During the next eight months, Räel and Rin continued to live in the forest. Räel tried to convince her everyday to leave, but Rin said that if they wanted to change the fate that the seers had divined, they had to fight and survive here and live. They lived happily during these eight months, fighting against monsters and the natural environment. They did not know much about the forest, only that it had a mind of its own. Sometimes, if they stood absolutely still and peered from the corner of their eyes they could see the trees moving.

The monsters that appeared in the forest were nothing compared to Räel, thousands of years as a warrior honed his natural abilities to an almost godlike understanding. After just a few exchanges, he could determine where the major organs of the different magical beasts were and dismantled them with keen efficiency.

Magical beasts soon realized they were no match for this small humanoid monster and would actively try and avoid him by any means possible. It became increasingly hard for Räel to find meat to cook and had to resort to the fruits and vegetables deeper in the dense forest. While he was gone, Rin took care of cooking the food and salting the extra meat to preserve for later.

During the early morning, Räel and Rin had awoken to the sounds of a beast ravaging their food stocks. Räel moved quickly to the dry storage, and saw within it was a horned storm tiger. The storm tiger was one of the few magical beasts in the forest that Räel actively avoided. The horn was the exact size of the stab wound in the visions given by the seer and storm tigers were incredibly ferocious in the face of single opponents.

This storm tiger seemed to still be a bit young, maybe a hundred years old. The stripe color variance was similar to the white tigers of the Northern Mountains in the Northern Continent. The true difference, however, was the viciousness of the storm tiger. It was as if they were born in thunder and lightning and their blood was fueled by the taste of war.

There was only one other instance where Räel had seen the fierceness of the storm tiger. Two thousand years ago, on an unnamed battlefield in the Eastern continent, four separate tribes were vying for control of the entire region. One tribe made a pact with the king of the storm tigers and led them into battle. Räel participated against the storm tigers and was ripped limb from limb within a matter of seconds. The king of the storm tigers easily reached a length of fifteen feet and its paws were the size of Räel's torso. For an entire year after his resurrection, he had nightmares of the storm tigers ripping out his throat.

Now one was in front of him, baring its fangs once again. Though this one was just a young pup, and he was much stronger than he was during that fight, he couldn't force himself to move. His legs felt as if they were frozen in place, until the storm tiger let loose a vicious bloodcurdling roar. As it pounced, Räel willed himself to move and jumped backwards to avoid the claws of the tiger. The tiger quickly darted towards Räel and it was as if he was being chased by lightning. He had resolved to lead it away from the camp and his beloved, so he forced all his strength into his legs and sprinted deeper into the forest. After a few hours had passed, the tiger seemed to have lost patience with trying to catch him and turned off to another direction. The tiger was no fool, he was not gaining any distance and was wasting alot of energy for one meal. The storm tiger gave one final growl and skulked off to find more food and a place to rest.

Räel did his best to return to Rin's side, but the forest had played a very cruel trick on him. He did not know which direction he had fled, nor did he know how to return to her side. The only thing he could do was mark the trees he had already passed, in hopes that it would shed some insight into if he was in fact going in circles. Once he started to recognize the marks he had been placing on the trees, he knew he was being manipulated.

He sat down among the base of a large oak and began to meditate. Inside his mind, he connected to the earth and the big oak appeared in front of him. A young women emerges from the oak to offer Räel a deal. Räel would get to be with his beloved for her last moments, but she would have to be buried under the roots of the oak. Knowing things were progressing just as the visions predicted, he made the bargain and the woods slowly twisted to form a path.

Once Räel had chased off the storm tiger, Rin began to prepare for the ritual. She followed along a path to a large stone pillar, and inscribed a magical array on its face. Rin could feel the baby kicking as she carefully carved the symbols into the pillar with as much precision as she could muster. After a few hours had passed, the array was created and showed signs of a faint glow. She began to chant as if she was possessed, swaying back and forth against the large rock. Once the chanting ended, both Mother and Child were deathly quiet. From within a small bag, Rin took out the horn of a storm tiger cub and stabbed it in to her gut. With the spilling blood, she traced the magical array and it began to glow with an intense golden light. She quickly shattered the storm tiger cubs horn with high intensity flame magic and prepared herself for the afterlife. After coming to peace with what she had done, she slumped against the pillar and waited for her love.

