SSS-Ranked Evolution: Worlds Unbound-Chapter 44: Rebuilding The Lost Land Pt 2
It was all goofy smiles from Ren until Reina grabbed the nearest knife and held it against Von’s neck, "you call him friend, and you want to take his life?" She did not understand the type of friendship they shared, probably because Ren hadn’t told her that when they first met, they almost killed each other.
Von who was supposed to be scared for his life was instead mesmerized by Reina’s beauty. He thought Dalia was beautiful, but Reina was the master of it. He had his mask ripped off his face, and she could see the astonishment in his eyes, and to be frank, it made her somewhat uncomfortable.
"She is beautiful." were the only words that escaped his lips and Ren gave him a knowing look before he coughed out, putting aside his awkwardness for a hot moment, "I deeply apologize my queen. I am only here to bring offerings. For peace." and with that said, some humans with baskets of fruit and other precious items had come into the tent. One of them was Elisa who was more than happy to lock eyes with Ren.
They took a quick bow and Reina was surprised. She cast a glance at Ren, and he told her to relax by rubbing his hand against his chest. Unsure but willing to trust, she ripped the knife away from Von’s neck and moved closer to Ren, putting her arm around his to show them she could trust them.
"You come for peace?" She eyed the baskets and with a snap, her people came out of nowhere to take the goods but as they took it in, she grabbed one, her favourite, a dragon fruit and took a bite out of it. It was ripe and refreshing, just what she wanted, "did you plan all of this?" she gave him a scolding glare and whispered something into her ears. It didn’t make the scolding glare vanish, but she turned to them with softer eyes, "tell me more about you."
"We come from a land not far from yours. Karnak. Left in ruins after an earthquake by the empire, we have struggled to survive. We faced monsters that came from your land when it was still plagued in darkness, many were lost because of them. Ren came along and everything changed." Von looked at his friend with knowing eyes before rising to his feet. His hand rubbed against Luna’s head when she came up to him for scratches, "I accompanied Ren to your land to help rid it of darkness."
After hearing that Reina turned to Ren again for confirmation and he nodded gently. With a small smirk, she stood up from her sitting place and delivered a short respectful bow that Von returned.
"Then I am forever in your gratitude. We will work as one from now, your people, and my people shall live in harmony, and we will rebuild together." She made a truce with them and Von was very happy. They had made their first allies, he could see Karnak returning back to her former glory. Looking at Ren, he made a gesture with his head, not invisible to Reina and seeing him stand up, she knew what it would be all about.
"I will see them off. Don’t stay up if I am late." he whispered to her before walking out with the rest of his Kind. Reina shook her head with her arms folded around her chest, men, and their antics.
Once they were out of the tent, both men embraced each other in a warm hug.
"She holds you in such high regard friend. You always get the beautiful women." Von spoke his mind from the observation he made, and it was a pat on the back to Ren’s ego, but it was then he remembered he had forgotten to be a wingman.
"I think you should hang around Elisa more, you two look good together." His words took Von by surprise and if one looked closely, Von’s cheeks had been dusted with a light shade of pink.
"Do you think so?" he had a small smirk on his face as they walked and talked together. Von told Ren everything that had happened since he left, how they were rebuilding Karnak and a few wanderers had joined them to help rebuild. At first, he was wary that they may be spies from the empire, but they proved themselves to be allies needing a place to call home.
Since then, Von as the protector of Karnak had been on the search for more allies to facilitate more growth and telling Ren, he thought it would be a good idea to visit Eblan’s chief. It would take them a day to reach there, but they had decided to go regardless. Von was really grateful for Ren and promised to be a friend whenever he needed him.
"Karnak is fully your responsibility now, what about your brother?" They were returning to Karnak after the journey to Eblan, it was the second day and Ren had asked the question to Von. The thought of his brother made him slow down and brought him memories that pricked his heart.
"I will still look for him. I can never stop until I find him. As for Karnak, I will find a way to do both. Yes I cannot leave now but eventually, I will have to leave...again..." the hammering of wood was the white noise they didn’t know they needed as the people worked hard to restore houses and build new ones for everyone to live. The town had a farm and Elisa was in charge of what grew there. Being a mage that was connected to nature, it was something she enjoyed doing and spent a lot of her time on the farm.
"You mentioned he was a beast tamer. He ran away from the empire after he was taken...could it be that he didn’t survive?" a very bitter thought. Von shook his head in denial.
"If he were dead, my heart wouldn’t beat the way it does now." a pained smile flashed across his features before a young child ran up to them. She looked about the age eight and held a healthy smile on her face. Her body collided with Von’s, forcing him to bend a little.
