Smoke filled Oren's nostrils as a wave of heat seeped through the door.
At first, the warmth was barely noticeable, little more than an unnatural sensation against his skin.
But when the room became hazy, he grew concerned.
'There's a fire...!' Oren thought.
Slowly, it became harder to breathe.
'Wait.' A tremor ran through his body.
'A fire?! What's happening here?'
His eyes jumped to the arrow embedded in the mirror, then to the balcony.
'Is that a warning? Was Selvar warning me of this? But why?'
Selvar was the only one who could possibly shoot an arrow through such a narrow gap with such exceptional precision.
And even though Oren hadn't met the man in his current sober state, he was a human the Immortal Demon had grown close to.
Hurrying toward the balcony, his gaze ran past the Mirror Lake and the concrete paths bordering it, then to the flowers and evergreens.
Oren froze.
Between the border and the mountain was a minuscule gap, concealed beneath the towering trees.
Standing there with his bow in hand, the archer stared at Oren fiercely, as though trying to convey some hidden emotion.
'It really is him. He came back...'
He coughed, waving a hand in front of his face to clear the smoke.
'Does he know why they are burning down the manor...?'
Oren glanced at his door.
It was already aflame, devoured by the creeping fire as embers caught the walls and carpet, slowly setting everything he had come to know ablaze.
Seeing the crimson destruction approach, Oren spun around and gritted his teeth.
'There's no time for thinking.'
Gripping the delicate railing with all his might, he pulled himself over the balcony, and for a split second, his heart dropped as it felt as if he were weightless.
'Aghhh!'
His body slammed into the concrete. For a moment, he felt nothing but a numb ache.
Then the pain shot through him. Instantaneously, the world around him seemed distant and indistinct.
He could hear little beyond a high-pitched ringing in his ears.
Feeling a warmth invade his body, he took it as a sign that the flames had already caught him.
But looking down with his blurry vision, a red pool of liquid greeted him.
'Blood..!'
Oren shook his head.
Before he could ponder it, he forced himself upright and began bolting toward Selvar in the distance, disregarding the pain in his back, the ache in his knees, and the dullness in his mind, all of which were under the influence of the Trial.
Leaping forward again and again, his large, adrenaline-fueled strides slowly became feeble limps.
By then, he had already reached the verdant forest, and the manor was no longer a building.
It had been fully set aflame.
A burning sea of fire had consumed it, turning everything inside crimson.
Billowing black fumes rose into the sky, filling the surrounding atmosphere with toxic smoke.
Faint silhouettes were scattered outside the inferno, frozen as though in a daze.
'Where is Sel—'
"Where is he? The Immortal Demon!" someone shouted.
Only as the people surrounded the burning building did they notice that the Immortal Demon was no longer inside.
"It can't be. Did he really die so easily? I wish to torture him more," another said.
Oren's fingers twitched.
'They're after me? All of them?'
Standing in the forest, he watched them helplessly.
Leading the almost mindless group was a man.
He was tall and slender, but from the far distance, Oren could see little more than that. The way he held himself seemed prideful, yet not enough to be called confident.
'Is that the elder I fought the other day...? No, it's someone else.'
Exhaling slowly, he stared at the grass, then at the Artillas...
"I see you've made it, friend..."
Selvar spoke from behind, in the shadowy embrace of the forest.
"How are you still alive after that fall? Oh, I nearly forgot. You're immortal. But to escape unharmed... the one above must be looking down on you."
'The one above?'
Oren thought before facing the archer.
His gaze lingered on Selvar's familiar bow, then the arrows in his quiver.
At the sight, he felt an immense sense of apprehension.
One of those arrows had once struck his neck, and he somehow survived...
Staring at him, Oren noticed the sorrow in Selvar's eyes.
"So... I'm back," the young man said after a short while.
"I've got to say, you look terrible, demon," he added with a faint smile.
Remembering their previous conversation, Oren scoffed.
"Is that your way of asking if I'm alright? You could at least have pretended to be concerned."
Sighing, he paused, then asked, "Did you find it? The Erol you were searching for?"
"I did not." Selvar's expression shifted slightly. "But that does not matter now."
Glancing at the burning manor beyond Oren, he continued.
"It seems you returned just in the nick of time. You're quite lucky, but it seems you have done something whilst I was gone, and those people... they did not exactly like it."
Oren breathed out slowly, pressing a finger against his lips, and shook his head slowly.
"Shhh, they are all coming," he whispered.
"What do you mean, 'they are all coming?'"
A wry smile crossed his face.
"What did you do, demon?"
'For heaven's sake!' Oren hesitated for a brief moment.
'He probably thinks I hurt them, or that I perhaps even sacrificed another human... but even if I did, what would he do?'
'He had said that he enjoyed staying in Erdream. So if I really had done something, would he try and stop me, or would he help me because of the deal he had made with the Immortal?'
Oren dismissed the thoughts, straightening his back with a silent groan. He raised his hands placatingly.
"I did nothing. I promise. Well, I was looking at myself in the mirror before you broke it, but after that, I don't really know. But since we're talking about it,"
Oren's eyes narrowed as he asked sincerely, "where exactly did you go yesterday?"
"That doesn't matter now." Selvar pointed to the lake.
"Listen, watch and remember carefully. They are all searching for you, not me, and I'm not immortal like you, demon.
