.

And in the next, they dive.

“Move! Run!” Ren exclaims.

The rock bridge shudders with each pound of their boots. The chittering flock swoops low, smashing straight into the rock. Penny makes it to the other end, but Ren isn’t so lucky.

Under the bats’ relentless assault, the rock bridge crumbles and snaps with a sickening crack. The floor gives out from under Ren’s feet, seconds after he makes a defiant leap at the cliff. Fingers splayed, reaching for the edge. Hoping.

Then, his fingers find purchase. He scrabbles against it, hissing as the rock bruises skin. Blood pounds in Ren’s ears as he invokes all his might to hold on. Just to cling with all his strength.

The screech of metal against rock below him jolts at Ren, but he has no time to look down. He needs to focus on getting himself up and out of imminent danger.

“Ren!” Penny offers a hand, worried face appearing in his field of vision. “Take my hand!”

Wasting no time, Ren pushes himself up. He only has a fraction of a second before his arms give up on him, but Penny is quick enough to grab his hand and pull him to safety. Ren’s exhalations come out ragged, a fist against his chest as he tries to steady his breaths.

The bats come back for round two, the massive black cloud swooping once more, tiny fangs glinting from gaping jaws. Ren hops to his feet and clutches his rod. He shuts his eyes, concentrating, and summons a fireball.

The fireball sears through the air, right at the flock of bats. The cloud of bats parts down the middle, and the two halves miss Ren and Penny by inches. They zoom past the cliff, down into the valley. Ren’s gaze following the flock of bats, he finally sees them at last, their two companions.

Both of them are scaling the rock wall, blades dug deep into its side. They are making their way up, slowly but surely. However, they are unable to fight, not when doing so will lead to certain doom.

In that case, Ren and Penny have got to cover the duo till they reach the top. Penny can’t do much with her dirk, so it’s all up to Ren. The bats fly low once more, this time coming up at Vane and Gridel from below.

But if Ren fires from this angle, he’s going to hit them. There’s no way he can…

Or is there?

Ren’s not sure he can do it yet. He’s not sure if he’s strong enough, or if he even has enough energy to conjure…

“Vane! Gridel! Don’t move!” Ren yells, grip so tight on his rod that his knuckles turn white.

Surrounding the duo is a wreath of flames that soon forms a dome. The bats, unable to avoid it in time, shoot right into the fire. Agonized screeches echo in the valley as a couple of the bats fall, piercing enough to make Ren flinch.

To his relief, the Horseman does not appear to have noticed the commotion. His team of horses is nowhere in sight, but it won’t be long before he finds them. Before that happens, though, they’ve got to get back into the cave.

Ren gasps, a wave of nausea hitting him like a punch to the guts. He doubles over, coughing as his chest begins to burn. His rod clatters to the ground the same moment the flames go out, leaving Gridel and Vane vulnerable once more.

“Ren!” Penny grasps his shoulder, but Ren shrugs her off.

“Penny, I’m going to need your help,” Ren gasps out through the throbbing ache. “I have an idea but I don’t know if it’ll work.”

“Better than nothing. What is it?”

There’s no time to waste. The plan rushes out of Ren’s mouth in one long stream of words. But Penny listens with rapt attention, nodding and humming in acknowledgement. Ren musters up the last of his strength and grabs his rod. He raises it into the air and in one fluid move, jams it into the ground.

The cliff rumbles, and from the ruby orb, a burst of fire spews forth, like a fountain. Ren makes a sweeping gesture, drawing the flames out from the orb.

“Uh, Ren, you might wanna hurry!” Penny urges.

Ren grits his teeth, slamming his fist to the earth, and the fire follows, streaming down the cliff like a waterfall of lava. “Now, Penny!”

Penny drives her dirk into the blazing heat. However, the water drawn from her blade immediately vaporizes upon contact, turning into wisps of steam. Penny has got to control her magic more, or else their plan…

Penny twists the dirk, and this time, instead of mixing the stream of fire, it wraps around the jet of flames, like the rubber coating of wire. If fire burns, water is its soothing antithesis. If fire kills, then water heals.

The water grows along the serpentine thread of fire, aiming for the two still struggling upon the cliffside. The flock of bats have circled around, now making for the duo once again.

The faint whinny of a horse sends a shot of panic through Ren, thrumming through his veins, but they’ve come too far to give up. The water curls around the two of them like tendrils of a vine, securing them with a dance of fire and water. The moment Penny hollers the signal, Ren pulls.

And like magic, the water rips both Vane and Gridel from the side of the cliff, seconds before the flock of bats crashes into the spot where they were. The water hurls the duo into the air, high enough to reach the clifftop and a little more.

This time, when the fire fades away, the water does too, splashing to the ground and drenching the cliff. Ren stumbles, his headache mounting to a rising crescendo. The rod slips from his hand and clangs against the stone, the lively red that was the orb now drained.