"Big brother! You’re back! Sister Elisa has been worried! Come on, let’s go!" She tried pulling him, but he was immovable. He turned to Ren with a small smile and nodded before following the little girl to where Elisa was. Leaving Ren alone with his thoughts.
Could it be that there were other beast tamers who escaped the empire’s clutches? And if there were, were they alive, and where were they? So many questions, little answers.
Ren reached Reina’s kingdom and admired how everything looked. Luna was the first one to greet him, had been waiting for him at the entrance of the camp and let out a happy bark when she saw him. He was happy to see her too, and he went over her new tricks with her before a tigress came to interrupt them.
"My Lord, The queen wishes to see you." she bowed a little and this got Ren guessing, he just got here, what could Reina need him for? He didn’t say a word and followed the tigress regardless.
Upon entering her chambers, it was quite dark until the torches lit by themselves, sending chills down his spine. Reina seemed to be in a corner, handling something heavy, "you may leave." She dismissed her servant, but Ren stayed put with Luna as he waited for Reina to address him. When she turned, holding weapons and what looked like a shard, she crossed the distance between them and placed them in his hands.
One of the items was a sword and the other seemed to resemble a shard of something. But the sword was not just an ordinary sword. It was a weapon that many have sought out for years. The snake swords. These twin blades once belonged to her sister, the Serpent Queen, and carried an eerie, predatory elegance.
Each sword bore a sleek, obsidian-black hilt, intricately engraved with winding serpent motifs that seemed to writhe under the flickering candlelight. The blades themselves shimmered with a steel so dark it drank in the light, their edges honed to an impossible sharpness. But the true marvel lay in their hidden nature—when wielded, the metal could flow like liquid silver, each link of the segmented blade snapping apart with a whisper, transforming the rigid steel into a lethal whip. The sword would dance through the air in fluid, sinuous motions, slicing through enemies with a predator’s precision, then coil back together in an instant, resuming its solid form.
The texture of the weapon was uncanny—smooth and cold to the touch when still, but the moment Ren held it, he could feel an underlying pulse, like a heartbeat beneath layers of steel. It was as if the blades were alive, waiting for the command of a worthy wielder.
"This sword will help you. It belonged to my sister. It is yours now." a pained smile flashed across her features under the flickering light of the torches but what held far more importance was the shard Ren held.
The shard was a jagged, obsidian-black fragment, encased in veins of molten gold that pulsed with an inner fire. At its core, embedded within the rock-like surface, glowed a fiery, heart-shaped core, swirling with liquid embers that seemed almost alive. Strange, ancient runes flickered faintly along the edges, each one whispering forgotten secrets of the cosmos.
To the touch, the shard was a contradiction—rough and unyielding like hardened magma, yet it radiated a warmth that seeped into Ren’s skin, filling him with an unsettling sense of balance and chaos entwined. When he turned it in his hands, light refracted in strange ways, bending reality around it ever so slightly, as if the shard was a mere window into something much greater—something watching.
It was incomplete, yet it still thrummed with untapped potential, a fragment of unimaginable power that Ren could barely comprehend. Whatever this shard once belonged to, it had power that anyone would want.
"And what is this?" he asked, not able to take his eyes off.
"My piece of the Bloodboon, it is yours now."
"What?! No, I can’t have this!" he immediately put it back into her hands, he had heard it from the mouth of the assassin that he fought, the first time he met her. It was something the empire wanted and as if he wasn’t wanted enough. Reina, not happy with his response but the shard back in his hands and folded his fingers over it.
"It serves no purpose for me. It is yours. It belonged to my sister, it controls the natural order. After her disappearance, we held on to it. It is incomplete, the other shards are scattered around the world. I believe that if we get it together, we might be able to free the land of the darkness and restore everything to the way it used to be."
"Reina, do you even know what you are saying right now?" He found it hard to understand how she could so easily trust him with something as powerful as the natural order? Well, a part of it. In hopes that he would free her sisters from the plague?
"I trust you." it came from the bottom of her heart and slowly, she let go off his hand. Ren’s fingers unfolded to gaze at the hypnotic light from the artifact, "if whenever you are in danger, speak to it and will be there to fight by your side." her eyes closed with tears sliding down her cheeks, but she was smiling. She was...happy.
Quickly, she embraced Ren in a hug and sealed his fate as the only one that could rid the lands of The Corruption. Oh this was not how he planned his life to be, but he met that goddess who tricked him, and now he had to play the hero again.
"Alright, save the world and live a happy life. How hard could it be?" he thought to himself. If only he knew how bad he was going to get his ass kicked. Nevertheless, the journey was just beginning and he had a long way to go.
