Before anyone could react, the demon marionette threw its death scythe to Renir and it spoke.
It had a voice deeper than any of them could expect, "Renir Ennure, I have no time left. Behead me.", the demon marionette hastily said without its lips moving as if it was wearing a masked before kneeling down while clutching the bead given to him in his hand.
When Renir caught the scythe, even with his enormous strength, he was pushed down by the weight of the demon's weapon.
'But I remember he wielded this one-handed!', Renir's shock put all emotions aside.
But he was not stupid. With all his strength, his whole body glowed white from the excess energy he had yet to control.
An enormous power surged from Renir that slightly pushed the souls of Sceke and the rest. But this slight push of soul made them taken aback by a lot physically.
Without hesitation and filled with desperation, Renir stepped onto the back of the demon marionette's head and placed the scythe's blade in front of its neck!
Shik!* a sound akin to chopping woods reached their ears before the sound of metal hitting the ground, the chain was untangled from the demon marionette's severed head.
After putting an immense power behind it, Renir managed to barely behead the demon marionette with no inertia of force left...
"Huff--!", Renir wheezed and dropped onto the ground as well as the demon marionette's head.
The fire that illuminated the cave passage was disturbed and dimmed for a moment, showing Hanzee's reaction.
Old Ze was about to rush there when his sense to protect was strung but was stopped by Sceke.
Old Ze looked at Sceke with saddened eyes, even in fear, the old man would try to save his ally. When his gaze lowered, he noticed that his little granddaughter was both clutching her eyes and his waist with her arms.
Old Ze decided to discontinue and promptly stared back at Renir.
However, they did not notice Veronia was already behind Renir.
"Ver-!", Sceke was about to shout but stopped himself.
That was when they heard a crack.
A golden light flushed out from the demon marionette's hand.
All of them know what this golden light was as it softly enveloped the demon marionette's whole being. It was from the bead of revival.
"I-it's... working!", Old Ze exclaimed while they all stared baffled.
Renir's eyes gleamed of hope.
It did not take a while before the demon marionette's head reattached itself to its body using the help of the golden light.
Instead of red eyes, it was dark purple like before as it opened when the demon marionette recovered his consciousness.
Renir was huffing now not because of tiresome but because of being a nervous-wreck.
He stood weakly, clutching onto the scythe. But he knew, just from the demon marionette's strength, if it retaliated, just a punch from it would release his grip onto its scythe, possibly, even killing him.
The demon marionette's finger twitched and right after, its arms moved to push itself up.
The demon marionette stood up, filled with life, unchained, and more powerful than before. It, no, he was also more intimidating than before. Just its gaze making a contact to Renir's eyes almost made Renir dropped onto the ground which Veronia supported.
"Veronia!", Sceke cried he thought Renir was a goner. Even if he may look cruel towards his ally, he had no choice but to force them out of there and leave Renir.
However, all their fears diminished when the demon marionette spoke, "There is no need to fear. I will mean no harm.", there was that deep voice, but unlike before, his lips moved accordingly, showing the fleshy insides of his mouth.
The feeling of fear slowly converted into joy when they heard the demon marionette continued;
"And as you wish, the Door of Salvation, I will open it for you.", he looked at Renir.
Renir stood baffled, regaining the debilitated strength.
'It worked? Seriously...?', his legs stopped trembling.
The demon marionette reached out his hand for his scythe. The exact moment, Renir released it, it came back to its owner's hand.
Looking at his scythe, all of them felt shivers. The demons they knew were wicked and every word they say were lies.
What if it acted so it can retrieve its scythe?
But Renir, on the other hand, knew the strength of this demon marionette. It didn't need to act, just a fist was more than enough to kill them all.
"My soul was always watching over my marionette, waiting for a day like this to come.", the demon marionette turned his back and walked away from them, "Renir Ennure, I have heard your story-"
The cave in which the Door of Salvation resides was now dark with no torches lighted like before. But with Hanzee's fire, they could see the demon marionette stopped in front of the doer, raised his arm, and mightily swung down his scythe "ARGH!!", splitting the chains that entangled the door handle in half.
The demon marionette's deep shout resonated in the cave and into their ears. It was almost ear-splitting, a demon using all its empowered strength was too much to witness.
But everyone dismissed that as Salvation was in front of their eyes when light escaped from the gaps of the door.
Sceke released his hand from touching the rune before walking towards the door which was followed by the three.
"Once you enter this door, you will return back into your own world. You will return back to the time you disappeared.", the demon marionette looked at Renir's eyes.
Renir found it strange the demon speaking only to him and worriedly asked, "Can they come with me?", he pointed at the other five with him. His body stood straight but trembled at the thought of leaving his first allies in this cruel world.
So the demon marionette gazed over them for a moment which intensified not only Renir's but all of their worries.
"Yes, they can.", the demon marionette said without nodding.
Smiles formed in each of their faces, 'We're saved too?!'
They all wanted to celebrate but as long as they still haven't gone back, they felt they couldn't.
The demon marionette gripped the door handle and opened it, revealing the light.
Behind that door was nothing but light.
The demon marionette pointed his hand, "You can enter now."
Renir still felt something was wrong and looked at the demon marionette.
The demon marionette noticed Renir's doubtful stare and said in assurance, "Even if I can lie, the rune cannot. Feel free to seek the answer in the rune first."
The demon was right but Renir really found something was strange he couldn't dismiss. He couldn't ignore his guts, his guts that helped him to get here.
"Then I will go first.", Sceke stepped forward, his intentions pure. Renir and the others had doubts so he may as well try it first.
"But you only have one bead left.", Veronia clutched onto his hand.
Sceke smiled, "If this door is fake, I would rather die than continuing to live here."
These harsh words made Veronia release her clutch, 'What about us? Will you choose to leave us?', she wanted to say those questions so much but couldn't. She knew they have no choice left. Renir sacrificed everything for this. Not trying it meant not appreciating his deed and Sceke was the most grateful towards Renir.
"Renir.", Sceke looked at him, "If we ever meet again, I will serve you with my life.", he smiled.
"Isn't that too much?", Renir scratched his head.
"HAHAHAH!", Sceke laughed hard and looked at them one by one.
But before he could say his goodbye, the demon interrupted, "Please hurry, I cannot hold this door for a very long time."
Sceke nodded and turned around. He shouted before jumping fearlessly into the Door of Salvation, "SEE YOU ALL AGAIN!"
The leader of the previous Pentafive, for the five of them by the five of them. He was the one who united them, and he was now gone.
Although they have no idea where Sceke headed, they will follow him.
By then, Hanzee stepped forward and also laughed, "Yes, see you all again.", hesitation almost stopped him. Although this was a cruel world, he had not-so-cruel friends. Will he leave them? But eventually, he knew needed this. So he stepped into the light and vanished.
Being emotional was inevitable at this moment. The five were always together in laughter and sadness, victory and defeat, awkwardness and joy.
Veronia, trying to look strong by holding back her whimper and sobs, left the same words, "See you all again.", she stepped into the light.
Old Ze and his granddaughter Ye thanked Renir, before saying, "See you all again.", at the same time even though Renir was the only one left.
None of them wanted to say goodbye, and followed their leader.
Renir stood there, not stepping forward like the rest of them. Alone within the cave, alone with the demon marionette.
Even though Hanzee was gone, the cave was illuminated by the light from behind the door.
"What are you waiting for?", the demon marionette asked.
"Are you trying to hide something?", Renir couldn't help but ask before stepping in into the Door of Salvation.
He knew there was something about his senses, his guts, he couldn't just leave yet.