Ren collapses and hits the ground face-first, head pulsing with pain, black dots dancing at the edges of his vision. His entire body hurts, his soaked robes dragging pins and needles across his skin.

The frantic yell of his name is the last thing that Ren remembers before he drifts off to dreamland.

*

The next time Ren awakens, it is to the howl of the wind. He blinks slowly and reaches up to rub the crust from his eyes. Darkness surrounds him—he can barely make out the tint of red through the blinds of the window…

Blinds? A window? Where is he?

Ren sits upright, flinching at the pain arrowing through his head and down his spine. He gently massages his temples, before glancing around, and actually attempting to take in his environment.

He appears to be in a dark room, furnished with the barest necessities. A table, a closet, a bed. The doorway is a window to a bland corridor, at least, from what little Ren can see. Are they in a…house? What kind of house exists…

“Ren-ren! You’re awake!”

A shape appears at the door. Dressed in robes of a pinkish hue, stripped of her armour, Penny strides into the room, a stack of tattered cloths in her arms. She hurries to his bedside.

“How’re you doing? Doing good?” Penny says, flashing him what must be the widest grin he’s ever seen.

Ren grimaces. “I mean, I did knock my head on a rock.”

Penny clucks her tongue. “Yeah, it was quite a fall.” She lays her palm against his forehead. She frowns, and Ren swallows uncomfortably.

“What?” he asks.

“You’ve got a fever. Wow,” Penny mumbles. “Gridel was right.”

Ren groans. Is that why his head is splitting in two right now like a watermelon at the beach?

“Unfortunately, we don’t have medicine for fevers,” Penny says. “You’re just going to have to deal with it. Drink more, eat more and sleep more.”

Ren lays back down on the lumpy mattress, shutting his eyes and willing the headache to go away. Penny stands back up, once more clutching the sheets to her chest.

“Still, you did a great job. I think Vane and Gridel would have died if you didn’t think of that strategy in time.”

Right. That…that fight with the bats on the cliffside. It’s a hazy memory, honestly. Ren can only remember the cloud of black, the incessant chittering from the bats as they flew in perfect sync, gliding and soaring through the air. What became of them, anyway?

“What happened to the bats?” Ren asks.

“The Horseman got to them, I think. After we got into the cave, he came with his horses and all. Kind of just slew the whole group.”

That’s the Horseman of Death for you. If they were a second later, they’d have been thrown into another tussle with the monster, and Ren isn’t sure that they’d come out of that unscathed as they did before.

“Anyway, Gridel’s preparing some sort of soup for you,” Penny says. “And hot eye candy is guarding the entrance to this place.”

Ren splutters. “Hot eye candy?”

“Don’t think I don’t see you looking at him when you think I’m not looking.”

Ren blinks. His muddled brain can hardly comprehend whatever just came out of Penny’s mouth. He chalks it up to his fever and pretends he didn’t hear it.

“Where are we anyway?” Ren asks. This place looks pretty lived in, and it most certainly didn’t spring up out of nowhere.

“Uh…some temple or something. At the base of the mountain,” Penny says. “From before the apocalypse. That’s what Vane said, at least.”

A temple? Worshipping who? Gaia?

“Well, I’m going to go wash our robes and everything,” Penny says, gesturing at the cloth in her arms. Ren lowers his gaze to himself, only then realizing that he’s also wearing a set of robes of the same colour as Penny’s. “You stay here and get a good night’s sleep, okay?”

With that, she skips out the door, headed down the corridor with a cheerful hum. Ren throws an arm over his eyes, nostrils flaring as he exhales. They’re at a temple, apparently, so does that mean…?

Are there other people here?

Then again, Penny didn’t seem too worried about their situation. If there are other people here, then they’re friendly, right? They’re in safe hands. Reassuring himself with that thought, Ren closes his eyes again and quickly falls asleep once more.

*

“Hey.”

Ren awakens to the aroma of food. Food that he’s never smelled in a long time—the salty tang of chicken soup. He blinks awake, feeling somewhat better than before. Penny sits on the side of his bed, a filled bowl placed upon the table. Ren salivates just staring at it.

“Well, eat up.” Penny chuckles, as Ren props himself up with his elbows. “Vane says you need to replenish your strength after using all that magic.”

Ren hums. Magic. That’s exactly what got him into this condition in the first place. Using magic really does take a toll on the user; Ren wonders if he’d ever get used to it. He reaches for the bowl and takes his first sip.

“Did Gridel make this?” Ren asks as soon as he swallows the first bite.

“Yeah. It’s good, right?”

It’s fantastic; it’s simple—just the right amount of salt, the right amount of meat (whether that’s chicken meat or not, Ren does not know), the right amount of everything, really. He finishes it in record time, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand when he is done. He leaves the bowl on the bedside table.

“Where’s Gridel and Vane?” he asks. He’s quenched his thirst and quelled his hunger—if not for the slight throb in his skull, he’d be fighting fit.

“Gridel’s guarding. Vane’s checking out the temple.”

