Ren woke up feeling refreshed, the sun was peeking through his tent, and the birds were singing. He stretched his arms lazily as he remembered yesterday, a big smile was on his face. Ren couldn't describe the amount of joy he felt looking at Elios's defeated face, telling him to fuck off.
"Ahhh..."
As Ren stuck his head out of the tent, he took in a deep breath of the morning air. But when he looked around at the camp, he noticed something strange.
"1, 2, 3, 4..."
Ren saw 4 tents in the camp, excluding his own. After rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes, Ren made sure to recount. But no matter how many times he counted, the number stayed the same. Where was the 5th tent? Where was Elios's tent?
"Morning Ren."
Looking up to face Olivia, Ren quickly got out of his tent, standing up to face her. As Ren replied to Olivia's greeting, he kept glancing around for Elios. Noticing this action, Olivia understood what was going on.
"Elios left."
When Ren heard that, he shifted his attention back to Olivia, a shocked expression was on his face. Although Ren did tell Elios to stay away from him, he didn't expect Elios to straight up leave.
"I'm so sorry Olivia, I think Elios misunderstood our bet yesterday..."
Ren looked down in shame, afraid to meet Olivia's eyes.
"It has nothing to do with that, I chased him out."
Hearing the indifference in Olivia's voice, Ren looked her in the eyes in surprise. This was a situation he never expected, Olivia was always the one who resolved Ren and Elios's fights, she was also the one who spoke with Elios the most.
"Wait, wait, wait. What happened?"
Olivia's eyes turned cold as she remembered yesterday, recalling the unfamiliar figure who exuded bloodlust. As Olivia dispelled the unpleasant thoughts, she focused her attention on the conversation at hand.
"That wasn't Elios anymore. He looked different, he acted different and he spoke differently. More importantly, that "Elios" was a psychopath."
Olivia shuddered when she recalled the maniacal ramblings of that man, how his unhinged golden eyes would look at humans like prey. Noticing the fear in Olivia's voice, Ren understood what happened.
'Did he assimilate more after our competition? Can that erase Elios's original personality?'
Ren looked down at King, who was processing Olivia's words. But much to Ren's disappointment, King didn't have an answer this time, he just didn't have much experience regarding human mutants. Ren looked back up to Olivia, she was also looking at King, who was resting on Ren's right forearm.
"It's alright Olivia, you did the right thing. Elios was undergoing mutation, like the monsters we encountered."
Olivia's eyes went wide with shock, and she went silent, processing this new information. Suddenly, Olivia had an alarmed expression on her face.
"W-wait, so humans can become monsters too? What about us...?"
Ren knew this was the next question coming up, he had the same reaction when he found out too. As Ren shook his head, he calmed down Olivia for the time being. But Ren knew he had to explain further, so Ren tried to summarize the information he had.
"Long story short, humans only mutate if they keep borrowing power from a super strong monster."
Although Olivia didn't quite understand, she got the basics down, don't listen to voices in her head offering strength. This actually explains why Elios became so strong in the past few days, so Olivia didn't have any reason to doubt Ren's words. But before she could continue her questioning, Jun ran up in a panic.
"REN! REN!"
As Jun ran up hurriedly towards Ren, he was holding out a piece of white paper. When Jun reached Olivia and Ren, he quickly handed the paper over. *Fwip* Ren calmly unfolded the paper, revealing a written note inside. But Ren's composure was lost when he read the note.
"No, no, no, no, no..."
Ren dropped the note, running full speed into the forest. As Olivia looked at the disappearing figure of Ren, she picked up the note.
*I have taken the girl. If you want her back, duel me. I will be waiting near the cliffs, you have one day.
-Elios*