Räel followed the path to find Rin sitting against a large pillar, blood spilling from her stomach. She looked up at him lovingly as he held her in his hands. She spoke quietly, gasping for breath just as the visions showed. "Räel, I am truly sorry I could not protect our child. Please, don't let others suffer as we have suffered. Our time was short, but it was the best thing that could ever have happened to me. I will be waiting for you in eternal slumber my love."

As he drew her closer, he could hear faint sounds of sobbing. He tightened his grip around her as she struggled to say something. He placed his ears close to her mouth and her last words slipped away before she drew her last breath. "It was humans that killed me."

As she drew her last breath, tears fell from her face like a beautiful river. She truly was happy to have met Räel, even if they did not have long together. What more could she ask for than to be with the man she loved before it was her time to say goodbye.

Räel lifted her close to his body and carried her to the large oak tree in the forest. He took a shovel from his spatial spell, the first time he used magic in decades, and began to dig. He dug deep into the earth, until the roots of the oak became visible. He placed Rin's body securely inside and buried her beside a bushel of blood thorns, her favorite flower. Once he finished packing in the dirt, he noticed little green sprouts coming out from her grave. A small tear slipped down his face as he saw blood thorns growing around her grave, their growth fueled by the blood of Rin.

For the first time in hundreds of years, he had a clear goal. Every single human must be sacrificed so that no more magical beings will have to go through what he had gone through. They were a plague on this world, and must be eradicated. If the gods see fit, once the humans have died he will willingly end his life to be with his wives and child.

Steeling his heart, he headed toward the King's palace in the Southern Domain.

The current king led a life filled with luxury and over-indulgence. He had the title passed down from him, although he dare not claim that he qualified to be in the position. The unfortunate truth was, he ruled under a time of prosperity where acumen and battle strategy were not necessary. No one bothered taking his position because it was unimportant. As long as he kept his head low and did not offend anyone, he could live his life out as he wished without worrying about being killed.

Räel had different plans for the current king. If he was unwilling to listen to Räel's council, then he could consider his life forfeit. Räel swiftly walked through the side streets of the capital in the magical kingdom before finally entering the holy grounds of the king's palace.

Outside the palace, the guards lazily sparred with each other, not noticing that a man had just casually walked in. It was not until he was half-way to the palace doors that someone noticed he had unlawfully entered. The guard bell rang, and thirty armed fighters appeared both inside and outside the courtyard. Räel bowed slightly and then took from his spatial ring a peculiar weapon. It appeared to be a rapier made from the spine of a red tailed spider monkey. As he withdrew the rapier from its sheath, it emitted a shockingly powerful glow. The power emanating from the weapon was at least of a rank three beast. At best, the sixty guards total could barely amount to a rank two squadron. They also had no magical weapons or magical armors, making them incredibly susceptible to magical attack.

"Please, esteemed young master, do not make this hard on us poor guards. We can direct you to the main entrance where you can register to speak with the king." A young but burly guard walked toward Räel speaking pure intention but harboring a heavy greed for the weapon in front of him. If the guard was able to get a hold of the rapier, he may given a position within the king's guard.

Räel quickly cut the guards throat and continued to slash at the guards blocking his way into the palace. Once he had arrived inside, he nimbly moved through the halls of the palace, already forgetting about the guards bleeding to death in the courtyard. He quickly recalled the quickest way to the throne room from his previous time as a royal adviser and made his way into the inner sanctum.

The king's throne room was exactly as he remembered it in his previous life. He looked at everything with bitter memories, recalling that he died because the kings nephew plotted against him in order to attain the position of adviser.

He deftly made his way around the magnificent marble statues, across the small ponds and stone planters that aligned with the walls. The structure of the support pillars had not changed, nor would it likely change in the next ten thousand years. Räel made his way through a secret door that was hidden along the western wall and quietly moved into the private room. This room was highly decorated and always smelled of blue lilacs and daisymays. It was unofficially the royal bedchamber, as often the King would spend the night here with his royal concubines, and would always be close by the throne room in case their was an emergency meeting.

However it was clear to Räel that this had been officially made into the royal bedroom. He crept up to the sleeping King and withdrew from a sheath a small obsidian knife. He put it to the throat of the King and woke him up with a splash of water ball.

The king was startled awake but did not dare to move. He could feel some type of cold, sharp instrument at his throat, and he could plainly see the stranger in his bed chamber had a gaze of infinite sadness and frustration. He dared not speak first, only moving his head slightly to signify that he was awake and willing to listen. Räel slowly withdrew the knife from the king's throat and spoke plainly.

"Seers have granted me a vision, and the vision was that if the humans were not eradicated then all magical beings will be doomed."