“Are we underground?”

Penny shakes her head. “No, but this place has been abandoned for a while, so it’s not like the Horseman will check in here anyway.”

Given that he’s not dead yet, Ren has to take her word for it. He swings his legs off the bed, looking around for his rod. Ifrit leans against the wall, its ruby returned to its vibrant red. Now that he thinks about it, the ruby’s deepness of colour must be a measure of his remaining energy. Well, that could be a good gauge of how much strength he has left, in addition to his general physical condition.

Ren follows Penny out of the room, walking along corridors that were once red, but are now pink shadows of their former selves. Shards of gold litter the ground, still shiny despite its age. They must be real, pure gold, then. Ren sidesteps what appears to be a shattered plate on the ground, before coming to what must be a hall as big as that in the castle in Gravelle.

It looks almost identical, honestly, save for its state of disrepair. The ceiling still holds, but some of the walls have crumbled. White pillars lie cracked on the ground, scattered across the velvet carpet, a sharp contrast to its maroon.

“Who’s this temple dedicated to?” Ren asks. Such a red temple—totally different from the blinding white of Gravelle’s shrine and castle.

“Vane said it’s a deity called Xarax,” Penny says. “Ignis’ first general.”

“First general?”

Penny nods. “Ignis was, like, the leader of the gods, you know? Like, even greater than Gaia. So, He had this legion of soldiers under him. Xarax was His best general.”

Interesting. To be honest, Ignis does sound like one of those old-timey warmongering kings sitting on his throne and stroking His trusty beard while thinking up battle strategies. Maybe even with a sparkly crown decked out in rubies perched on his head.

Past the broken pillars is a set of stairs that leads them to higher ground. Penny and Ren sidestep the debris and climb it. They come to a broad doorway that opens up to a large chamber, as large as the one that houses Gaia’s statue. And speaking of statues…

A golden giant stands at the far end of the chamber; a man with a snake for a head and the body of a human, forked tongue mid-flick. He glares down at them, and uneasiness flows through Ren, almost as if this man—presumably Xarax, is watching their every move. Ren pointedly averts his gaze, which now falls on the short table smashed and splintered by a fallen pillar, incense sticks scattered about on the floor.

“So, this is Xarax,” Ren says.

“Yeah. According to Vane,” Penny says.

Will Xarax speak to them upon prayer like how Gaia did to Elvira? Not that Ren knows how to commune with holy spirits anyway. Does he need to be of a certain bloodline or do some ritual or something?

Still, it’s a little strange to find a temple dedicated to one of Ignis’ men out here. Ren expected one related to Gaia. Maybe geographical location has nothing to do with who reveres what god.

“Well, we tried talking to Xarax,” Penny says. “Me and Vane. But, well, we didn’t manage to. He’s either ignoring us or we’re doing something wrong.”

“He is a good f sorts,” Ren says. “Doubt he’d just talk to any old commoner.”

“It’s not like Vane’s a commoner, though. He’s a prince.”

“A prince of the colony that worships Gaia.”

Penny hums, as if considering what he said, before turning her heels on the statue and plodding out the room. “You’ve got a point there. Come on. Let’s go meet Vane and Gridel. If we’re all good, then we can continue onward to Mount Hilbeck.”

“How far are we from that, anyway?” Ren asks. It feels like they’ve walked for forever, though it’s probably been slightly more than a day or two since they left. Ren is already missing the delicious food and the comfy sheets, already missing the promise of safety and security. The faster they can kill this goddamned Horseman of Death, the faster they can return to Gaia’s protection.

“You can actually see it from here.” Penny waves Ren over to a small hole in the wall. Squinting through it, Ren sees a mountain, and upon that mountain, what appears to be a palace. He remembers seeing it once before, but it’s closer now. Almost within reach. “We just need to cross this field and we’d be able to reach the mountain. Then it’s all a matter of climbing.”

With that said, there’s likely to be a substantial number of guards now, isn’t there? Evil beings that lurk in the night, ready to inflict death upon any who dare to intrude. Ren can only imagine the kinds of shapes they’d take, the Horseman’s henchmen.

Ren and Penny leave the worship chamber, down the stairs and to the hall, where Gridel and Vane appear to be waiting.

“Have you rested well, Your Re—I mean, Ren?” Gridel coughs, flushing a light pink.

“I’m fine,” Ren says. He turns to Vane, who merely nods.

“Mount Hilbeck lies just beyond the vast plains,” Vane says. “We have less than a day’s worth of trek to go.”

How Vane even tells the time is beyond Ren. In any case, they are indeed rested, and armed with new clothes too. The robes that Ren wears now certainly fits him better and are less flowy. At least he won’t be afraid of getting caught on anything—like jagged outcrops—during battle.

Leaving the temple behind, the four head off towards their destination in the distance, towards the palace atop Mount Hilbeck. It’s time to settle their score with the Horseman of Death, once and for all.