"Ren Spark, what are you doing? You should be out there helping Haze with evacuations" a female voice sounded from the new arrival, speaking in a familiar tone of voice to Ren.
Estin was about to continue scolding Ren for not upholding his duties as a member of their group, VANISH. However, when she saw what Ren was raving on about, her eyes immediately widened in disbelief.
As a 3 Circle doctor, Estin is an expert on all kinds of sicknesses, injuries, poisons, and anything of the sort; she even knows about theoretical illnesses that haven't even emerged yet. But yet, what she saw was unlike anything she had ever known, a new kind of injury, poison, or sickness. Estin had no idea.
"What happened to him?" Estin immediately disregarded all her previous words and immediately went to examine the body.
"I don't know; I just found Shry like this," Ren spoke up, answering Estin's question with a trembling voice.
"Shry...?" At first, Estin was confused, but as she looked over the body, she saw a familiar face.
Even though Estin hadn't really seen Shry since the party 2 years ago, only hearing about him from her younger sister, Yuwwe, from time to time. Estin could immediately recognize him as soon as she saw his face because of the impression he left on her.
Staying professional despite feeling unsettled, Estin looked at Ren, expecting a detailed report on Shry's condition, and Ren delivered.
"Shry's breathing is abnormal, but not enough to send him into an oxygen-deprived state. His body temperature is also scarily cold. Finally, the crystals and his body are brittle, so please proceed with caution," Ren stated all the information he knows, hoping that it'll help in some way.
While listening to Ren's report, Estin was making her way to Shry, coming up with her own assessments as she observed all of Shry with her experienced eyes. While she was doing that, she also began engaging her Node, turning her arms dark blue as they glowed.
As Ren finished, Estin had reached in front of Shry, close enough to touch him. She then subsequently nodded to Ren's finishing statements before moving her fingers on her right hand to a steady rhythm.
Emerging from the air in front of Estin, blue particles that matched the color of her arms congregated in a perfect sphere, and just moments later, a ball of water so perfect and clear that it looked like glass replaced the particles.
After that, Estin easily controlled that ball of water, moving her left hand in a motion as smooth as if dancing, guiding the water from the orb toward Shry's pinky finger in a perfect stream.
...
While that was happening, Ren could only nervously watch as Estin poked and prodded inconsequential parts of Shry's body with water and her hands.
"Is he going to be okay?" Ren asked in an exceedingly emotional voice.
"I..." Estin raised her mouth and even let out a word, but she realized she couldn't answer that question.
"..." After analyzing more of Shry's condition, Estin decided not to speak.
Taking the hint, Ren also fell silent; he wanted to do something to change Shry's situation, but yet again, he fell short, just like last time.
...
Suddenly Ren began to feel something burning in his chest, as frustration began to boil within him, turning despair into anger as he unconsciously clenched his fist.
(What is this kid? He just keeps on producing one anomaly after another, and Ren...) Estin thought to herself and was about to turn around and confront Ren about his selfish decision, but when she did, she just saw Ren's back turned to her as he exited the tent.
"You—" before Estin could continue, Ren's figure vanished.
*Woooch!*
It was only after 2 seconds that the results of Ren's departure became apparent, as a delayed powerful gust of wind collapsed the ground from where Ren stood mere seconds ago, creating a large condensed indent in the dirt.
….
All of a sudden, above their current evacuation zone, which is on the north, 100 additional windy apparitions manifested out of nowhere, stacked above the preexisting 70 apparitions.
Like a typhoon, all 100 of them swept across thousands of people in the crowd, but instead of pushing them, each windy apparition grabbed a swarm of people, removing 10 at a time each.
As each of these apparitions did that, creating gaps in the crowd, losing their wind-formed leg, a slowly dissipating orb of wind that somehow felt more like a wall of wind appeared in those gaps. After that, those orbs of wind were slowly shrunk, reallocating the crowd and creating more space for them to traverse through.
