Aren leapt into the air at lightning speed, narrowly avoiding the gnarled roots below.
On the other hand, the Ravagers kept multiplying as they emerged from deep within the earth.
The Glutton raised its massive arm, preparing to strike Aren down. Blood began to drip from the many holes in its hand.
Aren extended his right arm to block the swing, but he didn't anticipate the beast unleashing additional roots—not from the ground, but through its palm, heading straight for him.
Aren's eyes widened in shock as he realized how dangerous his situation was. He had jumped high into the air and felt a mix of excitement and fear. For a moment, he hung there against the grey sky, feeling vulnerable and exposed, as the roots rushed to meet him.
Alarmed, Aren tried to slash many of the roots that were directed at him, only to fail due to the sheer number.
Not only that, he was being exhausted by using the strange Aberrant that swelled up within him.
The hand also got closer, leaving Aren in a terrible predicament. At that point, there was no choice but to take the blow head-on.
Preparing himself, he crossed his arms, palms open. Seeing the hand closer in person, he finally realized the difference in size.
Aren was barely the size of its finger, his height insignificant compared to the Wretched Glutton's hand.
The hand struck him hard. His body flung in the air towards the thick wall, only to eventually crash into it.
An iron taste rushed up his throat, and outside his mouth, blood spewed out everywhere as even his back might have been shattered due to the force he was flung.
His eyes shaky, he looked down only to see the roots deeply engraved into his stomach.
The monster not only flung him with its massive arm, but it also used its roots to hold on to him.
Without having a moment to breathe, he was pulled back towards the battlefield and into the grasp of the creature's hand.
Faye was too distracted fending off the Lord Ravagers, and Kellen was in the distance, far from the commotion, but his head was all over the place.
Both Aren's legs and hands were harder than steel, yet he couldn't do anything at all when he was being held this tightly by a Wretched Glutton.
His joy over the pain was overriding the recurring thought that he was going to die.
Even in the middle of his predicament, Kellen gazed from afar, his face full of guilt.
The children in front of him were capable of achievements he could only dream of. Though they were Aberrants, one was a mysterious Choir and the other a cynical, annoying child — they never intended to harm Kellen. They had numerous opportunities to get rid of him, but they never did. Perhaps they weren't as bad as he initially thought.
It was too late to change how he thought of them, however.
The Glutton held his leg using both its thumb and index finger.
Trying his best to resist it, his sharp nails could barely scratch through the thick flesh of the abomination's finger.
He repeated the same procedure at lightning speed but ultimately failed again.
It lifted the struggling Aren into the air, as he fought back the excitement within him, while the pain only lingered and increased.
In the distance, while using her Spectral Rings to kill the Ravagers, Faye furrowed her brows out of worry.
She turned her head and tried to call out to him, but to no avail. He was too lost.
As a last-ditch effort, she pointed her arm with the Spectral Ring orbiting her wrist, then a large beam started being summoned in front of her palm.
Before she could use it on the large monster, a Ravager appeared and struck her Spectral Ring with its metal blade.
The blade grazed the surface of the slate blue ring, but that was only on the exterior.
A muffled scream came out.
Faye's expression stiffened. She put her other hand over the one that had just been hit and held it tightly, doing anything to ease the strong pain swelling up.
She fell down to her knees, eyes still visibly closed through the soft blindfold. The Ravagers circled her, ready to deal the final blow.
'I'm gonna die,' the thought pursued in Aren's head, a happy grin curled up on his face.
The Glutton had already opened its disgusting mouth wide, ready to swallow Aren whole. Aren looked down at the beast preparing to devour him.
The creature freed Aren from the grip of its finger, letting him fall towards the looming abyss inside its mouth.
Blood burst across the snow as half his body tumbled lifeless to the ground — the rest already sliding into the monster's throat.
It swallowed.
His consciousness lingered as his upper body twisted downwards, plunging into the hot stomach fluid of the Glutton.
The chestnut hair was slowly turning into a dull black color, similar to his hands and legs.
He wasn't breathing. Yet something in him — something far crueler — refused to die.
His vision was drowned in darkness, eventually closing his eyes completely. The suffocating heat was replaced by a silence so vast it rang in his ears.
A loud hissing sound resounded in Aren's head, a presence that spoke volumes of danger and domination.
He opened his eyes.
There was no ground, no horizon — only a black expanse that swallowed everything. Floating before him, scales the size of city walls shifted in the dark, each scale shimmering faintly as if reflecting stars that weren't there.
His sanity slowly came back, but in an unfortunate place.
The shape moved until an eye opened in the void. Gold and abyss swirled in its depths, the pupil expanding like a collapsing sun.
The weight of its gaze locked him in place like a statue. It was not looking at him, it was looking through him, as though reading every choice he had ever made.
A dragon. Colossal, ancient… and bound to him in a way he could not explain.
His vision went dark.
Aren felt a warm sensation suddenly crawl up his body. Opening his eyes, he realized where he was almost instantly.
Lying down, he gazed up at the grey, cloud-covered sky. Next to him, the fire crackled softly.
Firelight, frostbite, and the scent of his blood were all he woke up to.
He returned before the Lord Ravagers attacked…
'I went back in time?'