"If they catch me, I cannot survive being burned, and I cannot simply afford to lose you. We still need each other, so let's go."
Oren frowned but ultimately knew he was right.
A leaf crunched somewhere around them. Then came footsteps.
"We know you're here, Immortal Demon."
A high-pitched voice that could only belong to a child came from the forest's entrance.
"Come out. Your end is nigh," another whispered into the forest.
Looking around, then back at Oren, Selvar whispered, "Just follow me."
He began to walk away.
Oren lingered.
Glancing back, he froze.
'...It was just the wind.'
He stared at the footprints Selvar left in the mud. It hadn't rained. After faltering for longer than usual, Oren hurried after him.
He wanted to say something but did not know what to say.
As they walked carefully, he began pulling his thoughts together and could not help but wonder where exactly Selvar was taking him to.
Also, why had the people changed so abruptly?
He remembered last night vividly. That little puppet show was why he was so aware.
Did his awareness change the difficulty of his Trial?
Was he at fault for this too?
"There they are!"
The shouts broke his thoughts.
"There, in the right section of the forest! Burn it all down. Burn everything to a blaze. Let all be crimson."
Picking up the pace, Oren and Selvar ran through the trees, moving in and out of the people's sight until they finally reached it.
A small gap between the border and the mountainside, a narrow passage that had been slowly eroded away.
If not for Selvar having done so himself, perhaps no one would have ever noticed it.
'So that's how he escaped Erdream unnoticed yesterday.'
Stepping into the gap, they crossed from Erdream to the verdant field outside its border.
They turned left and ran as fast as they could.
They passed the entrance and continued beyond it, back to where the bloodstains and fish guts remained, where the Immortal Demon had marked the location of the Erols.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they reached the mountain's edge.
Standing in silence, both of them were seemingly out of breath.
In front of them was the cliff, and below it, the mountainside sloped down into the crater of the Unison Mountains.
Above them was nothing but an endless blue expanse.
The clouds were no longer there, leaving only the crimson sunlight in the sky, eternal, ever-present, and ever-watching.
Selvar looked toward Oren and pointed toward the edge of the border, where it sloped downhill into the forest.
A mountain ledge ran around the side of the border, following the slope. Its uneven surface was formed from bare rock, leaving it jagged and precarious.
It was narrow enough for only one person to pass at a time.
The longer they took, the more of a chance the puppets of Erdream had of finding them.
Selvar's jaw tightened.
"Take it. Go down the hill. Find a cave. Find somewhere you can stay, and I will come shortly."
Oren looked at him, a question in his eyes.
"I can go through the fog. I can see in it, you can't. And I am positive no one else can follow me there, so go."
He looked toward the path.
And it seemed, at that moment, that the knighted archer of the fog was both worried for himself and concerned for the well-being of the Immortal Demon.
Accepting his words, Oren left, fleeing along the ledge.
He carefully made his way across it, keeping his back toward the border as he placed one foot in front of the other.
The ledge clung to the edge of the village, narrow enough that there was little room for error.
Peering down, his stomach tightened.
There was nothing beneath him but the steep slope and the vast expanse of trees far below.
The mountain seemed to descend endlessly before him, and the sheer drop made the narrow ledge beneath his feet feel even smaller.
A cold breeze swept up the mountainside as he moved sideways.
His feet shifted dangerously close to the edge, forcing him to press his back to the wall.
Torches shone from behind.
"There he is, follow the demon! Don't let him escape!"
Ignoring the shouts, Oren focused on another structure built into the mountainside, further ahead.
An old emergency exit.
Luckily, the ledge led directly outside of it to where the mountain slope was soft enough for him to descend on foot.
When he reached the old exit, the people were still far behind, climbing and holding onto the ledge for their lives.
Without wasting the precious time he had left, Oren turned and began making his way down the mountain, into the embrace of the endless forest.
Towering trees stood high and proud around him, whilst he cowered in uncertainty.
'Will they find me here?!'
He leant against a tree and exhaled slowly, searching for somewhere to hide.
'What will they do if they find me?'
The grass pricked his feet as he continued onward, taking as many steps as he could.
And in that instant, night seemingly came.
Oren stopped in his steps.
He waited another moment, then he heard it, the crunching of twigs and whispers.
Slowly, he looked behind him.
The bright flame of torches briefly appeared between the trees.
And the people were no longer above him. They were everywhere.
He heard their shouts, screams, murmurs.
"We will find you, Immortal Demon."
"We are coming for you."
The voices resounded everywhere, as though they were inside his very head.
"Retreat for tonight, everyone. We will find him tomorrow, he cannot make it far in the dark. He is only human after all."
Despite their words, Oren did not stop moving.
The footsteps of the onlookers, their laughter, their condemnation, and their words faded as he treaded carefully, making it down the mountain.
Since it would take days to reach the bottom, he searched for somewhere safe to stay.
Eventually, he found a small pale pathway, surrounded by trees.
Oren observed the cave before him, sighing in relief.
'This will have to do. I'll wait here for Selvar.'
The entrance was embedded into the mountainside.
An uneven archway of jagged cobblestone surrounded the opening, with moss and grass growing over its edges. The dark hole beyond it seemed to lead into the mountain itself.
Oren looked up toward Erdream.
Then back down at the cave.
Rubbing his temple, he stepped into the embrace of its darkness.