As this situation developed, Haze, who was already making great progress even without entering his transformed state, Haze immediately noticed the change in pacing, so he began scanning the sky in search of his junior, who he knew was responsible for these apparitions.
Being lower to the ground, as Haze searched the skies, he almost immediately located his Ren, even though from where he was, most people would only see a dot in the sky and brush it off. However, as soon as he found Ren, before he could confront Ren, Ren disappeared, and a large burst of wind that parted the clouds replaced him.
"What's he doing? I thought his limit was 70."
With the clouds settling after being pushed, Haze was immediately able to make out the direction Ren was going.
And sensing that there may be trouble, Haze, after he evacuated his group of evacuees, began casting a simple sequence, moving his glowing green fingers on his left hand in a smooth and drawn-out motion.
After a couple of movements, Haze stopped all finger motion for a moment, opening the limited time frame to complete an action before the sequence continued.
Quickly, Ren cupped that same hand to his mouth and began speaking into it but quickly ended it within 5 seconds before the sequence failed.
Finishing the final motions, Haze released the sequence by swinging that same hand around his body a full 360 degrees and sending out a powerful wave of wind that constantly repeats Haze's words like a moving speaker to their entire evacuation zone.
*You guys handle the rest of the evacuations here; I need to check on Ren!*
With his warning sent out, Haze didn't hesitate and moved his fingers, sending him where Ren is headed, the east evacuation zone. And almost instantly, Haze had caught up with Ren despite Ren's early start.
Due to the width of this Slette, it doesn't take long for someone to travel this distance, as the Slette was only street-sized, one-tenth of what it was originally predicted to be.
Because of the width of the disk that wrapped around the Slette, since Slettes are guaranteed to scale off the radius starting from the center to the complete consumption of the otherworldly creature that caused it and expanding up to half the width equivalent to that radius afterwards
So, judging from that estimate, this Slette was supposed to be just as big as or bigger than the Erasure of Pertice.
"REN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Haze yelled out.
It was quite evident that Ren had heard Haze, evident in his twitch after Haze had yelled, but yet, he didn't; he just continued on his way, avoiding Haze.
"WHAT HAPPENED, DI-" Haze continued, but before he could finish, Ren began to dash away even faster.
Finally making it to the east evacuation zone, just like before, at the south evacuation zone, Ren raised another hundred windy apparitions, swirling around the skies like hundreds of miniature tornadoes before they finally took shape.
"REN!" Haze screamed out again, this time with a pang of worry hidden within his harsh-sounding voice.
Almost dazedly, Ren turned toward Haze, and immediately, Haze could tell that something was going on.
Ren's eyes were filled with hollowed anger, hiding behind a neutral facial expression, and his body movements screamed with emotion, a conflict between anger and despair.
Staring into Ren's eyes, Ren inevitably stared back, and with that, it was like an aggressive but deceptively calm fire that was shrouding Ren's body, a personification of his current feelings, a warning to those who try to stop him.
However, even with all of that, Haze didn't do as much as flinch. He even looked at Ren with eyes filled with indifference, disapproving of what Ren is doing, knowing full well that he can easily overpower Ren without even moving.
"..."
Without saying anything, Ren tried to flee, heading toward the south evacuation zone, indicating that that's where he'll be going next.
Right when Ren was about to flick his fingers, which would subsequently launch him upon completion, during that final flick, a strong grip was placed upon those fingers.
"Stop; the more you continue, the more you waste our time." Haze threatened Ren.
Ren tried to remove his finger from Haze's grip, shaking and wobbling his hand to no avail.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I COULD BE SAVING ALL OF THEM RIGHT NOW. YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW CAPABLE I AM!" Ren lashed out, screaming at Haze while staring into Haze's eyes.
Haze's face didn't change; all he did was look indifferent before dragging Ren by his finger without saying anything.
Even as he was captured by someone he can't possibly hope to escape, Ren still struggled with every bit of strength and power he could conjure, but... no matter what he did, launching normal wind blasts and even using a sequence, Haze easily countered it with barely a twitch of his finger for each attack.
Ren looked like a baby going against an adult, or actually, maybe more like a pet ant going against its owner, showing the discrepancy in their power.
"LET ME GO!" Ren yelled in protest, but yet, that action didn't even garner a response from Haze.
Haze knew Ren's limits extremely well, so after seeing Ren surpass said limit by 4 times, a prospect that doesn't make sense, Haze grew extremely worried that Ren may have tapped into the forbidden energy source.
Even so, after embracing that as possible, when Haze checked Ren's condition, he was confused, as he couldn't see any irregularities that pointed to Ren using that forbidden source; however, Haze still didn't have a choice but to do this, cautious that Ren may have sunk into that power, which would eventually make him turn into a zombie-like being, running rampant as it tried to fulfill the desire that brought it into that state.
...
Suddenly, like a fuse being lit, something began to stir within Ren, resonating with his emotions as he got more and more aggressive with trying to get out of Haze's grasp.
Pushing, pulling, and even punching
All of a sudden, an urge surged within Ren, something similar to the first time he activated his origin phrase; however, unlike last time, he had control; he could choose.
A heavy choice lay before Ren, and he could feel it, like entering a rushing river. Once you enter it, you won't be able to get out, but in this case, once you enter, you will not want to leave.
However, despite knowing the consequences of dwelling deeper into his Origin Phrase, Ren at that moment knew.
He knew that this is a role he's willing to accept, finally adapting to his Origin Phrase, as his heart affirmed his answer...
*Windy Departure*
Mysteriously, even as Ren spoke, and as everyone acknowledged the words that were floating about in the air, no physical sounds were released.
It was like these words were directly implanted into their thoughts, sounding in a different dimension.
*SWOOOOOO*
Wind began to swirl around Ren, forming into 10 windy apparitions, and when that was done, it was revealed that the 10 apparitions were significantly more detailed than the hundreds he had out evacuating people.
These apparitions weren't just vaguely human-shaped anymore; now, it had a solid, smooth green human figure with tangible features with noses and even ears. However, it was still easy to make out that it was made out of wind, as the wind that formed its figure constantly oscillated.
For a moment, Haze briefly acknowledged their existence, but before he could make anything of it, all 10 apparitions zoomed and headed straight toward Ren's body.
One by one, as each apparition collided into Ren, it added a faint light green layer across Ren's body and clothes. And as more apparitions collide with Ren, that layer will get thicker, and its color will become more vibrant.
All of this happened within the span of a second, and by the time it was done, it was too late for Haze to react.
Immediately, Ren pulled to dislodge his fingers from Haze's grasp, and this time, not only did he dislodge it with ease, but it even managed to generate a wind powerful enough to push Haze back slightly after catching him off guard.
*WOOOCH* A powerful gust followed Ren's escape, bursting in the direction where his previously entrapped hand inevitably swung.
Without hesitation, after he escaped, Ren didn't even glance at Haze before he stomped his right leg down into the open air below his feet, instinctively understanding his new power.
*BWOOOM* a bubble-like wind force appeared below Ren's feet, compressing as Ren stepped onto it before it burst like a blooming flower.
With this new ability, Ren didn't need to use his hands, so his hands were free to use sequences while flying in the air and heading to his next destination.
As Ren flew, almost breaking the sound barrier with his newly attained speed, he moved his fingers on both of his hands with quick precision, moving every stroke with great elegance as a melody that incites a sense of urgency began to sound.
"Scouting Skies vol 2" Ren spoke, visualizing this sequence in his head, using its name as a catalyst to its activation.
Successfully casting his sequence, a very thin layer of wind quickly grew, eventually cascading an area equivalent to a small town, before finally lowering, using people's breathing to transform some of the thin layer of wind into a beacon.